But that of hand: the still and mental parts,- They call this-bed-work, mappery, closet-war : NEST. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse Makes many Thetis' sons. AGAM. [Trumpet sounds. What trumpet? look, Menelaus *. ENE. May one, that is a herald, and a prince, Do a fair message to his kingly ears? AGAM. With surety stronger than Achilles' arm 3 and know, BY measure 6 Or their observant toil, the enemies' weight,] I think it were better to read : and know the measure, By their observant toil, of the enemies' weight." JOHNSON. by means of their observant by measure M. MASON. That is 66 • What trumpet? look, MENELAUS.] Surely, the name of Menelaus only serves to destroy the metre, and should therefore be omitted. STEEVENS. 5 — kingly EARS?] The quarto: 6 wrote: 66 kingly eyes?" JOHNSON. ·ACHILLES' arm-] So the copies. Perhaps the author 'Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice Call Agamemnon head and general. ENE. Fair leave, and large security. How may A stranger to those most imperial looks" Know them from eyes of other mortals ? AGAM. ENE. Ay; I ask, that I might waken reverence, 8 And bid the cheek be ready with a blush How? Which is that god in office, guiding men? Troy Are ceremonious courtiers. ENE. Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm'd 7 A stranger to those most imperial looks-] And yet this was the seventh year of the war. Shakspeare, who so wonderfully preserves character, usually confounds the customs of all nations, and probably supposed that the ancients (like the heroes of chivalry) fought with beavers to their helmets. So, 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." Shakspeare might have adopted this error from the wooden cuts to ancient books, or from the illuminators of manuscripts, who never seem to have entertained the least idea of habits, manners, or customs more ancient than their own. There are books in the British Museum of the age of King Henry VI.; and in these the heroes of ancient Greece are represented in the very dresses worn at the time when the books received their decorations. STEEVENS. In The Destruction of Troy Shakspeare found all the chieftains of each army termed knights, mounted on stately horses, defended with modern helmets, &c. &c. MALONE. In what edition did these representations occur to Shakspeare? STEEVENS. The fifth edition was published in 1617; there was one in 1607, and probably the others were prior to this play. MALONE. 8 BID the cheek -] So the quarto. The folio has: 66 on the cheek." JOHNSON. As bending angels; that's their fame in peace: Nothing so full of heart. But peace, Æneas, Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, Jove's ACCORD, Nothing so full of heart.] I have not the smallest doubt that the poet wrote-(as I suggested in my Second Appendix, 8vo. 1783 :) 66 they have galls, "Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, Jove's a god Nothing so full of heart. 66 So, in Macbeth: "Sleek o'er your rugged looks; be bright and jovial Again, in Antony and Cleopatra : Again, ibidem: “Thou art, if thou dar'st be, the earthly Jove." The text, in my apprehension, is unintelligible, though I have not ventured, on my own opinion, to disturb it. In the old copy there is no point after the word accord, which adds some support to my conjecture. It also may be observed, that in peace the Trojans have just been compared to angels; and here Æneas, in a similar strain of panegyrick, compares them in war to that God who was proverbially distinguished for high spirits. The present punctuation of the text was introduced by Mr. Theobald. The words being pointed thus, he thinks it clear that the meaning is-They have galls, good arms, &c. and Jove annuente, nothing is so full of heart as they. Had Shakspeare written, - with Jove's accord," and "Nothing's so full," &c. such an interpretation might be received; but, as the words stand, it is inadmissible. 66 The quarto reads : 66 and great Jove's accord," &c. MALONE. Perhaps we should read: 66 66 and Love's a lord Nothing so full of heart. The words Jove and Love, in a future scene of this play, are substituted for each other, by the old blundering printers. In Love's Labour's Lost, Cupid is styled "Lord of ay-mees;" and Romeo speaks of his "bosom's Lord." In Othello, Love is commanded to yield up his hearted throne." And, yet more appositely, Valentine, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, says, 66 Peace, Trojan; lay thy finger on thy lips! That breath fame follows; that praise, sole pure, transcends. AGAM. Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself Æneas? love's a mighty lord -." The meaning of Eneas will then be obvious. The most confident of all passions is not so daring as we are in the field. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "And what Love can do, that dares Love attempt." Mr. M. Mason would read-" and Jove's own bird." Perhaps, however, the old reading may be the true one, the speaker meaning to say, that, "when they have the accord of Jove on their side, nothing is so courageous as the Trojans." Thus, in Coriolanus: "The god of soldiers 66 (With the consent of supreme Jove) inform "Thy thoughts with nobleness-." Jove's accord, in the present instance, like the Jove probante of Horace, may be an ablative absolute, as in Pope's version of the 19th Iliad, 190: "And, Jove attesting, the firm compact made." [STEEVENS. The worthiness of praise disdains his worth, If that the prais'd himself bring the praise forth :] So, in Coriolanus: 66 power unto itself most commendable, "Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair "To extol what it hath done." MALONE. 2 What's your affair, I PRAY YOU?] The words-I pray you, are an apparent interpolation, and consequently destroy the mea sure. Agam. What's your affair? STEEVENS. These hemistichs, joined together, form a complete verse. ENE. Nor I from Troy came not to whisper him : I bring a trumpet to awake his ear; To set his sense on the attentive bent, AGAM. Speak frankly as the wind It is not Agamemnon's sleeping hour: He tells thee so himself. ENE. 3 ; Trumpet, blow loud, Send thy brass voice through all these lazy tents;— And every Greek of mettle, let him know, What Troy means fairly, shall be spoke aloud. [Trumpet sounds. We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy A prince call'd Hector, (Priam is his father,) Who in this dull and long-continued truce Is rusty grown; he bade me take a trumpet, And to this purpose speak.. Kings, princes, lords! If there be one, among the fair'st of Greece, That holds his honour higher than his ease; That seeks his praise more than he fears his peril; That knows his valour, and knows not his fear; 5 3 Speak frankly as the wind ;] So, Jacques, in As You Like It: I must have liberty 66 "Withal as large a charter as the wind "To blow on whom I please STEEVENS. long-continued truce-] Of this long truce there has been no notice taken; in this very Act it is said, that “ Ajax coped Hector yesterday in the battle." JOHNSON. Here we have another proof of Shakspeare's falling into inconsistencies, by sometimes adhering to, and sometimes deserting, his original: a point, on which some stress has been laid in the Dissertation printed at the end of The Third Part of King Henry VI. Of this dull and “long-continued truce" (which was agreed upon at the desire of the Trojans, for six months,) Shakspeare found an account in the seventh chapter of the third book of The Destruction of Troy. In the fifteenth chapter of the same book the beautiful daughter of Calchas is first introduced. Malone. 5-rusty-] Quarto, resty. JOHNSON. |