was fo far from difpleafing Mr. Calton, that he thanked me on account of it: But he was not fo well fatisfied with the manner of it; thinking, that what was inferted, instead of some Words that it was judged proper to omit, rendered that Period a feeming Contradiction; as he fignified to me in a Letter of March the 22d, 1739-40. I have already apologized to Mr. Calton upon this Head, and the Reader has no further Concern with the Matter, than to know the Fact, that fo he may, as I said, understand the first Paragraph of the enfuing Criticism. I did not make the Alteration here fpoken of, but I was the Cause of its being made; and if any thing in it were amifs, the Cenfure ought to reft upon me, who fhould have taken notice of, and amended it, when I revised the Proof of that Article. I have only this to offer in Extenuation of my Neglect, that as neceffary Avocations fometimes leave me not at leifure for infpecting Things of this Nature with all the Care I might otherwise employ, fo, in the present Cafe, I had all the Reason in the World to believe, that litttle or nothing of that kind was requifite on my Part. To the AUTHOR of the WORKS of the LEARNED. SIR, W Hilft I am endeavouring to clear the Pro duction of another Man from the Corruptions of Scribes and Printers, you'll allow me, I hope, to have fome critical Charity in referve for what I have a nearer Intereft in, my own. There is fomething in the Beginning of my late printed Letter to you, which I cannot own to be mine. It was hard upon me, to make me fay, that I was affured of the corrupt State of the Copy, from which this Edition of Gorboduc was taken, when I had immedi immediately before declared myself entirely at a lofs where to charge the Errors of the Edition, whether upon the Copy or the Printer: I doubt, moft People that read this, will take it to be a Contradiction. "But I am Inftead, therefore, of "affured the old Copy itself is ftill more incorrect, "in many Places unintelligible: 'Tis Pity fo many "intolerable Errors fhould be fuffered to ftand un"corrected; and therefore I fhall remark on fome "of them, in order to a correcter Edition." Read, Que caufa indigna ferenos Fedavit vultus? aut cur hæc vulnera cerno? VIRG. Æn. ii. 285. Such Questions I must refer to those that are bet-, ter prepared to answer them; and if I can but clear the Face, the ferenus vultus of this Play (which Words admirably exprefs the Character of the Compofition) from fome of the Filth and Soil that lies upon it, I fhall not much mind when, or by whofe means it came there. The firft Fault, that muft undergo my Cenfure in this fecond Survey of the Text of this Tragedy, will prove, I doubt, the Author's own. A& I. Sc. I. P. 1. The flow Aurore, that fo for Love, or Shame, For Love of whom? Of good old Tithonus, to be fure, from whose Bed fhe rifeth, in the Poets, every Morning. Behold here the beautiful Aurora, ever fresh and fair, leaving the cold withered Embraces of Old Age immortalized, with Reluctance, and long delaying to fhew her blufhing Face. An excellent Example this, for young and gay Females B 2 I Females to follow, that have old Men for their Husbands. But, fuppofing her to be fond of Tithonus's Bed, the Affection was chafte and virtuous; and what Caufe was there then for Shame? Why muft a guilty Blush fpread itself over her Face, as if fhe was juft rifen out of the Arms, not of a Hufband, but a Paramour ? Spenfer had not fo good an Opinion of Aurora's conjugal Love, for he makes her Weary of aged Tithon's faffron Bed. Fairy Qu. B. I. Cant. II. St. 7. See alfo OVID's Ep. Phædr. Hypp. Ver. 93. Clarus crat filvis Cephalus Ibat ad hunc fapiens à fene Diva viro. The Mountain Hymettus was the famed Scene of her Amours with this young and lufty Hunter; thither the Goddefs haftened from the Bed of old Titbonus, to the Pleasures of a guilty Love; and confeffed her Crime by her Blushes. Defere, Phæbus ait, thalamos Aurora feniles. These excellent Lines are Milton's. Quint. In Adventum Veris. Vid. Eleg. But, perhaps, the noble Author did not defign for Love, or Shame, we fhould connect with doth long delay; - but with Blushes. Blufbes. If that was his Meaning, the Words should have been difpofed thus: The flow Aurore, that doth so long delay, A& I. Sc. II. P. 7. Then for their Guiding and their Governance, There wants fome Word of two Syllables to fill up the Verfe; and a more fit and proper one I cannot think of, than 'booful. Shew forth fuch 'hooful Means of Circumftance. We have behooful, P. 9. in Aroftus's Anfwer to this Part of Gorboduc's Speech. What further Means behooful are and meet. A& II. Sc. II. P. 25. My Lord, yet ere you now unkindly war. What is unkindly? An Adverb? No; it is an Adjective, agreeing with War, which is a Substantive, not a Verb. There is unkindly Wrong, unkindly Tenderness, unkindly Stubbornness, P. 10, 11. P. 22. in cruel and unkindly wife. P. And with unkindly War. 31. Unkindly may feem, at first view, to be an Adverb in the following Paffage, P. 3. but it is not, it is an Adjective there : But thee of Birth-right and of Heritage, B 3 i. e. He, i. e. He, having no Caufe, and being unkindly, or without natural Affection to thee, will bereave thee of thy Right. If War, then, be a Subftantive, and unkindly an Adjective agreeing with it, a Verb is wanting, and a very little Change will make us one out of now. We may read, Yet ere you move War. There is Bellum movere in Latin Authors, and Kivev dopu is a Greek Phrafe, that I happen to have juft now before me in Euripides, Fragm. p. 467. Ed. Barn. But, perhaps the original Lection may be reftored by an easier Emendation, prefixing only a fingle Letter to the Word now : Yet ere you know unkindly War. To know War is the fame as γινώσκειν πόλεμον, decernere Bellum, to refolve upon War: Or, to know unkindly War, may fignify, (according to the ufual Senfe of the Word know) to feel and experience the Miseries of an unnatural War. Χαλεποὶ γὰρ πόλεμοι ἀδελφῶν. A&t. III. Sc. I. P. 29. Yet, O ye Gods, if ever woful King Might move you Kings of Kings, wreke it on me. In the late Edition it is King of Kings; but that is a flight Error: I wish it was no Error, and that Gorboduc had invocated, not the Gods at large, but the Supreme Jupiter, to whom this Title properly belongs. Yet, |