thofe matters higher than his own obfervations, or fome pamphlet of equal authority with that of the Shepherd of Baubury's Rules.-Mr. Johnson has a note upon the word aroint, which he says he can find in no other author (we believe not in English); but we remember foreign authors who write upon witchcraft have mentioned it, as a term that witches ufe when they prepare to fly through the air; and this feems to confirm Mr. Pope's fenfe of it, that it fignifies to be gone.-In the fame fcene the reader is presented with the following note. And the very points they blow.] As the word very is here of no other use than to fill up the verfe, it is likely that ShakeSpeare wrote various, which might easily be mistaken for very, being either negligently read, haftily pronounced, or imperfectly heard.' We can by no means fee why various ought not to be confidered in this place as much an expletive as very. Perhaps it is more fo, for the witch's meaning feems to be, that the has in her poffeffion the exact directions of those winds according to the divifion of the compafs, which furely is very exact. Mr. Johnson in the fame page has a note upon the line, "He fhall live a man forbid ;" and he tells us that " Mr. Theobald has very juftly explained forbid by accurfed, but without giving any reafon of his interpretation. To bid is originally to pray." We believe, on the contrary, that the witch means no more than that the failors fhall be for bid the bleffings of fleep. Mr. Johnfon, indeed, confirms his interpretation by a Saxon fragment; but the word which he there interprets pray, is bit not bid. It is true a beadsman, so low as the reign of queen Elizabeth, fignified one who prays for another; but that word evidently comes from the beads which the papists make use of in saying their prayers. Our editor has admitted two very long notes, the one from Theobald, the other from Warburton, concerning the weyward, or the weird fifters. We fhall not transcribe thofe notes, because both of them are abfurd beyond expreffion. Warburton, indeed, may be right, when he fays that wayward and weird are the very fame word differently fpelt. The word weird is a fubftantive, fignifying neither more nor lefs than fate. In the Northern countries the common people apply to gypfies to have their weirds, or their fortunes, told. This kind of mantology was very common in Shakespeare's time, and we can almoft venture to affert, that he never confulted Bartholinus or any Northern writer upon the subject. We use weird fifter in the very fame fenfe as we fay a guild brother, a horse jockey, a mefs-mate, or any of those common expreffions. 64 That man may question] Are ye any beings with which 1 man is permitted to hold converfe, of which it is lawful to afk, questions?" We more than suspect that Mr. Johnson is miftaken in this interpretation, and that Banquo means no more than they are in very questionable shapes, fuch as makes it a question whether they bring with them airs from beaven, or blafts from hell. Question here fignifies no more than doubt-I queftion whether-I doubt whether. The question here is that which arifes in Banquo's own mind,, whether their intents are wicked or charitable. Had Mr. Johnfon attended to the very paffage he was explaining, he must have found that to have been the meaning: Like you, or are you aught That man may question? That is, Are you mortal creatures? or, Is your existence questionable, whether ye belong to heaven or hell? T We fhall juft obferve in this place, what can hardly be thought foreign to our purpofe, that the defcription of Cawdor's death, given by Macbeth to the king, seems to be copied from that of Effex under queen Elizabeth. • The DEATH of each day's life, fore labour's bath, &c.] In this encomium upon fleep, amongst the many appellations which are given it, fignificant of its beneficence and friendliness to life, we find one which conveys a different idea, and by no means agrees with the reft, which is, The death of each day's life,-I make no queftion but Shakespeare wrote, The birth of each day's life,--. the true characteristick of fleep, which repairs the decays of la bour, and affifts that returning vigour which fupplies the next day's activity. The Player-editors feem to have corrupted it for the fake of a filly jingle between life and death. WARB,' We are almoft tempted to be guilty of a Theobaldism, that is, an unmannerly, illiberal infult upon former critics; upon Dr. Warburton who penned, and upon Mr. Johnson who ad-. mitted, this note upon one of the most beautiful paffages in Shakespeare. The whole is as follows: the innocent fleep; Sleep that knits up the ravell'd fleeve of care, How could they imagine that our immortal poet called flerp, the death of each day's life? how could they be blind to the beautiful tranfition here between the didactic, and the pathetic. ftrain? It is not fleep, but care, that Shakespeare calls the death of each day's life; an observation equally just as elegant. Life means C 4 the enjoyment of life, of which care is undoubtedly the death. But we have not yet done with this paffage. -fleeve of care.] A fkein of filk is called a fleeve of filk, as I learned from Mr. Seward, the ingenious editor of Beaumont and Fletcher." We really believe Shakespeare here intended no allufion to a fkein or fleeve of filk, but to the fashion of the garments then worn, in which the fleeves were encumbered with hundreds of yards of lace, narrow ribbands or tape and points, which were very apt to be ravelled. But fetting this matter afide, we fhall for once indulge the editors and commentators of Shakefpeare in fubftituting an alteration of the original text. Suppofing, in their ridiculous manner, instead of fleeve we fhould admit the word heave, which is corn promifcuously cut down, and lying ravelled up higgledypiggledy, which the husbandman binds up into a bundle before it is threshed out: Mr. Johnson, and the other commentators, who presume so much upon the ofcitancy of transcribers and printers, cannot fay that this emendation is more unnatural than the most natural they have been able to produce. A gentleman, whom our fultan in criticism has admitted to be one of the dwarfs who hold his train, in his Appendix has mentioned a quotation from Drayton, who fays that "grafs, like leave, was matted." But we ftrongly fufpect, that the fleave there mentioned is a kind of fea-weed that grows in an entangled manner. Perhaps the investigation of the word laver, which grows entangled or ravelled, may direct us to the truth; and that leave is no other than fea-laver, a weed well known, and a delicacy in eating, at least; fo fays Martinus Scriblerus. 66 Mr. Johnson gives us feveral notes upon unmannerly breech'd with gore ;" and he himself most fagaciously concludes," that Dr. Warburton has perhaps rightly put the word reech'd for breech'd." We muft here refer our reader to this curious collection of conjectures (which would contaminate our page) upon one of the plainest paffages in Shakespear. To breech is to clothe or to cover, and unmannerly is neither more nor less than unfeemly. The reader has Shakefpeare's idea, if he can form the difagreeable one of a dagger covered with blood. Mr. Johnfon animadverts upon the following line: Acquaint you with a perfect spy o' th' time. We should have read this line five hundred times over before we could have found out the smallest neceffity for an alteration of the original reading. Dr. Warburton very properly fays, that it is the critical juncture." Mr. Johnfon obferves upon this," How the critical juncture is the Spy o' th' time, I know not, but think my own conjecture right."-Indeed, fir, we think it is very wrong. Shakespeare had not here the finalleft idea of the French efpion, an informer. He converts the verb Spy into a noun fubftantive, which is allowable in the word view; and ufage has authorized the change. A py-glafs, for inftance, is juft as well understood as a spying glass. Upon the whole, Dr. Warburton here deviates into right. It is true that a third murderer in the fourth fcene appears, whom Mr. Johnfon ridiculously imagines to be the spy Macbeth spoke of; but it is plain, from the converfation of all the three murderers, and from what Macbeth himself says, that he was only added to their number by him, to make the murder more fure. You know your own degrees, fit down: At first and laft, the hearty welcome.] As this paffage ftands, not only the numbers are very imperfect, but the sense, if any can be found, weak and contemptible. The numbers will be improved by reading, -fit down at firft, And laft a hearty welcome. But for laft fhould then be written next. I believe the true reading is, You know your own degrees, fit down. To firft. All, of whatever degree, from the highest to the lowest, may be affured that their vifit is well received.' This is another difficulty that we never could have been fo ingenious as to find out. Macbeth tells the company to fit down according to their degrees; but we cannot imagine Shakespeare to be so awkward as to have the least allufion to thofe degrees in the second line. All he fays is, You are heartily welcome, both at the beginning and at the end of the banquet. Of all the inftances of critical fagacity that we have yet produced, perhaps the following is the moft remarkable: · -I will venture To SCALE'T a little more. .] Thus all the editions, as Mr. Theobald confeffes, who alters it to ftale't. And for a good reafon, because he can find no fenfe (he fays) in the common reading. For as good a reason, I, who can, have restored the old one to its place; To Scale't fignifying to weigh, examine and apply it. The author ufes it again, in the fame sense, in this very play, SCALING his prefent bearing with his paft. And And fo Fletcher in The Maid in the Mill, What, SCALE my invention before hand? you shall parden me for that. WARBURTON. "Neither of Dr. Warburton's examples afford a fenfe congruous to the prefent occafion. In the paffage quoted, to scale may be to weigh and compare, but where do we find that to scale is to apply? If we fcale the two criticks, I think Theobald has the advantage.' The reader is here to obferve, that Menenius tells the people, he will scale the tale they have already heard, a little more." We fhall not infult Mr. Johnfon and his brother-commentators, for holding their heads fo high that they cannot. take care of their fhins. There is not perhaps in the northern language a more frequent expreflion than the word Scale to fignify to difperfe. You scale the falt. The kirk, or school, is scaled, that is, they are broken up, or the people in them difperfed. It is poffible that Shakespeare might have picked up the word in Scotland, where, it is very probable, he was among the other players, whom queen Elizabeth, at the request of James, in 1699, fent down to entertain his court at Edinburgh for one feafon. In the Gloffary to the Evergreen, printed at Edinburgh, 1761, we have fail, to fcatter. [To be concluded in our next. } III. Twenty of the Plays of Shakespeare,being the whole Number printed in Quarto during his Life-time, or before the Restoration, collated where there were different Copies, and published from the Originals, by George Steevens, Efq; in four Volumes. 8vo. Pr. l. Tonfon. WE E have long earneftly wished for fuch a publication as this before us; and we have the greatest reason to believe that Mr. Steevens has difcharged his duty as an editor, ably and faithfully. It is not our province to re collate the va→ luable editions he has given us of his author; but we are confirmed by this edition in the opinion we have often declared (fee, vol. xx. p. 332.) that Shakespeare's original text is defenfible against almoft all the alterations of later editors. An author of a liberal education, and a generous spirit, might acquire immortal reputation to himself, by adding a fifth volume to the work before us, and therein vindicatng the original Shakefpeare fimplex munditiis. Mr. Steevens has prefixed to his edition of Shakespeare's twenty plays, what he calls an Advertisement to the Realer.' The |