(12) Mens evil manners live in brass; their virtues We write in water. * * ***** This cardinal, ** Though from an humble ftock, undoubtedly Than man could give him, he dy'd, fearing God. was fray'd; but I pretend not to fay any thing certain; the judicious reader will foon fee whether the explication given satisfies him. (12) Mens, &c.] Beaumont and Fletcher borrow'd this fentiment from Shakespear in their Philafler. A&t 5. All your better deeds Shall be in water writ, but this in marble. ACT ACT V. SCENE V. Malicious Men. (13) Men that make Envy and crooked malice nourishment, Dare bite the best. A Church-man. Love and meekness, Lord, Become a church-man better than ambition: Caft none away. INHUMANITY. (14) 'Tis a cruelty To load a falling man. SCENE VIII. Archbishop Cranmer's Prophecy. Let me fpeak, Sir; (For heav'n now bids me) and the words I utter, (13) Men, &c.] In Paftor Fido, there is a fine sentiment not unlike this. Act 5. S. 1. Who now can boast of earth's felicity, When envy treads on virtue's heels? S. R. Fanshaw. (14) Tis, &c.] The poet, in the former part of the play, gives us the fame humane and tender fentiment O my lord, Prefs not a falling man too far; 'tis virtue. A 3. S. 6. Nothing can afford us a better idea of the author's excellent mind; and we are affured, from the account we have of his character, He was remarkable for his humanity, benevolence, and many virtues. Look how the father's face, (fays Ben Johnson) Lives in his iffue, even fo the race Of Shakespear's mind and manners brightly fhines, Let Let none think flatt'ry, for they'll find 'em truth. Shall ftill be doubled on her. Truth fhall nurfe her: She fhall be lov'd and fear'd. Her own fhall blefs her: Her foes fhake, like a field of beaten corn, And hang their heads with forrow. Good grows with her. (15) In her days, ev'ry man shall eat in fafety, (15) In, &c.] The poet's excellence in fo beautifully keeping up the propriety of his characters, can never be fufficiently admired; no expreffions could have fo well become the mouth of an archbishop as fcripture ones; and we may obferve, what graces this elegant compliment to his princefs gains from thence; the bleffings of Solomon's reign are fet forth in the first of Kings, Ch. iv. where particularly 'tis faid, "Every man dwelt fafely under his vine;" and fo in the prophet Micab, "They fhall fit every man under his vine, and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid; for all people will walk every one in the name of his God, &c. See Ch. iv. Ver. 4. The The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phoenix, Her afhes new create another heir, As great in admiration as herself; So fhall fhe leave her bleffedness to one, (16) When heav'n fhall call her from this cloud of darkness) Who from the facred afhes of her honour Shall ftar-like rife, as great in fame as fhe was, (16) This cloud of darkness] Milton in his Comus, at the beginning, thus fpeaks in contempt of the earth: Above the fmoak and ftir of this dim spot, Which men call earth, and with low-thoughted care The G And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter: For new made honour doth forget mens names: For your converfing. Now your traveller, E (Thus *King John] The ftyle all thro' this excellent play is grand and equal, and it abounds with a great variety of fine topic's, and affecting paflages: Shakespear feems to have had a particular refpect for Faulconbridge, whofe character is well maintain’d, as is that of the king, than whom none could have been a more proper perfon for tragedy; I know not by what fingular good fortune too it has happened, that the text is remarkably correct, and free from that multitude of mistakes, wherewith moft of our author's works fo unhappily abound. (1) My piked.] Mr. Pope explains this by a Man formally bearded." "The old copies, (fays Theobald) give it us picked, by a flight corruption in the fpelling; but the author certainly defign d picqued (from the French verb, je piquer) i. e touchy, tart, apprehenfive, upon his guard." A fenfe, (that perhaps may feem ridiculous to fome readers, and which I by no means advance as true) |