Perhaps no alteration is necessary; hatch'd in silver, may mean, whose white hair and beard make him look like a figure engraved on silver. The voice of Nestor, which on all occasions 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 unseen. STEEVENS. P. 144, l. 6. Thou great, This passage is sense as it stands; doubt that Shakspeare wrote 4 Though great and wise, and wise, ] yet I have little. M. MASON. P. 144, 1. 9. Expect for expectation. Thus in our author's works we have suspect for suspicion, &c. STEEVENS. P. 144, 1. 18. The specialty of rule] The particular rights of supreme authority. JOHNSON. P. 144, 1.-20. 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. P. 144, 1. 21 – 25. When that the general is not like the hive, To whom the foragers shall all repair, 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, P. 144, 1. 25-29. The heavens themselves, &c.] This illustration was probably derived from a passage in Hooker: "If celestial spheres should forget their wonted mo¬ tion; 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. P.. 144, 1. 25. 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. 1 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. when the P. 144, last 1. and P. 145, first 1. planets, In evil mixture, to disorder wander,] 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 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 or bits of their own, but to wander about ad libi fum, as the etymology of their names demonstra tés. ANONYMOUS. · P. 145, I. 6. deracinate by the roots. STEEVENS. ༥ ཉྙོ ང་།། ས ]e. force up P. 145, 1. 8. g. O, when degree is shak'd I would read: So when degree is shak'd. JOHNSON. 2R. 145, 1. 11. The enterprize is sick!] Perhaps we should read: The enterprize is sick! P. 145, l. 12, JOHNSON. brotherhoods] Corpora tions, companies, confraternities. JOHNSON. P. 145, 1. 13. dividable] ive. divided. So, in Antony and Cleopatra our author uses corrigible for corrected. STEEVENS. P. 145, 1. 20. Mere is absolute. STEEvens. P. 146, 1. 3. That by a pace goes backward,] That goes backward step by step. JOHNSON. P. 146, 1. 3. 4. with a purpose It hath to climb.] With a design in each man to aggrandize himself, by slighting his immediate superior. JOHNSON. P. 146, 1. 9. Of pale and bloodless emula tion:] An emulation not vigorous and active, but malignant and sluggish. P. 146, I. 14. ...JOHNSON. our power i. e. our army, STEEVENS P. 146, 1. 21. — airy fame,] Verbal enlo gium; what our author in Macbeth has called mouth honour. MALONE, I ad! P. 146, 1.. 29. Topless is that which has no→ thing topping or overtopping it; supreme; sovereign. JOHNSON. P. 146, 1:33. The galleries of the theatre, in the time of our author, were sometimes termed the scaffolds. MALONE, P. 146, last but one 1. o'er-wrested →] i. c. wrested beyond the truth; overcharged. Both the old copies, as well as all the modern editions, have- o'er-rested, which affords no meaning. MALONE. Over-wrested is -wound up too high. A wrest was an instrument for tuning a harp, by drawing up the strings. STEEVENS. P. 147, first 1. 'Tis like a chime a mending;] To this comparison the praise of originality must be allowed. He who, like himself, has been in the tower of a church while the chimes were repairing, will never wish a second time to be present at so dissonantly noisy an operation. STEEVENS. P. 147, 1. 2. terms unsquar'd,] i. e. unadapted to their subject, as stones are unfitted to the purposes of architecture, while they are yet unsquared. Steevens. P. 147, l. 12. 13. as near as the extremest ends Of parallels;] The parallels to which the allusion teems to be made, are the parallels on a map. As like as east to west.. JOHNSON. Old P. 147, 1. 19. palsy - fumbling copies give this as two distinct words. But it shonld be written palsy-fumbling, i. e. paralytick fumbling. TYRWHITT. Fumbling is often applied by our old English writers to the speech. MALONE. P. 147, I. 26. All our good grace "exact, means our excellence irreprehensible. JOHNSON. P. 147, l. 30. — to make paradoxes.] Paradoxes may have meaning, but it is not clear and distinct. I wish the copies had given: to make parodies. JOHNSON. P. 147, 1. 34. 35. and bears his head. -- In such a rein,] That is, holds up his head as haughtily. We still say of a girl, she bridles. JOHNSON. P. 148, 1. 3. like a mint,] i. e. as fast as a mint coins money. MALONE. - P. 148, 1. 6. How rank soever -] A rank weed is a high weed. The modern editions silently read: How hard soever wantin JOHNSON. and know, by measure Of their observant were better to read: toil, the enemies' weight, -] I think it and know the measure, By their observant toil, of the enemies, weight. JOHNSON. By measure of their observant toil, that is, by means of their observant toil. M. MASON. 3 P. 148, 1. 26. Surely, the name of Menelaus only serves to destroy the metre, and should there fore be omitted. STEEVENS. P. 149, 1. 5-8. How may A stranger to those most imperial looks Know them from eyes of other mortals?] And yet this was the seventh year of the war Shakspeare, who so wonderfully preserves character, usually confounds the customs of all nations, and probably supposed that the ancients (like the heroes of chivalry) fought with beavers to their helmets. So, in the fourth act of this play, Nestor says to Hector: But this thy countenance, still lock'd in steel, "I never saw till now. |