To dusty nothing; yet let memory, From false to false, among false maids in love, Upbraid my falsehood! When they have said-as false As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth, As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf, Yea, let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood, Pan. Go to, a bargain made; seal it, seal it; I'll be the witness.-Here I hold your hand; here, my cousin's. If ever you prove false one to another, since I have taken such pains to bring you together, let all pitiful goers-between be called to the world's end after my name; call them all-Pandars: let all constant1 men be Troiluses, all false women Cressids, and all brokers-between Pandars! say, amen. Tro. Amen. Cres. Amen Pan. Amen. Whereupon I will show you a chamber and a bed; which bed, because it shall not speak of your pretty encounters, press it to death; away. And Cupid grant all tongue-tied maidens here, Bed, chamber, Pandar, to provide this gear. [Exeunt. SCENE III. The Grecian Camp. Enter AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES, DIOMEDES, NESTOR, AJAX, MENELAUS, and CALCHAS. Cal. Now, princes, for the service I have done you, The advantage of the time prompts me aloud To call for recompense. Appear it to your mind, 1 Hanmer altered this to "inconstant men;" but the Poet seems to have been less attentive to make Pandarus talk consequentially, than to account for the ideas actually annexed to the three names in his own time. That, through the sight I bear in things, to Jove1 To give me now a little benefit, Out of those many registered in promise, Agam. What wouldst thou of us, Trojan! make demand. Cal. You have a Trojan prisoner, called Antenor, Yesterday took; Troy holds him very dear. Oft have you (often have you thanks therefore) But this Antenor, I know, is such a wrest3 in their affairs, In change of him. Let him be sent, great princes, 1 The old copies all concur in reading— "That through the sight I bear in things to love." The present reading of the text is supported by Johnson and Malone; to which Mason makes this objection:-"That it was Juno, and not Jove, that persecuted the Trojans. Some modern editions have the line thus :"That through the sight I bear in things to come." As Mason observes," the speech of Calchas would have been incomplete, if he had said he abandoned Troy, from the sight he bore of things, without explaining it by adding the words to come." The merit of Calchas did not merely consist in having come over to the Greeks; he also revealed to them the fate of Troy, which depended on their conveying away the palladium, and the horses of Rhesus, before they should drink of the river Xanthus. 2 Into for unto; a common form of expression in old writers. 3 A wrest is an instrument for tuning harps, &c. by drawing up the strings. Shall quite strike off all service I have done, Agam. Withal, bring word-if Hector will to-morrow [Exeunt DIOMEDES and CALCHAS. Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS, before their tent. Lay negligent and loose regard upon him. To use between your strangeness and his pride, It To show itself, but pride; for supple knees Achil. What, comes the general to speak with me? You know my mind; I'll fight no more 'gainst Troy. Agam. What says Achilles? would he aught with us? Nest. Would you, my lord, aught with the general? Achil. Hanmer and Warburton read, "In most accepted pay." But the construction of the passage, as it stands, appears to be," Her presence shall strike off, or recompense the service I have done, even in those labors which were most accepted." A Nest. Nothing, my lord. Agam. Achil. The better. [Exeunt AGAMEMNON and NEStor. Good day, good day. Men. How do you? how do you? Achil. [Exit MENELAUS. What, does the cuckold scorn me? Ajax. How now, Patroclus? Achil. Good morrow, Ajax. Achil. What mean these fellows? Know they not Achilles? Patr. They pass by strangely; they were used to bend, To send their smiles before them to Achilles; To come as humbly as they used to creep To holy altars. Achil. What, am I poor of late? 'Tis certain, greatness, once fallen out with fortune, As feel in his own fall; for men, like butterflies, Which when they fall, as being slippery standers, At ample point all that I did possess, Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out How now, Ulysses! Ulyss. Now, great Thetis' son! Achil. What are you reading? Ulyss. A strange fellow here Writes me, that man-how dearly ever parted,1 How much in having, or without, or inCannot make boast to have that which he hath, Nor feels not what he owes, but by reflection; As when his virtues shining upon others Heat them, and they retort that heat again To the first giver. Achil. This is not strange, Ulysses. The beauty that is borne here in the face, Till it hath travelled, and is married there (Though in and of him there be much consisting,) Nor doth he of himself know them for aught 4 Where they are extended; which, like an arch, reverberates The voice again; or like a gate of steel 1 However excellently endowed, with however dear or precious parts enriched. 2 Speculation has here the same meaning as in Macbeth: "Thou hast no speculation in those eyes Which thou dost glare with." 3 Detail of argument. 4 The old copies read "who, like an arch, reverberate;” which may mean, they who applaud reverberate. The elliptic mode of expression is in the Poet's manner. Rowe made the alteration. |