Thou great, and wife,6-to hear Ulyffes fpeak. Should hold up high in brafs; and fuch again, knit all the Greekish ears To his experienc'd tongue,] Ulyffes begins his oration with praifing thofe who had fpoken before him, and marks the characteristick excellencies of their different eloquence,-ftrength, and sweetness, which he expreffes by the different metals on which he recommends them to be engraven for the inftruction of pofterity. The fpeech of Agamemnon is fuch that it ought to be engraven in brafs, and the tablet held up by him on the one fide, and Greece on the other, to fhow the union of their opinion. And Neftor ought to be exhibited in filver, uniting all his audience in one mind by his foft and gentle elocution. Brafs is the common emblem of ftrength, and filver of gentlenefs. We call a foft 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 batch is a term of art for a particular method of engraving. Hacher, to cut, Fr. JOHNSON. In the defcription of Agamemnon's fpeech, there is a plain allufion to the old cuftom 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 allufion in Measure for Meafure, A&t V. fc. i. The Duke, fpeaking of the merit of Angelo and Efcalus, fays, that -it deferves with characters of brass "A forted refidence, 'gainst the tooth of time "And razure of oblivion.' So far therefore is clear. Why Neftor is faid to be hatch'd in filver, is much more obfcure. I once thought that we ought to read,thatch'd in filver, alluding to his filver hair; the fame metaphor being used by Timon, Act IV. fc. iv. to Phryne and Ti mandra: thatch your poor thin roofs "With burthens of the dead.” But I know not whether the prefent reading may not be understood to convey the fame allufion; as I find, that the fpecies of engraving, called hatching, was particularly ufed in the hilts of fwords. See Cotgrave in v. Hache; hacked, &c. alfo, Hatched, as the hilt of a fword; and in v. Hacher; to hacke, &c. alfo to hatch a bilt. Beaumont and Fletcher's Cuftom of the Country, Vol. II. p. 90: "When thine own bloody fword cried out against thee, "Hatch'd in the life of him AGAM. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be't of lefs expect 8 As to what follows, if the reader should have no more conception than I have, of a bond of air, ftrong as the axle-tree "On which heaven rides ; he will perhaps excufe me for hazarding a conjecture, that the true reading may poffibly be: - a bond of awe, The expreffion is ufed by Fairfax in his 4th Eclogue, Mufes 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; hatch'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 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: 66 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 operations were vifible, though his voice, like the wind, was unfeen. STEEVENS. In the following verfes in our author's Rape of Lucrece, nearly the fame picture of Neftor is given. The fifth line of the first ftanza may lead us to the true interpretation of the words hatch'd in filver. In a fubfequent paffage 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 fuppofing that there is any allufion to the foft voice or filver tongue of Neftor. The poet, however, might mean not merely that Neftor looked like When that the general is not like the hive,+ What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded, Obferve degree, priority, and place, Infifture, courfe, proportion, feason, form, chargeable as the quondam refidence of a factious chief; for the plain fenfe muft 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 hive to the bees, the repofitory of the ftock 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 confused. JOHNSON. The heavens themselves,] This illuftration was probably derived from a paffage in Hooker: "If celeftial fpheres fhould 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 feafons 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 fyftem, then in vogue, is the center of the folar fyftem. WARBURTON, By this centre, Ulyffes means the earth itself, not the centre of the earth. According to the fyftem of Ptolemy, the earth is the centre round which the planets move. M. MASON. Corrects the ill afpécts of planets evil,] So, the folio. The quarto reads: Corrects the influence of evil planets. MALONE. 1 Sans check, to good and bad: But, when the planets, What plagues, and what portents? what mutiny? But, when the planets, In evil mixture, to disorder wander, &c.] 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 Spenfer, to whom he seems to be indebted for his prefent allufion: "For who fo lifte into the heavens looke, "And fearch the courfes of the rowling fpheres, "So hardly butted those two twins of Jove, "That they have crufh'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 amiffe doe move, "And all his creatures from their course aftray, Faery Queen, Book V. ch. i. The apparent irregular motions of the planets were supposed 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 demonstrates. ANONYMOUS. 9 - ·deracinate —] i. e. force up by the roots. So again, in King Henry V : 66 the coulter rufts "That should deracinate fuch favag'ry." STEEVENS. The unity and married calm of states' The enterprize is fick! How could communities, 2 married calm of ftates-] The epithet-married, which is used to denote an intimate union, is employed in the fame sense by Milton: Again: Lydian airs "Married to immortal verfe." "Wed your divine founds." Again, in Sylvefter's tranflation of Du Bartas's Eden: "Birds marrying their sweet tunes to the angels' lays, "Sung Adam's blifs, and their great Maker's praife." The fubject of Milton's larger poem would naturally have led him to read this defcription in Sylvefter. The quotation from him I owe to Dr. Farmer. Shakspeare calls a harmony of features, married lineaments, in Romeo and Juliet, A&t I. fc. iii. See note on this paffage. 3 O, when degree is shak'd,] I would read: So when degree is fhak'd. JOHNSON. 4 The enterprize-] Perhaps we should read: Then enterprize is fick ! — JOHNSON. STEEVENS. s-brotherhoods in cities,] Corporations, companies, confraternities. JOHNSON. 6 — dividable shores,] i. e. divided. So, in Antony and Cleopatra our author ufes corrigible for corrected. Mr. M. Mafon has the fame obfervation. STEEVENS. |