stances of his guilt, to make us acquiesce in the propriety of his punishment.

SCENE III.

This scene, I am persuaded, is interpolated, and none of Shakspeare's writing. Every line of it is stampt with the seal of Ben Johnson.

46. "Their cloaths are after such a pagan cut too,

"That, sure, they have worn out christen

dom.'

"Worn-out" for having been antecedent-to. Churchill has amplified this thought in the Ghost. "Garments well sav'd, which first were made, "When taylors, to promote their trade, "In arms, against the Picts, arose

"And drove them out, or made them cloaths."

SCENE IV.

55. "A good digestion to you all; and, once

more,

"I shower a welcome on you;—Welcome

all."

And," in the first of these line, should be ejected. 56. "

Leave their flocks.'

I do not know what meaning these words, which the editors pass by in silence, were intended to convey, unless it be absent themselves from or neglect their beds-beds stuffed with flock or wool.

The duke desir'd

"To him brought, vivâ voce, to his face."

It is strange that Mr. M. Mason's correction has not been adopted here

"To have brought viva voce," &c.

63. "

Although the king have mercies.”

This being affirmative, and not hypothetic or suppositious, the verb should be hath or has, the indicative, not the subjunctive mood.

64.

No black envy

Shall make my grave," &c.

I think Dr. Warburton's emendation, mark my grave, should be adopted.

65. "Ever belov'd, and loving, may his rule be."

A slight alteration seems wanting here

"Ever belov'd and loving be his rule !"

67. "Be sure, you be not loose; for those make friends."

you

"For," here, should be dismissed, "loose" is careless, not circumspect.

68. "Between the king and Katharine?

Yes, but it held not."

"Yes" might be spared here for the sake of

the metre.

SCENE II.

70. "Between us and the emperor, the queen's great nephew."

Great," here should be ejected.

74. "This priest has no pride in him."

Not to speak of."

I was not aware that this phrase of colloquial irony was of such antiquity.

-All the clerks

"Have their free voices."

Mr. Malone's construction, implying "sent," ("all the clerks have their free voices, i. e. have sent their free voices") from the succeeding expression, "Rome hath sent" is inadmissible as to grammar, the numbers of the verb disagreeing; but the sense also is different. Wolsey states that the trial and its process is impartial; that not only in England, but throughout Christendom, the learned are allowed to give their free opinions.

SCENE III.

79. "I swear 'tis better to be lowly born."

I swear, I cannot resist an impulse to repeat here a line from Othello, exactly consonant upon the ear to this:

"I swear 'tis better to be much abus'd."

80. "I would not be a young count in your way,

"For more than blushing comes to."

What is that? I suppose the old lady would infer the pleasure of incontinence.

"You'd venture an emballing.”
4

Notwithstanding Mr. Tollet's remark, which I think is sufficiently answered by Mr. M. Mason, I believe Dr. Johnson's is the true explanation; the prurient sagacity of Mr. Ritson has, I think, found out "a meaning never meant."

LORD CHEDWORTH. Mr. Whalley offers very plausibly, I think, embalming instead of " emballing.”

82.

-What wer't worth to know "The secret of your conference?" An." Not your demand: it values not your asking;

"Our mistress' sorrows we were pitying."

It certainly could not be such sorrows as those of Catherine that were so depreciated, and I know not whether it was the "pity" or the "se

cret."

83.

-I do not know

"IVhat kind of my obedience I should tender;

"More than my all is nothing.”

So says Duncan to Macbeth:

"More is thy due, even more than all can pay."

And, afterwards, the Lady, with amplification, to Duncan:

-All our services,

"In every part twice done, and then done double, "Were poor and single business," &c.

Nor my prayers

"Are not words duly hallow'd."

Mr M. Mason says, this passage is not sense as it stands, and proposes to read "for" instead of nor," " but I think he is mistaken "nothing,"

in the first line, is, not any thing, and the particle "nor" is the suitable conjunction.

91. "Or made it not mine too? Or which of your friends."

"Or," in the latter part of this line, is unnecessary and spoils the metre.

-Which of your friends

"Have I not strove to love, although I knew "He were mine

enemy

It should be was mine enemy; it is only the leading part of the sentence that requires the subjunctive mood.

"What friend of mine
"That had to him deriv'd," &c.

Otway, perhaps without copying, as the sentiment is so natural, has the same appeal in the Orphan :

"When had I a friend that was not Polydore's, "Or Polydore a foe that was not mine?"

-What friend of mine

"That had to him deriv'd your anger, did I "Continue in my liking? nay, gave notice "He was from thence discharg'd."

The seeming inaccuracy of the construction here is, I believe, the poet's own. The question that the queen asks is immediately, in the speaker's mind, changed to an affirmation-" What friend did I continue in my liking?" the queen makes, as she proceeds, to stand for, I always withdrew my favour from such a friend.

92. "Who deem'd our marriage lawful; wherefore I humbly."

VOL. I.

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