Amidst the other; whose med'cinable eye And posts, like the commandment of a king, Sans check, to good and bad: But, when the planets, What plagues, and what portents? what mutiny? Commotion in the winds? frights, changes, horrors, 1 Corrects the ill aspécts of planets evil,] So, the folio. The quarto reads: 2 Corrects the influence of evil planets. Malone. 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. 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, "And eke the bull hath with his bow-bent horne "That they have crush'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 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. 3 ·deracinate-] i. e. force up by the roots. So again, in King Henry V: -the coulter rusts "That should deracinate such savag'ry." Steevens. The unity and married calm of states Quite from their fixure? O, when degree is shak'd, The enterprize is sick! How could communities, 9 Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores, And the rude son should strike his father dead: And appetite, an universal wolf, 4- 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." Shakspeare calls a harmony of features, married lineaments, in Romeo and Juliet, Act I, sc. iii. See note on this passage. Steevens. •O, when degree is shak'd,] I would read: So, when degree is shak'd. Johnson. 5-- 6 The enterprize-] Perhaps we should read: Then enterprize is sick! Johnson. 7 brotherhoods in cities,] Corporations, companies, confraternities. Johnson. 8- dividable shores,] i. e. divided. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, our author uses corrigible for corrected. Mr. M. Mason has the same observation. Steevens. 9 — mere oppugnancy:] Mere is absolute. So, in Hamlet: things rank and gross in nature tr "Possess it merely." Steevens. • And make a sop of all this solid globe:] So, in King Lear: I'll make a sop o' the moonshine of you." Steevens. And, last, eat up himself. Great Agamemnon, Follows the choking. And this neglection of degree it is, That by a pace3 goes backward, with a purpose And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot, Agam. The nature of the sickness found, Ulysses, What is the remedy? Ulyss. The great Achilles,-whom opinion crowns The sinew and the forehand of our host, Having his ear full of his airy fame,7 Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent Lies mocking our designs: With him, Patroclus, Breaks scurril jests; And with ridiculous and aukward action (Which, slanderer, he imitation calls,) 2 this neglection] This uncommon word occurs again in Pericles, 1609: 66 if neglection "Should therein make me vile, Malone. 3 That by a pace-] That goes backward step by step. Johnson. 4 •with a purpose It hath to climb.] With a design in each man to aggrandize himself, by slighting his immediate superior. Johnson. Thus the quarto. Folio-in a purpose. Malone. 5 bloodless emulation:] An emulation not vigorous and active, but malignant and sluggish. Johnson. 6 our power -] i. e. our army. So, in another of our author's plays: 7 "Who leads his power?" Steevens. his airy fame,] Verbal elogium; what our author, in Macbeth, has called mouth honour. Malone. He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon, And, like a strutting player,-whose conceit He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks, Now play me Nestor;-hem, and stroke thy beard, That's done;-as near as the extremest ends 8 Thy topless deputation - Topless is that which has nothing topping or overtopping it; supreme; sovereign. Johnson. So, in Doctor Faustus, 1604: "Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, Again, in The Blind Beggar of Alexandria, 1598: "And topless honours be bestow'd on thee." Steevens. 9'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage,] The galleries of the Theatre, in the time of our author, were sometimes termed the scaffolds. Malone. 1 o'er-wrested seeming —] i. e. 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. See Mr. Douce's note on Act III, sc. iii. Steevens. 2 a chime a mending;] To this comparison the praise of originality must be allowed. He who, like myself, has been in the tower of a church while the chimes were repairing, will ne ver wish a second time to be present at so dissonantly noisy an operation. Steevens. 3 unsquar'd,] i. e. unadapted to their subject, as stones are unfitted to the purposes of architecture, while they are yet unsquared. Steevens. 4 - as near as the extremest ends Of parallels;] The parallels to which the allusion seems to be made, are the parallels on a map. As like as cast to west. Johnson. Yet good Achilles still cries, Excellent! 'Tis Nestor right! Now play him me, Patroclus, And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age 5 — a palsy fumbling —] Old copies give this as two distinct words. But it should be written-palsy-fumbling, i. e. paralytick fumbling Tyrwhitt. Fumbling is often applied by our old English writers to the speech. So, in King John, 1591: he fumbleth in the mouth; "His speech doth fail." Again, in North's translation of Plutarch: " - he heard his wife Calphurnia being fast asleepe, weepe and sigh, and put forth ma ny fumbling lamentable speaches.” Shakspeare, I believe, wrote-in his gorget. i. e. at him. Steevens. • All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, Severals and generals of grace exact, Malone.. Pointing on him.” Achievements, plots, &c ] All our good grace exact, means our excellence irreprehensible. Johnson. 7-to make paradoxes.] Paradoxes may have a meaning, but it is not clear and distinct. I wish the copies had given : 8 to make parodies. Johnson. In such a rein,] That is, holds up his head as haughtily. We still say of a girl, she bridles. Johnson. |