AGAM. Speak3, prince of Ithaca; and be't of less expect gular; but with that I meddle not, believing it was left so by the author. TYRWHITT. 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 word is metaphorically used by Heywood, in The Iron Age, 1632: "Is hatch'd with impudency three-fold thick." And again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Humorous Lieutenant : 66 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 appositely, in Love in a Maze, 1632: "Thy hair is fine as gold, thy chin is hatch'd Again, in Chapman's version of the 23d Iliad: "Shall win this sword, ilver'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, because its operations were visible, though his voice, like the wind, was STEEVENS. unseen. 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. The following passage in Fanshawe's translation of the Pastor Fido seems to prove that hatched sometimes meant coloured: "Nor ist your study how to pay true love "But how your silver hair with gold to hatch." The original is "Ma tinger d'oro un insensata chioma." BOSWELL. 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. 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 small That matter needless, of importless burden, est doubt of the genuineness of the expression. Shakspeare frequently calls words wind and air. So, in one of his poems: 66 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, 66 66 Making such sober action with his hand, "That it beguil'd attention, charm'd the sight; 66 "Which seem'd to swallow up his sound advice, "To jump up higher seem'd, to mock the mind." 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 : 66 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: 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 devise or embleme that Lucianus alleageth he saw in the portrait of Hercules within the citie of When rank Thersites opes his mastive jaws, 5 ULYSS. Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down, And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master 3, But for these instances. 6 The specialty of rule hath been neglected: 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 Chapman's version of the 13th Odyssey: "He said; and silence all their tongues contain'd 2 THOU great, and wise,] This passage is sense as it stands ; yet I have little doubt that Shakspeare wrote Though great and wise M. MASON. 3 Agam. Speak, &c.] This speech is not in the quarto. JOHNSON. 4- expect-] Expect for expectation. Thus, in our author's works, we have suspect for suspicion, &c. STEEVENS. 5 Hector's SWORD HAD LACK'D A MASTER,] So, in Cymbeline: 66 gains, or loses, "Your sword, or mine; or masterless leaves both—.” STEEVENS. • The specialty of rule-] The particular rights of supreme authority. JOHNSON. 7 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. To whom the foragers shall all repair, What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded, The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask. The heavens themselves, the planets, and this center', Observe degree, priority, and place, Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, And posts, like the commandment of a king, In evil mixture, to disorder wander3, 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 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. 9 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. I 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. 2 Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,] So, the folio. The quarto reads: "Corrects th' influence of evil planets." MALone. 3 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. 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 deracinate The unity and married calm of states" 4 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, 66 They all are wandred much; that plaine appeares. "And eke the bull hath with his bow-bent horne 66 So hardly butted those two twins of Jove, "That they have crush'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 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 etymology of their names demonstrates. ANONYMOUS. 4 deracinate—] i. e. force up by the roots. So again, in King Henry V.: "That should deracinate such savag'ry." STEEVENS. MARRIED calm of states-] The epithet-married, which is used to denote an intimate union, is employed in the same sense by Milton: 66 Lydian airs "Married to immortal verse." Again: 66 voice and verse "Wed your divine sounds." Again, in Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas's Eden: |