AFFLICTION. Tell my friends, Tell Athens, in the fequence of degree,. -Had it pleas'd heaven Timon, A. 5, S. 2. To try me with affliction; had he rain'd All kind of fores, and fhames, on my bare head, Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes; Othello, A. 4, S. 2. O, you mighty Gods! This world I do renounce; and, in your fights, To quarrel with your great opposeless wills, -Henceforth, I'll bear Affliction, till it do cry out itself, Enough, enough, and die. Lear, A. 4, S. 6. Lear, A. 4, S. 6. Winter's Tale, A. 4, S. 3. Profperity's the very bond of love; Whose fresh complexion, and whofe heart together, Affliction alters. -What's gone, and what's past help, Should be paft grief: Do not receive affliction At my petition, I beseech you! I think, affliction may subdue the check, Winter's Tale, A. 3, S. 2. But not take in the mind. Winter's Tale, A. 4, S. 3. Nay, -Nay, forfooth, my friends, They that must weigh out my afflictions', King Henry VIII. A. 3, S. 1. AGE. The fixth age fhifts Into the lean and flipper'd pantaloon; Turning again towards childish treble, pipes And whiftles in his found. As you like it, A. 2, S. 7. AIR. When he speaks, The air, a charter'd libertine, is still, And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears, 5.7. Henry V. A. 1, S. 1. As glorious to this night, being o'er my head, I weigh out my afflictions.] This phrafe is obfcure. To weigh out, is, in modern language, to deliver by weight; but this fenfe cannot be here admitted. To weigh is likewife to deliberate upon, to confider with due attention. This may perhaps be meant. Or the phrafe, to weigh out, may fignify to counterbalance, to counteract with equal force. JOHNSON. STEEVENS. To weigh out, is the fame as to outweigh. I understand the paffage thus: The Queen would infinuate that she is the child of affliction, as we would fay; and that such she must be content to remain. She at the same time hints, however, that her friends, who in fuch a cafe would weigh out, or apportion her afflictions, and who would confequently make them as eafy and light as poffible, were abfent; and that she has nothing to hope for from the Cardinals, who would rather endeavour to heap misfortunes on her head. A. B. Of Of mortals, that fall back to gaze on him, Romeo, A. 2, S. 2. Look, as I blow this feather from my face, Henry VI. P. 3, A. 3, S. 1. That ride upon the violent speed of fire, Fly with false aim; move the still-piercing air, That fings with piercing.' All's well that ends well, A. 3, All those which were his fellows but of late, Make facred even his stirrup, and through him I S. 2. Timon, A. 1, S. 1. move the fill-piercing air, That fings with piercing.] The words are here oddly fhuffled into nonfenfe. We should read, pierce the ftill-moving air, "This fings with piercing." i. e. pierce the air, which is in perpetual motion, and fuffers no injury by piercing. WARBURTON. Perhaps we might better read, "The ftill-piecing_air," i. e. the air that clofes immediately. STEEVENS. 66 Still-piecing air" is very harth. The old copy reads, "Still peering air. -Peering, I think, may have been printed in miftake for fleering, and the words which immediately follow ("that fings with piercing") fomewhat ftrengthens my conjecture. Pierce," fays Helena, "the air, that regards not your "attack---that fleers, that mocks, that laughs, in fhort, at your 66 power, but do not touch Bertram." 66 A. B. What, What, think'ft That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain, To cure thy o'er-night's furfeit? Timon, A. 4, S. 3. Purge all infection from our air, whilst you Do climate here! Winter's Tale, A. 5, S. 1. The air Macbeth, A. 1, S. 6. Nimbly and fweetly recommends itself. Unto our gentle senses'. AMBITION. As Cæfar lov'd me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honour him but, as he was ambitious, I flew him: There are tears, for his love; joy, for his fortune; honour, for his valour; and death, for his ambition. Julius Cæfar, A. 3, S. 2. He hath brought many captives home to Rome, Unto our gentle fenfes] How odd a character is this of the air, that it recommends itfelf to all the fenfes, not excepting the fight and hearing. Without doubt we should read "Unto our general "fenfe," meaning the touch or feeling, which not being confined to one part, like the reft of the fenfes, but extended over the whole body, the poet, by a fine periphrafis, calls the general fenfe. WARBURTON. Gentle fenfe is Senfes are nothing more than each man's fenfe. very elegant, as it means placid, calm, compofed, and intimates the peaceable delight of a fine day. JOHNSON. There is no neceffity for Dr. Warburton's alteration. As to Dr. Johnson's explanation of the prefent reading, it is no way fatisfactory. I read, The air Nimbly and fweetly recommends itself:-- Gentle unto our fenfe. i. e. Soft, bland, pleafing to the fenfe. A. B. Whofe Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill: When that the poor have cry'd, Cæfar hath wept; Yet Brutus fays, he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man! That lowliness is I Julius Cæfar, A. 3, S. 2. 'Tis a common proof, young ambition's ladder, Whereto the climber upwards turns his face: And charity chas'd hence by rancour's hand; And equity exil'd your highness' land. Henry VI. P. 2. A. 3, S. 1. Fare thee well, great heart! Ill weay'd ambition, how much art thou shrunk ! Is room enough. Henry IV. P. 1. A. 5, S. 4. You all did fee, that, on the lupercal, I fpeak not to difprove what Brutus fpoke, Julius Cafar, A. 3, S. 2. 1 Common proof.] Common experiment. JOHNSON. Rather, continually feen or found. The fubftantive for the verb. A. B. Urge |