1757.

The LAST WORLD.

23.

at an end! I thought it deftined to a longer period; but the decrees of fate are not to be refifted. It would indeed have pleafed me to have written the latt paper myfelf; but that tafk, Madam, must be yours; and however painful it may be to your modefty, I conjure you to undertake it." He paufed here for a minute or two, as if he waited for my anfwer; and, as well as I could speak with forrow and concern, I promised what he asked. "Your knowledge as a publisher, Madam, (proceeded he) and your great fluency of

world, and feat him at laft in his one
horfe chair. The death of Mis. Fitz-A-
dam, which happened a few months fince
as it relieved him from the great expence
of housekeeping, made him in a hurry to
fet up his equipage; and as the tale of
his paper was even beyond his expectati- A
ons, I was one of the firit of his friends
that advifed him to purchase it. The
equipage was accordingly befpoke and
fent home; and as he had all along pro-
mifed that his firft vifit in it should be
to me, I expected him last Tuesday at
my country-house at Hoxton. The B words, will make it perfectly easy to you.

poor gentleman was punctual to his ap-
pointment; and it was with great delight
that I faw him, from my window, driving
up the road that leads to my house. Un-
fortunately for him, his eye caught mine;
and hoping (as I fuppofe) to captivate
me by his great skill in driving, he made C
two or three Aourishes with his whip,
which fo frightened the horse, that he
ran furioufly away with the carriage,
dashed it against a polt, and threw the
driver from his feat with a violence hard-
ly to be conceived. I fcreamed out to
my maid, "Lord blefs me! fays I, Mr. D
Fitz-Adam is killed!" And away we ran
to the spot where he lay. At first I ima-
gined that his head was off; but upon
drawing near to him, I found it was his
hat: He breathed indeed, which gave me
hopes that he was not quite dead; but
for other figus of life, he had pofitively E

In this miferable condition, with the help of fome neighbours, we brought him into the houfe, where a warm bed was quickly got ready for him; which together with bleeding and other helps, brought him by degrees to life and reafon. He F looked round about him for fome time, and at last, feeing and knowing me, enquired after his chaife. I told him it was fafe, tho' a good deal damaged. "No matter, Madun, he replied; it has done my business: It has carried me a journey from this world to the next: IG fhall have no ufe for it again." Here his fpeech failed him, and I thought him expiring; but, after a few minutes, recovering, as it were from a trance, he proceeded thus. "Mrs. Cooper, fays he, you behold in the miferable object now before you, a fpeaking monument of the folly and H madnefs of ambition. This fatal chaile was the ulumate end of all my pursuits; the hope of it animated my labours, and filled ine with ideas of felicity and grandeur. Alas! How it has humbled me! May other men take warning from my fail! The World, Mis. Cooper, is now

Little more will be neceffary than to fet forth my fudden and unhappy end; to make my acknowledgments to the publick for the indulgence it has fhewn me; and above all, to testify my gratitude to my numerous correfpondents, to whofe elegant pieces this paper has been principally indebted for its uncommon fuccefs. I intended (with permillion) to have closed the work with a lift of thofe correspondents; but death prevents me from raiting this monument to my fame."

A violent fit of coughing, in which I feared the poor gentleman would have gone off, robbed him of his fpeech for more than half an hour: At last, however, he came again to himfelf, and, tho more feeble than before, proceeded as follows. "I am thankful, Madam, that I yet live, and that an opportunity is given me of confefling the frailties of my nature to a faithful friend." I winked at Sufan to withdraw, but she would not understand me : Her stay, however, did not prevent Mr. Fitz-Adam from giving me a full detail of the fins of his youth; which as they only amounted to a few gallantries among the ladies, with nothing more heinous than a rape or two at college, we bid him be of comfort, and think no more of fuch trifles. "And now, Madain, fays he, I have another concern to trouble you with When I was a boy at fchool, it always poffeffed my thoughts, that whenever I died I fhould be buried in WeftminfterAbbey. I confefs freely to you, Madam, that this has been the conftant ambition

of my riper years. The great good which my labours have done to mankind will, I hope, entitle my remains to an interment in that honourable place; nor will the publick, I believe, be difinclined to erect a fuitable monument to my memory. The frontispiece to the World, which was the lucky thought of my printer, I take to be a most excellent defign; and if executed at large in virgin marble,

24

REMARKS on MACBETH.

must have an admirable effect. I can think
only of one alteration in it, which is,
that in the back ground I would have, in
relief, a one-horse chair in the act of o-
verturning, that the ftory of my death,
as it contains a leffon for the ambitious,
may be recorded with my name. My
epitaph, if the publick might be fo fatis-
fied, I would have decent and concife. It
would offend my modefty, if after the
name of Fitz-Adam, more were to be
added than these words,

He was the deepest PHILOSOPHER,
The wittiest WRITER,

AND

The greatest MAN

Of THIS AGE or NATION.

A

B

Jan.

To the AUTHOR of the LONDON
MAGAZINE.

SIR,
Herewith

remarks

on Miscellaneous Obfervations on the

Tragedy of Macbeth, (fee our laft vol. P. 429.) which, as they may poffibly be of fome fervice to the great genius who intends, very foon, to oblige the publick with a new edition of Shakespear, I with he might have a fight of them in your Magazine for this, or the next month. And am,

Your obliged and

moft obedient, &c.

Stratford fuper Avon,
December 1, 1756.

I fay, Madam, of this age and nation,
because other times and other countries
have produced very great men ; infomuch
that there are names among the antients, C Macbeth.
hardly inferior to that of Adam Fitz-A-
dam."

Mifcellaneous Obfervations.

NOTE XLII.

S. W.

I Have lived long enough, my

way of life

Is fall'n into the fear, the yellow leaf:
As there is no relation between the way
of life, and fallen into the Sear, I am
inclined to think that the W is only an
M inverted, and that it was originally
written. My May of life.

The good old gentleman would have
proceeded, but his fpeech failed him again,
and he lay, as if expiring, for two whole
hours; during which feafon, as I had no
time to fpare, and as all I had heard was D
then fresh in my memory, I fat myself
down to fulfil the promife I had made.
When I had written thus far, he again
attempted to speak to me, but could not.
I held up the paper to him, and asked if
he would hear it read. He nodded his
affent, and, after I had gone thro' it, his E
approbation. I defired him to fignify by
fome motion of his hand, if there was a-
ny thing in it that he wished to have al-
tered. He nodded his head again, and
gave me a look of fuch complacency and
regard, as convinced me I had pleafed
him. It is from a knowledge of this cir- F
cumstance that I fhall now fend what I
have written to the prefs, with no other
concern than for the accident that occafi-
oned it: An accident, which I shall never
think of without tears, as it will proba-
bly deprive the publick of a most able in-
structor, and me of a worthy friend, and G the battle of the books.
conftant benefactor.

This our criticus criticorum, the famous Dr. Warburton, will by no means allow of, tho' he declares, in his preface to his Shakespear, that Anonymous is the only man in England, befides himself, that understands any thing of Shakespear. But let us fee how or wherein this courteous admirer of Anonymous differs from him. Why, fays the mafter critick, Anonymous did not confider that Macbeth is not here fpeaking of his rule of government, or of any fudden change; but of the gradual decline of life, as appears from this line,

Globe, Pater-Nofter-Row, M. COOPER.
Tuesday, Dec. 28, 1756.

P. S. Wednesday night, ten o'clock. Mr. Fitz-Adam is ftill alive, tho' in a danger. ous way. He came to his fpeech this morning, and directed me to inform the publick, that as the World is now closed, he has given a general index to the folio volumes to be printed, and given gratis, in a few days, at Mr. Dodfley's, in PallMall, and at M. Cooper's, at the Globe in Pater Nofter-Row.

H

And that, which fhould accompany old age,
And way, is used for courfe, progrefs.

Oh! How I could trufs this brace of woodcocks, and transfix them with an iron skewer! As Boyle is faid to have done Bentley and his friend Wotton, in Could not they fee, blind emendators! That for way we ought to read wane.

-my wane of life Is fall'n into the Sear, the yellow leaf: Methinks I hear the ghoft of Shakespear calling out, Aim! Aim! Aim! That is you've hit the mark. (Vide the Merry Wives of Windfor, A&t II. Sc. XI.) With a moft curious note of Dr. Warburton's upon it, but like every one of his others, nothing at all to the purpose, as I am ready to fhew, whenever called upon.

REMARK

1757.

MISTAKES of ANNOTATOR S.

REMARK II. upon Note XLIV. in Mifcel

laneous Obfervations.

Macbeth. W Seyton. The queen

Herefore was that cry?

dead.

is

Macbeth. She fhould (1) have died here

after;

There would have been a time for such a word,

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-mor-
row,

Creeps in this petty fpace from day to day,
To the last fyllable of (2) recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dufty death. Out, out, brief

candle !

Life's but a walking shadow

Mifcellaneous Obfervations.

She should have died hereafter,

There would have been a time for such a word.

This paffage has very justly been fufpected of being corrupt. It is apparent for what word there would have been a time, and that there would, or would not, have

25

only know transactions paft or prefent, the language of men affords no term for the volumes of prefcience, in which future events may be fuppofed to be written.

Mifcellaneous Obfervations, by Anon. Profecto hic magno conatu magnas nugas A dixit! Ut ftatim apparebit, nifi quid me fallit.

B

Before I give you my thoughts of the preface before us, I cannot help observing what a great deal of pity it was, that Mr. Upton, to whom the world is fo highly indebted for his admirable obfervations on Shakespear, fhould be led into the fame way of thinking here with the paltry fcribler, Anonymous, whom I am about to correct; but fo it was; for, fays Mr. Upton, "when news was brought to Macbeth, that the queen was dead, he wishes fhe had not then died; to-morrow, or any other C time, would have pleafed him better. This is the concatination of ideas and hence is introduced the obfervation that follows. To morrow, and to-morrow, &c." Mr. UPTON.

My REMARK S.

UR modern annotators upon Shake

been a time for any word, feems not a con- DO spear, it is true, allow him but a very

fideration of importance fufficient to tranf-
port Macbeth into the following exclama-
tion. I read therefore [and wonderfully
wifely, Warburton himself would not have
read better]

(1) She fhould have died hereafter:
There would have been a time for-fuch
a world !

To-morrow, &c.

It is a broken fpeech, in which only part
of the thought is expreffed, and may be pa-
raphrafed thus: The queen is dead. Mac-
beth. Her death fhould be deferred to
fome more peaceful hour; had the lived
longer, there would at length have been
a time for the honours due to her as a
queen, and that respect which I owe her
for her fidelity and love. Such is the
world!-Such is the condition of human
life, that we always think to-morrow will
be happier than to-day, but to-morrow,
and to-morrow steals over us, unenjoyed
and unregarded, and we ftill linger in the
fame expectation to the moment appointed
for our end. All thefe days which have
thus paffed away, have fent multitudes of
fools to the grave, who were engroffed by
the fame dream of futute felicity, and,
when life was departing from them, were,
like me, reckoning on to-morrow.

fmall fhare of claffical learning; but what kind of judges they are, the inftance of their profound fkill before us may ferve to fhew: It will certainly manifeft, that they are neither fuch mighty adepts in claffics E themselves, nor fuch great mafters of Shakespear, as they would make us believe: For had they been but moderately verfed in either, they must have feen, that the main part of this foliloquy of Macbeth, is formed upon the 59th epigram of the fifth book of Martial, which had they hit upon, it would have helped them to mend the faulty parts, and have let them into the true fenfe and meaning of the whole. The beginning and latter end of the faid epigram will be fufficient for my purpose: The whole may be read as it stands in Martial, with the tranflation by Mr. CowGley, than which, by the by, I do not remember to have met with any older.

F

(2) To the latt fyllable of recorded time. Recorded time feems to fignify, the time fixed in the decrees of heaven for the period of life. This record of futurity is indeed an accurate expreffion, but as we January, 1757.

Ad Poftumum. Ep. 59. Lib. v.
Cras te victurum, cras dicis, Poflume, femper.
Cras vives? Hodie jam vivere, Poftume, ve-
rum eft.

Ille fapit, quifquis, Poftume, vixit heri.
H-Non eft, crede mihi, fapientis dicere vi-

26

Various SENSES of PASSAGES in SHAKESPEAR.

ture to read and explain the whole paffage
as followeth.

Mach. She should have died hereafter;
There would have been her time, for fuch

their word's

[row To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morCreeps in this petty space from day to day, To the laft fyllable of recorded time; And yesterdays have lighted all our fools The dusky way to death.

She would have died hereafter, i. e.

She would have died to-morrow, or on a

to-morrow.

A

Jan.

wife people live before they die, fo fools
always die before they live.
-Lighted all our fools

The duiky way to death.

Funeral folemnities were commonly towards night, and conducted by torch light. And, fays Servius in Æneid, L.i. Torches were properly called funalia à funibus cerâ circudatis, unde et funus dicitur. Various have been the thoughts of our commentators about the epithet duffy as it stands in the fit folio. The worthy Mr. Upton declares for, the way to fully death, and

There would have been her time, for fuch B gives this reafon for it: To die is a

their word's

To-morrow;

i. e. Such unwife folks as fhe was, whatever they have to do of moment, they always cry they will do it to-morrow; they are always for procraftinating; always for putting off every thing, particularly living better, or reforming their lives, till to-morrow;

C

-And to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last fyllable of recorded time; i. e. and when to-morrow, it is still tomorrow, and when the next to-morrow comes, it is still the fame, and thus, to- D morrow and to-morrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

Leffon easily learnt, that even fools can
ftudy it, even the motley fool, in As you
Like it. The Oxford edition has it, dusky
death; but I think, tho' the last epithet is
the true one, wrong placed, it should
be fet before away, and I do not question
but Catullus will justify my way of think-
ing.
Nunc it per iter tenebricofum,
Illuc, unde negant redire quenquam.
Catul. III. ver. 11.

Before we leave this article, it may not be improper to recite the whole of what Mr. Upton has faid upon it, and to fhew how the word ftudy crept into the text.

The firit folio reads dufy death: i. e. death which reduces us to duft and ashes ; as Mr. Theobald explains it, an efpoufer of this reading. It might be farther ftrengthened from a fimilar expreffion in Pfalm xxiv. 15. I do not doubt, but duffy death was Shakespear's own reading; but it was his firft reading; and he afterwards altered it himself into study death, which the players finding in fome other copy, gave it thus in their fecond edition. Study then feems the authentic word-To

To the laft fyllable of recorded time. Syllable here (tho' Mr. Johnfon, in his great English Dictionary, takes no notice of Shakespear's ufing the word in my fenfe) does moft certainly fignify, as it E does in the original Greek, a comprehenfion for Συλλαξη comes from Συλλαμβάνω, comprehendo, and in its firft and natural fignification, is comprehenfio. But where fhall we find either the firft or the last comprehenfion of time upon record? Mr. Anonymous feems much at a lofs about it. F die is a leffon fo eafily learnt, that even

I will therefore, afking his pardon, ad-
vife him to read the 10th verfe of the 90th
Pfalm, and there he will find both the
firft and the last fyllables of recorded time;
the first, threescore years and ten, the laft
fourfcore years.

And yesterdays have lighted all our fools G
The dufky way to death.

This I humbly apprehend to have been
the genuine text before it was corupted.
The fenfe of which is eafy, if we calt but
an eye back to the forecited epigram of
Martial, for there we find,

Ille fapit quifquis, Poftume, vixit heri. The H
wife lived yesterday; but all our fools,
who are ftill defigning to live to-morrow,
die on their yesterdays, before the to-mor-
row comes, on which they had propofed
to have amended their ways. And thus,
agreeably to Shakespear's manner, as your

fools can fudy it: Even the motley fool, in As you Like it, could reafon on the time. 'Tis but an hour ago fince it was nine, And after one hour more 'twill be eleven ; And fo, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe, And then from hour to hour we rot and rot, And thereby hangs a tale.

Mr. UPTON.

Whereby we find, that the first folio reads to duffy death, the fecond to study death; and I can eafily believe that, as the first tranfcriber, thro' hafte, turned dufky into dufty, fo the next, being fomewhat a greater blunderer, by tranfpofing the letters, i. e. by putting the

and the t as they were tied together in the room of d and u, and making the d and u change places, he turned dufty into Audy, and left it in the wrong place where he found it; which reading was adopted

by

1757.

CHARACTER of EUMOLPUS.

by Mr. Rowe, and afterwards rejected by Mr. Theobald, who brought in duffy again, which the Oxford edition turned into dusky, as it is now given us in all our late editions.

27

man tenderness, had nothing of it remaining in him; he had "fupt full with horrors; direnefs familiar to his flaught rous thoughts could not once start him." No wonder then, that he should fpeak, upon receiving the news of the queen's death, in the manner my reading and expofition make him; efpecially if we reflect, that he looked upon her as the perfon that had initiated him in blood, and brought him to this fad and lamentable país.

"I have fupt full of horrors."

But after all, the above alteration and expofition reprefent Macbeth as fhewing no A regard for any honours being due to his lady as a queen, or any refpect he thought he owed her, for her fidelity and love to him, but quite contrary; he is fet forth as receiving the news of her death without any manner of concern; and fpeaking of her, with refpect to it, by a periphrafis, he farcaftically B The tinker of tinkers, I mean, the faranks her amongst fuch as died on their mous tinker of D-m, after hammering yesterdays, namely, the unwife. Why, out a brazen-faced reflection on the Oxit is true, he is thus represented by this ford editor, leaves the place, tinker-like, in way of reading and explaining, but then a worfe condition than he found it. Horwhen we confider his behaviour, and what rores quandoque ad torvitatem afpectus rehe faid to the doctor, and his fpeech im- feruntur. Vide Apul. Apol. p. 407. And mediately preceding the foliloquy we are C accordingly horrors, tho' our late huge, upon, the whole will appear highly in weighty English Dictionary, gives us no character. fuch meaning of the word, do fignify, fometimes, fpectres, ghofts, apparitions, bare-ribbed deaths; as I obferved hereto fore in a remark on a pattage in King Lear; (fee our laft vol. p. 234.) for the [cies, D truth of which I appeal to p. 340, of the Hiftory of the Royal Society, edit. 3. in 4to.

Says Macbeth, A&t V. Sc. III. to the doctor,

How does your patient do?

To which the doctor replies,

Not fo fick, my lord;

As the is troubled with thick coming fan-
That keep her from her reft.

Macb. Cure her of that:

Can'st thou not minister to a mind diseas'd:

And, with fome fweet oblivious antidote, Cleanfe the stuff'd bofom of that perilous E ftuff,

Which weighs upon the heart?

The queftion here is no more but a queftion of course, afked in the flightest manner imaginable, without fo much as wishing the doctor to do the best he could for his patient, but instead of that, Macbeth, without any referve, lays open the inward ftate and condition of her mind; than which fearce any could be imagined more wretched.

Let us obferve, in the next place, what Macbeth fays upon the cry within of wo

men.

I have almoft forgot the tafte of fears:
-I have fupt full with horrors;
Direnefs, familiar to my flaught 'rous
thoughts

Cannot once start me.

Macbeth tells us here, that there was a time once, when a night fhriek would have made his blood run chill; when a difmal treatife, difcourfe, or ftory, would have made his hair rouze and stand an end; [so humane, fo foft, fo tender-hearted was he then] but now his confcience was feared, and his heart fo hardened, that he, whofe nature was once full of the milk of hu

F

St. Stephen's, Norwich, Dec. 30, 1756. SIR,

Mongit the fragments of Petronius

Arbiter, (who was mafter of the revels to the Roman emperor Nero) we find a very short copy of verfes upon women, by one Eumolpus, but a most bitter invective against the fex. However, let not the ladies of the prefent times be affronted, or fo much as wonder at it, when they come to know that he was one of thofe finished fops (of whom there are plenty in this age) the limits of whole knowledge are circumfcribed within the curls of a toupee, the tap of a fine effenced finuff-box, the fringed gloves, and the gold-headed cane, dangling at the button; who boast of having dined with, and beGing very intimate with fuch a duke or lord; with whom they never were in company; and of ladies favours, whom they had never feen but at a play, and that at a distance.-Eumolpus was, in his time, reckoned to be a fine finger (for fo his name in the original fignifies, and probably given him upon that account, as the Roman fenator Volumnius was furnamed Eutrapelus from his fmart, genteel turn for wit and pleafantry) but being, as is too often the cafe, one of thofe fqueaking coxcombs, intolerably infolent and vain, from being admired by fome ladies for his voice and perfon, and boating of his gallantries

D 2

with