And, look, how many Grecian Tents do ftand
Hollow upon this Plain, fo many hollow factions.

2

When that the General is not like the hive,

To whom the Foragers fhall all repair,

What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,
Th' unworthieft fhews as fairly in the mask.

3 The heav'ns themselves, the planets, and this center, Obferve degree, priority and place,

Infifture, courfe, proportion, feafon, form,
Office and cuftom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet Sol
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
Amidft the reft, whose med'cinable eye

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?
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 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,
Between whofe endless jar Juftice refides,
Should lose their names, and fo fhould Justice too }
Then every thing include itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite, an univerfal wolf,

So doubly feconded with will and power,
Must make perforce an univerfal prey,

And laft eat up itself. Great Agamemnon!
This Chaos, when degree is fuffocate,
Follows the choaking:

And this neglection of degree is it,
9 That by a pace goes backward,
It hath to climb.

I

with a purpose

The General's disdain'd
By him one step below; he, by the next;
That next, by him beneath; fo every step,
Exampled by the first pace that is fick
Of his Superior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodlefs emulation.

And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,
Not her own finews. To end a Tale of length,
Troy in our weakness lives, not in her ftrength.
Neft. Moft wifely hath Ulyffes here difcover'd
The fever, whereof all our power is fick.

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,
Upon a lazy bed, the live long day

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
Lies in his ham-ftring, and doth think it rich
To hear the wooden dialogue and found
'Twixt his fretch'd footing and the fcaffoldage
Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrefted Seeming

He acts thy Greatness in: and when he speaks,
'Tis like a chime a mending; with terms unfquar'd :
Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropt,
Would feem hyperboles. At this fufty stuff
The large Achilles, on his preft-bed lolling,
From this deep cheft laughs out a loud applaufe:
Cries-excellent!-'tis Agamemnon just-

Now play me Neftor-bum, and stroke thy beard,
As he, being 'dreft to fome oration.

That's done

3 as near as the extremeft ends
Of parallels; as like, as Vulcan and his wife :
Yet god Achilles ftill cries, excellent!

'Tis Neftor right! now play bim me, Patroclus,
Arming to anfwer in a night alarm.

And, then forfooth, the faint defects of age
Must be the scene of mirth, to cough and fpit,
And with a palfy fumbling on his gorget,
Shake in and out the rivet and at this sport,
Sir Valour dies; cries "O!-enough, Patroclus-
"Or give me ribs of steel, I shall split all.
"In pleasure of my Spleen." And, in this fashion,
+ All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,
Severals and generals of grace exact,

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