SOOTH. If every of your wishes had a womb, CHAR. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch.4 ALEX. You think, none but your sheets are privy to your wishes. CHAR. Nay, come, tell Iras hers. ALEX. We'll know all our fortunes. 3 If every of your wishes had a womb, had And fertile every wifh, a million.] For foretel, in ancient editions, the later copies have foretold. Foretel favours the emendation of Dr. Warburton, which is made with great acutenefs; yet the original reading may, I think, stand. If you as many wombs as you will have wishes, and I should foretel all thofe wishes, I fhould foretel a million of children. It is an ellipfis very frequent in converfation; I Should Shame you, and tell all; that is, and if I fhould tell all. And is for and if, which was anciently, and is ftill provincially, used for if. JOHNSON. If every one of your withes, fays the Soothsayer, had a womb, and each womb-invested wifh were likewife fertile, you then would have a million of children. The merely fuppofing each of her wishes to have a womb, would not warrant the Soothfayer to pronounce that the fhould have any children, much less a million; for, like Calphurnia, each of these wombs might be fubject to the fterile curfe." The word fertile, therefore, is abfolutely requifite to the fenfe. In the inftance given by Dr. Johnson, " I should shame you and tell all," I occurs in the former part of the fentence, and therefore may be well omitted afterwards; but here no perfonal pronoun has been introduced. MALONE. The epithet fertile is applied to womb, in Timon of Athens: "Enfear thy fertile and conceptious womb." I have received Dr. Warburton's most happy emendation. The reader who wishes for more inftruction on this subject, may confult Goulart's Admirable Hiftories, &c. 4to. 1607, p. 222, where we are told of a Sicilian woman who " was fo fertill, as at thirty birthes thee had feaventie three children." STEEVENS. I forgive thee for a witch.] From a common proverbial reproach to filly ignorant females: "You'll never be burnt for a witch." STEEVENS. ENO. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, fhall be drunk to bed. IRAS. There's a palm prefages chastity, if nothing elfe. CHAR. Even as the o'erflowing Nilus prefageth famine. IRAS. GO, you wild bedfellow, you cannot foothfay. CHAR. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful IRAS. But how, but how? give me particulars. IRAS. Am I not an inch of fortune better than The ? CHAR. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it? IRAS. Not in my husband's nose. CHAR. Our worfer thoughts heavens mend! Alexas, come, his fortune, his fortune.-O, let S Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, &c.] So, in Othello: This hand is moist, my lady : "This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart." MALONE. Antonio, in Dryden's Don Sebaftian, has the fame remark: "I have a moist, Sweaty palm; the more's my fin." STEEVENS. • Alexas,-come, his fortune,] [In the old copy, the name of Alexas is prefixed to this fpeech.] Whose fortune does Alexas call out to have told? But, in short, this I dare pronounce to be fo palpable and fignal a tranf- pofition, that I cannot but wonder it should have flipt the obfervation of all the editors; especially of the fagacious Mr. Pope, him marry a woman that cannot go, fweet Ifis, I beseech thee! And let her die too, and give him a worfe! and let worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave, fifty-fold a cuckold! Good Ifis, hear me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good Ifis, I beseech thee! IRAS. Amen. Dear goddefs, hear that prayer of the people! for, as it is a heart-breaking to fee a handsome man loofe-wived, fo it is a deadly forrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded; Therefore, dear Ifis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly! CHAR. Amen. ALEX. Lo, now! if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they would make themselves whores, but they'd do't. ENO. Hufh! here comes Antony. Not he, the queen. who has made this declaration, That if, throughout the plays, had all the fpeeches been printed without the very names of the perfons, he believes one might have applied them with certainty. to every Speaker. But in how many inftances has Mr. Pope's want of judgment falfified this opinion? The fact is evidently this: Alexas brings a fortune-teller to Iras and Charmian, and fays himself, We'll know all our fortunes. Well; the Soothfayer begins with the women; and fome jokes pass upon the fubject of hufbands and chaftity: after which, the women hoping for the fatisfaction of having fomething to laugh at in Alexas's fortune, call him to hold out his hand, and with heartily that he may have the prognoftication of cuckoldom upon him. The whole fpeech, therefore, must be placed to Charmian. There needs no ftronger proof of this being a true correction, than the obfervation which Alexas immediately fubjoins on their wishes and zeal to hear him abused. THEOBALD. CLEO. He was difpos'd to mirth; but on the fudden A Roman thought hath ftruck him.-Enobarbus,-—— ENO. Madam. CLEO. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas? ALEX. Here, madam,8 at your fervice. My lord approaches. Enter ANTONY, with a Meffenger and Attendants. CLEO. We will not look upon him: Go with us. [Exeunt CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, ALEXAS, IRAS, CHARMIAN, Soothfayer, and Attendants. MESS. Fulvia thy wife firft came into the field. ANT. Againft my brother Lucius? MESS. Ay: But foon that war had end, and the time's ftate 7 Saw you my lord ?] Old copy-Save you. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. Saw was formerly written fawe. MALONE. 8 Here, madam,] The refpect due from Alexas to his mistress, in my opinion, points out the title-Madam, (which is wanting in the old copy,) as a proper cure for the prefent defect in metre. STEEVENS. Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Cæfar; Whose better iffue in the war, from Italy, ANT. What worft? Well, MESS. The nature of bad news infects the teller. ANT. When it concerns the fool, or coward.-On: Things, that are paft, are done, with me.-'Tis thus; Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death, I hear him as he flatter'd. Labienus MESS. (This is stiff news') hath, with his Parthian force, Extended Afia from Euphrates;2 9 drave them.] Drave is the ancient preterite of the verb, to drive, and frequently occurs in the Bible. Thus, in Joshua, xxiv. 12: "—and drave them out from before you." Again, in Chapman's verfion of the 24th Iliad: 2 to chariot he arose, "Drave forth,-." STEEVENS. (This is ftiff news)] So, in The Rape of Lucrece : 66 MALONE. Extended Afia from Euphrates;] i. e. widened or extended the bounds of the Leffer Afia. WARBURTON. To extend, is a term used for to feixe; I know not whether this be not the fenfe here. JOHNSON. I believe Dr. Johnson's explanation is right. So, in Selimus, Emperor of the Turks, 1594: 66 Ay, though on all the world we make extent, "From the fouth pole unto the northern bear." Again, in Twelfth-Night: 66 this uncivil and unjust extent "Against thy peace." Again, in Maffinger's New Way to pay old Debts, the Extortioner fays: "This manor is extended to my use." Mr. Tollet has likewife no doubt but that Dr. Johnson's ex |