[22]
Confronted him with self-comparisons,
Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm,
Curbing his lavish spirit: and to conclude,
The victory fell on us.[1]
- ↑ Macbeth, Act i. Sc. 2.
Mr. Steevens coincides with Mr. Henley's remark, and accounts thus for Shakspeare's ignorance:—
"Our author might have been influenced by Holinshed, who, p. 567, speaking of King Henry V. says:—He declared that the goddesse of battell, called Bellona, &c.—Shakspeare, therefore, hastily concluded that the Goddess of War was wife to the God of it; or might have been misled by Chapman's version of a line in the 5th Iliad of Homer:—
Mars himself, matched with his female mate,
The dread Bellona, &c.—Steevens."
Shakspeare, vol. x. p. 26.
The dread Bellona, &c.—Steevens."
Shakspeare, vol. x. p. 26.
That Shakspeare might have been thus influenced, or misled, Mr. Steevens may please to say; but, fatally for this cautious conjecture, we
