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Christian ink, I will endeavour to fhow, how they came to his acquaintance.

It is notorious, that much of his matter of fact knowledge is deduced from Plutarch: but in what language he read him, hath yet been the question. Mr. Upton is pretty confident of his fkill in the original, and corrects accordingly the errors of his copyifts by the Greek ftandard. Take a few inftances, which will elucidate this matter fufficiently.

In the third act of Antony and Cleopatra, Octavius represents to his courtiers the imperial pomp of thofe illuftrious lovers, and the arrangement of their dominion,

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Unto her

"He gave the 'ftablishment of Egypt, made her
"Of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia,
"Abfolute queen.'

Read Libya, fays the critick authoratively, as is plain from Plutarch, Πρώτην μὲν ἀπέφηνε Κλεοπάτραν βασίλισσαν Αἰγύπτε καὶ Κύπρο καὶ ΛΙΒΥΗΣ, καὶ κοίλης Συρίας.

This is very true: Mr. Heath accedes to the correction, and Mr. Johnfon admits it into the text but turn to the tranflation, from the French of Amyot, by Thomas North, in folio, 1579, and you will at once fee the origin of the mistake.

It is extraordinary, that this gentleman fhould attempt fo voluminous a work, as the Revifal of Shakspeare's Text, when, he tells us in his Preface," he was not fo fortunate as to be furnished with either of the folio editions, much lefs any of the ancient quartos:" and even Sir Thomas Hanmer's performance was known to him only by Mr. Warburton's reprefentation."

9 I find the character of this work pretty early delineated:

" 'Twas Greek at first, that Greek was Latin made,
"That Latin, French; that French to English straid:
"Thus 'twixt one Plutarch there's more difference,
"Than i'th' fame Englishman return'd from France."

"First of all he did establish Cleopatra queene of Egypt, of Cyprus, of Lydia, and the lower Syria."

Again, in the fourth act:

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My meffenger

"He hath whipt with rods, dares me to personal combat,
"Cæfar to Antony. Let th' old ruffian know

"I have many other ways to die; mean time
"Laugh at his challenge."

"What a reply is this?" cries Mr. Upton, " 'tis acknowledging he fhould fall under the unequal combat. But if we read,

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Let the old ruffian know

He hath many other ways to die; mean time
I laugh at his challenge.

we have the poignancy and the very repartee of Cæfar in Plutarch."

This correction was firft made by Sir Thomas Hanmer, and Mr. Johnson hath received it. Most indifputably it is the sense of Plutarch, and given fo in the modern tranflation: but Shakspeare was misled by the ambiguity of the old one: "Antonius fent again to challenge Cæfar to fight him: Cæfar answered, That he had many other ways to die, than fo."

In the third act of Julius Cæfar, Antony, in his well-known harangue to the people, repeats a part of the emperor's will:

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To every Roman citizen he gives,

"To every fev'ral man, feventy-five drachmas.-
"Moreover he hath left you all his walks,

"His private arbours, and new-planted orchards,

1 "On this fide Tiber.

"Our author certainly wrote," fays Mr. Theobald," On that fide Tiber

• Trans Tiberim-prope Cæfaris hortos,'

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And Plutarch, whom Shakspeare very diligently studied, expressly declares, that he left the publick his gardens and walks, wipav r IIoraus, beyond the Tyber."

This emendation likewife hath been adopted by the fubfequent editors; but hear again the old tranflation, where Shakspeare's fudy lay: "He bequeathed unto every citizen of Rome feventy-five drachmas a man, and he left his gardens and arbours unto the people, which he had on this fide of the river of Tyber." I could furnish you with many more inftances, but these are as good as a thousand.

Hence had our author his characteristick knowledge of Brutus and Antony, upon which much argumentation for his learning hath been founded : and hence literatim the epitaph on Timon, which it was once prefumed, he had corrected from the blunders of the Latin verfion, by his own fuperior knowledge of the original.'

I cannot however omit a paffage from Mr. Pope. "The Speeches copied from Plutarch in Coriolanus may, I think, be as well made an inftance of the learning of Shakspeare, as those copy'd from Cicero in Catiline, of Ben Jonfon's." Let us inquire into this matter, and tranfcribe a Speech for a fpecimen. Take the famous one of Volumnia:

"Should we be filent and not fpeak, our raiment
"And ftate of bodies would bewray what life
"We've led fince thy exile. Think with thyfelf,
"How more unfortunate than all living women

"Are we come hither; fince thy fight, which fhould

"Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance with comforts, "Conftrains them weep, and fhake with fear and forrow; Making the mother, wife, and child to fee

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"The fon, the hufband, and the father tearing

2 See Theobald's Preface to King Richard II. 8vo. 1720.

"His country's bowels out: and to poor we
"Thy enmity's moft capital; thou barr'st us
"Our prayers to the gods, which is a comfort
"That all but we enjoy. For how can we,
"Alas! how can we, for our country pray,
"Whereto we're bound, together with thy victory,
"Whereto we're bound? Alack! or we must lose
"The country, our dear nurse; or elfe thy perfon,
"Our comfort in the country. We must find
"An eminent calamity, though we had

"Our with, which fide fhou'd win. For either thou
"Muft, as a foreign recreant, be led

"With manacles thorough our ftreets; or elfe

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Triumphantly tread on thy country's ruin,
"And bear the palm, for having bravely fhed
"Thy wife and children's blood. For myfelf, fon,
"I purpose not to wait on fortune, till

"Thefe wars determine: if I can't perfuade thee
"Rather to show a noble grace to both parts,

"Than feek the end of one; thou shalt no fooner
"March to affault thy country, than to tread

"(Truft to't, thou fhalt not,) on thy mother's womb,
"That brought thee to this world."

I will now give you the old translation, which fhall effectually confute Mr. Pope: for our author hath done little more, than thrown the very words of North into blank verfe:

"If we helde our peace (my fonne) and determined not to fpeake, the ftate of our poore bodies, and prefent fight of our rayment, would eafely bewray to thee what life we haue led at home, fince thy exile and abode abroad. But thinke now with thy felfe, howe much more unfortunately, then all the women liuinge we are come hether, confidering that the fight which fhould be moft pleafaunt to all other to beholde, fpitefull fortune hath made moft fearfull to us: making my felfe to fee my fonne, and my daughter here, her husband, befieging the walles of his natiue countrie. So as that which is the only comfort to all other in their

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adverfitie and miferie, to pray unto the goddes, and to call to them for aide; is the onely thinge which plongeth us into moft deepe perplexitie. For we cannot (alas) together pray, both for victorie, for our countrie, and for fafety of thy life alfo: but a worlde of grievous curfes, yea more than any mortall enemie can heappe uppon us, are forcibly wrapt up in our prayers. For the bitter foppe of most harde choyce is offered thy wife and children, to foregoe the one of the two: either to lose the perfone of thy felfe, or the nurse of their natiue contrie. For my felfe (my fonne) I am determined not to tarrie, till fortune in my life time doe make an ende of this warre. For if I cannot perfuade thee, rather to doe good unto both parties, then to ouerthrowe and deftroye the one, preferring loue and nature before the malice and calamitie of warres: thou shalt fee, my fonne, and truft unto it, thou fhalt no foner marche forward to affault thy countrie, but thy foote fhall tread upon thy mother's wombe, that brought thee firft into this world.”

The length of this quotation will be excufed for its curiofity; and it happily wants not the affiftance of a comment. But matters may not always be fo eafily managed:-a plagiarism from Anacreon hath been detected.

"The fun's a thief, and with his great attraction
"Robs the vaft fea. The moon's an arrant thief,
"And her pale fire fhe fnatches from the fun.
"The fea's a thief, whofe liquid furge refolves
"The moon into falt tears. The earth's a thief,
"That feeds and breeds by a compofture ftol'n
"From gen'ral excrement: each thing's a thief."

"This (fays Dr. Dodd) is a good deal in the manner of the celebrated drinking Ode, too well known to be inferted." Yet it may be alledged by those, who imagine Shakspeare to have been

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