valiant, as wife, no less noble, much more gentle, and altogether more tractable. AJAX. Why should a man be proud? How doth pride grow? I know not what pride is. AGAM. Your mind's the clearer, Ajax, and your virtues the fairer. He that is proud, eats up himself: pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle; and whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise.s Agax. I do hate a proud man, as I hate the engendering of toads. 6 NEST. And yet he loves himself: Is it not strange? [Afide. Re-enter ULYSSES. ULrss. Achilles will not to the field to-morrow. AGAM. What's his excuse? ULYSS. He doth rely on none; But carries on the stream of his dispose, AGAM. Why will he not, upon our fair request, Untent his person, and share the air with us? 5 ULrss. Things small as nothing, for request's fake only, whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise. So, in Coriolanus: power, unto itself most commendable, "Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair "To extol what it hath done." MALONE. 6the engendering of toads.] Whoever wishes to comprehend the whole force of this allufion, may confult the late Dr. Goldfmith's History of the World, and animated Nature, Vol. VII. P. 92-93. STEEVENS.. He makes important: Possess'd he is with greatness ; AGAM. ULYSS. O Agamemnon, let it not be fo! 7 Kingdom'd Achilles in commotion rages,] So, in Julius Cæfar: "The genius and the mortal instruments Are then in council; and the ftate of man, " Like to a little kingdom, suffers then " The nature of an infurrection." MALONE. 8 He is so plaguy proud, &c.] I cannot help regarding the vulgar epithet-plaguy, which extends the verse beyond its proper length, as the wretched interpolation of fome foolish player. STEEVENS. 9 the death-tokens of it - Alluding to the decisive spots appearing on those infected by the plague. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Valentinian: Now, like the fearful tokens of the plague, "Are mere fore-runners of their ends." STEEVENS. Dr. Hodges, in his Treatise on the Plague, fays: "Spots of a dark complexion, usually called tokens, and looked on as the pledges or forewarnings of death, are minute and diftinct blasts, which have their original from within, and rise up with a little pyramidal protuberance, the peftilential poifon chiefly collected at their bafes, tainting the neighbouring parts, and reaching to the furface," 2 REED. — with his own seam;] Swine-feam, in the North, is hog'slard. RITSON. And never fuffers matter of the world No, this thrice-worthy and right-valiant lord As amply titled as Achilles is, By going to Achilles : That were to enlard his fat-already pride;' With entertaining great Hyperion.+ And fay in thunder-Achilles, go to him. NEST. O, this is well; he rubs the vein of him. [Afide. D10. And how his filence drinks up this applause! [Afide. Ajax. If I go to him, with my arm'd fist I'll pash him Over the face.s See Sherwood's English and French Dictionary, folio, 1650. MALONE. 3 That were to enlard &c.] This is only the well-known proverb-Grease a fat fow &c. in a more stately dress. STEEVENS. to Cancer, when he burns 4 With entertaining great Hyperion.) Cancer is the Crab, a fign in the zodiac. The fame thought is more clearly expressed by Thomson, whose words, on this occafion, are a fufficient illustration of our author's: "And Cancer reddens with the folar blaze." STEEVENS. - I'll pash him Over the face.] i. e. strike him with violence. So, in The Virgin Martyr, by Maffinger, 1623: "when the batt'ring ram "Were fetching his career backward, to pash " Me with his horns to pieces." AGAM. O, no, you shall not go. Ajax. An he be proud with me, I'll pheeze his pride: 6 Let me go to him. ULYss. Not for the worth that hangs upon our quarrel. Again, in Churchyard's Challenge, 1596, p. 91: "the pot which goeth often to the water comes home with a knock, or at length is pashed all to pieces." REED. 6 -pheeze his pride: To pheeze is to comb or curry. JOHNSON. Mr. Steevens has explained the word Feaze, as Dr. Johnfon does, to mean the untwisting or unravelling a knotted skain of filk or thread. I recollect no authority for this use of it. To feize is to drive away; and the expreffion-I'll feize his pride, may fignify, I'll humble or lower his pride. See Vol. VI. p. 385, n. 2. WHALLEY. To comb of curry, undoubtedly is the meaning of the word here. Kersey in his Dictionary, 1708, says that it is a fea-term, and that it fignifies, to feparate a cable by untwisting the ends; and Dr. Johnson gives a fimilar account of its original meaning. [See the reference at the end of the foregoing note. But whatever may have been the origin of the expreffion, it undoubtedly fignified in our author's time to beat, knock, strike, or whip. Cole in his Latin Dict. 1679, renders it, flagellare, virgis cædere, as he does to feage, of which the modern school-boy term, to fag, is a corruption. MALONE. Not for the worth -) Not for the value of all for which we are fighting. JOHNSON. 8 I will let his humours blood.) In the year 1600 a collection of Epigrams and Satires was published with this quaint title: The letting of humours blood in the head-vaine. MALONE. AGAM. He'll be physician, that should be the patient. Ajax. An all men Were o'my mind, ULYSS. [Afide. Wit would be out of fashion. AJAX. He should not bear it so, [Afide. He should eat swords first: Shall pride carry it? NEST. An 'twould, you'd carry half. ULYss. [Afide. He'd have ten shares. [Afide. Ajax. I'll knead him, I will make him sup NEST. He's not yet thorough warm: force him with praises: * Pour in, pour in; his ambition is dry. [Afide. 9 He'll be physician, Old copies the physician. STEEVENS. 2 I'll knead him, &c.] Old copy: Ajax. I'll knead him, I'll make him fupple, he's not yet thorough warm. Neft.force him with praises: &c. The latter part of Ajax's speech is certainly got out of place, and ought to be affigned to Nestor, as I have ventured to transpose it. Ajax is feeding on his vanity, and boafting what he will do to Achilles; he'll pash him o'er the face, he'll make him eat swords, he'll knead him, he'll supple him, &c. Nestor and Ulysses slily labour to keep him up in this vein; and to this end Nestor craftily hints that Ajax is not warm yet, but must be crammed with more flattery. THEOBALD. Neftor was of the same opinion with Dr. Johnson, who, fpeaking of a metaphyfical Scotch writer, said, that he thought there was " as much charity in helping a man down hill as up hill, if his tendency be downwards." See Bofwell's Tour to the Hebrides, third edit. p. 245. MALONE. -force him-] i. e. stuff him. Farcir, Fr. So again, in this play: " malice forced with wit." STEEVENS. |