And this weak and idle theme, So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin fhall refiore amends. [Exit.3 8 ie. if we have better fortune than we have deferved. STEEVENS. That is, if we be difmiffed without hiffes. JOHNSON. 2 That is, Clap your hands. Give us your applaufe. JOHNSON. 3 Wild and fantastical as this play is, all the parts in their various modes are well written, and give the kind of pleasure which the author defigned. Fairies in his time were much in fashion; common tradition had made them familiar, and Spenfer's poem had made them great. JOHNSON. See pp. 133, 134, 135. Dr. Warburton, whofe ingenuity and acutenefs have been long admired, is now, I believe, pretty generally thought to have fome times feen not only what no other perfon would ever have been able to discover, but what, in reality, unlefs in his own playful imagination, did not exist. Criticism is a talifman, which has, on more than one occafion, difpelled the illufions of this mighty magician. I fhall not difpute, that, by the fair veftal, Shakspeare intended a compliment to Queen Elizabeth, who; I am willing to believe, at the age of fixty eight, was no lefs chafte than beautiful; but whether any other part of Oberon's speech have an allegorical meaning or not, I prefume, in direct oppofition to Dr. Warburton, to contend that it agrees with any other rather than with Mary Queen of Scots. The mixture of fatire and panegyrick" I shall examine anon: I only wish to know, for the prefent, why it would have been inconvenient for the author to fpeak openly" in "difpraife" of the Scotifh Queen. If he meant to please the imperial votrefs," no incenfe could have been half so grateful as the blackest calumny. But, it feems, ❝her fucceffor would not forgive her fatirift." Who then was her "fucceffor" when this play was written? Mary's fon, James? I am per fuaded that, had Dr. Warburton been better read in the hiftory of those times, he would not have found this monarch's fucceflion quite so certain, at that period, as to have prevented Shakipeare, who was by no means the refined fpeculatist he would induce one to fuppofe, from gratifying the fair "fair veftal" with fentiments fo agreeable to her. However, if "the poet has fo well marked out every diftinguishing circumftance of her life and character, in this beautiful allegory, as will leave no room to doubt about his fecret meaning," there is an end of all controverfy. For, though the fatire would be cowardly, falfe and infamous, yet, fince it was couched under an allegory, which, while perfpicuous as glafs to Elizabeth, would have become opake as a mill-ftone to her fucceffor, Shakspeare, lying as fnug as his own Ariel in a cowflip's bell, would have had no reason to apprehend any ill confequences from it. Now, though our fpeculative bard might not be able to foresee the fagacity of the Scotifh king in fmelling out a plot, as I believe it was fome years after that he gave any proof of his excellence that way, he could not but have heard of his being an admirable witch-finder; and, furely, the fkill requifite to detect a witch must be fufficient to develope an allegory; fo that I muit needs question the propriety of the compliment here paid to the poet's prudence. Queen Mary is called a Mermaid, 1. to denote her reign over a kingdom fituate in the fea.". In that refpect at leaft Elizabeth was as much a mermaid as herself. "And 2. her beauty and intemperate luft; for as Eliza beth for her chastity is called a Veftal, this unfortunate lady, on a contrary account, is called a mermaid." All this is as falfe as it is foolish: The mermaid was never the emblem of luft; nor was the gentle Shakfpeare" of a character or difpofition to have infulted the memory of a murdered princess by fo infamous a charge. The most abandoned libeler, even Buchanan himself, never accufed her of "intemperate luft;" and it is pretty well understood at present that, if either of these ladies were remarkable for her purity, it was not Queen Elizabeth. 3. An ancient ftory may be fuppofed to be here alluded to; the Emperor Julian tells us that the Sirens (which with all the modern poets are mermaids) contended for precedency with the Mufes, who overcoming them took away their wings." Can any thing be more ridiculous? Mermaids are half women and half fibes: where then are their wings? or what poffible ufe could they make of them if they had any? The Sirens which Julian fpeaks of were partly women and partly birds: fo that the pollufion," as goodman Dull bath it, by no means "holds in the exchange." "The quarrels between Mary and Elizabeth had the fame caufe and the fame iffue." That is, they contended for precedency, and Elizabeth overcoming took away the others wings. The fecret of their contest for precedency should feem to have been confined to Dr. Warburton: It would be in vain to enquire after it in the hiftory of the time. The Queen of Scots, indeed, flew for refuge to her treacherous rival, (who is here again the mermaid of the allegory, alluring to deftruction, by her fongs.or fair speeches,) and wearing, it should feem, like a cherubim, her wings on her neck, Elizabeth, who was determined the thould fly no more, in her eagerness to tear them away, happened inadvertently to take off her head. The fituation of the poet's mermaid, on a dolphin's back, "evidently marks out that diftinguishing circumftance in Mary's fortune, her marriage with the dauphin of France." A mermaid would feem to have but a strangely aukward feat on the back of a dolphin; but that, to he fure, K 6 fure, is the poet's affair, and not the commentator's: the latter, however, is certainly answerable for placing a Queen on the back of her husband:a very extraordinary fituation one would think, for a married lady; and of which I only recollect a fingle inftance, in the common print of " poor man loaded with mischief." Mermaids are fuppofed to fing, but their dulcet and barmonious breath must in this inftance to fuit the allegory, alJude to those great abilities of genius and learning," which rendered Queen Mary the most accomplished princess of her age." This compliment could not fail of being highly agreeable to the "fair Vestal." By the rude fea is meant Scotland incircled with the ocean, which rose up in arms against the regent, while the [Mary] was in France. But her return home quieted these disorders: and had not her ftrange ill conduct afterwards more violently inflamed them, the might have passed her whole life in peace." Dr. Warburton whofe skill in geography, feems to match his knowledge of history and acuteness in allegory, must be allowed the fole merit of discovering Scotland to be an island. But, as to the diforders of that country being quieted by the Queen's return, it appears from history to be full as peaceable before as it is at any time after that event, Whether, in the revival or continuance of these diforders, he, or her ideot husband, or fanatical fubjects were moft to blame, is a point upon which doctors ftill differ; but, it is evident, that, if the enchanting fong of the commentators mermaid civilized the rude fea for a time, is was only to render it, in an instant, more boisterous than ever: thofe great abilities of genius and learning, which rendered her the most accomplished princess of her age, not availing her among a parcel of ferocious and enthufiaftic barbarians, whom even the lyre of Orpheus had in vain warbled to humanize. Brantome, who accompanyed her, fays fhe was welcomed home by a mob of five or fix hundred ragamuffins, who, in difcord with the moft execrable inftruments, fung pfalms (which she was fuppofed to diflike) under her chamber window: "He! adds he, quelle mafique & quelle repos pour fa nuit !" However, it feems there is great juftness and beauty in this image, as the vulgar opinion is, that the mermaid always finge in ftorms." This vulgar opinion," I am perfuaded, is peculiar to the ingenious commentator; as, if the mermaid is ever fuppofed to fing, it is in calms, which prefage ftorms. I can perceive no propriety in calling the infurrection of the Northern carls the quarrel of Queen Mary, unhefs in fo far as it was that of the religion fhe profeffed. But this perhaps is the leaft objectionable part of a chimerical allegory of which the poet himself had no idea, and which the commentator, to whofe creative fancy it owes its exiftence, feems to have very justly characterized, in telling us it is "out of nature; " that is, as I conceive, perfectly ground fs and unnatural. RITSON. LOVE'S LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. * LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.] I have not hitherto difcovered any novel on which this comedy appears to have been founded; and yet the ftory of it has moft of the features of an ancient romance. STEEVENS I fufpect that there is an error in the title of this play, which, I believe, hould be "Love's Labours loft." M. MASON. Love's Labour's loft I conjecture to have been written in 1594. See An Attempt to ascertain the order of Shakspeare's plays. MARONE. PERSONS PERSONS REPRESENTED. Ferdinand, King of Navarre. Biron Longaville, Lords, attending on the King. Boyet, Mercade, Lords, attending on the Princess of France. Don Adriano de Armado, a fantastical Spaniard. Holofernes, a School after. Coftard, a Clown. Moth, Page to Armado. Officers, and others, attendants on the King and Princess. SCENE, Navarre. This enumeration of the perfons was made by Mr. Rowe. Jounson, |