But when Adonis liv'd, fun and fharp air And therefore would he put his bonnet on, They both would strive who first thould dry his tears. To fee his face, the lion walk'd along Behind fome hedge, because he would not fear him*; The tyger would be tame, and gently hear him; When he beheld his fhadow in the brook, Would bring him mulberries, and ripe red cherries But this foul, grim, and urchin-fnouted boar, If he did fee his face, why then I know, He thought to kifs him, and hath kill'd him fo*. "C the winds, 'Tis "Who, nothing hurt withal, bifs'd him in fcorn." STEEVENS. 3 Play'd with bis locks ;] So the octavo, 1596. That of 1600 has lokes. MALONE. 4-because be would not fear him ;] Because he would not terrify him. So, in K. Henry VI. P. II: "For Warwick was a bug that fear'd us all." MALONE. 5-ben be bath fung, The tyger would be tame,] So, in Othello: "She would fing the favageness out of a bear." STEEVENS6 6-urchin fnouted boar,] An urchin is a hedgehog. MALONE. *He thought to kifs him, and hath kill'd bim fo.] This conceit of the VOL. X. F boar's 'Tis true, 'tis true; thus was Adonis flain; Had I been tooth'd like him, I must confess She looks upon his lips, and they are pale; She lifts the coffer-lids that close his eyes, boar's having killed Adonis inadvertently, when he meant him, is found in the 30th Idyllium of Theocritus, but the tranflation of that poet in our authour's time. MALONE. 71 the loving fwine Sheath'd, unaware, bis tufk in bis foft groin.] So, in ? beard's Song of Venus and Adonis, 1600; "On the ground he lay, "Blood had left his cheeke "For an orped fwine Smit bim in the groyne; 3 "Deadly wound his death did bring; "She fell in a swound, "And, awakte, her hands did wring." MALONE. My youth with bis ;] Thus the octavo, 1596. The edition and the modern copies, read, my mouth; which cannot be Adonis bad granted her a kiss. "He with her plenty prefs'd, fhe faint with dearth, "(Their lips together glew'd) fell to the earth." MAL 9-two lamps, burnt out, in darkness lies.] The fame want mar is difcoverable in Cymbeline: "His fteeds to water at thofe Springs "On chalic'd flow'rs that lies." STEEVENS. Two glaffes, where herself herself beheld Wonder of time, quoth fhe, this is my fpite', Since thou art dead, lo! here I prophesy, That all love's pleasure shall not match his woe. It fhall be fickle, falfe, and full of fraud; It shall be sparing, and too full of riot, Pluck down the rich, enrich the poor with treasures: Make the young old, the old become a child. "Two kinfmen digg'd their graves with weeping eyes." This inaccuracy may be found in every page of our authour's works, as well as in thofe of many of his contemporaries and predeceffors. In a very few places either the metre or the rhimes render it incurable. See Vol. I. p. 46, n. 8, and Vol. II. p. 419, n. 7. MALONE. 1-this is my spite,] This is done, purpofely to vex and diftrefs me. MALONE. 2 Ne'er fettled equally, but high, or low;] So, in The Midsummer Night's Dream: "The courfe of true love never did run fmooth, &c. "O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low, &c. STEEVENS. -'er-straw'd :] So the old copy, and fuch perhaps was the pronunciation of o'er-frew'd in our authour's time. Formerly, however, our poets often changed the termination of words for the fake of rhyme. MALONE. 3to tread the measures ;] To dance. See Vol. II. p.405, n. 4. MALONE. It fhall fufpect, where is no caufe of fear; And most deceiving, when it seems most juft; It shall be caufe of war, and dire events, Sith in his prime death doth my love destroy, By this, the boy that by her fide lay kill'd, She bows her head, the new-fprung flower to fmell And fays, within her bofom it shall dwell, She crops the ftalk, and in the breach appears Poor flower, quoth fhe, this was thy father's guife, It shall be cause of war, &c.] Several of the effects h dicted of love, in Timen of Athens are afcribed to gold. STEEV 5 Was melted like a vapour-] So, in Macbeth: "-and what feem'd corporal, melted "Like breath into the wind." STEEVENS. Again, in The Tempeft: -Thefe our actors, "As I foretold you, were all fpirits, and "Are melted into air, into thin air." MALONE. For every little grief to wet his eyes: And fo 'tis thine; but know, it is as good Here was thy father's bed, here in my breast"; My throbbing heart thall rock thee day and night: Thus weary of the world, away fhe hies, Holding their courfe to Paphos, where their queen 6-bere in my breaft;] The old copy reads here is my breast. I have received Mr. Theobald's emendation for the reasons he affigns. MALONE. As Venus fticks the flower to which Adonis is turned, in her bosom, I think we must read against all the copies, and with much more elegance: Here was thy father's bed, here in my breast for it was her breaft which she would infinuate to have been Adonis' bed. The clofe of the preceding ftanza partly warrants this change: -but know it is as good "To wither in my breaft, as in his blood." as the fucceeding lines in this ftanza likewife do: "Lo! in this hollow cradle take thy rett." THEOBALD. 7 This poem is received as one of Shakspeare's undifputed performances, a circumftance which recommends it to the notice it might otherwife have escaped. There are fome excellencies which are lefs graceful than even their oppofite defects; there are fome virtues, which being merely conftitutional, are entitled to very fmall degrees of praife. Our poet might defign his Adonis to engage our esteem, and yet the fluggish coldness of his difpofition is as offenfive as the impetuous forwardness of his wanton mistress. To exhibit a young man infenfible to the carefies of transcendent beauty, is to defcribe a being too rarely feen to be acknowledged as a natural character, and when seen, of too little value to deferve fuch toil of reprefentation. No elogiums are due to Shakspeare's hero on the fcore of mental chastity, for he does not pretend to have fubdued |