Had not been made fit organs. These can lie, Men's throats with whisperings; sell to gaping suitors The empty smoke, that flies about the palace; Laugh when their patron laughs; sweat when he sweats; Be hot and cold with him; change every mood, Observe him, as his watch observes his clock;2 P― fair, add a feature of some import, even to a desert; whereas, sterile leaves it just as it found it, and is (without a pun) the idlest epithet which could be applied.—Mr. Pope, too, had an ear for rhythm; and as his reading has some touch of Shakspeare, which the other has not, and is besides better poetry, I should hope that it will one day resume its proper place in the text. Idle, in the line above quoted, signifies, not "barren, unprofitable," but trifling, insignificant. It would be a sin of a very paltry nature indeed, which had not engaged their attention, and been deemed worthy of their practice. In other words, no vice has escaped them. 2 Observe him as his watch observes his clock.] Steevens, who is supported by Whalley, maintains that this line refers to the figure of a watchman, which was placed on the dial-plate of our ancient clocks, with a lantern and pole to point out the hour. I have many doubts whether such a personage was ever so employed; but none as to the fallacy of the explanation. The speaker alludes to the pocket-watch, which, in Jonson's days, was not so independent of correction as at present, but was constantly regulated by the motion of the clock, at that time the more accurate machine of the two. 3 And true, as turquoise in the dear lord's ring, Look well or ill with him:] Alluding to the fable of the turquoise, which is said to change its colour, as the wearer is in good or bad health. To this supposed quality of the stone, our old writers have Have an indifferent stool, or break wind well; Sab. Alas! these things Deserve no note, conferr'd with other vile m Of such as have been prætors, yea, the most Sil. Well, all is worthy of us, were it more, We, that, within these fourscore years, were born innumerable allusions: "Turcois is a compassionate stone-if the wearer of it be not well it changeth colour and looketh pale and dim; but increaseth to his perfectnesse as the wearer recovereth to his health." Swan's Speculum mundi. Again, "Or faithful turquoises, which heaven sent To shew the ill, not make it, and to tell, Cartwright. 4 Senators, that else not use their voices.] The poet has here added the word Pedarii. It is the classical expression for those who never spoke in the senate, but only went over to the side for which they voted: hence they were said pedibus ire in sententiam. WHAL. 1 Vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. i. p. 3. n Pedarii. m Tacit. Ann. Lib. iii. p. 69. • Tacit. Ann. Lib. iii. p. 69. Free, equal lords of the triumphed world,5 We since became the slaves to one man's lusts; Of me, of all our fortunes and our lives. q Our looks are call'd to question, and our words, We shall not shortly dare to tell our dreams, Sab. Tyrants arts Are to give flatterers grace; accusers, power; Enter CORDUS and ARRUNTIUS. Now, good Cremutius Cordus." Cor. [salutes SABINUS.] Hail to your lordship! Nat. [whispers LATIARIS.] your cousin ? Lat. 'Tis one Cordus, Who's that salutes A gentleman of Rome: one that has writ Nat. Annals! of what times? 5 Equal lords of the triumphed world,] i. e. the Roman empire. The expression is fine, and gives us an admirable idea of what every private citizen of Rome esteemed himself, in the times of the republic. WHAL. P Lege Tacit. Ann. Lib. i. p. 24, de Romano, Hispano, et cæteris, ibid. et Lib. iii. Ann. p. 61 et 62. Juv. Sat. x. v. 87. Suet. Tib. cap. 61. 9 Vid. Tacit. Ann. i. p. 4, et Lib. iii. p. 62. Senec. de Benef. Lib. iii. cap. 26. Suet. Tib. cap. 61. De Crem. Cordo, vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. pp. 83, 84. Senec. Cons. ad Marciam. Dio. Lib. lvii. p. 710. Suet. Aug. c. 35. Tib. c. 61. Cal. c. 16. Lat. I think of Pompey's," And Caius Cæsar's; and so down to these. Nat. How stands he affected to the present state? Is he or Drusian, or Germanican, Or ours, or neutral ? Lat. I know him not so far. Nat. Those times are somewhat queasy to be touch'd." Have you or seen, or heard part of his work? Lat. Not I; he means they shall be public shortly. Nat. O, Cordus do you call him? Lat. Ay. [Exeunt NATTA and SATRIUS. Sab. But these our times Are not the same, Arruntius." Arr. Times! the men, The men are not the same: 'tis we are base, So brave a blow into the monster's heart Queasy to be touch'd.] Nice, tender, delicate. 66 "And I have one thing of a queasy question." King Lear, A. ii. S. i. "Unkindly to captive his country ?] i. e. unnaturally; for the word kind signifying nature, with its compounds and derivatives, was thus used by the writers of that age. WHAL. 66 "Let any candid judge," says one of the commentators, com Suet. Aug. cap. 35. t Vid. de faction. Tacit. Ann. Lib. ii. p. 39 et Lib. iv. p. 79. " De Lu. Arrun. isto vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. i. p. 6, et Lib. iii. p. 60, et Dion. Rom. Hist. Lib. 58. O, they are fled the light! Those mighty spirits Glows in a present bosom. All's but blaze, [DRUSUS passes over the stage, attended by HATERIUS, &c. Sab. Stand by! lord Drusus. Hat. The emperor's son! give place. There's little hope of him. Sab. That fault his age Will, as it grows, correct. Methinks he bears Himself each day, more nobly than other; Than doth his father lose. Believe me, I love him; And chiefly for opposing to Sejanus.” b Sil. And I, for gracing his young kinsmen so.* pare Sejanus with the third-rate tragedies of Shakspeare, and he will find it far inferior to the worst of them." The critic had probably just got up from this speech of Arruntius, when he exhibited so notable a specimen of his own candour and judgment. * Lege de Druso Tacit. Ann. Lib. i. p. 9. Suet. Tib. c. 52. Dio. Rom. Hist. Lib. lvii. p. 699. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iii. p. 62. * Ann. Lib. iv. pp. 75, 76. z Vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 74. b Nero, Drusus, Caius, qui in castris genitus, et Caligula nominatus. Tacit. Ann. Lib. i. De Germanico cons. Tacit. Ann. Lib. i. p. 14, et Dion. Rom. Hist. Lib. lvii. p. 694. |