"And entertain'd me with my own de

vice.

"I am to thank you for't."

My lord, you take us,

"E'en at the best."

1st Lad. "

Арет.

Tim.

Faith, for the worst, is filthy,

"And would not hold the taking-in, I doubt me."

Ladies, pray tarry; there's an idle banquet

"Attends you; please you to dispose yourselves."

All Lad. "Most thankfully, my lord."

Tim.

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Here, Flavius !"

My lord."

The little casket bring me hi

Here, I apprehend, Flavius pauses, in honest reluctance, and gives Timon reason to suppose his orders were not exactly understood, who therefore repeats,

"The casket!"

Flav. "

Yes, my lord, more jewels yet! "There is no crossing him in's humour now."

46. "Tis pity, bounty had not eyes behind; "That man might ne'er be wretched for his mind."

It is pity that Generosity should not reflect, and avail itself of experience, so as to prevent a man's becoming a sacrifice to the nobleness of his disposition.

47. "Where be our men ?"

Here, my lord, in readiness.”

Here, sir, in readiness."

Timon's speech following this is miserably lame and prosaic; but if it is to be measured, let it have fair play:

2d Lord.

Tim.

"Our horses."

"O, my good friends, I have yet "One word to say; look you, my lord,

I must

"Entreat that you will honour me so much

"As to advance this jewel; pray accept, "And wear it, kind

my lord."

1st Lord. "I am so far already in your gifts."

2d Lord. "

3d Lord. "

4th Lord. "

5th Lord."

And I."

And I."

And I."

So are we all."

"Near? why then another time I'll hear thee."

We can here count ten syllables, indeed, but find nothing like metre: I would propose: "Me! near! why then another time I'll hear thee.'

48. "I pr'ythee, let us be provided."

The defective measure, and the sense of the context, shew that a rhyme was intended here: at some other opportunity, says Timon, I will hear thee, but

"I pr'ythee let us be provided now,

"To shew them entertainment."

"

Flav. - I scarce know how."

"He commands us to provide, and give great gifts,

"And all out of an empty coffer."

It is not always in the power of an editor to repair a corrupted passage, or produce metre from a combination of words incorrigibly prosaic; but, I apprehend, he is no where justifiable in counting out syllables merely, and putting into the page, as a quintameter, a line without the cadences necessary to constitute verse.-If the order of the words will not conform to measure, they should, doubtless, be set down as prose :-in the present instance perhaps we might regulate:

"Here he commands us to provide and give "Great gifts, and all out of an empty coffer." 49. "To shew him what a beggar his heart is.”

As this awkward rhyme appears to be accidental; I think it would be usefully removed by transposition:

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"To shew him what a beggar is his heart." Again, the measure wants correction:

He owes

"For every word; he is so kind, that he now,” &c.

That should be taken away.

"Well, would I were gently put out of office Before I were forc'd out."

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Why should such a disposition of words assume the form of verse? We might, by an easy transposition, restore the first line to measure, and guess at the deficiency of the other:

"Well, would I were put, gently, out of office, "Before I were forc'd out, and ruin whelm us." Again:

Tim. "

"I bleed inwardly for my lord."
You do yourselves."

I repeat that, if the text will not afford metre, it should not assume a metrical shape: perhaps it should be,

My heart bleeds for my lord."

You do yourselves

"Here is, my lord, a trifle of our love." "O, he is the very soul of bounty."

Here are ten syllables, indeed, if we count them, but no verse. The words of an advertisement in a newspaper might as well be reckoned by the syllables, and inserted, with an exact ten to each line, as heroic verse. Again:

50. "You may take my word, my lord; I know

по тап,

We should read:

"Sir, you may take my word, I know no man,

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I believe this was, "I'll call you," according to a mode of speech not unusual with Shakspeare and the writers of his time, and still prevailing in Ireland, for "I'll call upon you;' and the metre requires some such correction:

"I'll tell you true; I'll call you.'
None so welcome."

Lords. "

"I'll call you" is, elliptically, I give you a call. 'Tis not enough to give;

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Methinks, I could deal kingdoms.”

Sir T. Hanmer, instead of "methinks," proposed my thanks, a change so plausible that Dr. Johnson adopted it; and, though I believe the

original text is right, Mr. Steevens, I think, was called upon to defend it more effectually than he has done. What chiefly wants to be reconciled is, the phrase, “'tis not enough to give,” which the latter critic interprets, what I have already given is not sufficient on the occasion, a meaning that the construction will by no means admit of. 'Tis," i. e. it is, does not, nor cannot refer to what he had already given.-The expression is colloquially elliptical, and implies, all my stock of wealth is not sufficient for the claims (in your deservings) upon my bounty. "Tis not enough" has the power of there's not enough :—“ it," in certain situations, is often of ponderous inference; In Othello,

If it were now to die,

"'Twere now to be most happy,"

implies, if this were the allotted time for my death, the occasion would furnish the consummation of my happiness.

This reminds me of what I once heard Mr. Burke say, in compliment to Mr. Hickey, the sculptor, upon perusing the design of a monument by that artist, "You, sir, live by the dead, and the dead live by you." Mr. Burke, perhaps, recollected the inscription on the statue of Niobe, "The Gods, from life, caused me to become stone: Praxitiles, from stone, has restored me to life."

All the lands thou hast

"Lie in a pitch'd field."

The conceit here extends a little further than