New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-08-22
A COnnENTATOR COVE UP WITH


A COMMENTATOR COVE UP WITH ::
When that only authentic traveller, Captain Lem
mel Guner. visited the Island of Gubbdubdrib,
the Governor Of which dependency enjoyed the
soms What singular prerosatye Of summoning from
the other world Any ghosts he liked, aud command
ing their services for twenty-four hours, ne pre-
vailed on this excellent magistrate to indulge hun
with sight Of those anclents most removed for wit
ard Learning lie proposed that Homer and Arts
tote should appear at the head of their cOmmenta-
tors; but these last were so many that the palace
could not hold them. Il soon discovered the IN
genOus mariner proceeds, "that both ot them
"were perfect strangers to the rest of the compa-
=" ny, and had never seen or heard OF them before.
" And l had whisper from ghost, who shall be
nameless that these commentators always kept
in the most distant quarters from their principals
&" in the lower world, through a consciousness Of
shame and guilt, because they had so horribly
misrepresented the meaning of their authors to
posterity." This remarkable post mortem devel-
opmeLt of modesty on the part Of this parasitic
brood may give ground for hope that Shakespeare
hath never been veIed by the sight Of the confused
multitude of camp-iollowers who prowl in the rear
Of his tIiumphsl procession through all time, IN
hopes of enIichiDg themselves by cleaning up such
p.chngs and stealDgs of fame as he may let drop
i'll the lavish profusion Of his wealth. they have
any sense Of their msdeeds they will give the Ely
sian Felds wide berth, and hide their heads in Tar
tarus, rather than encounter the kindly magician,
whose book they have drowned in the depths Of
their own stupidity, and whose staff they have cut
down into crutch to help their own holdings and
stumblings.
Rowe and Pope, and Theobald and Hammer, and
WaIburton and Johnson, and Capell and Stevens,
and Malone and Boswell, and Collier and Dyce
and Haliwel and all the rest Of them, how few
we're worthy Of the task they undertook, of patch
ing the garments and clouing the shoes of the great
poet Pope and johnson could hardly be other.
wise than clever In their talk, but how little did
either of them DO for the emendation of the text Of
their sutbor. And these are so far ahead Of the
rest of the tribe as hardly TO be in sight of the best
Of them The improvements most Of them could
make were Ike that worked upon the monumental
t ffiges Of tie bard at StratfJrd, when Malone and
tie sexton whtewashed him, all one as if he had
been railway director, covering the original dis
tnguishments of coors, Of face, and eyes, and gar
ments in one uDdistiDgushable daub. "Methinks
80 see them at their work, the pestlent trouble
tombs' What had he done to them that they
should thus disquiet his spirit aud make him give
utterances which he never dreamed Of in the flesh
Some people have doubted whether any sufficient
10 halo tba pI
mischieis, has resulted from the discovery of Amer
lea. Others have questioned whether the Ameri-
can Revolution were not grave mistake. Doubts
have been expressed as TO the advantages arising
from the revival of learring and the invention Of
printing But We think fe y honest English read
ers have had any doubt as to the blessing it would
have been 10 them had the race of Shakespearian
CONNIE ntators died before the light. The ingenuity
with which they daEkeD, conceal, and obscure
what plain and the grave persistency with which
they pass over whatever is really hard TO under
stand, has endangered many an immortal soul by
the provocation they give 70 the relief OF pEofane
cursiDg and swearing
There is this comfort, however, in the matter
that they all hate each other with more than
theologie late. Even Scrip.ural commentary doth
no. ,eem TO have more aedulatory effect on the
temper ard TO tend more TO an overflow Of the bile
than that on Shakespeare. Perhaps in the lower
world this may be the punishment appointed TO
their sacrilegous stirring Of the dust of the bard
and thS: they spend eternity in f:ticlfs and taking
one another by the tbroa: and calling one another
names. Some expia,iOn Of their impertinences is
due to the sense Of justice Of the honest readers Of
bis works, who turn to them TO be waited away
from tk.r cares and their yexltions for season,
to dwell with Pro.pero in bis si,nd, with Juliet ia
her chamber, with Macbeth on the blasted heath
with Eosslnd in Arden, and VINO form the true SEQ.
of the prophet. When one of these is brought
down from the highest heaven Of invention to the
earth by laundering fcot-po.e, he feels as if