(That most pure spirit of sense) 42 behold itself, Till it hath travell'd, and is mirror'd44 there Ulyss. Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back, A great-siz'd monster of ingratitudes : Where it may see itself. This is not strange at all. As fast as they are made, forgot as soon Ulyss. I do not strain 5 at the position, It is familiar,-but at the author's drift; (Though in and of him there be much consisting) Till he communicate his parts to others; As done: preséverance, dear my lord, Keeps honour bright: to have done, is to hang In monumental mockery. Take the instant way; Where they're extended; which, like an arch, Or hedge aside from the direct forth-right,50 reverberates. Most abject in regard, and dear in use! How some men creep in skittish Fortune's hall, Achil. I do believe it; for they pass'd by me Like to an enter'd tide, they all rush by, Or, like a gallant horse fall'n in first rank, present, Though less than yours in past, must o'ertop yours; | For time is like a fashionable host, That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand; Remuneration for the thing it was; High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service, One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,— The providence that's in a watchful state 56 58 Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles, 57 53. Emulous missions. 'Descents made in envious rivalry,' expeditions made from envy of mortal distinction.' In Homer's "Iliad" there are descriptions of the gods and goddesses coming down in person to take part in the Troy battle; and of Mars himself having an encounter with Diomed, by whom he is wounded. Ulysses here adroitly turns this into a direct compliment to Achilles' renown, as stirring envy in the gods themselves. 54. One of Priam's daughters. Polyxena. 55 Plutus gold. The Folio misprints 'Plutoes' for "Plutus';" a correction first suggested by Steevens, and adopted by Malone. 56. Keeps place with thought. Here " 'place" has been altered to 'pace' by Hanmer; but Shakespeare not only uses the expression "keep place" in another passage (see Note 7, Act ii., "Merry Wives") where 'keep pace' might be substituted, he also employs the word "place" where 'pace' could be supposed to accord better with a portion of the context. See Note 78, Act i. of the present play. Here, though 'keeps pace' would accord with the swiftness of thought, yet "keeps place" consists more fully with the general scope of the passage, which treats of the universal diving of provident vigilance into the penetralia and innermost places where thinking conception originates and dwells. 57. Dumb cradles. These words have been variously altered, so as to make up for the alleged deficiency in the line, and to afford a sense that is believed to be clearer. But inas Those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves: Omission to do what is necessary Seals a commission to a blank of danger; Achil. Go call Thersites hither, sweet Patroclus: much as Shakespeare frequently has lines where there are either more or fewer than ten feet, and inasmuch as the words "dumb cradles" here seem to us figuratively to express the place wherein newly-born thoughts lie quiescent and unuttered, we not only can see no necessity for change, but we extremely admire the original expression. Shakespeare elsewhere has, "And fancy dies in the cradle where it lies;" in which passage "fancy" means 'enamoured thought,' and "cradle" means the lover's eye, as the place where love-thoughts are born, lie happily, and die full-fed; while in the present passage "cradles' mean the brains where thoughts, just brought forth, lie awaiting growth, maturity, and development, with shaping into words. 58. There is a mystery (with whom relation durst never meddle) in the soul of state. "In state dominion there is a mysterious power of acquiring knowledge with which description cannot venture to deal.' "Whom is here used for 'which,' 59. Pyrrhus. Son of Achilles and Deidamia. 60. I as your lover speak. The word "lover" was often used in Shakespeare's time to express warmth of admiration or fervour of friendship between men. See Note 71, Act iii., "Merchant of Venice." 61. Gor'd. This expressive word is figuratively used by Shakespeare more than once in reference to good name and reputation. It combines the meaning of bloodily torn and wounded as by the horn of an animal, and smirched, polluted, as derived from the Saxon word gor, dirt, mud, filth. Enter THERSITES. Ther. A wonder! Acbil. What? Ther. Ajax goes up and down the field, asking for himself. Achil. How so? Ther. He must fight singly to-morrow with Hector; and is so prophetically proud of a heroical cudgelling, that he raves in saying nothing. Achil. How can that be? Ther. Why, he stalks up and down like a peacock,-a stride and a stand: ruminates like a hostess that hath no arithmetic but her brain to set down her reckoning: bites his lip with a politic regard, 62 as who should say, There were wit in this head, an 'twould out; and so there is; but it lies as coldly in him as fire in a flint, which will not show without knocking. The man's undone for ever; for if Hector break not his neck i' the combat, he'll break 't himself in vain-glory. He knows not me: I said, "Good morrow, Ajax;" and he replies, "Thanks, Agamemnon." What think you of this man, that takes me for the general? He's grown a very land-fish, languageless, a monster. A plague of opinion! a man may wear it on both sides, like a leather jerkin. Achil. Thou must be my ambassador to him, catlings on. Thersites. Ther. Who, I? why, he'll answer nobody; he professes not answering : speaking is for beggars; he wears his tongue in his arms. I will put on his presence: let Patroclus make demands to me, you shall see the pageant of Ajax. Achil. To him, Patroclus: tell him,-I humbly desire the valiant Ajax to invite the most valorous Hector to come unarmed to my tent; and to procure safe conduct for his person of the magnanimous and most illustrious six-or-seven-times Achil. Come, thou shalt bear a letter to him Let me bear another to his horse; for [Exeunt ACHILLES and PATROCLUS. Ther. Would the fountain of your mind were clear again, that I might water an ass at it! I had rather be a tick in a sheep than such a valiant ignorance. [Exit. Should rob my bed-mate of my company. Dio. That's my mind too.-Good morrow, Par. A valiant Greek, Æneas, -take his hand,- Ene. Dio. The one and other Diomed embraces. Ene. And thou shalt hunt a lion, that will fly Dio. We do; and long to know each other worse. He merits well to have her, that doth seek her For every false drop in her guilty veins A Trojan hath been slain: since she could speak, Ene. I was sent for to the king; but why, I Dispraise the thing that you desire to buy: Par. His purpose meets you: 'twas to bring We'll not commend what we intend to sell." To Calchas' house; and there to render him, 1. During all question of the gentle truce. During all intercourse permitted by the truce.' "Question" is often used by Shakespeare for 'discourse,' 'conversation.' See Note 51, Act v., 2. Force. Power, energetic strength, vigorous might. See Note 136, Act iv, "Winter's Tale." 3. By Anchises' life. Anchises was the father of Æneas; and so dear was his life to his son, that when Troy was burning and Anchises was too infirm to fly, Æneas bore the old man upon his shoulders and carried him safely away. 4. By Venus hand. This adjuration is in allusion to the wound which the goddess-mother of Æneas received on the back of her hand from Diomed when she took part in one of the encounters during the Trojan war, an incident which is related in the fifth book of Homer's "Iliad." Shakespeare well introduces this allusion, as aiding to show the temporary courtesy with enduring animosity which co-exist and co-express themselves in the speech of Æneas. Here lies our way. [Exeunt. SCENE II-TROY. Court of PANDARUS' House. Tro. Dear, trouble not yourself: the morn is cold. down; 5. Greeks and Trojans suffer'd death. Here the construction is elliptical; "hath," in the previous line, giving 'have' to be understood between "Trojans" and "suffer'd." 6. We'll not commend what we intend to sell. This line has been variously altered; Zachary Jackson proposing to change not to 'but,' and Warburton suggesting that "to" should be 'not.' The latter alteration is preferable to the former, inasmuch as but commend' would contradict the previous "in silence;" nevertheless, we think the passage, as it stands, will bear Johnson's interpretation:-'Though you practise the buyer's art, we will not practise the seller's. We intend to sell Helen dear, yet will not commend her.' The previous mention of the vast cost at which Helen is bid for by those who would purchase her back, and the equally cruel cost at which she is retained by those who will not part with her without loss of life, seems to us to fully warrant the assumption that here "sell" has the force of sell dearly;' 'that is, make you pay dearly for, I even supposing you obtain her at all. |