The strong-ribb'd Bark through liquid mountains cuts;
Bounding between the two moift elements,
Like Perfeus' horfe: Where's then the fawcy boat,
Whose weak untimber'd fides but even now
Co-rival'd Greatnefs? or to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even fo
Doth valour's fhew and valour's worth divide
In ftorms of fortune. For in her ray and brightness,
The herd hath more annoyance by the brize
Than by the tyger: but when splitting winds
Make flexible the knees of knotted oaks,
And flies get under fhade; the thing of courage
As rowz'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize;
And, with an accent tun'd in felf-fame key,
'Returns to chiding fortune.

Uly. Agamemnon,

Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece,
Heart of our numbers, foul, and only spirit,
In whom the tempers and the minds of all
Should be shut up: hear, what Ulyffes fpeaks.
Befides th' applaufe and approbation

The which, moft mighty for thy place and fway,
[To Agamemnon.
And thou, moft rev'rend for thy ftretcht-out life,

[To Neftor.
I give to both your fpeeches; which were fuch,
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece
Should hold up high in brafs; and fuch again,
As venerable Neftor (hatch'd in filver)

Should with a bond of air, ftrong as the axle-tree
On which heav'n rides, knit all the Grecians' ears
To his experienc'd tongue: yet let it please both

5 -The thing of courage,] It is faid of the tiger, that in ftorms and high winds he rages and roars most furiously. Oxford Editor.

6 Returns to chiding fortune.] i, e. replies averfely to adverse fortune.

Thou

(Thou great, and wife) to hear Ulysses speak.
Aga. Speak, Prince of Ithaca: we lefs expect,
That matter needlefs, of importless burthen,
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,
When rank Therfites opes his maftiff jaws,
We fhall hear mufic, wit, and oracle.

Uly. Troy, yet upon her bafis, had been down, And the great Hector's fword had lack'd a master, But for these instances.

The fpeciality of Rule hath been neglected;
And, look, how many Grecian Tents do stand
Hollow upon this Plain, fo many hollow factions.
7 When that the General not likes the hive,
To whom the Foragers fhall all repair,

What honey is expected? degree being vizarded,
Th' unworthieft fhews as fairly in the mask.
The heavens themselves, the planets, and this center,
Obferve degree, priority and place.

Infifture, courfe, proportion, feason, form,
Office and cuftom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet Sol

7 When that the General is NOT LIKE the hive,] The image is taken from the government of bees. But what are we to underftand by this line? either it has no meaning, or a meaning contrary to the drift of the speaker. For either it fignifies, that the General and the hive are not of the fame degree or fpecies, when as the fpeaker's complaint is, that the hive acts fo perverfely as to destroy all difference of degree between them and the General: or it must fignify, that the General has private ends and interefts diftin&t from that of the bive; which defeats the very end of the fpeaker; whofe purpose is to justify the General, and expofe the difobedience of the hive. We should certainly then read,

When that the General NOT LIKES the hive:

i. e. when the foldiers like not, and refufe to pay due obedience to their General: This being the very cafe he would describe, and fhew the mischiefs of.

8 The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre,] i. e. the centre of the earth; which, according to the Ptolemaic Syftem then in vogue, is the centre of the Solar System.

VOL. VII.

Сс

In noble eminence enthron'd and fpher'd
Amidst the reft, whofe med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill afpects of planets evil,
And pofts like the commandment of a King,
Sans check, to good and bad. But when the Planets
In evil mixture to disorder wander,

What plagues, and what portents, what mutiny?
What raging of the Sea? fhaking of earth?
Commotion in the winds? frights, changes, horrors,
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate

The unity and married calm of states

Quite from their fixure? Oh, when degree is fhaken, (Which is the ladder to all high defigns)

The enterprize is fick. How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable fhores,
The primogeniture, and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, fcepters, lawrels,
(But by degree) ftand in authentick place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And hark what difcord follows; each thing meets
In meer oppugnancy. The bounded waters
Would lift their bofoms higher than the fhores,
And make a fop of all this folid Globe:
Strength would be lord of imbecillity,

And the rude fon would ftrike his father dead:

I

• Force would be Right; or rather, Right and

Wrong

(Between whofe endless jar Justice prefides)

9

But when the Planets

• Would

In evil mixture to diforder wander, &c.] By Planets Shakespear here means Comets, which by fome were supposed to be excentrical planets. The evil effects here recapitulated were those which fuperftition gave to the appearance of Comets.

I

Right and Wrong

(Between whofe endless jar Juftice RESIDES)

Would lofe their names,-] The Editor, Mr. Theobald,

• Would lofe their names, and fo would Juftice too. • Then every thing includes itself 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 itself. Great Agamemnon! This Chaos, when degree is fuffocate, Follows the choaking:

And this neglection of degree is it,

thinks that the fecond line is no bad comment upon what Horace bas faid on this fubject;

funt certi denique fines,

Quos ultra citraque nequit confiftere rectum.

But if it be a comment on the Latin poet, it is certainly the worst that ever was made. Horace fays, with extreme good fenfe, that there are certain bounds beyond which, and fhort of which, juftice or Right cannot exist. The meaning is, because if it be fort of thofe bounds, wrong prevails; if it goes beyond, Juflice tyrannifes; according to the common proverb of Summum jus fumma injuria. Shakespear fays, that fufice refides between the endless jar of right and wrong. Here the two extremes, between which Juftice refides, are right and wrong; in Horace the two extremes, between which Juftice refides, are both wrong. A very pretty comment this truly, which puts the change upon us; and inftead of explaining a good thought of Horace, gives us a nonfenfical one of its own. For to fay the truth, this is not only no comment on Horace, but no true reading of Shakespear. Fuftice is here reprefented as moderating between Right and Wrong, and acting the over-complaifant and ridiculous part of Don Adriano de Armado in Love's Labour's Loft, who is called, with inimitable humour,

A man of Compliments, whom Right and Wrong

Have chofe as Umpire of their Mutiny.

This is the exact office of Justice in the prefent reading: But we are not to think that Shakespear in a ferious fpeech would drefs her up in the garb of his fantastic Spaniard. We must rather conclude that he wrote,

Between whofe endless jar Juftice PRESIDES; i.e. always determines the controverfy in favour of Right; and thus Juftice is properly characterised without the author's ever dreaming of commenting Horace.

Cc 2

That

That by a pace goes backward, in a purpose
It hath to climb. 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 Superior, grows to an envious feaver
Of pale and bloodless emulation.

And 'tis this feaver that keeps Troy on foot,
Not her own finews. To end a Tale of length,
Troy in our weakness lives, not in her ftrength.
Neft. Moft wifely hath Ulyffes here discover'd
The feaver, whereof all our power is fick.

Aga. The nature of the sickness found, Ulysses,
What is the remedy?

Ulyff. "The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns "The finew and the fore-hand of our Hoft,

66

Having his ear full of his airy fame,

"Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent

"Lies mocking our defigns. With him, Patroclus, Upon a lazy bed, the live-long day

66

"Breaks fcurril jefts;

"And with ridiculous and aukward action "(Which, flanderer, he imitation calls)

"He pageants us. Sometimes, great Agamemnon, "Thy ftoplefs Deputation he puts on; "And, like a ftrutting Player, (whofe conceit "Lies in his ham-ftring, and doth think it rich "To hear the wooden dialogue and found ""Twixt his ftretch'd footing and the scaffoldage) "Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrefted Seeming "He acts thy Greatness in: and when he speaks, "'Tis like a chime a mending: with terms unfquar'd: "Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropt,

2 Thy TOPLESS deputation- -] I don't know what can be meant by topless, but the contrary to what the fpeaker would infinuate. I fufpect the poet wrote STOPLESS, i. e. unlimited; which was the cafe. "Would