Quòd si Helenæ adueniant lucentia sidera fratres:
Amissos animos spes bona restituit.”
[178]. The original lines by Hadrian Junius are,—
“Oculata, pennis fulta, sublimem vehens
Calamum aurea inter astra Fama collocat.
Illustre claris surgit è scriptis decus,
Feritque perpes vertice alta sidera.”
[179]. “A third,” in the modern sense of the word, is just nonsense, and therefore we leave the reading of the Cambridge edition, and abide by those critics who tell us that thread was formerly spelt thrid or third. See Johnson and Steevens’ Shakspeare, vol. i. ed. 1785, p. 92.
[180]. Can this be an allusion to Holbein’s Last Judgment and Escutcheon of Death in his Simulachres de la Mort, ed. 1538?
[181]. “Cicero dict que Alcidamus vng Rheteur antique escripuit les louanges de la Mort, en les quelles estoient cõtenuz les nombres des maulx des humains, & ce pour leur faire desirer la Mort. Car si le dernier iour n’amaine extinction, mais commutation de lieu, Quest il plus a desirer? Et s’il estainct & efface tout, Quest il rien meilleur, que de s’ endormir au milieu des labeurs de ceste vie & ainsi reposer en vng sempiternel sommeil.”