DRO. S. There is a fat friend at your master's house,

That kitchen'd me for you to-day at dinner;
She now fhall be my fifter, not my wife.

DRO. E. Methinks, you are my glass, and not my brother:

I fee by you, I am a fweet-faced youth.
Will you walk in to see their goffiping?

DRO. S. Not I, fir; you are my elder.

it?

DRO. E. That's a queftion: how fhall we try DRO. S. We will draw cuts for the fenior: till then, lead thou first.

DRO. E. Nay, then thus:

We came into the world, like brother and brother; And now let's go hand in hand, not one before an

other.

[Exeunt.3

3 On a careful revifion of the foregoing fcenes, I do not hesitate to pronounce them the compofition of two very unequal writers. Shakspeare had undoubtedly a fhare in them; but that the entire play was no work of his, is an opinion which (as Benedick fays) "fire cannot melt out of me; I will die in it at the stake."

In this comedy we find more intricacy of plot than diftinction of character; and our attention is lefs forcibly engaged, because we can guefs in great measure how the denouement will be brought about. Yet the fubject appears to have been reluctantly difmiffed, even in this last and unneceffary scene, where the fame mistakes are continued, till their power of affording entertainment is entirely loft. STEEVENS.

The long doggrel verfes that Shakspeare has attributed in this play to the two Dromios, are written in that kind of metre which was ufually attributed by the dramatick poets before his time, in their comick pieces, to fome of their inferior characters; and this circumftance is one of many that authorize us to place the preceding comedy, as well as Love's Labour's Loft, and The Taming of the Shrew, (where the fame kind of verfification is likewife found,) among our author's earliest productions; compofed probably at a time when he was imperceptibly infected with the prevailing mode, and before he had completely learned " to deviate boldly from the

common track." As thefe early pieces are now not eafily met with, I fhall fubjoin a few extracts from fome of them:

LIKE WILL то LIKE.

1568.

Royft. If your name to me you will declare and showe, "You may in this matter my minde the fooner knowe. Tof. Few wordes are beft among freends, this is true, "Wherefore I fhall briefly show my name unto you. "Tom Tofpot it is, it need not to be painted,

"Wherefore I with Raife Roifter muft needs be acquainted," &c. COMMONS CONDITIONS.

86

[ About 1570. ]

Shift. By gogs bloud, my maifters, wee were not beft longer

here to ftaie,

"I thinke was never fuche a craftie knave before this daie.

[Exeunt Ambo, "Cond. Are thei all gone? Ha, ha, ha, wel fare old Shift at a

neede:

By his woundes had I not devised this, I had hanged indeede. "Tinkers, (qd you) tinke me no tinks; Ile meddle with them no

་་

more;

"I thinke was never knave so used by a companie of tinkers before. By your leave Ile bee fo bolde as to looke about me and fpie, "Leaft any knaves for my commyng doune in ambush doe lie.

By your licence I minde not to preache longer in this tree, "My tinkerly flaves are packed hence, as farre as I maie fee." &c.

PROMOS AND CASSANDRA.

1578.

"The wind is yl blows no man's gaine; for cold I neede not

care,

"Here is nine and twentie futes of apparel for my fhare; "And fome, berlady, very good, for fo ftandeth the cafe, "As neither gentleman nor other Lord Promos fheweth any grace; "But I marvel much, poore flaves, that they are hanged fo foone, They were wont to staye a day or two, now scarce an afternoone." &c.

*This dramatick piece, in its entire ftate, has not been met with. The only fragment of it known to be existing, is in my poffeflion. STEEVENS.

THE THREE LADIES OF LONDON.

1584.

ye not?

"You think I am going to market to buy roft meate, do y "I thought fo, but you are deceived, for I wot what I wot: "I am neither going to the butchers, to buy veale, mutton, or

beefe,

But I am going to a bloodfucker, and who is it? faith Ufurie, that theefe."

THE COBLER'S PROPHECY.

1594

"Quoth Nicenefs to Newfangle, thou art fuch a Jacke, "That thou devisest fortie fashions for my ladie's backe. "And thou, quoth he, art fo poffefst with everie frantick toy, "That following of my ladie's humour thou doft make her coy, "For once a day for fashion-fake my lady must be ficke, "No meat but mutton, or at most the pinion of a chicke:

To-day her owne haire belt becomes, which yellow is as gold, "A periwig is better for to-morrow, blacke to behold:

To-day in pumps and cheveril gloves to walk fhe will be bold, "To-morrow cuffes and countenance, for feare of catching cold: "Now is the barefait to be seene, ftraight on her mufler goes; "Now is the hufft up to the crowne, ftraight nufled to the nose."

See alfo Gammer Gurton's Needle, Damon and Pythias, &c.

MALONE,

MACBETH.*

MACBETH.] In order to make a true eftimate of the abilities and merit of a writer, it is always neceffary to examine the genius of his age, and the opinions of his contemporaries. A poet who should now make the whole action of his tragedy depend upon enchantment, and produce the chief events by the affiftance of fupernatural agents, would be cenfured as tranfgreffing the bounds of probability, be banished from the theatre to the nursery, and condemned to write fairy tales inftead of tragedies; but a furvey of the notions that prevailed at the time when this play was written, will prove that Shakspeare was in no danger of fuch cenfures, fince he only turned the fyftem that was then univerfally admitted, to his advantage, and was far from overburdening the credulity of his audience.

The reality of witchcraft or enchantment, which, though not ftrictly the fame, are confounded in this play, has in all ages and countries been credited by the common people, and in molt, by the learned themfelves. The phantoms have indeed appeared more frequently, in proportion as the darkness of ignorance has been more grofs; but it cannot be shown, that the brightest gleams of knowledge have at any time been fufficient to drive them out of the world. The time in which this kind of credulity was at its height, feems to have been that of the holy war, in which the Christians imputed all their defeats to enchantments or diabolical oppofition, as they afcribed their fuccefs to the affiftance of their military faints; and the learned Dr. Warburton appears to believe (Suppl. to the Introduction to Don Quixote) that the firft accounts of enchantments were brought into this part of the world by thofe who returned from their eaftern expeditions. But there is always fome diftance between the birth and maturity of folly as of wickednefs: this opinion had long exifted, though perhaps the application of it had in no foregoing age been fo frequent, nor the reception fo general. Olympiodorus, in Photius's extracts, tells us of one Libanius, who practifed this kind of military magic, and having promifed xapes oilan xarà Bapodpar švagstw, to perform great things against the Barbarians without foldiers, was, at the inftance of the emprefs Placidia, put to death, when he was about to have given proofs of his abilities. The empress fhowed fome kindness in her anger, by cutting him off at a time fo convenient for his reputation.

But a more remarkable proof of the antiquity of this notion may be found in St. Chryfoftom's book de Sacerdotio, which exhibits a fcene of enchantments not exceeded by any romance of the middle age: he fuppofes a fpectator overlooking a field of battle attended by one that points out all the various objects of horror, the engines of defruction, and the arts of laughter. Δεικνύτο δὲ ἔτι παρὰ τοῖς ἐναλίοις καὶ πετομένης ἵππος διά τινος μαγγανείας, καὶ ὁπλίτας δι αέρος Φερομένος, καὶ πάσην γοητείας δύναμιν καὶ ἰδέαν. Let him then proceed to how him in the oppofite armies horfes flying by enchantment, armed men tranfported through the air, and every power and form of magic.