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

Tim. "

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

50.

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

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."

Lords. "None so welcome.'

"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,

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If it were now to die,

"Twere now to be most happy,"

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

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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

Dr. Johnson's remark, "a pitched field, and a land defiled or polluted;" it also takes-in the idea of defiles or narrow passes; and, probably, too, for where will the poet stop, when a quibble is before him? land occupied by soldiers.

i. e. Says Mr. Steevens, all good wishes, or all happiness to you; and he adds-so in Macbeth, all to all: but it is not so, in Macbeth, and I think it is not so, here.-When Macbeth utters these words, his meaning cannot be mistaken; it is, let all of us drink to Banquo, and all of us to each other.-In the present case I suspect corruption, which the disorder in the metre seems to confirm. I suppose it was written:

"I

Tim.
Lord."

So infinitely endear'd.”
I to you all; more lights."
The best of happiness."

Ready for his friends."

When Mr Steevens went about to repair the metre here; he might have furnished some better expedient than the placing such a word as ever, after "ready." I I suppose the poet wrote:

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"Still ready for his friends."

Give thyself away in paper."

I think Dr. Farmer's suggestion is proper.

53. "An you begin to rail on society once."

Is this presented by the editor as an heroic verse? A different A different arrangement is necessary for the metre:

"An once you do begin rail on society."

Again,

"Thou'lt not hear me now,—thou shalt not then, I'll lock," &c.

is mere prose, and requires some such correction as Mr. Steevens has offered.

ACT II. SCENE I.

54. "And late, five thousand to Varro and to Isidore."

This wants reduction :

"And late five thousand; Varro, t' Isidore."

"If I would sell my horse, and buy twenty more.'

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This is wrong, as the redundancy indicates: it should be,

"If I would sell my horse, and twenty buy, "Better than he," &c.

i. e. Broken engagements, bills not paid as they became due.

57. Sen. "I go, sir !"

This was nothing but a careless repetition of Caphis's last words, by the transcriber, and should not be suffered to disfigure the text, without communicating a particle of sense:

60. "Here comes the lord."

Instead of these words, which overburthen the verse, I suppose we should read:

"He comes."

(Enter Timon, &c.)

Again:

My Alcibiades. With me? What's your will?" "What's" should be ejected.

"Go to my steward, he will answer you.' Some words, like these supplied, I suppose, have been lost.

The deficiency of quantity in Isidore's speech, which Mr. Steevens would supply by the introduction of the word "lordship's," I should rather repair this way, taking it to be interrupted by the importunity of the next speaker:

"He humbly prays your speedy payment of

Caph. "If you did know," &c.

61. "Give me breath."

I suspect that something has been lost, here; Caphis, I suppose was pressing

"Artificial," for creative, having the power to produce or make; as in the Midsummer Night's Dream: