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And, when love fpeaks, the voice of all the gods Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.

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in Lyly's Mydas, a play which moft probably preceded Shakspeare's. Aa iv. fc. i. Pan tells Apollo: "Had' thy lute been of lawrell, and the frings of Daphne's haire, thy tunes might have been compared to my notes, &c. T. WARTON.

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Lyly's Midas, quoted by Mr. Warton, was published in 1592. The fame thought occurs in How to chufe a Good Wife from a Bad, 1602:

"Hath he not torn thofe gold wires from thy head, "Wherewith Apollo would have ftrung his harp, "And kept them to play mufick to the gods! Again, in Storer's Life and Death of Cardinal Wolfey, a poem, 1599:

"With whofe hart-ftrings Amphion's lute is ftrung,
"And Orpheus' harp hangs warbling at his tongue.'

And, when love speaks, the voice of all the gods
Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.]

fhould read and point thus:

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STEEVENS.

This nonfenfe we

"And when love speaks the voice of all the gods,

"Mark, heaven drowsy with the harmony.

i. e. in the voice of love alone is included the voice of all the gods. Alluding to that ancient theogony, that Love was the parent and fupport of all the gods. Hence, as Suidas tells us, Palæphatus wrote a poem called, "Aopodions "Egw70 porn nỳ xby. The voice and speech of Venus and Love, which appears to have been a kind of cofmogony, the harmony of which is fo great, that it calms and allays all kinds of disorders: alluding again to the ancient ufe of music, which was to compofe monarchs, when, by reafon of the cares of empire, they used to pafs whole nights in reftlefs inquietude. WARBURTON,

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I cannot find any reafon for Dr. Warburton's emendation, nor do I believe the poet to have been at all acquainted with that ancient theogony mentioned by his critick. The former reading, with the flight addition of a fingle letter, was, perhaps, the true one. When love Speaks, (fays Biron,) the affembled gods reduce the element of the sky to a calm, by their harmonious applaufes of this favoured orator. Mr. Collins obferves, that the meaning of the paffage may be this.. That the voice of all the gods united, could infpire only drowfnefs, when compared with the cheerful effects of the voice of Love, That fenfe is fufficiently congruous to the reft of the fpeech; and

Never durft poet touch a pen to write,

Until his ink were temper'd with love's fighs;

much the fame thought occurs in The Shepherd Arfileus' reply to Syrenus' Song, by Bar. Youg; published in England's Helicon, 1600:

Unleffe mild Love poffeffe your amorous breafts,

"If you fing not to him, your fongs do wearie.'

Dr. Warburton has raifed the idea of his author, by imputing to him a knowledge, of which, I believe, he was not poffeffed: but should either of thefe explanations prove the true one, I fhall offer no apology for having made him stoop from the critick's elevation. I would, however, read,

"Makes heaven drowsy with its harmony.

11

Though the words mark! and behold! are alike used to bespeak or fummon attention, yet the former of them appears so harsh in Dr. Warburton's emendation, that I read the line feveral times over before I perceived its meaning. To speak the voice of the gods, appears to me as defective in the fame way. Dr. Warburton, in a note on All's Well that ends Well, obferves, that to speak a found is a barbarifm. To Speak a voice is, I think, no lefs reprehenfible.

STEEVENS.

The meaning is, whenever love fpeaks, all the gods join their voices with his in harmonious concert. HEATH.

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Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony. ] The old copies read make. The emendation was made by Sir T. Hanmer. More correct writers than Shakspeare often fall into this inaccuracy when a noun of multitude has preceded the verb. In a former part of this fpeech the fame error occurs: " each of you have forfworn

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For makes, r. make. So, in Twelfth Night: “ for every one of these letters are in my name.

Again, in K. Henry V.

"The venom of fuch looks, we fairly hope,
"Have loft their quality."

Again, in Julius Cæfar:

"The posture of your blows are yet unknown."

Again, more appofitely, in K. John:

"How oft the fight of means to do ill deeds

Make ill deeds done.

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So Marlowe, in his Hero and Leander:

"The outside of her garments were of lawn."

See alfo the facred writings: "The number of the names together were about an hundred and twenty." Aas i. 15. MALONE.

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Few paffages have been more canvaffed than this. I believe, it wants no alteration of the words, but only of the pointing:

O, then his lines would ravish savage ears,
And plant in tyrants mild humility.
From women's eyes this doctrine 1 derive;

And when love Speaks (the voice of all) the gods
Make heaven drowsy with thy harmony.

Love, I apprehend, is called the voice of all, as gold, in Timon, is faid to speak with every tongue; and the gods (being drowsy themfelves with the harmony) are supposed to make heaven drowsy. If one could poffibly fufped Shakspeare of having read Pindar, one fhould fay, that the idea of music making the hearers drowsy, was borrowed from the first Pythian. TYRWHITT.

Perhaps here is an accidental tranfpofition. We may read, as I think, some one has proposed before:

The voice makes all the gods

"Of heaven drowsy with the harmony." FARMER.

That harmony had the power to make the hearers drowsy, the prefent commentator might infer from the effect it ufually produces on himself. In Cinthia's Revenge, 1613, however, is an inftance which should weigh more with the reader:

"Howl forth fome ditty, that vaft hell may ring
"With charms all potent, earth afleep to, bring.

Again, in A Midfummer-Night's Dream:

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mufic call, and ftrike more dead

"Than common fleep, of all these five the fenfe."

So alfo, in King Henry IV. P. II,

66

foftly pray;

STELVENS.

"Let there be no noife made, my gentle friends,
"Unless fome dull and favourable hand

"Will whifper mufick to my wearied spirit."

Again, in Pericles, 1609:

66

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Moft heavenly mufick!

"It nips me into liftening, and thick fumber Hangs on mine eyes. -Let me reft." MALONE. 6 From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:] In this speech I fufpect a more than common inftance of the inaccuracy of the first publishers:

From women's eyes this doctrine I derive,

and several other lines, are as unneceffarily repeated. Dr. Warburton was aware of this, and omitted two verfes, which Dr. Johnfon has fince inferted. Perhaps the players printed from piece-meal parts, or retained what the author had rejected, as well as what

They sparkle fill the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That fhow, contain, and nourish all the world;
Elfe, none at all in aught proves excellent:
Then fools you were, these women to forswear;
Or, keeping what is fworn, you will prove fools.
For wifdom's fake, a word that all men love;
Or for love's fake, a word that loves all men;

7

had undergone his revifal. It is here given according to the regulation of the old copies. STEEVENS.

This and the two following lines, are omitted by Warburton, not from inadvertency, but because they are repeated in a fubsequent part of the fpeech. There are alfo fome other lines repeated in the like manner. But we are not to conclude from thence, that any of these lines ought to be ftruck out. Biron repeats the principal topicks of his argument, as preachers do their text, in order to recall the attention of the auditors to the subject of their difcourfe. M. MASON.

7 -a word that loves all men:] We should read: a word all women love."

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The following line:

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"Or for men's fake (the authors of these women;) which refers to this reading, puts it out of all queftion.

Perhaps we might read thus, tranfpofing the lines:
Or for love's fake, a word that loves all men;
For women's fake, by whom we men are men ;
Of for men's fake, the authors of these women.

WARBURTON.

The antithefis of a word that all men love, and a word which loves all men, though in itfelf worth little, has much of the fpirit of this play. JOHNSON.

There will be no difficulty, if we correct it to "men's fakes, the authors of thefe words. FARMER.

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I think no alteration fhould be admitted in thefe four lines, that deftroys the artificial ftru&ure of them, in which, as has been obferved by the author of the Reviful, the word which terminates every line, is prefixed to the word fake in that immediately following. TOLLET.

a word that loves all men ;] i. e. that is pleafing to all men. So, in the language of our author's time, it likes me well, for it pleases me. Shakspeare uses the word thus licentiously, merely for

Or for men's fake, the authors of thefe women;
Or women's fake, by whom we men are men;
Let us once lofe our oaths, to find ourfelves,
Or elfe we lofe ourselves to keep our oaths:
It is religion, to be thus forfworn:

For charity itself fulfils the law;

And who can fever love from charity?

KING. Saint Cupid, then! and, foldiers, to the field!

BIRON. Advance your ftandards, and upon them,

lords; 9

Pell-mell, down with them! but be firft advis'd, In conflict that you get the fun of them. *

2

LONG. Now to plain-dealing; lay thefe glozes

by:

Shall we refolve to woo these girls of France?

KING. And win them too: therefore let us devife

Some entertainment for them in their tents.

Biron. Firft, from the park let us condud them

thither;

the fake of the antithefis. Men in the following line are with fufficient propriety faid to be authors of women, and these again of men, the aid of both being neceflary to the continuance of human kind. There is furely, therefore, no need of any of the alterations that have been proposed to be made in these lines. MALONE. the authors] Old copies author. The emendation was fuggefted by Dr. Johnfon. MALONE.

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9 Advance your standards, and upon them, lords;] So, in King Richard 111:

2

"Advance our ftandards, fet upon our foes; "

but be first advis' d,

STEEVENS.

In conflict that you get the fun of them.] In the days of archery, it was of confequence to have the fun at the back of the bowmen, and in the face of the enemy. This circumftance was of great advantage to our Henry the Fifth at the battle of Agincourt. - Our poet, however, I believe, had also an equivoque in his thoughts.

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