substantive that denotes multitude, an article of the singular number indeed may be affixed: in an adjective of the same denomination it cannot; and though analogy seems to say it may, yet that will not be sufficient to justify the use. The reason is pretty curious, and is this: in a noun of multitude, if it be a substantive, there is a substratum, or support, for an union of the parts of that multitude, from whence results what is called an abstract idea, which considers it as one being singularly. Thus in the word people, which in its simplest and prime signification signifies a great number of individuals, may yet by an abstraction have these numbers united, and signify one, and then may have the singular article affixed, as a people. But a noun adjective of multitude, having no substratum, is not capable of this abstraction and union, and therefore a singular article can never be affixed to it.-An o'er-delight seems to be very like one of Shakespeare's compound words, and signifies additional delight. Your emendation of 'AйEAIAOE is very ingenious, though I think άrédios is the right word, but I understand it in a sense different from you. I own, it is a poor wretched frigid thought for the Nymph to say, "I was in such haste to come to your relief that I came barefoot." I suppose àridinos was the distinguishing epithet of all the Sea-nymphs, and when she says, 29 d'àridiños; "I, one of the barefoot tribe of Nymphs, hastened to your relief,” &c. I do not doubt but άrédios was as well known amongst the Greek Poets to signify a Sea-nymph, as in France, une sœur dechaussée is to signify a Carmelite Nun. The four guineas I sent up to Cambridge. Messengers from thence oft go to London, and I desired that any body would leave them at your house, which I dare say they will shortly. My dear Friend, I only want to see the two Journals in which your answers are inserted; and should be glad could you send them down to me by Letter, because because I would not give you the trouble of transcribing. The other two Journals I have seen. I hope Master is got perfectly recovered of the small-pox; and that Mrs. Theobald and Mrs. Jackson are well. I am, dearest Sir, your most affectionatë, LETTER W. WARBURTON. LXXVII. To Mr. LEWIS THEOBALD. Oct. 14, 1734. MY DEAR FRIEND, I have had the pleasure of two Letters from you since my last. The reason why I did not acknowledge them before was, my waiting for a third, to which they both referred, and which was to finish the subject those I received were upon. But, this not coming, I have concluded you have altered your intention; and therefore have thought proper to return you my thanks for the trouble I gave you in the two I received. What follows are three notes to be added to the fifty I sent, in their places, which I desire you would give yourself the trouble to do. I hope they will meet with your approbation. P. 94. Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II. Sc. 2. The chiding autumn, angry winter, change By their increase, now knows not which is which. By their increase? whose increase? or what increase? there is nothing preceding to which increase can be referred so as to make sense. We must read, By their INCHASE, now knows not which is which. It comes from the French, enchassure, a term in use amongst the jewellers to signify the setting a stone in gold or silver; to this the word inchase metaphorically alludes. He had said, the Seasons changed their liveries; i. e. the weather in which the the Seasons were set; so that the sense of the whole in this reading is this: "The amazed world knows not, by the weather in which the Seasons are set or inchased, how to distinguish Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, from each other." The metaphor is beautiful, as comparing the Seasons set in their several weathers to gems inchased in gold and silver. And the Poets in their Prosopopaic represent Spring as adorned with emeralds, the Summer with the pyropus, the Autumn with the topaz, and Winter with diamonds. P. 95. Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II. Sc. 2: Thou remember'st Since once I sat upon a promontory, And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, To which these are an introduction. The compliment made to Queen Elizabeth in the following lines was too obvious not to have been often taken notice of. But this made to Mary Queen of Scots in thẹ lines above quoted was so allegorically, it seems, delivered as not to be understood. Yet nothing is more true than that both a compliment and satire were here intended, on that unfortunate lady. On both which accounts, there were sufficient reasons to disguise his meaning under these fabulous images, which yet refer all of them so evidently to the real subject underneath, that it is a wonder it should have escaped any attentive reader. The scene where this representation is laid being near the British Island (for the speaker is made to hear the mermaid at the very time he saw Cupid's attempt on the vestal) shews the subject to concern that quarter. And the mermaid on the dolphin's back obliges us to understand it of Queen Mary, whose first husband was the Dolphin of France. The Poet designs her under the image of a mermaid, to denote her sovereignty, reignty, and likewise her mischievous allurements: for the mermaid is supposed in fable to have dominion in the seas, and to be very powerful in musick, and to inchant and destroy those she allures. Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, alludes to her great abilities of genius and learning, which rendered her the most accomplished princess of her time. The French Writers tell us, that when she was married to the Dolphin, and resided among them, she once pronounced a Latin oration in the Great Hall of the Louvre, before the whole Court, with so much grace and eloquence that the whole assembly were filled with admiration. The rude sea grew civil at her song: By this is meant Scotland, long in arms against her; and there is the greater justness and beauty in it, because the common opinion was that the mermaid sung in storms. And certain stars shot madly from their spheres This alludes in general to the many matches proposed to her; but more particularly to the Duke of Norfolk's famous negotiation with her. And on that account, and on the fatal consequences it had on both, he thus admirably expresses it: certain STARS shot MADLY from their SPHERES. P. 122. Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III. Sc. 2: The eastern gate, all fiery red, Opening on Neptune with FAIR BLESSED beams, Turus into yellow gold his salt-green streams. Where it is plain that for fair blessed we should read, FAR-BLESSING beams, a most beautiful compound epithet, and highly expressive of the thing Dear Sir, I read over your Answers to the Grub as carefully as I could, and I think them very decisive. Do you know who it was that wrote the Let* An error of the same kind occurs in Timon; see before, p. 643. ter ter concerning the Votive Table? I have a great number of notes, &c. on Shakespeare, for some fu ture Edition. i have given you a specimen in two or three from the empest, and Midsummer Night's Dream, in the fifty, and in this addition. How forward are you got towards the Edition of the Poems? I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you in town when Christmas is turned. I am, dear Sir, your most affectionate friend and humble servant, W. WARBURTON. LETTER LXXVIII. To the Rev. Mr. BIRCHI, St. John's Lane, Clerkenwell*. Wyan's Court, Aug. 10, 1737. SIR, I have been pretty much out of town, or had much sooner furnished you with what I have been able to glean in answer to your Queries with relation to Ben Jonson. If any thing in the inclosed * From Dr. Birch's MSS. in British Museum, No. 4319. + Qu. 1. What year was he born? As we find in the Latin epitaph that he died at the age of 63 in the year 1637, he was consequently born about the year 1674. 2. Whether he worked at his father-in-law's trade as a Bricklayer, after he had been a short time at Cambridge according to Dr. Fuller; or before he went to that University, according to other Writers? This question, I confess, I cannot solve with all the certainty I could wish; but I will endeavour to lead as near to it as I can by circumstance. I must first take notice of a point from Langbaine, in which either he, or Wood, have committed, I imagine, a strange blunder, viz. That in the year 1619 he took his Master of Arts degree at Christ's Church College in Oxford; for, by a calculation, it appears that he was then 45 years old. He had attended as Court Poet 16 years; so could not be a resident at the University; and, supposing the Degrees were only Honorary, would he, at that period of life, and in his station, have accepted them? But the College Book, upon application, will easily clear up this point; and then, it occurs to me on the sudden, it may be ascertained as easy whether he worked as a Bricklayer, before he went to, or after he came from, the University, by this single inquiry, at what time Lincoln's-inn was new built, if there be any truth in the tradition of his being concerned therein. 3. What |