And, look, how many Grecian Tents do ftand What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded, 3 The heav'ns themfelves, the planets, and this center, Infifture, courfe, proportion, feafon, form, 2 When that the General is NOT LIKE the hive,] The image is taken from the government of bees. But what are we to understand by this line? either it has no meaning, or a meaning contrary to the drift of the fpeaker. For either it fignifies, that the General and the hive are not of the fame degree or Species, when as the fpeaker's complaint is, that the hive acts fo perverfely as to deftroy all difference of degree between them and the General: or it muft fignify, that the General has private ends and interefts diftinct from that of the bive; which defeats the very end of the fpeaker; whofe purpose is to juftify the General, and expofe the difobedience of the hive. We fhould certainly then read, When that the General NOT LIKES the bive: i. e. when the foldiers like not, and refufe to pay due obedience to their General: This being the very cafe he would defcribe, and fhew the mischiefs of. WARB, No interpretation was ever more perverfe than those of the commentator. The meaning is, When the General is not to the ar my like the hive to the bees, the repofitory of the flock of every individual, that to which each particular reforts with whatever he had collected for the good of the whole, what honey is expect ed? what hope of advantage? The fenfe is clear, the expreffion is confufed. 3 The heav'ns themselves,-] This illuftration was probably derived from a paffage in Hooker: If celestial Spheres should forget their wonted motion; if the Prince of the lights of beaven fhould begin to fiand; if the moon should wander from her beaten way, and the feafons of the year blend themfelves, what would become of man? The heav'ns 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 Solar System. WARB. Corrects the ill afpects of planets evil, And pofts like the commandment of a King, Sans check, to good and bad. nets In evil mixture to diforder wander, But when the pla What plagues, and what portents, what mutiny? What raging of the Sea, 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? Oh, when degree is fhaken, Which is the ladder to all high defigns, The enterprize is fick. How could communities, Degrees in schools, 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 ftring, 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 fhould be Lord of imbecillity, And the rude fon fhould ftrike his father dead: Force fhould be Right; or rather, Right and Wrong, So doubly feconded with will and power, -Right and Wrong, Between whofe endless jar Juf tice RESIDES, Would lose their names, ] The editor, Mr. Theobald, thinks that the fecond line is no bad comment upon what Horace has faid on this Jubject; funt certi denique fines, Quos ultra citraque nequit confiftere rectum. But if it be a comment on the Latin poet, it is certainly the worst that ever was made. Horace fays, with extreme good fenfe, that there are certain bounds beyond which, and fort of which, Justice or Right cannot exist. The meaning is, becaufe if it be short of thofe bounds, Wrong prevails; if it goes beyond, Juftice tyrannifes; according to the common proverb of Summum jus fumma injuria. Shakespear fays, that fuftice refides between the endless jar of right and wrong. Here the two extremes, between which Juftice refides, are right and wrong; in Horace the two extremes, between which Justice refides, are both wrong. A very pretty comment this truly, which puts the change upon us; and inftead of explaining a good thought of Horace, gives us a nonfenfical one of its own. For to fay the truth, this is not only no comment on Horace, but no true reading of Shakespear. Juf tice is here reprefented as moderating between Right and Wrong, and acting the over-complaifant and ridiculous part of Don Adriano de Armado in Love's Labour's Loft, who is called, with inimitable humour, A man of Compliments, whom This is the exact office of Juflice in the prefent reading: But we are not to think that Shak Spear in a serious fpeech would drefs her up in the garb of his fantaftick Spaniard. We must rather conclude that he wrote, Between whofe endi‹ls jar Juf And laft eat up itself. Great Agamemnon! And this neglection of degree is it, That by a pace goes backward,' with a purpose And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot, Agam. The nature of the fickness found, Ulyffes, What is the remedy? Ulyff. The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns The finew and the fore-hand of our Hoft, Having his ear full of his airy fame, Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent Lies mocking our defigns. With him, Patroclus, Breaks fcurril jefts; And with ridiculous and aukward action, Which, flanderer, he imitation calls, He pageants us. Sometimes, great Agamemnon, 9 That by a pace-] That goes backward fep by step. 1 -with a purpose It bath to climb.-] With a design in each man to aggrandife himself, by flighting his immediate fuperiour. 2 bloodless emulation] An emulation not vigorous and aczive, but malignant and fluggish. VOL. VII. Thy TOPLESS Deputation-] I don't know what can be meant by topless, but the contrary to what the speaker would infinuate, I fufpect the poet wrote STOPLESS, i. e. unlimited; which was WARBURTON. Toples is that has nothing topping or overtopping it; fupreme; fovereign. Ff the cafe. And, And, like a ftrutting Player, whose conceit Now play me Neftor-bum, and ftroke thy beard, That's done- 3 as near as the extremeft ends 'Tis Neftor right! now play him me, Patroclus, 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 feel, I fhall felit all "In pleasure of my spleen." And, in this fashion, 4 All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, Severals and generals of grace exact, 3 as near as the extremeft ends, &c.] The parallels to which the allusion feems to be made are the parallels on a map. As like as East to Weft. ✦ All our abilities, gifts, na tures, shapes, Severals and generals of GRACE EXACT, Atchievements, plots, &c.] The meaning is this, All our good Atchieve |