less the fiddler Apollo get his sinews to make catlings on 2.

ACHIL. Come, thou shalt bear a letter to him straight.

THER. Let me bear another to his horse; for that's the more capable creature3.

ACHIL. My mind is troubled, like a fountain

stirr'd;

And I myself see not the bottom of it1.

[Exeunt ACHILLES and PATROCLUS. THER. 'Would the fountain of your mind were clear again, that I might water an ass at it! I had rather be a tick in a sheep, than such a valiant ignorance.

[Exit.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

Troy. A Street.

Enter, at one side, ENEAS, and Servant, with a Torch; at the other, PARIS, DEIPHOBUS, Antenor, Diomedes, and Others, with Torches.

PAR. See, ho! who's that there?

DEI.

"Tis the lord Æneas.

ENE. Is the prince there in person?—

Had I so good occasion to lie long,

3 -the more CAPABLE creature.] The more intelligent creature. So, in King Richard III. :

"Bold, forward, quick, ingenious, capable."

See also Henry VIII. Act V. Sc. II. MALONE.

4 And I myself SEE NOT THE BOTTOM of it.] This is an image frequently introduced by our author. So, in King Henry IV. Part II.: "I see the bottom of Justice Shallow." Again, in King Henry VI. Part II. :

66

we then should see the bottom "Of all our fortunes." STEEVENS.

As you, prince Paris, nothing but heavenly business
Should rob my bed-mate of my company.

Dio. That's my mind too.-Good morrow, lord
Eneas.

PAR. A valiant Greek, Æneas; take his hand:
Witness the process of your speech, wherein
You told-how Diomed, a whole week by days,
Did haunt you in the field.

ENE. Health to you, valiant sir3, During all question of the gentle truce ° : But when I meet you arm'd, as black defiance, As heart can think, or courage execute.

DIO. The one and other Diomed embraces.
Our bloods are now in calm; and, so long, health;
But when contention and occasion meet,

By Jove, I'll play the hunter for thy life,
With all my force, pursuit, and policy.

ENE. And thou shalt hunt a lion, that will fly
With his face backward.-In humane gentleness,
Welcome to Troy! now, by Anchises' life,
Welcome, indeed! By Venus' hand I swear",
No man alive can love, in such a sort,
The thing he means to kill, more excellently.

5 — VALIANT sir,] The epithet-valiant, appears to have been caught by the compositor from the preceding speech, and is introduced here only to spoil the metre. STEEVENS.

6 During all QUESTION of the gentle truce:] I once thought to read :

66

During all quiet of the gentle truce:" But I think question means intercourse, interchange of conversation. JOHNSON.

See Measure for Measure, Act II. Sc. IV. "Question of the gentle truce" is, conversation while the gentle truce lasts.' MALONE.

- By Venus' hand I swear,] This oath was used to insinuate his resentment for Diomedes' wounding his mother in the hand. WARBURTON.

I believe Shakspeare had no such allusion in his thoughts. He would hardly have made Æneas civil and uncivil in the same breath. STEEVENS.

He swears first by the life of his father, and then by the hand of his mother. BLAKEWAY.

Dio. We sympathize :-Jove, let Æneas live, If to my sword his fate be not the glory, A thousand complete courses of the sun! But, in mine emulous honour, let him die, With every joint a wound; and that to-morrow! ENE. We know each other well.

DIO. We do; and long to know each other worse. PAR. This is the most despiteful* gentle greeting, The noblest hateful love, that e'er I heard of.What business, lord, so early?

ENE. I was sent for to the king; but why, I know not.

PAR. His purpose meets you; 'Twas to bring this Greek,

To Calchas' house; and there to render him,
For the enfreed Antenor, the fair Cressid:
Let's have your company; or, if you please,
Haste there before us: I constantly do think,
(Or, rather, call my thought a certain knowledge,)
My brother Troilus lodges there to-night ;
Rouse him, and give him note of our approach,
With the whole quality wherefore I fear,
We shall be much unwelcome.

ÆNE.

Troilus had rather Troy were borne to Greece,
Than Cressid borne from Troy.

PAR.

That I assure you;

There is no help;

[Exit.

The bitter disposition of the time

Will have it so. On, lord; we'll follow you.

ENE. Good morrow, all.

PAR. And tell me, noble Diomed; 'faith, tell me

true,

Even in the soul of sound good-fellowship,

*First folio, despightful'st.

+ First folio, whereof.

8 His purpose meets you;] I bring you his meaning and his orders. JOHNSON.

Who, in your thoughts, merits fair Helen best,
Myself, or Menelaus ?

He merits well to have her, that doth seek her
(Not making any scruple of her soilure,)
With such a hell of pain, and world of charge;
And you as well to keep her, that defend her
(Not palating the taste of her dishonour,)
With such a costly loss of wealth and friends:
He, like a puling cuckold, would drink up
The lees and dregs of a flat tamed piece 9;
You, like a lecher, out of whorish loins
Are pleas'd to breed out your inheritors:
Both merits pois'd, each weighs nor less nor more;
But he as he, the heavier for a whore 1.

PAR. You are too bitter to your countrywoman.

9-a flat TAMED piece ;] i. e. a piece of wine out of which the spirit is all flown. WARBURTON.

This word, with a somewhat similar sense, occurs in Coriolanus: "His remedies are tame i'the present peace." STEEVENS. Both merits pois'd, each weighs nor less nor more;

But he as he, THE heavier for a whore.] I read :

"But he as he, each heavier for a whore?" Heavy is taken both from weighty, and for sad, or miserable. The quarto reads:

"But he as he, the heavier for a whore."

I know not whether the thought is not that of a wager. It must then be read thus:

"But he as he.

Which heavier, for a whore ?" That is, "for a whore staked down, which is the heavier?"

As the quarto reads,

66

the heavier for a whore,"

JOHNSON.

I think all new pointing or alteration unnecessary. The sense appears to be this: the merits of either are sunk in value, because the contest between them is only for a strumpet. STEEVENS.

The merits of each, whatever they may be, being weighed one against the other, are exactly equal; in each of the scales, however, in which their merits are to be weighed, a harlot must be placed, since each of them has been equally attached to one. This is the reading of the quarto. The folio reads,

which heavier for a whore." MALONE.

Dro. She's bitter to her country: Hear me,

Paris,

For every false drop in her bawdy veins

A Grecian's life hath sunk; for every scruple
Of her contaminated carrion weight,

A Trojan hath been slain: since she could speak,
She hath not given so many good words breath,
As for her Greeks and Trojans suffer'd death.
PAR. Fair Diomed, you do as chapmen do,
Dispraise the thing that you desire to buy:
But we in silence hold this virtue well,-
We'll not commend what we intend to sell 2.
Here lies our way.

[Exeunt.

2 We'll not COMMEND what we intend to sell.] I believe the meaning is only this: "though you practise the buyer's art, we will not practise the seller's. We intend to sell Helen dear, yet will not commend her.' JOHNSON.

Dr. Warburton would read-not sell. STEEVENS.
The sense, I think, requires we should read-condemn.

TYRWHITT.

When Dr. Johnson says, they meant "to sell Helen dear," he evidently does not mean that they really intended to sell her at all, (as he has been understood,) but that the Greeks should pay very dear for her, if they had her. We'll not commend what we intend to make you pay very dear for, if you have her. So, Ajax says, in a former scene: however, he shall pay for me, ere he

has me."

66

-

Commend is, I think, the true reading, our author having introduced a similar sentiment in two other places. In Love's Labour's Lost, we have

"To things of sale a seller's praise belongs." Again, in his 21st Sonnet :

"I will not praise that purpose not to sell."

This passage favours Dr. Warburton's emendation; but intend not sell sounds very harsh. However, many very harsh combinations may be found in these plays, where rhymes are introduced. MALONE.

Surely Dr. Warburton's reading is the true one:

"We'll not commend what we intend not sell,” is evidently opposed to

"Dispraise the thing that you desire to buy:" in the same speech.

Of such elliptical phraseology as is introduced by Dr. Warbur