8 Sans check, to good and bad: But, when the planets, 8 But, when the planets, In evil mixture, to disorder wander, &c.] I believe the poet, according to aftrological opinions, means, when the planets form malignant configurations, when their aspects are evil towards one another. This he terms evil mixture. JOHNSON. The poet's meaning may be fomewhat explained by Spenser, to whom he seems to be indebted for his present allufion : "For who so liste into the heavens looke, "And search the courses of the rowling spheres, "Shall find that from the point where they first tooke "Their fetting forth, in these few thousand yeares They all are wandred much; that plaine appeares. "For that fame golden fleecy ram, which bore "That they have crush'd the crab, and quite him borne "So now all range, and do at random rove "Till they arrive at their last ruinous decay." Faery Queen, Book V. ch. i. The apparent irregular motions of the planets were supposed to portend some difaiters to mankind; indeed the planets themfelves were not thought formerly to be confined in any fixed orbits of their own, but to wander about ad libitum, as the etymology of their names demonstrates. ANONYMOUS. 9 deracinate ] i. e. force up by the roots. So again, in King Henry V: - the coulter rufts "That should deracinate such savag'ry." STEEVENS. ! The unity and married calm of states * married calm of states - The epithet-married, which is used to denote an intimate union, is employed in the same sense by Milton: Lydian airs "Married to immortal verse." "Wed your divine sounds." Again, in Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas's Eden: " -shady groves of noble palm-tree sprays, "Of amorous myrtles and immortal bays; "Never unleav'd, but evermore they're new, Self-arching, in a thousand arbours grew. "Birds marrying their sweet tunes to the angels' lays, Sung Adam's bliss, and their great Maker's praife." The subject of Milton's larger poem would naturally have led him to read this description in Sylvefter. The quotation from him I owe to Dr. Farmer. Shakspeare calls a harmony of features, married lineaments, in Romeo and Juliet, Act I. sc. iii. See note on this passage. 3 -0, when degree is shak'd,] I would read: 4 The enterprize - Perhaps we should read: 6 STEEVENS. dividable hores,] i. e. divided. So, in Antony and Cleopatra our author uses corrigible for corrected. Mr. M. Mafon has the fame observation. STEEVENS. 1 And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets Follows the choking. 2 And this neglection of degree it is, mere oppugnancy:) Mere is absolute. So, in Hamlet: things rank and gross in nature "Possess it merely." STEEVENS. - this neglection-] This uncommon word occurs again in Pericles, 1609: "If neglection "Should therein make me vile, ." MALONE. 9 That by a pace-] That goes backward ftep by step. 2 with a purpose JOHNSON. It hath to climb. With a design in each man to aggrandize himself, by flighting his immediate superior. JOHNSON. Thus the quarto. Folio:-in a purpose. MALONE. Of pale and bloodless emulation: 9 NEST. Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover'd The fever whereof all our power is fick. AGAM. The nature of the sickness found, Ulysses, What is the remedy? ULYss. The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns The finew and the forehand of our hoft,- Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent Breaks fcurril jests; And with ridiculous and aukward action 9-bloodless emulation: An emulation not vigorous and active, but malignant and fluggish. JOHNSON. 2 our power-] i. e. our army. So, in another of our author's plays: 3 Who leads his power?" STEEVENS. his airy fame,] Verbal elogium; what our author in Macbeth has called mouth honour. See p. 249, note. MALONE. 4 Thy topless deputation - Topless is that which has nothing topping or overtopping it; fupreme; sovereign. JOHNSON. So, in Doctor Fauftus, 1604: "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,Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrested seeming He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks, 'Tis like a chime a mending; with terms un squar'd, Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropp'd, 5 'Twixt his ftretch'd footing and the scaffoldage,) The galleries of the theatre, in the time of our author, were fometimes termed the scaffolds. See The Account of the ancient Theatres, Vol. II. MALONE. 6-o'er-wrested seeming-] i. e. wrested beyond the truth; overcharged. Both the old copies, as well as all the modern editions, haves'er-rested, which affords no meaning. MALONE. 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. fc. ini. STEEVENS. 7 - a chime a mending;) To this comparison the praife 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 noify an operation. STEEVENS. 8-unsquar'd,] i. e. unadapted to their subject, as stones are unfitted to the purposes of architecture, while they are yet unSquared. STEEVENS. 9 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. |