Should lose their names, and so should justice too. And appetite, an universal wolf, So doubly seconded with will and power, And this neglection of degree it is, 5 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: 66 if neglection "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. 6 Thus the quarto. Folio-in a purpose. MALONE. 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 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 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. 4 -unsquar'd,] i. e. unadapted to their subject, as stones are unfitted to the purposes of architecture, while they are.yet unsquar'd. STEEVENS. 5 -as near as the extremest ends 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. 6 a 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, 8 NEST. And in the imitation of these twain (Whom, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns With an imperial voice,) many are infect. Ajax is grown self-will'd; and bears his head In such a rein, in full as proud a place As broad Achilles: keeps his tent like him; Makes factious feasts; rails on our state of war, Bold as an oracle: and sets Thersites "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. 8 to make paradoxes.] Paradoxes may have a meaning, but it is not clear and distinct. I wish the copies had given : 9 still to make parodies. bears his head JOHNSON. 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; They call this-bed-work, mappery, closet-war : NEST. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse Makes many Thetis' sons. 1 [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 a 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. by measure-] That is, " toil." M. MASON. JOHNSON. by means of their observant |