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As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece
Should hold up high in brass; and fuch again,

As**

read,-thatch'd in filver, alluding to his filver hair; the fame metaphor being used by Timon, act IV. fc. iv. to Phryne and Timandra:

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But I know not whether the prefent reading may not be underflood to convey the fame allufion; as I find, that the fpecies of engraving, called hatching, was particularly ufed in the hilts of fawords. See Cotgrave iu v. Haché; hacked, &c. alfo, Hatched, as the hilt of a word; and in v. Hacher; to hacke, &c. alfo to hatch a hilt. Beaumont and Fletcher's Cuftom of the Country : "When thine own bloody fword cried out against thee, "Hatch'd in the life of him.

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As to what follows, if the reader should have no more conception than I have, of

-a bond of air, firong as the axle-tree

On which the heavens ride;

he will perhaps excufe me for hazarding a conjecture, that the rue reading may poffibly be:

a bond of awe.

The expreffion is ufed by Fairfax in his 4th Eclogue, Muses Library, p 368:

"Unty thefe bonds of awe and cords of duty."

After all, the conftruction of this paffage is very harsh and irregular; but with that I meddle not, believing it was left fo by the author. TYRWHITT.

Perhaps no alteration is neceffary; batch'd in filver, may mean, whofe white hair and beard make him look like a figure engraved on filver.

The word is metaphorically used by Heywood in the Iron Age, 1632:

his face

"Is batch'd with impudency three-fold thick."

And again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Humourous Lieutenant : "His weapon batch'd in blood."

Again, literally, in the Two Merry Milkmaids, 1620: "Double and treble gilt,

"Hatch'd and inlaid, not to be worn with time.”

Again, more appofitely, in Love in a Maze, 1632:

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Thy hair is fine as gold, thy chin is hatch'd "With filver.".

The voice of Neftor, which on all occafions enforced attention, might be, I think, not unpoetically called, a bond of air. because.

its

As venerable Neftor, hatch'd in filver,
Should with a bond of air (strong as the axle-tree
Oh which heaven rides) knit all the Greekish ears
To his experienced tongue,-yet let it pleafe both,-
Thou great,—and wife, to hear Ulyffes fpeak.
Agam. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be't of lefs
expect

That matter needlefs, of importlefs burden,
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,
When rank Therfites opes his maftiff jaws,

its operations were vifible, though his voice like the wind, was Enfeen. STEEVENS.

In the following verfes in our author's Rape of Lucrece, nearly the fame picture is given. The fifth line of the first stanza ftrongly confirms Mr. Tyrwhitt's conjecture, who wishes to read thatched in filver; or rather fupports Mr. Steevens's interpretation of the word in the text, which he has fhewn might bear the fame meaning. With refpect to the breath or fpeech of Neftor, here called a bond of air, which Mr. Steevens has well explained, it is fo truly Shakspearian, that I have not the fmalleft doubt of the genuinenefs of the expreffion. The ftanzas above alluded to are these :

"There pleading you might fee grave Neftor ftand,
"As 'twere encouraging the Greeks to fight,
"Making fuch fober action with his hand,
"That it beguil'd attention, charm'd the fight;
"In fpeech, it seem'd his beard all filver white

Wagg'd up and down, and from his lips did fly
"Thin winding breath, which purl'd up to the fky
"About him was a prefs of gaping faces,

"Which feem'd to fwallow up his found advice;
"All jointly lift'ning but with feveral graces,
"As if fome mermaid did their ears entice,
"Some high, fome low; the painter was fo nice :
"The fcalps of many almoft hid behind

"To jump up higher feem'd, to mock the mind." What is here called fpeech that beguiled attention, is in the text a bond of air. Shakspeare frequently calls words wind. So, in one of his poems:

1

"Sorrow ebbs, being blown with wind of words."
MALONE.

Agam. Speak, &c.] This fpeech is not in the quarto."

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JOHNSON.

We

We shall hear mufic, wit, and oracle.

Ulyff. Troy, yet upon her basis, had been down, And the great Hector's fword had lack'd a master, But for these instances.

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The fpecialty of rule hath been neglected;

And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand
Hollow upon this plain, fo many hollow factions.
• When that the general is not like the hive,
To whom the foragers fhall all repair,

What honey is expected? Degree being vizardéd,
The unworthieft fhews as fairly in the mask.
The heavens themfelves, the planets, and this

center,

Obferve degree, priority, and place,
Infifture, courfe, proportion, feafon, form,
Office, and cuftom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol,
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
Amidst the other; whofe med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill afpects of planets evil,
And pofts like the commandment of a king,

The Specialty of rule-] The particular rights of fupreme authority. JOHNSON.

When that the general is not like the hive,] The meaning is, When the general is not to the army like the hive to the bees, the repofitory of the flock of every individual, that to which each particular reforts with whatever he has collected for the good of the whole, what honey is expected? what hope of advantage? The fenfe is clear, the expreffion is confufed. JOHNSON.

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The heavens themfelves,] This illuftration was probably derived from a paffage in Hooker: "If celeftial spheres should forget their wonted motion; if the prince of the lights of heaven should begin to ftand; if the moon fhould wander from her beaten way; and the seasons of the year blend themselves; what would become of man ?"

The heavens themselves, the planets, and this center,] i. e. the center of the earth, which, according to the Ptolemaic system, then in vogue, is the center of the folar fyftem.

WARBURTON.

Sans

Sans check, to good and bad: But, when the

planets,

In evil mixture, to diforder wander,

What plagues, and what portents? what mutiny?
What raging
of the fea? fhaking of earth?
Commotion in the winds ? frights, changes, horrors,
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate
The unity and married calm of states

2 But, when the planets,

In evil mixture, to diforder wander, &c.]

Quite

I believe the poet, according to aftrological opinions, means, when the planets form malignant configurations, when their afpects are evil towards one another. This he terms evil mixture. JOHNSON.

The poet's meaning may be fomewhat explained by Spenser, to whom he seems to be indebted for his prefent allufion':

"For who fo lift into the heavens looke,

"And fearch the courfes of the rowling fpheres,
"Shall find that from the point where they firit tooke
"Their fetting forth, in these few thoufand yeares
"They all are wandred much; that plaine appeares.
"For that fame golden fleecy ram, which bore
"Phrixus and Helle from their stepdames feares,
"Hath now forgot where he was plaft of yore,
"And shouldred hath the bull which fayre Europa bore.

"And eke the bull hath with his bow-bent horne
"So hardly butted thofe two twinnes of Jove,
"That they have crush'd the crab, and quite him borne
"Into the great Nemean lion's grove.

"So now all range, and do at random rove

"Out of their proper places far away,

"And all this world with them amiffe doe move,

And all his creatures from their course aftray,

"Till they arrive at their laft ruinous decay."

Faery Queen, B. V. c. i
STEEVENS.

The apparent irregular motions of the planets were fuppofed to portend fome difafters to mankind; indeed the planets themfelves were not thought formerly to be confined in any fixed orbits of their own, but to wander about ad libitum, as the etymology of their names demonftrates. ANONYMOUS.

3 married calm of ftates] The epithet married, which is ufed

D 2

Quite from their fixure? O, when degree is fhak'd, Which is the ladder to all high defigns,

6

The enterprize is fick! How could communities, Degrees in fchools, and brotherhoods in cities, Peaceful commerce from dividable fhores, The primogenitive and due of birth, Prerogative of age, crowns, fcepters, laurels, But by degree, ftand in authentic place? Take but degree away, untune that string, And, hark, what difcord follows! each thing meets In meer oppugnancy: The bounded waters Should lift their bofoms higher than the fhores, And make a fop of all this folid globe : Strength fhould be lord of imbecility,

And the rude fon fhould strike his father dead: Force fhould be right; or, rather, right and wrong (Between whose endless jar justice resides)

ufed to denote an intimate union, is employed in the fame fenfe by Milton:

-Lydian airs

"Married to immortal verfe."

Again,

-voice and verse

"Wed your divine founds."

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Again, in Sylvefter's tranflation of Du Bartas's Eden:
-fhady groves of noble palm-tree fprays,
"Of amorous myrtles and immortal bays;
"Never unleav'd, but evermore they're new,

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Self-arching, in a thousand arbours grew.

"Birds marrying their fweet tunes to the angels' lays, "Sung Adam's blifs, and their great Maker's praife.' The fubject of Milton's great poem would naturally have led him to read this defcription in Sylvefter. This quotation I owe to Dr. Farmer.

Shakspeare calls a harmony of features, married lineaments, in Romeo and Juliet. STEEVENS.

40, when degree is fhak'd,] I would read:

So when degree is fhak'd. JOHNSON.

5 The enterprize-] Perhaps we fhould read:

6

Then enterprize is fick !

JOHNSON.

-brotherhoods in cities,] Corporations, companies, confraternities. JOHNSON.

Should

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