will be in him, when Hector has knock'd out his brains, I know not: but, I am fure, none; unless the fidler Apollo get his finews to make catlings on.

Achil. Come, thou fhalt bear a letter to him ftraight. Ther. Let me bear another to his horfe; for that's the more capable creature.

Achil. My mind is troubled like a fountain stirr'd; And I myself fee not the bottom of it.

[Exit. Ther. 'Would the fountain of your mind were clear again, that I might water an ass at it! I had rather be a tick in a fheep, than fuch a valiant ignorance.

[Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.

A Street in Troy.

Enter at one door Eneas and Servant with a torch; at another, Paris, Deiphobus, Antenor, and Diomed, &c, with torches.

PARIS.

EE, ho! who is that there?

Dei. It is the lord Æneas.

Ene. Is the prince there in perfon? Had I fo good occafion to lie long,

As you, prince Paris, nought but heavenly business
Should rob my bed-mate of my company.

Dio. That's my mind too,-Good morrow, lord
Eneas.

Par. A valiant Greek, Æneas; take his hand.
Witness the process of your speech, wherein
You told, how Diomed a whole week, by days,
Did haunt you in the field,

Ene.

Ene. Health to you, valiant Sir,
During all question of the gentle truce:
But when I meet you arm'd, as black defiance
As heart can think, or courage execute.

Dio. The one and the other, Diomed embraces. Our bloods are now in calm; and, fo long, health: But when contention and occafion meet,

By Jove, I'll play the hunter for thy life,
With all my force, purfuit, and policy.

Ene. And thou fhalt hunt a lion that will fly
With his face backward. In humane gentleness,
Welcome to Troy! Now, by Anchifes' life,
Welcome, indeed! 3 By Venus' hand I fwear,
No man alive can love, in fuch a fort,

The thing he means to kill, more excellently.

During all queftion of the gentle truce:] I once thought to read,

During all quiet of the gentle truce.

But I think question means intercourfe, interchange of converfation. JOHNSON.

2 And thou shalt hunt a lion that will fly

With his face back in humane gentleness.] Thus Mr. Pope in his great fagacity pointed this paffage in his first edition, not deviating from the error of the old copies. What conception he had to himself of a lion flying in humane gentleness, I will not pretend to affirm: I fuppofe he had the idea of as gently as a lamb, or, as what our vulgar call an Effex lion, a calf. If any other lion fly with his face turned backward, it is fighting all the way as he retreats: and in this manner it is Æneas profeffes that he shall fly when he's hunted. But where then are the symptoms of humane gentleness? My correction of the pointing reftores good fenfe, and a proper behaviour in Æneas, As foon as ever he has returned Diomedes's brave, he stops fhort, and corrects himself for expreffing fo much fury in a time of truce; from the fierce foldier becomes the courtier at once; and, remembring his enemy to be a guest and an ambaffador, welcomes him as fuch to the Trojan camp. THEOв. By Venus' hand I fwear,] This oath was used to infinuate his refentment for Diomedes wounding his mother in the hand. WARBURTON.

3

I believe Shakespeare had no fuch allufion in his thoughts. He woulld hardly have made Æneas civil and uncivil in the fame breath. STEEVENS.

Dio. We fympathize.Jove, let Æneas live
If to my fword his fate be not the glory,
A thousand complete courfes of the fun!
But, in mine emulous honour let him die,
With every joint a wound; and that to-morrow!
Ene. We know each other well.

Dio. We do; and long to know each other worse.
Par. This is the moft defpightful, gentle greeting,
The nobleft hateful love, that e'er I heard of.-
What bufinefs, lord, fo early?

Ane. I was fent for to the king; but why, I know

not.

Par. 4 His purpose meets you; 'twas to bring this
Greek

To Calchas' house; and there to render him
For the enfreed Antenor, the fair Creffid.
Let's have your company; or, if you please,
Hafte there before us. I conftantly do think,
(Or rather call my thought a certain knowledge)
My brother Troilus lodges there to-night :
Roufe him, and give him note of our approach,
With the whole quality wherefore :-I fear,
We shall be much unwelcome.

Ene. That I affure you:

Troilus had rather Troy were borne to Greece,
Than Creffid borne from Troy.

Par. There is no help;

The bitter difpofition of the time

Will have it fo. On, lord, we'll follow you.

Ene. Good morrow, all.

[Exit.

Par. And tell me, noble Diomed, tell me true,

Even in the foul of good found fellowship,
Who in your thoughts merits fair Helen moft;
Myfelf, or Menelaus?

Dio. Both alike.

4 His purpose meets you;] I bring you his meaning and his orders. JOHNSON,

He

He merits well to have her, that doth feek her,
(Not making any fcruple of her foilure)
With fuch a hell of pain, and world of charge;
And you as well to keep her, that defend her,
(Not palating the tafte of her difhonour)
With fuch a costly lofs of wealth and friends.
He, like a puling cuckold, would drink up
The lees and dregs of 5 a flat tamed piece;
You, like a letcher, out of whorish loins
Are pleas'd to breed out your inheritors.
6 Both merits pois'd, each weighs no lefs nor more,
But he as he, the heavier for a whore.

Par. You are too bitter to your country woman. Dio. She's bitter to her country. Hear me, ParisFor every falfe drop in her bawdy veins

A Grecian's life hath funk; for every fcruple
Of her contaminated carrion weight,

A Trojan hath been flain. Since she could fpeak,
She hath not given fo many good words breath,
As, for her, Greeks and Trojans fuffer'd death.
Par. Fair Diomed, you do as chapmen do,
Difpraise the thing that you desire to buy :

5

a flat tam'd piece ;] i. e. a piece of wine out of

which the fpirit is all flown. WARBURTON.

Both merits pois'd, each weighs no less nor more,
But he as he, which heavier for a whore.] I read,
But he as he, each heavier for a whore.

Heavy is taken both for weighty, and for fad or miserable. The quarto reads,

But he as he, the heavier for a whore.

I know not whether the thought is not that of a wager. It must then be read thus:

But he as he.

Which heavier for a whore?

That is, for a whore staked down, which is the heavier.

As the quarto reads,

the heavier for a whore,

JOHNSON.

I think all new pointing or alteration unneceffary. The fenfe appears to be this: the merits of either are funk in value, because the contest between them is only for a trumpet. STEEV.

But

But we in filence hold this virtue well;

7 We'll not commend what we intend to fell.

Here lies our way.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Pandarus's boufe.

Enter Troilus and Creffida.

Troi. Dear, trouble not yourself; the morn is cold. Cre. Then, fweet my lord, I'll call my uncle down; He fhall unbolt the gates.

Troi. Trouble him not:

I

To bed, to bed. 1 Sleep kill those pretty eyes,
And give as foft attachment to thy fenses,
As infants empty of all thought!

Cre. Good-morrow then.

Troi. I pr'ythee now, to bed.

Cre. Are you a weary of me?

Troi. O Creffida! but that the bufy day, Wak'd by the lark, has rouz'd the ribald crows, And dreaming night will hide our joys no longer,

I would not from thee.

Cre. Night hath been too brief.

Troi. Befhrew the witch! with venomous wights fhe stays,

2 As tediously as hell; but flies the grafps of love,

7 We'll not commend what we intend to fell.] I believe the meaning is only this: though you practise the buyer's art, we will not practife the feller's. We intend to fell Helen dear, yet will not commend her. JOHNSON. Dr. Warburton would read, not fell.

STEEVENS.

The fenfe, I think, requires we fhould read condemn. T.T. Sleep kill-] So the old copies. The moderns have,

Sleep feal

As tediously-] The folio has,

As hideously as hell.

JOHNSON.

JOHNSON.