A feeming Mermaid fteers; the filken tackle

beauty. The whole paffage is taken from the following in Sir Thomas North's tranflation of Plutarch: "She disdained to set forward otherwise, but to take her barge in the riuer of Cydnus, the poope whereof was of golde, the failes of purple, and the owers of filuer, whiche kept stroke in rowing after the founde of the muficke of flutes, howboyes, citherns, violls, and fuch other inftruments as they played vpon in the barge. And now for the perfon of her felfe: the was layed under a pauillion of cloth of gold of tiffue, apparelled and attired like the Goddeffe Venus, commonly drawn in picture; and hard by her, on either hand of her, pretie faire boyes apparelled as painters do fet forth God Cupide, with little fannes in their hands, with the which they fanned wind vpon her. Her ladies and gentlewomen also, the fairest of them were apparelled like the nymphes Nereides (which are the mermaides of the waters) and like the Graces, fome ftearing the helme, others tending the tackle and ropes of the barge, out of the which there came a wonderfull paffing fweete fauor of perfumes, that perfumed the wharfes fide, peftered with innumerable multitudes of people. Some of them followed the barge all alongst the riuer's fide: others alfo ranne out of the citie to fee her coming in. So that in thend, there ranne fuch multitudes of people one after another to fee her, that Antonius was left poft alone in the market place, in his imperiall seate to geve audience:" &c. STEEVENS.

There are few paffages in these plays more puzzling than this; but the commentators feem to me to have neglected entirely the difficult part of it, and to have confined all their learning and conjectures to that which requires but little, if any explanation: for if their interpretation of the words, tended her the eyes, be juft, the obvious meaning of the fucceeding line will be, that in paying their obeifance to Cleopatra, the humble inclination of their bodies was fo graceful, that it added to their beauty.

Warburton's amendment, the reading adorings, inftead of adornings, would render the paffage lefs poetical, and it cannot express the sense he wishes for, without an alteration; for although, as Mr. Steevens justly observes, the verb adore is frequently used by the ancient dramatick writers in the sense of to adorn, I do not find that to adorn was reciprocally used in the fenfe of to adore. Tollet's explanation is ill imagined; for though the word band might formerly have been spelled with an e, and a troop of beautiful attendants would add to the general magnificence of the scene, they would be more likely to eclipfe than

Swell with the touches of thofe flower-foft hands,

to increase the charms of their mistress. And as for Malone's conjecture, though rather more ingenious, it is just as ill founded. That a particular bend of the eye may add luftre to the charms of a beautiful woman, every man must have felt; and it must be acknowledged that the words, their bends, may refer to the eyes of Cleopatra; but the word made muft neceffarily refer to her gentlewomen: and it would be abfurd to say that they made the bends of her eyes, adornings.-But all these explanations, from the first to the laft, are equally erroneous, and are founded on a fuppofition that the paffage is correct, and that the words, tended her i' the eyes, muft mean, that her attendants watched her eyes, and from them received her commands. How thofe words can, by any poffible conftruction, imply that meaning, the editors have not fhown, nor can I conceive. Of this I am certain, that if fuch arbitrary and fanciful interpretations be admitted, we shall be able to extort what sense we please from any combination of words. The paffage, as it ftands, appears to me wholly unintelligible; but it may be amended by a very flight deviation from the text, by reading, the guife, instead of the eyes, and then it will run thus:

Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,

So many mermaids, tended her i'the guife,
And made their bends, adornings.

In the guife, means in the form of mermaids, who were fuppofed to have the head and body of a beautiful woman, concluding in a fifh's tail: and by the bends which they made adornings, Enobarbus means the flexure of the fictitious fishes' tails, in which the limbs of the women were neceffarily involved, in order to carry on the deception, and which it seems they adapted with fo much art as to make them an ornament, inftead of a deformity. This conjecture is fupported by the very next fentence, where Enobarbus, proceeding in his defcription, fays:

"A feeming mermaid fteers." M. MASON.

In many of the remarks of Mr. M. Mafon I perfectly concur, though they are subverfive of opinions I had formerly hazarded. On the present occafion, I have the misfortune wholly to dif agree with him.

His deviation from the text cannot be received; for who ever employed the phrase he recommends, without adding fomewhat immediately after it, that would determine its precife meaning? We may properly fay-in the guife of a Shepherd,

That yarely frame the office.4 From the barge

of a friar, or of a Nereid. But to tell us that Cleopatra's women attended her "in the guife," without fubfequently informing us what that guife was, is phrafeology unauthorized by the practice of any writer I have met with. In Cymbeline, Pofthumus fays:

"To fhame the guife of the world, I will begin

"The fashion, lefs without, and more within."

If the word the commentator would introduce had been genuine, and had referred to the antecedent, Nereides, Shakfpeare would most probably have faid-" tended her in that guife-at least he would have employed fome expreffion to connect his fupplement with the foregoing claufe of his defcription. But in the guife" feems unreducible to fenfe, and unjustifiable on every principle of grammar.-Besides, when our poet had once abfolutely declared these women were like Nereides or Mermaids, would it have been neceffary for him to fubjoin that they appeared in the form, or with the accoutrements of fuch beings? for how elfe could they have been diftinguished ?

Yet, whatever grace the tails of legitimate mermaids might boaft of in their native element, they must have produced but aukward effects when taken out of it, and exhibited on the deck of a galley. Nor can I conceive that our fair representatives of these nymphs of the sea were much more adroit and picturefque in their motions; for when their legs were cramped within the fictitious tails the commentator has made for them, I do not discover how they could have undulated their hinder parts in a lucky imitation of semi-fishes. Like poor Elkanah Settle, in his dragon of green leather, they could only wag the remigium cauda without eafe, variety, or even a chance of labouring into a graceful curve. I will undertake, in short, the expence of providing characteristick tails for any set of mimick Nereides, if my opponent will engage to teach them the exercise of these adfcititious terminations, fo "as to render them a grace instead of a deformity." In fuch an attempt a party of British chambermaids would prove as docile as an equal number of Egyptian maids of honour.

It may be added alfo, that the Sirens and defcendants of Nereus, are understood to have been complete and beautiful women, whose breed was uncroffed by the falmon or dolphin tribes; and as fuch they are uniformly described by Greek and Roman poets. Antony, in a future fcene, (though perhaps with reference to this adventure on the Cydnus,) has styled

A ftrange invisible pérfume hits the fenfe

Cleopatra his Thetis, a goddefs whofe train of Nereids is circumftantially depicted by Homer, though without a hint that the vertebræ of their backs were lengthened into tails. Extravagance of fhape is only met with in the loweft orders of oceanick and terreftrial deities. Tritons are furnished with fins and tails, and Satyrs have horns and hoofs. But a Nereid's tail is an unclaffical image adopted from modern fign-pofts, and happily exposed to ridicule by Hogarth, in his print of Strolling Actreffes dreffing in a Barn. What Horace too has reprobated as a difgufting combination, can never hope to be received as a pattern of the graceful:

ut turpiter atrum

"Definat in piscem mulier formosa superne."

I allow that the figure at the helm of the veffel was likewise a Mermaid or Nereid; but all mention of a tail is wanting there, as in every other paffage throughout the dramas of our author, in which a Mermaid is introduced.

For reafons like thefe, (notwithstanding in fupport of our commentator's appendages, and the present female fashion of bolstered hips and cork rumps, we might read, omitting only a fingle letter" made their ends adornings;"—and though I have not forgotten Bayes's advice to an actress-" Always, madam, up with your end,") I fhould unwillingly confine the graces of Cleopatra's Nereids, to the flexibility of their pantomimick tails. For thefe, however ornamentally wreathed like Virgil's fnake, or refpectfully lowered like a lictor's fafces, muft have afforded lefs decoration than the charms diffused over their unfophifticated parts, I mean, the bending of their necks and arms, the rife and fall of their bofoms, and the general elegance of fubmiffion paid by them to the vanity of their royal mistress.

The plain fenfe of the contefted paffage feems to be-that these Ladies rendered that homage which their affumed characters obliged them to pay to their Queen, a circumstance ornamental to themselves. Each inclined her perfon fo gracefully, that the very act of humiliation was an improvement of her own beauty.

The foregoing notes fupply a very powerful inftance of the uncertainty of verbal criticism; for here we meet with the fame phrafe explained with reference to four different imagesBOWS, GROUPS, EYES, and TAILS. STEEVENS.

A paffage in Drayton's Mortimeriados, quarto, no date, may ferve to illuftrate that before us :

Of the adjacent wharfs. The city caft

"The naked nymphes, fome up, fome downe defcending, "Small scattering flowres one at another flung,

"With pretty turns their lymber bodies bending,-." I once thought, their bends referred to Cleopatra's eyes, and not to her gentlewomen. Her attendants, in order to learn their mistress's will, watched the motion of her eyes, the bends or movements of which added new luftre to her beauty. See the quotation from Shakspeare's 149th Sonnet, p. 82.

In our author we frequently find the word bend applied to the Thus, in the first A&t of this play: "thofe his goodly eyes

eye.

—now bend, now turn," &c.

Again, in Cymbeline:

Although they wear their faces to the bent "Of the king's looks."

Again, more appofitely, in Julius Cæfar :

"And that fame eye, whofe bend doth awe the world." Mr. Mafon, remarking on this interpretation, acknowledges that "their bends may refer to Cleopatra's eyes, but the word made muft refer to her gentlewomen, and it would be abfurd to fay that they made the bends of her eyes adornings." Affertion is much easier than proof. In what does the absurdity confift? They thus ftanding near Cleopatra, and discovering her will by the eyes, were the cause of her appearing more beautiful, in confequence of the frequent motion of her eyes; i. e. (in ShakSpeare's language,) this their fituation and office was the cause, &c. We have in every part of this author fuch diction. But I shall not detain the reader any longer on fo clear a point; efpecially as I now think that the interpretation of these words given originally by Dr. Warburton is the true one.

Bend being formerly fometimes used for a band or troop, Mr. Tollet very idly supposes that the word has that meaning here. MALONE.

I had determined not to enter into a controversy with the editors on the subject of any of my former comments; but I cannot refift the impulse I feel, to make a few remarks on the ftrictures of Mr. Steevens, both on the amendment I proposed in this pasfage, and my explanation of it; for if I could induce him to accede to my opinion, it would be the higheft gratification to me. His objection to the amendment I have propofed, that of reading in the guise instead of in the eyes, is, that the phrase in the guife cannot be properly used, without adding fomewhat to

GA