Et pro PURPUREO poenas dat Scylla capillo.

Tibullus, I, 4.

Carmine PURPUREA eft Nifi coma.

Ovid. art. amat. 1. 1.

Filia PURPUREOS Nifi furata capillos.

Here purpureos capillos is exactly the fame as the above claros capillos: i. e. fplendid, fhining bright, &c. It follows therefore according to all critical rules, that instead of canos or caros, we should read,

-Patri CLAROS furata capillos.

ACRI

Again: Plutarch in the life of Caefar, p. 717. E. tells us that the Belgae, a people of old Gaul, were conquered by the Romans, and that they fought like cowards, ΑΙΣΧΡΩΣ ἀγωνισαμένες. But Caefar himself, from whom Plutarch has the ftory, fays quite otherwise, L. II. c. x. TER in eo loco pugnatum est. Hoftes impeditos noftri in flumine aggreffi, magnum eorum numerum occiderunt: per eorum corpora reliquos AUDACISSIME tranfire conantes, multitudine telorum repulerunt. Who can doubt then but fome of the oldest books having IEXPOE, a careless transcriber, trufting to his conjectures, wrote AIEXPO,whereas he ought to have written IEXTPE, a letter only being negligently omitted: xuçãos agorcapives, audaciffime, naviter praeliantes. By this,

which fearce deferves the name of an alteration in words, but a very great one as to the sense, is 1 Plutarch and Caefar reconciled.

SECT. VII.

N tranfcribing not only fingle letters are omit

IN

ted, but often parts of words, and sometimes whole words. A letter is omitted in the following paffages of Spencer. In the Fairy Queen, B. I. c. 1. ft. 43.

Hither (quoth be) me Archimago SENT
He that the ftubborn sprites can wifely tame,
He bids thee to him fend, for bis intent,

1. In the fame life, p. 718. A. Plutarch attributes that to the twelfth legion, which Caefar gives to the tenth. Caefar fays, L. II. c. xxvi. T. Labienus, caftris hoftium potitus. et ex loco fuperiore, quæ res in noftris caftris gererentur, confpicatus, DECIMAM LEGIONEM fubidio noftris mifit. But between δωδέκατον and τὸ δέκατον, how flight is the change Again to reconcile Plutarch to himself, in Julius Caefar, inftead of Brutus Albinus we must read Trebonius, for it was he detained Antony without, whilst they affaffinated Caefar in the Senate. So Plutarch relates the ftory in the life of Brutus, and Cicero in his fecond Philippic; cum interficeretur Caefar, tum te à TREBONIO vidimus fevocari. Shakespeare in Jul. Caef. Act III.

Caff. Trebonius knows his time; for look you, Brutus,

He draws Mark Antony out of the way.

Q 4

A fit

A fit falfe dream, that can delude the SLEEPERS SENT.

read, the fleepers fhent, i. e. ill treated, brought to fhame. A word commonly used by Spencer; and by our poet, in Hamlet, A& III.

"Ham. How in my words foever she be shent. And a whole word is omitted in the following paffage of Shakespeare.

Othello, A&t III.

Iago. Let him command,

"And to obey shall be in me remorse, "What bloody business ever.

A negative particle has flipt out here, which might be as well owing to the printer's ignorance of the metre, as to hasty transcribing. For we must read,

• And to obey shall be in me no remorse.

In Milton B. VI. 681.

Son! in whofe face invifible is bebeld

Vifibly, what by Deity I am.

1. Mr. Theobald reads with greater variation,

Not, to obey, fhall be in me remorse.

How came the transcriber to change nor into and? but to omit a particle in hafty writing is no unusual mistake.

It should be th' invisible: TO AOPATON, xar ioxv. Coloff. I, 15. Who is the image of THE INVISIBLE God. So in B. III. 385.

In whofe confpicuous count'nance, without cloud Made vifible, TH' ALMIGHTY FATHER SHINES.

Several paffages in Shakespeare are corrupted thro' thefe fort of omiffions.

In Macbeth, A&t I.

Lady Macbeth reading a letter," And re"ferred me to the coming on of time, with, "Hail king that shalt be!

'Tis very plain it fhould be, Hail king that fbalt be HEREAFTER! for this word she uses em-' phatically, when she greets Macbeth at first meeting him,

"Greater than both by the All-bail hereafter ! Being the words of the witch,

"All-hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter.

Inftances of parts of words omitted we have in Timon, Act IV. Sc. IV. Timon is fpeaking to the two courtefans,

"Crack the lawyer's voice,

"That he may never more false title plead, Nor found his quillets fhrilly. HOAR the

"Flamen,

That

That folds againft the quality of flesh, "And not believes himfelf.

Read; HOARSE, i. e. make hoarfe. For to be hoary is a mark of dignity. We read of reverence due to the hoary head, not only in poets, but in fcripture, Levit. xix, 32. Thou shalt rife up before the HOARY bead. Add to this, that HOARSE is here moft proper, as oppofed to

SCOLDS.

66

In King Lear, A& V.

"Lear. Ha! Gonerill! hah, Regan! they "flattered me when the rain came to wet me There I found 'em.Go to, they 66 are not MEN o' their words; they told me I was every thing; 'tis a lie, I am not ague proof.

Read, they are not WOMEN o' their words.

And to add one inftance more. In the Tempeft, Act II.

"Ten confciences, that ftand 'twixt me and

"Milan

"Candy'd be they, and melt, e'er they moleft! We must read,

Difcandy'd be they, and melt e'er they moleft! Difcandy'd. i. e. diffolved. Difcandy and melt

are