"For a mufe of fire, that would afcend O for a mufe of fire, &c.] This goes upon the notion of the Peripatetic fyftem, which imagines feveral heavens one above another; the laft and highest of which was one of fire. WARBURTON. It alludes likewife to the afpiring nature of fire, which, by its levity, at the feparation of the chaos, took the highest feat of all the elements. JOHNSON. -princes to act, And monarchs to behold-] Shakespeare does not seem to fet diftance enough between the performers and fpectators. JOHNSON. 3 Within this wooden O,-] Nothing fhews more evidently the power of custom over language, than that the frequent ufe of calling a circle an O could fo much hide the meanness of the metaphor from Shakespeare, that he has used it many times. where he makes his moft eager attempts at dignity of tile. JOHNSON. The very cafques] The helmets. JOHNSON. s Imaginary.forces-] Imaginary for imaginative, or your powers of fancy. Active and paffive words are by this author frequently confounded. JOHNSON. Suppofe, within the girdle of thefe walls Think, when we talk of horses, that you fee them 3 For 'tis your thoughts that now muft deck our kings; Whofe high-up-reared, and abutting fronts Carry THE PERILOUS narrow ocean parts afunder.] Without doubt the author wrote, Whefe high-up-reared and abutting fronts, PERILOUS, THE narrow ocean parts afunder,] For his purpofe is to fhew, that the highest danger arifes from the shock of their meeting, and that it is but a little thing which keeps them afunder. This fenfe my emendation gives us, as the common reading gives us a contrary; for those whom a perilous ocean parts afunder, are in no danger of meeting. WARB. in burlefque language meant no more than In old books this mode of expreffion occurs perpetually. A perilous broad brim to a hat, a perilous long fword, &c. Perilous narrow, very narrow. So in Beaumont and Fletcher's Humourous Lieutenant, "She is perilous crafty." STEEVENS. And make imaginary puiffance.] This fhews that Shakespeare was fully fenfible of the abfurdity of fhewing battles on the theatre, which indeed is never done but tragedy becomes farce. Nothing can be reprefented to the eye but by fomething like it, and within a wooden O nothing very like a battle can be exhibited. JOHNSON. Other authors of that age feem to have been sensible of the fame abfurdities. In Heywood's Fair Maid of the Weft, 1631; a Chorus enters and fays, "Our ftage fo lamely can express a fea That we are forc'd by Chorus to difcourfe What fhould have been in action," &c. STEEVENS. For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings; Carry them here and there,-] We may read king for kings. The prologue relates only to this fingle play. The miftake was made by referring them to kings which belongs to thoughts. The fenfe is, your thoughts must give the king his proper greatness; carry therefore |