"And topless honours he bestow'd on thee.' Blind Beggar of Alexandria, 1598. 16 Malone's sagacious note informs us that 'the galle. ries of the theatre were sometimes called the scaffolds.' This may be very true, but what has it to do with the 3 The particular rights of supreme authority 41. e. this globe. According to the system of Ptolemy, present passage? The scaffoldage here is the floor of the earth is the centre round which the planets move. the stage, the wooden dialogue is between the player's foot the boards. A scaffold more frequently meant the stage itself than the gallery: Thus Baret, A scaf. fold or stage where to behold plays. Spectaculum, 17 i. e. overstrained, wrested beyond true semblance 18 i. e. unsuited, unfitted.

Which is that god in office, guiding men?
Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon?
Agam. This Trojan scorns us: or the men of Troy
;-Are ceremonious courtiers.

How dread an army hath enrounded him.'
6 And yet this was the seventh year of the war.
Shakspeare, who so wonderfully preserves character,
usually confounds the customs of all nations, and pro-
bably supposed that the ancients (like the heroes of
chivalry) fought with beavers to their helmets. In the
fourth act of this play, Nestor says to Hector:-

But this thy countenance, still lock'd in steel,
I never saw till now.'
Those who are acquainted with the embellishments of
ancient manuscripts and books, well know that the ar-
tists gave the costume of their own time to all ages.
But in this anachronism they have been countenanced
by other ancient poets as well as Shakspeare.

If any come, Hector shall honour him;
If none, he'll say in Troy, when he retires,
The Grecian dames are sun-burn'd, and not worth
The splinter of a lance. Even so much.
Agam. This shall be told our lovers, lord Æneas:
If none of them have soul in such a kind,
We left them all at home: But we are soldiers:
And may that soldier a mere recreant prove,
That means not, hath not, or is not in love!
If then one is, or hath, or means to be,
That one meets Hector; if none else, I am he.

Nest. Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man
When Hector's grandsire suck'd: he is old now;
But, if there be not in our Grecian host
One noble man, that hath one spark of fire
To answer for his love, tell him from me,-
I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver,
And in my vantbrace2 put this wither'd brawn;
And, meeting him, will tell him, That my lady
Was fairer than his grandame, and as chaste
As may be in the world: His youth in flood,
I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood.
Ene. Now heavens forbid such scarcity of youth!
Ulyss. Amen.

Agam. Fair lord Eneas, let me touch your hand;
To our pavilion shall I lead you, sir.
Achilles shall have word of this intent;
So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent:
Yourself shall feast with us before you go,
And find the welcome of a noble foe.

[Exeunt all but ULYSSES and NESTOR. Ulyss. Nestor,

Nest. What says Ulysses?

Ulyss. I have a young conception in my brain,
Be you my time to bring it to some shape.
Nest. What is't?

Ulyss. This 'tis:

Blunt wedges rive hard knots: The seeded pride
That hath to this maturity blown up

In rank Achilles, must or now be cropp'd,

Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil,

To overbulk us all.

Nest.

Well, and how?

It is most meet; Whom may you else oppose,
That can from Hector bring those honours off,
If not Achilles? Though't be a sportful combat,
Yet in the trial much opinion dweils

For here the Trojans taste our dear'st repute
With their fin'st palate: And trust to me, Ulysses,
Our imputation shall be oddly pois'd
In this wild action: for the success,
Although particular, shall give a scantling"
Of good or bad unto the general;
And in such indexes, although small pricks
To their subsequent volumes, there is seen
The baby figure of the giant mass

Of things to come at large. It is suppos'd,
He that meets Hector, issues from our choice:
And choice, being mutual act of all our souls,
Makes merit her election; and doth boil,
As 'twere from forth us all, a man distill'd
Out of our virtues; Who miscarrying,
What heart receives from hence a conquering part,
To steal a strong opinion themselves?
Which entertain'd, limbs are his instruments,
In no less working, than are swords and bows
Directive by the limbs.

Ulyss.
Give pardon to my speech ;-
Therefore 'tis meet, Achilles meet not Hector.
Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares,
And think, perchance, they'll sell; if not,
The lustre of the better shall exceed,
By showing the worse first. Do not consent,
That ever Hector and Achilles meet;
For both our honour and our shame, in this,
Are dogg'd with two strange followers.

Nest. I see them not with my old eyes; what are
they?

Ulyss. What glory our Achilles shares from Hector Were he not proud we all should share with him? But he already is too insolent;

And we were better parch in Áfric sun,

Than in the pride and salt scorn of his eyes,
Should he 'scape Hector fair: if he were foil'd,
Why, then we did our main opinion1o crush
In taint of our best man. No, make a lottery;

Ulyss. This challenge that the gallant Hector And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw

sends,

However it is spread in general name,

Relates in purpose only to Achilles.

The sort to fight with Hector: Among ourselves,
Give him allowance for the better man,

For that will physic the great Myrmidon,

Nest. The purpose is perspicuous even as sub- Who broils in loud applause; and make him fall

stance,

1 Steevens remarks that this is the language of romance. Such a challenge would have better suited Palmerin or Amadis, than Hector or Eneas. 2 An armour for the arm. Avant bras. Milton uses the word in Samson Agonistes, and Heywood in his Iron Age, 1632:

peruse his armour,

The dint's still in the vantbrace."

3 Be you to my present purpose what time is in respect of all other schemes, viz. a ripener and bringer of them to maturity.

4 Thus in the Rape of Lucrece :

'How will thy shame be seeded in thine age, When thus thy vices bud before thy spring

5 The intent is as plain and palpable as substance, and it is to be collected from small circumstances, as a gross body is made up of many small parts.' This is the Scope of Warburton's explanation, to which I incline. Steevens says that substance is estate, the value of which is ascertained by the use of small characters, i. e. numerals: grossness is the gross sum.'

6 Make no difficulty, no doubt, when this duel comes to be proclaimed, but that Achilles, dull as he is, will discover the drift of it. Thus in a subsequent scene Ulysses says:

I do not strain at the position,
It is familiar."

His crest, that prouder than blue Iris bends.
If the dull brainless Ajax come safe off,12
We'll dress him up in voices; If he fail,
Yet go we under our opinion13 still

That we have better men. But, hit or miss,
Our project's life this shape of sense assumes,-
Ajax, employ'd, plucks down Achilles' plumes.
Nest. Ulysses,

Now I begin to relish thy advice:
And I will give a taste of it forthwith

'When

7 A scantling is a measure, a proportion.
the lion's skin will not suffice, we must add a scantling
of the fox's. Montaigne's Essays, by Florio, 1603.
8 i. e. small points compared with the volumes. In-
dexes were formerly often prefixed to books,
9 The folio reads:-

The lustre of the better, yet to show
Shall show the better.

But as the quarto copy of the play is generally more
correct than the folio, it has been followed. Malone
thinks that some arburary alterations have been made
in the text of this play by the editors of the folio.

10 Opinion for estimation or reputation. See King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. iv. The word occurs be fore in this scene, in the same sense :—

"Yet in the trial much opinion dwells.'
11 Lot. Sort, Fr. sors, Lat. Thus Lydgate:-
Of sorte also and divynation.'

12 Shakspeare, misled by The Destruction of Troy,
appears to have confounded Ajax Telamonius with Ajax
Oileus, for in that book the latter is called simply Ajax,
as the more eminent of the two. Ajax was of a huge
stature, great and large in the shoulders, great armes,
and always was well clothed, and very richly, and was
of no great enterprise, and spake very quicke
13 See note 10.

Ajax. Thou stool for a witch! Ther. Ay, do, do; thou sodden-witted lord! thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows: an assinico may tutor thee: Thou scurvy-valiant ass! thou art here put to thrash Trojans; and thou art bought and sold among those of any wit, like a Barbarian slave. If thou use to beat me, I will begin at thy heel, and tell what thou art by inches, thou thing of no bowels, thou!

1 i. e. urge, stimulate, or set the mastiffs on. King John, Act iv. Sc. 1.

See

2 This play is not divided into acts in any of the ori. ginal editions.

3 Alluding to the plague sent by Apollo on the Gre-evidently from the Spanish asnico, a young or little ass; cian army.

4 He calls Ajax mongrel, on account of his father being a Grecian and his mother a Trojan. Sir Andrew Aguecheck says, in Twelfth Night, I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit.

5 The folio has thou whinid'st leaven, a corruption undoubtedly of vinew'dst or vinniedst, i. e. mouldy leaven. Thou unsalted leaven, is as much as to say, "thou foolish lump.'

6 In The Tempest, Caliban says, 'The red plague rid you.'

7 Cobloaf is perhaps equivalent to ill shapen lump. Minsheu says, a cob-loaf is a little loaf made with a round head, such as cob irons which support the fire.

8 i. e. pound; still in use provincially. It is related of a Staffordshire servant of Miss Seward, that hearing]

their toes,-yoke you like draught oxen, and make | As fears and reasons? fye, for godly shame! you plough up the wars.

Achil. What, what?

Ther. Yes, good sooth; To, Achilles! to, Ajax! to!
Ajar. I shall cut out your tongue.

Ther. "Tis no matter; I shall speak as much as thou, afterwards.

Patr. No more words, Thersites; peace. Ther. I will hold my peace when Achilles' brach' bids me, shall I ?

Achil. There's for you, Patroclus.

Ther. I will see you hanged, like clotpoles, ere I come any more to your tents; I will keep where there is wit stirring, and leave the faction of fools. [Exit.

Patr. A good riddance.
Achil. Marry, this sir, is proclaimed through all

our host:

That Hector, by the first hour of the sun,
Will, with a trumpet, 'twixt our tents and Troy,
To-morrow morning call some knight to arms,
That hath a stomach; and such a one, that dare
Maintain-I know not what; 'tis trash: Farewell.
Ajax. Farewell. Who shall answer him?
Achil. I know not, it is put to lottery: otherwise,
He knew his man.

Ajar. O, meaning you :-I'll go learn more of it.
[Exeunt.
SCENE II. Troy. A Room in Priam's Palace.
Enter PRIAM, HECTOR, TROILUS, PARIS, and
HELENUS.

Pri. After so many hours, lives, speeches spent,
Thus once again says Nestor from the Greeks;
Deliver Helen, and all damage else—
As honour, loss of time, travel, expense,
Wounds, friends, and what else dear that is consum'd
In hot digestion of this cormorant war,

Shall be struck off:-Hector, what say you to't?
Hect. Though no man lesser fears the Greeks
than I,

As far as toucheth my particular, yet,
Dread Priam,

There is no lady of more softer bowels,
More spungy to suck in the sense of fear,
More ready to cry out-Who knows what follows ?2
Than Hector is: The wound of peace is surety,
Surety secure; but modest doubt is call'd
The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches
To the bottom of the worst. Let Helen go:
Since the first sword was drawn about this question,
Every tithe soul, 'mongst many thousand dismes,3
Hath been as dear as Helen; I mean, of ours:
If we have lost so many tenths of ours,
To guard a thing not ours; not worth to us,
Had it our name, the value of one ten;
What merit's in that reason, which denies
The yielding of her up?

Tro.
Fye, fye, my brother!
Weigh you the worth and honour of a king,
So great as our dread father, in a scale
Of common ounces? will you with counters sum
The past-proportion of his infinite ?4
And buckle in a waist most fathomless,
With spans and inches so diminutive

1 Both the old copies read brooch, which may be right; for we find monile and bulla in the dictionaries interpreted a bosse, an hart; a brooch, or jewell of a round compasse to hang about ones neck. It has been observed that Thersites afterwards calls Patroclus Achilles's male harlot, and his masculine whore. The term brach was suggested by Rowe, and which later editors have continued in the text, has been already explained, it is a mannerly name for all hound-bitches.'

2 Who knows what ill consequences may follow from pursuing this or that course?

3 Disme is properly tenths or tythes, but dismes is here used for tens.

4 i. e. that greatness to which no measure bears any proportion.

5 i. e. consideration, regard to consequences.

Hel. No marvel, though you bite so sharp at

You know, an enemy intends you harm;
You know, a sword employ'd is perilous,
And reason flies the object of all harm;
Who marvels, then, when Helenus beholds
A Grecian and his sword, if he do set
The very wings of reason to his heels;
And fly like chidden Mercury from Jove,
Or like a star disorb'd?-Nay, if we talk of reason,
Let's shut our gates and sleep: Manhood and honour
Should have hare hearts, would they but fat their

thoughts

With this cramm'd reason: reason and respect'
Make livers pale, and lustihood deject.

Hect. Brother, she is not worth what she doth cost
The holding.

Tro. What is aught, but as 'tis valued?
Hect. But value dwells not in particular will;
It holds his estimate and dignity
As well wherein 'tis precious of itself
As in the prizer: 'tis mad idolatry,
To make the service greater than the god;
To what infectiously itself affects,
And the will dotes, that is attributive
Without some image of the affected merit.

Tro. I take to-day a wife, and my election
Is led on in the conduct of my will;
My will, enkindled by mine eyes and ears,
Two traded pilots 'twixt the dangerous shores
of will and judgment: How may I avoid,
Although my will distaste what it elected,
The wife I choose? There can be no evasion
To blench from this, and to stand firm by honour:
We turn not back the silks upon the merchant,
When we have soil'd them; nor the remainder viands
We do not throw in unrespective sieve,"
Because we now are full. It was thought meet,
Paris should do some vengeance on the Greeks:
Your breath with full consent bellied his sails;
The seas and winds (old wranglers) took a truce,
And did him service! he touch'd the ports desir'd;
And, for an old aunt,1° whom the Greeks held captive,
He brought a Grecian queen, whose youth and fresh-

ness

Wrinkles Apollo's, and makes pale the morning.
Why keep we her? the Grecians keep our aunt:
Is she worth keeping? why, she is a pearl,
Whose price hath launch'd above a thousand ships,
And turn'd crown'd kings to merchants.

If you'll avouch, 'twas wisdom Paris went,
(As you must needs, for you all cry'd—Go, go,)
If you'll confess, he brought home noble prize,
(As you must needs, for you all clapp'd your hands,
And cry'd-Inestimable!) why do you now
The issue of your proper wisdoms rate;
And do a deed that fortune never did,'
11
Beggar the estimation which you priz'd
Richer than sea and land? O theft most base;

7 i. e. under the guidance of my will.
8 See p. 156, note 9.

9 That is, into a common voider. It is well known that sieves and half sieves are baskets, to be met with in every quarter of Covent Garden: and baskets lined with tin are still employed as voiders. In the former of these senses sieve is used in The Wits, by Sir W. Da-apple-wives

venant

That wrangle for a sieve.'

Dr. Farmer says, that in some counties the baskets used for carrying out dirt, &c. are called sieves. The folio copy reads by mistake unrespective same.'

10 Priam's sister, Hesione.

6 The will dotes that attributes or gives the quali-11 Fortune was never so unjust and mutable as to rate ties which it affects that first causes excellence, and then admires it. The folio reads inclinable, the quarto attributive.

a thing on one day above all price, and on the next to set no estimation whatsoever upon it. You are doing what Fortune, inconstant as she is, never did