Nest. I see them not with my old eyes; what are they?

Ulyss. What glory our Achilles shares from Hector, Were he not proud, we all should share with him: But he already is too insolent;

And we were better parch in Africk sun,
Than in the pride and salt scorn of his eyes,
Should he 'scape Hector fair: if he were foil'd,
Why, then we did our main opinion 45 crush
In taint of our best man. No, make a lottery;

And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw

The sort 46 to fight with Hector: Among ourselves,
Give him allowance for the better man,
For that will physick the great Myrmidon,
Who broils in loud applause; and make him fall
His crest, that prouder than blue Iris bends.
If the dull brainless Ajax come safe off 47,
We'll dress him up in voices; If he fail,

45 Opinion for estimation or reputation. See King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. iv. p. 242. The word occurs before in this scene, in the same sense :

'Yet in the trial much opinion dwells.'

46 Lot. Sort, Fr. sors, Lat. Thus Lydgate :

Of sorte also, and divynation.'

47 Shakspeare, misled by The Destruction of Troy, appears to have confounded Ajax Telamonius with Ajax Oileus, for in that book the latter is called simply Ajax, as the more eminent of the two. Ajax was of a huge stature, great and large in the shoulders, great armes, and always was well clothed, and very richly, and was of no great enterprise, and spake very quicke.' Lydgate describes him as

High of stature, and boystrous in a pres,

And of his speech rude, and rechles.

Full many a word in ydel hym asterte,

And but a coward was he of his herte.'

Harington too, in the prologue to his witty Metamorphosis of Ajax, 1596, represents him as strong, heady, boisterous, and a terrible fighting fellow, but neither wise, learned, staide, nor polliticke. The thirteenth book of Ovid's Metamorphosis, by Golding, may also have been consulted.

Yet go we under our opinion 48 still

That we have better men. But, hit or miss,
Our project's life this shape of sense assumes,-
Ajax, employ'd, plucks down Achilles' plumes.
Nest. Ulysses,

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 shall tame each other: Pride alone

Must tarre 49 the mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone.

[Exeunt.

ACT II1

SCENE I. Another part of the Grecian Camp. Enter AJAX and THERSITES.

Ajax. Thersites,

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

Ajax. Thersites,

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

Ajax. Dog,

Ther. Then would come some matter from him; I see none now.

Ajax. Thou bitch-wolf's son, canst thou not hear? Feel then. [Strikes him.

48 See note 45.

49 i. e. urge, stimulate, or set the mastiffs on. See King John, Act iv. Sc. 1.

This play is not divided into acts in any of the original editions.

Ther. The plague of Greece? mongrel beef-witted lord 3!

upon thee, thou

Ajax. Speak then, thou unsalted leaven, speak! I will beat thee into handsomeness.

Ther. I shall sooner rail thee into wit and holiness: but, I think, thy horse will sooner con an oration, than thou learn a prayer without book. Thou canst strike, canst thou? a red murrain 5 o'thy jade's tricks!

Ajax. Toads-stool, learn me the proclamation. Ther. Dost thou think, I have no sense, thou strikest me thus?

Ajax. The proclamation,

Ther. Thou art proclaimed a fool, I think. Ajax. Do not, porcupine, do not; my fingers itch. Ther. I would, thou didst itch from head to foot, and I had the scratching of thee; I would make thee the loathsomest scab in Greece. When thou art forth in the incursions, thou strikest as slow as another.

Ajax. I say, the proclamation,

Ther. Thou grumblest and railest every hour on Achilles; and thou art as full of envy at his greatness, as Cerberus is at Proserpina's beauty, ay, that thou barkest at him.

Ajax. Mistress Thersites!

2 Alluding to the plague sent by Apollo on the Grecian army. 3 He calls Ajax mongrel, on account of his father being a Grecian and his mother a Trojan. Sir Andrew Aguecheek says, in Twelfth Night, I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit.'

4 The folio has thou whinid'st leaven,' a corruption undoubtedly of vinew'dst or vinniedst, i. e. mouldy leaven. Thou unsalted leaven, is as much as to say thou foolish lump.' Thus Baret: Unsavoury, foolish, without smacke of salt; without wisdome, that hath no grace, that hath no pleasant facion in wordes or gesture; that no man can take pleasure in. Insulsus.' 5 In The Tempest, Caliban says, 'The red plague rid you.'

Ther. Thou shouldst strike him.

Ajax. Cobloaf6!

Ther. He would pun7 thee into shivers with his

fist, as a sailor breaks a biscuit.

Ajax. You whoreson cur!

Ther. Do, do.

Ajax. Thou stool for a witch!

8

[Beating him.

Ther. Ay, do do; thou sodden-witted lord! thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows: an assinico may tutor thee: Thou scurvy valiant ass! thou art here put to thrash Trojans; and thou art bought and sold among those of any wit, like a Barbarian slave. If thou use9 to beat me, I will

6 Cobloaf is perhaps equivalent to ill shapen lump. Minshew says, a cob-loaf is a little loaf made with a round head, such as cob irons which support the fire.' The misshapen head of Thersites should be remembered, which may be what is here alluded to: Homer declaryng a very foolyshe and an haskarde fellow under the person of Thersytes, sayth, that he was streyte in the shulders, and cop-heeded lyke a gygge, and thyn heryd, full of scorfe and scalle.' Horman's Vulgaria, 1519, fo. 31.

7 i. e. pound; still in use provincially. The original word in Saxon is punian: it is used in Holland's translation of Pliny, b. xxviii. c. xii. punned altogether, and reduced into a liniment. So in Cogan's Haven of Health, 'to punne barley.' It is related of a Staffordshire servant of Miss Seward, that hearing his mistress knock with her foot to call up her attendant, he said Hark! madam is punning.' In the first edition of Florio's Italian Dictionary, pestare is to pound; but in the second edition, and in Torriano, it is to punne or pun. It is remarkable that pestare is used figuratively for to bang, to bebaste.

8 The commentators changed this word to asinego, and then erroneously affirm it to be Portuguese. It is evidently from the Spanish asnico, a young or little ass; a word indeed entirely similar in sound, and seems to have been adopted into our language to signify a silly ass, a stupid fellow. The Italians and French have several kindred terms with the same meaning. Shakspeare may have used the word for an ass driver, confounding it with asinaccio or asinaio; like the French gros-asnier, used to denote the most gross stupidity or folly.

9 i. e. if you accustom yourself, or make it a practice to beat me.'

begin at thy heel, and tell what thou art by inches, thou thing of no bowels, thou!

Ajax. You dog!

Ther. You scurvy lord!

Ajax. You cur!

[Beating him.

Ther. Mars his idiot! do, rudeness; do, camel ;

do, do.

Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS.

Achil. Why, how now, Ajax? wherefore do you
thus?

How now, Thersites? what's the matter, man?
Ther. You see him there, do you?
Achil. Ay: what's the matter?
Ther. Nay, look upon him.

Achil. So I do; What's the matter?
Ther. Nay, but regard him well.
Achil. Well, why I do so.

Ther. But yet you look not well upon him: for, whosoever 'you take him to be, he is Ajax.

Achil. I know that, fool.

Ther. Ay, but that fool knows not himself.
Ajax. Therefore I beat thee.

Ther. Lo, lo, lo, lo, what modicums of wit he utters! his evasions have ears thus long. I have bobbed his brain, more than he has beat my bones: I will buy nine sparrows for a penny, and his pia mater is not worth the ninth part of a sparrow. This, lord Achilles, Ajax,-who wears his wit in his belly, and his guts in his head,-I'll tell you what I say of him.

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