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, p. 14, in which the spit or bodkin forms but a very small part of the whole. LORT. Broch was, properly, a trinket with a pin affixed to it, and is consequently used by Shakspeare for an ornament in general. So, in Hamlet: he is the brooch indeed "And gem of all the nation.". So, in Antony and Cleopatra: 66 -not the imperious show "Of the full fortun'd Cæsar, ever shall But Thersites could not mean to compliment Patroclus, and therefore this cannot, I think, be the true reading. Brach, which was introduced by Mr. Rowe, might serve well enough, but that it certainly meant a bitch. [See Vol. IX. p. 16, n. 9.] It is possible, however, that Shakspeare might have used the word as synonymous to follower, without any regard to sex. I have sometimes thought that the word intended might have been Achilles's brock, i. e. that over-weening conceited coxcomb, who attends upon Achilles. Our author has used this term of contempt in Twelfth-Night: "Marry, hang thee, brock!" So, in The Jests of George Peele, quarto, 1657: "This self-conceited brock had George invited," &c. MALONE. - A brock, literally, means-a badger. STEEVENS. MALONE. AJAX. Farewell. Who shall answer him? ACHIL. I know not, it is put to lottery; other wise, Enter PRIAM, HECTOR, TROILUS, PARIS, and 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, expence, 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, 7 66 spungy-] So, in Macbeth: his spungy officers." STEEVENS. -Who knows what follows?] Who knows what ill consequences may follow from pursuing this or that course? MALONE, Surety secure; but modest doubt is call'd 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?1 And buckle-in a waist most fathomless, With spans and inches so diminutive As fears and reasons? fye, for godly shame! HEL. No marvel, though you bite so sharp at reasons, 2 9 -many thousand dismes,] Disme, Fr. is the tithe, the tenth. So, in the Prologue to Gower's Confessio Amantis, 1554: "The disme goeth to the battaile.” Again, in Holinshed's Reign of Richard II: "-so that there was levied, what of the disme, and by the devotion of the people," &c. STEEVENS. The past-proportion of his infinite?] Thus read both the copies. The meaning is, that greatness to which no measure bears any proportion. The modern editors silently give: The vast proportion-. JOHNSON. 2 though you bite so sharp at reasons, &c.] Here is a wretched quibble between reasons and raisins, which in Shakspeare's time, were, I believe, pronounced alike. Dogberry, in Much Ado about Nothing, plays upon the same words: "If Justice cannot tame you, she shall never weigh more reasons in her balance." MALONE. You are so empty of them. Should not our father Bear the great sway of his affairs with reasons, Because your speech hath none, that tells him so? TRO. You are for dreams and slumbers, brother Here are your priest, You fur your gloves with reason. reasons: You know, an enemy intends you harm; son, Let's shut our gates, and sleep: Manhood and ho nour Should have hare hearts, would they but fat their thoughts With this cramm'd reason: reason and respect The present suspicion of a quibble on the word-reason, is not, in my opinion, sufficiently warranted by the context. And fly like chidden Mercury from Jove, STEEVENS. Or like a star dis-orb'd?] These two lines are misplaced in all the folio editions. POPE. -reason and respect Make livers pale, &c.] Respect is caution, a regard to consequences. So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece: "Then, childish fear, avaunt! debating die! Again, in Timon of Athens: ❝and never learn'd "The icy precepts of respect, but follow'd 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 8 And the will dotes, that is attributive-] So the quarto. The folio reads-inclinable, which Mr. Pope says " is better." MALONE. I think the first reading better; the will dotes that attributes or gives the qualities which it affects; that first causes excellence, and then admires it. JOHNSON. "Without some image of the affected merit.] We should read: the affected's merit. i. e. without some mark of merit in the thing affected. WARBURTON. The present reading is right. The will affects an object for some supposed merit, which Hector says is censurable, unless the merit so affected be really there. JOHNSON. 7-in the conduct of my will;] i. e. under the guidance of my will. MALONE. blench-] See p. 234, n. 6. STEEVENS. : |