Alluding, PERHAPS, to a fuperftitious fuppofition, the memory of which is still preserved in a proverbial saying-" Happy is the bride upon "whom the fun shines! and bleffed the corps upon which the rain falls!"

[Malone.

I cannot make a parting bow to this Canon with a better grace than by the two following lines in that fanciful poet, whofe dreams Edmond has reinfpired, and, perhaps, improved:

"He apprehends a world of figures here,
"But not the form of that he doth intend.”

CANON II.

The Superfluous, or the Time-killer.

EXAMPLE I.

"Are there no ftones in heaven

"But what serve for the thunder?"

Othello.

Malone, the expofitor.]-" Has not heaven "one fupernumerary bolt to hurl directly at the "head of this atrocious villain? Muft all the "ftores of its arsenal be employed for common "and ordinary thunder, which, though fome"times deftructive, is, in the ufual courfe of "nature, not specifically pointed at one par"ticular object?”

EXAMPLE II.

"Thou haft not half the power to do me harm << as I have to be hurt."

[Imogen in Cymbeline. Emelca in othelio

"I have, in this cafe, power to endure more " than you have power to inflict." Malone.

K "You fpeak like a moft ancient and quiet watchman."

[Dogberry.

EXAMPLE

EXAMPLE III.

"Oh devil! devil!

If that the earth could teem with woman's tears,
Each drop fhe falls would prove a crocodile."

[Othollo. Malone.]"Shakspeare alludes to the fabulous account of crocodiles"-(" Upon my word you're in the right.” M. F.) « Each tear,”—says Othello," that falls from the deceitful Defdemona, would generate a crocodile, the moft deceitful of all animals, and whofe tears are proverbially falfe."

ན་

[E. M. It is a correct remark, though a little equivocal in the expreffion. They are not falfe tears, or, in other words, no tears at all;-but falfe, in the character of tenderness, which they denote and affume.

[M. F. prompted by a famous actress.

EXAMPLE IV.

"Harm not yourself with your vexation; I
Am fenfeless of your wealth-a touch more rare,
Subdues all pangs, all fears."

[Imogen in Cymbeline.

Malone's paraphrafe.]" A more uncommon,-a finer feeling."

"Thank you Edmond!-in my daughter's

name."

[M. F.

EXAMPLE

EXAMPLE V.

A Malonian parenthesis.

By the way.-I must here put Edmond into good and bad company at once, for I fufpe& that he did not love Steevens ;-but that he worshipped Johnson, (who was that Steeven's coadjutor,) we have a thoufand proofs. He has however matriculated both of them (to use an academical phrase) in adopting and embracing two fuch notes as, perhaps, dignity and genius united never atchieved.

"Ille finiftrorsùm hic dextrorsùm abit."

Which is to the right or which is to the left of common fenfe, I recommend (upon motives of delicacy) to a ballot.

"And with mine eyes I'll drink the words you fend, Tho' ink be made of gall.”

[Pofthumus in Cymbeline.

"Shakspeare, even in this poor conceit, "has confounded the vegetable galls ufed in ink, with the animal gall, fuppofed (and I "believe known) to be bitter."

[Johnson. I dare not fhow Steevens's note which follows (and follows in Malone's edition) to the Sergeant, for fince the fit of laughter which I innocently excited in the mufcular fyftem of his "grave and fad" countenance, I cannot anfwer for the confequences of this note.

Inftead

Instead of detecting the ingenious error which the note of Johnfon imports, he argues, with equal fublimity of ignorance, upon the nature of galls in ink; and like a "fad Counsellor of the King," (as grave and political advisers to His Majesty, were called in early days) he reasons thus, but forgets that Momus ought fometimes to be feared, or that he will be revenged:

"The poet might mean either the vegetable or the animal galls, with equal propriety ;-as the vegetable gall is bitter; and I have feen an ancient receipt for making ink, beginning, "take "of the black juice of the gall of oxen two "ounces!" &c. [Steevens.

If my death-warrant had accompanied the first arrival of these notes, I should have laughed.

The word "though" in the original is quite forgot, or contemptuoufly misinterpreted. Whether it is a vegetable or animal gall that forms ink in general, makes no difference to Pofthumus. The conceit, if any, (which I do not admit,)

is upon the word, and the poet, may, as well have punned upon the equivoque of the term, as upon the bitterness of the tafte, imputed here (by Mr. Steevens, chemift as well as editor) to the compofition of the ink.

But the (Malonian) proofs administered by his brother-chemift, are excellent: I." Galls of oxen have been found in an ancient receipt for ink."

From which, I fuppofe, it is to be inferred, (or it is nothing to the purpose) that vegetable

gall