might not Holofernes take the fame liberty, as Mr. Warburton fo frequently does? EXAMP. IX. Vol. 1. P. 447. MEASURE FOR 66 -I do perceive, "Those poor informal women are no more i. e. “ women who have ill concerted their story, 66 Whatever Shakespear wrote, he certainly meant (with the Oxford Editor) informing. He could not mean, that the ftory was ill concerted, because in the very next line Angelo fuppofes, that it was concerted by fome mighty perfon concealed; to whom these women were only inftruments: and it is treated throughout the fcene, by Angelo and the Duke too, not as folly; but as malicious wickedness. EXAMP. X. Vol. 3. P. 49. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. -many a man's tongue fakes out his mafter's undoing "We should read-speaks out."-WARB. But Why? To fpeak out his undoing is awkward, if it be English at all. To fake-out is more expreffive as it gives us the idea of rash and unadvised speaking: temere, et leviter effulire. C 2 EXAMP. EXAMP. XI. Vol. 8. P. 45. ROMEO and JULIET. "Laura to his lady was but a kitchen-wench"Dido a dowdy-Thibe a grey-eye or so, but not to "the purpose. "We fhould read and point it thus, “Thisbe a grey-eye, or fo: But now to the purpose. "He here turns, from his difcourfe on the "effects of love, to enquire after Romeo. WARB. Mercutio's (the fpeaker) next words are-Signior Romeo, bonjour; there's a French falutation to your French flop. Very much to the purpose, truly! EXAMP. XII. Vol. 8. P. 51. ROMEO and Ju LIET. Though his face be better than any man's, yet his legs exceed all men's-&c. "We fhould read-be no better than another man's.-WARB. In order, I fuppofe to fet the old Nurfe's thoughs and yets into a little better form; not confidering, that the confounds them again, in the very next Sentence-though they may not be talk'd-on, yet are they paft compare. EXAMP. XIII. Vol. 8. P. 282. OTHELLO. "And what's to come of my defpifed time "Why defpifed time? We fhould read-de "Spited, i. e. vexatious. WARB. Why Why defpifed? Why, because he would despise it himself or perhaps, because this marriage was confidered by him as cafting fuch a reflexion on his family; as would render it, and him, contemptible for the rest of his life: as he fays afterwards of his daughter to Othello, that fhe t' incur a general mock, "Run from her guardage to the footy arms. "Of fuch a Thing as Thou. To produce all the examples Mr. Warburton has furnished us with to this Canon, would be to make an extract from a great part of his Notes; however, I cannot help adding one more, which fhews the true fpirit of a Profeffed Critic : EXAMP. XIV. Vol. 4. P. 129. I HENRY IV. where lady Kate fays to Hotfpur, * and thou haft talk'd "Of palifadoes, frontiers, parapets," &c. In the fpecimen of Mr. Warburton's performance, which was given us in the General Dictionary, under the article of Shakespear, note Q, his words on this paffage are as follows; "All here is an exact recapitulation of the appa"ratus of a fiege and defence; but the impertinent "word frontiers, which has nothing to do in the "bufinefs, has crept in amongst them. SH KE SPEAR WROTE, Rondeurs; an old French word for "the round towers in the walls of ancient fortifi"cations. The Poet ufes the fame word englished in K. JOHN, Vol. 3. P. 408. "'Tis not the rounders of your old fac'd walls" •• This word was extremely proper here, and exactly in place too, between the Palifadoes and Para pets; for firft is the palifade, then the bastion, "and then the parapet of the bastion: for the old "bastion was firft a round tower, afterwards it was "reduced to a section of only the exterior face, as "may be seen in the plans of old fortified places; "at length it received the improvement of its pre"fent form, with an angle, flanks, and shoulders." WARB. Yet, notwithstanding the extreme propriety of this word, and the exact order of place too in which it ftands; all this parade of military fkill is filently dropped in Mr. Warburton's edition, and we are directed to read, after the Oxford Editor, -FORTINS. I do not think it a matter of very great confequence, which of the words is retained; because it seems not at all requisite, that what a man talks in his fleep, and is repeted by a Lady, who is not fupposed to be deeply skilled in fuch matters; should have all the precifeness of terms and method, which would be expected in a treatise on fortification : However, it would have been candid in Mr. Warburton, to have owned his mistake; and to have acknowledged the correction of it, though it came from a gentleman, "who had been recommended "to him as a poor Critic;" and whose neceffities he boasts to have fupplied: but to give-up at once what SHAKESPEAR WROTE, and Mr. Warburton had fupported with fuch a pompous fhew of learning, merely on an hint from so despised an Editor;. a a See Mr. W's Preface, p. 10. looks, looks, as if he had a mind to be thought the adviser of the emendation. CANON II. He has a right to alter any passage, which he does not understand. EXAMP. I. K. HENRY VIII. Vol. 5. P. 400. "Which of the peers "Have uncontemn'd gone by him; or, at left, Strangely neglected ?" 66 "The plain fenfe requires to read "Stood not neglected." WARB. The plain fense, to any one who attends to Shakefpear's manner of expreffing himself, is; Which of the Peers has gone by him not contemned, or, at left, not strangely neglected; He leaves the particle not, which is included in the compound uncontemn'd, to be fupplied before the latter claufe. There is an instance of a like manner of expreffion in P. 404. "I know her for "A fpleeny Lutheran; and not wholesome to "Our caufe, that fhe fhould lie i'th' bofom of "Our hard-rul'd king. where we must fupply "that it is not whole"fome." And there is the like Ellipfis in this passage; 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 difcharged?" P. 386. C 4 But |