Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles." The expreffion is exquifitely fine: yet the Oxford editor alters it to-Keeps pace, and so destroys all its beauty. WARBURTON. Is there not here some allusion to that fublime description of the divine omniprefence in the 139th Pfalm? HENLEY. Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles.] It is clear from the defect of the metre that fome word of two fyllables was omitted by the carelessness of the tranfcriber or compofitor. Shakspeare perhaps wrote: or, Does thoughts themselves unveil in their dumb cradles,- So, in King Richard III : " And turn his infant morn to aged night." In Timon of Athens, we have the fame allufion: "Joy had the like conception in my brain, " And at that instant, like a babe sprung up." MALONE. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads: Does even our thoughts &c. STEEVENS. 8 (with whom relation Durst never meddle) -) There is a fecret administration of affairs, which no history was ever able to discover. JOHNSON. PATR. To this effect, Achilles, have I mov'd you: A woman impudent and mannish grown Is not more loath'd than an effeminate man In time of action. I stand condemn'd for this; They think, my little stomach to the war, And your great love to me, restrains you thus: Sweet, rouse yourself; and the weak wanton Cupid Shall from your neck unloose his amorous fold, And, like a dew-drop from the lion's mane, Be shook to air. ACHIL. Shall Ajax fight with Hector? PATR. Ay; and, perhaps, receive much honour by him. ACHIL. I fee, my reputation is at stake; My fame is shrewdly gor'd.2 PATR. O, then beware; Those wounds heal ill, that men do give them selves : Omission to do what is necessary' Seals a commission to a blank of danger; And danger, like an ague, fubtly taints Even then when we fit idly in the fun. ACHIL. Go call Thersites hither, sweet Patro clus : I'll send the fool to Ajax, and defire him To fee us here unarm'd: I have a woman's longing, to air.] So the quarto. The folio-ayrie air. JOHNSON. My fame is forewdly gor'd.] So, in our author's 110th Sonnet: 3 Omission to do &c.] By neglecting our duty we commission or enable that danger of dishonour, which could not reach us before, to lay hold upon us. JOHNSON. An appetite that I am fick withal, Enter THERSITES. THER. A wonder! ACHIL. What? THER. Ajax goes up and down the field, asking for himself. ACHIL. HOw so? THER. He must fight singly to-morrow with Hector; and is so prophetically proud of an heroical cudgelling, that he raves in saying nothing. ACHIL. How can that be? 3 THER. Why, he stalks up and down like a peacock, a stride, and a stand: ruminates, like an hostess, that hath no arithmetick but her brain to fet down her reckoning: bites his lip with a politick regard, as who should fay-there were wit in this head, an 'twould out; and so there is; but it lies as coldly in him as fire in a flint, which will not show without knocking. The man's undone for ever; for if Hector break not his neck i'the combat, he'll break it himself in vain-glory. He knows not me: I faid, Good morrow, Ajax; and he replies, Thanks, Agamemnon. What think you of this man, that takes me for the general? He is 2 3 with a politick regard,] With a fly look. JOHNSON. it lies as coldly in him as fire in a flint, which will not show without knocking.] So, in Julius Cæfar : "That carries anger, as the flint bears fire; grown a very land-fish, languageless, a monster. A plague of opinion! a man may wear it on both fides, like a leather jerkin. ACHIL. Thou must be my embafssador to him, Therfites. THER. Who, I? why, he'll answer nobody; he professes not answering; fpeaking is for beggars ; he wears his tongue in his arms. I will put on his prefence; let Patroclus make demands to me, you shall fee the pageant of Ajax. ACHIL. To him, Patroclus: Tell him,-I humbly defire the valiant Ajax, to invite the most valorous Hector to come unarm'd to my tent; and to procure safe conduct for his person, of the magnanimous, and most illustrious, fix-or-seven-timeshonour'd captain-general of the Grecian army, Agamemnon. Do this. PATR. Jove bless great Ajax. THER. Humph! PATR. I come from the worthy Achilles, PATR. Who most humbly defires you, to invite Hector to his tent; THER. Humph! PATR. And to procure safe conduct from Aga memnon. THER. Agamemnon? PATR. Ay, my lord. THER. Ha! PATR. What say you to't? 4 He wears his tongue in his arms.] So, in Macbeth: "My voice is in my sword.". STEEVENS. THER. God be wi' you, with all my heart. THER. If to-morrow be a fair day, by eleven o'clock it will go one way or other; howsoever, he shall pay for me ere he has me. PATR. Your answer, fir. THER. Fare you well, with all my heart. THER. No, but he's out o'tune thus. What mufick will be in him when Hector has knock'd out his brains, I know not: But, I am fure, none; unless the fiddler Apollo get his finews to make catlings on.s ACHIL. Come, thou shalt bear a letter to him straight. THER. Let me bear another to his horse; for that's the more capable creature. 6 ACHIL. My mind is troubled, like a fountain stirr'd; And I myself fee not the bottom of it." 5 [Exeunt ACHILLES and PATROCLUS. to make catlings on.] It has been already observed that a catling fignifies a small lute-string made of catgut. One of the muficians in Romeo and Juliet is called Simon Catling. 6 STEEVENS. the more capable creature.] The more intelligent creature. So, in King Richard III: "Bold, forward, quick, ingenious, capable." See also Vol. XI. p. 177, n. 9. MALONE. And I myself fee not the bottom of it.] This is an image frequently introduced by our author. So, in King Henry IV. Part II: "I fee the bottom of Justice Shallow." Again, in King Henry VI. Part II: |