Their virtue lost, wherein they late excell'd, Wonder of time, quoth she, this is my spite", Since thou art dead, lo! here I prophesy, 8 That all love's pleasure shall not match his woe. It shall be fickle, false, and full of fraud; 7this is MY spite,] This is done purposely to vex and distress me. MALONE. 8 Ne'er settled equally, but HIGH, or Low ;] So, in The Midsummer Night's Dream: "The course of true love never did run smooth, &c. "O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low," &c. STEEVENS. For-" but high or low," the reading of the earliest copies, the edition of 1600 has-" too high or low;" but the adversative particle is necessary to the sense. Our author indeed should have written" but too high or low," &c. but the verse would not admit it. MALONE. 9 BUD and be blasted-] For this, which is the reading of the original copy of 1593, and that of 1596, the edition of 1600 has "And shall be blasted; which has been followed in all the subsequent copies. MALONE. I o'er-STRAW'D:] So the old copy, and such perhaps was the pronunciation of o'er-strew'd in our author's time. Throughout this poem, however, as in The Fairy Queen of Spencer, the termination of words is frequently changed in the original edition for the sake of rhyme. MALONE. To straw frequently occurs in our translation of the Scriptures. 2 BOSWELL. the TRUEST Sight-] So the quarto 1593, and 16mo. 1596. In the copy of 1600, and the modern editions, we have— "the sharpest sight." MALONE. It shall be sparing, and too full of riot, Pluck down the rich, enrich the poor with treasures : It shall be raging-mad, and silly-mild, Make the young old, the old become a child. It shall suspect, where is no cause of fear; And most deceiving, when it seems most just; It shall be cause of war, and dire events, Sith in his prime death doth my love destroy, 3 and teach the fool to speak.] Perhaps our poet had here in his thoughts the Cymon and Iphigenia of Boccace. I have not seen, indeed, any earlier translation of that story than that published in 1620; but it is certain several of Boccace's stories had appeared in English before. MALONE. to tread the MEASURES ;] To dance. See vol. vii. p. 35, The measures was a very stately dance, and therefore was peculiarly suited to elders, if they engaged at all in such kind of amusement. MALONE. - where it SHOWs most toward;] So the earliest copy. The modern editions, after that of 1600, read-" where it seems,' &c. MALONE. 6 It shall be cause of war, &c.] Several of the effects here predicted of love, in Timon of Athens are ascribed to gold. STEEVENS. 7- their LOVES-] For this, which is the reading of the first copy, the edition of 1600, and those subsequent, have"their love." MALONE. 8 By this the boy that by her side lay kill'd, She bows her head, the new-sprung flower to smell, And says, within her bosom it shall dwell, She crops the stalk, and in the breach appears Poor flower, quoth she, this was thy father's guise, And so 'tis thine; but know, it is as good Here was thy father's bed, here in my breast 8 Was MELTED like a VAPOUR-] So, in Macbeth: 66 and what seem'd corporal, melted "Like breath into the wind." STEEVENS. Again, in The Tempest: 9 66 These our actors, "As I foretod you, were all spirits, and “Are melted into air, into thin air." MALOne, here IN my breast ;] "Here is my breast," edit. 1596. MALONE. As Venus sticks the flower to which Adonis is turned, in her bosom, I think we must read against all the copies, and with much more elegance: "Here was thy father's bed, here in my breast; for it was her breast which she would insinuate to have been Adonis' bed. The close of the preceding stanza partly warrants this change: Lo! in this hollow cradle take thy rest, My throbbing heart shall rock thee day and night: There shall not be one minute in an hour, Wherein I will not kiss my sweet love's flower. Thus weary of the world, away she hies, Holding their course to Paphos, where their queen. 66 but know it is as good "To wither in my breast, as in his blood; as the succeeding lines in this stanza likewise do: 1 "Lo! in this hollow cradle take thy rest." THEobald. Since my former edition was published, I have procured the original and very valuable copy of 1593, which confirms Theobald's ingenious conjecture, for it reads, as he supposes: This poem is received as one of Shakspeare's undisputed performances, a circumstance which recommends it to the notice it might otherwise have escaped. There are some excellencies which are less graceful than even their opposite defects; there are some virtues, which being merely constitutional, are entitled to very small degrees of praise. Our poet might design his Adonis to engage our esteem, and yet the sluggish coldness of his disposition is as offensive as the impetuous forwardness of his wanton mistress. To exhibit a young man insensible to the caresses of transcendent beauty, is to describe a being too rarely seen to be acknowledged as a natural character, and when seen, of too little value to deserve such toil of representation. No eulogiums are due to Shakspeare's hero on the score of mental chastity, for he does not pretend to have subdued his desires to his moral obligations. He strives, indeed, with Platonick absurdity, to draw that line which was never drawn, to make that distinction which never can be made, to separate the purer from the grosser part of love, assigning limits, and ascribing bounds to each, and calling them by different names; but if we take his own word, he will be found at last only to prefer one gratification to another, the sports of the field to the enjoyment of immortal charms. The reader will easily confess that no great respect is due to the judgment of such a would-be Hercules, with such a choice before him.-In short, the story of Joseph and the wife of Potiphar is the more interesting of the two; for the passions of the former are repressed by conscious rectitude of mind, and obedience to the highest law. The present narrative only includes the disappointment of an eager female, and the death of an unsusceptible boy. The deity, from her language, should seem to have been educated in the school of Messalina; the youth, from his backwardness, might be suspected of having felt the discipline of a Turkish seraglio. It is not indeed very clear whether Shakspeare meant on this occasion, with Le Brun, to recommend continence as a virtue, or to try his hand with Aretine on a licentious canvas. If our poet had any moral design in view, he has been unfortunate in his conduct of it. The shield which he lifts in defence of chastity, is wrought with such meretricious imagery, as cannot fail to counterpoise a moral purpose.-Shakspeare, however, was no unskilful mythologist, and must have known that Adonis was the offspring of Cynaras and Myrrha. His judgment therefore would have prevented him from raising an example of continence out of the produce of an incestuous bed.-Considering this piece only in the light of a jeu d'esprit, written without peculiar tendency, we shall even then be sorry that our author was unwilling to leave the character of his hero as he found it; for the common and more pleasing fable assures us, that 66 when bright Venus yielded up her charms, "The blest Adonis languish'd in her arms." We should therefore have been better pleased to have seen him in the situation of Ascanius: cum gremio fotum dea tollit in altos Idaliæ lucos, ubi mollis amaracus illum Floribus et multa aspirans complectitur umbra; than in the very act of repugnance to female temptation, selfdenial being rarely found in the catalogue of Pagan virtues. If we enquire into the poetical merit of this performance, it will do no honour to the reputation of its author. The great excellence of Shakspeare is to be sought in dramatick dialogue, expressing his intimate acquaintance with every passion that soothes or ravages, exalts or debases the human mind. Dialogue is a form of composition which has been known to quicken even the genius of those who in mere uninterrupted narrative have sunk to a level with the multitude of common writers. The smaller pieces of Otway and Rowe have added nothing to their fame. Let it be remembered too, that a contemporary author, Dr. Gabriel Harvey, points out the Venus and Adonis as a favourite only with the young, while graver readers bestowed their attention on the Rape of Lucrece. Here I cannot help observing that the poetry of the Roman legend is no jot superior to that of the mythological story. A tale which Ovid has completely and affectingly told in about one hundred and forty verses, our author has |