And, look, how many Grecian Tents do ftand 2 When that the General is not like the hive, To whom the Foragers fhall all repair, What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded, 3 The heav'ns themselves, the planets, and this center, Obferve degree, priority and place, 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 diftin&t from that of the hive; which defeats the very end of the fpeaker; whofe purpose is to justify the General, and expofe the difobedience of the hive. We should certainly then read, When that the General NOT LIKES the bive: 2. e. when the foldiers like not, and refufe to pay due obedience to their General: This being the tery 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 army like the hive to the bees, the repofitory of the stock of every individual, that to which each particular reforts with whatever he had collected for the good of the whole, what honey is expected? what hope of advantage? The fenfe is clear, the expreffion is confufed. 3 The heav'ns themfelves,—} This illuftration was probably derived from a paffage in Hooker: If celeftial Spheres fhould forget their wonted motion; if the Prince of the lights of heaven fhould begin to fland; if the moon should wander from her beaten way, and the feafons of the gear 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 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 disorder wander, But when the pla What plagues, and what portents, what mutiny? Quite from their fixure? Oh, when degree is fhaken, The enterprize is fick. How could communities, Degrees in fchools, 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 strike his father dead: Force should be Right; or rather, Right and Wrong, So doubly feconded with will and power, 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, Juftice or Right cannot exift. 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 Juftice 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 Juftice 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 For non fenfical one of its own. A man of Compliments, whom Have chofe as Umpire of their This is the exact office of Justice in the prefent reading: But we are not to think that Shakespear in a ferious fpeech would dress her up in the garb of his fantaf tick Spaniard. We must rather conclude that he wrote, Between whofe endless jar Fuf tice PRESIDES; And laft eat up itself. Great Agamemnon! And this neglection of degree is it, I with a purpose The General's disdain'd And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot, Agam. The nature of the fickness found, Ulyffes, What is the remedy? Uly. 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 ackward action, Which, flanderer, he imitation calls, He pageants us. Sometimes, great Agamemnon, *Thy topless Deputation he puts on; 9 That by a pace-] That goes backward step by step. • -with a purpose It bath to climb.-] With a defign in each man to aggrandife himself, by flighting his immediate fuperiour. 2 bloodless emulation] An emulation not vigorous and active, 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 the cafe. WARBURTON. Topless is that has nothing topping or overtopping it; fupreme; fovereign. Ff And, 1 And, like a ftrutting Player, whose conceit He acts thy Greatness in: and when he speaks, Now play me Neftor-bum, and stroke thy beard, That's done 3 as near as the extremeft ends 'Tis Neftor right! now play bim me, Patroclus, And, then forfooth, the faint defects of age Atchieve qualities, feverals and generals of grace: i. e. whether they be feveral and belong to particular men, as prudence to Ulysses, experience to Neftor, magnanimity to Agamemnon, valour to Ajax, &c. or whether they be general and belonging to the Greek nations in general, as valour, polifhed manners, &c. all thefe good qualities, together with our -atchie-ve |