Mock not, that I affect th' untraded 22 oath ; Your quondam wife swears still by Venus' glove : Men. Name her not now, sir; she's a deadly theme. Nest. I have, thou gallant Trojan, seen thee oft, Through ranks of Greekish youth; and I have seen thee, When thou hast hung thy ádvanced sword i' the air, And I have seen thee pause and take thy breath, Never like thee. Let an old man embrace thee; Ene. 'Tis the old Nestor. Hect. Let me embrace thee, good old chronicle,26 22 Untraded is uncommon, unhackneyed. See page 238, note 9. 23" Labouring for destiny" is executing the decrees of destiny. 24 That is, "When thou hast arrested thy uplifted sword, or caused it to hang aloft in the air, not letting it fall upon the fallen." Sparing the foe who was down. The use of advance in this sense is quite frequent. See vol. vii. page 34, note 91. And the Poet elsewhere uses hang in the same way as here. See vol. xi. page 231, note 21. 25 Making distribution of life and death, is the meaning; or acting as the supreme arbiter or dispenser of life and death. 26 Nestor is called old chronicle because his aged memory carries in it, so to speak, the recorded history of several generations. That hast so long walk'd hand in hand with time: 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. Hect. I know your favour, Lord Ulysses, well. 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, Yond towers, whose wanton tops do buss the clouds, Hect. I must not believe you : There they stand yet; and modestly I think, A drop of Grecian blood: the end crowns all; Will one day end it. Ulyss. So to him we leave it. Most gentle and most valiant Hector, welcome! To feast with me, and see me at my tent. Achil. I shall forestall thee, Lord Ulysses, there.27 27 There is equivalent to in that matter, or on that point. And quoted 28 joint by joint. Hect. Achil. I am Achilles. Is this Achilles? Hect. Stand fair, I pray thee; let me look on thee. 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, or 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 29 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; 23 Quoted is observed or scanned. See vol. xiv. page 190, note 21.Perused has much the same meaning. See vol. xiv. page 284, note 29. 23 Foretell, or name beforehand, by particular or precise calculation. 30 Stith is the old word for anvil; hence the verb to stithy, for to forge, or the work done upon an anvil. See vol. xiv. page 228, note 9. But I'll endeavour deeds to match these words, Or may I never Hect. I pray you, let us see you in the field: Achil Dost thou entreat me, Hector? To-morrow do I meet thee, fell as death; Hect. Thy hand upon that match. Agam. First, all you peers of Greece, go to my tent; [Exeunt all but TROILUS 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: 31 Here, again, stomach is courage. See page 235, note 15. 82 Pelting is petty or insignificant. See vol. xv. page 63, note 4. 33 To convive is to feast together, whether on mental or gastric cookery. So Hutton: "The sitting of friends together at a table our ancestors have well called convivium, a banket; because it is a living of men together." 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 Tro. O, sir, to such as boasting show their scars [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. Achil Enter THERSITES. How now, thou core of envy ! Thou crusty botch of Nature, 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? 1 Ther. Why, thou full dish of fool, from Troy. [Gives letter. 1 Thersites is called a fragment, probably because he is unfinished; a thing broken off in the process of making. |