Which when they fall, as being flippery ftanders,
The love that lean'd on them as flippery too,
Doth one pluck down another, and together
Die in the fall. But 'tis not fo with me:
Fortune and I are friends; I do enjoy
At ample point all that I did poffefs,

Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out
Something in me not worth that rich beholding
As they have often given. Here is Ulyffes;
I'll interrupt his reading.--How now, Ulyffes?
Ulyff. Now, great Thetis' fon?

Achil. What are you reading?
Uly. A ftrange fellow here

Writes me, That man- how dearly ever parted,
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 fhining upon others
Heat them, and they retort that heat again
To the first giver.

Achil. This is not ftrange, Ulyffes.

The beauty that is borne here in the face,
The bearer knows not, but commends itself

-how dearly ever parted,] i. e. how exquifitely foever his virtues be divided and balanced in him. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "Stuff'd, as they fay, with honourable parts, proportioned as one's thoughts would with a man." WARBURTON.

I do not think that in the word parted is included any idea of divifion; it means, however excellently endowed, with however dear or precious parts enriched or adorned. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnfon's expofition is ftrongly fupported by a fubfequent line:

66

-That no man is the lord of any thing,

(Though in and of him there is much confifting) "Till he communicate his parts to others."

So, Perfius:

"Scire tuum nihil eft, nifi te fcire, hoc fciat alter.”

See also the Dramatis Perfona of B. Jonfon's Every Man out of Humour: "MACILENTE, a man well-parted; a fufficient scholar, &c." MALONE.

VOL. IX.

H

To

*To others' eyes: nor doth the eye itself,
(That most pure fpirit of fenfe) behold itself,
Not going from itself; but eye to eye oppos'd
Salutes each other with each other's form.
For fpeculation turns not to itself,

'Till it hath travell'd, and is marry'd there
Where it may fee itfelf: this is not strange at all.
Ulyff. I do not ftrain at the position,
It is familiar; but at the author's drift:
Who, in his circumftance, expressly proves-
That no man is the lord of any thing,
(Though in and of him there is much confifting)
'Till he communicate his parts to others:
Nor doth he of himself know them for aught
'Till he behold them form'd in the applause
Where they are extended; which, like an arch, re-
verberates

The voice again; or like a gate of steel
Fronting the fun, receives and renders back
His figure and his heat. I was much rapt in this;
And apprehended here immediately

The unknown Ajax.

Heavens, what a man is there! a very horfe;
That has he knows not what. Nature, what things
there are,

Most abject in regard, and dear in use!
What things again moft dear in the esteem,

3 To others' eyes, &c.

(That most pure Spirit, &c.]

These two lines are totally omitted in all the editions but the first quarto.

POPE.

--nor doth the eye itself,] So, in Julius Cæfar:
"No Caffius; for the eye fees not itself,
"But by reflexion, by fome other things."

-in his

STEEVENS.

circumftance,- -] In the detail or circumduction of his argument. JOHNSON.

• The unknown Ajax,] Ajax, who has abilities which were never brought into view or ufe. JOHNSON.

And

And poor in worth! Now fhall we fee to-morrow An act that very chance doth throw upon him, Ajax renown'd. O heavens, what fome men do, While fome men leave to do!

How some men creep in skittifh fortune's hall, While others play the ideots in her eyes! How one man eats into another's pride, While pride is feasting in his wantonnefs! To fee these Grecean lords !-why, even already They clap the lubber Ajax on the shoulder ; As if his foot were on brave Hector's breaft, And great Troy fhrinking.

Achil. I do believe it: for they pafs'd by me, As mifers do by beggars; neither gave to me Good word, nor look: What are my deeds forgot? Ulyff. 'Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back, Wherein he puts alms for oblivion,

A great-fiz'd monster of ingratitudes:

Those scraps are good deeds paft; which are devour'd
As fast as they are made, forgot as foon

As done: Perfeverance, dear my lord,
Keeps honour bright: To have done, is to hang
Quite out of fashion, like a rufty mail

7

-Now we fhall fee to-morrow

An act that very chance doth throw upon bim
Ajax renown'd.] I would read:

Ajax renown.

The paffage as it stands in the folio is hardly fenfe. If renown'd be right, we ought to read:

By an act, &c.

MALONE.

How fome men creep in skittish fortune's hall,] To creep is to keep out of fight from whatever motive. Some men keep out of notice in the hall of fortune, while others, though they but play the ideot, are always in her eye, in the way of diftinction.

JOHNSON. —feasting] Folio. The quarto has fafting. Either word may bear a good fenfe. JoHNSON.

Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back,] This speech is printed in all the modern editions with fuch deviations from the old copy, as exceed the lawful power of an editor. JOHNSON.

In monumental mockery. Take the inftant way; For honour travels in a ftreight fo narrow,

Where one but goes abreaft: keep then the path :
For emulation hath a thousand fons,

That one by one purfue; If you give way,
Or hedge afide from the direct forthright,
Like to an entred tide, they all rush by,
And leave you hindmoft';-

Or like a gallant horfe fallen in first rank,
Lie there for pavement to the abject rear,

* O'er run and trampled on: Then what they do in prefent,

Though less than yours in paft, muft o'er-top yours:
For time is like a fashionable hoft,

That flightly shakes his parting gueft by the hand;
And with his arms out-stretch'd, as he would fly,
Grafps-in the comer: Welcome ever smiles,
And farewel goes out fighing. O, let not virtue seek
Remuneration for the thing it was; ' for beauty, wit,
High birth, vigour of bone, defert in fervice,
Love, friendship, charity, are fubjects all
To envious and calumniating time.

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,

2

and there you lie :] These words are not in the folio. JOHNSON.

Nor in any other copy that I have feen. I have given the paffage as I found it in the folio. STEEVENS.

3

to the abject rear,] So Hanmer. All the editors before him read:

--to the abject, near.

JOHNSON.

O'er run, &c.] The quarto wholly omits the fimile of the horfe, and reads thus:

And leave you hindmost, then what they do at present. The folio feems to have fome omiffion, for the fimile begins,

Or, like a gallant horse

5 The modern editors read:

JOHNSON.

For beauty, wit, high birth, defert in fervice, &c.

I do not deny but the changes produce a more eafy lapfe of num

bers, but they do not exhibit the work of Shakspeare.

JOHNSON.

That

That all, with one confent, praise new-born gawds,
Though they are made and moulded of things paft;
And shew to duft, that is a little gilt,
More laud than gilt o'er-dufted.

The prefent eye praises the prefent object :
Then marvel not, thou great and complete man,
That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax;
Since things in motion fooner catch the eye,
Than what not ftirs. The cry went once on thee 7,
And still it might, and yet it may again,
If thou would't not entomb thyfelf alive,
And cafe thy reputation in thy tent;

Whofe glorious deeds, but in thefe fields of late,
Made emulous miffions 'mongst the gods themselves,

And go to duft, that is a little gilt,

More laud than gilt o'er-dufted.]

And

In this mangled condition do we find this truly fine obfervation transmitted in the old folios. Mr. Pope faw it was corrupt, and therefore, as I prefume, threw it out of the text; because he would not indulge his private fenfe in attempting to make fenfe of it. I owe the foundation of the amendment, which I have given to the text, to the fagacity of the ingenious Dr. Thirlby. I read :

And give to duft, that is a little gilt,

More laud than they will give to gold o'er-dufted.

THEOBALD.

This emendation has been adopted by the fucceeding editors, but recedes too far from the copy. There is no other corruption than fuch as Shakspeare's incorrectnefs often refembles. He has omitted the article to in the fecond line: he fhould have written :

7

More laud than to gilt o'er-dufted. JOHNSON.
-The cry went once on thee,] The folio has:

-out on thee.

MALONE..

• Made emulous millions-] Miffions for divifions, i. e. goings WARBURTON. out, on one fide and the other.

The meaning of million feems to be dispatches of the gods from beaven about mortal bufinefs, fuch as often happened at the fiege of Troy. JOHNSON.

It means the descent of deities to combat on either side; an idea which Shakspeare very probably adopted from Chapman's translation

H 3