To bone me like an eel. I wish him further With these his boning tricks.-I'm a dead man, If he should fee me now. MERC. Some fellow stinks To his destruction. Sos. How now! do I smell? MERC. Nor can he be far off, though he has been fo. Sos. Sure he's a conjurer. Itch to be at it! 225 MERC. O how my fists Sos. If you mean on me To exercise them, prithee cool them first Against the wall. MERC. A voice flies to my ears. L V. 218. Vamp me up a-new.] The word in the original is, interpolabit. Interpolare, according to Nonius, est novam formam ex vetere fingere, and is used in a figurative sense alluding to the business of a fuller. V. 226. A conjuror.] Superftitiofus. The latter part of the preceding line-verum longè hinc abfuit-" he has been far off" is given by Madam Dacier to Sofia merely from her own conjecture: but as fuperftitiofus means a diviner, or as we say in English " a conjuror," this arbitrary alteration of the text is unnecefsary. Sofia is surprised, that Mercury should know he had been far off, (that is abroad) and naturally exclaims-" Sure he's a " conjuror." Sos. Sos. Unlucky, that I did not clip it's wings, 230 Since 'tis a bird-like voice. MERC. The wretch! he calls for't, He claims it of me, a most heavy lading On his beaft's back. Sos. Not I;-I have no beast Of burthen truly. Well with these fifts. MERC. Yes, he shall be loaded Sos. In troth I am fatigued With coming from on shipboard, and e'n now Even without a lading. Do not think then, That I can carry burthens. MERC. Certainly 'Tis Some-one speaks. 235 240 Sos. I'm fafe; he fees me not. V. 231. A bird-like voice.] Volucrem vocem. To preserve the allusion more strongly, I am inclined to think, that volucrem in this place is rather a substantive than an adjective, as it is generally interpreted a flying voice. V. 240. Some one speaks.] Nescio quis loquitur. The humour of Sofia's reply, consists in his understanding Nefcio quis (Some-one, as I have turned it) to be the name of a person. I need not perhaps mention, that a fimilar joke is to be found in Homer's Odyssey, towards the end of the Ninth Book, where Ulysses gives an account of his having imposed on Polyphemus, by calling himself ΟΥΤΙΣ, which signifies NO-MAN. The annotator to Pope's tranflation, justly observes, that, however delighted Euftathius and Dacier might be with this play upon words, it is fitter for the two Sofias in our author. He takes notice of Euripides having a play upon the same subject, borrowed from Homer, called the Cyclops, which turns upon this very circumstance; but he is mistaken in imagining it a serious tragedy, it being the only instance in antiquity of a comic one, if I may be indulged He says, 'tis Some-one speaks: now verily MERC. As it seems, the voice indulged the expression. I shall just quote sufficient for the un informed reader to understand the use that was made of this am biguous term. When U ylles had put out the single eye of Polyphemus, the giant, by his bellowing, gathered a crowd of Cyclops together about the cave in which he had shut himself up, who naturally asked him, "What hurts thee?" &c. - To which he replies Friends, No-Man kills me: No-Man in the hour Of fleep oppresses me with fraudful pow'r. "If No-Man hurts thee, but the hand divine "Inflict disease, it fits thee to refign : "To Jove and to thy father Neptune pray," The brethren cried, and instant strode away. Pope's ODYSSEY. Β. IX. Euripides (after Homer) has the like dialogue between the Cyclops (Polyphemus) and the Chorus. Chorus. -What makes you, Cyclops, thus exclaim ? Chorus. You are not blind then. Lucian has a very humourous dialogue on the same subject. There is the fame kind of humour in Shakespeare's Much a-de about Nothing, Act III. Scene V. where an ignorant watchman, overhearing a conversation, mistakes an expression used by one of the party for a person's name. Borachio.- Seest thou not, what a deformed thief this fashion is? Watchman. I know that Deformed; he has been a vile thief these seven years, &c. Upon Upon the right here strikes my ear. Sos. I fear, I shall be beaten for my voice that strikes him. Sos. I'm fore afraid; 245 I'm numb'd all over. Now could I not tell, And Sofia with them. Yet I am resolv'd 250 To face this fellow, and bespeak him boldly; I'll feem as valiant as I can, that he May keep hands off me. (advances towards the door) MERC. You, Sir, whither go you? You there, that carry Vulcan in your horn ?. Sos. Who made you an examiner? you, who bone 255 Men with your fifts ? MERC. Are you a slave, or free ? Sos. Which ever likes me. MERC. Say'st thou ? MERC. You want a drubbing, Sos. Ay, I say it. Sos. Now you lye, I don't. V. 254.] Vulcanum in cornu geris. Meaning light or fire. The allusion is obvious; Vulcan was the God of fire. V. 258.] The original is, Merc. Verbero. Sos. Mentiris nunc jam. This is a mere pun. Verboro, as Mercury designed by it, is often used by our author as a Noun Substantive, to fignify fellow that deserved trashing, or that had been used to it. It is also a Verb, fignifying I thrash. Sofia, in his reply, chuses to understand it in the latter sense, and as Mercury had not touched MERC. I'll make you own it. Sos. Wherefore ? MERC. I must know Whose you are, where you're going, what's your errand. 260 Sos. My way lies here: I am my mastet's servant : What are you now the wifer ? MERC. I shall make you Hold that foul tongue of your's. Sos. You cannot do it : I keep it pure and clean. MERC. How! prating still? What business have you at this house ? What business have you here ? Sos. And pray 265 MERC. King Creon fets A watch here ev'ry night. Sos. 'Tis gracious in him To guard our house, the while we are abroad. 270 MERC. Whose fellow you may be I know not; but if You don't be gone this instant, I shall give you him, says-mentiris nunc jam-" Now you lye." I have endeavoured to preserve the equivoque by using the word want, as much as to say, in one sense, you want (OUGHT TO HAVE) a beating, and in the other, I don't want (DESIRE) One. V. 264. This is another pun, to which the learned reader will perceive I have given a different turn from what is understood to be implied in the original. Such |