But I rather think that Ulysses means to slight her, and that the present reading is right. Line 480. tributes to motion. Line 482. courtship. JOHNSON. -motive of her body.] Motive for part that con JOHNSON. -a coasting welcome-] An amorous address; JOHNSON. A coasting welcome is a conciliatory. welcome, that makes silent advances before the tongue has uttered a word. Line 485. MALONE. sluttish spoils of opportunity,] Corrupt wenches of whose chastity every opportunity may make a prey. JOHNS. Line 499. securely done,] In the sense of the Latin, securus—securus admodum de bello, animi securi homo. A negligent security arising from a contempt of the object opposed. WARBURTON. Line 508. Valour and pride excel themselves in Hector;] Shakspeare's thought is not exactly deduced. Nicety of expression is not his character. The meaning is plain, "Valour (says Æneas) is in Hector greater than valour in other men, and pride in Hector is less than pride in other men. So that Hector is distinguished by the excellence of having pride less than other pride, and valour more than other valour." JOHNSON. Line 512. This Ajax is half made of Hector's blood:] Ajax and Hector were cousin-germans. Line 515. MALONE. half Trojan, and half Greek.] Hence Thersites, in a former scene, called Ajax a mongrel. MALONE. 535. -an impair thought-] A thought suitable to the dignity of his character. This word I should have changed to impure, were I not overpowered by the unanimity of the editors, and concurrence of the old copies. JOHNSON. Line 537. Line 544. character. -Hector,subscribes To tender objects;] That is, yields, gives way. JOHNSON. -thus translate him to me.] Thus explain his JOHNSON. Line 579. Not Neoptolemus so mirable &c.] By Neoptolemus the author meant Achilles himself; and remembering that the son was Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, considered Neoptolemus as the nomen gentilitium, and thought the father was likewise Achilles Neoptolemus. JOHNSON. Shakspeare certainly uses Neoptolemus for Achilles. STEEV. Line 586. We'll answer it ;] That is, answer the expectance. JOHNSON. 597. -your knights.] The word knight as often as it occurs is sure to bring with t the idea of chivalry, and revives the memory of Amadis and his followers, rather than that of the mighty confederates who fought on either side in the Trojan war. STEEVENS. These knights, to the amount of about two hundred thousand, (for there were not less in both armies,) Shakspeare found, with all the appendages of chivalry, in The Three Destructions of Troy. MALONE. Line 614. most imperious Agamemnon.] i. e. imperial. 682. I shall forestall thee, lord Ulysses, thou!] Should we not read-though? Notwithstanding you have invited Hector to your tent, I shall draw him first into mine. TYRWHITT. Line 685. And quoted joint by joint.] i. e. observed. 712. But, by the forge that stithied Mars his helm,] A stithy is an anvil, whence the verb. Line 725. Line 733. contests. -pelting wars,] Means paltry, insignificant -convive-] To convive, is to feast. -736. Beat loud the tabourines,] i. e. tabors, small drums. ACT V. SCENE I. Line 7. Thou crusty batch of nature,] Batch is changed by Theobald to botch, and the change is justified by a pompous note, which discovers that he did not know the word batch. What is more strange, Hanmer has followed him. Batch is any thing baked. JOHNSON. Batch does not signify any thing baked, but all that is baked at one time, without heating the oven afresh. So Ben Jonson in his Catiline: Except he were of the same meal and batch." STEEVENS. Line 14. The surgeon's box,] In this answer Thersites only quibbles upon the word tent. HANMER. Line 18. Male-varlet,] Hanmer reads male-harlot, plausibly enough, except that it seems too plain to require the explanation which Patroclus demands. JOHNSON. Line 22. cold palsies,] This catalogue of loathsome maladies ends in the folio at cold palsies. It may be remarked, though it proves nothing, that, of the few alterations made by Milton in the second edition of his wonderful poem, one was, an enlargement of the enumeration of diseases. JOHNSON. Line 31. -you ruinous butt; &c.] Patroclus reproaches Thersites with deformity, with having one part crowded into another. JOHNSON. Line 33. thou idle immaterial skein of sleive silk.] All the terms used by Thersites of Patroclus are emblematically expressive of flexibility, compliance, and mean officiousness. JOHNSON. Line 38. Out, gall!] Hanmer reads nut-gall, which answers well enough to finch-egg; it has already appeared, that our author thought the nut-gall the bitter gall. He is called nut, from the conglobation of his form; but both the copies read, Out, gall! JOHNSON. Line 39. Finch egg!] Of this reproach I do not know the exact meaning. I suppose he means to call him singing bird, as implying an useless favourite, and yet more, something more worthless, a singing bird in the egg, or generally, a slight thing easily crushed. JOHNSON. A finch's egg is remarkable gaudy; but of terms of reproach it is difficult always to pronounce the exact meaning. STEEVENS. Line 56. and the goodly transformation of Jupiter there, his brother, the bull,-the primitive statue, and oblique memorial of cuckolds;] He calls Menelaus the transformation of Jupiter, that is, as himself explains it, the bull, on account of his horns, which he had as a cuckold. This cuckold he calls the primitive statue of cuckolds; i. e. his story had made him so famous, that he stood as the great archetype of his character. WARBURTON. Line 62. -forced with wit,] Stuffed with wit. A term of cookery. In this speech I do not well understand what is meant by loving quails. JOHNSON In old French, caille was synonimous to fille de joie. Thus in Rabelais translated-" Coated quails and laced mutton, waggishly singing." MALONE. Line 70. spirits and fires!] This Thersites speaks upon the first sight of the distant lights. JOHNSON' Line 105. he will spend his mouth, and promise, like Brabler the hound;] If a hound gives his mouth, and is not upon the scent of the game, he is by sportsmen called a babler or brabler. The proverb says, Brabling curs never want sore ears. ANONYMOUS. ACT V. SCENE II. Line 127. her cliff;] That is, her key. Clef, French. JOHNSON. -164. You flow to great destruction;] Means, I think, your impetuosity is such as must necessarily expose you to imminent danger. MALONE. Line 201. -keep this sleeve.] The custom of wearing a lady's sleeve for a favour, is mentioned in Hall's Chronicle, fol. 12. -" One ware on his head-piece his lady's sleeve, and another "bare on his helme the glove of his deareling." Line 234. By all Diana's waiting-women yonder,] i. e. the stars which she points to. WARBURTON. Line 257. Troilus, farewell!] The characters of Cressida and Pandarus are more immediately formed from Chaucer than from Lidgate; for though the latter mentions them both characteristically, he does not sufficiently dwell on the infamy of the latter to have furnished Shakspeare with many circumstances to be found in this tragedy. Lidgate, speaking of Cressida, says only, "She gave her heart and love to Diomede, "To shew what trust there is in woman kind; "But Troilus was clean out of her mind, "As if she never had him never known or seen, STEEVENS. Line 263. A proof of strength she could not publish more,] She could not publish a stronger proof. JOHNSON. Line 275. That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears ;] That turns the very testimony of seeing and hearing against themselves. THEOBALD. Line 279. I cannot conjure, Trojan.] That is, I cannot raise spirits in the form of Cressida. JOHNSON. Line 298. If there be rule in unity itself,] May mean, if there be certainty in unity, if it be a rule that one is one. JOHNS. Line 301. Bi-fold authority!] This is the reading of the quarto. The folio gives us, By foul authority! There is madness in that disquisition in which a man reasons at once for and against himself upon authority which he knows not to be valid. The quarto is right. Line 301. JOHNSON. where reason can revolt Without perdition, and loss assume all reason Without revolt;] The words loss and perdition are used in their common sense, but they mean the loss or perdition of reason. JOHNSON. Line 315. knot, five-finger-tied,] A knot tied by giving her hand to Diomed. JOHNSON. JOHNSON. Line 318. o'er-eaten faith,] Vows which she has already swallowed once over. We still say of a faithless man, that he has eaten his words. Line 319. May worthy Troilus-] Can Troilus really feel on this occasion half of what he utters? A question suitable to the calm Ulysses. Line 349. —and wear a castle on thy head!] i. e. defend thy head with armour of more than common proof. STEEVENS. ACT V. SCENE III. JOHNSON. Line 366. My dreams will, sure, prove ominous to the day.] i. e. forbode ill to it, and shew that it will be a fatal day to Troy. MALONE. The hint for this dream of Andromache is taken from Lydgate. STEEVENS. Line 389. It is the purpose,] The mad prophetess speaks here |
