Two glaffes, where herself herself beheld Wonder of time, quoth fhe, this is my fpites, Find fweet beginning, but unfavoury end; ; That all love's pleasure shall not match his woe. It fhall be fickle, falfe, and full of fraud, It shall be sparing, and too full of riot, "His feeds to water at thofe fprings "On chalic'd flow'rs that lies." See note on this paffage, last edit. Vol. IX. p. 220. S STEEVENS. this is my fpite,] This is done, purposely to vex and dif MALONE. trefs me. "The courfe of true love never did run fmooth &c. ? -to tread the measures;] To dance. So, in K. Rich. III; MALONE. The The ftaring ruffian fhall it keep in quiet, Pluck down the rich, enrich the poor with treafures: It fhall be raging-mad, and filly-mild, Make the young old, the old become a child. It fhall fufpect, where is no cause of fear; It fhall be caufe of war, and dire events, Sith in his prime death doth my love destroy, By this, the boy that by her fide lay kill'd, It fball he cause of war, &c.] Several of the effects here predicted of love, in Timon of Athens are afcribed to gold. 66 STEEVENS. • Was melted like a vapour] So, in Macbeth: Again, in The Tempest: "Thefe our actors, "As I foretold you, were all fpirits, and "Are melted into air, into thin air." MALONE. And And says, within her bofom it shall dwell, She crops the stalk, and in the breach appears tears. Poor flower, quoth fhe, this was thy father's guife, And fo 'tis thine; but know, it is as good Here was thy father's bed, here in my breast '; My throbbing heart fhall rock thee day and night: Thus weary of the world, away fhe hies, here is my breaft,] As Venus fticks the flower to which Adonis is turned, in her bofom, I think we must read against all the copies, and with much more elegance: Here was thy father's bed, here in my breast For it was her breast which she would infinuate to have been Adonis' bed. The clofe of the preceding ftanza partly warrants this change: 66 but know it is as good "To wither in my breast, as in his blood." As the fucceeding lines in this ftanza likewise do: "Low in this hollow cradle take thy reft." THEOBALD. I have received this emendation, as the reading is, I think, more elegant, and the change very small. MALONE. Holding Holding their courfe to Paphos, where their queen 2 This poem is received as one of Shakspeare's undisputed performances,-a circumstance which recommends it to the notice it might otherwife have escaped. There are some excellencies which are lefs graceful than even their oppofite defects; there are fome virtues, which being merely conftitutional, are entitled to very small degrees of praise. Our poet might defign his Adonis to engage our esteem, and yet the fluggish coldness of his difpofition is as offenfive as the impetu ous forwardness of his wanton miftrefs. To exhibit a young man infenfible to the careffès of tranfcendent beauty, is to defcribe a being too rarely feen to be acknowledged as a natural character, and when feen, of too little value to deferve fuch toil of reprefentation. No elogiums are due to Shakspeare's hero on the fcore of mental chastity, for he does not pretend to have fubdued his defires to his moral obligations. He ftrives indeed, with Platonick abfurdity, to draw that line which was never drawn, to make that distinction which never can be made, to feparate the purer from the groffer part of love, affigning limits, and afcribing bounds to each, and calling them by different names; but if we take his own word, he will be found at laft only to prefer one gratification to another, the fports of the field to the enjoyment of immortal charms. The reader will eafily confefs that no great respect is due to the judgment of fuch a would-be Hercules, with fuch a choice before him.-In fhort, the story of Jofeph and the wife of Potiphar is the more interefting of the two; for the paffions of the former are repreffed by confcious rectitude of mind, and obedience to the highest law. The prefent narrative only includes the disappointment of an eager female, and the death of an unfuf ceptible boy. The deity, from her language, fhould feem to have been educated in the fchool of Meffalina; the youth, from his backwardness, might be fufpected of having felt the difcipline of a Turkish feraglio. It is not indeed very clear whether Shakspeare meant on this occafion, with Le Brun, to recommend continence as a virtue, or to try his hand with Aretine on a licentious canvas. If our poet had any moral defign in view, he has been unfortunate in his con duct of it. The fhield which he lifts in defence of chastity, is wrought with fuch meretricious imagery as cannot fail to counteract a moral purpose.-Shakspeare, however, was no unskilful mythologist, and must have known that Adonis was the offspring of Cynaras and Myrrha. His judgment therefore would have "prevented him from raifing an example of continence out of the produce of an incestuous bed. Confidering this piece only în the light of a jeu d'efprit, written without peculiar tendency, we shall even then be forry that our author was unwilling to leave the the character of his hero as he found it; for the common and more pleasing fable affures us, that -when bright Venus yielded up her charms, "The bleft Adonis languish'd in her arms.” We should therefore have been better pleased to have seen him in the fituation of Afcanius, cum gremio fotum dea tollit in altos "Idaliæ lucos, ubi mollis amaracus illum " "Floribus et multa afpirans complectitur umbra;' than in the very act of repugnance to female temptation, felf-denial being rarely found in the catalogue of Pagan virtues. If we enquire into the poetical merit of this performance, it will do no honour to the reputation of its author. The great excellence of Shakspeare is to be fought in dramatick dialogue, expreffing his intimate acquaintance with every paffion that fooths or ravages, exalts or debafes the human mind. Dialogue is a form of compofition which has been known to quicken even the genius of those who in mere uninterrupted narrative have funk to a level with the multitude of common writers. The fmaller pieces of Otway and Rowe have added nothing to their fame. Let it be remembered too, that a contemporary author, Dr. Gabriel Harvey, points out the Venus and Adonis as a favourite only with the young, while graver readers beftowed their attention on the Rape of Lucrece. Here I cannot help obferving that the poetry of the Roman legend is no jot fuperior to that of the mythological ftory. A tale which Ŏvid has completely and affectingly told in about one hundred and forty verfes, our author has coldly and imperfectly fpun out into near two thousand. The attention therefore of these graver perfonages must have been engaged by the moral tendency of the piece, rather than by the force of style in which it is related. STEEVENS. This first effay of Shakspeare's Mufe does not appear to me fo entirely void of poetical merit as it has been reprefented. In what high estimation it was held in our author's life-time, may be collected from what has been already obferved in the preliminary remark, and from the circumstances mentioned in a note which the reader will find at the end of The Rape of Lucrece. To the other elogiums on this piece may be added the concluding lines of a poem entitled Mirrha the Mother of Adonis; or Luftes Prodegies, by William Barksted, 1607; "But ftay, my Mufe, in thine own confines keep, "And wage not warre with fo deere lov'd a neighbor; "But having fung thy day-fong, reft and fleep; "Preferve thy fmall fame, and his greater favor. "His fong was worthie merit; Shakspeare, hee "Sung the faire bloffome, thou the wither'd tree: Laurel is due to him; his art and wit "Hath purchas'd it; cyprus thy brows will fit." MALONE, |