Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus:

Let no such man be trusted.-Mark the musick.

choose but please an English audience, whose great passion, as well then as now, was love of musick. "Jam verò video naturam (says Erasmus in praise of Folly) ut singulis nationibus, ac pene civitatibus, communem quandam insevisse Philautiam: atque hinc fieri, ut Britanni, præter alia, Formam, Musicam, & lautas Mensas propriè sibi vindicent." Warburton.

This passage, which is neither pregnant with physical and moral truth, nor poetically beautiful in an eminent degree, has constantly enjoyed the good fortune to be repeated by those whose inhospitable memories would have refused to admit or retain any other sentiment or description of the same author, however exalted or just. The truth is, that it furnishes the vacant fiddler with something to say in defence of his profession, and supplies the coxcomb in musick with an invective against such as do not pretend to discover all the various powers of language in inarticulate sounds.

Our ancient statutes have often received their best comment by means of reference to the particular occasion on which they were framed. Dr. Warburton has therefore properly accounted for Shakspeare's seeming partiality to this amusement. He might have added, that Peacham requires of his Gentleman ONLY to be able to sing his part sure, and at first sight, and withal to play the same on a viol or lute."

Let not, however, this capricious sentiment of Shakspeare descend to posterity, unattended by the opinion of the late Lord Chesterfield on the same subject. In his 148th letter to his son, who was then at Venice, his lordship, after having enumerated musick among the illiberal pleasures, adds-" if you love musick, hear it; go to operas, concerts, and pay fiddlers to play to you; but I must insist upon your neither piping nor fiddling yourself. It puts a gentleman in a very frivolous and contemptible light; brings him into a great deal of bad company, and takes up a great deal of time, which might be much better employed. Few things would mortify me more, than to see you bearing a part in a concert, with a fiddle under your chin, or a pipe in your mouth.” Again, Letter 153: "A taste of sculpture and painting is, in my mind, as becoming as a taste of fiddling and piping is unbecoming a man of fashion. The former is connected with history and poetry, the latter with nothing but bad company. Again:

Painting and sculpture are very justly called liberal arts; a lively and strong imagination, together with a just observation, being absolutely necessary to excel in either; which in my opinion, is by no means the case of musick, though called a liberal art, and now in Italy placed above the other two; a proof of the decline of that country." Ibidem. Steevens.

Enter PORTIA and NERISSA, at a distance. Por. That light we see, is burning in my hall. How far that little candle throws his beams!

So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

Ner. When the moon shone, we did not see the candle.
Por. So doth the greater glory dim the less:
A substitute shines brightly as a king,
Until a king be by; and then his state
Empties itself, as doth an inland brook
Into the main of waters. Musick! hark!

Ner. It is your musick, madam, of the house.
Por. Nothing is good, I see, without respect;
Methinks, it sounds much sweeter than by day.
Ner. Silence bestows that virtue on it, madam.
Por. The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark,
When neither is attended; and, I think,
The nightingale,' if she should sing by day,
When every goose is cackling, would be thought
No better a musician than the wren.

How many things by season season'd are
To their right praise, and true perfection!-
Peace, hoa! the moon sleeps with Endymion,
And would not be awak'd!1

[Musick ceases.

without respect;] Not absolutely good, but relatively good

as it is modified by circumstances. Johnson.

9 The nightingale, &c.] So, in our author's 102d Sonnet:
"Our love was new, and then but in the spring,
"When I was wont to greet it with my lays;

"As Philomel in summer's front doth sing,

"And stops his pipe in growth of riper days;

"Not that the summer is less pleasant now,

"Than when her mournful hymns did hush the night; "But that wild musick burdens every bough,

"And sweets grown common lose their dear delight." Malone.

1 Peace, hoa! the moon sleeps with Endymion,

And would not be awak'd!] The old copies read-Peace! how, &c. For the emendation now made I am answerable. The oddness of the phrase, "How the moon would not be awak'd!" first made me suspect the passage to be corrupt; and the following lines in Romeo and Juliet suggested the emendation, and appear to me to put it beyond a doubt:

"Peace, hoa, for shame! confusion's cure lives not
"In these confusions."

Again, in As you Like it, Act I:

"Peace, hoa! I bar confusion."

Lor.

That is the voice,

Or I am much deceiv'd, of Portia.

Por, He knows me, as the blind man knows the cuckoo, By the bad voice.

Lor.

Dear lady, welcome home.

Por. We have been praying for our husbands' welfare, Which speed, we hope, the better for our words.

Give order to my servants, that they take

No note at all of our being absent hence;

Nor you, Lorenzo;-Jessica, nor you. [A tucket2 sounds. Lor. Your husband is at hand, I hear his trumpet: We are no tell-tales, madam; fear you not.

Por. This night, methinks, is but the daylight sick, It looks a little paler; 3 'tis a day,

Such as the day is when the sun is hid.

Enter BASSANIO, ANTONIO, GRATIANO, and their Followers.

Bass. We should hold day with the Antipodes, If you would walk in absence of the sun.5

Again, in Measure for Measure:

"Hoa! peace be in this place!"

Again, ibid:

"Peace, hoa, be here!''

In Antony and Cleopatra the same mistake, I think, has happened. In the passage before us, as exhibited in the old copies, there is not a note of admiration after the word awak'd, Portia first enjoins the musick to cease, "Peace, hoa!" and then subjoins the reason for her injunction: "The moon," &c.

Mr. Tyrwhitt seems to be of opinion that the interjection Ho was formerly used to command a cessation of noise, as well as of fighting. See Cant. Tales of Chaucer, Vol. IV, p. 230. Malone. 24 tucket-] Toccata, Ital. a flourish on a trumpet. Steevens.

3

daylight sick,

It looks a little paler;-] Hence, perhaps, the following verse in Dryden's Indian Emperor:

"The moon shines clear, and makes a paler day." Steevens. 4 We should hold day &c.] If you would always walk in the night, it would be day with us, as it now is on the other side of the globe. Malone.

Por. Let me give light, but let me not be light;
For a light wife doth make a heavy husband,
And never be Bassanio so for me;

But God sort all!-You are welcome home, my lord. Bass. I thank you, madam: give welcome to my, friend.

This is the man, this is Antonio,

To whom I am so infinitely bound.

Por. You should in all sense be much bound to him, For, as I hear, he was much bound for you. Ant. No more than I am well acquitted of. Por. Sir, you are very welcome to our house: It must appear in other ways than words, Therefore, I scant this breathing courtesy.7

[GRA. and NER. seem to talk apart. Gra. By yonder moon, I swear, you do me wrong; In faith, I gave it to the judge's clerk:

Would he were gelt that had it, for my part,

Since you do take it, love, so much at heart.

5 We should hold day with the Antipodes,

If you would walk in absence of the sun.] Thus, Rowe, in his Ambitious Stepmother:

"Your eyes, which, could the sun's fair beams decay,
Might shine for him, and bless the world with day."

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Steevens.

6 Let me give light, &c.] There is scarcely any word with which Shakspeare so much delights to trifle as with light, in its various significations. Johnson.

Most of the old dramatic writers are guilty of the same quibble. So, Marston, in his Insatiate Countess, 1613:

"By this bright light, that is deriv'd from thee"So, sir, you make me a very light creature." Again, Middleton, in A mad World my Masters, 1608.

"more lights-I call'd for light: here come in two are light enough for a whole house."

Again, in Springes for Woodcocks, a collection of epigrams, 1606: "Lais of lighter metal is compos'd

"Than hath her lightness till of late disclos'd;

"For lighting were she light acceptance feels,

"Her fingers there prove lighter than her heels." Steevens. 7 - this breathing courtesy.] This verbal complimentary form, made up only of breath, i. e. words. So, in Timon of Athens, a senator replies to Alcibiades, who had made a long speech:"You breathe in vain." Malone.

So, in Macbeth:

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mouth-honour, breath." Steevens.

Por. A quarrel, ho, already? what's the matter?
Gra. About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring

That she did give me; whose posy was
For all the world, like cutler's poetry9
Upon a knife, Love me, and leave me not.
Ner. What talk you of the posy, or the value?
You swore to me, when I did give it you,
That you would wear it till your hour of death;
And that it should lie with you in your grave:
Though not for me, yet for your vehement oaths,
You should have been respective,1 and have kept it.
Gave it a judge's clerk!-but well I know,

The clerk will ne'er wear hair on his face, that had it.
Gra. He will, an if he live to be a man.

Ner. Ay, if a woman live to be a man.

Gra. Now, by this hand, I gave it to a youth,

A kind of boy; a little scrubbed boy,

No higher than thyself, the judge's clerk;

A prating boy, that begg'd it as a fee;

8 That she did give me; whose posy was-] For the sake of measure, I suppose we should read:

"That she did give to me; &c.

So, afterwards:

"Now, by this hand, I gave it to a youth." Steevens.

9 like cutler's poetry-] Knives, as Sir J. Hawkins observes, were formerly inscribed, by means of aqua fortis, with short sentences in distich. In Decker's Satiromastix, Sir Ed

ward Vaughan, says: "You shall swear by Phoebus, who is your poet's good lord and master, that hereafter you will not hire Horace to give you poesies for rings, or handkerchers, or knives, which you understand not." Reed.

1 have been respective,] Respective has the same meaning as respectful. Mr. M. Mason thinks it rather means regardful. See King John, Act I.

Steevens.

Chapman, Marston, and other poets of that time, use this word in the same sense. [i. e. for respectful.] Malone.

A kind of boy; a little scrubbed boy,

No higher than thyself, the judge's clerk;

A prating boy, &c.] It is certain from the words of the context and the tenour of the story, that Gratiano does not here speak contemptuously of the judge's clerk, who was no other than Nerissà disguised in man's clothes. He only means to describe the person and appearance of this supposed youth, which he does by insinuating what seemed to be the precise time of his