Servile to all the skiey influences That do this habitation,' where thou keep'ft, And yet runn'ft toward him ftill. Thou art not noble ; For all the accommodations, that thou bear'st, liant; For thou doft fear the soft and tender fork That do this habitation,-] This reading is fubftituted by fir Thomas Hanmer, for -merely thou art death's fool; For bim thou labour'ft by thy flight to foun, In thofe old farces called Moralities, the fool of the piece, in order to fhew the inevitable approaches of death, is made to employ all his ftratagems to avoid him; which, as the matter is ordered, bring the fool at every turn, into his very jaws. So that the reprefentations of thefe fcenes would afford a great deal of good mirth and morals mixed together. And from fuch circumflances, in the genius of our ancestors publick diverfions, I fuppofe it was, that the old proverb arose, of being merry and wife. WARBURTON. Such another expreffion, as death's fool, occurs in The honest Lawyer, a comedy, by S. S. 1616. "Wilt thou be a fool of fate? who can "Prevent the destiny decreed for man ?" STEEVENS. 3 As nurs'd by basenefs :-] Dr. Warburton is undoubtedly miftaken in fuppofing that by bafenefs is meant felf-love here affigned as the motive of all human actions. Shakespeare only meant to obferve, that a minute analyfis of life at once deftroys that fplendour which dazzles the imagination. Whatever grandeur can difplay, or luxury enjoy, is procured by bafenefs, by offices of which the mind fhrinks from the contemplation. All the delicacies of the table may be traced back to the iliambles and the dunghill, all magnificence of building was hewn from the quarry, and all the pomp of ornaments dug from among the damps and darkness of the mine. JOHNSON. Of Of a poor worm. Thy beft of reft is fleep," 4 the foft and tender fork Of a poor worm.-] Worm is put for any creeping thing or ferpent. Shakespeare fuppofes falfely, but according to the vulgar notion, that a ferpent wounds with his tongue, and that his tongue is forked. He confounds reality and fiction, a ferpent's tongue is oft but not forked nor hurtful. If it could hurt, it could not be foft. In MidsummerNight's Dream he has the fame notion. With doubler tongue Than thine, O ferpent, never adder ftung. JOHNSON. Shakespeare might have caught this idea from old tapestries or paintings, in which the tongues of ferpents and dragons always STEEVENS. appear barbed like the point of an arrow. 5 -Thy best of rest is fleep, And that thou oft provok'ft; yet grofly fear'ft Evidently from the following paffage of Cicero: Habes fomnum imaginem mortis, camque quotidie induis, & dubitas quin fenfus in morte nullus fit cum in ejus fimilacro videas effe nullum fenfum. But the Epicurean infinuation is, with great judgment, omitted in the imitation. WARBURTON. Here Dr. Warburton might have found a fentiment worthy of his animadverfion. I cannot without indignation find Shakespeare faying, that death is only fleep, lengthening out his exhortation by a fentence which in the friar is impious, in the reafoner is foolifli, and in the poet trite and vulgar. JOHNSON. -Thou art not thyself;] Thou art perpetually repaired and renovated by external affittance, thou fubfifteft upon foreign matter, and haft no power of producing or continuing thy own being. 7 JOHNSON. Arange effects,] For effects read affects; that is, affections, paffions of mind, or diforders of body varioufly affected. So in Orbelio, The young affects. JOHNSON. Thou Thou bear'ft thy heavy riches but a journey, nor age; 9 But, as it were, an after-dinner's fleep, Dreaming on both for all thy bleffed youth' -Thou haft nor youth, nor age; But, as it were, an after-dinner's fleep, Becomes This is exquifitely imagined. When we are young, we bufy ourfelves in forming schemes for fucceeding time, and mifs the gratifications that are before us; when we are old, we amuse the languor of age with the recollection of youthful pleasures or performances; fo that our life, of which no part is filled with the bufinefs of the present time, resembles our dreams after dinner, when the events of the morning are mingled with the designs of the evening. JOHNSON. 1 -for all thy bleed youth Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms Of palfied eld; and when thou'rt old and rich, The drift of this period is to prove, that neither youth nor age can be faid to be really enjoyed, which, in poetical language, is,—We bave neither youth nor age. But how is this made out? That age is not enjoyed he proves, by recapitulating the infirmities of it, which deprive that period of life of all fenfe of pleafure. To prove that youth is not enjoyed, he uses these words, for all tky bleed youth Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms Out of which, he that can deduce the conclufion, has a better knack at logic than 1 have. I fuppofe the poet wrote, -For pall'd, thy blazed youth Becomes affuaged; and doth beg the alms Of palfied eld;- i.e. when thy youthful appetite becomes palled, as it will be in the very enjoyment, the blaze of youth is at once affuaged, and thou immediately contracteft the infirmities of old age; as partiVOL. II. F cularly Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms Of palfied eld; and when thou art old, and rich, What's yet in this, That cularly the palfy and other nervous diforders, confequent on the inordinate ufe of fenfual pleasures. This is to the purpose; and proves youth is not enjoyed, by fhewing the fhort duration of it. WARBURTON. Here again I think Dr. Warburton totally mistaken. Shakefpeare declares that man has either youth nor age; for in youth, which is the happiest time, or which might be the happieft, he commonly wants means to obtain what he could enjoy; he is dependent on pallied eld; must beg alms from the coffers of hoary avarice and being very niggardly fupplied, becomes as aged, looks, like an old man, on happinefs which is beyond his reach. And, when he is ola and rich, when he has wealth enough for the purchafe of all that formerly excited his defires, he has no longer the powers of enjoyment, : —has neither heat, affe&ion, limb, nor beauty, To make his riches piafant. I have explained this paffage according to the prefent reading, which may fland without much inconvenience; yet I am willing to perfuade my reader, because I have almoft perfuaded myself, that our author wrote, fr all thy blafted youth Becomes as aged JOHNSON. 2-brat, affection, Imb, ner beauty] But how does beauty make riches pleasant? We should read bounty, which compleats the fenfe, and is this; thou haft neither the pleasure of enjoying riches thyfelf, for thou wanteft vigour; nor of feeing it enjoyed by others, for thou wantest bounty. Where the making the want of bounty as infeparable from old age as the want of bealth, is extremely fatyrical, tho' not altogether juft. WARBURTON. I am inclined to believe, that neither man nor woman will have much difficulty to tell how beauty makes vi bes pleasant. Surely this emendation, though it is elegant and ingenious, is not fuch as that an opportunity of inferting it fhould be purchafed by declaring ignorance of what every one knows, by confeffing infenfibility of what every one feels. JOHNSON. 3-more thoufand deaths :-] For this fir T. Hanmer reads, -a then That makes thefe odds all even, Claud. I humbly thank you. To fue to live, I find, I feek to die; And, seeking death, find life: Let it come on. Enter Ifabella. Ifab. What, ho! Peace here, grace and good company! Prov. Who's there? Come in the wifh deferves a welcome. Duke. Dear fir, ere long I'll vifit you again. Ifab. My bufinefs is a word or two, with Claudio. Prov. And very welcome. Look, fignior, here's your fifter. Duke. Provost, a word with you. Duke. Bring them to fpeak where I may be con ceal'd, Yet hear them.+ [Exeunt Duke and Provost. Claud. Now, fifter, what's the comfort? Ifab. Why, as all comforts are; most good in Deed:5 Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven, -a thousand deaths : Where The meaning is not only a thousand deaths, but a thousand deaths befides what have been mentioned. JOHNSON. 4 Bring them to freak where I may be concealed, Thus the modern editions. The old copy, published by the players, gives the paffage thus, Bring them to hear me speak, where I may be conceal'd. STEEVENS. as all comforts are; most good in deed :] If this reading be right, Ifabella muft mean that he brings fomething better than words of comfort, the brings an affurance of deeds. This is harth F 2 and |