Whose weak untimber'd fides but even now And flies fled under fhade, Why, then, the thing of courage, book which furnished him with fome other circumstances of this play. Of the horse alluded to in the text he found in that book the following account: "Of the blood that issued out [from Medufa's head] there engendered Pegasus, or the flying horse. By the flying horse that was engendered of the blood issued from her head, is understood, that of her riches issuing of that realme he [Perfeus] founded and made a flip named Pegase, and this ship was likened unto an borse flying," &c. Again: "By this fashion Perfeus conquered the head of Medufa, and did make Pegase, the most swift ship that was in all the world." In another place the fame writer assures us, that this ship, which he always calls Perfeus' flying horse, "flew on the fea like unto a bird." Deft. of Troy, 4to. 1617, p. 155-164. MALONE. The foregoing note is a very curious one; and yet our author perhaps would not have contented himself with merely comparing one ship to another. Unallegorized Pegasus might be fairly styled Perseus' horse, because the heroism of Perseus had given him exiftence. STEEVENS. 8 - by the brize,] The brize is the gad or horfe-fly. So, in Monfieur Thomas, 1639: "Have ye got the brize there? "Give me the holy sprinkle." Again, in Vittoria Corombona, or the White Devil, 1612: "1 will put brize in his tail, set him a gadding presently." See note on Antony and Cleopatra, Act III. fc. viii. STEEVENS. 9 And flies fled under shade,] i. e. And flies are fled under shade. I have obferved fimilar omillions in the works of many of our author's contemporaries. MALONE. 2 the thing of courage,] It is faid of the tiger, that in storms and high winds he rages and roars most furioufly. HANMER. : As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize, And with an accent tun'd in self-fame key, Returns to chiding fortune. Ulrss. 3 Agamemnon, Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece, I give to both your speeches, which were such, 4 3 Returns to chiding fortune.] For returns, Hanmer reads replies, unnecessarily, the sense being the same. The folio and quarto have retires, corruptly. JOHNSON. So, in King Richard II: Northumberland, say-thus the king returns;.” STEEVENS. The emendation was made by Mr. Pope. Chiding is noify, cla morous. So, in K. Henry VIII: " As doth a rock against the chiding flood." See Vol. XI. p. 120, n. 6. MALONE. See also Vol. V. p. 128, n. 6. STEEVENS. 4-axletree-) This word was anciently contracted into a dissyllable. Thus in Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca: when the mountain "Melts under their hot wheels, and from their ax'trees Huge claps of thunder plough the ground before them." S-Speeches, which were fuch, As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece STEEVENS. 1 Thou great, and wife, -to hear Ulysses speak. knit all the Greekish ears To his experienc'd tongue,] Ulysses begins his oration with praising those who had spoken before him, and marks the characteristick excellencies of their different eloquence, -strength, and sweetness, which he expresses by the different metals on which he recommends them to be engraven for the instruction of pofterity. 'The speech of Agamemnon is such that it ought to be engraven in brass, and the tablet held up by him on the one fide, and Greece on the other, to show the union of their opinion. And Nestor ought to be exhibited in filver, uniting all his audience in one mind by his foft and gentle elocution. Brass is the common emblem of strength, and filver of gentleness. We call a soft voice a filver voice, and a perfuafive tongue a filver tongue. I once read for hand, the band of Greece, but I think the text right. To hatch is a term of art for a particular method of engraving. Hecher, to cut, Fr. JOHNSON. In the description of Agamemnon's speech, there is a plain allufion to the old custom of engraving laws and publick records in brass, and hanging up the tables in temples, and other places of general refort. Our author has the fame allusion in Measure for Measure, Act V. fc. i. The Duke, speaking of the merit of Angelo and Efcalus, says, that "it deferves with characters of brass "A forted refidence, 'gainst the tooth of time So far therefore is clear. Why Nestor is faid to be hatch'd in filver, -thatch your poor thin roofs "With burthens of the dead." But I know not whether the present reading may not be understood "When thine own bloody sword cried out against thee, : AGAM. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be't of lefs expect * As to what follows, if the reader should have no more conception than I have, of he will perhaps excuse me for hazarding a conjecture, that the true reading may possibly be: - a bond of awe, The expression is used by Fairfax in his 4th Eclogue, Mufes Library, p. 368: "Unty these bonds of awe and cords of duty." After all, the construction of this passage is very harsh and irregular; but with that I meddle not, believing it was left so by the author. TYRWHITт. Perhaps no alteration is necessary; hatch'd in filver, may mean, whose 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 hatch'd with impudency three-fold thick." And again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Humorous Lieutenant : "His weapon hatch'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: "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 operations were visible, though his voice, like the wind, was unfeen. STEEVENS. In the following verses in our author's Rape of Lucrece, nearly the same picture of Nestor is given. The fifth line of the first stanza may lead us to the true interpretation of the words hatch'd in filver. In a fubfequent passage the colour of the old man's beard is again mentioned: "I'll hide my filver beard in a gold beaver." Dr. Johnfon therefore is undoubtedly mistaken in supposing that there is any allusion to the foft voice or filver tongue of Neftor. The poet, however, might mean not merely that Nestor looked like When that the general is not like the hive, center, Observe degree, priority, and place, chargeable as the quondam refidence of a factious chief; for the plain sense must then be there are as many hollow factions as there are tents. STEEVENS. 4 When that the general is not like the hive,] The meaning is,When the general is not to the army like the bive to the bees, the repofitory of the stock 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 sense is clear, the expreffion is confused. JOHNSON. s 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 ftand; if the moon should wander from her beaten way; and the seasons of the year blend themselves; what would become of man?" WARBURTON, 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 system. WARBURTON. By this centre, Ulysses means the earth itself, not the centre of the earth. According to the system of Ptolemy, the earth is the centre round which the planets move. M. MASON. Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,] So, the folio. The quarto reads: Corrects the influence of evil planets. MALONE. |