ledge the truth of, that, between companions whose pursuits and inclinations agree, who love each other, and are continually engaged in reciprocal attentions; a sympathy of affections will beget a resemblance of manners, of countenance, gesture, and deportment. 333. 66 Imagin'd speed," Means, I think, speed that may be more easily imagined than expressed; with all imaginable speed-the expression, so understood, is, I grant, licentious: I cannot admit that Mr. Steevens's is the true explanation. LORD CHEDWORTH, SCENE V. 335. "There is but one hope in it, and that is "but a bastard hope neither." This is very capricious phraseology, though not unusual.-Ranger, in The Suspicious Husband, says, "he was but a queer-looking son-ofa-bitch of a surgeon, neither." This mode of speech has been justly censured by Dr. Lowth. Talk nonsense, or from the point, for the sake of introducing fanciful and affected words. 341. ACT IV. SCENE I. Void and empty, "From any dram of mercy. "Empty from" is a phrase, perhaps not so improper as it is unusual. Since no lawful means can carry me "Out of his envy's reach." Envy, as Mr. Steevens remarks, is here, hatred, malice; and in this sense, as well as that of odium, reprobation, was often used by other writers in our author's time. "He thought likewise to make use of the "enuie that the French king met with; by occa"sion of this warre of Britaine," &c. Bacon's Historie of the Raigne of King "This tax (called beneuolence) was deuised by Edward the Fourth, for which he sustained "much enuie. Ibidem, 344. "Others, when the bag-pipe sings i'th' nose, Cannot contain their urine; for affection, "Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood Of what it likes, or loaths.' Rowe's emendation of this difficult passage appears to be the most satisfactory of any yet proposed. "Masterless passion," &c. and the sense, I believe, is this,-And others, at the singing of the bag-pipe, are so affected by it, that they cannot contain their urine; masterless passion, that irrisistible instinctive principle by which men's nerves are actuated, holds dominion over us, (i. e. lords-it, or sways-it) and imperiously advances towards what it likes, and withdraws from what it loathes. 349. "You may as well forbid the mountain pines "To wag their high-tops, and to make no noise "When they are fretted [Quo fretten] with the gusts of heaven." To forbid to make no noise, should be, to command some noise to be made; yet bid and forbid seem to have been formerly used indiscriminately, as in Chaucer's Plowman, Stanz. 29. "Moses' law forbode it tho, "That priests should no lordships welde, "That they should no lordships held." 352. "Not on thy sole, but on thy soul," &c. These words, it appears, were, in Shakspeare's time, pronounced differently, as at this day they are by the vulgar in Ireland: or perhaps the difference was marked by Gratiano's action. 353. "Souls of animals infuse themselves "Into the trunks of men.' 92 The making "animals" stand absolutely in contradistinction to human animals, or mankind, is almost as common as it is wrong; and Shakspeare may well be excused when so circumspect and philosophic a writer as David Hume is chargeable with the same fault. Thy currish spirit "Govern'd a wolf, who, hang'd for human slaughter, "Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet," &c. This is perplexed; there is a nominative case without effect: in this short sentence there is absolutely wanting a verb, a conjunction, and an adverb. Thy spirit "Governed a wolf who (was) hang'd (and then) "Even from," &c. 356. "It is twice bless'd; "It blesseth him," &c. Would not the sense be better expressed if we should read, "it is twice blessing?" yet I cannot approve of this: "twice-blessed" certainly does not mean blessed in repetition, as our actresses most vilely utter it, but blessed augmentedly, blessed supremely, or in a great degree, as we say, thrice happy, without any idea of repetition. "Blessed" here is "holy." "In the course of justice none of us Sir William Blackstone thinks it is out of character that Portia should refer the Jew to the Christian doctrine of salvation and the Lord's Prayer; but, besides that it is supposed the Lord's Prayer consists of expressions in use among the Jews; their Scriptures abound with passages recommending mercy, particularly Eccles. xxviii ver. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. This note is from a correspondent of Lord Chedworth's, and is signed R. T. His lordship adds, my friend's assertion respecting the Lord's Prayer and the Jewish Scriptures is certainly true, but yet I cannot help thinking, that so direct a reference to the Lord's Prayer was more likely to irritate than conciliate the Jew. 364. "I am content, so he will let me have "The other half in use, to render it, Upon his death, unto the gentleman "That lately stole his daughter.” This requisition in favour of theft and filial disobedience is not very decent before an august senate; and is, at the same time, derogatory to the character of Antonio. ACT V. SCENE I. 377. "The man that hath no music in himself Is fit," &c. Mr. Steevens has favoured us here with some very profound reflections upon the danger that may arise from too carelessly yielding to the effect of this speech in praise of music; and though he ventures to assert, that it is at once destitute of poetic beauty, and unpregnant with either moral or philosophic truth, he yet seems fearful that it might have a powerful influence on the minds of posterity, if he did not produce some effectual and unperishable antidote to the poison; andthis he has copiously extracted and triumphantly administered from that pure source of philosophic and moral |