Despising many forfeits and subduements, When thou hast hung thy advanc'd sword i'the air, And I have seen thee pause, and take thy breath, Never like thee: Let an old man embrace thee; Hect. Let me embrace thee, good old chronicle, Nest. I would, my arms could match thee in contention, As they contend with thee in courtesy. Hect. I would they could. Nest. Ha! By this white beard, I'd fight with thee to-morrow. In Ilion, on your Greekish embassy. Ulyss. Sir, I foretold you then what would ensue : For yonder walls, that pertly front your town, Hect. I must not believe you: There they stand yet; and modestly I think, A drop of Grecian blood: The end crowns all ; Will one day end it. Ulyss. So to him we leave it. Most gentle, and most valiant Hector, welcome : After the general, I beseech you next To feast with me, and see me at my tent. Achil. I shall forestall thee, lord Ulysses, thou !'- I have with exact view perus'd thee, Hector, Hect. Is this Achilles ? Achil. I am Achilles. Hect. Stand fair, I pray thee: let me look on thee. Hect. Nay, I have done already. Achil. Thou art too brief; I will the second time, Hect. O, like a book of sport thoul't read me o'er ; Achil. Tell me, you heavens, in which part of his body Shall I destroy him? whether there, there, or there? That I may give the local wound a name ; And make distinct the very breach, whereout Think'st thou to catch my life so pleasantly, Achil. I tell thee, yea. Hect. Wert thou an oracle to tell me so, I'd not believe thee. Henceforth guard thee well; But I'll endeavour deeds to match these words, Ajax. Do not chafe thee, cousin ; And you, Achilles, let these threats alone, [1] Should we not read, though? Notwithstanding you have invited Hector to your tent, I shall draw him first to mine. TYRWHITT.----Thou! was anciently used by one who meant to insult another. Perhaps the scorn of Achilles arose from the supposition that Ulysses designed to represent himself as the person next in rank and consequence to Agamemnon. STEEVENS. [2] The hint for this scene of altercation is taken from Lydgate. STEEVENS, You may have every day enough of Hector, Hect. I pray you, let us see you in the field; Achil. Dost thou entreat me, Hector? To-morrow, do I meet thee, fell as death; To-night, all friends. Hect. Thy hand upon that match. Aga. First, all you peers of Greece, go to my tent [Exe. all but TROI, and ULYSSES. Tro. My lord Ulysses, tell me, I beseech you, On the fair Cressid. Tro. Shall I, sweet lord, be bound to you so much, After we part from Agamemnon's tent, To bring me thither? Ulyss. You shall command me, sir. As gentle tell me, of what honour was This Cressida in Troy? Had she no lover there Tro. O, sir, to such as boasting show their scars, ACT V. SCENE I.-The Grecian Camp. [Exeunt. Before ACHILLES' Tent. Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS. Achil. I'LL heat his blood with Greekish wine to-night, Which with my scimitar I'll cool to-morrow. i'atroclus, let us feast him to the height. Patr. Here comes Thersites, Enter THERSITES. Achil. How now, thou core of envy ? Thou crusty batch of nature, what's the news? Ther. Why, thou picture of what thou seemest, and idol of idiot-worshippers, here's a letter for thee. Achil. From whence, fragment? Ther. Why, thou full dish of fool, from Troy. Ther. The surgeon's box, or the patient's wound. : Patr. Male varlet, you rogue! what's that? Ther. Why, his masculine whore. Now the rotten diseases of the south, the guts-griping, ruptures, catarrhis, loads o'gravel i'the back, lethargies, cold palsies,' raw eyes, dirt-rotten livers, wheezing lungs, bladders full of imposthume, sciatacas, lime-kilns i'the palm, incurable boneach, and the rivelled fee-simple of the tetter, take and take again such preposterous discoveries! Patr. Why, thou damnable box of envy, thou, what meanest thou to curse thus ? Ther. Do I curse thee? Patr. Why, no, you ruinous butt; you whoreson indistinguishable cur, no.7 Ther. No why art thou then exasperate, thou idle immaterial skein of sleive silk, thou green sarcenet flap for a sore eye, thou tassal of a prodigal's purse, thou? Ah, how the poor world is pestered with such waterflies; diminutives of nature! Patr. Out, gal! !9 Ther. Finch egg! Achil. My sweet Patroclus, I am thwarted quite From my great purpose in to-morrow's battle. [4] Batch-all that is baked at one time, without heating the oven afresh. Thersites has already been called cobloaf. STEEVENS. [5] This catalogue of loathsome maladies ends in the folio at cold palsies. This passage, as it stands, is in the quarto: the retrenchment was, in my opinion, judicious. It may be remarked, though it proves nothing, that, of the few alterations made by Milton in the second edition of his wonderful poem, one was, an enlargement of the enumeration of diseases. JOHNSON. [6] Patroclus roproaches Thersites with deformity, with having one part crouderi into another. JOHNSON. [7] i. e. Thou cur of an undeterminate shape. STEEVENS. 8 All the terms used by Thersites of Patroclus, are emblematically expressive of flexibility, compliance, and mean officiousness. JOHNSON. [9] Sir T. Hanmer reads, nut-gali; it has already appeared, that our author thought the nut-gall the bitter gail. He is called nut, from the conglobation of his form; but both the copies read, Out gall! JOHNSON. Here is a letter from queen Hecuba; A token from her daughter, my fair love;' An oath that I have sworn. I will not break it : Come, come, Thersites, help to trim my tent; [Exeunt ACHIL. and PATR. Ther. With too much blood, and too little brain, these two may run mad; but if with too much brain, and too little blood, they do, I'll be a curer of madmen. Here's Agamemnon,--an honest fellow enough, and one that loves quails; but he has not so much brain as ear-wax: And the goodly tranformation of Jupiter there, his brother, the bull,-the primitive statue, and oblique memorial of cuckolds; a thrifty shoeing-horn in a chain, hanging at his brother's leg,-to what form, but that he is, should wit larded with malice, and malice forced with wit, turn him to ? To an ass, were nothing; he is both ass and ox: to an ox were nothing; he is both ox and ass. To be a dog, a mule, a cat, a fitchew, a toad, a lizard, an owl, a puttock, or a herring without a roe, I would not care but to be Menelaus,-I would conspire against destiny. Ask me not what I would be, if I were not Thersites; for I care not to be the louse of a lazar, so I were not Menelaus.. -Hey-day! spirits and fires !3 Enter HECTOR, TROILUS, AJAX, AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES NESTOR, MENELAUS, and DIOMED, with lights. Aga. We go wrong, we go wrong. Ajax. No, yonder 'tis ; There, where we see the lights.. Hect. I trouble you. Ajax. No, not a whit. Enter ACHILLES. Ulyss. Here comes himself to guide you. Achil. Welcome, brave Hector ;-welcome, princes all, Aga. So now, fair prince of Troy, I bid good night Ajax commands the guard to tend on you. Hect. Thanks, and good night, to the Greeks' general. HANMER. [1] This circumstance is from the Three Destructions of Troy. [2] Stuffed with wit. A term in cookery. In this speech I do not well understand what is meant by loving quails. JOHNSON.-By loving quails the poet may mean loving the company of harlots. A quail is remarkably salacious. [3] This Thersites speaks upon the first sight of the distant lights. STEEVENS. D 2 |