Should lose their names, and so should justice too. And appetite, an universal wolf, power, So doubly seconded with will and And, last, eat up himself. Great Agamemnon, And this neglection3 of degree it is, That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot, 3 this neglection-] This uncommon word occurs again in Pericles, 1609: 5 "Should therein make me vile,-." MALONE. That by a pace-] That goes backward step by step. with a purpose JOHNSON. 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. 6 bloodless emulation:] An emulation not vigorous and active, but malignant and sluggish. JOHNSON. 7 our power-] i. e. our army. So, in another of our author's plays: "Who leads his power?" STEEvens. 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,- Breaks scurril jests; And with ridiculous and aukward action (Which, slanderer, he imitation calls,) He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon, And, like a strutting player,-whose conceit 8 2 his airy fame,] Verbal elogium; what our author, in Macbeth, has called mouth honour. See p. 264, note. MALONE. 2 Thy topless deputation-] Topless is that which has nothing topping or overtopping it; supreme; sovereign. So, in Doctor Faustus, 1604: JOHNSON. "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. ''Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage,] The galleries of the theatre, in the time of our author, were sometimes termed the scaffolds. See The Account of the ancient Theatres, Vol. III. MALONE. 20'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. He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks, Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropp'd, Now play me Nestor;-hem, and stroke thy beard, That's done;-as near as the extremest ends And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age 6 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. 3-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 never wish a second time to be present at so dissonantly noisy an operation. STEEVENS. '--unsquar'd,] i. e. unadapted to their subject, as stones are unfitted to the purposes of architecture, while they are.yet unsquar'd. STEEVENS. Of parallels;] The parallels to which the allusion seems to be made, are the parallels on a map. As like as east to west. JOHNSON. 6a palsy fumbling-] Old copies gives 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: Shake in and out the rivet :-and at this sport, NEST. And in the imitation of these twain -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 many fumbling lamentable speaches." Shakspeare, I believe, wrote-in his gorget. MALONE. On seems to be used for-at. So, p. 285: " Pointing on him." i. e. at him. STEEVENS. 7 All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, Severals and generals of grace exact, Achievements, plots, &c.] All our good grace exact, means our excellence irreprehensible. JOHNSON. still to make parodies. bears his head Paradoxes may have a meaning, In such a rein,] That is, holds up his head as haughtily. We say of a girl, she bridles. JOHNSON. (A slave, whose gall coins slanders like a mint,1) ULYSS. They tax our policy, and call it cowardice; Count wisdom as no member of the war; But that of hand: the still and mental parts,- They call this-bed-work, mappery, closet-war : NEST. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse Makes many Thetis' sons. [Trumpet sounds. whose gall coins slanders like a mint,] mint coins money. See Vol. XI. p. 240, n. 7. * How rank soever rounded in with danger.] a high weed. The modern editions silently read: How hard soever—. JOHNSON. 3 i. e. as fast as Malone. A rank weed is rounded in with danger.] So, in King Henry V: and know, by measure Of their observant toil, the enemies' weight,] I think it were better to read: and know the measure, By their observant toil, of the enemies' weight. JOHNSON. by measure-] That is, by means of their observant toil." M. MASON. |