How can we doubt then but Paris fays, Did bunt you in the field? In Antony and Cleopatra, Act III. "Caefar. Unto her "He gave the 'stablishment of Egypt, made her "Of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia "Abfolute queen. Ceu faevum turba leonem Cum telis premit infenfis, at territus ille, 8. He is fpeaking of Cleopatra, whom prefently after he describes (following the hiftorian) dreffed in the habit of the Aegyptian Goddess Ifis: whofe name fhe took, véa Ἴσις ἐχρημάτισε. Plut in Anton. p. 941. Which is thus rendered, novae Ifidis nomine refponfa dabat populis: it should be, novae Ifidis nomen fibi acquirebat. The poet has too faithfully followed the tranflators. "She "In the habiliments of the goddess Ifis "That day appear'd, and oft before gave audience, This circumftance is prettily alluded to by Virgil. Aen. Regina in mediis patrio vocat agmina fiftro. Read Lybia: as is plain from Plutarch in his life of Antony. Πρώτην μὲν απέφηνε Κλεοπάτραν βασί λιασαν ̓Αιτύπτε και Κύπρο και ΛΙΒΥΗΣ, η κοίλης Συρίας, κ. τ. λ. Plut. p. 941. Β. P. B. 'TIS pleasant enough to confider, how the change of one fingle letter has often led learned commentators into mistakes. And a П being accidentally altered into B, in a Greek rhetorician, gave occafion to one of the best pieces of fatyre, that was ever written in the English language. viz. ΠΕΡΙ ΒΑΘΟΥΣ, a treatie concerning the art of finking in poetry. The blunder I mean is in the fecond fection of Longinus, EI ΕΣΤΙΝ ΥΨΟΥΣ ΤΙΣ Η ΒΑΘΟΥΣ ΤΕΧΝΗ, inftead ΟΙ ΠΑΘΟΥΣ. A moft ridiculous blunder, which has occafion'd as ridiculous criticisms. That the A fhould be written for a II is no wonder, fince Dionyfius in his Roman antiquities, p. 54. has the following remark, Κεῖναι τῶν τρωικῶν θεῶν εἰκόνες ἅπασιν ὁρᾶν ΔΕΝΑΣ ἐπιδρα φὴν ἔχεσαι δηλᾶσαν τις ΠΕΝΑΤΑΣ. δοκεῖ γάρ μοι, το Η μήπω γράμματα ευρημένες τῷ Δ δηλῶν τὴν ἐκείνα δύναμιν τις παλαιός. The old Greek word for wine, they wrote ΔΕΛΟΣ, but when the Greek alphabet was compleated, ΠΗΛΟΣ: this word grown antiquated, they ufed ΟΙΝΟΣ. In Theocritus, Id. ί. γ. 13. we muft read, ̓Εκ πίθω ἀντλεῖς ΠΗΛΟΝ· ἐγὼ δ' ἔχω ἐδ' άλις ὄξες. Where Where thus the fchol. Παροιμία ἐπὶ τῶν ἐν περιεσίᾳ ζώντων η ΟΙΝΟΥ κεραννύμωμα πρὸς ἀφροδίσια ἐκκαίεται, ἅτε αργία συζῶν· ὁ δὲ μηδ' ΟΞΟΥΣ ἔχων πιεῖν καὶ τῷ πόνῳ μαχόμΘ, ἐκ ἐρᾷ. The copies of Theocritus have AHAON, which the editors render fcilicet. But the scholiaft gives an easy interpretation, and helps forward the correction. IT feems that fome puns, and quibbling wit, have been changed in our author, thro' some fuch causes, as mention'd in the beginning of this fection. For inftance, in As you like it, A& II. "Rofalind. Well, this is the foreft of Arden. "Clown. Ay; now I am in Arden; the more "fool I: when I was at home, I was in a better place. The Clown, agreeable to his character, is in a punning vein, and replys thus, "Ay; now I am in a den; the more fool I : "when I was at home, I was in a better place. He is full of this quibbling wit through the whole play. In Act III. he fays, "I am here with thee, and thy goats; as the "most capricious honeft Ovid was among the "Goths. "Jaq. O knowledge ill-inhabited, worse than "Jove in a thatch'd house. Capricious, is not here humourfome, fantastical, &c. but lafcivious: Hor. Epod. 10. Libidinofus immolabitur caper. The Goths, are the Getae : Ovid. Trift. V, 7. The thatch'd house, is that of Baucis and Philemon, Ovid. Met. VIII, 630. Stipulis et cannâ tecta paluftri. But to explain puns is allmost as unpardonable as to make them: however I will venture to correct one paffage more: which is in Julius Caefar, Act III. "Ant. Here is a mourning Rome, a dan"gerous Rome : "No Rome of fafety for Octavius yet. I make no question, but Shakespeare intended it, "No room of fafety for Octavius yet. So in Act I. . Now is it Rome indeed; and room enough "When there is in it but one only man. To play with words which have an allufion to proper names, is common with Shakespeare and the ancients. Ajax in Sophocles, applying his name to his misfortunes, fays, 9. See Ariftot. Rhet. L. 2. c. 25. "Aλ‡O áπò rỡ óvóμa? x. T. λ. ΑΙ, ΑΙ· τίς ἄν ποτ' εθ ὧδ ̓ ἐπώνυμον Τεμὸν ξυνοίσειν ὄνομα τοῖς ἐμοῖς κακοῖς 5 Philoctetes, fpeaking to Pyrrhus, has this quibble not inferior to any in Shakespeare Ω Πῦρ σύ, καὶ πᾶν δεμα. for badness. In the Oreftes of Euripides there is a pun on the name Electra; a very unfortunate name for a young woman. Ω παί Κλυταιμνής ρας τε καταμέμνονα, Παρθένε, μακρὸν δὴ μῆκα Ηλέκτρα χρόνο. And Aeschylus, in Agam. y. 1089. the father of tragedy, gives this kind of wit a fanction. *Απολλον, "Απολλον, Αγυιεῦ τ ̓ ἀπόλλων ἐμὸς, ̓Απώλεσας γὰρ ἐ μόλις τὸν δεύτερον. Ovid has many of thefe: I don't find the following taken any notice of in Burman's edition. "Rettulit et ferro Rhefumque Dolonaque caefos, "Utque fit hic fomno proditus, ille dolo. "Aufus es, o nimium, nimiumque oblite tuorum, "Thracia nocturno tangere caftra dolo. That there is a play upon the words Dolona and dolo, is not to be question'd, I think; but the dolo in the fourth verfe is the tranfcriber's blunder, |