When rank Thersites opes his mastive jaws, 5 ULYSS. Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down, And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master 3, But for these instances. The specialty of rule hath been neglected: Marseilles in Provence; where they had figured a lustie old man with a long chayne tyed by one end at his tong, by the other end at the people's eares, who stood afar off, and seemed to be drawen to him by force of that chayne fastened to his tong; as who would say, by force of his persuasions." MALONE. Thus, in Chapman's version of the 13th Odyssey: "He said; and silence all their tongues contain'd 2 THOU great, and wise,] This passage is sense as it stands ; yet I have little doubt that Shakspeare wrote Though great and wise M. MASON. 3 Agam. Speak, &c.] This speech is not in the quarto. JOHNSON. 4 - expect-] Expect for expectation. Thus, in our author's works, we have suspect for suspicion, &c. STEEVENS. 5 beline: - Hector's swORD HAD LACK'D A MASTER,] So, in Cym "Your sword, or mine; or masterless leaves both—." STEEVENS. The specialty of rule-] The particular rights of supreme authority. JOHNSON. 7 HOLLOW upon this plain, so many HOLLOW factions.] The word hollow, at the beginning of the line, injures the metre, without improving the sense, and should probably be struck out. M. MASON. I would rather omit the word in the second instance. To stand empty, (hollow, as Shakspeare calls it,) is a provincial phrase applied to houses which have no tenants. These factions, however, were avowed, not hollow, or insidious. Remove the word hollow, at the beginning of the verse, and every tent in sight would become chargeable as the quondam residence of a factious chief; for the plain sense must then be-there are as many hollow factions as there are tents. STEEVENS. To whom the foragers shall all repair, What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded, The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask. The heavens themselves, the planets, and this center', Observe degree, priority, and place, Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, And posts, like the commandment of a king, In evil mixture, to disorder wander3, 8 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 repository of the stock of every individual, that to which each particular resorts with whatever he has collected for the good of the whole, what honey is expected? what hope of advantage? The sense is clear, the expression is confused. JOHNSON. 9 The heavens themselves,] This illustration was probably derived from a passage in Hooker: "If celestial spheres should forget their wonted motion; if the prince of the lights of heaven should begin to stand; if the moon should wander from her beaten way; and the seasons of the year blend themselves; what would become of man?" WARBURTON. I 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 solar system. WARBURTON. By this center, Ulysses means the earth itself, not the center of the earth. According to the system of Ptolemy, the earth is the center round which the planets move. M. MASON. 2 Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,] So, the folio. The quarto reads: 66 Corrects th' influence of evil planets." 3 - But, when the planets, MALONE. In evil mixture, to disorder wander, &c.] I believe the poet, according to astrological opinions, means, when the planets form malignant configurations, when their aspects are evil towards one another. This he terms evil mixture. JOHNSON. What plagues, and what portents? what mutiny? What raging of the sea? shaking of earth? Commotion in the winds? frights, changes, horrors, Divert and crack, rend and deracinate The unity and married calm of states 5 The poet's meaning may be somewhat explained by Spenser, to whom he seems to be indebted for his present allusion: "For who so liste into the heavens looke, "And search the courses of the rowling spheres, "That they have crush'd the crab, and quite him borne "So now all range, and do at random rove "Out of their proper places far away, "And all this world with them amisse doe move, "And all his creatures from their course astray, "Till they arrive at their last ruinous decay." Fairy Queen, b. v. c. i. STEEVENS. The apparent irregular motions of the planets were supposed to portend some disasters to mankind; indeed the planets themselves 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 demonstrates. ANONYMOUS. 4 deracinate-] i. e. force up by the roots. So again, in King Henry V.: 5 the coulter rusts "That should deracinate such savag'ry." STEEVENS. MARRIED calm of states-] The epithet-married, which is used to denote an intimate union, is employed in the same sense by Milton: 66 - Lydian airs "Wed your divine sounds." Again, in Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas's Eden: Quite from their fixture? O, when degree is shak'd, Which is the ladder of all high designs, The enterprize' is sick! How could communities, Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels, 66 shady groves of noble palm-tree sprays, 66 Self-arching, in a thousand arbours grew. "Birds marrying their sweet tunes to the angels' lays, 66 Sung Adam's bliss, and their great Maker's praise." The subject of Milton's larger poem would naturally have led him to read this description in Sylvester. The quotation from him I owe to Dr. Farmer. Shakspeare calls a harmony of features, married lineaments, in Romeo and Juliet, Act I. Sc. III. p. 39. See note on this passage. STEEVENS. 6-O, when degree is shak'd.] I would read: So, when degree is shak'd. JOHNSON. Then enterprize is sick! JOHNSON. 8-brotherhoods in cities,] Corporations, companies, con fraternities. JOHNSON. 9DIVIDABLE shores,] i. e. divided. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, our author uses corrigible for corrected. son has the same observation. STEEVENS. I 66 Mr. M. Ma -MERE oppugnancy:] Mere is absolute. So, in Hamlet: 66 * And make a sop of all this solid globe :] So, in King Lear: I'll make a sop o'the moonshine of you." STEEVENS. In a former speech a boat is said to be made a toast for Neptune. BLAKEWAY. Strength should be lord of imbecility, And the rude son should strike his father dead: And appetite, an universal wolf, So doubly seconded with will and power, And, last, eat up himself. Great Agamemnon, 3 And this neglection of degree it is, That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot, 3 this NEGLECTION-] This uncommon word occurs again in Pericles, 1609 : --if neglection "Should therein make me vile-" MALONE. 4 That by a pace-] That goes backward step by step. 5 - with a purpose JOHNSON. It hath to climb.] With a design in each man to aggrandize himself, by slighting his immediate superior. JOHNSON. Thus the quarto. Folio-in a purpose. MALONE. 6 - bloodless emulation:] An emulation not vigorous and active, but malignant and sluggish. JOHNSON. |