Manly as Hector, but more dangerous;

For Hector, in his blaze of wrath, subscribes
To tender objects; but he, in heat of action,
Is more vindicative than jealous love:
They call him Troilus; and on him erect
A second hope, as fairly built as Hector.
Thus says Æneas; one that knows the youth
Even to his inches, and, with private soul,
Did in great Ilion thus translate him to me ".

[Alarum. HECTOR and AJAX fight.

AGAM. They are in action.

NEST. Now, Ajax, hold thine own!

TRO.

Awake thee !

Hector, thou sleep'st;

AGAM. His blows are well dispos'd:-there, Ajax!
Dro. You must no more. [Trumpets cease.
ENE.
Princes, enough, so please you.
AJAX. I am not warm yet, let us fight again.

DIO. As Hector pleases.

HECT.

Why then, will I no more :

Thou art, great lord, my father's sister's son,

A cousin-german to great Priam's seed;
The obligation of our blood forbids

A gory emulation 'twixt us twain :

Were thy commixtion Greek and Trojan so,
That thou could'st say-This hand is Grecian all,
And this is Trojan; the sinews of this leg
All Greek, and this all Troy; my mother's blood
Runs on the dexter cheek, and this sinister

To tender objects;] That is, yields, gives way. JOHNSON. So, in King Lear: subscrib'd his power;' i. e. submitted.

STEEVENS.

thus translate him to me.] Thus explain his character.

So, in Hamlet :

JOHNSON.

"There's matter in these sighs, these profound heaves;
"You must translate." STEEVENS.

Bounds-in my father's; by Jove multipotent,

Thou should'st not bear from me a Greekish mem

ber

Wherein my sword had not impressure made
Of our rank feud: But the just gods gainsay,
That any drop thou borrow'st from thy mother,
My sacred aunt, should by my mortal sword
Be drain'd! Let me embrace thee, Ajax:
By him that thunders, thou hast lusty arms;
Hector would have them fall upon him thus:
Cousin, all honour to thee!

AJAX.
I thank thee, Hector:
Thou art too gentle, and too free a man :
I came to kill thee, cousin, and bear hence
A great addition' earned in thy death.

HECT. Not Neoptolemus so mirable

(On whose bright crest Fame with her loud'st O yes Cries, This is he,) could promise to himself"

9 My SACRED aunt,] It is remarkable that the Greeks give to the uncle the title of Sacred, 905. Patruus avunculus ò pòs Tarpos belos, Gaz. de Senec. patruus o pès unτρós beos, avunculus, Budaei Lexic. ειος is also used absolutely for ὁ πρὸς πατρος θείος, Euripid. Iphigen. Taurid. 1. 930 :

Ιφι. Η που νοσούντας θεῖος ὕβρισεν δόμους. And Xenoph. Kupov maid. lib. i. passim. VAILLANT.

This circumstance may tend to establish an opinion I have elsewhere expressed, that this play was not the entire composition of Shakspeare, to whom the Grecism before us was probably unknown. STEEVENS.

1 A great ADDITION] i. e. denomination. See p. 239, n. 5. STEEVENS.

2 Not Neoptolemus so MIRABLE

(On whose bright crest Fame with her loud'st O yes

Cries, THIS IS HE,) could promise to himself, &c.] Dr. Warburton observes, that "the sense and spirit of Hector's speech requires that the most celebrated of his adversaries should be picked out to be defied, and this was Achilles himself, not his son Neoptolemus, who was yet but an apprentice in warfare." In the rage of correction therefore he reads:

"Not Neoptolemus's sire irascible."

Such a licentious conjecture deserves no attention. MALONE.

A thought of added honour torn from Hector. ENE. There is expectancé here from both the

sides,

What further you will do.

We'll answer it;

HECT.
The issue is embracement :-Ajax, farewell.
AJAX. If I might in entreaties find success,

My opinion is, that by Neoptolemus the author meant Achilles himself; and remembering that the son was Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, considered Neoptolemus as the nomen gentilitium, and thought the father was likewise Achilles Neoptolemus. JOHNSON.

Shakspeare might have used Neoptolemus for Achilles. Wilfride Holme, the author of a poem called The Fall and Evil Successe of Rebellion, &c. 1537, had made the same mistake before him, as the following stanza will show:

66

"Also the triumphant Troyans victorious,

'By Anthenor and Æneas false confederacie,

66

Sending Polidamus to Neoptolemus,

"Who was vanquished and subdued by their conspiracie.

"O dolorous fortune, and fatal miserie!

"For multitude of people was there mortificate
"With condigne Priamus and all his progenie,
"And flagrant Polixene, that lady delicate."

In Lydgate, however, Achilles, Neoptolemus, and Pyrrhus, are distinct characters. Neoptolemus is enumerated

among the Grecian princes who first embarked to revenge the rape of Helen: The valiant Grecian called Neoptolemus,

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"That had his haire as blacke as any jet," &c. p. 102. and Pyrrhus, very properly, is not heard of till after the death of his father:

"Sith that Achilles in such traiterous wise

"Is slaine, that we a messenger should send
"To fetch his son yong Pyrrhus, to the end

"He may revenge his father's death," &c. p. 237. STEEVENS. I agree with Dr. Johnson and Mr. Steevens, in thinking that Shakspeare supposed Neoptolemus was the nomen gentilitium : an error into which he might have been led by some book of the time. That by Neoptolemus he meant Achilles, and not Pyrrhus, may be inferred from a former passage in p. 354, by which it appears that he knew Pyrrhus had not yet engaged in the siege of Troy :

“But it must grieve young Pyrrhus, now at home," &c.

MALONE. 3 We'll answer it ;] That is, answer the expectance. JOHNSON.

(As seld I have the chance,) I would desire My famous cousin to our Grecian tents.

Dro. 'Tis Agamemnon's wish: and great Achilles Doth long to see unarm'd the valiant Hector. HECT. Æneas, call my brother Troilus to me: And signify this loving interview

To the expecters of our Trojan part;

Desire them home.-Give me thy hand, my cousin ; I will go eat with thee, and see your knights*.

AJAX. Great Agamemnon comes to meet us here. HECT. The worthiest of them tell me name by name;

But for Achilles, my own searching eyes
Shall find him by his large and portly size.

AGAM. Worthy of arms! as welcome as to one That would be rid of such an enemy;

But that's no welcome: Understand more clear, What's past, and what's to come, is strew'd with husks

And formless ruin of oblivion ;

But in this extant moment, faith and troth,
Strain'd purely from all hollow bias-drawing,
Bids thee, with most divine integrity,

- your KNIGHTS.] The word knight, as often as it occurs, is sure to bring with it the idea of chivalry, and revives the memory of Amadis and his fantastick followers, rather than that of the mighty confederates who fought on either side in the Trojan I wish that eques and armiger could have been rendered by any other words than knight and 'squire. Mr. Pope, in his translation of the Iliad, is very liberal of the latter. STEEVENS.

war.

These knights, to the amount of about two hundred thousand, (for there were not less in both armies,) Shakspeare found, with all the appendages of chivalry, in The Three Destructions of Troy. MALONE.

5 Worthy of arms!] Folio. Worthy all arms!" quarto. The quarto has only the first, second, and the last line of this salutation; the intermediate verses seem added on a revision.

JOHNSON.

6 DIVINE integrity,] i. e. integrity like that of heaven.

STEEVENS.

From heart of very heart', great Hector, welcome. HECT. I thank thee, most imperious Agamemnon®. AGAM. My well-fam'd lord of Troy, no less to [TO TROILUS. MEN. Let me confirm my princely brother's greeting;

you.

You brace of warlike brothers, welcome hither.
HECT. Whom must we answer?

MEN.

The noble Menelaus 9.

HECT. O you, my lord? by Mars his gauntlet, thanks!

Mock not, that I affect the untraded oath ';
Your quondam wife swears still by Venus' glove :
She's well, but bade me not commend her to you.
MEN. Name her not now, sir; she's a deadly
theme.

HECT. O, pardon; I offend.

NEST. I have, thou gallant Trojan, seen thee oft, Labouring for destiny, make cruel way

2

Through ranks of Greekish youth and I have seen thee,

7

8

heart of very heart,] So, in Hamlet :

"In my heart's core, ay in my heart of heart." STEEVENS. most IMPERIOUS Agamemnon.] Imperious and imperial had formerly the same signification. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis :

"Imperious supreme of all mortal things." MALONE. Again, in Titus Andronicus:

"King, be thy thoughts imperious, like thy name."

STEEVENS.

9 Men. The noble Menelaus.] Mr. Ritson supposes this speech to belong to Æneas.

REED.

"the

As I cannot suppose that Menelaus would style himself noble Menelaus," I think Ritson right in giving this speech to

Eneas. M. MASON.

1 Mock not, &c.] The quarto has here a strange corruption : "Mock not thy affect, the untreaded earth." JOHNSON.. 66 the untraded oath." A singular oath, not in common use. So, in King Richard II.:

66

some way of common trade." MALONE.