Agam. Speak,2 prince of Ithaca; and be 't of less expect3

Again, more appositely, in Love in a Maze, 1632: "Thy hair is fine as gold, thy chin is hatch'd "With silver

Again, in Chapman's version of the 23d Iliad:

"Shall win this sword, silver'd and hatch'd;

The voice of Nestor, which on all occasions enforced attention, might be, I think, not unpoetically called, a bond of air, be cause its operations were visible, though his voice, like the wind, was unseen. Steevens.

In a newspaper of the day, intitled The Newes published for Satisfaction and Information of the People, Nov 12, 1663, No. XI, p. 86, is advertized, "Lost, in Scotland Yard, a broad sword hatcht with silver." Reed.

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 silver. In a subsequent passage the colour of the old man's beard is again mentioned:

"I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver."

Dr. Johnson therefore is undoubtedly mistaken in supposing that there is any allusion to the soft voice or silver tongue of Nestor. The poet, however, might mean not merely that Nestor looked like a figure engraved in silver (as Mr. Steevens supposes); but that he should actually be so engraved.

With respect to the breath or speech of Nestor, here called a bond of air, it is so truly Shakspearian, that I have not the smallest doubt of the genuineness of the expression. Shakspeare frequently calls words wind, and air. So, in one of his poems:

sorrow ebbs, being blown with wind of words." Again, in Romeo and Juliet:

"Three civil broils, bred of an airy word." Again, more appositely, in Much Ado about Nothing:

"Charm ache with air, and agony with words." The verses above alluded to are these:

"There pleading you might see grave Nestor stand,
"As 'twere encouraging the Greeks to fight;
"Making such sober action with his hand,
"That it beguil'd attention, charm'd the sight;
"In speech it seem'd, his beard all silver white
"Wagg'd up and down, and from his lips did fly
"Thin winding breath, which purl'd up to the sky.
"About him were a press of gaping faces,
"Which seem'd to swallow up his sound advice,
"All jointly list'ning but with several graces,
"As if some mermaid did their ears entice;
"Some high, some low; the painter was so nice,
"The scalps of many almost hid behind

To jump up higher seem'd, to mock the mind.”

That matter needless, of importless burden,
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,
When rank Thersites opes his mastiff jaws,
We shall hear musick, wit, and oracle.

Ulyss. Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down,
And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master,

What is here called speech that beguil'd attention, is in the text a bond of air; i. e. breath, or words that strongly enforced the attention of his auditors. In the same poem we find a kindred expression:

"Feast-finding minstrels, tuning my defame,
"Will tie the hearers to attend each line."

Again, more appositely, in Drayton's Mortimeriados, 4to. no date:

"Torlton, whose tongue men's ears in chains could bind." The word knit, which alone remains to be noticed, is often used by Shakspeare in the same manner. So, in Macbeth:

66 to the which my duties

"Are with a most indissoluble tie

"For ever knit "

Again, in Othello: "I have profess'd me thy friend, and I confess me knit to thy deserving with cables of perdurable toughness."

A passage in Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie, 1589, may illustrate that before us: "Whether now persuasions may not be said violent and forcible, especially to simple myndes, in special I refer to all men's judgement that hear the story. At least waies I finde this opinion confirmed by a pretie device or embleme that Lucianus alleageth he saw in the portrait of Hercules within the citie of 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 Chapinan's version of the 13th Odyssey:

"He said; and silence all their tongues contain'd

"(In admiration) when with pleasure chain'd
"Their ears had long been to him." Steevens.

1 Thou great, and wise,] This passage is sense as it stands; yet I have little doubt that Shakspeare wrote-

3

Though great and wise,

M. Mason.

2 Agam. Speak, &c ] This speech is not in the quarto. Johnson. expect -] Expect for expectation. Thus, in our author's works, we have suspect for suspicion, &c. Steevens.

4

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Hector's sword had lack'd a master,] So, in Cymbeline:

gains, or loses,

"Your sword, or mine; or masterless leaves both." Steevens.

But for these instances.

The specialty of rules hath been neglected:
And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand
Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions.
When that the general is not like the hive,"
To whom the foragers shall all repair,

What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,
The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask.

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The heavens themselves, the planets, and this center,
Observe degree, priority, and place,

Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
Office, and custom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol,
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd

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5 The specialty of rule-] The particular rights of supreme authority. Johnson.

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.

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.

& 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.

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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.

Amidst the other; whose med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,1

And posts, like the commandment of a king,

Sans check, to good and bad: But, when the planets,
In evil mixture, to disorder wander,2

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 deracinate3

1 Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,] So, the folio. The quarto reads:

2

Corrects the influence of evil planets. Malone.

But, when the planets,

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.

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,
"Shall find that from the point where they first tooke
"Their setting forth, in these few thousand yeares
"They all are wandred much; that plaine appeares.
"For that same golden fleecy ram, which bore
"Phrixus and Helle from their stepdames feares,
"Hath now forgot where he was plast of yore,
"And shouldred hath the bull which fayre Europa bore

"And eke the bull hath with his bow-bent horne
"So hardly butted those two twins of Jove,

"That they have crush'd the crab, and quite him borne
"Into the great Nemaan 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 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 etymo-. logy of their names demonstrates. Anonymous.

3 deracinate] i. e. force up by the roots. So again, in King Henry V:

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the coulter rusts

"That should deracinate such savag'ry." Steevens.

The unity and married calm of states

Quite from their fixure? O, when degree is shak'd,"
Which is the ladder of all high designs,

The enterprize is sick! How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,"
Peaceful commérce from dividable shores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentick place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy: The bounded waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores,
And make a sop of all this solid globe:1
Strength should be lord of imbecility,

And the rude son should strike his father dead:
Force should be right; or, rather, right and wrong,
(Between whose endless jar justice resides)
Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;

And appetite, an universal wolf,

So doubly seconded with will and power,
Must make perforce an universal prey,

4 married calm of states -] The epithet-married, which is used to denote an intimate union, is employed in the same sense by Milton:

Lydian airs

"Married to immortal verse."

Shakspeare calls a harmony of features, married lineaments, in Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, sc. iii. See note on this passage. Steevens. 5 -O, when degree is shak'd,] I would read:

So, when degree is shak'd. Johnson.

6 The enterprize-] Perhaps we should read:

7

Then enterprize is sick!

Johnson.

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

8 dividable shores,] i. e. divided. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, our author uses corrigible for corrected. Mr. M. Mason has the same observation.

Steevens.

9 mere oppugnancy:] Mere is absolute. So, in Hamlet: things rank and gross in nature

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"Possess it merely." Steevens.

And make a sop of all this solid globe:] So, in King Lear:
- I'll make a sop o' the moonshine of you." Steevens

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