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And in fuch indexes, although small pricks
To their fubfequent volumes, there is feen
The baby figure of the giant mafs

Of things to come at large. It is fuppos'd,
He, that meets Hector, iffues from our choice:
And choice, being mutual act of all our fouls,
Makes merit her election; and doth boil,
As 'twere from forth us all, a man diftill'd
Out of our virtues; Who mifcarrying,
What heart receives from hence a conquering part,
To steel a strong opinion to themselves?

7 Which entertain'd, limbs are in his inftruments, In no lefs working, than are fwords and bows Directive by the limbs.

Ulyff. Give pardon to my fpeech ;

Therefore 'tis meet, Achilles meet not Hector.
Let us, like merchants, fhew our fouleft wares,
And think perchance, they'll fell; if not,
The luftre of the better fhall exceed,
By fhewing the worst firft. Do not confent,
That ever Hector and Achilles meet;

For both our honour and our fhame, in this,
Are dogg'd with two ftrange followers.
Neft. I fee them not with
they?

my old eyes; What are

Uly. What glory our Achilles fhares from Hector, Were he not proud, we all fhould' fhare with him: But he already is too infolent;

And we were better parch in Africk fun,

-fmall pricks] Small points compared with the volumes.

JOHNSON.

JOHNSON.

1 Which entertain'd,-] Thefe two lines are not in the quarto.

The luftre of the better shall exceed,

By fhewing the worst firft.] The folio reads:

The luftre of the better, yet to fhew,

Shall fhew the better.

The alteration was probably the author's. MALONE.

-bare-] So the quarto. The folio, wear. JoHNSON.

Than in the pride and falt fcorn of his eyes,
Should he 'fcape Hector fair: If he were foil'd,
Why, then we did our main opinion crush
In taint of our beft man. No, make a lottery;
And, by device, let blockish Ajax' draw
The fort to fight with Hector: Among ourfelves,
Give him allowance as the better man,

For that will phyfick the great Myrmidon,
Who broils in loud applaufe; and make him fall
His creft, that prouder than blue Iris bends.
If the dull brainless Ajax come safe off,
We'll dress him up in voices: If he fail,
Yet go we under our opinion ftill,

That we have better men. But, hit or mifs,
Our project's life this fhape of fenfe affumes,-
Ajax, employ'd, plucks down Achilles' plumes.
Neft. Ulyffes,

Now I begin to relish thy advice;

And I will give a taste of it forthwith

To Agamemnon: go we to him straight.
Two curs fhall tame each other; Pride alone.

3 Muft tarre the maftiffs on, as 'twere their bone.

[Exeunt ACT

-blockish Ajax-] Shakspeare on this occafion has deferted Lidgate, who gives a very different character of Ajax : "Another Ajax (furnamed Telamon).

"There was, a man that learning did adore, &c."

"Who did fo much in eloquence abound,

"That in his time the like could not be found."

Again:

"And one that hated pride and flattery, &c."

Our author appears to have drawn his portrait of the Grecian chief from the invectives thrown out against him by Ulyffes in the thirteenth book of Ovid's Metamorphofis; or from the prologue to Harrington's Metamorphosis of Ajax, 1596, in which he is reprefented as "ftrong, heady, boisterous, and a terrible fighting fellow, but neither wife, learned, ftaide, nor polliticke."

STEEVENS.

STEEVENS.

2 The fort-] i. e. the lot. Muft tarre the mastiffs on,] Tarre, an old English word

fignify

*ACT II. SCENE I.

The Grecian camp.

Enter Ajax, and Therfites.

Ajax. Therfites,

Ther. Agamemnon-how if he had boils? full, all over, generally?

Ajax. Therfites,

Ther. And those boils did run?-Say fo,did not the general run then? were not that a botchy core?

Ajax. Dog,

Ther. Then there would come fome matter from him; I fee none now.

Ajax. Thou bitch-wolf's fon, canst thou not hear? Feel then.

[Strikes him. Ther. The plague of Greece upon thee, thou mungrel beef-witted lord"!

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Ajax. Speak then, thou unfalted leaven, speak: I will beat thee into handsomeness.

Ther.

fignifying to provoke or urge on. See King John, A& IV. fc. i. -like a dog

"Snatch at his mafter that doth tar him on." POPE. Act II.] This play is not divided into acts in any of the original editions. JOHNSON.

The plague of Greece] Alluding perhaps to the plague fent by Apollo on the Grecian army. JOHNSON.

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-beef-witted lord!] So in Twelfth-Night:

-I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit." STEEVENS.

1 Speak then, thou unfalted leaven, Speak:] The reading obtruded upon us by Mr. Pope, was unfalted leaven, that has no authority or countenance from any of the copies; nor that approaches in any degree to the traces of the old reading, you whinid't leaven. This, it is true, is corrupted and unintelligiVOL. IX.

E

ble;

Ther. I fhall fooner rail thee into wit and holinefs: but, I think, thy horfe will fooner con an oration, than thou learn a prayer without book. Thou canst ftrike, canft thou? a red murrain o' thy jade's tricks!

Ajax. Toads-ftool, learn me the proclamation. Ther. Doft thou think, I have no fenfe, thou ftrik'ft me thus?

Ajax. The proclamation,

Ther. Thou art proclaim'd a fool, I think.
Ajax. Do not, porpentine, do not; my fingers

itch.

Ther. I would, thou didst itch from head to foot, and I had the fcratching of thee; I would make thee

ble; but the emendation, which I have coined out of it, gives us a fenfe apt and confonant to what Ajax would fay, unwinnowd'ft leaven." Thou lump of four dough, kneaded up out of a flower unpurged and unfified, with all the drofs and bran in it.—"

THEOBALD.

Speak then, thou whinid'ft leaven,] This is the reading of the old copies: it fhould be windyeft, i. e. most windy; leaven being made by a great fermentation. This epithet agrees well with Therfites' character. WARBURTON.

Hanmer preferves whinid', the reading of the folio; but does not explain it, nor do I understand it. If the folio be followed, I read, vinew'd, that is mouldy leaven. Thou compofition of muftinefs and fournefs.-Theobald's affertion, however confident, is falfe. Unfalted leaven is in the old quarto. means four without falt, malignity without wit. Shakspeare wrote first unfalted; but recollecting that want of falt was no fault in leaven, changed it to view'd. JOHNSON.

It

Unfalted is the reading of both the quartos. Francis Beaumont, in his letter to Speght on his edition of Chaucer's works, 1602, fays: "Many of Chaucer's words are become as it were viner'd and hoarie with over long lying."

Again, in Tho. Newton's Herbal to the Bible, 8vo. 1587:
For being long kept they grow hore and vinewed."

STEEVENS. In the preface to James Ift's Bible, the tranflators speak of fenced (i. e. vinewed or mouldy) traditions. BLACKSTONE. In Dorfetfhire they at this day call cheese that is become mouldy, vinny cheese. There can be no doubt therefore that Shakspeare wrote-vinied'ft leaven. MALONE.

the

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the loathfomeft fcab in Greece. When thou art forth in the incurfions, thou ftrikeft as flow as another.

Ajax. I fay, the proclamation,

Ther. Thou grumbleft and raileft every hour on Achilles; and thou art as fuli of envy at his greatnefs, as Cerberus is at Proferpina's beauty, ay that thou bark'ft at him.

Ajax. Miftrefs Therfites!

Ther. Thou fhouldft ftrike him.
Ajax. Cobloaf '!

Ther. He would 2 pun thee into fhivers with his fift, as a failor breaks a bifket.

Ajax. You whorefon cur!

Ther. Do, do.

Ajax. Thou ftool for a witch!

[Beating him.

Ther. Ay, do, do; thou fodden-witted lord! thou haft no more brain than I have in my elbows; an

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affinego

-in Greece.] The quarto adds thefe words: when thou art forth in the incurfions, thou frikeft as flow as another.

JOHNSON.

9 ay that thou bark'ft at him.] I read, O that thou bark'dft at him. JOHNSON.

The old reading is I, which, if changed at all, fhould have been changed into ay. TYRWHITT.

Coblaf!] A crufty uneven loaf is in fome counties called by this name. STEEVENS.

pun thee into fhivers. -] Pun is in the midland counties the vulgar and colloquial word for pound. JOHNSON.

It is ufed by P. Holland in his tranflation of Pliny's Nat. Hift. b. xxviii. ch. 12: " -punned altogether and reduced into a liniment." Again, b. xxix. ch. 4. "The gall of these lizards punned and diffolved in water." STEEVENS.

3 Thou fool for a witch!-] In one way of trying a witch they ufed to place ner on a chair or ftool, with her legs tied atrofs, that all the weight of her body might reft upon her feat; and by that means, after fome time, the circulation of the blood would be much stopped, and her fitting would be as painful as the wooden horie. Dr. GREY.

an affinego] I am not very certain what the idea conveyed by this word was meant to be. Ajinaio is Italian, fays

E 2

Hanmer,

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