in fiery floods," of refiding " in thrilling regions "in of thick-ribbed ice," or of being "imprifoned in the viewless winds," are not original in our author; but I am not sure, that they came from the Platonick hell of Virgil. The monks also had their hot and their cold hell: " The fyrfte is fyre that ever brenneth, and never gyveth lighte," fays an old homily:"-" The feconde is paffyng colde, that yf a grete hylle of fyre were caften therin, it fholde torn to yce." One of their legends, well remembered in the time of Shakspeare, gives us a dialogue between a bishop and a foul tormented in a piece of ice, which was brought to cure a grete brenning beate in his foot: take care you do not interpret this the gout, for I remember M. Menage quotes a

canon upon us:

"Si quis dixerit epifcopum PODAGRA laborare, anathema fit."

Another tells us of the foul of a monk faftened to a rock, which the winds were to blow about for a twelvemonth, and purge of its enormities. Indeed this doctrine was before now introduced into poetick fiction, as you may fee in a poem " where the lover declareth his pains to exceed far the pains of hell," among the many mifcellaneous ones fubjoined to the works of Surrey. Nay, a very learned and inquifitive Brother-Antiquary, our Greek Profeffor, hath obferved to me on the authority of

Aliæ panduntur inanes

Sufpenfæ ad ventos: aliis fub gurgite vafto

"Infectum eluitur fcelus, aut exuritur igni."

• At the ende of the feftyuall, drawen oute of Legenda aurea, 4to. 1508. It was firft printed by Caxton, 1483, "in helpe of fuch clerkes who excufe theym for defaute of bokes, and also by fymplenes of connynge."

1 On all foules daye, p. 152. * Mr. afterwards Dr. Lort.

8

Blefkenius, that this was the ancient opinion of the inhabitants of Iceland; who were certainly very little read either in the poet or the philofopher.

After all, Shakspeare's curiofity might lead him to tranflations. Gawin Douglas really changes the Platonick bell into the "punytion of faulis in purgatory" and it is obfervable, that when the Ghost informs Hamlet of his doom there,

"Till the foul crimes done in his days of nature
"Are burnt and purg'd away.—

the expreffion is very fimilar to the bishop's: "I will give you his verfion as concifely as I can; "It is a nedeful thyng to fuffer panis and tormentfum in the wyndis, fum under the watter, and in the fire uthir fum:-thus the mony vices

• Contrakkit in the corpis be done away

• And purgit.

Sixte Booke of Encados, fol. p. 191.

It seems, however, " that Shakspeare himself in the Tempest hath tranflated fome expreffions of Virgil: witnefs the O dea certe." I prefume, we are here directed to the paffage, where Ferdinand fays of Miranda, after hearing the fongs of Ariel, Moft fure, the goddess

"On whom these airs attend."

and fo very fmall Latin is fufficient for this formidable translation, that if it be thought any honour to our poet, I am loath to deprive him of it; but his honour is not built on fuch a fandy foundation. Let us turn to a real tranflator, and examine whether the idea might not be fully comprehended by an English reader; fuppofing it neceffarily borrowed from Virgil. Hexameters in our own language

8 Islandia Defcript. Ludg. Bat. 1607, p. 46.

are almost forgotten; we will quote therefore this time from Stanyhurst:

"O to thee, fayre virgin, what terme may rightly be fitted?
Thy tongue, thy vifage no mortal frayltie refembleth.
"No doubt, a godeffe!" Edit. 1583.

Gabriel Harvey defired only to be "epitaph'd, the inventor of the English bexameter," and for a while every one would be halting on Roman feet; but the ridicule of our fellow-collegian Hall, in one of his Satires, and the reafoning of Daniel, in his Defence of Rhyme against Campion, presently reduced us to our original Gothick.

But to come nearer the purpose, what will you fay, if I can fhew you, that Shakspeare, when, in the favourite phrafe, he had a Latin poet in his eye, moft affuredly made ufe of a tranflation?

Profpero, in the Tempeft, begins the addrefs to his attendant fpirits,

"Ye elves of hills, of ftanding lakes, and groves."

This fpeech, Dr. Warburton rightly obferves to be borrowed from Medea in Ovid: and "it proves," fays Mr. Holt," "beyond contradiction, that Shakfpeare was perfectly acquainted with the fentiments of the ancients on the fubject of inchantments." The original lines are thefe:

"Auræque, & venti, montefque, amnefque, lacufque, "Diique omnes nemorum, diique omnes noctis adefte.” It happens, however, that the tranflation by Arthur

9 In fome remarks on the Tempest, published under the quaint title of An Attempte to rescue that aunciente English Poet and Playwrighte, Maifter Williaume Shakespeare, from the many Errours, fauljely charged upon him by certaine new-fangled Wittes. Lond. 8vo. 1749, p. 81.

Golding is by no means literal, and Shakspeare hath clofely followed it:

"Ye ayres and winds; ye elves of bills, of brookes, of woods alone,

Of ftanding lakes, and of the night approche ye everych

one."

I think it is unneceffary to pursue this any further; especially as more powerful arguments await

us.

In The Merchant of Venice, the Jew, as an apology for his cruelty to Antonio, rehearses many fympathies and antipathies for which no reafon can be ren

dered:

"Some love not a gaping pig

"And others when the bagpipe fings i'th' nofe,
"Cannot contain their urine for affection."

This incident, Dr. Warburton fuppofes to be taken from a paffage in Scaliger's Exercitations against Cardan: "Narrabo tibi jocofam fympathiam Reguli Vafconis equitis: is dum viveret audito phormingis fono, urinam illico facere cogebatur."— "And," proceeds the Doctor, " to make this jocular story itill more ridiculous, Shakspeare, I fuppofe, tranflated phorminx by bagpipes."

Here we seem fairly caught ;--for Scaliger's work was never, as the term goes, done into English. But luckily in an old tranflation from the French of Peter le Loier, entitled, A Treatife of Specters, or firaunge Sights, Vifions, and Apparitions appearing fenfibly unto Men, we have this identical story from Scaliger: and what is ftill more, a marginal note gives us in all probability the very fact alluded to, as well as the word of Shakspeare: "Another gen

* His work is dedicated to the Earl of Leicester in a long epiftle in verfe, from Berwick, April 20, 1567.

tleman of this quality liued of late in Deuon neere Excefter, who could not endure the playing on a bagpipe."

We may just add, as fome obfervation hath been made upon it, that affection in the fenfe of Sympathy was formerly technical; and fo ufed by Lord Bacon, Sir Kenelm Digby, and many other writers.

A fingle word in Queen Catherine's character of Wolfey, in Henry VIII. is brought by the Doctor as another argument for the learning of Shakspeare:

"Of an unbounded ftomach, ever ranking
"Himself with princes; one that by suggestion
"Ty'd all the kingdom. Simony was fair play.
"His own opinion was his law: i'th' prefence
"He would fay untruths, and be ever double
"Both in his words and meaning. He was never,
"But where he meant to ruin, pitiful.
"His promifes were, as he then was, mighty;
But his performance, as he now is, nothing.
"Of his own body he was ill, and gave
"The clergy ill example."

"The word fuggeftion," fays the critick, " is here ufed with great propriety, and feeming knowledge of the Latin tongue:" and he proceeds to settle the sense of it from the late Roman writers and their gloffers. But Shakspeare's knowledge was from Holinfhed, whom he follows verbatim:

"This cardinal was of a great ftomach, for he compted himself equal with princes, and by craftie fuggeftion got into his hands innumerable treasure:

3 M. Bayle hath delineated the fingular character of our fantaftical author. His work was originally tranflated by one Zacharie Jones. My elit. is in 4to. 1605, with an anonymous Dedication to the King: the Devonshire ftory was therefore well known in the time of Shakspeare.The paffage from Scaliger is likewife to be met with in The Optick Glaffe of Hamors, written, I believe, by T. Wombwell; and in feveral other places.