tion to his brother and sister, he had often had, by secret instinct, a love for them: but as no hint of this appears in any thing he before says or does, I prefer the present tense:

walks upon my blood?

This expression is noble, and seems taken from Genesis. The spirit of God mov'd upon the face of the waters.

I conceive, that the poet designed here to express, how dormant that affection which ought to be toward brethren, though strangers to each other, had lain in Seleucus; and upon this account I would suppose, that a word of a stronger import may yet bid fairer for the true one: I read thus,

A gentle spirit wakes upon my blood? Sympson. We have retained the old reading, as thinking it far preferable to either of the variations.

EPILOGUE.

THE SEA-VOYAGE'.

A COMEDY.

This Play is in the Commendatory Verses by Gardiner ascribed to Fletcher alone, and was first printed in the folio of 1647. It was revived by Tom Durfey, with alterations, in the year 1686, and exhibited at the Theatre-Royal, under the title of The Commonwealth of Women, and at the same time printed in quarto.

'This play, as it stands in all the former copies, has not received so much injury in its sense as measure, and so we have not so much cause to complain of the former as of the latter; yet cause there is, as the reader will see in the following notes. Mr. Shirley, who published the old folio edition, seems to have had little care of making our poets appear to advantage, when he sent this play into the world in so unpoetical a dress; I own the restoring of the measure cost me abundantly more application and pains than the correcting the text; but yet the reader must not expect that musical, exact flow of numbers which our modern gentlemen of Parnassus are so careful about, here, any more than in Shakespeare: however, think I may remark once for all, both upon our authors and him, that whenever any Subject requires the sublime, the pathetick or descriptive, there the numbers are equal to both the sentiment and diction, and the happy mixture is capable of transporting any soul who has the least taste for the beauties of poetry. Sympson.

In restoring the measure' (as Mr. Sympson calls it) he has tacitly interpolated, and Omitted in a manner unprecedented in any editors but those of these Works in 1750. The Variations, both avowed and secret, we may safely pronounce to be almost all for the worse, and unworthy mention; those which are otherwise, shall be properly noticed.

2 When we are split, you slave.] The accurate Sympson reads,

When we are splitrino, slave.

3 We have sprung five leaks, and no little ones;

Still rage; besides, her ribs are open.] Here the words still rage, should either be in a parenthesis with a note of admiration, (still rage!) or else, which is more probable, from the defect in the measure, something is lost, and I believe the original was,

-five leaks, and no little ones;

The winds still rage; besides, her ribs are open,

or perhaps, The seas. Sympson.

We think the first conjecture best.

Aminta. Oh, that wave will devour me! Master. Carry her down, captain, Or, by these hands, I'll give no more direction, Let the ship sink or swim! We ha' ne'er better luck [with us, When we've such stowage as these trinkets These sweet sin-breeders: how can Heaven sinile on us,

When such a burden of iniquity

Tell how I honour you! You know, dear lady,
Since you were mine, how truly I have lov'd
you,

How sanctimoniously observ'd your honour:
Not one lascivious word, not one touch, lady,
No, not a hope that might not render me
The unpolluted servant of your chastity.
For you I put to sea, to seek your brothers,
(Your captain, yet your slave) that his redemp-
tion,

Lies tumbling, like a potion, in our ship's belly? [Exit. If he be living where the sun has circuit, Tib. Away with her! and, if she have a May expiate your rigour, and my rashness. praver Aminta. The storm grows greater; [lv,

That's fit for such an hour, let her say't quick-
And seriously!

[Exit.

Alb. Come; I see it clear, lady; Come in, and take some comfort! I'll stay with you. [should I hope? Aminta. Where should I stay? to what end Am I not circled round with misery? Confusions in their full heights dwell about me! [you, Oh, monsieur Albert, how am I bound to curse (If curses could redeem me) how to hate you! You fore'd me from my quiet, from my friends, Even from their arms that were as dear to me As day-light is, or comfort to the wretched; You forc'd my friends, some from their peace[groans;

ful rest,

Some your relentless sword gave their last
(Would I had there been number'd!) and to
fortune's
[ther
Never-satisfied afflictions you turn'd my bro-
And those few friends I'd left, like desperate

4

shall we do?
Alb. Let's in,

what

And ask Heaven's mercy! My strong mind
yet presages,

Thro' all these dangers, we shall see a day yet
Shall crown your pious hopes, and my fair
wishes.
[Exit with Aminta.

Enter Muster, Sailors, Gentlemen, and Bout-
swain.

Master. It must all overboard.
Boats. It clears to seaward, Master.
Master. Fling o'er the lading there, and let
us lighten her,

[else!)
(All the meat, and the cakes; we are all gone
That we may find her leaks, and hold her up!
Yet save some little biscuit for the lady,
'Till we come to th' land!

Lum. Must my goods over too?
Why, honest Master, here lies all my money,
The money I ha' rak'd by usury,

To buy new lands and lordships in new coun-
tries,
[been
'Cause I was banish'd from mine own: I ha'
This twenty years a-raising it.

Tib. Out with it!

* Of his deep wonders.] Deep wonders may be good English, but it is not very intelligible as it is here circumstanced; the addition of a single hyphen makes all clear, deep-wonders. Sympson.

For you I put to sea, to seek your brother.] This, if it has any meaning, must signify that his sole end of putting to sea was to find out her brother, and yet, act iii. scene 1, Franville says positively, that they were bound

For happy places, and most fertile islands;

but that afterwards

She turn'd the captain's mind, &c.

This inconsistency might possibly be owing to some over and above complaisant player, who was willing to enhance the value of Albert's service, and make him compliment his mistress, not only at the expence of our poets, but even of truth itself. Sympson.

This assertion here is too positive, and too much pursued, and the circumstance too unimportant to be ascribed to the interpolation of a player. If there is an inconsistency, it is more probably owing to the inadvertency of the authors.

Fling o'er the lading, &c.] The giving this and the following four lines to the Master (which was before a continuation of the Boutswain's speech) is recommended by Sympson.

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