Despising many forfeits and subduements,

When thou hast hung thy advanc'd sword i'the air,
Not letting it decline on the declin'd;
That I have said to some my standers-by,

Lo, Jupiter is yonder, dealing life!

And I have seen thee pause, and take thy breath,
When that a ring of Greeks have hemm'd thee in,
Like an Olympian wrestling: This have I seen;
But this thy countenance, still lock'd in steel,
I never saw till now. I knew thy grandsire,
And once fought with him : he was a soldier good;
But, by great Mars, the captain of us all,

Never like thee: Let an old man embrace thee;
And, worthy warrior, welcome to our tents.
Ene. 'Tis the old Nestor.

Hect. Let me embrace thee, good old chronicle,
That hast so long walk'd hand in hand with time :-
Most reverend Nestor, I am glad to clasp thee.

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.
Well, welcome, welcome! I have seen the time-
Ulyss. I wonder now how yonder city stands,
When we have here her base and pillar by us.
Hect. I know your favour, lord Ulysses, well.
Ah, sir, there's many a Greek and Trojan dead,
Since first I saw yourself and Diomed

In Ilion, on your Greekish embassy.

Ulyss. Sir, I foretold you then what would ensue : My prophecy is but half his journey yet ;

For yonder walls, that pertly front your town,

Yon towers, whose wanton tops do buss the clouds,7
Must kiss their own feet..

Hect. I must not believe you:

There they stand yet; and modestly I think,
The fall of every Phrygian stone will cost

A drop of Grecian blood: The end crowns all ;
And that old common arbitrator, time,
Will one day end it.

[7] Ilion, according to Shakspeare's authority, was the name of Priam's palace, "that was one of the richest and strongest that ever was in the world. And it was of height 500 paces, besides the height of the towers, whereof there was great plenty, and so high as that it seemed to them that saw them from farre, they raught up unto the heaven." Destruction of Troy,B,IL MAL..

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 !1— Now, Hector, I have fed mine eyes on thee; 2

I have with exact view perus'd thee, Hector,

And quoted joint by joint.

Hect. Is this Achilles?

Achil. I am 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 second time, As I would buy thee, view thee limb by limb.

Hect. O, like a book of sport 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 destroy him? whether there, there, or there ? That I may give the local wound a name ;

And make distinct the very breach, whereout
Hector's great spirit flew : Answer me, heavens !

Hect. It would discredit the bless'd gods, proud man, To answer such a question: Stand again :

Think'st thou to catch my life so pleasantly,

As to prenominate in nice conjecture,

Where thou wilt hit me dead?

Achil. I tell thee, yea.

Hect. Wert thou an oracle to tell me so,

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 stithied Mars his helm, 3
I'll kill thee every where, yea, o'er and o'er.-
You wisest Grecians, pardon me this brag,
His insolence draws folly from my lips ;
But I'll endeavour deeds to match these words,
Or may I never-

Ajax. Do not chafe thee, cousin ;

And you, Achilles, let these threats alone,
Till accident, or purpose, bring you to't :

[1] Should we not fead, 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 A chilles arose from the supposition that Ulysses designed to represent himself as the person next in rank and consequence to Agamemnon. STEEV. [2] The hint for this scene of altercation is taken from Lydgate. STE. 131 A stith is an anvil, a stithy a smith's shop. STEEV.

You may have every day enough of Hector,
If you have stomach; the general state, I fear,
Can scarce entreat you to be odd with him.

Hect. I pray you, let us see you in the field;
We have had pelting wars, since you refus❜d
The Grecians' cause.

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; There in the full convive we; afterwards, As Hector's leisure and your bounties shall Concur together, severally entreat him.Beat loud the tabourines, let the trumpets blow, That this great soldier may his welcome know.

[Exe. all but TROI. and ULYSSES, Tro. My lord Ulysses, tell me, I beseech you, In what place of the field doth Calchas keep? Ulyss. At Menelaus' tent, most princely Troilus: There Diomed doth feast with him to-night; Who neither looks upon the heaven, nor earth, But gives all gaze and bent of amorous view 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
That wails her absence?

Tro. O, sir, to such as boasting show their scars,

A mock is due. Will you walk on, my lord?

She was belov'd, she lov'd; she is, and doth :

But, still, sweet 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 to-night, Which with my scimitar I'll cool to-morrow.

Patroclus, 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, 4 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.
Patr. Who keeps the tent now?

Ther. The surgeon's box, or the patient's wound. Patr.Well said, Adversity! and what need these tricks? Ther. Pr'ythee be silent, boy; I profit not by thy talk thou art thought to be Achilles' male varlet. Patr. Male varlet, you rogue! what's that?

Ther. Why, his masculine whore. Now the rotten diseases of the south, the guts-griping, ruptures, catarrhs, loads o'gravel i'the back, lethargies, cold palsies, 5 raw eyes, dirt-rotten livers, wheezing lungs, bladders full of imposthume, sciatacas, lime-kilns i'the palm, incurable bone-ach, 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, gall !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 coblaaf. STEEV.

[3] 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. JOHNS.

[6] Patroclus reproaches Thersites with deformity, with having one part crouded into another. JOHNS.

[7] i. e. thou cur of an undeterminate shape. STEEV.

[8] All the terms used by Thersites of Patroclus, are emblematically expressive of flexibility, compliance, and mean officiousness. JOHNS.

[9] Sir T.Hanmer reads, nut-gall; it has already appeared, that our author thought the nut-gall the bitter gall. He is called nut, from the conglobation of his form; but both the copies read, Out gall ! JOHNS.

Here is a letter from queen Hecuba ;

A token from her daughter, my fair love ;*
Both taxing me, and gaging me to keep

An oath that I have sworn. I will not break it :
Fall, Greeks; fail, fame; honour, or go, or stay;
My major vow lies here, this I'll obey.-

Come, come, Thersites, help to trim my tent;
This night in banqueting must all be spent.--
Away, Patroclus.

[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 transformation 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.

[1] This circumstance is from the Three Destructions of Troy, HANM. [2] Stuffed with wit. A term in cookery. In this speech I do not well understand what is meant by loving quails, JÓH.-By loving quails the poet may mean loving the company of harlots. A quail is remarkably salacious. STE.

This Thersites speaks upon the first sight of the distant lights. JOH.