in? And yet no matter;-Why fhould we go [Exit Servant. How sweet the moon-light fleeps upon this bank! Here will we fit, and let the founds of mufick Creep in our ears; foft ftillnefs, and the night, Become the touches of fweet harmony. Sit, Jeffica: Look, how the floor of heaven Is thick inlay'd with pattens of bright gold; There's not the smallest orb, which thou behold'st, But in his motion like an angel fings, Still quiring to the young-ey'd cherubims. Such harmony is in immortal, fouls'; But, Sweet foul was not an alteration made by Mr. Pope, but an arbitrary and unauthorized reading introduced by the editor of the fecond folio. Mr. Rowe first regulated these speeches in the manner recommended by Mr. Tyrwhitt, which appears to me to be clearly right. MALONE. 9 with PATTERNS of bright gold;] We fhould read PaTENS: a round broad plate of gold borne in heraldry. WARBURTON. Pattens is the reading of the firft folio, and pattents of the quarto.. Patterns is printed first in the folio 1632. JOHNSON. One of the quartos 1600 reads pattens, the other pattents. STEEVENS. We should read patines; from patina, LAT. A patine is the fmall flat difh or plate ufed with the chalice, in the adminiftration of the eucharist. In the time of popery, and probably in the fol lowing age, it was commonly made of gold. MALONE. Such harmony is in immortal fouls ;] But the harmony here defcribed is that of the fpheres, fo much celebrated by the ancients. He fays, the fmalleft orb fings like an angel; and then fubjoins, fuch harmony is in immortal fouls: but the harmony of angels is not here meant, but of the orbs. Nor are we to think, that here the poet alludes to the notion, that each orb has its intelligence or angel to direct it; for then with no propriety could he fay, the orb fung like an angel: he should rather have faid, the an gel in the orb fung. We must therefore correct the lines thus ; Such harmony is in immortal sounds: i. e. in the mufick of the fpheres. WARBURTON. R4 4 This But, whilft this muddy vesture of decay Come, This paffage is obfcure. Immortal founds is a harsh combination of words, yet Milton ufes a parallel expreffion; Spiritus & rapidos qui circinat igneus orbes, Nunc quoque fidereis intercinit ipfe choreis Immortale melos, & inenarrabile carmen. It is proper to exhibit the lines as they ftand in the copies of the firft, fecond, third, and fourth editions, without any varia tion, for a change has been filently made by Rowe, and adopted by all the fucceeding editors: Such harmony is in immortal fouls, Doth grofly clofe in it, we cannot hear it. That the third is corrupt must be allowed, but it gives reafon to fufpcct that the original was Doth grofly close it in. Yet I know not whether from this any thing better can be produced than the received reading. Perhaps harmony is the power of perceiving harmony, as afterwards, Mufick in the foul is the quality of being moved with concord of feet founds. This will fome what explain the old copies, but the fentence is fill imperfect; which might be completed by reading : Such harmony is in th' immortal foul, Doth grofly clofe it in, we cannot hear it. JOHNSON. Part of the difficulty of this paffage was occafioned by a wrong punctuation. There fhould be a full point after cherubims, and no note of admiration after fouls. "Such harmony, &c." is not an exclamation arifing from the foregoing line-"So great is the harmony!" but a fimile or illuftration: "of the jame kind is the harmony.". -The whole runs thus: 7 There is not one of the heavenly orbs but fings as it moves, fill quiring to the Cherubims. Similar to the harmony they make, is that of immortal fouls; (or in other words) each of us have as perfect a harmony in our fouls as the harmony of the ftkeres, infomuch as eve bave the quality of being moved by fweet founds; (as he expreffes it afterwards) but our grofs terrefrial part, which environs us, deadens the found, and prevents our hearing it. This faves all the confufion which Dr. Warburton has introduced, who refers fouls to orbs, and, not being able to reconcile them, changes the former to founds. "Doth clofe it in," which Dr Johnson conjectures to have been the original reading, agrees with this explanation, and perhaps confirms it. Come, ho, and wake Diana with a hymn '; Jef. I am never merry, when I hear fwect mufick. [Mufick Lor. The reafon is, your fpirits are attentive: It, I apprehend, refers to harmony, and not to fouls. There is, therefore, no need of Dr. Johnfon's propofed alteration, in th' immortal foul." Perhaps Shakipeare, when he wrote this paffage, had Sir Philip Sydney's elegant Defence of Poefie in his thoughts:-" But if you be born to neare the dull-making cataract of Nilus, that you cannot beare the planet-like mufick of poetrie, if you have fo earthcreeping a mind that it cannot lift itself up to look to the skie of poetrie, &c." It may be objected that this internal harmony cannot be heard but Shakspeare is not always exact in his languagehe confounds it with that external and artificial harmony which is capable of being heard. My interpretation is ftrengthened by the following paffage in the fecond part of Antonio and Mellida, 1602, by Marston, who likewife fuppofes the harmony of immortal fouls to be of the fame kind with that of the fpheres: 66 Heaven's tones "Strike not fuch harmony to immortal fouls, MALONE. The old reading in immortal fouls is certainly right, and the whole line may be well explained by Hooker, in his Ecclefiaftical Polity, B. v. "Touching mufical harmony whether by inftrument or by voice, it being but high and low in founds in a due proportionable difpofition, fuch notwithstanding is the force thereof, and fo pleafing effects it hath in that very part of man which is most divine, that fome have been thereby induced to think that the foul itself by nature is or hath in it harmony. For this quotation I am indebted to Dr. Farmer. STEEVENS. close it in- is the reading of the quarto. STEEVENS. wake Diana with a hymn;] Diana is the moon, who is in the next scene reprefented as fleeping. JOHNSON. I 2 And draw her home with mufick.] Shakspeare was, I believe, here thinking of the cuftom of accompanying the laft waggon-load, at the end of harvest, with ruftick mufick. He again alludes to thle yet common practice, in As you like it. MALONE. Fetching Fetching mad bounds, bellowing, and neighing loud, Nor 2 The man that hath no mufick in himself, Nor is not mov'd with concord of fweet founds,] The thought here is extremely fine: as if the being affected with mufick was the only harmony between the internal {mufick in himfelf and the external mufick [concord of feet founds] which were mutually affected like unifon ftrings. This whole fpeech could not chufe but pleafe an English audience, whofe great paffion, as well then as now, was love of mufick. Jam verò video naturam (fays Erafmus in praise of folly) ut fingulis nationibus, ac pene civitatibus, communem quandam infeviffe Philautiam: atque bine fieri, ut Britanni prætor alia Formam, muficam, & lautas Menfas propriè fibi vindicent. WARBURTON. This paffage, which is neither pregnant with physical or moral truth, nor poetically beautiful in an eminent degree, has conftantly enjoyed the good fortune to be repeated by thofe whofe inhofpitable memories would have refufed to admit or retain any other fentiment or description of the fame author, however exalted or juft. The truth is, that it furnishes the vacant fiddler with fomething to fay in defence of his profeffion, and fupplies the coxcomb in mufic, with an invective against such as do not pretend to difcover all the various powers of language in inarticulate founds. Our ancient statutes have often received their best comment by means of reference to the particular occafion on which they were framed. Dr. Warburton has therefore properly accounted for Shakspeare's fecming partiality to this amufement. He might have added, that Peacham requires of his Gentleman ONLY to be able to fing his part fure, and at firft fight, and withal to play the fame on a viol or lute." Let not, however, this capricious fentiment of Shakspeare defcend to pofterity, unattended by the opinion of the late lord Chesterfield on the fame fubject. In his 148th letter to his fon, who Nor is not mov'd with concord of fweet founds, Enter Portia, and Nerissa, at a distance. Por, That light we fee, is burning in my hall. Ner. When the moon fhone, we did not fee the candle. Por. So doth the greater glory dim the lefs: A fubftitute fhines brightly as a king, Until a king be by; and then his ftate Empties itself, as doth an inland brook Into the main of waters. Mufick! hark! [Mufick Ner. It is your mufick, madam, of the house. Por. Nothing is good, I fee, without refpect 3; Methinks, it founds much fweeter than by day. who was then at Venice, his lordship, after having enumerated mufic among the illiberal pleasures, adds "if you love music, hear it; go to operas, concerts, and pay fiddlers to play to you; but I must infift upon your neither piping nor fiddling yourself. It puts a gentleman in a very frivolous 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 fee 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 fculpture 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 that I know of, but bad company." Again, Again," Painting and fculpture are very juftly called liberal arts; a lively and strong imagination, together with a juft obfervation, being abfolutely neceflary to excel in either; which, in my opinion, is by no means the cafe of mufic, though called a liberal art, and now in Italy placed above the other two; a proof of the decline of that country." Ibidem. STEEVENS. 3 without refpect;] Not abfolutely good, but relatively good as it is modified by circumstances. JOHNSON, |