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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.