As to prenominate in nice conjecture, Achil. I tell thee, yea. Helt. Wert thou an oracle to tell me fo, I'd not believe thee. Henceforth guard thee well For I'll not kill thee there, nor there, nor there; But, by the forge that ftithy'd Mars his helm, I'll kill thee every where, yea, o'er and o'er.You wifeft Grecians, pardon me this brag, His infolence draws folly from my lips; But I'll endeavour deeds to match these words, Or may I never Ajax. Do not chafe thee, coufin; And you, Achilles, let thefe threats alone, Hect. I pray you, let us fee you in the field; Achil. Doft thou entreat me, Hector? To-morrow do I meet thee, fell as death; To-night, all friends. Helt. Thy hand upon that match, Aga. First, all you peers of Greece, go to my tent; There in the full convive we': afterwards, As Hector's leifure and your bounties fhall 3 -the general ftate, I fear, Can fcarce entreat you to be odd with him.] i. e. I am aware that the Greeks will not wish you to meet him fingly; infinuating that it would be bad policy in them to defire the man who had the greatest reputation for valour, to run fuch a hazard of being foiled. STEEVENS. This word is not • —convive―] To convive is to feaft. peculiar to Shakspeare. I find it feveral times used in the Hiftory of Helyas Knight of the Swanne, bl, 1. no date. STEEVENS. Concur Concur together, feverally intreat him."Beat loud the tabourines, let the trumpets blow, That this great foldier may his welcome know. [Exeunt. Manent Troilus, and Ulyffes. Troi. My lord Ulyffes, tell me, I beseech you, In what place of the field doth Calchas keep? Uly. At Menelaus' tent, moft princely Troilus: There Diomed doth feaft with him to-night; Who neither looks on heaven, nor on the earth, But gives all gaze and bent of amorous view On the fair Creffid. Troi. Shall I, fweet lord, be bound to you fo much, After we part from Agamemnon's tent, To bring me thither? Uly. You fhall command me, fir. This Creffida in Troy? Had fhe no lover there, Troi. O, fir, to fuch as boasting shew their fears, "Beat loud the tabourines, latter editions have, To tafte your bounties.. [Exeunt. -] For this the quarto and the The reading which I have given from the folio feems chofen at the revifion, to avoid the repetition of the word bounties. JOHNSON. Tabourines are fmall drums. The word occurs again in Antony and Cleopatra. See Vol. VIII. p. 274. STEEVENS. ACT ACT V. SCENE I Achilles' Tent. Enter Achilles, and Patroclus. Achil. I'll heat his blood with Greekifh wine tonight, Which with my fcimitar I'll cool to-morrow. Enter Therfites. Achil. How now, thou core of envy? Thou crufty batch of nature, what's the news? Ther. Why, thou picture of what thou feemeft, and idol of ideot-worfhippers, here's a letter for thee. Achil. From whence, fragment? Thou crufty batch of natare,] Batch is changed by Theobald to botch, and the change is justified by a pompous note, which discovers that he did not know the word batch. What is more ftrange, Hanmer has followed him. Batch is any thing baked. JOHNSON. Batch does not fignify any thing baked, but all that is baked. at one time, without heating the oven afresh. So, Ben Jonfon, in his Cataline : "Except he were of the fame meal and batch.” Again, in Decker's If this be not a good Play the Devil is in it, 1612: "The best is, there are but two batches of people moulded in this world." Again, in Summer's Laft Will and Teftament, 1600 : Haft thou made a good batch? I pray thee give me a new loaf." Again, in Every man in his bumour : Is all the reft of this batch ?" Therfites had already been called cobloaf. STEEVENS. Ther Ther. Why, thou full dish of fool, from Troy. Ther. The furgeon's box, or the patient's wound. Patr. Well faid, adverfity! and what need thefe tricks? Ther. Pr'ythee be filent, boy; I profit not by thy talk: thou art thought to be Achilles' male varlet. Patr. 'Male varlet, you rogue! what's that? 2 Ther. Why, his mafculine whore. Now the rotten difeafes of the fouth, the guts-griping, ruptures, catarrhs, loads o'gravel i'the back, lethargies, cold palfies, raw eyes, dirt-rotten livers, wheezing lungs, bladders full of impofthume, fciaticas, lime-kilns i' the palm, incurable bone-ach, and the rivell'd fee-fimple of the tenter, take and take again fuch prepofterous difcoveries! Patr. Why, thou damnable box of envy, thou, what meaneft thou to curfe thus ? Ther. Do I curfe thee? Patr. Why, no, you ruinous butt; you whorefon indiftinguishable cur, no. • The furgeon's box,-] bles upon the word tent. ▪ Male varlet,— In this anfwer Therfites only quib- HANMER reads male barlot, plaufibly enough, except that it feems too plain to require the explanation which Patroclus demands. JOHNSON. This expreffion is met with in Decker's Honeft Whore: "This a male variet, fure, my lord!" FARMER. oold palfies] This catalogue of loathfome maladies ends in the folio at cold palfies. This paffage, as it ftands, is in the quarto the retrenchment was in my opinion judicious. It may be remarked, though it proves nothing, that, of the few alterations made by Milton in the fecond edition of his wonderful poem, one was, an enlargement of the enumeration of difeafes. JOHNSON. 3 -you ruinous &c.] Patroclus reproaches Therfites with deformity, with having one part crowded into another. JOHNSON. The fame idea occurs in the Second Part of King Henry IV. Crowd us and crufh us to this monstrous form, STEEVENS. Ther, thou Ther. No? why art thou then exafperate, idle immaterial fkein of fleive filk, thou green farcenet flap for a fore eye, thou taffel of a prodigal's purse, thou? Ah, how the poor world is pefter'd with fuch water flies; diminutives of nature! Achil. My fweet Patroclus, I am thwarted quite From my great purpofe in to-morrow's battle. Here is a letter from queen Hecuba; 7 A token from her daughter, my fair love; An oath that I have fworn. I will not break it: [Exeunt. Ther. With too much blood, and too little brain, these two may run mad; but if with too much brain, and too little blood, they do, I'll be a curer of —thou idle immaterial skein of fleive filk,-] All the terms ufed by Therfites of Patroclus, are emblematically expreffive of flexibility, compliance, and mean officioufnefs. JOHNSON. ' Out, gall!] Hanmer reads nut-gall, which anfwers well enough to finch-egg; it has already appeared, that our author thought the nut-gall the bitter gall. He is called nut, from the conglobation of his form; but both the copies read Out gall! JOHNSON. Finch-egg!] Of this reproach I do not know the exact meaning. I fuppofe he means to call him finging bird, as implying an ufelefs favourite, and yet more, fomething more worthlefs, a finging bird in the egg, or generally, a flight thing eafily crushed. JOHNSON. A finch's egg is remarkably gaudy; but of fuch terms of reproach it is difficult to pronounce the true fignification. STEEVENS. 7 A token from her daughter, &c.] This is a circumstance taken from the story book of the three destructions of Troy. HANMER. madmen. |