The fenator shall bear contempt hereditary, "It is the paftor hards the brother's fides, The want that makes him leave. Who dares, who dares, -and denude that lord, In So lord Rea in his relation of M. Hamilton's plot, written in 1630, “ All these Hamiltons had denuded themselves of their fortunes " and estates." And Charles the Firft, in his meffage to the parliament, fays, "Denude ourselves of all."-Clar. vol. 3. p. 15. octavo edit. WARBURTON. I believe the former reading to be the true one. Raife me that beggar, and deny a proportionable degree of elevation to that lord. A lord is not fo high a title in the flate, but that a man originally poor might be raifed to one above it. STEEVENS. 9 It is the pasture lards the beggar's fidei,] This, as the editors have ordered it, is an idle repetition at the beft; fuppofing it did, indeed, contain the fame fentiment as the foregoing lines. But Shakespeare meant a quite different thing: and having, like a fenfible writer, made a smart observation, he illuftrates it by a fimilitude thus, It is the paflure lards the weather's fides, The want that makes bim lean. And the fimilitude is extremely beautiful, as conveying this fatirical reflection; there is no more difference between man and man in the esteem of fuperficial and corrupt judgments, than between a fat sheep and a lean one. WARBURTON. This paffage is very obfcure, nor do I difcover any clear fenfe, even though we should admit the emendation. Let us infpect the text as I have given it from the original edition, It is the paftour lards the brother's fides, The want that makes him leave. Dr. Warburton found the paffage already changed thus, It is the pafture lards the beggar's fides, The want that makes him lean. And upon this reading of no authority, raised another equally uncertain. Alterations are never to be made without neceffity. Let us fee what fenfe the genuine reading will afford. Poverty, fays the poet, bears In purity of manhood stand upright, valiant. bears contempt hereditary, and wealth native bonour. To illuftrate this pofition, having already mentioned the cafe of a poor and rich brother, he remarks, that this preference is given to wealth by those whom it leaft becomes; it is the paftour that greases or flatters the rich brother, and will grease him on till want makes him leave. The poet then goes on to afk, Who dares to fay this man, this paftour, is a flatterer; the crime is univerfal; through all the world the learned pate, with allufion to the pastour, ducks to the golden fool. If it be objected, as it may juftly be, that the mention of paftour is unfuitable, we must remember the mention of grace and cheru bims in this play, and many fuch anachronisms in many others. I would therefore read thus: It is the paftour lards the brother's fides, 'Tis want that makes him leave. The obfcurity is ftill great. Perhaps a line is loft. I have at leaft given the original reading. JOHNSON. -for every greeze of fortune] Greeze for ftep or degree. POPE. 3-no idle votarift.-] No infincere or inconftant fupplicant. Gold will not ferve me instead of roots. JOHNSON. Ha! Ha! you Gods! why this? What? This you Gods? 3 Why this Will lug your priests and servants from your fides: *Pluck ftout mens' pillows from below their heads. This yellow flave Will knit and break religions; bless the accurs'd; -Why this She Will lug your priefts and fervants from your fides :] Ariftophanes, in his Plutus, A&t V. Scene 2. makes the priest of Jupiter defert his fervice to live with Plutus. WARBURTON. + Pluck fout mens' pillows from below their beads.] i. e. men who have strength yet remaining to ftruggle with their distemper. This alludes to an old cuftom of drawing away the pillow from under the heads of men in their laft agonies, to make their departure the eafier. But the Oxford editor, fuppofing flout to fignify bealtby, alters it to fuck, and this he calls emending. WARBURTON. 5 That makes the wappen'd widow red again ;] Waped or wappen'd fignifies both forrowful and terrified, either for the lofs of a good husband, or by the treatment of a bad. But gold, he says, can overcome both her affection and her fears. WARBURTON. Of wappened I have found no example, nor know any meaning. To awhape is ufed by Spenfer in his Hubberd's Tale, but I think not in either of the fenfes mentioned. I would read wained, for decayed by time. So our author in Richard the Third, A beauty-waining and distressed widow. JOHNSON. In the comedy of the Roaring Girl by Middleton and Decker, 1611, I meet with a word very like this, which the reader will eafily explain for himself, when has read the following paffage, Moll. And there you fhall wap with me. Sir B. Nay, Moll, what's that wap? Moll. Wappening and niggling is all one, the rogue my man can tell you. It must not, however, be concealed, that Chaucer, in the Complaint of Annelida, line 217, ufes the word in the fenfe which Dr. Warburton explains it: "My She, whom the fpital-house, and ulcerous fores Would caft the gorge at, this embalms and spices To the April day again. Come, damned earth, Thou common whore of mankind, that putt'ft odds Among the rout of nations, I will make thee Do thy right nature.[March afar off.]-Ha! a drum. Thou'rt quick, 8 But yet I'll bury thee. Thou'lt go, ftrong thief, When gouty keepers of thee cannot stand :-Nay, ftay thou out for earnest. [Keeping fome gold. Enter Alcibiades, with drum and fife in warlike manner, and Phrynia and Timandra. Alc. What art thou there? speak. Tim. A beast, as thou art. Cankers gnaw thy heart, For fhewing me again the me again the eyes of man. Alc. What is thy name? Is man so hateful to thee, That art thyself a man? Tim. I am Mifanthropos, and hate mankind. For thy part, I do with thou wert a dog, That I might love thee fomething. Alc. I know thee well; But in thy fortunes am unlearn'd, and strange. Tim. I know thee too; and more, than that I know thee, I not defire to know. Follow thy drum; "My fewertye in waped countenance." Wappened, according to the quotation I have already made, would mean-The widow whofe curiofity and paffions had been already graftfied. I believe, however, there is ftill fome corruption in the text. STEEVENS. To the April day again. ] That is, to the wedding day, called by the poet, fatirically, April day, or feel's day. JOHNSON. Dotby right nature.-] Lie in the earth where nature laid thee. JOHNSON. Thou'rt quick,] Thou haft life and motion in thee. JOHNSON. With man's blood paint the ground. Gules, gules: Then what fhould war be? This fell whore of thine Phry. Thy lips rot off! Tim. I will not kifs thee; then the rot returns. To thine own lips again. Alc. How came the noble Timon to this change? Alc. Noble Timon, Alc. What is it, Timon? Tim. Promise me friendship, but perform none. If 'Thou wilt not promife, the Gods plague thee, for Thou art a man; if thou doft perform, confound thee, For thou art a man! Alc. I have heard in fome fort of thy miferies. Tim. Thou faw'ft them, when I had profperity. Alc. I fee them now; then was a bleffed time. Tim. As thine is now, held with a brace of harlots. Timan. Is this the Athenian minion, whom the world Voic'd fo regardfully? Tim. Art thou Timandra? Timan. Yes. 9 I will not kifs thee,-] This alludes to an opinion in former times, generally prevalent, that the venereal infection transmitted to another, left the infecter free. I will not, fays Timon, take the rot from thy lips by kiffing thee. JOHNSON. Thou wilt not promife, &c.] That is, however thou may'ft act, fince thou art man, hated man, I wish thee evil. JOHNSON. Tim. |