[99] _The state._] This was a raised platform, on which was placed a chair with a canopy over it. The word occurs perpetually in our old writers. It is used by Dryden, but seems to have been growing obsolete while he was writing: in the first edition of Mac Fleckno, the monarch is placed on a _state_; in the subsequent ones, he is seated like his fellow kings, on a throne: it occurs also, and I believe for the last time, in Swift: "As she affected not the grandeur of a _state_ with a canopy, she thought there was no offence in an elbow chair."--_Hist. of John Bull_, c. i.--GIFFORD. [100] --------_Such honours To one ambitious of rule_, &c.] Massinger has here finely drawn the character of Timoleon, and been very true to history. He was descended from one of the noblest families in Corinth, loved his country passionately, and discovered upon all occasions a singular humanity of temper, except against tyrants and bad men. He was an excellent captain; and as in his youth he had all the maturity of age, in age he had all the fire and courage of the most ardent youth.--COXETER. [101] Timol. _Timophanes, my brother_, &c.] Timoleon had an elder brother, called Timophanes, whom he tenderly loved, as he had demonstrated in a battle, in which he covered him with his body, and saved his life at the great danger of his own. But his country was still dearer to him. That brother having made himself tyrant of it, so black a crime gave him the sharpest affliction. He made use of all possible means to bring him back to his duty: kindness, friendship, affection, remonstrances, and even menaces. But finding all his endeavours ineffectual, and that nothing could prevail upon a heart abandoned to ambition he caused his brother to be assassinated by two of his friends and intimates, and thought that upon such an occasion the laws of nature ought to give place to those of his country.--COXETER. [102] _To my country, my best mother._] In this expression Timoleon alludes to the conduct of his natural mother, who would never see him after the assassination of his brother, and always, as Cornelius Nepos informs us, called him _fratricidam, impiumque_.--GIFFORD. [103] Diph. _If you free Sicily From barbarous Carthage' yoke_, &c.] This speech and the next are literally from Plutarch. Massinger has in this instance adhered more closely to his story than usual.--GIFFORD. [104] _Cry aim!_] i. e. _encourage them_, as the bystanders do those who are about to shoot at a trial of skill in archery. ACT II. SCENE I. _The same. A Room in_ ARCHIDAMUS'_s House_. _Enter_ ARCHIDAMUS, TIMAGORAS, LEOSTHENES, _with gorgets; and_ MARULLO. _Archid._ So, so, 'tis well: how do I look? _Mar._ Most sprightfully.