His eye, which late this mutiny restrains,
Unto a greater uproar tempts his veins :

And they, like ftraggling flaves for pillage fighting,
Obdurate vaffals, fell exploits effecting *,

In bloody death and ravishment delighting,
Nor children's tears, nor mothers' groans refpecting,
Swell in their pride, the onfet ftill expecting:
Anon his beating heart, alarum ftriking,

Gives the hot charge, and bids them do their liking.

His drumming heart chears up his burning eye,
His eye commends the leading to his hand +;
His hand, as proud of fuch a dignity,

Smoaking with pride, march'd on to make his ftand
On her bare breaft, the heart of all her land;

2

—fell exploits effecting,] Perhaps we should read— affecting.

STEEVENS.

The preceding line and the two that follow, fupport, I think, the old reading. Tarquin only expects the onfet; but the flaves here mentioned do not affect or meditate fell exploits, they are supposed to be actually employed in carnage:

"for pillage fighting,

"Nor children's tears, nor mothers' groans refpecting." The fubfequent line,

"Swell in their pride, the onset still expecting—”

refers, not to the flaves, but to Tarquin's veins. MALONE. 3 Gives the hot charge,] So, in Hamlet:

-proclaim no fhame

"When the compulfive ardour gives the charge." STEEV. His eye commends the leading to his hand ;] i. e. recommends. So, in Macbeth:

"I wish your

horfes fwift and fure of foot, "And fo I do commend you to their backs." Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"Commend unto his lips thy favouring hand." STEEVENS. On her bare breast, the heart of all her land;] So in Antony and Cleopatra:

66

the very heart of lofs."

Again, in Hamlet :

I will wear him

"In my heart's core; ay, in my heart of heart." MALONE.

Whofe ranks of blue veins, as his hand did scale,
Left their round turrets deftitute and pale.

They muftering to the quiet cabinet
Where their dear governess and lady lies,
Do tell her she is dreadfully befet,

And fright her with confufion of their cries:
She, much amaz'd, breaks ope her lock'd-up eyes,
Who, peeping forth this tumult to behold,
Are by his flaming torch dimm'd and control'd.

Imagine her as one in dead of night
From forth dull fleep by dreadful fancy waking,
That thinks he hath beheld fome gaftly fprite,
Whofe grim afpèct fets every joint a fhaking;
What terrour 'tis! but fhe, in worfer taking,
From fleep disturbed, heedfully doth view
The fight which makes fuppofed terrour true.
Wrapp'd and confounded in a thousand fears,
Like to a new-kill'd bird she trembling lies';
She dares not look; yet, winking, there appears
Quick-fhifting anticks, ugly in her eyes:
Such fhadows are the weak brain's forgeries;
Who, angry that the eyes fly from their lights,
In darknefs daunts them with more dreadful fights.

The fight which makes fuppofed terrour true.] The duodecimo, 1616, and the modern editions, read:

7

MALONE.

which make fuppofed terror rue. Wrapp'd and confounded in a thousand fears, Like to a new-kill'd bird fhe trembling lies ;] So, Ovid, defcribing Lucretia in the fame fituation:

Illa nihil; neque enim vocem virefque loquendi
"Aut aliquid toto pectore mentis habet.

"Sed tremit

99 MALONE.

Such fhadows are the weak brain's forgeries;] So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

"Thele are the forgeries of jealoufy." STEEVENS. * the cyes fly from their lights,] We meet with this conceit again in Julius Cæfar:

"His coward lips did from their colour fly." STEEVENS.

His hand that yet remains upon her breast,
(Rude ram, to batter fuch an ivory wall!)
May feel her heart (poor citizen!) diftrefs'd,
Wounding itself to death, rife up and fall,
Beating her bulk, that his hand thakes withal.
This moves in him more rage, and leffer pity,
To make the breach, and enter this sweet city.

First, like a trumpet, doth his tongue begin
To found a parley to his heartless foe,

Who o'er the white fheet peers her whiter chin',
The reafon of this rafh alarm to know,
Which he by dumb demeanour feeks to show;
But the with vehement prayers urgeth ftill,
Under what colour he commits this ill.

2

Thus he replies: The colour in thy face 2 (That even for anger makes the lily pale,

Beating her bulk, that his hand shakes withal.] Bulk is frequently used by our author and other ancient writers for body. So, in K. Richard III:

"Kept in my foul, and would not let it forth "To feek the empty vaft, and wandring air, "But fmother'd it within my panting bulk." Again, in Hamlet:

1

"He rais'd a figh fo piteous and profound,
66 As it did feem to fhatter all his bulk,

"And end his being." MALONE.

o'er the white Sheet peers her whiter chin,] So, Otway, in

Venice Preferved:

"in virgin fheets,"

"White as her bofom." STEEVENS.

2 Under what colour he commits this ill.

Thus he replies: The colour in thy face,] The fame play on

the fame words occurs in K. Henry IV. P. II:

66

-this that you heard, was but a colour. Shal. "A colour, I fear, that you will die in, Sir John."

Kk3

STEEVENS.

And

And the red rose blush at her own disgrace ',)
Shall plead for me, and tell my loving tale:
Under that colour am I come to scale

Thy never-conquer'd fort; the fault is thine,
For those thine eyes betray thee unto mine.

Thus I foreftall thee, if thou mean to chide :
Thy beauty hath enfnar'd thee to this night,
Where thou with patience muft my will abide,
My will that marks thee for my earth's delight',
Which I to conquer fought with all my might;
But as reproof and reafon beat it dead,
By thy bright beauty was it newly breds.

I fee what croffes my attempt will bring;
I know what thorns the growing rofe defends;
I think the honey guarded with a fting;
All this, beforehand, counfel comprehends:
But will is deaf, and hears no heedful friends;
Only he hath an eye to gaze on beauty,

And dotes on what he looks, 'gainst law or duty.

I have debated, even in my foul,

What wrong, what fhame, what forrow I fhall breed;

But

3 And the red rose blush at her own difgrace,] A thought fome. what fimilar occurs in May's Supplement to Lucan:

66

-labra rubenus

"Non rofea æquaret, nifi primo victa fuiffet,
"Et pudor augeret quem dat natura ruborem."

STEEVENS,

my earth's delight,] So, in The Comedy of Errors: "My fole carth's heaven." STEEVENS. By thy bright beauty was it newly bred.] The duodecimo, 1616, reads:

it was newly bred. MALONE.

I think the boney guarded with a fling;] I am aware that the honey is guarded with a fting. MALONE.

7 I fee what croffes

I have debated &c.] On these ftanzas Dr. Young might

have

But nothing can affection's courfe control,
Or ftop the headlong fury of his speed.
I know repentant tears enfue the deed,
Reproach, difdain, and deadly enmity;
Yet ftrive I to embrace mine infamy.

This faid, he fhakes aloft his Roman blade,
Which like a faulcon towering in the skies,
Coucheth the fowl below with his wings' fhade,
Whofe crooked beak threats if he mount he dies:
So under the infulting falchion lies.

Harmless Lucretia, marking what he tells,
With trembling fear, as fowl hear faulcons' bells.

Lucrece, quoth he, this night I must enjoy thee:
If thou deny, then force muft work my way,
For in thy bed I purpofe to deftroy thee;

have founded the lines with which he difmiffes the prince of E-
gypt, who is preparing to commit a fimilar act of violence, at the
end of the third act of Bufiris:

fure:

"Destruction full of tranfport! Lo I come
"Swift on the wing to meet my certain doom:
"I know the danger, and I know the fhame;
"But, like our phoenix, in fo rich a flame,
"I plunge triumphant my devoted head,
"And dote on death in that luxurious bed."

-like a faulcon towering in the fkies,

STEEVENS.

Coucheth the fowl below] So, in Meafure for Mea

"Nips youth i' th' head, and follies doth enmew
"As faulcon doth the fowl."

I am not certain but that we fhould read-Cov'reth. To couch the fowl may, however, mean, to make it couch; as to brave a man, in our author's language, fignifies either to infult him, or to make him brave, i. e. fine. So, in The Taming of the Shrew: -thou haft brav'd many men ;" brave not me.' Petruchio is fpeaking to the Taylor, STEEVENS.

9

-as fowl bear faulcons' bells.] So, in K. Henry VI. P. III :
-not he that loves him beft

66

"Dares stir a wing, if Warwick shake his bells.”

Kk4

STEEVENS.

That