D10. Be rul'd by him, lord Ajax. ULrss. There is no tarrying here; the hart Achilles Keeps thicket. Please it our great general 2 Fresh kings are come to Troy: To-morrow, And cull their flower, Ajax fhall cope the best. deep.❜ Ajax defires to give the title of father to Ulyffes; in the quarto, more naturally, to Neftor. JOHNSON. Shakspeare had a custom prevalent about his own time, in his thoughts. Ben Jonfon had many who called themselves his fons. STEEVENS. 2 Fresh kings are come to Troy: &c.] We might complete this imperfect verfe by reading: Fresh kings are come to fuccour Troy: &c. So, Spenser: 3 "To fuccour the weak ftate of fad afflicted Troy." STEEVENS. draw deep.] So, in the Prologue to this play: deep-drawing barks." STEEVENS. ACT III. SCENE I. Troy. A Room in Priam's Palace. Enter PANDARUS and a Servant. PAN. Friend! you! pray you, a word: Do not you follow the young lord Paris? SERV. Ay, fir, when he goes before me. PAN. You do depend upon a noble gentleman; I must needs praise him. SERV. The lord be praised! PAN. You know me, do you not? SERV. 'Faith, fir, fuperficially. PAN. Friend, know me better; I am the lord Pandarus. SERV. I hope, I fhall know your honour better.* PAN. I do defire it. SERV. You are in the ftate of grace. [Mufick within. PAN. Grace! not fo, friend; honour and lordship are my titles:-What mufick is this? 4 I hope, I shall know your honour better.] The fervant means to quibble. He hopes that Pandarus will become a better man than he is at prefent. In his next fpeech he chooses to understand Pandarus as if he had faid he wished to grow better, and hence the fervant affirms that he is in the ftate of grace. The second of thefe fpeeches has been pointed in the late editions, as if he had asked, of what rank Pandarus was. MALONE. SERV. I do but partly know, fir; it is mufick in parts. PAN. Know you the musicians? SERV. Wholly, fir. PAN. Who play they to? SERV. To the hearers, fir. PAN. At whofe pleasure, friend? SERV. At mine, fir, and theirs that love mufick. PAN. Command, I mean, friend. SERV. Who fhall I command, fir? PAN. Friend, we understand not one another; I am too courtly, and thou art too cunning: At whofe request do these men play? SERV. That's to't, indeed, fir: Marry, fir, at the request of Paris my lord, who is there in perfon; with him, the mortal Venus, the heart-blood of beauty, love's invisible foul,' PAN. Who, my coufin Creffida? SERV. No, fir, Helen; Could you not find out that by her attributes? PAN. It should feem, fellow, that thou haft not feen the lady Creffida. I come to speak with Paris from the prince Troilus: I will make a complimental affault upon him, for my business feeths. SERV. Sodden business! there's a stew'd phrase, indeed! S -love's invifible foul,] may mean, the foul of love invifible every where else. JOHNSON. 6 Sodden business! there's a few'd phrafe,] The quibbling speaker seems to mean that fodden is a phrase fit only for the fews. Enter PARIS and HELEN, attended. PAN. Fair be to you, my lord, and to all this fair company! fair defires, in all fair measure, fairly guide them! especially to you, fair queen! fair thoughts be your fair pillow! HELEN. Dear lord, you are full of fair words. PAN. You speak your fair pleasure, sweet queen. -Fair prince, here is good broken mufick. PAR. You have broke it, coufin: and, by my life, you shall make it whole again; you fhall piece it out with a piece of your performance :-Nell, he is full of harmony. PAN. Truly, lady, no. HELEN. O, fir, PAN. Rude, in footh; in good footh, very rude. PAR. Well faid, my lord! well, you fay fo in fits." PAN. I have bufinefs to my lord, dear queen:My lord, will you vouchfafe me a word? HELEN. Nay, this fhall not hedge us out: we'll hear you fing, certainly. PAN. Well, fweet queen, you are pleasant with Thus, fays the Bawd in Pericles :-"The ftuff we have, a strong wind will blow it to pieces, they are so pitifully fodden." STEEVENS. 7 -in fits.] i. e. now and then, by fits; or perhaps a quibble is intended. A fit was a part or divifion of a fong, fometimes a strain in musick, and fometimes a measure in dancing. The reader will find it fufficiently illuftrated in the two former fenfes by Dr. Percy, in the firft volume of his Reliques of ancient English Poetry in the third of these fignifications it occurs in All for Money, a tragedy, by T. Lupton, 1578: "Satan. Upon thefe chearful words I needs muft dance a fitte.” me. But (marry) thus, my lord,-My dear lord, and most esteemed friend, your brother TroilusHELEN. My lord Pandarus; honey-fweet lord,PAN. Go to, fweet queen, go to:-commends himself most affectionately to you. If HELEN. You fhall not bob us out of our melody; you do, our melancholy upon your head! PAN. Sweet queen, fweet queen; that's a sweet queen, i'faith. HELEN. And to make a sweet lady fad, is a four offence. PAN. Nay, that shall not ferve your turn; that fhall it not, in truth, la. Nay, I care not for fuch words; no, no.-And, my lord, he defires you, that, if the king call for him at fupper, you will make his excufe. HELEN. My lord Pandarus, PAN. What fays my fweet queen?-my very very fweet queen? PAR. What exploit's in hand? where fups he tonight? HELEN. Nay, but my lord, PAN. What fays my fweet queen?-My coufin will fall out with you. You must not know where he fups.9 And, my lord, he defires you,] Here I think the speech of Pandarus fhould begin, and the rest of it should be added to that of Helen, but I have followed the copies. JOHNSON. Mr. Rowe had difpofed these speeches in this manner. Hanmer annexes the words, "And to make a fweet lady" &c. to the preceding fpeech of Pandarus, and in the reft follows Rowe. MALONE. Thefe words are in the folio did not perceive p. 276, four fpeeches |