Two such opposed Kings encamp them still
In man as well as herbs, Grace and Rude Will;
And, when the worser is predominant,

Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.

The beautiful lines given to the Friar are introduced for the sake of repose; but in the choice of the topic in the part of them just quoted the Poet seems to have had a further view. Poison is hereafter to become a main agent in the piece, and the Poet prepares the audience for the use of poison by familiarizing them in the early portion of the play with the idea, and thus preparing them to witness the use of it without being so much shocked as they would be were no such preparations made. This is not the only passage in the earlier scenes in which poison is spoken of.

The epithet "rude" applied to the will is not open to much objection, but it appears to have been suggested to the Poet's mind by a singular process, of which there are other instances. The words "herb" and "grace" occurring together introduced into his mind the idea of the plant called herb of grace, and this brought with it its other name "rue," and "rue" suggested "rude."

II. 5. Nurse.

He is not the flower of courtesy, but I'll warrant him as gentle as a lamb.

The apparent want of coherence between "the flower of courtesy" and "as gentle as a lamb" is not to be charged to the Nurse's want of proper concatenation in her stock of ideas, the name of one of the flowers, the Flower Gentle, being in her mind.

IV. 4. NURSE.

Go, go, you coT-QUEAN, go.

A cot-quean is the wife of a faithless husband, and not as

Johnson, who knew little of the language of Shakespeare's time, explains it, "a man who busies himself about kitchen affairs." It occurs twice in Golding's translation of the Story of Tereus. The Nurse is speaking to Lady Capulet, and the word calls forth all the conversation which follows about jealousy. Authorities for this being the true sense might be produced in abundance.

IV. 5. FRIAR.

and, as the custom is,

In all her best array bear her to church.

In the quartos the passage stood thus:

And, as the custom of our country is,

In all her best and sumptuous ornaments
Convey her where her ancestors lie tomb'd.

Shakespeare has here a little deviated from the old Romeus and Juliet.

Another use there is, that whosoever dies,

Borne to their church with open face upon the bier he lies
In wonted weed attired, nor wrapt in winding sheet.

This was actually the custom of Italy at the time.

The burials are so strange both in Venice and all other cities, towns, and parishes of Italy, that they differ not only from England but from all other nations whatever in Christendom. For they carry the corse to church with the face, hands, and feet all naked, and wearing the same apparel that the person wore lately before it died, or that which it craved to be buried in; which apparel is interred together with their bodies.-Coryat, Crudities, vol. ii. p. 27.

V. 3.

A church-yard, in it a monument belonging to the Capulets.

It is clear that Shakespeare, or some writer whom he followed, had in mind the church-yard of the church of Saint Mary the Old in Verona, and the monument of the

Scaligers which stood in it. We have nothing in England which corresponds to this scene, and no monument or vault in which scenes such as this could be exhibited. Coryat, who could often be worse spared than a better man, writes thus:

I saw the monuments of two of the noble Scaligers of Verona in a little church-yard adjoining to the church called Maria Antiqua; the fairest whereof is that of Mastinus Scaliger, standing at one corner of the church-yard, which is such an exceeding sumptuous mausoleum that I saw not the like in Italy. The other monument is that of Canis Grandi or Magnus Scaliger, which stood within another corner of the same church-yard, right opposite unto this. -Crudities, vol. ii. p. 114.

Mr. Knight has given an engraving of the principal Scaliger monument, which forms a very legitimate and proper illustration of his author.

V. 3. ROMEO.

This vault a feasting presence full of light.

"Presence" is here used for "presence-chamber," the hall of audience, the most splendid apartment of a royal palace. "The next chamber within it, which is the presence, very fair." Coryat, Crudities, vol. i. p. 32.

A longer quotation may be excused for the rareness of the source from whence it comes, and the curious theatrical information it contains:-John Chamberlayne, writing to Sir Dudley Carleton, from London, January 5, 1608, says :

"The Marquess goes forward at court the twelfth day, though I doubt the new room will be scant ready. All the holdidays there were Plays, but with so little concourse of strangers that they say they wanted company. The King was very earnest to have one on Christmas Night, though, as I take it, He and the Prince received sacrament that day; but the Lords told him that it was not the fashion, which answer pleased him not a whit, but said 'What, do you tell me of the fashion? I will make it a fashion.' Yesterday he dined in the Presence in great pomp, with his rich cupboards of plate, the one of gold, the other that of the House of Burgundy, pawned to Queen Elizabeth by

the States of Brabant, and hath seldom been seen abroad, being exceeding massy, fair, and sumptuous. I could learn no reason of this extraordinary bravery, but that he would shew himself in glory to certain Scots that were never here before, as they say there be many lately come, and that the Court is full of new and strange faces."-From a copy of the Original in the State Paper Office.

It shews us something of the splendour of a Presence, contrasting with the dark and dismal sepulchral vault.

TIMON OF ATHENS.

THIS Play is without any decided notes of time, external or internal. It was first printed in the collection of 1623.

The composition of it is referred to about the same period when the three Roman Plays were produced, on the very uncertain ground that Shakespeare took the hint of the subject from Plutarch. The story must have been before him in many forms from an early period of his life. I consider the time of its composition very uncertain.

He has contrived to introduce everything that Plutarch says of Timon in the two Lives in which he occurs, Alcibiades and Mark Anthony. He seems also to have been acquainted with Lucian's Dialogue. There is an Italian play, the title of which is Timone, which it may be presumed is on the same story. Oldys, in his manuscript notes on Langbain, refers from this play to Fenton's Tragical Discourses, Painter's Palace of Pleasure, and Fortescue's Forest of Histories. It was quite a story for all writers such as these.

The important point here is not so much how or where Shakespeare gained his acquaintance with the existence of such a person as Timon, and the main features in his character, but whether he owed anything to any previous writer in the structure of this Play. There is something approaching to characteristic difference between this Play and the rest; a kind of coldness, so to speak; a sardonic touch, unlike Shakespeare's natural turn of mind; something which reminds of Lucian. But then the subject may be said to have called for it, and there was no style of