very unbecoming in a city, where Mercy was worshipped as a goddess.

The English proverb is, "That every man " is furnished with a ftone to throw at a dog, "or a staff to beat a dog." See Ray's Proverbial Sentences.

Sc. vii. p. 223.

Enter Thieves.]

"Enter the bandetti." Folios 1623, and 1632. A&t v. fc. iii. p. 234.

Sen. The fenators of Athens greet thee, Timon. Tim. I thank them, and would fend them back the plague, if I could but catch it for them.}

Alluding to the remarkable plague of Athens, mentioned by Thucydides. See it defcribed, Univerfal Hiftory, vol. 6. 8vo. p. 441, &c. Act v. fc. iii. p. 236.

Tim. I have a tree, which grows bere in my
clofe,

That myne own ufe invites me to cut down,
And fhortly must I fell it: tell my friends,
Tell Athens, in the frequence of degree,
From high to low throughout, that whofe pleafe
Toftop affliction, let him take his hafte,
Come hither, ere my tree bath felt the ax,
And bang himfelf.]

[See Plutarch's life of Mark Antony, p. 29.] Shakespeare may probably either allude to the fig-tree, L'Eftrange's Fables, part 2. fab. 35. or to those lines in Chaucer, Wife of Bath's Prologue, 757, &c.

"Than

"Than told he me how one Litumeus

Complained to his felow Arius;

"That in his gardin growid foche a tre,
"On which he seidin, that his wivis three
"Hangid themself for hertis defpitous."
"O leve, brother, quod this Arius,
"Geuin me a plant of this blissful tre,
"And in my gardin plantid shall it be."

Mr. James Shirley, in his tragi-comedy, intitled The Gentleman of Venice, has borrowed this thought from Shakespeare.

Malipero, Cornari's nephew, afking Marcello, whether he had prevailed with his uncle to favour him? Marcello makes the following answer, act ii. p. 30.

Mar. "This halter-He has tied the knot " himself, and fays, next to the philofopher's

Stone, he knows not what thing of nobler va"lue to present you and, rather than you "should delay for want of a convenience

you know what you should do; once more "perufe his orchard; there's one tree he would "have bear no other fruit."

Mal. "I thank him for his fine noofe: would "I had his neck in't, the devil fhould not con

66

jure him from this circle.”

TITUS

TITUS ANDRONICUS.

ACT I.

Titus.

T

SCENE II. P. 248.

Hou great defender of this capitol, Stand gracious to the rites that we intend.]

An addrefs to Jupiter Capitolinus, called fo, as having a temple built on the Capitol bill. Id. ib. Why fuffer'ft thou tby fons, unburied yet, To bover on the dreadful fore of Styx.]

Spenfer has an image of the like kind, Fairy Queen, book iii. canto vii. 14.

"Softly at last he 'gan his mother ask, "What mister wight that was, and whence de❝ riv'd,

"That in fo strange disguisement there did mask, "And by what accident fhe there arriv'd? "But fhe, as one nigh of her wits depriv'd, "With nought but ghoftly looks him answered. "Like to a ghoft, which lately is reviv'd "From Stygian fhores, where late it wandered, "So both at her, and at each other wondered." Act ii. fc. ii.

Demet.

What man! more water glideth by the mill,
Than wots the miller of.]

See Ray's Proverbs, that are entire fentences, p. 176.

VOL. II.

A&t ii. fc. v. p. 269.

Baff. Believe me, Queen, your fwarth Cimme

rian

Doth make your honour of his body's bue.]

He calls Aaron the Moor a Cimmerian, from the darkness of his complexion, not country. The Cimmerii were a people of Scythia, which inhabited a part of the kingdom of Pontus near the Bofphorus, called after their name the Cimmeriin, because they dwelt in a country compaffed about with woods, and always covered with thick clouds, that caused a great darkness, which occafioned the proverb of Cimmeriæ tenebra, Cimmerian darkness, such as were in Egypt. See Danet's Dictionary of the Greek and Roman Antiquities.

"I carried am into a waste wilderness, "Waste wilderness, amongst Cymmerian fhades, "Where endless pains, and hideous heavinefs, "Is round about me heapt in darkfome glades." Virgil's Gnat, Spenfer's Works, p. 1159.

"A ftony coldnefs still benumb'd the soul, "And lively spirits of each living wight, "And dimm'd with darkness their intelligence, "Darkness more than Cymmerians daily night.” Tears of the Mufes, p. 1367.

Sc. v. p. 270.

Tamora:

The trees, tho' fummer, yet forlorn and lean,
O'ercome with mofs, and baleful miffeltoe.]

I cannot imagine how Shakespeare could call it

baleful

baleful miffeltoe, unless it was fo to birds, (a) birdlime being formerly made of it, to deprive them of their liberty.

I should rather have imagined our author had wrote bailful miffeltoe, had it forted with the fenfe of the paffage; the word bael, or baile, fignifying a wifh of health, or fafety.

So it is used in Chaucer, and other antient English poets; and fo by Shakespeare, in Love's Labours loft, act iv. fcene the last, and in several other places.

It was much in efteem, and frequently prefcribed in apoplexies, vertigoes, and other headdiftempers.

The antient Druids had it in high veneration. (b) Pliny relates the ceremony wherewith they gathered it every year.

Some

(a) “ Vifcum ad aucupia ex hujus fruticis baccis aliquibus in locis parabatur, hoc modo: Baccas in aqua decoquunt "dopec dirumpantur, poftea contundunt in mortario, et tan"diu in aqua fontana lavant, quoufque furfuracea excre66 menta eximant."?

Dale's Pharmacologia, vol. 1. p. 458. Pliny likewise defcribes the manner of making of it, Nat. Hift. lib. 16. 44.

(b) Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. 16. cap. 44. Eft autem id rarum admodum inventu, et repertum, magna religione petitur: et ante omnia fexta luna, quæ principia menfium, annorumque his facit, et feculi poft tricefimum annum ; quia jam virium abunde habeat. Omnia fanantem appellantes in fuo vocabulo, facrificiis, epulifque rite fub arbore præparatis, duos admovent candidi coloris tauros, quorum' cornua tunc primum vinciantur. Sacerdos candida, veste

K 2

cultus