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VIII.

SCENE

Enter Therfites, Menelaus, and Paris.

Ther. The cuckold, and the cuckold-maker are at it: now bull! now dog! 'Loo, Paris, 'loo! My double-hen'd fparrow! Loo, Paris, loo! The bull has the game: 'ware horns, ho!

[Exeunt Paris and Menelaus.

Enter Margarelon.

Mar. Turn, flave, and fight.

Ther. What art thou?

Mar. A baftard son of Priam's.

Ther. I am a bastard too; I love baftards. I am a baftard begot, bastard instructed, baftard in mind, baftard in valour, in every thing illegitimate. One bear will not bite another, and wherefore should one baftard? Take heed, the quarrel's most ominous to us if the fon of a whore fight for a whore, he tempts judgment: farewell, baftard.

Mar. The devil take thee, coward!

[Exeunt.

Helt. Moft putrefied core, fo fair without !Thy goodly armour, thus hath coft thy life. Now is my day's work done; I'll take my breath: Reft, fword; thou haft thy fill of blood and death!

Enter Achilles and his Myrmidons.

Achil. Look, Hector, how the fun begins to fet; How ugly night comes breathing at his heels: VOL. IX.

K

Even

I

Even with the vail and darkening of the fun, To close the day up, Hector's life is done.

2

Hect. I am unarm'd. Forego this vantage, Greek. Achil. 3 Strike, fellows, ftrike; this is the man I feek. Hector falls. So, Ilion, fall thou next! Now, Troy, fink down; Here lies thy, heart, thy finews, and thy bone.On, Myrmidons, and cry you all amain, Achilles hath the mighty Hector flain

Hark! a retreat upon our Grecian part.

Myr. The Trojan trumpets found the like, my lord. Achil. The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth,

4 And, ftickler-like, the armies feparates.

My

1 Even with the vail-] The vail is, I think, the finking of the fun; not veil or cover. JOHNSON.

2 I am unarm'd. Forego this vantage, Greek.] Hector, in Lidgate's poem, falls by the hand of Achilles; but it is Troilus who, having been inclofed round by the Myrmidons, is killed after his armour had been hewn from his body, which was afterwards drawn through the field at the horfe's tail. The Oxford Editor, I believe, was mifinformed; for in the old story-book of The Three Destructions of Troy, I find likewife the fame account given of the death of Troilus. There may, however, be variation in the copies, of which there are very many.Heywood, in his Rape of Lucrece, 1638, feems to have been indebted to fome fuch book as Hanmer mentions.

"Had puiffant Hector by Achilles' hand
"Dy'd in a fingle monomachie, Achilles

"Had been the worthy; but being flain by odds,
"The poorest Myrmidon had as much honour

"As faint Achilles in the Trojan's death." STEEVENS. 3 Strike, fellows, ftrike;-] This particular of Achilles overpowering Hector by numbers, and without armour, is taken from the old ftory-book. OXFORD EDITOR.

4 And, fickler-like,—] A ftickler was one who stood by to part the combatants when victory could be determined without blooded. They are often mentioned by SIDNEY. "Anthony (fays Sir THO. NORTH in his tranflation of Plutarch) was "himfelf in perfon a stickler to part the young men when they "had fought enough." They were called ticklers, from car

My half-fupt fword, that frankly would have fed, Pleas'd with this dainty bit, thus goes to-bed.Come, tie his body to my horfe's tail:

Along the field I will the Trojan trail.

[Exeunt.

Sound retreat. Shout.

SCENE X.

Enter Agamemnon, Ajax, Menelaus, Neftor, Diomedes, and the rest marching.

Aga. Hark! hark! what fhout is that?
Neft. Peace, drums.

Sol. Achilles! Achilles! Hector's flain! Achilles!
Dio. The bruit is, Hector's flain, and by Achilles.
Ajax. If it is fo, yet braglefs let it be;
Great Hector was as good a man as he.
Aga. March haftily along: let one be sent
pray Achilles fee us at our tent.-

Το

If in his death the gods have us befriended,

Great Troy is ours, and our sharp wars are ended. [Exeunt,

Enes Stand, ho! yet are we mafters of the field: * Never go home; here starve we out the night.

Enter Troilus.

Troi. Hector is flain.

All. Hector!—the gods forbid !

rying sticks or ftaves in their hands, with which they interpofed between the combatants. We now call them fidefmen. So again, in a comedy called, Fortune by Land and Sea, by Heywood and Rowley, 'tis not fit that every apprentice fhould "with his fhop-club play between us the fickler." STEEVENS. Never go home, &c.] This line is in the quarto given to Troilus. JOHNSON.

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Troi.

Troi. He's dead, and at the murderer's horfe's tail
In beaftly fort dragg'd through the fhameful field.-
Frown on, you heavens, effect your rage with speed!
Sit, gods, upon your thrones, and fmile at Troy!
I fay, at once, let your brief plagues be mercy,
And linger not our fure deftructions on!
Ene. My lord, you do difcomfort all the host.
Troi. You understand me not, that tell me fo:
I do not speak of flight, of fear, of death;
But dare all imminence, that gods and men
Addrefs their dangers in. Hector is
Hector is gone!

Who fhall tell Priam fo? or Hecuba?
Let him that will a fcreech owl aye be call'd,
Go into Troy, and fay there-Hector's dead:
There is a word will Priam turn to ftone;
Make wells and Niobes of the maids and wives;
Cold ftatues of the youth; and, in a word,
Scare Troy out of itfelf. But march, away,
Hector is dead; there is no more to say.
Stay yet you vile abominable tents,
Thus proudly pight upon our Phrygian plains,
Let Titan rife as early as he dare,

I'll through and through you! And thou, great-fiz'd coward!

No fpace of earth fhall funder our two hates;
I'll haunt thee, like a wicked confcience ftill,
That mouldeth goblins fwift as phrenzy's thoughts.-
Strike a free march to Troy!With comfort go;
Hope of revenge fhall hide our inward woe.

Enter Pandarus.

Pan. But hear you, hear you?

[Exit Eneas, &c.

Troi. Hence, broker lacquey! ignominy and fhame

[Strikes him.

Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy name! [Exeunt.

2 Hence, broker lacquey!has brother. JOHNSON.

-] So the quarto. The folio

Pan.

Pan. A goodly med'cine for my aching bones! Oh world! world! world! thus is the poor agent defpis'd! Oh, traitors and bawds, how earnestly are you set a work, and how ill requited! why should our endeavour be fo 3 lov'd, and the performance fo loath'd? what verse for it? what inftance for it ?-let me feeFull merrily the humble-bee doth fing,

• Till he hath loft his honey and his fting:
But being once fubdu'd in armed tail,
• Sweet honey and fweet notes together fail.'
Good traders in the flesh, fet this in your painted cloths.
As many as be here of Pandar's hall,

Your eyes, half out, weep out at Pandar's fall;
Or if you cannot weep, yet give fome groans,
Though not for me, yet for your aching bones.
Brethren and fifters of the hold-door trade,
Some two months hence my will fhall here be made:
It should be now, but that my fear is this-
+ Some galled goofe of Winchester would hiss:
Till then, I'll 5 fweat, and feek about for eases;
And, at that time, bequeath you my diseases. [Exit.

3 Loved, Quarto; defired, folio. JOHNSON. + Some galled goofe of Winchefter-] The public ftews were anciently under the jurifdiction of the bishop of Winchefter.

POPE.

A particular symptom in the lues venerea was called a Winchefter goofe. So in Chapman's comedy of Monfieur D'Olive, 1606.

the famous fchool of England call'd "Winchester, famous I mean for the goofe," &c. Again, Ben Jonfon, in a poem called, An Execration on Vulcan: this a fparkle of that fire let loose,

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"That was lock'd up in the Winchestrian goofe,

"Bred on the back in time of popery,

"When Venus there maintain'd a mystery." STEEV. fweat,] Quarto; Javear, folio. JOHNSON.

THIS play is more correctly written than moft of Shakefpeare's compofitions, but it is not one of thofe in which either the extent of his views or elevation of his fancy is fully difplayed. As the ftory abounded with materials, he has exerted little invention; but he has diverfified his characters with great variety, and preferved them with great exactnefs. His vicious characters

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