Ajax. Will you subscribe his thought, and say—he is? Aga. No, noble Ajax; you are as strong, as valiant, as wise, no less noble, much more gentle, and altogether more tractable.

Ajax. Why should a man be proud? how doth pride grow? I know not what pride is.

Aga. Your mind's the clearer, Ajax, and your virtues the fairer. He that is proud, eats up himself: pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle; and whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise.

Ajax. I do hate a proud man, as I hate the engendering of toads.

Nest. [asi.] And yet he loves himself: Is it not strange ? Re-enter ULYSSES.

Ulyss. Achilles will not to the field to-morrow.

Aga. What's his excuse?

Ulyss. He doth rely on none;

But carries on the stream of his dispose,
Without observance or respect of any,

In will peculiar and in self-admission.

Aga. Why will he not, upon our fair request, Content his person, and share the air with us?

Ulyss. Things small as nothing, for request's sake only, He makes important: Possess'd he is with greatness ; And speaks not to himself, but with a pride That quarrels at self-breath: imagin'd worth Holds in his blood such swoln and hot discourse, That, 'twixt his mental and his active parts, Kingdom'd Achilles in commotion rages, And batters down himself: What should I

say ? He is so plaguy proud, that the death tokens of it Cry--No recovery.7

Aga. Let Ajax go to him.

Dear lord, go you and greet him in his tent :
'Tis said, he holds you well; and will be led,

At your request, a little from himself.

Ulyss. O, Agamemnon, let it not be so! We'll consecrate the steps that Ajax makes

When they go from Achilles : Shall the proud lord,

[7] Dr. Hodges, in his Treatise on the Plague, says: "Spots of a dark complexion, usually called tokens, and looked on as the pledges or forwarnings of death, are minute and distinct blasts, which have their original from within, and rise up with a little pyramidal protuberauce, the pestilential poison chiefly collected at their bases, fainting the neighbouring parts, and reaching to the surface.". REED.

8

That bastes his arrogance with his own seam ;3
And never suffers matter of the world
Enter his thoughts,-save such as do revolve
And ruminate himself,-shall he be worshipp'd
Of that we hold an idol more than he ?
No, this thrice worthy and right valiant lord
Must not so stale his palm, nobly acquir'd;
Nor, by my will, assubjugate his merit,
As amply titled as Achilles is,

By going to Achilles ;

That were to inlard his fat-already pride;
And add more coals to Cancer, when he burns
With entertaining great Hyperion.9

This lord go to him! Jupiter forbid ;

And say in thunder-Achilles, go to him.

Nest. O, this is well; he rubs the vein of him. [Aside. Dio. And how his silence drinks up this applause! [Asi. Ajax. If I go to him, with my arm'd fist I'll pash him Over the face.

Aga. O no, you shall not go.

Ajax. An he be proud with me, I'll pheeze his pride · Let me go to him.

Ulyss. Not for the worth that hangs upon our quarrel.

.1

Ajax. A paltry, insolent fellow,

Nest. How he describes

Ajax. I will let his humours blood.

Aga. He'll be physician, that should be the patient.

[Aside.

Ajax. An all men

Were o'my mind,—

Ulyss. Wit would be out of fashion.

[Aside.

Ajax. He should not bear it so,

He should eat swords first: Shall pride carry it?

Swine-seam, in the north, is hog's-lard.

RITSON.

Cancer is the Crab, a sign in the zodiack. The same thought is more clearly express'd by Thomson, whose words on this occasion, are a sufficient illustration of our author's:

"And Cancer reddens with the solar blaze."

STEEVENS.

[1] To comb or curry, is the meaning of the word here. Kersey, in his Dictionary, 1708, says that it is a sea term, and that it signifies, to separate a cable by untwisting the ends; and Dr. Johnson gives a similar account of its original meaning. But whatever may have been the origin of the expression, it undoubtedly signified, in our author's time, to beat, knock, strike, or whip. MALONE.

Nest. An 'twould, you'd carry half.

Ulyss. He'd have ten shares.

Ajax. I'll knead him, I will make him supple :

[Aside.

[Aside.

Nest. He's not yet thorough warm: force him with

praises :3

Pour in, pour in; his ambition is dry..

[Aside. Ulyss. My lord, you feed too much on this dislike. Nest. O noble general, do not do so.

[TO AGAM.

Dio. You must prepare to fight without Achilles. Ulyss. Why, 'tis this naming of him does him harm. Here is a man-but 'tis before his face;

I will be silent.

Nest. Wherefore should you so?

He is not emulous, as Achilles is.

Ulyss. Know the whole world, he is as valiant.
Ajax. A whoreson dog, that shall palter thus with us !*

I would, he were a Trojan!

Nest. What a vice

Were it in Ajax new

Ulyss. If he were proud?

Dio. Or covetous of praise?

Ulyss. Ay, or surly borne ?

Dio. Or strange, or self-affected?

[posure:

Ulyss. Thank the heavens, lord, thou art of sweet com

Praise him that got thee, she that gave thee suck :5

Fam'd be thy tutor, and thy parts of nature

Thrice-fam'd, beyond all erudition :

But he that disciplin'd thy arms to fight,
Let Mars divide eternity in twain,
And give him half: and, for thy vigour,
Bull-bearing Milo his addition yield

To sinewy Ajax. I will not praise thy wisdom,
Which, like a bourn, a pale, a shore, confines
Thy spacious and dilated parts: Here's Nestor,~~
Instructed by the antiquary times,

He must, he is, he cannot but be wise ;—
But pardon, father Nestor, were your days
As green as Ajax', and your brain so temper'd,
You should not have the eminence of him,
But be as Ajax.

[S] Force him---i. e. stuff him. Farcir, Fr.

STEEVENS.

[4] That shall juggle with us, or fly from his engagements.

MALONE.

This is from St. Luke, xi. 27. "Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps that thou hast sucked." STEEVENS.

[6] A bourn is a boundary, and sometimes a rivulet dividing one place from another.

STEEVENS.

Ajax. Shall I call you father?

Nest. Ay, my good son.

Dio. Be rul'd by him, lord Ajax.

Ulyss. There is no tarrying here; the hart Achilles Keeps thicket. Please it our great general

To call together all his state of war;

Fresh kings are come to Troy: To-morrow,

We must with all our main of power stand fast:
And here's a lord,— —come knights from east to west,
And cull their flower, Ajax shall cope the best.

Aga. Go we to council, let Achilles sleep :

Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks draw deep.

АСТ III.

[Exeunt.

SCENE I.-Troy. A Room in PRIAM's Palace. Enter PANDARUS and a Servant.

Pan. FRIEND! you! pray you, a word: Do not you follow the young lord Paris?

Serv. Ay, sir, when he goes before me.

Pan. You do depend upon him, I mean.

Serv. Sir, I do depend upon the lord.

Pan. You do depend upon a noble gentleman; I must

needs praise him.

Serv. The lord be praised!

Pan. You know me, do you not?

Serv. 'Faith, sir, superficially.

Pan. Friend, know me better; I am the lord Pandarus.

Serv. I hope, I shall know your honour better.

Pan. I do desire it.

Serv. You are in the state of grace.

[Music within.

Pan. Grace! not so, friend; honour and lordship are

my titles What music is this?

Serv. I do but partly know, sir; it is music in parts. Pan. Know you the musicians?

Serv. Wholly, sir.

Pan. Who play they to?

Serv. To the hearers, sir.

Pan. At whose pleausure, friend?

Serv. At mine, sir, and theirs that love music.

Pan. Command, I mean, friend.

Serv. Who shall I command, sir?

Pan. Friend, we understand not one another ;

I am

too courtly, and thou art too cunning: At whose reques do these men play?

Serv. That's to't, indeed, sir: Marry, sir, at the re quest of Paris my lord, who is there in person; with him the mortal Venus, the heart-blood of beauty, love's invi sible soul,7

Pan. Who, my cousin Cressida ?

Serv. No, sir, Helen; Could you not find out that by her attributes !

Pan. It should seem, fellow, that thou hast not seen the lady Cressida. I come to speak with Paris from the prince Troilus: I will make a complimental assault upon him, for my business seeths.

Serv. Sodden business! there's a stewed phrase, indeed Enter PARIS and HELEN, attended.

Pan. Fair be to you, my lord, and to all this fair company! fair desires, in all fair measure, fairly guide them !— especially to you, fair queen! fair thoughts be your fair pillow!

Helen. Dear lord, you are full of fair words.

Pan. You speak your fair pleasure, sweet queen.Fair prince, here is good broken music.

:

Par. You have broke it, cousin and, by my life, you shall make it whole again; you shall piece it out with a piece of your performance :-Nell, he is full of harmony. Pan. Truly, lady, no.

Helen. O, sir,

Pan. Rude in sooth; in good sooth, very rude. Par. Well said, my lord! well, you say so in fits.* Pan. I have business to my lord, dear queen :-) lord, will you vouchsafe me a word?

-My

Helen. Nay, this shall not hedge us out; we'll hear you sing, certainly.

Pan. Well, sweet queen, you are pleasant with me.But (marry) thus, my lord,-My dear lord, and most esteemed friend, your brother Troilus

Helen. My lord Pandarus; honey-sweet lord,

Pan. Go to, sweet queen, go to:-commends himself most affectionately to you.

Helen. You shall not bob us out of our melody; If you do, our melancholy upon your head!

[7] This may mean, the soul of love invisible every where else. [8] In fits--that is, now and then; by fits.

STEEVENS.

JOHNSON