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Muft kifs their own feet.

you:

HECT.
I must not believe
There they stand yet; and modeftly I think,
The fall of every Phrygian ftone will cost
A drop of Grecian blood: The end crowns all;
And that old common arbitrator, time,
Will one day end it.

ULrss.

So to him we leave it. Moft gentle, and most valiant Hector, welcome: After the general, I befeech you next

To feaft with me, and fee me at my tent.

ACHIL. I fhall foreftall thee, lord Ulyffes, thou!"—

Shakspeare was thinking of this circumftance when he wrote in the first act thefe lines. Troilus is the fpeaker:

"Between our Ilium, and where fhe refides, [i. e. Troy] "Let it be call'd the wild and wand'ring flood."

MALONE.

"I fall foreftall thee, lord Ulyffes, thou!] Should we not read-though? Notwithstanding you have invited Hector to your tent, I fhall draw him firft into mine. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Cupid's Revenge, Act III. fc. i:

O diffembling woman,

"Whom I must reverence though.

66

." TYRWHITT.

The repetition of thou! was anciently ufed by one who meant to infult another. So, in Twelfth Night: if thou thou'ft him fome thrice, it fhall not be amifs." Again, in The Tempest: "Thou lyft, thou jefting monkey, thou!" Again, in the firit fcene of the fifth act of this play: taffel of a prodigal's purfe, thou!" STEEVENS.

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thou

Steevens's obfervations on the ufe of the word thou, are perfectly juft, and therefore I agree with Tyrwhitt that we ought to read: lord Ulyffes, though," as it could not be the intention of Achilles to affront Ulyffes, but merely to inform him, that he expected to entertain Hector before he did. M. MASON.

Mr. Steevens's remark is incontrovertibly true; but Ulyffes had not faid any thing to excite fuch contempt. MALONE.

Perhaps the fcorn of Achilles arofe from a fuppofition that Ulyffes, by inviting Hector immediately after his visit to Agamemnon, defigned to reprefent himfelf as the perfon next in rank and confequence to the general of the Grecian forces. STEEVENS.

Now, Hector, I have fed mine eyes on thee;"
I have with exact view perus'd thee, Hector,
And quoted joint by joint."

HECT.

ACHIL. I am Achilles.

Is this Achilles?

HECT. Stand fair, I pray thee: let me look on thee. ACHIL. Behold thy fill.

HECT.

Nay, I have done already. ACHIL. Thou art too brief; I will the fecond time, As I would buy thee, view thee limb by limb.

HECT. O, like a book of fport thou'lt read me o'er; But there's more in me, than thou understand'st. Why dost thou so oppress me with thine eye?

ACHIL. Tell me, you heavens, in which part of his body

Shall I deftroy him? whether there, there, or there?
That I may give the local wound a name;
And make diftinct the very breach, whereout
Hector's great fpirit flew: Anfwer me, heavens!
HECT. It would difcredit the blefs'd gods, proud

man,

To answer fuch a queftion: Stand again:
Think'st thou to catch my life so pleasantly,
As to prenominate in nice conjecture,
Where thou wilt hit me dead?

8 Now, Hector, I have fed mine eyes on thee;] The hint for this fcene of altercation between Achilles and Hector, is taken from Lydgate. See p. 178. STEEVENS.

9 And quoted joint by joint.] To quote is to obferve. So, in Hamlet:

"I'm forry that with better heed and judgement
"I had not quoted him."

Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

“Thu. And how quote you my folly?

"Val. I quote it in your jerkin." STEEVENS.

ACHIL.

I tell thee, yea.

HECT. Wert thou an oracle to tell me fo,
I'd not believe thee. Henceforth guard thee well;
For I'll not kill thee there, nor there, nor there;
But, by the forge that ftithy'd Mars his helm,'
I'll kill thee every where, yea, o'er and o'er.-
You wifeft Grecians, pardon me this brag,
His infolence draws folly from my lips;

But I'll endeavour deeds to match thefe words,
I never-

Or

may

AJAX.

Do not chafe thee, coufin;And you Achilles, let thefe threats alone, Till accident, or purpose, bring you to't: You may have every day enough of Hector, If you have ftomach; the general ftate, I fear, Can fcarce entreat you to be odd with him.'

HECT. I pray you, let us fee you in the field; We have had pelting wars, fince you refus'd The Grecians' cause.

ACHIL.

Doft thou entreat me, Hector? To-morrow, do I meet thee, fell as death; To-night, all friends.

But, by the forge that ftithy'd Mars his helm,] A fithy is an anvil, and from hence the verb ftithied is formed. M. MASON. The word is ftill ufed in Yorkshire. MALONE,

3

the general ftate, I fear,

Can fearce entreat you to be odd with him.] Ajax treats Achilles with contempt, and means to infinuate that he was afraid of fighting with Hector, "You may every day (fays he) have enough of Hector, if you choose it; but I believe the whole ftate of Greece will fcarcely prevail on you to engage with him."

To have a flomach to any thing, is, to have an inclination to it. M. MASON.

pelting wars,] i, e. petty, inconfiderable ones. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

"Hath every pelting river made so proud," &c. See Vol. V. p. 42, n. 9. STEEVENS,

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HECT.

Thy hand upon that match. AGAM. First, all you peers of Greece, go to my

tent;

There in the full convive we: afterwards,
As Hector's leisure and your bounties shall
Concur together, feverally entreat him.—
Beat loud the tabourines, let the trumpets blow,
That this great foldier may his welcome know."
[Exeunt all but TROILUS and ULYSSES.
TRO. My lord Ulyffes, tell me, I beseech you,
In what place of the field doth Calchas keep?
ULYss. At Menelaus' tent, moft princely Troilus:
There Diomed doth feaft with him to-night;
Who neither looks upon the heaven, nor earth,
But gives all gaze and bent of amorous view
On the fair Creffid.

TRO. Shall I, fweet lord, be bound to you fo

much,

After we part from Agamemnon's tent,

To bring me thither?

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convive-] To convive is to feaft. This word is not peculiar to Shakspeare. I find it feveral times ufed in The History of Helyas Knight of the Swanne, bl. 1. no date.

STEEVENS.

5 Beat loud the tabourines,] For this the quarto and the latter editions have,

To tafte your bounties.

The reading which I have given from the folio feems chofen at the revision, to avoid the repetition of the word bounties.

JOHNSON. Taburines are fmall drums. The word occurs again in Antony and Cleopatra. STEEVENS.

6 That this great foldier may his welcome know.] So, in Macbeth: "That this great king may kindly fay, "Our duties did his welcome pay."

STEEVENS.

This Creffida in Troy? Had fhe no lover there, That wails her abfence?

TRO. O, fir, to fuch as boafting fhow their scars,

A mock is due.

She was belov'd,

Will you walk on, my lord?
fhe lov'd; fhe is, and doth:

But, ftill, fweet love is food for fortune's tooth.

[Exeunt.

ACT V. SCENE I.

The Grecian Camp. Before Achilles' Tent.

Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS.

ACHIL. I'll heat his blood with Greekish wine tonight,

Which with my fcimitar I'll cool to-morrow.-Patroclus, let us feaft him to the height."

PATR. Here comes Therfites.

Enter THERSITES.

ACHIL.

How now, thou core of envy? Thou crufty batch of nature, what's the news?

7to the height.] The fame phrafe occurs in King Henry VIII: "He's traitor to the height." STEEVENS.

8 Thou crufty batch of nature,] Batch is changed by Theobald to botch, and the change is juftified by a pompous note, which discovers that he did not know the word batch. What is more ftrange, Hanmer has followed him. Batch is any thing baked.

Batch does not fignify any thing baked, but all that is baked at

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