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marks, from the quoted passage of Cicero, occurs in the Merchant of Venice:

"And earthly pow'r doth then shew likest God's, "When mercy seasons justice."

15. "Patient yourself."

This is no phrase of Shakspeare's.

ACT II. SCENE III.

52. "O Tamora! thou bear'st a woman's face." This is almost the only passage, in the vile play before us, that exhibits any thing like just or natural sentiment, and it is remarkable that we find it again in the Third Part of K. Henry VI.

"How could'st thou drain the life-blood of the child,

"And yet be seen to wear a woman's face ?"

If Shakspeare could be supposed to have written one line of Titus Andronicus, and only one, I should assign this to him.

53. "The raven doth not hatch a lark.”

"Nec imbellem feroces
Progenerant Aquila columbam."

Hor. Ode IV. V. 31, 32.
LORD CHEDWORTH.

ACT IV. SCENE II.

94. "Coal-black is better than another hue, "In that it scorns to bear another hue."

This poor conceit was thought, by Southerne, worthy of being repeated by the noble Oroonoko: Honest black

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"Disdains to change its colour."

It is high time this execrable tragedy were deposed from the station which it has been suffered to usurp among the Plays of Shakspeare, ever since the fraudulent artifice of the folio publishers (for the first quarto was anonymous) inserted it in their edition. Where those "masterly touches," alluded to by Theobald, or that "improvement with a few fine touches," perceived by Dr. Percy are lurking, I can, by no means, discover; there is not, according to my observation, the slightest resemblance of our author's manner, in any part of the composition.

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This play was not admitted into the catalogue of those published by Hemings and Condell; a pretty sufficient proof, I think, that it was not, at that time, imputable to Shakspeare.

ACT I. SCENE I.

164. "Graces her subjects, and her thoughts the king

"Of every virtue gives renown to men."

Graces are her subjects; and her thoughts, or inclinations, the sovereign of those Graces.

"Of every virtue gives," &c.

Is elliptical:

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She comes,

(Made up) of every virtue (that) gives renown," &c.

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King," for "sovereign," merely, is used with greater licence in K. Henry V. where the queen bee is meant and more appositely still, we find

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king" put, generally without reference to sexual distinction, by Bacon:-" Ferdinando and Isabella, Kings of Spain, &c. Hist. of the Reigne of K. Henry VII.

165. "Her face, the book of praises."

The brief volume, the epitome of all that is beautiful, or the subject of praise.

167. "A countless glory."

This may mean no more than an inestimable glory though I believe there is also an allusion to the stars.

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"Who know the world, see heaven, but feeling woe,

"Gripe not," &c.

Mr. Malone has certainly carried his explanation beyond the limits of the construction.-An opposition or disparity seems intended between speculative and positive perception; and the whole meaning of the passage, I believe, is this:-as reflecting men, who, in the hour of sickness, are incited to serious cares, by the rational prospect of futurity, but more urgently, by those pains, which indicate the termination of our present state, no longer gripe at earthly joys, so I, &c. 177. "Where now you're both a father and a

son."

How is Antiochus a son? Pericles Pericles says, he who embraces a woman should be her husband, and, consequently, the son (in-law) of her father.

184.

SCENE II.

Give experience tongue."

Let experience speak. It is a strange expression, and none of Shakspeare's. For dogs to give tongue is a phrase well known among sports

men.

190. "Thou show'dst a subject's shine, I a true prince."

Mr. Malone says "shine," here, is a substantive; and then the sense must be-thou didst exhibit the glitter of a subject.-" I show'd myself a true prince," but for the subject thus to take all the "shine" to himself, and leave the prince in the shade or with only the vouch of his title to illuminate him, would not be quite decorous. I rather think, with Mr. M. Mason, that "shine" has a verbal implication, and that this is the sense:-Thou didst display a subject shining or illustrious; I, a glorious or illustrious prince. According to the elliptic and licentious phraseology abounding in the present play-this is no strained interpretation:

"Thou show'dst a subject (to) shine, I a true prince (to shine)"

SCENE IV.

196. "For riches, strew'd herself even in the

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streets."

Riches," for wealth, treasure, is certainly, as Mr. Malone observes, a singular noun; but

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