Note 48 — SCENE II.[47]
Reading edition
Mac. Strange affection! Cupid once more hath changed his shafts with Death, And kills, instead of giving life.] This is a beautiful allusion to a little poem among the Elegies of Secundus. Cupid and Death unite in the destruction of a lover, and in endeavouring to recover their weapons from the body of the victim, commit a mutual mistake, each plucking out the "shafts" of the other. The consequences of this are prettily described:
Missa peregrinis sparguntur vulnera nervis, Et manus ignoto sævit utrinque malo. Irrita Mors arcus validi molimina damnat, Plorat Amor teneras tam valuisse manus; Fœdabant juvenes primus in pulvere malas Oscula quas, heu, ad blanda vocabat Amor. Canicies vernis florebat multa corollis Persephone crinem vulserat unde sibi. Quid facerent? falsas procul abjecere sagittas, De pharetra jaculum prompsit uterque novum. Res bona! sed virus pueri penetravit in arcum; Ex illo miseros tot dedit ille neci. Lib. ii. Eleg. 6.
The fable, however, is very ancient.—Gifford.