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Been duck'd, it should be, for it implies their Heads were stooped, or bent, under the Pump. Think not, Reader, this Emendation unnecessary, since our best Critics seldom change Words to bettter Purpose, e. g.

Shapespear. The Danger formerly by me rehears'd.—Spoke by Portia.

Warburton. The Danger formally by me rehears'd.

If you think fit, vide Bentley's Note on the Words sacred and secret in Milton.

Another Alteration here, I beg Leave to insert, of Mr. Warburton's.

Mercutio's Speech of Queen Mab, he says she comes,

In Shape no bigger than an Agate Stone set in a Ring.

Mr. Warburton will have it, In Shade, i. e. like a Comet.

Again, in Coriolanus:

A Volscian tells Meninius, that Coriolanus will front his Revenges with the Groans of old Women.

The Virginal Palms of their Daughters, i. e. the held-up Hands.

The palsied Intercessions of old Dotards.

That is, the Mothers may beg, the Children supplicate, the Fathers intercede in vain.

Mr. Warburton will alter Palms to Pasmes, or pames, from the French Pasmer or Pamer, i. e. Swooning Fits.

Was the learned Critic to be ask'd, What Occasion for Notes on these Places? Could he tell us he made the Text better?—No; more intelligible—no. Why, then all these learned, laborious Annotations—Why, for the same Reason Butchers blow Veal, to make the Commodity swell, and sell better.

Nemo mortalium omnibus horis sapit.—Here, Reader, please to observe by this, and several other Quotations, truly classical, our Author was a Man of great Learning. This I think proper to premise, lest After-ages should dispute whether he had any or no?

As by the famous Play-writer, Shakespear, we have an Example; who several will not allow to have been a Man of any Learning; tho' we must be Men of Learning; ay, and good Learning too, to read him. P. P.

Lay Remembrance dead—Ay, but how—Why, by drinking to be sure, that must be his Meaning.

There is a Line in Shakespear's As you like it, of striking dead, spoke by the Clown, which has been altered, and interpreted, I think, very oddly. The Line is,

It strikes a Man more dead than a great Reckoning in a little Room. The Oxford Edition alters it to a great Reeking in a little Room. Mr. W. denies that, keeps to the original Text, but says, the Line means that the Bill was very extravagant, and every Thing the Guests had, very bad and mean.

So in Edgar's Description of Dover Cliff, the Surge that o'er the idle Pebbles plays. Idle there, Mr. W. says, means barren, uncultivated. Now, would not it do, if we considered them, as idle, to lie still, and let the Water pass over them?

What Occasion for a Note there, and such a forced Interpretation?

Another, as forced an Interpretation of this modern Scholiast, we find on a Line in Love's-Labour lost, Act I. Scene 1.

This Child of Fancy, Mr. W. says, Shakespear calls them, Children of Fancy; not for being beholden to Fancy for their Birth, but because Fancy has its Infancy as well as Manhood.

Vide his Note on Romances at p. 260, at the End of the abovementioned Play.

This Description, I cannot say, requires any Explanation; but as I am not willing the Reader should lose any Observation, especially those that are right-worthy to be read, I shall here offer to his Consideration, one of Mr. W. on the Entrance and Words of a Servant in the Winter's Tale, Act IV. Scene 7.

A Servant tells his Master, that twelve Labourers have made themselves all Men of Hair to dance. Mr. W. observes, that Men of Hair signifies Men nimble, and that the Phrase is taken from Tennis-Balls, because they are stuffed with Hair; so that the Sense is, they are stuffed with Hair.

Now when they enter, it happens they were all dressed like Satyrs, all in shaggy Dresses made of Hair, which was what the Servant meant; but his Interpretation is like the Foreigner's, who mistook the Words under a Sign, Money for live Hair, to signify, Money for living here.

The scrupulous Exactness that Mr. W. pays to the coming of Hamlet's Ghost, here must be remembered.

Hamlet tells the Ghost, Be thy Intents wicked or charitable.

Mr. W. will have it, Be thy Advent wicked or charitable. Now, be judge, O Reader, how nicely this is altered.

The Son says, Be thy Intentions good or bad, this is plain.

The Critic says, Be thy Coming good or bad, not quite so clear. H. H.

The Ghost says, according to Shakespear, Confined fast in Fires.

According to Mr. Warburton, Confined too fast in Fires.

To shew Mr. W. that I can alter as well as himself, nay, and amend his own Edition, behold an Example.

O Buckingham, beware of yonder Dog,

His venom Tooth will rankle to the Death. Warburton.

Q. Margaret, Richard III. Act I. Scene 3.

I say it should be.

His venom Tooth will rankle thee to Death.

Sluic'd the Jade.—It should be, souc'd the Jade.

Sluic'd is too indelicate a Word for a fine Lady to make use of. I think it is the Business of every Commentator, to be nice in regulating the Ideas of his Characters, or else we may construe Expressions, put into the Mouths of nice Ladies, to very gross Meanings. Well has Mr. W. shewed us an Example of that, by his Note in King Lear, Act I. Scene 2, Regan says, Which the most precious Square of Sense possesses. On this, he thus judiciously, delicately remarks.

By the Square of the Senses, we are here to understand, the four nobler Senses, viz. Seeing, Hearing, Tasting, and Smelling; for a young Lady could not, with any Decency, insinuate, she knew of any Pleasure which the fifth afforded.

He is so very nice, in respect of the Senses, that he will not allow them to be pierced. It is not right, he thinks, so he alters a Line in Lear's Curse,

From A Father's Curse pierce every Sense about thee,

To A Father's Curse pierce every Fence about thee.

Here is a Piece of Wit, which may pass unnoticed by the Reader, if I do not put him in Mind of it: It is this—

Think not to skreen thee.—Memorandum, she is gone behind the Skreen.

Foul-mouth'd Tongue.

In As you like it, you may meet with the Word foul.

Foul is most foul, being foul to be a Scoffer.

This, I believe, is obvious to the meanest Capacity, Homeliness is made worse, if the Ugly pretend to rail at the Deformed.

But the Sagacity of Mr. W. renders it,

Foul is foul, being found to be a Scoffer. And declares, the Repetition of foul is too absurd to come from Shakespear.

Playing upon Words was not Shakespear's greatest Beauty, but it was very much his Practice. Allow me, Reader, to give you a Specimen of Mr. W. playing upon Words himself.

He, in his Notes on the Witches of Macbeth, their Charms, and Incantations, says, as extravagant shocking and absurd all this is, the Play has had the Power to charm and bewitch every Audience, from that Time to this.

And since I have offered a Specimen of his Humour, give me Leave to exhibit one of his Wit.

In the same Play he says, after some Account of the Sun, and its Rays, Optics, &c. a Rainbow is no more a Reflection of the Sun, than a Tune of a Fiddle.

This Tag is in true Tragedy Taste. Here are a Parcel of trite Common Place Similies crouded together, and Half a Dozen Verses at the End, which is on Purpose, that the Heroine may make a graceful Exit. H. H.

This is right. And in Despite of Grief, &c.

So Antipholis, in the Comedy of Errors, Act III. Scene 1, says, And in Despite of Wrath, mean to be merry; for he has received several Rebuffs from his Wife, and is resolved to go to another House.

And in Despite of her Wrath, be merry.

But Mr. W. renders it,

And in Despite of Mirth, mean to be merry.

All asleep. A fine Instance and Emblem of Tranquillity.

This is quite in Nature: For it is common for an inferior Officer of Justice to sentence every Man who is brought before him; to drole on the Distresses of his Looks, or his Dress, and to make him out a Rogue by the Force of Physiognomy.