When rank Therfites opes his mastiff jaws,
We shall hear mufick, wit, and oracle.

ULYSS. Troy, yet upon his bafis, had been down, And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master,5 But for thefe inftances.

The specialty of rule hath been neglected:
And, look, how many Grecian tents do ftand
Hollow upon this plain, fo many hollow factions.?
When that the general is not like the hive,
To whom the foragers fhall all repair,

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

Hector's fword had lack'd a master,] So, in Cymbeline': -gains, or lofes,

"Your fword, or mine; or masterless leaves both-." STEEVENS.

• The Specialty of rule-] The particular rights of supreme authority. JOHNSON.

7 Hollow upon this plain, fo many hollow factions.] The word hollow, at the beginning of the line, injures the metre, without improving the sense, and should probably be ftruck out. M. MASON.

I would rather omit the word in the second inftance. To Stand empty, (hollow, as Shakspeare calls it,) is a provincial phrafe applied to houses which have no tenants. These factions, however, were avowed, not hollow, or infidious. Remove the word hollow, at the beginning of the verse, and every tent in fight would become 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.

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 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, the planets, and this

center,1

Obferve degree, priority, and place,
Infifture, course, proportion, feafon, form,
Office, and cuftom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol,
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
Amidst the other; whofe med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill afpécts of planets evil,

And posts, like the commandment of a king,
Sans check, to good and bad: But, when the planets,
In evil mixture, to disorder wander,3

9 The heavens themselves,] This illuftration was probably derived from a paffage in Hooker: "If celeftial spheres fhould forget their wonted motion; if the prince of the lights of heaven fhould begin to ftand; if the moon fhould 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 fyftem, then in vogue, is the center of the solar system. WARBURTON.

By this center, Ulyffes means the earth itself, not the center of the earth. According to the fyftem of Ptolemy, the earth is the center round which the planets move. M. MASON.

2 Corrects the ill afpects of planets evil,] quarto reads:

3

Corrects th' influence of evil planets.

But, when the planets,

So, the folio. The

MALONE.

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 allusion: "For who fo lifte into the heavens looke, "And fearch the courfes of the rowling fpheres, "Shall find that from the point where they firft tooke "Their fetting forth, in thefe few thousand yeares

They all are wandred much; that plaine appeares.

What plagues, and what portents? what mutiny?
What raging of the fea? fhaking of earth?
Commotion in the winds? frights, changes, horrors,
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate 4
The unity and married calm of states 5

"For that fame golden fleecy ram, which bore
"Phrixus and Helle from their stepdames feares,
"Hath now forgot where he was plaft 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 cruth'd the crab, and quite him borne
"Into the great Nemæan 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 amiffe doe move,

"And all his creatures from their course aftray,

"Till they arrive at their laft 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 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 demonftrates. ANONYMOUS.

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

5

the coulter rufts

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

married calm of States-] The epithet married, which is ufed to denote an intimate union, is employed in the fame fenfe by Milton:

1

Again:

66

Lydian airs

"Married to immortal verfe."

"Wed your divine founds."

Again, in Sylvefter's tranflation of Du Bartas's Eden:

fhady groves of noble palm-tree sprays,
"Of amorous myrtles and immortal bays;
"Never unleav'd, but evermore they're new,

Self-arching, in a thousand arbours grew.

"Birds marrying their fweet tunes to the angels' lays, Sung Adam's blifs, and their great Maker's praife."

66

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

The enterprize' is fick! How could communities,
Degrees in fchools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commérce from dividable shores,9
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, fceptres, laurels,
But by degree, fland in authentick place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what difcord follows! each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy: The bounded waters
Should lift their bofoms higher than the fhores,
And make a fop of all this folid globe: 2
Strength fhould be lord of imbecility,

And the rude fon fhould ftrike his father dead: Force fhould be right; or, rather, right and wrong, (Between whofe endless jar juftice refides,)

The fubje&t 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, Act I. fc. iii. See note on this paffage.

6

O, when degree is Shak'd,] I would read:
So, when degree is Shak'd. JOHNSON.

7 The enterprize-] Perhaps we should read:
Then enterprize is fick!-

JOHNSON.

STEEVENS.

8 brotherhoods in cities,] Corporations, companies, confraternities. JOHNSON.

9

dividable Shores,] i. e. divided. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, our author ufes corrigible for corrected. Mr. M. Mafon has the fame obfervation. STEEVENS.

I

mere oppugnancy:] Mere is abfolute. So, in Hamlet: things rank and grofs in nature "Poffefs it merely." STEEVENS.

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

66

STEEVENS.

Should lose their names, and fo fhould juftice too.
Then every thing includes itfelf in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite, an univerfal wolf,

So doubly feconded with will and power,
Must make perforce an univerfal prey,

And, laft, eat up himself. Great Agamemnon,
This chaos, when degree is fuffocate,
Follows the choking.

And this neglection 3 of degree it is,

That by a pace 4 goes backward, with a purpose
It hath to climb.5 The general's disdain'd
By him one step below; he, by the next;
That next, by him beneath: fo every step,
Exampled by the first pace that is fick
Of his fuperior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodlefs emulation: 6

And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,
Not her own finews. To end a tale of length,
Troy in our weakness stands, not in her ftrength.

NEST. Most wifely hath Ulyffes here discover'd The fever whereof all our power is fick.

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.

with a purpofe

JOHNSON.

It hath to climb.] With a defign in each man to aggrandize himself, by flighting his immediate fuperior. JOHNSON.

Thus the quarto. Folio-in a purpose. MALONE.

6

bloodless emulation:] An emulation not vigorous and active, but malignant and sluggish. JOHNSON.

7

our power-] i.e. our army. So, in another of our author's plays:

"Who leads his power?" STEEvens.