CAL. You have a Trojan prisoner, call'd Antenor, Yesterday took; Troy holds him very dear. Oft have you, (often have you thanks therefore,) Desir'd my Cressid in right great exchange, Whom Troy hath still denied: But this Antenor, I know, is such a wrest in their affairs 9,

8

- Antenor,] Very few particulars respecting this Trojan are preserved by Homer. But as Professor Heyne, in his seventh Excursus to the first Æneid, observes, "Fuit Antenor inter eos, in quorum rebus ornandis ii maxime scriptores laborarunt, qui narrationes Homericas novis commentis de suo onerarunt; non aliter ac si delectatio a mere fabulosis et temeré effusis figmentis proficisceretur." STEEVENS.

9

- such a WREST in their affairs,] According to Dr. Johnson, who quotes this line in his Dictionary, the meaning is, that the loss of Antenor is such a violent distortion of their affairs, &c. But as in a former scene (p. 265—see n. 2,) we had o'er-rested for o'erwrested, so here I strongly suspect wrest has been printed instead of rest. Antenor is such a stay or support of their affairs, &c. All the ancient English muskets had rests by which they were supported. The subsequent words-wanting his manage, appear to me to confirm the emendation. To say that Antenor himself (for so the passage runs, not the loss of Antenor,) is a violent distortion of the Trojan negociations, is little better than nonsense. MALONE. I have been informed that a wrest anciently signified a sort of tuning-hammer, by which the strings of some musical instruments were screwed or wrested up to their proper degree of tension. Antenor's advice might be supposed to produce a congenial effect on the Trojan councils, which otherwise

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must slack, Wanting his manage

Wrest is not misprinted for rest, as Mr. Malone supposes, in his correction of Dr. Johnson, who has certainly mistaken the sense of this word. It means an instrument for tuning the harp by drawing up the strings. Laneham, in his Letter from Kenilworth, p. 50, describing a minstrel, says, "his harp in good grace dependaunt before him; his wreast tyed to a green lace and hanging by." And again, in Wynne's History of the Gwedir Family: "And setting forth very early before day, unwittingly carried upon his finger the wrest of his cosen's harpe." To wrest, is to wind. See Minsheu's Dictionary. The form of the wrest may be seen in some of the illuminated service books, wherein David is représented playing on his harp; in the second part of Mersenna's Harmonies, p. 69 and in the Syntagmata of Prætorius, vol, ii. fig. xix. DOUCE.

:

That their negotiations all must slack,
Wanting his manage; and they will almost
Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam,

In change of him: let him be sent, great princes, And he shall buy my daughter; and her presence Shall quite strike off all service I have done,

In most accepted pain 1.

AGAM.
Let Diomedes bear him,
And bring us Cressid hither; Calchas shall have
What he requests of us.-Good Diomed,
Furnish you fairly for this interchange:

Withal, bring word-if Hector will to-morrow
Be answer'd in his challenge: Ajax is ready.
DIO. This shall I undertake; and 'tis a burden
Which I am proud to bear.

[Exeunt DIOMEDES and CALCHAS.

Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS, before their Tent.

ULYSS. Achilles stands i'the entrance of his tent:-
Please it our general to pass strangely by him,
As if he were forgot; and, princes all,

Lay negligent and loose regard upon him:
I will come last. 'Tis like, he'll question me,
Why such unplausive eyes are bent, why turn'd on
him 2:

If so, I have derision med'cinable,

To use between your strangeness and his pride,

In most accepted PAIN.] Sir T. Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton after him, read:

"In most accepted pay.”

They do not seem to understand the construction of the passage. Her presence, says Calchas, shall strike off, or recompense the service I have done, even in those labours which were most accepted.

2 Why such unplausive eyes are bent, WHY TURN'D on him :] If the eyes were bent on him, they were turn'd on him. This tautology, therefore, together with the redundancy of the line, plainly show that we ought to read, with Sir Thomas Hanmer ;

"Why such unplausive eyes are bent on him.

STEEVENS.

;

Which his own will shall have desire to drink
It may do good: pride hath no other glass
To show itself, but pride; for supple knees
Feed arrogance, and are the proud man's fees.
AGAM. We'll execute your purpose, and put on
A form of strangeness as we pass along ;-
So do each lord; and either greet him not,
Or else disdainfully, which shall shake him more
Than if not look'd on. I will lead the way.

ACHIL. What, comes the general to speak with me?

You know my mind, I'll fight no more 'gainst Troy. AGAM. What says Achilles? would he aught with us?

NEST. Would you, my lord, aught with the general ?

ACHIL. No.

NEST. Nothing, my lord.

AGAM. The better.

[Exeunt AGAMEMNON and Nestor.

ACHIL. Good day, good day.

MEN. How do you? how do you?

[Exit MENELAUS.

ACHIL. What, does the cuckold scorn me?

AJAX. How now, Patroclus?

ACHIL. Good morrow, Ajax.

AJAX. Ha?

ACHIL. Good morrow 3.

AJAX. Ay, and good next day too.

[Exit AJAX.

ACHIL. What mean these fellows? Know they not Achilles ?

3 Good morrow.] Perhaps, in this repetition of the salute, we should read, as in the preceding instance,-Good morrow, Ajax; or, with more colloquial spirit,-I say, good morrow. Otherwise

the metre is defective. STEEVENS.

PATR They pass by strangely: they were us'd to

bend,

To send their smiles before them to Achilles;
To come as humbly, as they us❜d to creep
To holy altars.
ACHIL.

What, am I poor of late?

'Tis certain, greatness, once fallen out with fortune, Must fall out with men too: What the declin❜d is, He shall as soon read in the eyes of others,

As feel in his own fall: for men, like butterflies, Show not their mealy wings, but to the summer; And not a man, for being simply man,

4

Hath any honour; but honour for those honours
That are without him, as place, riches, and favour,
Prizes of accident as oft as merit:

Which when they fall, as being slippery standers,
The love that lean'd on them as slippery too,
Do one pluck down another, and together
Die in the fall. But 'tis not so with me:
Fortune and I are friends; I do enjoy

At ample point all that I did possess,

Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out
Something not worth in me such rich beholding
As they have often given. Here is Ulysses;
I'll interrupt his reading.-

How now, Ulysses?

ULYSS.

Now, great Thetis' son?

A strange fellow here

ACHIL. What are you reading?
ULYSS.

Writes me, That man-how dearly ever parted 3,

4 but honour-] Thus the quarto. The folio reads-but honour'd. MALONE.

5- how dearly ever PARTED,] However excellently endowed, with however dear or precious parts enriched or adorned.

JOHNSON.

Johnson's explanation of the word parted is just. So, in Ben

How much in having, or without, or in,

*

Cannot make boast to have that which he hath,
Nor feels not what he owes, but by reflection;
As when his virtues shining upon others
Heat them, and they retort that heat again
To the first giver.

ACHIL.
This is not strange, Ulysses.
The beauty that is borne here in the face
The bearer knows not, but commends itself
To others' eyes: nor doth the eye itself"
(That most pure spirit of sense,) behold itself,
Not going from itself; but eye to eye oppos'd
Salutes each other with each other's form.
For speculation turns not to itself,

Till it hath travell'd, and is married there
Where it may see itself: this is not strange at all.
ULYSS. I do not strain at the position,

It is familiar; but at the author's drift:

* Quarto, ayming.

Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, he describes Macilente as a man well parted; and in Massinger's Great Duke of Florence, Sanazarro says of Lydia :

6

"And I, my lord, chose rather

"To deliver her better parted than she is,
"Than to take from her." M. MASON.

So, in a subsequent passage:

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66

-no man is the lord of any thing,

(Though in and of him there is much consisting,) "Till he communicate his parts to others." MALONE. nor doth the eye itself, &c.] So, in Julius Cæsar :

66

No, Cassius; for the eye sees not itself,

"But by reflexion, by some other things." STEEvens.

7 To others' eyes :

(That most pure spirit, &c.] These two lines are totally omitted in all the editions but the first quarto. РОРЕ.

8 For SPECULATION turns not, &c.] Speculation has here the same meaning as in Macbeth:

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Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
"Which thou dost glare with." MALONE.