Note 178 — ACT III.
Reading edition
"I have heard of being supported by a staff," says Mr. D., "but never of being supported by a helmet." I believe he never heard of sailing with wings, which he may read in no less a poet than Mr. Dryden:
"Unless we borrow wings and sail through air."—"Love Triumphant.
What will he say to a kneeling valley?
"I'll stand Like a safe valley, that low bends the knee To some aspiring mountain."—"Injured Love."
I am ashamed of so ignorant a carper, who doth not know that an epithet in tragedy is very often no other than an expletive. Do not we read in the New Sophonisba of "grinding chains, blue plagues, white occasions, and blue serenity?" Nay, it is not the adjective only, but sometimes half a sentence is put by way of expletive, as "Beauty pointed high with spirit," in the same play; and "In the lap of blessing, to be most curst," in the Revenge.