Was fairer than his grandam, and as chaste

As may be in the world: his youth in flood,43

I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood.
Ene. Now Heavens forbid such scarcity of youth!
Ulyss. Amen!

Agam. Fair Lord Æneas, let me touch your hand;
To our pavilion shall I lead you, sir.

Achilles shall have word of this intent;

So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent:
Yourself shall feast with us before you go,

And find the welcome of a noble foe.

Ulyss. Nestor,

[Exeunt all but ULYSSES and NESTOR.

Nest. What says Ulysses?

Ulyss. I have a young conception in my brain;

Be you my time to bring it to some shape.

Nest. What is't?

Ulyss. This 'tis :

Blunt wedges rive hard knots: the seeded pride 44
That hath to this maturity grown up

In rank Achilles must or now be cropp'd,

Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil,

To overbulk us all.

Nest. Well, and how?

Ulyss. This challenge that the gallant Hector sends, However it is spread in general name,

Relates in purpose only to Achilles.

Nest. The purpose is perspicuous even as substance,

43 That is, though he be in the full strength of youth. In the flood as opposed to in the ebb, or on the wane.

44 "Seeded pride" is pride that has gone to seed, and so is likely to result in a large increase. So in the Poet's Lucrece :

How will thy shame be seeded in thine age,
When thus thy vices bud before they spring!

45

Whose grossness little characters sum up:
And, in the publication, make no strain,46
But that Achilles, were his brain as barren
As banks of Libya, though, Apollo knows,

'Tis dry enough, will, with great speed of judgment, Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose

Pointing on him.

Ulyss. And wake him to the answer, think you?

Nest. Yes, 'tis most meet: whom may you else oppose,

That can from Hector bring his honour off,

If not Achilles? Though it be a sportful combat,

Yet in the trial much opinion dwells; 47

For here the Trojans taste our dear'st repute

With their finest palate and trust to me, Ulysses,
Our imputation 48 shall be oddly poised
In this wild action; for the success,"
49
Although particular, shall give a scantling 50
Of good or bad unto the general ;

And in such indexes, although small pricks

45 The right explanation of this seems to be, that substance is estate, the entire value of which is expressed or summed up in small characters, that is, figures. We have a like expression in the first Chorus to King Henry V. : "A crooked figure may attest, in little space, a million." —Grossness is equivalent to gross sum.—Such is substantially the explanation given by Steevens.

46 "Make no strain" is equivalent to make no question, or, do not doubt. So, later in the play, Ulysses says, "I do not strain at the position, it is familiar."

47 The meaning is, that the public estimate or judgment of our ability depends much upon the trial.

48 Imputation was sometimes used nearly in the sense of reputation. See vol. xiv. page 306, note 31.

49 Success in the Latin sense of consequence, result, or what follows. Often used so by Shakespeare. See page 80, note 1.

50 Scantling is a small measure or portion. So in Florio's Montaigne, 1603: "When the lion's skin will not suffice, we must add a scantling of the fox's."

To their subséquent volumes,51 there is seen
The baby figure of the giant mass

Of things to come at large. It is supposed,
He that meets Hector issues from our choice:
And choice, being mutual act of all our souls,
Makes merit her election; and doth boil,

As 'twere from forth us all, a man distill'd
Out of our virtues; who miscarrying,

What heart receives from hence the conquering part,
To steel a strong opinion to themselves? 52
Which entertain'd,53 limbs are his instruments,
In no less working than are swords and bows
Directive by the limbs.

Ulyss.

Give pardon to my speech:

Therefore 'tis meet Achilles meet not Hector.

Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares,

And think, perchance, they'll sell; if not, the lustre

O' the better yet to show shall show the better,

By showing the worse first. Do not consent

That ever Hector and Achilles meet;

For both our honour and our shame in this

Are dogg'd with two strange followers.

Nest. I see them not with my old eyes: what are they? Ulyss. What glory our Achilles shares from Hector,

51 Tables of contents prefixed to books were often called indexes. Here, again, to has the force of compared to. Pricks is marks or points; small in comparison with the volumes to which they are prefixed.

52 The precise meaning of part is not very apparent here: but the meaning of the passage seems to be, "If the man of our choice should fail, what heart among us will then draw from the issue any hope of success, or of conquering, to strengthen his confidence in our ability?"

53 Which, here, must refer to conquering part. So that the meaning is, "when a man entertains such a hope, his limbs are then his instruments, as obedient to his will as are the weapons wielded by them." - Directive for directed; an instance of the active form with the passive sense. So, in the first speech of this scene, tortive for twisted.

Were he not proud, we all should share with him:
But he already is too insolent;

And we were better parch in Afric sun
Than in the pride and salt scorn
54 of his eyes,

Should he 'scape Hector fair: if he were foil'd,
Why, then we did our main opinion crush

In taint of our best man. No, make a lottery;
And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw

The sort 55 to fight with Hector: 'mong ourselves
Give him allowance 56 as the worthier man;
For that will physic the great Myrmidon

Who broils in loud applause, and make him fall 57
His crest that prouder than blue Iris bends.
If the dull brainless Ajax come safe off,
We'll dress him up in voices: if he fail,
Yet go we under our opinion 58 still

That we have better men. But, hit or miss,
Our project's life this shape of sense assumes,
Ajax employ'd plucks down Achilles' plumes.
Nest. Ulysses,

Now I begin to relish thy advice;

And I will give a taste of it forthwith

To Agamemnon: go we to him straight.

Two curs shall tame each other: pride alone

Must tarre 59 the mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone. [Exeunt.

54 Salt scorn appears to be a snug expression for such a high strain of scornful mirth as would put the eyes in a flood of brine.

55 Sort for lot, like the Latin sors. Repeatedly so.

56 Allowance in its old sense of approval. See vol. xiv. page 226, note 6. 57 Fall is here a transitive verb, for let fall.

58 Opinion, as before, in the sense of estimation or repute.

59 To tarre is to instigate, or set on. See vol. xiv. page 205, note 53.

ACT II.

SCENE I. A Part of the Grecian Camp.

Enter AJAX and THERSITES.

Ajax. Thersites,

Ther. Agamemnon, how if he had boils; full, all over, generally?

Ajax. Thersites,

Ther. - and those boils did run? Say so; did not the general run then? were not that a botchy corps? —

Ther. - Then would come some matter from him; I see

none now.

Ajax. Thou bitch-wolf's son, canst thou not hear? Feel, then. [Beating him. Ther. The plague of Greece' upon thee, thou mongrel beef-witted lord !2

Ajax. Speak, then, thou vinewed'st 3 leaven, speak; or I will beat thee into handsomeness.

Ther. I shall sooner rail thee into wit and holiness: but, I think, thy horse will sooner con an oration than thou learn a prayer without book. Thou canst strike, canst thou? a red murrain o' thy jade's tricks!

1 Alluding to the plague sent by Apollo upon the Grecian army.

2 Ajax is called mongrel because his father was a Greek and his mother a Trojan; so that he was a mixture of the two. In Twelfth Night, Sir Andrew Aguecheek says, "I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit."

3 Vinewed, or vinny, is an old word meaning mouldy or musty. So used by Beaumont, 1602: "Many of Chaucer's words are become, as it were, vinew'd and hoarie with over-long lying."

4 Red murrain is probably the same thing which the Poet elsewhere calls red plague. See vol. vii. page 32, note 83.