The wife and fool, the artist and unread,
The hard and foft, seem all affin'd and kin:
But in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction 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. 2 With due obfervance of thy godlike seat, Great Agamemnon, 3 Nestor shall 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 those of nobler bulk?

Broad, quarto; the folio reads loud. JOHNSON.

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

Which is that god in office guiding men ? So godlike feat is here, state supreme above all other commanders. THEOBALD.

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

3

- the godlike seat. JOHNSON.

- Neftor shall APPLY

Thy latest words) Neftor applies the words to another

instance. JOHNSON.

4-patient breast, The quarto not fo well,

- ancient breast. JOHNSON.

s With those of nobler bulk?] Statius has the fame thought,

though more diffusedly exprefssed :

Sic ubi magna novum Phario de littore puppis

"Solvit iter, jamque innumeros utrinque rudentes
"Lataque veliferi porrexit brachia mali

Invafitque vias; it eodem angufta phaselus
Æquore, et immenfi partem fibi vendicat auftri."

Pope has imitated the passage. STEEVENS.

But

१.

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis, and anon, behold,
The strong-ribb'd bark thro' liquid mountains cut,
Bounding between the two moist elements,
Like Perfeus' horse. Where's then the faucy boat,
Whose weak untimber'd fides but even now
Co-rival'd greatness? either to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so
Doth valour's shew and valour's worth divide
In storms 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 shade; why then

courage,

:

the thing of

:

As rowz'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize;

And, with an accent tun'd in self-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 shut up, hear what Ulysses speaks,
Befides the applaufe and approbation

:

The which-most mighty for thy place and sway

[To Agamemnon.

And thou, most reverend, for thy stretcht-out life[To Neftor.

the thing of courage,] It is said of the tiger, that in storms and high winds he rages and roars most furiously.

HANMER.

7 Returns to chiding fortune.] For returns, Hanmer reads

replies, unnecessarily, the sense being the fame. quarto have retires, corruptly. JOHNSON,

The folio and

I give to both your speeches; which are such,
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece
Should hold up high in brass; and fuch again,
As venerable Neftor, hatch'd in silver,
Should with a bond of air (strong 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 speak..

8 Speeches; which were fuch,
As Agamemnon and the band of Greece.
Should hold up high in brass, and such again,
As venerable, Nestor, hatch'd in filver,
Should knit all Greeks ears

:

9 Agam.

:

To his experienc'd' tongue :-) Ulysses begins his oration with praifing those who had fpoken before him, and marks the characterifick excellencies of their different eloquence, strength, and sweetness, which he expresses by the different metals on which he recommends them to be engraven for the inftruction of posterity. The speech of Agamemnon is such that it ought to be engraven in brass, and the tablet held up by him on the one fide, and Greece on the other, to shew 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. Brass is the common emblem of strength, and filver of gentleness. 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 speech, 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 Measure for Measure, act v. scene 1. The Duke, speaking of the merit of Angelo and Escalus, says, that

It deserves with characters of brafs "A forted refidence, 'gainst the tooth of time "And razure of oblivion."

So far therefore I agree with Mr. Johnson. I do not fee any reason for fuppofing with him, that Nestor's speech, or Neftor himself (for it is not clear, I think, which he means) was also to be engraven aven in filver. "To hatch, (says 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 less

expect

That matter needless, of importless burden,
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,
When rank Thersites opes his mastiff jaws,
We shall hear musick, wit, and oracle.

Ulyff. Troy, yet upon her basis, had been down,
And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master,
But for these instances.

• The specialty of rule hath been neglected;

Hatching is used in the engraving of plates from which prints are to be taken, principally, I believe, to express the shadows: but it can be of no use in any other species of engraving, which could exhibit (to use Mr. Johnson's phrase) either Neftor, or his speech, in filver. In short, I believe, we ought to read,一 THATCH'D in filver, alluding to his filver hair. The same metaphor is used by Timon (act iv. scene 4.) to Phryne and Timandra:

-thatch your poor thin roofs

"With burthens of the dead.".

Of the rest of this paffage Mr. Johnson says 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 excuse me for hazarding a conjecture, that the true reading may possibly be,

a bond of AWE.

After all, the construction of this passage 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 occafions enforced attention, might be, I think, not unpoetically called, a bond of air, be cause its operations were visible, though his voice, like the air, was unfeen. STEEVENS.

1

Agam. Speak, &c.] This speech 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, so many hollow factions.
2 When that the general is not like the hive,
To whom the foragers shall all repair,
What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,
The unworthiest shews as fairly in the mask.
3 The heavens themselves, the planets, and this center,
Observe degree, priority, and place,
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
Office, and custom, in all line, of order :
And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol,
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
Amidst the other; whose med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,
And posts, 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 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.

3 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?"

The heavens themselves, 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 folar system. WARE. * But when the planets

In evil mixture, to disorder 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 fuppofed to portend fome 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.

What