Art. 1. "Maritime Places, and to enjoy their Conquests in "Sovereignty, only doing Homage to the Repub"lic for their feveral Principalities. In Purfuance " of this Licence the Sanudo's, the Juftiniani, the "Grimaldi, the Summaripa's, and others, all Ve

netian Merchants, erected Principalities in feveral "Places of the Archipelago, (which their Defcen"dants enjoyed for many Generations), and thereby "became truly and properly Royal Merchants.

"So again in Othello Act I. Scene VIII. Bra"bantio accufing Othello before the Senate for run"ning away with his Daughter, fays,"

She is abused, stolen from me, and corrupted By Spells and Medicines bought of Mountebanks.

"These Lines Mr. Rymer has ridiculed, as contain"ing a weak and fuperftitious Circumftance, unbecoming both the Gravity of the Accufer and the

Dignity of the Tribunal. But all that he fhews " in his Criticism is his own Ignorance. This Cir"cumstance was not only exactly in Character, but "urged with the utmost Addrefs, as the Thing "chiefly to be infifted upon. For by the Venetian "Law, the giving Love-Potions was very Crimi"nal, as Shakespeare without queftion well knew. "Hear the Law De i maleficii & berbarie, cap. "xvii of the Code intitled Della promiffion del Ma«leficio. Statuimo etiando che fe alcun buomo o fe"mina barra fatto maleficii, i quali fe dimandano "vulgarmente amatorie, o veramente alcuni altri "maleficii, che alcun buomo o femina se havesson in "odio, fia fruftra & bollato, & che hara confegliado patifca fimile pena." To proceed,

Mr. Pope obferves, That our Poet's Descriptions are ftill exact, and his Metaphors appropriated. "This, fays Mr. Warburton, may be seen, even through the Deformity of the most corrupted

"Paf

:

"Paffages. So in the First Part of Henry IV.
"Act I. Scene I. Henry Speaking of the late Com
"motions, fays,

Thofe oppofed Eyes,

Which like the Meteors of a troubled Heaven,
All of one Nature, of one Subftance bred,
Did lately meet in the inteftine Shock,
And furious Clofe of Civil Butchery,
Shall now in mutual well-befeeming Ranks
March all one way.

"This beautiful Similitude has been ftrangely de-
"formed by the Infertion of those monftrous Eyes

in the Front. The ftupid Transcribers seeing

Meteors in the fecond Line, the Sun (called the
"Eye of Heaven) came across their heavy Imagi
"nations; and fo they fubftituted Eyes inftead of
"FILES, the true Reading. But what are Eyes

meeting in inteftine Shocks, and marching all one
way? That FILES is the true Word, appears not
"only from the Integrity of the Metaphor, well-
" befeeming Ranks march all one way; but from the
"Nature of those Meteors, to which they are com-
"pared; namely, long Streaks of Red, which re-
"prefent the Lines of Armies; the Appearance of
"which, and their Likeness to thofe Lines, gave
Occafion to all the Superftition of the common
"People concerning them.

"Again Act II. Scene VI. Percy's Wife tell-
"ing her Husband of his troubled Dreams, fays,"

In thy faint Slumbers I by thee have watcht,
And beard thee murmur Tales of Iron Wars:
and thou hast talk'd

Of Sallies and Retires, of Trenches, Tents,
Of Palifadoes, FRONTIERS, Parapets, &c.
"All here is an exact Recapitulation of the Appara-
"tus of a Siege and Defence; but the impertinent
"Word FRONTIERS, which has nothing to do in the
"Bufinefs,

Bufinefs, has crept in amongst them. Shake"Speare wrote RONDEURS, an old French Word, "for the round Towers in the Walls of ancient For"tifications. The Poet ufes the fame Word Englished « in King John."

'Tis not the ROUNDERS of your old fac'd Walls.

"This Word was extremely proper here, and in "exact Order of Place too between Palifadoes and "Parapets. For firft is the Palifade, then the "Baftion, and then the Parapet of the Baftion; for "the old Baftion was firft a round Tower; after"wards it was reduced to a Section of only the ex"terior Face, as may be seen in Plans of old "fortified Places; at length it received the Im"provement of its prefent Form with an Angle, "Flanks, and Shoulders.

"In Timon A&t V. Scene III. the Senators of "Athens offering the whole Power of the State to «Timon, if he would undertake their Defence, ex"prefs themselves thus ;'

thou shalt be met with Thanks,

ALLOWED with abfolute Power.

The laft Line has neither Senfe nor English. We "fhould read,"

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HALLOWED with abfolute Power.

"i.e. Thy Perfon made Sacred; for abfolute Power "being an Attribute of the Gods, the Ancients thought that he, who had it in a State, was be"come Sacred, and his Perfon inviolable; on " which Account the Romans called the Tribunefhip Sacro-fanita Poteftas. And again in Anthony "and Cleopatra A&t IV. Scene II. upon one of "Anthony's Extravagancies in his Diftrefs, an Attendant fays,"

66

'Tis one of thofe old TRICKS, which Sorrow boots Out of the Mind.

"The Uniformity of the Metaphor leads us to "fee, that Shakespeare wrote TRAITS, Arrows, "Shafts. A fimilar Expreffion we have in Cymbe"line, 'Twas but a Bolt of nothing, foot at nothing, "which the Brain makes of Fumes. Further,

Mr. Pope fays, no one is more Mafter of the poetical Story, or has more frequent Allufions to the various Parts of it than Shakespeare. Mr. Warburton oblerves, that in the First Part of Henry IV. A&III. Henry IV. telling his Son of the Arts he used to gain the Crown, fays:

And then I ftole all Courtesy from Heav'n, And dreft myself in fuch Humility,

That I did pluck Allegiance from Men's Hearts.

"The fealing Courtefy from Heaven is an Allufion

to the Story of Prometheus's Theft, who ftole "Fire from thence; and as with this he made a "Man, fo with that Bolinbroke made a King. As "the Gods were fuppofed to be fond of appropri"ating Reason to themselves, the getting Fire from "thence, which caused it, was called a Theft; and

as Power is their Prerogative, the getting Courtesy "from thence, by which Power is procured, is called a Theft. The Thought is exquifitely noble. "Again, in King Lear, Act II. Scene II. the "old King exclaims thus against his Daughters:

O Heavens!

If you do love old Men; if your feet Sway
Hallow Obedience; if yourselves are old,
Make it your Caufe.

<< The

"The Exclamation, O Heavens, if yourselves are "old, may appear to the unlearned Reader low and "ridiculous. But we are to confider this Pagan "King as here alluding to the ancient Heathen "Theology, which teaches that Cælus or Ouranus " was depofed by his Son Saturn, who rebelled, "and rose up in Arms against him. His Cafe then being the fame with Lear's, makes this Excla"mation exceeding pertinent and fine.

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Again, A& III. Scene II. when the good Earl "of Glocefter is outraged in his own House by "his Guefts Cornwall and Regan, he fays,

By the kind Gods, 'tis moft ignobly done
To pluck me by the Beard.

"We are not to underftand by kind Gods here "the Gods in general, who are beneficent and "kind to Men; but that particular Species of "them called by the Ancients Dii hofpitales, kind Gods. So Plautus in Penulo.

Deum hofpitalem ac tefferam mecum fero.

"This was a beautiful Exclamation; for thofe "who infulted him were his Guests, whom he had hofpitably received in his own House.

66

"But Shakespeare appears to have been as well "verfed in the Sculpture of the Ancients, as in "their Writings. So in the Merchant of Venice, "A& I. Scene I. Sola fays,

Now by two-headed Janus,

Nature bath framed ftrange Fellows in her time, Some that will evermore peep through their Eyes And laugh.

And others of fuch Vinegar Afpect.

By