"The little Æthiop infant had not been "Black in his cradle, had he not been firft "Black in the mother's ftrong imagination. "'Tis thought the hairy child that's fhewn "about,

"Came by the mother's thinking on the picture "Of Saint John Baptift in his camel's coat. "See we not beasts conceive, as they do fansie "The prefent colours placed before their eyes? "We owe pyed colts unto the varied horfe"cloth,

"And the white partridge to the neighbouring "fnow:

"Fancy can fave or kill."

Mr. Will. Cartwright's Comedy, intitled, The Ordinary, act ii. fc. iii. p. 29.

Id. ib.

Goth. What, can't thou fay all this, and never blush?

Aaron. Ay, like a black dog, as the faying is.] See Ray's Proverbs.

Sc. iv. p. 319.

Tam. Yield to his honour, Smooth, and Speak bim fair.]

Qu. Sooth?

Sc. vi. p. 323.

Titus. Was it well done of rafh Virginius, To flay his daughter with his own right band, Because he was enforc'd, ftain'd, and deflour'd.]

See an account of Lucius Virgilnis's flaying his daughter publickly, because Appius Claudius had feduced

3.

feduced and debauched her, Livii Hiftor. lib. cap. 47, 48. And the ftory is told in Chaucer's Doctor of Phyfike's Tale, p. 128, &c. Urry's edition.

After Titus had afked this queftion, and the Emperor had allowed, that what Virginius had done was right, Titus ftabbed his daughter; upon which Saturninus put this question to him. Sat. What, was fberavish'd? Tell who did the deed! Tit. Will't pleafe you, eat? Will't please your Highness, feed?

Tam. Why baft thou flain thine only daughter thus ?

Tit. Not I; 'twas Chiron and Demetrius. They ravish'd her, and cut away ber tongue; And they, 'twas they, that did her all this wrong. Sat. Go fetch them bither to us presently. Tit. Why, there they are, both baked in that pye, Whereof their mother daintily bath fed, &c.]

Might not Shakespeare, in the description of this barbarous fcene, borrow much from the ftory of Aftyages King of the Medes, and Harpagus's fon?

Aftyages, upon a dream, which the foothfayers interpreted, That his daughter should bring forth a fon, who fhould difpoffefs him of his kingdom, prevailed with Harpagus his favourite, upon the birth of Cyrus his grandfon, to make him a promife, that the child fhould be dif patched out of the way: and he fo fat complied, that he gave the child to a herdfman of the King's, to be expofed to the favage cruelty

of

of wild beasts; but the herdfman, inftead of complying, at the request of his wife, faved the child.

Aftyages difcovering this fome years after, ordered Harpagus to fend his fon to court; and, when he had him in his cuftody, he commanded, that his head, hands, and feet, should be cut off, and his body be prepared for an entertainment, to be dreffed in different ways. He invited Harpagus to fup with him, but at a separate table; and, after he had ate plentifully, he asked him how he liked his fare? Harpagus praised the banquet. Upon which he ordered his feryants to bring in the head, hands, and feet of his fon; which done, the King inform'd him in what manner he had entertained him, and afked him how he liked it? Harpagus made answer, with a very heavy heart, Whatsoever pleafeth the King, pleafeth me alfo. Herodoti Clio.

See likewife Univerfal History, &c. vol. 8. Syo, P. 173.

The

The Tragedy of MACBETH.

ACT I. SCENE II.

Captain, of Macbeth's valour.

Capt. WHO ne'er book bands, nor bid farewel

to him,

Till be unfeam'd him from the nape to th' chops.] He has a bolder image, Coriolanus, act ii. fc. vi. p. 475.

"As waves before

“A vessel under fail, fo men obey'd,

"And fell before his ftern; his fword, (death's "ftamp),

"Where it did mark, it took from face to foot."

The learned Mr. Upton, in his Critical Remarks on three plays of Ben Johnson, p. 46. has given several instances of this common manner of expreffion, which is fomewhat hyperbolical, and poetical, rather than strictly true. To which I fhall beg leave to add the following inftances, from Spenfer, and other writers.

"And on his haughty helmet making mark, "So hugely ftruck, that it the steel did rive, "And cleft his head."

Spenfer's Fairy Queen, book i. canto ii. 19.

And high-advancing his blood-thirsty blade, "Strook one of his deformed heads fo fore,

"That

"That of his puiffance proud example made; "His monftrous fcalp down to his teeth he tore, "And that misformed fhape mis-shaped the <c more.'

Book i. canto viii. 16.
And again,

"He gan let drive at him with all his power, "And with his axe him fmote in evil hour, "That from his fhoulders quite his head he "reft."

Book iv. canto iii. 20.

"But Calidore did follow him so fast,

"That even in the porch he him did win, "And cleft his head afunder to his chin.” Book vi. canto i. 23.

of

See likewife book vi. canto vii. 3. canto viii. 15. Plutarch, in his Life of Pyrrhus King Epire, vol. 3. p. 48. has one inftance ftill more upon the marvellous. He tells us, "That "Pyrrhus, upon a fignal of a Roman, who chal86 lenged him at the head of the two armies, struck "his adversary upon his head with his fword: "fuch a blow, as, with the ftrength of his arm, " and the excellent temper of his weapon, paffed "downward fo far, that in a moment his body being cut afunder, fell in two pieces. This

stopped the current of the Barbarians, amaz'd "and confounded at Pyrrhus, as one more than "man."

See many more romantic inftances, Amadis de

Gaul,