procured an acceptable law to pass, that nobody for the future should carry that office twice. I would read, And nobly NAMED so, twice being Censor; i. e. the second time that he bore that dignity. Coriolanus, p. 264: A pair of Tribunes that have RACK'D for Rome, This passage, I think, we never disturbed; though I am clear it is hardly right. Should we not read, RECK'D for Rome, i. e. taken particular care for Rome? At nunc tandèm manum de tabulá. I am, dearest Sir, your most affectionate and obliged humble servant, LEW. THEOBALD. Though I have spared you so long by my late silence, I cannot omit tendering you the compliments of the season, with wishes of more happy new years than, I am sure, your own philosophic temper will suffer you to wish yourself. But, though I talk of having spared you, I should, perhaps, however, have been troublesome; had I not, like Sir Francis Wronghead, been pretty much taken up in a solicitation, which I am now almost ashamed to mention: but, vetus verbum hoc quidèm est, communia esse amicorum inter se omnia; and so out the mystery must come. You remember well, that Mr. Cotesworth was the gentleman who gave Mr. Eusden his Lincolnshire Rectory; Rectory; and, as consequently, he was the person who had the earliest notice of Eusden's death *, the account no sooner reached us, but the women spurred me up to put in for the withered laurel. Accordingly, I with Lord Gage attended Sir Robert Walpole; was commanded by him to attend at Windsor; had his warmest recommendations to the Lord Chamberlain; nay, procured those recommendations to be seconded even by his Royal Highness and yet, after standing fair for the post at least three weeks, had the mortification to be supplanted by Keyber. But, as the vacancy has been so supplied, I think, I may fairly conclude, with Mr. Addison's Cato, The post of honour is a private station. I have since waited on Sir Robert, to thank him for the trouble I gave him in that solicitation; and have the privilege to keep in his eye, with assurances of service. But, now I have frankly unburthened myself to you, as freely give me your friendly advice. Shall I pursue this dream of expectation, and throw away a few hours in levée-haunting? Or will it be more wise to wake myself at once from a fruitless delusion, and look on promises but as Courtiers' oratory? You will do me the justice to believe, my first quest was not on the motive of vanity, but to assist my fortune. The same reason still remains, and I would fain sit down to my little studies with an easy competency. But I should be sorry to dance a vain dependence, and be rolling the stone of Sisyphus too long. I shall wholly determine myself on your decision; and till then suspend the subject. Dear Shakespeare ought always to have a place in my correspondence with you; and I will now trouble you with two passages, that have all along. escaped our notice, and perhaps our suspicion. *The Rev. Mr. Eusden died at his Rectory of Coningsby, in Lincolnshire, Sept. 27, 1730. + Charles duke of Grafton then enjoyed that office. Colley Cibber was the successful candidate. Hamlet, Hamlet, p. 262 : And my imaginations are as foul As Vulcan's STITHY. i.e. his anvil. But is an anvil the very foulest thing in a smith's shop? I suspect we should read, As Vulcan's SMITHY. i. e. the forge, that foul puddle in which the unpurged metal is dipped and quenched: which has more consonance to a troubled imagination, than the external soil and grime of an anvil. Our Poet has a thought much of the same cast, you may remember, in Troilus, p. 329: My mind is troubled like a fountain stirr'd, And I myself see not the bottom of it. And, if my suspicion be right, it will help to cure another passage in Troilus, which passage seems mainly to assist my correction, p. 348: But by the forge that STITHIED Mars's helm, — It is plain the forge does not help to anvil the metal, but only prepares it for the smithery, or artist's mechanism: and therefore here too I make no doubt we should read SMITHIED. LETTER LXIX. TO MARTIN FOLKES, Esq. SIR, Wyan's Court, Nov. 17, 1731. The happiness I received in the late occasional interview with you would not yield me that opportunity which I wished, without breaking into company, of informing you, that I have now actually signed articles with Mr. Tonson: and am preparing with all expedition to put out as correct an Edition of Shakespeare as it is in my power; so that I soon hope to convince the Publick, as well as my Friends, that the insinuations of my Adversaries have been very unjustly leveled against me. And, now I have carried this material point, I beg leave to assure you, Sir, that no pains, or any thing within my ability, shall be wanting on my side, to answer either the ends of my own reputation, or the expectations of those who have done me the honour of their encouragement. But I beg pardon for expatiating now on this subject. You were pleased, Sir, to give me leave to hope, that I may beg some information from your Cabinet, in respect to certain of our old EngIsh Coins, in which I am but very poorly versed, as there are a few passages in Shakespeare which I would willingly clear up by an instruction of this sort. I will beg leave to trouble you with two or three instances from King John; which I think demand some explanation. Act I. Scene 2. Because he hath a half face like my father, With that half face would he have all my land? A half-fac'd groat five hundred pounds a year! Stow, in his Survey of London, p. 47, tells us, that King Henry the Seventh, in the year 1504, appointed a new Coin, viz. a groat and half-groat, which bear but half-faces. Your extensive Collection, Sir, I doubt not, will set me in a much clearer light towards describing this Coin. I suppose our Poet alludes to it, notwithstanding the historical anachronism. There is another passage in this Scene, Sir, much more obscure, and which will require some explication. Bast. My face so thin, That in my ear I durst not stick a rose, Lest men should say, look where three farthings goes. Camden, in his Remains,' in the chapter of Money, tells us, that Queen Elizabeth first coined the pieces of three-pence, threehalf-pence, and three-farthings, with this motto, ROSA SINE SPINA. This learned Antiquary, I am afraid, has not distinguished so accurately here as I could wish. I apprehend he means, that this Queen first coined these small pieces with such a motto; for I find by Holinshed, in his History of that Reign, p. 1194, that she, in her third year, viz. 1560, upon calling-in the base copper coins, only restored these little silver coins. And in his other volume, where he gives a description of England, p. 218, he tells us, that King Edward the First, in the 8th year of his reign, first coined the penny, and smallest pieces of silver roundwise, which before were square, and wont to bear a double cross with a orest, in such sort that the penny might easily be broken either into halves or quarters. Now Now I conceive, Sir, as Shakespeare so often puns upon crosses (i. e. afflictions), and the coin so called; it will not be unacceptable that I should give a short description of this money, and likewise of the three-farthings with the large rose. And I presume, from a passage in Beaumont and Fletcher, the threefarthings and the penny had a difference in the stamp. Scornful Lady, p. 272, of Rowe's edition: 'He had a bastard, his own toward issue, whipt, and then cropt, for washing out the loses in three-farthings to make them pence.' As these inquiries, Sir, are made for the publick, I flatter myself you will pardon the impertinence of a trouble I have no right to demand. I would not presume to wait on you about them, till I know when my visit may be least unseasonable. As I have been hitherto upon King John, I beg leave to add, that I have made a discovery to explain this passage, Act I. Sc. 4: "Knight, knight, good mother; Basilisco like, why am I dubbed ?” the humour and satire of which, if perchance you have not found out, I am persuaded it will entertain you; and I dare warrant it has not been understood these hundred years.. I remember, Sir, you gave me a fine emendation upon Midsummer Night's Dream; and, as it will be my ambition to be just to all my friends for their assistance, I hope I shall be indulged in the privilege of acknowledging my obligation. Believe me proud, Sir, of any opportunity, with the truest respect, of confessing myself, your most obedient and obliged humble servant, LEW. THEOBald. LETTER LXX. To the Rev. Mr. WARBURTON. DEAR SIR, Wyan's Court, Nov. 18, 1731, I received safe by the waggon "Shakespeare Restored," with your MS packet inclosed, for which I am much indebted. As to the book, I all along intended |