382 
energies inconceivable under the fplendid 
weaknefs of a. corrupt monarchy. 
Under the imprefiion of thele feelings, 
. E believe that many of thofe whom the 
noble Lord meant to ftigmatize as rejoicers 
in a peace apparently humiliating to their 
country, while their windows were blazing 
at the command of a half-ftarved populace, 
fat retired in pentive thought, balancing 
the obvious and prefent good againft dif- 
appointed expectations and melancholy 
forebodings. Your's, &. N.N. 
a J 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
W HILST I exprefs obligations which 
I am fure your readers will feel 
with me in common to the author of the 
Comments on Mr. Mafon’s Supplement to 
Johnfon’s Diétionary, I rouft beg leave to 
differ with him in the conftrudtion of the 
word embowel, which he has given in 
p.299. Mr. Burke and Dr, Johnfon are 
accufed of a total mifconception of this 
word, when they interpret it tomean evi/- 
cerated ; and really, until I re-confidered 
the paflages adduced by the learned com- 
mentator in oppofition to this conftruc- 
tion, as wellas {ome others, 1 was inclined 
to adopt, his opinion. Let us, however, 
try the queftion by an examination of the 
following paffages from Shakelpeare : 
<¢ Embowel’d will I fee thee by and by.” | 
Hen. IV. Part 1. A& 5. Sc.4. 
Here the commentator’s negative argu- 
ment againft Dr. Johnion’s conftrudtion is, 
that the prince would not be guilty of 
fuch brutality, as to fee Falftaff evilce- 
rated. But furely there would have been 
nothing barbarous in caufing the u/xal 
practice to be adopted previoufly to the 
embalming of a dead body, which is, I 
think, all that the princemeans, WhenFal- 
ftaff rifes, he exclaims, ** If thou embowel 
me to day, I'll give you leave to pocuder 
me, and eat me, to-morrow ;’” evidently 
alluding to the above prattice of evifcera- 
tion ard fubfequent preparation of a dead 
body by powdering ; that is, ftrewing 
aromatics, &c. over it for peor 
if the body were put into the bowels of the 
earth, as the commentator contends, Fal- 
ftaff’s ** eat me to morrow,’”’ would be ma- 
nifeftly an abfurd expreffion. 
The next paffage that I fhall produce 
is what the commentator admits he knows 
not where to feek ; and I think if he had 
found it, and confidered the context, he 
would not have quoted it. It is in All's 
On the Word ‘Embowel. 
‘[Dec. i 
Well as beds Well, S&S Ane 
laft. ; 
——liow fhall they credit 
A poor unlearned virgin, when the fchools 
-Embowel’d of their dofrine, have left off 
‘The danger to itfelf ? 
Helen had undertaken to cure the king’s 
malady ; and the countefs, in the above 
fpeech, expreffes her doubts of Helen’s 
capacity, when the fchools of medicine, ex- 
haufied of all the learning they had been able 
to collect on the occafion, had left the difeafe. 
to itfelf. 
The laft quotation with which I thall 
trouble you is the following : 
The wretched, bloody, and ufurping boar 
Swills your warm blood like wath, and makes 
his trough 
In your embowel’d bofoms. 
Ricu. TID. A& 5. Sc. 2. | 
I hall only remark on this: extremely 
obvious paffage, that the trough could not 
well have been made in a bofom (here po- 
etically put for body) wherein the bowels 
remained. 
Whether the word have been ¢¢ vitious- 
ly employed,”” it is not ‘my objeét in 
this place to inquire: but in fhewing, as» 
I hope I have done, that neither Mr. 
Burke nor Dr. Johnfon have mifunder- 
ftood the fenfe in which it was ufed by 
Shakefpeare ; I am extremely willing to 
admit, with the ingenious commentator, 
that Spenfer’s difoorvel’d is a word of far 
mere appofite application to the fenfe of 
evifcerated*. D: 
Nov. 7; 1801. 
as ae ln Sa ; 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
Sis ) 
Have lately been well informed that 
the Poems of Offian, in the Gaelic 
I 
tongue, with a new Latin verfion, in ad- - 
dition to the celebrated Englith one, are 
now printing in a very fplendid manner, 
agreeably to the will of the late James 
Macpherfon, Efq. 
will be valuable and curious in feveral 
refpects, there can be little room to doubt; 
but more efpecially in having the difpute 
refpecting the authenticity of thofe pro- 
That fuch an edition © 
duétions fettled to the fatisfaétion of the 
public. f 
It is not unlikely but that the refult of 
the induftry and refearch of the editor will 
be fome difappointment to each of the 
parties, who originally entered into the 
conteft, as well the zealous defenders of the 
bard of other times, as thofe whofe preju- 
tr - reNans Aves. Arh 
* We have received another Letter on this 
fubjeét, which fupports the. fame meaning of 
the word by fimilar arguments, 
dice 
So a lag 
