Clown. If it be too little for your Thief, your true Man thinks it big enough: If it be too big for your Thief, your Thief thinks it little enough: So every true Man's Apparel fits your Thief.

.

"Here is a Speech wanting (which should come in "after Proof) that makes the whole Nonfenfe. "The Hangman is to prove his Trade a Myftery. Instead of that the Clown proves the "Thief's Trade a Myftery. So that the Speech "wanted may be fuppofed to have been that, wherein the Hangman proved his Trade to be a "Mystery. And the Proof being taken from this "Topick, that every Thief's Apparel fitted the "Hangman, the Clown took Occafion from thence "to reply and fay, by this kind of Argument I "can prove the Thief's Trade a Mystery too. "The other asks how; and then the Clown goes on

ર

as above, Every true Man's Apparel fits your "Thief; if it be too little &c. the jocular Conclu"fion from the Whole being an Infinuation that "Thief and Hangman were Rogues alike: Where "we may obferve, that the prefent Reading is the "true."

Again, in King Lear, A&t. III. Scene III. the Fool fpeaks a Prophecy, in Imitation of those of Merlin, as the Vulgar are used to repeat them, which all the Editions read thus:

I'll fpeak a Prophecy or ere I go:

When Priests are more in Words than Matter;
When Brewers marr their Malt with Water;
When Nobles are their Taylors Tutors;
No Heretics burnt but Wenches Suitors;
When every Cafe in Law is right;
No Squire in Debt, nor no poor Knight;
When Slanders do not live in Tongues;
And Cut-purfes come not to Throngs;

When

When Ufurers tell their Gold 'th Field;

And Bawds and Whores do Churches build:
Then fhall the Realm of Albion
Come to great Confufion:

Then comes the Time, who lives to fee's,
That going fhall be used with Feet.

"The judicious Reader will obferve, through this
"heap of Nonfenfe and Confufion, that this is not
• one but two Prophecies: 1. The first a fatyri-
*cal Description of the prefent Manners as future:
2. And the fecond a fatyrical Description of future
Manners, which the Corruption of the prefent
"Manners would prevent from ever happening,
"Each of thefe Prophecies has its proper Inference

or Deduction: Yet by an unaccountable Stupi"dity the firft Editors took the whole to be all one "Prophecy, and fo jumbled the two contrary In"ferences together; each of which belongs to its proper Prophecy. The whole then should be read thus:

1 fpeak a Prophecy or Two e're Igo:

When Priefts are more in Words than Matter;
When Brewers marr their Malt with Water;
When Nobles are their Taylors Tutors;
No Hereticks burnt but Wenches Suitors:
Then comes the Time, who lives to fee't,
That going fhall be fed with Feet. i. e. Now.

When every Cafe in Law is right;
No Squire in Debt, and no poor Knight;
When Slanders do not live in Tongues;
And Cut-purfes come not to Throngs;
When Ufurers tell their Gold i'th' Field;
And Bawds and Whores do Churches build:
Then fhall the Realm of Albion

Come to great Confufion. i. e. Never.

But befides the Ignorance of his firft Editors, Mr.
Pope affigns as another Caufe of the manifold Cor-

ruptions

ruptions which have been unjustly charg'd upon Shakespeare, and which have in Truth wofully contaminated his Writings, the infolent Self-conceitednefs of his firft Editors. For their Want of Judgment making them fancy they efpied Faults and Deficiencies, when there were neither, they foolishly fet themselves to fupply and amend them: This produced improper Additions and Expunctions, Tranfpofitions of Scenes, Confufion of Characters and Perfons, wrong Application of Speeches, and Alterations of what they impertinently thought amifs.

So, as Mr. Warburton notes, in Anthony and Cleopatra, A& IV. Scene XII.

Char. Ob Madam, Madam, Madam

Iras. Royal Egypt! Emprefs!

Char. Peace, Peace, IRAS.

Cleop. No more but a mere Woman, and commanded

By fuch poor Paffion as the Maid that milks.

"Cleopatra was fallen into a Swoon; her Maids en<deavour to recover her by calling upon her by " her feveral Titles, At length Charmian fays to "the other, Peace, Peace, Iras; on which Cleo"patra comes to herfelf, and replies to these last "Words, No but a mere Woman, as you are; you "are mistaken. Thus ftands this fenfelefs incon"fiftent Dialogue; but Shakespeare never wrote fo "much without a Meaning. We muft obferve "then, that the two Women call her by her feve"ral Titles, to fee which pleafed her beft; and "this was highly in Character. For here we must "obferve, to the Honour of our Author's Know"ledge of Antiquity, that the Ancients thought,

" that

"that not only Men but the Gods too had fome "Names which they delighted in above others, " and would fooneft answer to; on which Account "their Hymns, as we may fee by thofe of Orpheus, "Homer, and Callimachus, are chiefly fpent in "enumerating their feveral Names. The Poet "conforming to this Notion, makes the Maids "fay, Sovereign, Lady, Madam, Royal Egypt, "Empress. And now we come to the Place in "queftion. Charmian, when none of thefe Titles " would do, invokes her with a still more flattering "" one;' ""

Peace, Peace, ISIS;

" for so it should be read and pointed: i. e. Peace, "Iras, we can never move her by thofe Titles: "Let us give her her favourite one of the God"defs Ifis. And now Cleopatra's Answer becomes "pertinent, natural and fine:"

No more but a mere Woman, and commanded
By fuch poor Paffion as the Maid that milks.

"i. e. I now fee my Folly in affuming in my Prof"perity those flattering Titles of Divinity. My Mis"fortunes, and the Impotency of my Paffions in bear

ing them, convince me that I am a mere Woman, «and have no Prerogative above thofe of the meanest "Condition. Here Shakespeare has exactly foHowed "Hiftory, and, what is more, his Author Plutarch "in Antonio, who fays that Cleopatra took upon her

felf the Habit and Attributes of the Goddess, and "gave Judgments or rather Oracles to her People "under the Quality of the NEW ISIS." Kárpa μir γὰρ καὶ τότε καὶ τον ἄλλον χρόνον εἰς πλήθος ἐξειῦσα, στολὴν ἑτέραν ἱερὰν ΙΣΙΔΟΣ ἐλάμβανε, καὶ ΝΕΑ ΙΣΙΣ ἐχρημάτιζε.

So again in Hamlet, Act II. Scene V. Hamlet. to be honeft as this World goes, is to be one picked out of Ten Thousand.

Pol.

Pol. That's very true, my Lord. Ham. For if the Sun breeds Maggots in a dead Dog

Being a GOOD kissing Carrion

Have you a Daughter?

"The Editors feeing Hamlet counterfeit Madnefs, thought they might fafely put any Non"fenfe into his Mouth. But this ftrange Paffage, "when fet right, will indeed prove a very extraordinary one, containing as fine a Reflection as any the Poet puts into his Hero's Mouth through❝out the whole Play. The true Reading is cer"tainly this:"

For if the Sun breed Maggots in a dead Dog,
Being a GOD, kiffing Carrion

"And now for the Senfe. The illative Particle "[for] fhews the Speaker to be reasoning from "fomething, that he had faid before. What he "had faid before was this, that to be honeft, as the "World goes, is to be one picked out of Ten Thou

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fand. Having faid this, the Chain of Ideas led "him to reflect upon the Argument, which Liber"tines bring againft Providence, from this Cir"cumftance of the abounding of Evil in the World. "He therefore in this next Speech endeavours to "anfwer that Objection, and vindicate Providence " even on a Suppofition of the Fact, that almost "all Men were wicked. His Argument in the "two Lines in Question is to this Purpose; But "why need we wonder at this abounding of Evil; for "if the Sun breed. Maggots in a dead Dog, which "though a God, yet diffufing its Heat and Influence << upon Carrion Here he ftops fhort, left talking "too confequentially, the Hearer fhould fufpect his "Madness to be feigned, and turns it off by en"quiring of the old Man's Daughter. But the "Inference which he intended to make was a very

"noble