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a great catch, if he knock out either of your brains; he were as good crack a fufty nut with no kernel.

Achil. What, with me too, Therfites?

Ther. There's Ulyffes and old 9 Neftor (whose wit was mouldy ere your grandfires had nails on their toes) yoke you like draft oxen, and make you plough up the war.

to

Achil. What! what!

Ther. Yes, good footh; to, Achilles! to, Ajax!

Ajax. I fhall cut out your tongue.

Ther. 'Tis no matter, I shall speak as much as thou afterwards.

Patr. No more words, Therfites :-Peace.

Ther. I will hold my peace, when Achilles' brach bids me, fhall I?

Achil. There's for you, Patroclus.

Ther. I will fee you hang'd, 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 proclaim'd through all
our hoft;

That Hector, by the fifth hour of the fun,
Will, with a trumpet, 'twixt our tents and Troy,
To-morrow morning call fome knight to arms,
That hath a stomach; fuch a one that dare
Maintain, I know not what. 'Tis trash; farewell.

9 Neftor (whofe wit was mouldy ere their grandfires had nails)] This is one of thefe editors wife riddles. What! was Neftor's wit mouldy before his grandfire's toes had any nails? Prepofterous nonfenfe! and yet fo eafy a change, as one poor pronoun for another, fets all right and clear. THEOBALD. when Achilles' brach bids me,-] The folio and quarto read, Achilles' BROOCH. Brooch is an appendant ornament. The meaning may be, equivalent to one of Achilles' hangers Dn. JOHNSON.

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Brach I believe to be the true reading. He calls Patroclus, in contempt, Achilles' dog. STEEVENS.

Ajax.

Ajax. Farewell! who fhall anfwer him?

Achil. I know not, 'tis put to lottery; otherwise He knew his man.

Ajax O, meaning you :-I'll go learn more of it.

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[Exeunt.

Enter Priam, Hector, Troilus, Paris, and Helenus.

Pri. After fo many hours, lives, fpeeches spent, Thus once again fays Neftor from the Greeks: Deliver Helen, and all damage elfe,

As bonour, lofs of time, travel, expence,..
Wounds, friends, and what elfe dear that is confum'd
In bot digeftion of this cormorant war,

Shall be ftruck off. Hector, what say you to't?
Hect. Though no man leffer fears the Greeks than I,
As far as touches my particular, yet, dread Priam,
There is no lady of more fofter bowels,

More fpungy to fuck in the fenfe of fear,

More ready to cry out, Who knows what follows?
Than Hector is. The wound of
peace is furety,
Surety fecure; but modeft doubt is call'd

Thy beacon of the wife, the tent that fearches
To the bottom of the worft. Let Helen go.
Since the first fword was drawn about this queftion,
Every tithe foul 'mongst many thousand difmes
Hath been as dear as Helen; I mean, of ours.
If we have loft fo many tenths of ours,

I

To guard a thing not ours; not worth to us,

Had it our name, the value of one ten;

What merit's in that reason which denies
The yielding of her up?

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many thousand difmes] Difme, Fr. is the tithe, the STEEVENS.

Troi. Fie, fie, 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 fum
The paft-proportion of his infinite?
And buckle in a waift moft fathomlefs,
With spans and inches fo diminutive
As fears and reafons? Fie, for godly fhame!
Hel. No marvel, though you bite fo fharp at reafons,
You are fo empty of them. Should not our father
Bear the great fway of his affairs with reafons,
Because your speech hath none, that tells him fo?
Troi. You are for dreams and flumbers, brother

priest,

You fur your gloves with reafon. Here are your reasons.

You know, an enemy intends you harm;
You know, a fword employ'd is perilous;
And reason flies the object of all harm..
Who marvels then, when Helenus beholds
A Grecian and his fword, if he do fet
The very wings of reafon to his heels;

3 And fly like chidden Mercury from Jove,

Or like a star dif-orb'd?—Nay, if we talk of reason, Let's fhut our gates, and fleep: manhood and honour "Should have hare-hearts, would they but fat their thoughts

With this cramm'd reason: reafon and respect
Make livers pale, and luftyhood deject.

Helt. Brother, fhe is not worth what fhe doth coft The holding.

• The paft-proportion of bis infinite?] Thus read both the copies. The meaning is, that greatnefs to which no measure bears any proportion. The modern editors filently give,

The vaft proportion JOHNSON.

And fly like chidden Mercury from Jove,

Or like a ftar dif-orb'd?] Thefe two lines are misplaced

in all the folio editions. POPE.

Troi. What is aught, but as 'tis valued?
Helt. But value dwells not in particular will;
It holds his eftimate and dignity

As well wherein 'tis precious of itself,
As in the prizer: 'tis mad idolatry,
To make the service greater than the god;
4 And the will dotes that is inclinable
To what infectiously itself affects,

5 Without fome image of the affected merit.
Troi. I take to-day a wife, and my election
Is led on in the conduct of my will;
My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears,
Two traded pilots 'twixt the dangerous fhores
Of will and judgment; how may I avoid,
Although my will diftafte what it elected,
The wife I chofe? there can be no evafion
To blench from this, and to ftand firm by honour.
We turn not back the filks upon the merchant,
When we have foil'd them; nor the remainder viands
We do not throw in 7 unrespective sieve,

And the will dotes that is inclinable] Old edition, not fo well, has it, attributive. POPE.

By the old edition Mr. Pope means the old quarto. The folio has, as it ftands, inclinable.I think the first reading better; the will dotes that attributes or gives the qualities which it affects; that firft caufes excellence, and then admires it.

JOHNSON. 5 Without fome image of th' AFFECTED merit.] We should read,

th' AFFECTED's merit.

i. c. without some mark of merit in the thing affected. WARB. The prefent reading is right. The will affects an object for fome fuppofed merit, which Hector fays, is uncenfurable, unless the merit fo affected be really there. JOHNSON.

7

•foil'd them ;- -] So reads the quarto. The folio -fpoil'd them.

JOHNSON.

unrespective fieve,] That is, into a common voider. Sieve is in the quarto. The folio reads,

-unrefpective fame;

for which the modern editions have filently printed,

-unrefpective place. JOHNSON.

Because

Because we now are full. It was thought meet,
Paris fhould do fome vengeance on the Greeks:
Your breath of full confent bellied his fails;
The feas and winds (old wranglers) took a truce,
And did him service: he touch'd the ports defir'd,
And, for an old aunt, whom the Greeks held captive,
He brought a Grecian queen, whofe youth and freshness
Wrinkles Apollo's, and makes pale the morning.
Why keep we her? the Grecians keep our aunt.
Is the worth keeping? why, fhe is a pearl,
Whose price hath launch'd above a thoufand fhips,
And turn'd crown'd kings to merchants.

8

If you'll avouch, 'twas wifdom Paris went,
(As you must needs, for you all cry'd, go, go)
If you'll confefs he brought home noble prize,
(As you must needs, for you all clapp'd your hands,
And cry'd, inestimable !) why do you now
The iffue of your proper wifdoms rate;
And do a deed that fortune never did,
Beggar that estimation which you priz'd
Richer than fea and land? O theft most base!
That we have stolen what we do fear to keep!
'But thieves, unworthy of a thing fo stolen;
Who in their country did them that difgrace,
We fear to warrant in our native place!

8

Caf. [within.] Cry, Trojans, cry!

Pri. What noife? what fhriek is this?

Troi. 'Tis our mad fifter, I do know her voice.

pale the morning.] So the quarto. The folio and modern editors,

fale the morning. JOHNSON.

9 And do a deed that fortune never did,] If I understand this paffage, the meaning is, "Why do you, by cenfuring the deter"mination of your own wifdoms, degrade Helen, whom fortune "has not yet deprived of her value, or against whom, as the "wife of Paris, fortune has not in this war fo declared, as to make "us value her lefs?" This is very harfh, and much strained. JOHNSON.

But thieves,-] HANMER reads, Bafe thieves,-JOHNS.

VOL. IX.

D

Caf.

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