[27] To match where they affect not.] This does better for modern than Roman practice; and, indeed, the author was thinking more of Hamlet than Dioclesian, in this part of the dialogue.—Gifford.
[28] Owes.] i. e. owns.
[29] Fair Venus' son, draw forth a leaden dart.] The idea of this double effect, to which Massinger has more than one allusion, is from Ovid:
Filius huic Veneris; figat tuus omnia, Phœbe,
Te meus arcus, ait:—Parnassi constitit arce,
Eque sagittifera promsit duo tela pharetra
Diversorum operum; fugat hoc, facit illud amorem.
Quod facit, auratum est, et cuspide fulget acuta;
Quod fugat, obtusum est, et habet sub arundine plumbum.
Met. lib. i. 470.
Gifford.
[30] ————The fox,
When he saw first the forest's king, &c.] The fable is from the Greek. In a preceding line there is an allusion to the proverb, Procul a Jove, sed procul a fulmine.—Gifford.
[31] A governor's place upon thee.] From the Latin: ne sis mihi tutor.—Gifford.
[32] ——All lets.] i. e. All impediments.
[33] Theoph. Glad'st thou in such scorn?] Theophilus, who is represented as a furious zealot for paganism, is mortified at the indifference with which Macrinus returns the happiness he had wished him by his god. Mr. M. Mason reads, Gaddest thou in such scorn? He may be right; for Macrinus is evidently anxious to pass on: the reading of the text, however, is that of all the old copies.—Gifford.
[34] Hand,] here used for inch, moment. We often meet the phrase of his hands, for of his inches.