AGAM. Let Diomed bear him, And bring us Creffid hither; Calchas fhall have What he requests of us.-Good Diomed, Furnish you fairly for this interchange: Withal, bring word-if Hector will to-morrow Be answer'd in his challenge: Ajax is ready. Dio. This fhall I undertake; and 'tis a burden Which I am proud to bear. [Exeunt DIOMEDES and CALCHAS. Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS, before their Tent. ULrss. Achilles ftands i'the entrance of his tent: Please it our general to pass strangely by him, If fo, I have derifion med'cinable, To ufe between your strangeness and his pride, AGAM. We'll execute your purpose, and put on Her prefence, fays Calchas, hall frike off, or recompence the fervice I have done, even in thofe labours which were most accepted. JOHNSON. Why fuch unplaufive eyes are bent, why turn'd on him:] If the eyes were bent on him, they were turn'd on him. This tautology therefore, together with the redundancy of the line, plainly thow that we ought to read, with Sir Thomas Hanmer : Why fuch unplaufive eyes are bent on him: STEEVENS. A form of strangeness as we pass along ;- ACHIL. What, comes the general to speak with me? You know my mind, I'll fight no more 'gainst Troy. AGAM. What fays Achilles? would he aught with us? NEST. Would you, my lord,aught with the general? ACHIL. NEST. Nothing, my lord. No. ACHIL. [Exeunt AGAMEMNON and NESTOR. Good day, good day. MEN. How do you? how do you? PATR. They pass by strangely: they were us'd to bend, 8 Good morrow.] Perhaps in this repetition of the falute, we should read, as in the preceding inftance,-Good morrow, Ajax; or, with more colloquial fpirit,-I Jay, good morrow. Otherwise the metre is defective. STEEVENS. To fend their fmiles before them to Achilles ; ACHIL. What, am I poor of late? 'Tis certain, Greatnefs, once fallen out with for tune, Muft fall out with men too: What the declin❜d is, Hath any honour; but honour for those honours Which when they fall, as being flippery ftanders, At ample point all that I did poffefs, Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out How now, Ulyffes? ULYSS. Now, great Thetis' fon? A ftrange fellow here ACHIL. What are you reading? ULrss. Writes me, That man-how dearly ever parted, 7 honour'd. 8 but honour-] Thus the quarto. The folio reads-but MALONE. how dearly ever parted,] However excellently endowed, with however dear or precious parts enriched or adorned. JOHNSON. Johnson's explanation of the word parted is juft. So, in B. Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, he defcribes Macilente as a man How much in having, or without, or in,— ACHIL. This is not strange, Ulyffes. Salutes each other with each other's form. Till it hath travell'd, and is marry'd there ULrss. I do not strain at the position, It is familiar; but at the author's drift: well parted; and in Maflinger's Great Duke of Florence, Sanazarro fays of Lydia: "And I, my lord, chofe rather "To deliver her better parted than the is, So, in a fubfequent paffage : 66 no man is the lord of any thing, (Though in and of him there is much confifting,) "Till he communicate his parts to others." MALONE. nor doth the eye itself &c.] So, in Julius Cæfar: "No Caffius; for the eye fees not itself, "But by reflexion, by fome other things." STEEVENS. 2 To others' eyes: (That most pure Spirit &c.] These two lines are totally omitted in all the editions but the first quarto. PoPE. 3 For fpeculation turns not &c.] Speculation has here the fame meaning as in Macbeth: Thou haft no fpeculation in thofe eyes Who, in his circumftance, expressly proves- (Though in and of him there be much confifting,) The voice again; or like a gate of steel The unknown Ajax.' Heavens, what a man is there! a very horse; That has he knows not what. Nature, what things there are, Moft abject in regard, and dear in use! 4 + in his circumftance,] In the detail or circumduction of his argument. JOHNSON. 5 which, like-] Old copies-who, like. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. 6 a gate of fleel Fronting the fun,] This idea appears to have been caught from fome of our ancient romances, which often defcribe gates of fimilar materials and effulgence. STEEVENS. 7 The unknown Ajax.] Ajax, who has abilities which were never brought into view or ufe. JOHNSON. 8 Now hall we fee to-morrow, An act that very chance doth throw upon him, Ajax renown'd.] I once thought that we ought to read renown. But by confidering the middle line as parenthetical, the paffage is fufficiently clear. MALONE. By placing a break after him, the conftruction will be:-Now |