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feek.

3 Even with the vail and dark'ning of the fun,
To close the day up, Hector's life is done.
Heft. I am unarm'd; forego this vantage, Greek.
Achil. Strike, fellows, strike; this is the man I
[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 bath the mighty Hector flain.

Hark! a retreat upon our Grecian part.

Myr. The Trojan trumpets found the like, my lord.

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

4 I am unarm'd; forego this vantage, Greek.] Hector, in Lydgate'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 ftory-book of The Three Defiructions of Troy, I find likewife the fame account given of the death of Troilus. Heywood, in his Rape of Lucrece, 1638, feems to have been indebted to fome fuch work 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."

It is not unpleafant to obferve with what vehemence Lydgate, who in the groffeft manner has violated all the characters drawn by Homer, takes upon him to reprehend the Grecian poet as the original offender. Thus in his fourth book:

"Oh thou, Homer, for fhame be now red,
"And thee amafe that holdest thy felfe fo wyfe,

"On Achylles to fet fuche great a pryse

"In thy bokes for his chyvalrye,

"Above echone that doft hym magnyfye,

"That was fo fleyghty and fo full of fraude,

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Why geveft thou hym fo hye a prayfe and laude?"

STEEVENS.

Strike, fellows, frike;] This particular of Achilles overpowering Hector by numbers, and without armour, is taken from the old ftory-book. HANMER.

Achil. The dragon wing of night o'erfpreads the earth,

'And, ftickler-like, the armies feparates.

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.

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

Agr. 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 be fo, yet braglefs let it be;

Great Hector was as good a man as he.

• And, ftickler-like,-] A fickler was one who ftood by to part the combatants when victory could be determined without bloodshed. They are often mentioned by Sidney. "Anthony

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(fays Sir Tho. North in his translation of Plutarch) was him "felf in perfon a flickler to part the young men when they had fought enough." They were called fticklers, from carrying fticks or ftaves in their hands, with which they interpofed between the duellifts. We now call these ficklers-fidejmen. So again, in a comedy called, Fortune by Land and Sea, by Heywood and Rowley: is not fit that every apprentice should with his "fhop-club play between us the fickler."

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Again, in the tragedy of Faire Mariam, 1613:

"And was the fickler 'twixt my heart and him."

Again, in Fuimus Troes, 1633:

"As fticklers in their nation's enmity." STEEVENS. The author of THE REMARKS objects to this derivation of the word tickler, and adds, that it is fimply from the verb ftickle, or interfere, to take part with, to bufy one's felf on either fide,

EDITOR.

Aga.

Aga. March patiently along:-Let one be sent, To pray Achilles fee us at our tent..

If in his death the gods have us befriended, Great Troy is ours, and our fharp wars are ended. [Exeunt.

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Another part of the field.

Enter Æneas, and Trojans.

Ene. Stand, ho! yet are we masters of the field: 7 Never go home; here ftarve we out the night.

Enter Troilus.

Troi. Hector is flain.

All. Hector?the gods forbid !

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 destructions 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 gone! Who fhall tell Priam fo, or Hecuba?

Let him, that will a fcreech-owl aye be call'd,

Never go home, &c.] This line is in the quarto given to Troilus. JOHNSON.

fmile at Troy!] Thus the ancient copies; but it would better agree with the rest of Troilus's wish, were we to read:

-Smite at Troy,
STEEVENS.

I fay, at once!

Go

Go in to 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 itself. But, march away:
Hector is dead; there is no more to fay.
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, greatfiz'd coward!

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

[Exeunt Eneas, &c.

Enter Pandarus.

Pan. Do you hear, my lord; do you hear? Troi.' Hence, broker lacquey! ignomy and shame Purfue thy life, and live aye with thy name!

[Exit Troilus. Pan. A goodly med'cine for my aching bones!— Oh world! world! world! thus is the poor agent

defpis'd!

O traitors and bawds, how earneftly are you fet a' work, and how ill requited! Why should our endea

9 Make wells and Niobes of the maids and wives,] I adopt the conjecture of a deceafed friend, who would read welland, i. e. weeping Niobes. The Saxon termination of the participle in and, for ing, is common in our old poets, and often corrupted at the prefs. So in Spenfer:

His glitter and armour fhined far away. Where the common editions have glitter and. Hence, broker lacquey!

has brother. JOHNSON.

WHALLEY.

-] So the quarto. The folio

vour be fo lov'd, and the performance fo loath'd? what verfe for it? what inftance for it?-Let me fee:

Full 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 sweet notes together fail.Good traders in the flesh, fet this in your painted cloths.

As many as be here of pander's hall, Your eyes, half out, weep out at Pandar's fall: Or, if you cannot weep, yet give some 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 this3 Some galled goofe of Winchester would hifs:

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2 lov'd, Quarto; defir'd, folio. JOHNSON. 3 Some galled goofe of Winchester] The public ftews were anciently under the jurifdiction of the Bishop of Winchester. РОРЕ.

Mr. Pope's explanation may be fupported by the following paffage in one of the old plays, of which my negligence has loft

the title:

Collier! how came the goofe to be put upon you?

"I'll tell thee: The term lying at Winchester in Henry the Third's days, and many French women coming out of the Isle of Wight thither, &c. there were many punks in the town, &c."

A particular fymptom in the lues venerea was called a Win: chefter goofe. So, in Chapman's comedy of Monfieur D'Olive, 1606:

"the famous fchool of England call'd

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Winchester, famous I mean for the goofe," &c. Again, Ben Jonfon, in his 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 Winchefirian goose,
"Bred on the back in time of popery,

When Venus there maintain'd a mystery."

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