CHAR. Is this the man?-Is't you, fir, that know things? SOOTH. In nature's infinite book of fecrecy, A little I can read. ALEX. Show him your hand. Enter ENOBARBUS. ENO. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough, Cleopatra's health to drink. CHAR. Good fir, give me good fortune. SOOTH. I make not, but foresee. CHAR. Pray then, foresee me one. SOOTH. You fhall be yet far fairer than you are. IRAS. No, you fhall paint when you are old. It is obfervable that the fame mistake as this happened in Coriolanus, where the fame correction was made by Dr. Warburton, and adopted by all the fubfequent editors: "And yet to charge thy fulphur with a bolt, "That fhould but rive an oak." The old copy there, as here, has change. Since this note was written, I have met with an example of the phrase-to change with, in Lyly's Maydes Metamorphofis, 1600: "The sweetness of that banquet muft forego, "Whofe pleasant tafte is chang'd with bitter woe." I am ftill, however, of opinion that charge, and not change, is the true reading, for the reasons affigned in my original note. MALONE. "To change his horns with [i. e. for] garlands," fignifies, to be a triumphant cuckold; a cuckold who will confider his flate as an honourable one. Thus, fays Benedick, in Much Ado about Nothing: "There is no staff more honourable than one tipt with horn."-We are not to look for ferious argument in such a “skipping dialogue" as that before us. STEEVENS. ALEX. Vex not his prefcience; be attentive. SOOTH. You fhall be more beloving, than beloved. CHAR. Good now, fome excellent fortune! Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all: let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage: find me 7 I had rather heat my liver &c.] So, in The Merchant of Venice: "And let my liver rather heat with wine." STEEVENS. To know why the lady is fo averfe from heating her liver, it must be remembered, that a heated liver is supposed to make a pimpled face. JOHNSON. The following paffage in an ancient fatirical poem, entitled Notes from Blackfryars, 1617, confirms Dr. Johnfon's obfervation: "He'll not approach a taverne, no nor drink ye, The liver was confidered as the feat of defire. In answer to the Soothfayer, who tells her fhe fhall be very loving, the fays, "She had rather heat her liver by drinking, if it was to be heated." M. MASON. 8 let me have a child at fifty,] This is one of Shakfpeare's natural touches. Few circumftances are more flattering to the fair fex, than breeding at an advanced period of life. STEEVENS. to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage:] Herod paid homage to the Romans, to procure the grant of the kingdom of Judea: but I believe there is an allufion here to the theatrical character of this monarch, and to a proverbial expreffion founded on it. Herod was always one of the perfonages in the myfteries of our early ftage, on which he was conftantly reprefented as a fierce, haughty, bluftering tyrant, fo that Herod of Jewry became a common proverb, expreffive of turbulence to marry me with Octavius Cæfar, and companion me with my miftrefs. SOOTH. You fhall outlive the lady whom you ferve. CHAR. O excellent! I love long life better than figs.' SOOTH. You have feen and proved a fairer former fortune Than that which is to approach. CHAR. Then, belike, my children fhall have no names: Pr'ythee, how many boys and wenches muft I have? and rage. Thus, Hamlet fays of a ranting player, that he "out-herods Herod." And, in this tragedy, Alexas tells Cleopatra, that "not even Herod of Jewry dare look upon her when The is angry;" i. e. not even a man as fierce as Herod. According to this explanation, the fenfe of the prefent paffage will beCharmian wishes for a fon who may arrive at fuch power and dominion that the proudeft and fierceft monarchs of the earth may be brought under his yoke. STEEVENS. I I love long life better than figs.] This is a proverbial expreffion. STEEVENS. 2 Then, belike, my children fhall have no names:] If I have already had the best of my fortune, then I suppose I shall never name children, that is, I am never to be married. However, tell me the truth, tell me, how many boys and wenches? JOHNSON. A fairer fortune, I believe, means-a more reputable one. Her anfwer then implies, that belike all her children will be baftards, who have no right to the name of their father's family. Thus fays Launce, in the third Act of The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "That's as much as to fay baftard virtues, that indeed know not their fathers, and therefore have no names.” STEEVENS. A line in our author's Rape of Lucrece confirms Mr. Steevens's interpretation: "Thy iffue blurr'd with nameless baftardy." MALONE, SOOTH. If every of your wishes had a womb, And fertile every wifh, a million.3 CHAR. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.4 ALEX. You think, none but your sheets are privy to your wishes. CHAR. Nay, come, tell Iras hers. 3 If every of your wishes had a womb, And fertile every wish, a million.] For foretel, in ancient editions, the later copies have foretold. Foretel favours the emendation of Dr. Warburton, which is made with great acutenefs; yet the original reading may, I think, ftand. If you had as many wombs as you will have wishes, and I fhould foretel all thofe wishes, I fhould foretel a million of children. It is an ellipfis very frequent in converfation; I should shame you, and tell all; that is, and if I should tell all. And is for and if, which was anciently, and is ftill provincially, used for if. JOHNSON, If every one of your wishes, fays the Soothfayer, had a womb, and each womb-invefted with were likewife fertile, you then would have a million of children. The merely fuppofing each of her wishes to have a womb, would not warrant the Soothfayer to pronounce that she should have any children, much less a million; for, like Calphurnia, each of these wombs might be fubject to "the fterile curfe." The word fertile, therefore, is abfolutely requifite to the fenfe. In the inftance given by Dr. Johnson, " I should shame you and tell all," I occurs in the former part of the sentence, and therefore may be well omitted afterwards; but here no perfonal pronoun has been introduced. MALONE. The epithet fertile is applied to womb, in Timon of Athens: "Enfear thy fertile and conceptious womb." I have received Dr. Warburton's moft happy emendation. The reader who wishes for more inftruction on this fubject, may confult Goulart's Admirable Hiftories, &c. 4to. 1607, p. 222, where we are told of a Sicilian woman who was fo fertill, as at thirty birthes thee had feaventie three children." STEVENS, I forgive thee for a witch.] From a common proverbial reproach to filly ignorant females: "You'll never be burn for a witch." STEEVENS. ENO. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, fhall be-drunk to bed. IRAS. There's a palm prefages chastity, if nothing else. CHAR. Even as the o'erflowing Nilus prefageth famine. IRAS. GO, you wild bedfellow, you cannot foothfay. CHAR. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognoftication,5 I cannot fcratch mine ear.Pr'ythee, tell her but a worky-day fortune. SOOTH. Your fortunes are alike. IRAS. But how, but how? give me particulars. SOOTH. I have faid. IRAS. Am I not an inch of fortune better than fhe? CHAR. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it? IRAS. Not in my husband's nose. CHAR. Our worfer thoughts heavens mend! Alexas,-come, his fortune, his fortune.-O, let S Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognofiication, &c.] So, in Othello: - This hand is moist, my lady : "This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart." MALONE. Antonio, in Dryden's Don Sebaftian, has the fame remark: "I have a moist, Sweaty palm; the more's my fin." 6 STEEVENS. Alexas, come, his fortune,] [In the old copy, the name of Alexas is prefixed to this fpeech.] Whofe fortune does Alexas call out to have told? But, in fhort, this I dare pronounce to be fo palpable and fignal a tranfpofition, that I cannot but wonder it thould have flipt the obfervation of all the editors; especially of the fagacious Mr. Pope, |