What plagues, and what portents? what mutiny? What raging of the fea? 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? 5 Oh, when degree is fhak'd,
Which is the ladder to all high defigns,

6 The enterprize is fick! How could communities,
Degrees in fchools, and 7 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
Should lift their bofoms higher than the fhores,
And make a fop of all this folid globe:
Strength should be lord of imbecillity,

And the rude fon fhould strike his father dead:
Force fhould be right; or rather, right and wrong,
(Between whofe endless jar juftice refides)
Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
Then every thing includes itfelf in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite, an univerfal wolf,

So doubly feconded with will and power,
Muft make perforce an univerfal prey,
And laft eat up itfelf. Great Agamemnon!
This chaos, when degree is fuffocate,
Follows the choaking:

And this neglection of degree it is,

Oh, when degree is fhak'd,] I would read,
So when degree is fhak'd. JOHNSON.

• The enterprize-] Perhaps we should read,

7

Then enterprize is fick!

JOHNSON.

brotherhoods in cities,] Corporations, companies, confraternities. JOHNSON.

That by a pace goes backward,

with a purpofe

It hath to climb. The general's difdain'd
By him one step below; he, by the next;
That next, by him beneath: fo every step,
Exampled by the firft pace that is fick
Of his fuperior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodless emulation.

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

Agam. The nature of the sickness found, Ulyffes, What is the remedy?

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

Breaks fcurril jests;

And with ridiculous and aukward action,

(Which, flanderer, he imitation calls)

He pageants us. Sometimes, great Agamemnon,

2

Thy topless deputation he puts on;

And, like a ftrutting player-whose conceit

Lies in his ham-string, and doth think it rich
To hear the wooden dialogue and found
'Twixt his ftretch'd footing and the fcaffoldage
Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrefted feeming

9

That by a pace-] That goes backward step by step. JOHNS. with a purpofe

It hath to climb.

-] With a defign in each man to aggrandize himself, by flighting his immediate fuperior. JOHNS. bloodless emulation. An emulation not vigorous and

active, but malignant and fluggish. JOHNSON.

2 Thy TOPLESS deputation] Toples is that has nothing

topping or overtopping it; fupreme; fovereign. JOHNSON.

He

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,
Would feem hyperboles. At this fufty stuff
The large Achilles, on his preft-bed lolling,
From his deep cheft laughs out a loud applaufe;
Cries-excellent!-'tis Agamemnon just.-

Now play me Neftor;-hem, and stroke thy beard,
As he, being 'dreft to fome oration.

That's done;

3 as near as the extremeft ends Of parallels; as like, as Vulcan and his wife: Yet god Achilles ftill cries, excellent!

'Tis Neftor right! now play him me, Patroclus, Arming to anfwer in a night alarm.

And, then forfooth, the faint defects of age Must be the scene of mirth; to cough and spit, And with a palfy fumbling on his gorget, Shake in and out the rivet:and at this fport, Sir Valour dies; cries, "O!-enough, Patroclus; "Or give me ribs of steel! I fhall Split all "In pleasure of my pleen." And, in this fashion, 4 All our abilities, gifts, natures, fhapes, Severals and generals of grace exact, Atchievements, plots, orders, preventions, Excitements to the field, or fpeech for truce, Succefs, or lofs, what is, or is not, ferves As ftuff for thefe two 5 to make paradoxes. Neft. And in the imitation of these twain, (Whom, as Ulyffes fays, opinion crowns

3

as near as the extremeft ends, &c.] The parallels to which the allufion feems to be made are the parallels on a map. As like as Eaft to Weft. JOHNSON.

• All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,

Severals and generals of GRACE EXACT,

Atchievements, plots, &c.] The meaning is this, All our good grace exact, means of excellence irreprehenfible. JOHNS. 5 to make paradoxes.] Paradoxes may have a meaning, but it is not clear and diftinct. I wish the copies had given, to make parodies. JOHNSON.

!

With an imperial voice) many are infect.
Ajax is grown felf-will'd; and bears his head
In fuch a rein, in full as proud a place,

As broad Achilles: keeps his tent like him;
Makes factious feafts; rails on our state of war,
Bold as an oracle: and fets Therfites,

(A flave, whose gall coins flanders like a mint)
To match us in comparisons with dirt;
To weaken and difcredit our expofure,

7 How rank foever rounded in with danger.
Ulyff. They tax our policy, and call it cowardife
Count wisdom as no member of the war;
Foreftall prescience, and efteem no act

But that of hand: the ftill and mental parts-
That do contrive how many hands shall strike,
When fitness call them on; and know by measure
Of their obfervant toil the enemies' weight;-
Why this hath not a finger's dignity;

They call this bed-work, mappery, closet-war :
So that the ram, that batters down the wall,
For the great fwing and rudeness of his poize,
They place before his hand that made the engine;
Or those, that with the fineness of their fouls
By reason guide his execution.

Neft. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horfe
Makes many Thetis' fons.

[Trumpet founds. Agam. What trumpet! look, Menelaus. Men. From Troy.

bears his head

In fuch a rein,— -] That is, holds up his head as haughtily. We ftill fay of a girl, he bridles.. JoHNSON. 7 How rank foever rounded in with danger.] A rank weed is a high weed. The modern editions filently read,

How hard foever

JOHNSON.

and know by measure

Of their obfervant toil the enemies' weight;-] I think it were better to read,

and know the measure,

By their obfervant toil, of th' enemies' weight. JoHNS.

VOL. IX.

C

Enter

T

Enter Eneas.

Aga. What would you 'fore our tent?
Ane. Is this great Ágamemnon's tent, I pray you?
Aga. Even this.

Ene. May one, that is a herald and a prince,
Do a fair meffage to his 9 kingly ears?

Aga. With furety ftronger than Achilles' arm, 'Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice Call Agamemnon head and general.

Ene. Fair leave, and large fecurity. How may
2 A ftranger to thofe moft imperial looks
Know them from eyes of other mortals?
Aga. How?

Ene. I afk, that I might waken reverence,
And 3 bid the cheek be ready with a blush
Modeft as morning, when fhe coldly eyes
The youthful Phœbus:

Which is that God in office, guiding men?
Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon?

Aga. This Trojan fcorns us; or the men of Troy
Are ceremonious courtiers.

Ene. Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm'd,
As bending angels; that's their fame in peace :
But when they would feem foldiers, they have galls,
Good arms, ftrong joints, true fwords, and, Jove's
accord,

Nothing fo full of heart. But peace, Æneas;

1

wrote,

kingly ears?] The quarto,

kingly eyes. JOHNSON.

Achilles' arm. So the copies. Perhaps the author

2 A ftranger to thofe most imperial looks] And yet this was the feventh year of the war. Shakespeare, who fo wonderfully preferves character, ufually confounds the customs of all nations, and probably fuppofed that the ancients (like the heroes of chivalry) fought with beavers to their helmets. STEEVENS. bid the cheek-] So the folio. The quarto has, on the check- JOHNSON.

3

Peace,