But I have fince found Reasons to retract this Opinion, and to be convinced that the Poet, in calling Brutus BASTARD, defigned a much deeper Contumely than That of Cowardice; viz. the blackeft Ingratitude and moft deteftable Parricide SHAKESPEARE has elsewhere taken Notice of Cafar's exceffive Love to Brutus, and of the Ingratitude of the latter for being concern'd in his Murther.

JULIUS CASAR, pag. 271.

Thro' This, the well-beloved BRUTUS ftabb'd,

And, as he pluck'd his curfed Steel away,
Mark how the Blood of Cæfar follow'd it!
As rushing out of Doors to be refolv'd,
If Brutus fo unkindly knock'd, or no:

For BRUTUS, as you know, was Cafar's ANGEL.
Fudge, oh, you Gods, how dearly CÆSAR lov'd him!

This, This, was the unkindeft Cut of all;

For when the noble Cæfar faw Him ftab,

INGRATITUDE, more strong than Traytors Arms,
Quite vanquish'd him ;

But this amounts to no more than a positive Accufation against Brutus of Ingratitude, because Cafar lov'd him to that Degree. We know Nothing from hence of the Spring of Cafar's Affection, or why Brutus, even for affifting in his Murther, fhould be ftigmatiz'd with Bastardy. As this piece of fecret History is no where else fo much as hinted at, that I know of, or can recollect, throughout all our Author's Works, I fhall give it from PLUTARCH in the Life of MARCUS BRUTUS. Cefar, before the great Battle of Pharfalia, had order'd his Commanders to fpare Brutus, and bring him fafe to him, if he would willingly furrender himself: But if he made any Refiitance, to fuffer him to escape, rather than to kill him. "And this he "is believed to have done (fays the HISTORIAN,) out of a "Tenderness to Servilia, the Mother of Brutus: For Cafar

had

"had it seems, in his Youth, been very intimate with her, " and the paffionately in Love with him. And confidering

66

"that Brutus was born about that Time, in which their Loves were at the higheft, Cefar had fome Reafon to believe that he was begot by him. This SHAKESPEARE knew, and therefore reviles Brutus with being the Bastard Iffue of the Man whom he fo ungratefully kill'd.

LV. Act 3. Scene 1. Page 399.

Good Gentlemen, give him a further edge,

And drive his purpose INTO thefe delights.

But Two Speeches above, Rofencraus had informed the Queen, that there did feem a kind of Joy in Hamlet to hear of the Actors Coming, and that they had already Orders to play before him: What Occafion, therefore, was there to drive his Purpose into these Delights? He already feem'd to give into them; and the King defires Rofencraus and Guildenstern to promote and further that Bent and Disposition which Hamlet fhew'd to that Sort of Pleasures. I think, therefore, the fecond Folio Edition expresses this Paffage more rightly;

Good Gentlemen, give him a further Edge,

And drive his Purpose ON TO thefe Delights.

And fo the Poet expreffes himself before in the fecond Act of this Play, where the King entreats Rofencraus and Guildenstern, as old School-fellows of Hamlet, to stay a while at Court in order to divert him. See pag. 379.

I entreat you Both,

That being of fo young Days brought up with him,
And fince fo neighbour'd to his Touth and Humour,
That You vouchsafe your Reft here in our Court

Some little Time, fo by your Companies

To draw him ON TO Pleasures,

N

LVI.

Various
Reading.

A late Eminent AUTHOR, I think, took the beginning of this noble Speech to Task, for employing too great a Diversity of Metaphors, that have no Agreement with one another, nor any Propriety and Connexion in the Ideas. To take Arms against a Sea, literally fpeaking, would be as unfeasible a Project, as the Attempt (mentioned in a Speech of the Lord Haversham, in a late Reign;) to stop the Tide at Gravefend with a Man's Thumb. Mr. POPE fubjoins a Note, that inftead of a Sea of Troubles, it might have been perhaps, siege; which continues the Metaphor of flings, arrows, taking Arms; and reprefents the being encompaffed on all Sides with Troubles. The EDITOR is not the first who has had the fame Sufpicion : And I may say, because I am able to prove it by Witneffes, it was a Guess of mine, before he had enter'd upon publishing SHAKESPEARE. But, perhaps, the Correction may be, at beft, but a Guess; confidering the great Liberties that this Poet is obferved to take, elsewhere, in his Diction, and Connexion of Metaphors: And confidering too, that a Sea (amongst the antient Writers, facred and prophane, in the Oriental, as well as the Greek and Latin, Tongues;) is ufed to fignify not only the great, collected, Body of Waters which make the Ocean, but likewife a vaft Quantity, or Multitude, of any thing else. * The Prophet Jeremiah, particularly, in one Paffage, calls a prodigious Army coming

up

Vid. Schindleri Lexic. Pentaglottum; Kircheri Concordantias Veteris Teflamenti; Becmannum de Origine Lingue Latine; Martinii Lexicon Philologicum, &c.

up against a City, a Sea. Chap. 51. 42. The Sea is come up upon Babylon; he is covered with the Multitude of the Waves thereof. So here, I conceive, to take Arms against a Sea of Troubles, is, figuratively, to bear up against the Troubles of human Life, which flow in upon us, and encompass us round, like a Sea.

BUT there is another Paffage in this Soliloquy of HAMLET, which, I hinted, in my Remarks upon the last Act, would demand fome Confideration in its proper Place; and, therefore, it naturally falls in here.

But that the Dread of Something after Death
(That undiscover'd Country, from whofe Bourn
No Traveller returns ;) puzzles the Will;
And makes us rather bear thofe Ills we have,
Than fly to Others that we know not of.

The Criticks have, without the leaft Scruple, accused the Poet
of Forgetfulness and Self-Contradiction from this Paffage; seeing
that in this very Play he introduces a Character from the other
World, the Ghost of HAMLET's Father. I would not be fo
hardy to affert peremptorily, that SHAKESPEARE was aware
of this seeming Abfurdity, and despised it; any more than I
would pretend to justify him against this Charge to all his Ob-
jectors. If he forefaw any thing of it, perhaps, he fhelter'd
himself from their Criticisms under fome Referve like this.
'Tis certain, to introduce a Ghost, a Being from the other
World, and to say that no Traveller returns from those Confines,
is, literally taken, as abfolute a Contradiction as can be fup-
pofed, & facto terminis. But we are to take Notice, that
SHAKESPEARE brings his Ghoft only from a middle State, or
local Purgatory; a Prifon-house, as he makes his Spirit call it,
where he was doom'd, for a Term only, to expiate his Sins of
Nature. By the undiscovered Country, here mentioned, he may,
perhaps, mean that laft and eternal Refidence of Souls in a State of
full Blifs or Mifery: which Spirits in a Middle State (either
under Purgation, or in the Prifons of Hope, as, I think, one of the
APOSTLES calls them;) could not be acquainted with, or ex-

Self-Contradiction in the Poet examin'd.

plain. So that, if any Latitude of Senfe may be allow'd to the Poet's Words, tho' he admits the Poffibility of a Spirit returning from the Dead, he yet holds that the State of the Dead cannot be communicated, and, with that Allowance, it remains ftill an undifcover'd Country. We are to obferve too, that even his Ghoft who comes, as I hinted above, from Purgatory, (or, whatever else has been understood under that Denomination;) comes under Reftrictions: And tho' he confeffes himfelf fubject to a Viciffitude of Torments, yet he fays at the fame time, that be is forbid to tell the Secrets of his Prifon-house. If these Qualifications will not intitle the Poet to fay, that no Traveller returns from the Verge of the other World, i. e. to disclose any of its Myfteries, without a Contradiction to the Liberty he has taken of bringing Apparitions upon the Stage; it is all the Salvo I can put in for him, and I must give him up to the Merof the Cavillers. The Antients had the fame Notions of our abftrufe and twilight Knowledge of an After-Being. VALE RIUS FLACCUS, I remember, (if I may be indulged in a fhort Digreffion,) speaking of the lower Regions, and State of the Spirits there, has an Expreffion which, in one Senfe, comes clofe to our AUTHOR's undifcovered Country; viz. Superis incognita Tellus. And it is obfervable that VIRGIL, before he enters upon a Description of Hell, and of the Elyfian Fields, implores the Permiffion of the Infernal Deities, and profeffes, even then, to discover no more than Hear-Say concerning their Mysterious Dominions. VIRG. Æneid. VI.

cy

Dii, quibus imperium eft Animarum, Umbræque filentes,
Et Chaos, & Phlegethon, loca nocte tacentia latè,
Sit mihi fas audita loqui, fit numine veftro
Pandere res altâ terrâ et caligine merfas.

The Note of Donatus upon this Paffage is very remarkable to our Poet's Subject: But That the Curious may refer to at their Leifure.

ISHALL conclude all I have to remark on this fine Soliloquy, when I have fubjoin'd an Explication to one Word; in which, perhaps,