The primogenitive and due of birth, And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets And the rude son should strike his father dead: And appetite, an universal wolf, So doubly seconded with will and power, And, last, eat up himself. Great Agamemnon, And this neglection 18 of degree it is, That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose 16 i. e. absolute. See vol. ii. p. 96, note 14. 17 So in Lear: I'll make a sop of the moonshine of you.' In a former speech a boat is said to be made a toast for Neptune. 18 This uncommon word occurs again in Pericles, 1609: 19 That goes backward step by step, with a design in each man to aggrandize himself by slighting his immediate superior.' And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot, Nest. Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover'd The fever whereof all our power 20 is sick. Agam. The nature of the sickness found, Ulysses, What is the remedy? Ulyss. The great Achilles,-whom opinion crowns The sinew and the forehand of our host,— Having his ear full of his airy fame 21, Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent Lies mocking our designs: With him, Patroclus, Upon a lazy bed the livelong day Breaks scurril jests; And with ridiculous and awkward action (Which, slanderer, he imitation calls) He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon, Thy topless deputation he puts on; 22 And, like a strutting player, whose conceit 20. Army, force. 21 Verbal elogium. In Macbeth called mouth honour. 22 Supreme, sovereign. 'And topless honours he bestow'd on thee.' Blind Beggar of Alexandria, 1598. 23 Malone's sagacious note informs us that the galleries of the theatre were sometimes called the scaffolds.' This may be very true, but what has it to do with the present passage? The scaffoldage here is the floor of the stage, the wooden dialogue is between the player's foot and the boards. A scaffold more frequently meant the stage itself than the gallery: thus Baret, 'A scaffold or stage where to behold plays. Spectaculum, theatrum.' And Chaucer: He playeth Herode on a skaffold hie.' Milleres Tale, 3383, 24 i, e, overstrained, wrested beyond true semblance, He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks, Now play me Nestor ;-hem, and stroke thy beard, That's done;-as near as the extremest ends 'Tis Nestor right! Now play him me, Patroclus, Arming to answer in a night alarm. And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age Must be the scene of mirth; to cough, and spit, And, with a palsy-fumbling 27 on his gorget, Shake in and out the rivet:—and at this sport Sir Valour dies; cries, O!-enough, Patroclus;Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all In pleasure of my spleen. And in this fashion, All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, Severals and generals of grace exact 28, Achievements, plots, orders, preventions, Excitements to the field, or speech for truce, Success, or loss, what is, or is not, serves As stuff for these two to make paradoxes. Nest. And in the imitation of these twain (Whom, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns With an imperial voice) many are infect. Ajax is grown self-will'd; and bears his head 25 i. e. unsuited, unfitted. 26 Johnson says the allusion seems to be made to the parallels on a map. As like as east to west.' 27 Paralytic fumbling. 28 Grace exact seems to mean decorous habits. In such a rein 29, in full as proud a place As broad Achilles: keeps his tent like him; (A slave, whose gall coins slanders like a mint) Nest. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse Makes many Thetis' sons. [Trumpet sounds. What trumpet? look, Menelaus, Agam. 29 i. e. carries himself haughtily; bridles up. See Cotgrave in Se rengorger.' 30 How rank soever rounded in with danger. How strongly soever encompassed by danger, So in King Henry V.:— How dread an army hath enrounded him.' Agam. Even this. Ene. May one, that is a herald, and a prince, Do a fair message to his kingly ears? Agam. With surety stronger than Achilles' arm 'Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice Call Agamemnon head and general. Ene. Fair leave, and large security. How may A stranger to those most imperial looks Know them from eyes of other mortals 31 ? Agam. Ene. Ay; I ask, that I might waken reverence, Which is that god in office, guiding men? How? Agam. This Trojan scorns us; or the men of Troy Are ceremonious courtiers. Ene. Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm'd, As bending angels; that's their fame in peace: But when they would seem soldiers, they have galls, Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, Jove's accord: Nothing so full of heart 32. But peace, Æneas, 31 And yet this was the seventh year of the war. Shakspeare, who so wonderfully preserves character, usually confounds the customs of all nations, and probably supposed that the ancients (like the heroes of chivalry) fought with beavers to their helmets. In the fourth act of this play, Nestor says to Hector :But this thy countenance, still lock'd in steel, I never saw till now.' Those who are acquainted with the embellishments of ancient manuscripts and books well know that the artists gave the costume of their own time to all ages. But in this anachronism they have been countenanced by other ancient poets as well as Shakspeare. 32 Malone and Steevens see difficulties in this passage; the former proposed to read Jove's a god;' the latter, Love's a |