And what hath mass, or matter, by itself
Lies, rich in virtue, and unmingled.

Nest. With due observance of thy godlike seat,
Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply

Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance
Lies the true proof of men: the sea being smooth,
How many shallow bauble boats dare sail

Upon her patient breast, making their way

With those of nobler bulk!

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage

The gentle Thetis, and, anon, behold

The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut,
Bounding between the two moist elements,
Like Perseus' horse: Where's then the saucy boat,
Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now
Co-rival'd greatness? either to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so
Doth valour's show, and valour's worth, divide,
In storms of fortune: For, in her ray and brightness,
The herd hath more annoyance by the brize",

Than by the tiger; but when the splitting wind

Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks,

And flies fled under shade', Why, then, the thing of

courage',

As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize,

And, with an accent tun'd in self-same key,

Returns to chiding' fortune.

Ulyss.

Agamemnon,

Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece,

8 - Nestor shall apply] Perhaps Nestor means, that he will attend particularly to, and consider, Agamemnon's latest words.

9

by the brize,] The brize is the gad or horse-fly.

And flies fled under shade,] i. e. and flies are fled under shade.

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

3 Returns to chiding-] Chiding is noisy, clamorous.

Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit,
In whom the tempers and the minds of all
Should be shut up,-hear what Ulysses speaks.
Besides the applause and approbation

The which,—most mighty for thy place and sway,— [TO AGAMEMNON.

And thou most reverend for thy stretch'd-out-life,

[TO NESTOR.

I give to both your speeches,-which were such,
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece
Should hold up high in brass; and such again,
As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver,

Should with a bond of air (strong as the axletree
On which heaven rides,) knit all the Greekish ears
To his experienc'd tongue',—yet let it please both,—
Thou great, and wise, to hear Ulysses speak.

Agam. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be't of less expect That matter needless, of importless burden, Divide thy lips; than we are confident,

4

speeches, which were such,

As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece

Should hold up high in brass; and such again,
As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver,

Should with a bond of air

knit all the Greekish ears

To his experienc'd tongue,] Ulysses begins his oration with praising those who had spoken before him, and marks the characteristick 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 instruction 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 side, and Greece on the other, to show the union of their opinion. And Nestor ought to be exhibited in silver, uniting all his audience in one mind by his soft and gentle elocution. Brass is the common emblem of strength, and silver of gentleness. We call a soft voice a silver voice, and a persuasive tongue a silver tongue. To hatch is a term of art for a particular method of engraving. Hacher, to cut, Fr. JOHNSON. The commentators differ in some respects from this explana

When rank Thersites opes his mastiff jaws,
We shall hear musick, wit, and oracle.

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

6

The specialty of rule hath been neglected:
And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand
Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions.
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 shows as fairly in the mask.

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: But, when the planets,
In evil mixture, to disorder wander,

What plagues, and what portents! what mutiny!
What raging of the sea! shaking of earth!

Commotion in the winds! frights, changes, horrors,
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate'

6 The specialty of rule-] The particular rights of supreme

authority.

7 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.

8

the planets, and this center,] By this center, Ulysses means the earth itself, not the center of the earth. According to the system of Ptolemy, the earth is the center round which the planets move. 9 deracinate] i. e. force up by the roots.

The unity and married calm of states.

Quite from their fixture! O, when degree is shak'd,
Which is the ladder of all high designs,

The enterprize is sick! How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities',
Peaceful commérce from dividable shores",
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentick place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy: The bounded waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores,
And make a sop of all this solid globe:
Strength should be lord of imbecility,

And the rude son should strike his father dead:
Force should be right; or, rather, right and wrong,
(Between whose endless jar justice resides,)
Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;

And appetite, an universal wolf,

So doubly seconded with will and power,
Must make perforce an universal prey,

And, last, eat up himself. Great Agamemnon,
This chaos, when degree is suffocate,

Follows the choking.

And this neglection of degree it is,

That by a pace' goes backward, with a purpose

It hath to climb. The general's disdain'd

brotherhoods in cities,] Corporations, companies, con

fraternities.

2

3

5

dividable shores,] i. e. divided.

mere Mere is absolute.

That by a pace-] That goes backward step by step.

with a purpose

It hath to climb.] With a design in each man to aggrandize himself, by slighting his immediate superior.

By him one step below; he, by the next;
That next, by him beneath: so every step,
Exampled by the first pace that is sick
Of his superior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodless emulation":
And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,
Not her own sinews. To end a tale of length,
Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength.
Nest. Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover'd
The fever whereof all our power' is sick.

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,-
Having his ear full of his airy fame,

Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent

Lies mocking our designs: With him, Patroclus,
Upon a lazy bed, the livelong day

Breaks scurril jests;

And with ridiculous and aukward action (Which, slanderer, he imitation calls,)

He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon,

Thy topless deputation he puts on;

And, like a strutting player,-whose conceit
Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich

To hear the wooden dialogue and sound

'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage,— Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrested seeming'

He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks,

6

bloodless emulation:] An emulation not vigorous and

active, but malignant and sluggish.

8 Thy topless deputation -] Topless is that which has nothing topping or overtopping it; supreme; sovereign.

'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage,] The galleries of the theatre, in the time of our author, were sometimes termed the scaffolds.

1

o'er-wrested seeming -] i. e. wrested beyond the truth.