The wife and fool, the artist and unread,
The hard and foft, seem all affin'd and kin: .
But in the wind and tempeft of her frown,
Diftinction with a broad and powerful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
And what hath mass, or matter, by itself,
Lies, rich in virtue, and unmingled.

Neft. With due obfervance of thy godlike feat,
Great Agamemnon, 3 Neftor fhall apply
Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance
Lies the true proof of men: the fea being smooth,
How many shallow bauble boats dare fail
Upon her 4 patient breaft, making their way
5 With thofe of nobler bulk?

Broad, quarto; the folio reads loud. JOHNSON.

With due obfervance of thy goodly feat,] Goodly is an epithet carries no very great compliment with it; and Neftor feems here to be paying deference to Agamemnon's state and pre-eminence. The old books have it, to thy godly feat; godlike, as I have reformed the text, feems to me the epithet defigned; and is very conformable to what Æneas afterwards fays of Agamemnon;

Which is that god in office guiding men?

So godlike feat is here, ftate fupreme above all other commanders. THEOBALD.

This emendation Theobald might have found in the quarto, which has,

3

the godlike feat. JOHNSON.

Neftor fball APPLY

Thy lateft words] Neftor applies the words to another inftance. JOHNSON.

4 -patient breaft,] The quarto not fo well,

ancient breaft. JOHNSON.

With thofe of nobler bulk ?] Statius has the fame thought, though more diffusedly expreffed :

"Sic ubi magna novum Phario de littore puppis
"Solvit iter, jamque innumeros utrinque rudentes
"Lataque veliferi porrexit brachia mali
"Invafitque vias ; it eodem angufta phafelus

"Equore, et immenfi partem fibi vendicat auftri."

Poge has imitated the paffage. STEEVENS.

But

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis, and anon, behold,
The ftrong-ribb'd bark thro' liquid mountains cut,
Bounding between the two moift elements,
Like Perfeus' horfe. Where's then the faucy boat,
Whose weak untimber'd fides but even now
Co-rival'd greatnefs? either 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 bright

nefs,

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 flee under fhade; why then

courage,

the thing of

As rowz'd with rage, with rage doth fympathize;
And, with an accent tun'd in felf-fame key,
Returns to chiding fortune.

Ulyff. 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 fhut up, hear what Ulyffes fpeaks,
Befides the applause and approbation

The which-moft mighty for thy place and sway→→ [To Agamemnon, And thou, moft reverend, for thy ftretcht-out life[To Neftor.

the thing of courage,] It is faid of the tiger, that in ftorms and high winds he rages and roars moft furiously.

7 Returns to chiding fortune.] For returns, replies, unneceffarily, the fenfe being the fame. quarto have retires, corruptly. JOHNSON,

HANMER. Hanmer reads The folio, and

I give to both your fpeeches; which are fuch,
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece
Should hold up high in brafs; and such again,
As venerable Neftor, hatch'd in filver,

Should with a bond of air (ftrong as the axle-tree-
On which heaven rides) knit all the Greekish ears
To his experienc'd tongue: yet let it please both
Thou great, and wife, to hear Ulyffes fpeak.
9 Agam

8

-Speeches; which were fuch,

As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece.

Should hold up high in brefs; and juch again,
As venerable Neftor, hatch'd in filver,

Shouldknit all Greeks ears

To his experienc'd tongue :] Ulyffes begins his oration with praifing thofe who had fpoken before him, and marks the characteristick excellencies of their different eloquence, ftrength, and sweetness," which he expreffes by the different metals on which he recommends them to be engraven for the inftruction of posterity. The fpeech of Agamemnon is fuch that it ought to be engraven in brafs, and the tablet held up by him on the one fide, and Greece on the other, to fhew the union of their opinion. And Neftor ought to be exhibited in filver, uniting all his audience in one mind by his foft and gentle elocution. Brafs is the common emblem of ftrength, and filver of gentlenefs. We call a foft voice a filver voice, and a perfuafive tongue a filver tongue. I once read for hand, the band of Greece, but I think the text right. To hatch is a term of art for a particular method of engraving. Hatcher, to cut, Fr. JOHNSON.

In the defcription of Agamemnon's fpeech, there is a plain allufion to the old custom of engraving laws and publick records in brass, and hanging up the tables in temples, and other places of general refort. Our author has the fame allufion in Meafure for Meafure, act v. fcene 1. The Duke, fpeaking of the merit of Angelo and Efcalus, fays, that

66

It deferves with characters of brass

"A forted refidence, 'gainst the tooth of time
"And razure of oblivion.".

So far therefore I agree with Mr. Johnfon. I do not fee any reafon for fuppofing with him, that Neftor's fpeech, or Neftor himfelf (for it is not clear, I think, which he means) was alfo to be engraven in filver." To hatch, (fays he) is a term of "art for a particular method of engraving." It is fo.

Hatching

9 Agam. Speak, prince of Ithaca, and be't of lefs expect

That matter needlefs, of importless burden,
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,
When rank Therfites opes his mastiff jaws,
We shall hear mufick, 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 fpecialty of rule hath been neglected;

Hatching is ufed in the engraving of plates from which prints are to be taken, principally, I believe, to exprefs the shadows: but it can be of no ufe in any other fpecies of engraving, which could exhibit (to use Mr. Johnson's phrafe) either Neftor, or his fpeech, in filver. In short, I believe, we ought to read,― THATCH'D in filver, alluding to his filver hair. The fame metaphor is ufed by Timon (act iv. fcene 4.) to Phryne and Timandra:

66

thatch your poor thin roofs

"With burthens of the dead."

Of the reft of this paffage Mr. Johnfon fays nothing. If he has no more conception than I have of

a bond of air (strong as the axle-tree

On which heaven rides)

he will perhaps excufe me for hazarding a conjecture, that the true reading may poffibly be,

a bond of AWE.

After all, the conftruction of this paffage is very harsh and irregular; but with that I meddle not, believing it was left so by the author. Obfervations and Conjectures, &c. printed at Oxford, 1766.

I find the word hatch'd used by Heywood in the Iron Age, 1632: his face

"Is hatch'd with impudency three-fold thick." And again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Humorous Lieutenant, "His weapon hatch'd in blood."

The voice of Neftor, which on all occations enforced attention, might be, I think, not unpoetically called, a bond of air, be caufe its operations were vifible, though his voice, like the air, was unfeen. STEEVENS.

9

Agam. Speak, &c.] This fpeech is not in the quarto.
JOHNSON.

The Specialty of rule-] The particular rights of fupreme authority. JOHNSON.

And,

And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand
Hollow upon this plain, fo many hollow factions.
2 When that the general is not like the hive,
To whom the foragers fhall all repair,

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

3 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,
In noble eminence enthron'd and fpher'd
Amidst the other; whofe med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,
And pofts, like the commandment of a king,
Sans check, to good and bad. 4 But when the planets
In evil mixture, to diforder wander,

2 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 stock 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 confufed. JOHNSON.

3 The heavens themselves,- -] This illuftration was probably derived from a paffage in Hooker: "If celestial fpheres "fhould forget their wonted motion; if the prince of the "lights of heaven should begin to ftand; if the moon fhould "wander from her beaten way; and the feafons of the year "blend themselves; what would become of man ?"

The heavens themselves, 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 folar fyftem. WARE.

But when the planets

In evil mixture, to diforder wander, &c.] I believe the poet, according to aftrological opinions, means, when the planets form malignant configurations, when their aspects are evil towards one another. This he terms evil mixture. JOHNS.

The apparent irregular motions of the planets were supposed to portend fome difafters 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.

What