XCII. Ibid. Page 485.

Te white-LIMB'D Walls, ye Ale-house painted Signs,

Thus the old Quarto in 1611, the fecond Folio Edition, and all the fubfequent Copies that I have feen, read with Mr. POPE; but the Poet's Epithet is flightly corrupted. Reftore it.

Te white-LIMED Walls,

It carries a Reproach to a Man, who makes a fine Appearance outward, and has no Virtues, or Bravery, within to set him off;

Introrfùm turpem, Speciofum pelle decora,

EMENDATION.

As HORACE calls it. The Term in our Author comes up exactly to the Greek, one used by St. Paul against Ananias, * тoïxe nexoviapéve, Dealbate Paries; which our Tranflation has * Acts xxiii. 3. render'd, Thon whited Wall.

This is a Paffage which has all along pafs'd current thro' the Editions, and likewife upon the Stage; and yet, I dare affirm, is not our Author's Reading. What has a Snake, clofing again, to do with its being Scorch'd? Scorching would never either feparate, or dilate, its Parts; but rather make them inftantly contract and shrivel. SHAKESPEARE, I am very well perfuaded, had this Notion in his Head, (which how true in Fact, I will not pretend to determine,) that if you cut a Serpent, or Worm afunder, in feveral Pieces, there is fuch an unctious Quality in their Blood, that the difmember'd Parts, being only plac'd near enough to touch one another, will cement and become as whole as before the Injury receiv'd. The Application of this Thought is to Duncan, the murther'd King, and his furviving Sons: Macbeth confiders them fo much as Members of the Father, that tho' he has cut off the old Man, he would fay, he has not entirely kill'd him; but he'll cement and close again in the Lives of his Sons, to the Danger of Macbeth. If I am not deceiv'd therefore, our Poet certainly wrote

thus;

We have SCOTCH'D the Snake, not kill'd it.

She'll clofe, and be her self;

To fcotch, however the Generality of our Dictionaries happen to omit the Word, fignifies to notch, flash, cut with Twigs, Sword, &c. and fo SHAKESPEARE more than once has ufed it in his Works.

SO CORIOLANUS, Page 182.

He was too hard for him directly, to say the Troth on't: Before Corioli, he SCOTCH'D
him, and notch'd him, like a Carbonado.

And so again, ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, Page 393.

We'll beat them into Bench-Holes, I have yet

Room for fix SCOTCHES more.

To fhew how little we ought to truft implicitly to Dictionaries for Etymologies, we need no better Proof than from BAILY in his Explication of the Term, SCOTCH-Collops; he tells us,

C c

that

EMENDATION.

EMENDATION.

EMENDATION.

that it means Slices of Veal fry'd after the Scotch Manner: But, befides that that Nation are not over famous for the Elegance of their Cookery, it is more natural, and I dare fay more true, to allow that it ought to be wrote SCOTCHT-Collops, i. e. Collops, or Slices faf'd crofs and crofs, before they are put on the Coals. Sed hæc obiter.

XCIV. Ibid. Page 561.

Be alive again,

And dare me to the Defart with thy Sword;

If trembling I INHIBIT, then protest me
The Baby of a Girl.

All the Editions before Mr. POPE's, that I have feen, read, If trembling I inhabit, which is unfufferable Nonfenfe. I don't know whether the Editor's Reading be from any Authority, or his own Conjecture; but I am afraid it is not English. There cannot be brought a Paffage to fhew that Inhibeo is ever ufed by the Latines as a Neuter or Deponent Verb, but always actively: And fo with us, to inhibit, always fignifies, to restrain, ftop, fome Thing elfe; never, to defift, renege, &c. If therefore inhibit, be the Poet's Word here, (which I am not abfolutely fatisfied about,) we muft correct his Text thus;

If Trembling ME inhibit, then proteft me

i. e. If the Paffion of Trembling, the Influence of Fear upon my Nerves, prevent me from following Thee, &c.

XCV. Ibid. Page 562.

There is not ONE of Them, but in his House

One of Whom?

I keep a Servant feed.

Macbeth has juft faid, that he heard Macduff meant to difobey his Summons, and not come to Court: And he would immediately fubjoin, that there is not a Man of Macduff's Quality in the Kingdom, but he has a Spy under his Roof. This is underftood, not exprefs'd, as the Text now ftands. For this Reafon, and because there's a various Reading in the fecond Folio Edition, I am apt to think there's a flight Corruption in this PafLage. That Copy exhibits it to Us thus;

There's not a A ONE of them.

Here we again meet with a Deprav'd Reading; but it is fuch a One as will help us to the Poet's true Words. Correct, as it certainly ought to be reftor'd,

i. e. a Nobleman: And fo the Peers of Scotland were all call'd, till Earls were created by Malcolme the Son of Duncan.

EMENDATION.

XCVI. Ibid. Page 570.

Who can impress the Foreft, bid the Tree

Unfix his earth-bound Root? - Sweet Bodements! Good!
Rebellious DEAD rife never, till the Wood

Of Birnam rife,

Thus all the Impreffions, from the very Beginning, exhibit this Paffage; but I cannot imagine what Notion the Editors could have of the Dead being rebellious. It looks to Me, as if they were content to believe the Poet genuine, wherever he was mysterious beyond being understood. The Emendation of one Letter will give us clear Senfe, and the very Thing which Macbeth fhould be fuppos'd to fay here. Reftore it.

* Rebellions

e. Let Rebellion never make Head against me, till a Foreft move, and I fhall reign long enough in Safety. Shakespeare very frequently uses the Word Head in this Manner, of which I'll fubjoin an Example, or two.

First Part of K. HENRY IV. Page 249.

Douglas, and the English REBELS met

Th' Eleventh of this Month, at Shrewsbury.

A mighty and a fearful HEAD they are, &G....

Second Part of K. HENRY IV. Page 307.

For his Divifions, as the Times do brawl,

Are in three HEADS; one Pow'r against the French, &c.

CORIOLANUS, Page 132.

I have no Notion, in what Sense a City, having fix ftrong Gates, and those well barr'd and
bolted, can be faid to ftir up its Inhabitants: Unless that they may be fuppos'd to derive fome
Spirit from the Strength of their Fortifications. But I do not take this to be the Poet's
Thought. The second Folio Edition reads it thus;

STIRRE up the Sons of Troy.

This odd Manner of Spelling the Word both gave me a Sufpicion of the Place being corrupt, and administer'd to my Conjecture for reftoring it. The Author, I take it, means no more than This; that the Greeks have pitch'd their Tents upon the Plains before Troy; and that the Trojans are fecurely barricaded within the Walls of their City. I have no Doubt therefore but we ought to read;

For, to sperre, or Spar, (from the old Teutonick Word, sperren,) fignifies to shut up, defend by Bars, &c. And in this very Senfe I remember CHAUCER ufes the Term in the fifth Book of his Troilus and Creffida.

For when he saw her Doores fperred all,
Well nigh for Sorrow 'adown he gan to fall.

Cc 2

I little

187

EMENDATION.

Occafional I little fufpected, when I firft quoted the above Paffage, that it would have afforded Matter
EMENDATION. for further Correction: But I find that even in the Names of Troy's Gates we meet with

Some of them, that are no where else to be met with. I don't remember, indeed, that ei-
ther Didymus, Euftathius, Spondanus, or any of the more modern Commentators upon Ho-
mer, furnish us with a Lift of their Names: If they had, I doubt not but the Editor would
have fet them right from thofe Authorities; Not even the laborious Commentator upon Lyco-
phron,where we might have expected it, has touch'd this Matter. I am aware, that in Homer the
Scean and Dardanian Gates are faid to be one and the fame; and fo the fix Gates would be
reduc'd to five. But notwithstanding This, they are enumerated as our Poet meant to fet them out:
The late Learned Sir Edward Sherburn in his Notes upon the Troades of SENECA, Page 324. tells
us, that Troy had fix Gates, viz. the Antenorian, the Dardanian, the Ilian, the Catumbrian,
the Trojan, and the Scean. He quotes us no Authority for this, but I believe I can trace him
in the Account. For CERDA, upon the fix hundred and twelfth Verfe of the fecond Eneid
of VIRGIL, informs us from Dares Phrygius; --- Trojanæ urbis portas fex enumerat Dares;
Antenoriden, Dardaniam, Iliam, Scæam, Catumbriam, Trojanam. Here again, if I am
not mistaken, we meet with fresh Corruption. Catumbria is a very odd Word; and, I am well
fatisfied, a déprav'd One. We are to know, there was near Old Troy, a Plain call'd Thym-
bra; a River, that run through it, call'd Thymbrius; and a Temple to Apollo Thym braus. The
Gate, that we are fpeaking of, was probably defcrib'd in the Greek Author to be xalà ©úμɛpsov,
the Gate that fac'd the aforefaid Plain and River: And from thence, as I fufpect, by the Ne..
gligence or Ignorance of the Tranfcriber, the Words were join'd and corrupted into Ca
tumbria. The correcter Editions of Dares Phrygius, I know, neither read as Sir Edward
Sherburn, nor as Cerda upon Virgil give us the Paffage, but thus; Ilio portas fecit (fcil. Pri-
amus ;) quarum Nomina hæc funt, Antenoride, Dardaniæ, Ilie, Scae, Thymbrææ, Trojanæ.
I doubt not but the Author ought to be corrected by this Authority;

EMENDATION.

→ Vid. fuprà ad Pag. 134.

And like as there were Husbandry in War,

Before the Sun rofe, he was harnest LIGHT,
And to the Field goes He:

Why, harneft light? Does the Poet mean that Hector had put on light Armour? Or that he was fprightly in his Arms, even before Sunrife? Or is a Conundrum aim'd at in, Sun rofe, and harnett light? A very flight Alteration makes all these Conftructions unneceffary; and gives us the Poet's Meaning in the properest Terms imaginable. I am inclin'd to think he

wrote;

Before the Sun rofe, He was Harness-DIGHT, &c.

i. e. compleatly dreft, accoutred in Arms. It is frequent with our Poet, from his Masters, CHAUCER and SPENSER, to fay dight for deck'd, pight for pitch'd, &c.

I can never think that the Poet exprefs'd himself thus: 'Tis abfurd to fay, that People have talked well, and yet but fuperficially at the fame Time. I am perfuaded (as above in Page 66.). the Copulative is here miflakenly put for the Disjunctive; and that we ought to reflore it;

Paris and Troilus, you have Both faid well,

BUT on the Cause and Question now in hand

Have glofs'd but fuperficially.

i. e. You have argued very well in the general, but have glofs'd too fuperficially upon the particular Queftion in Debate.

Notwithstanding the Antithefis that there is betwixt dif-edg'd and tireft on, yet, methinks, too grofs an Image is convey'd for fo referv'd and modest a Princess as Imogen. I would fuppofe that our Poet wrote, with a very small Variation;

and I grieve Myfelf

To think, when Thou shalt be DIS-SIEG'D by her, &c.

i. e. displac'd, put out of her Favour. Siege, it is well known, was the old Word used for feat, place, as alfo rank, dignity, &c. So the King, in HAMLET, Page 445.

'Tis certain, fuppofing my Conjecture to be right upon the Paffage now in Question, SHAKESPEARE might as well have faid difplac'd, as diffieg'd, by her; but I appeal to all the nicer and more Critical Readers of our Poet, whether it is not his Custom, to love an unusual Term where a common one might ferve his Turn. As I prefume He has here chofe diffiege to anfwer difplace, fo in his CORIOLANUS he has industriously adopted another Word to express the fame Meaning. Page 132.

Sir, I hope, my Words
DIS-BENCH'D you not. ---

CL