Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS, before their Tent.
Ulyss. Achilles stands i' the entrance of his tent:-
Please it our general to pass strangely by him,
As if he were forgot;—and, princes all,

Lay negligent and loose regard upon him :-
I will come last: 'Tis like, he 'll question me,
Why such unplausive eyes are* bent, why turn'd on
him:9

If so, I have derision med'cinable,

To use between your strangeness and his pride,
Which his own will shall have desire to drink;
It may do good; pride hath no other glass
To show itself, but pride; for supple knees
Feed arrogance, and are the proud man's fees.
Agam. We'll execute your purpose, and put on
A form of strangeness as we pass along;-
So do each lord; and either greet him not,
Or else disdainfully, which shall shake him more
Than if not look'd on. I will lead the way.

Achil. What, comes the general to speak with me? You know my mind, I'll fight no more 'gainst Troy. Agam. What says Achilles? would he aught with us? Nest. Would you, my lord, aught with the general? Achil.

Nest. Nothing, my lord.

No.

Why such unplausive eyes are bent, why turn'd on him:] If the eyes were bent on him, they were turn'd on him. This tautology, therefore, together with the redundancy of the line, plainly show that we ought to read, with Sir Thomas Hanmer:

Why such unplausive eyes are bent on him:

Steevens.

* Here, I suspect, a line has been lost. The General is requested to pass strangely by Achilles, to notice him not. The princes are told to pursue a different conduct, to look upon him as on a thing unworthy of regard. From the first part of the defective line, I am of opinion the impression expected to be made on Achilles by the conduct recommended by the General, and the negligent or unrespective gaze of the princes, formed distinct descriptions. I think the meaning our author must have intended is in substance

'Tis like he 'll question me

Why such unplausive eyes are strangely bent,
Such negligent regard-why turn'd on him?

The words strangely and negligent regard I have introduced to render more clear the idea which I would wish to convey. Am. El.

Agam.
Achil.

The better. [Exeunt AGAM. and NEST.
Good day, good day.

[Exit MEN. What, does the cuckold scorn me?

Men. How do you? how do you?
Achil.

Ajax. How now, Patroclus?

Achil.

Ajax.

Good morrow, Ajax.

Ha?

Achil. Good morrow,1

Ajax.

Ay, and good next day too.
[Exit AJAX.

Achil. What mean these fellows? Know they not

Achilles?

Patr. They pass by strangely: they were us'd to bend, To send their smiles before them to Achilles;

To come as humbly, as they us❜d to creep

To holy altars.

Achil.

What, am I poor of late?

'Tis certain, greatness, once fallen out with fortune,
Must fall out with men too: What the declin'd is,
He shall as soon read in the eyes of others,
As feel in his own fall: for men, like butterflies,
Show not their mealy wings, but to the summer;
And not a man, for being simply man,

Hath any honour; but honour2 for those honours
That are without him, as place, riches, favour,
Prizes of accident as oft as merit;

Which when they fall, as being slippery standers,
The love that lean'd on them as slippery too,
Do one pluck down another, and together
Die in the fall. But 'tis not so with me:
Fortune and I are friends; I do enjoy

At ample point all that I did possess,

Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out
Something not worth in me such rich beholding
As they have often given. Here is Ulysses;
I'll interrupt his reading.—

1 Good morrow.] Perhaps, in this repetition of the salute, we should read, as in the preceding instance,-Good morrow, Ajax; or, with more colloquial spirit,-I say, good morrow. Otherwise the metre is defective. Steevens.

2

but honour-] Thus the quarto. The folio reads—but honour'd. Malone.

Now, great Thetis' son?

How now, Ulysses?

Ulyss.

Achil. What are you reading?

Ulyss.
A strange fellow here
Writes me, That man-how dearly ever parted,3
How much in having, or without, or in,—
Cannot make boast to have that which he hath,
Nor feels not what he owes, but by reflection;
As when his virtues shining upon others
Heat them, and they retort that heat again
To the first giver.

Achil.
This is not strange, Ulysses.
The beauty that is borne here in the face,
The bearer knows not, but commends itself
To others' eyes: nor doth the eye itself
(That most pure spirits of sense) behold itself,
Not going from itself; but eye to eye oppos'd
Salutes each other with each other's form.
For speculation turns not to itself,

Till it hath travell'd, and is married there
Where it may see itself: this is not strange at all.
Ulyss. I do not strain at the position,

3 how dearly ever parted,] However excellently endowed, with however dear or precious parts enriched or adorned. Johnson. Johnson's explanation of the word parted is just So, in Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, he describes Macilente as a man well parted; and in Massinger's Great Duke of Florence, Sanazarro says of Lydia:

"And I, my lord, chose rather

"To deliver her better parted than she is,
"Than to take from her." M. Mason.

So, in a subsequent passage:

4

66

—no man is the lord of any thing,

"(Though in and of him there is much consisting)
"Till he communicate his parts to others."

66

nor doth the eye itself &c.] So, in Julius Cæsar:

No, Cassius; for the eye sees not itself,

Malone.

“But by reflexion, by some other things." Steevens.

5 To others' eyes:

(That most pure spirit &c.] These two lines are totally omited in all the editions but the first quarto. Pope.

6 For speculation turns not &c.] Speculation has here the same meaning as in Macbeth:

"Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
"Which thou dost glare with." Malone.

It is familiar; but at the author's drift:
Who, in his circumstance, expressly proves-
That no man is the lord of any thing,
(Though in and of him there be much consisting)
Till he communicate his parts to others:
Nor doth he of himself know them for aught
Till he behold them form'd in the applause

Where they are extended; which, like an arch reverberates

The voice again; or like a gate of steel
Fronting the sun, receives and renders back

His figure and his heat. I was much rapt in this;
And apprehended here immediately

The unknown Ajax.1

Heavens, what a man is there! a very horse;

That has he knows not what. Nature, what things there

are,

Most abject in regard, and dear in use!

What things again most dear in the esteem,
And poor in worth! Now shall we see to-morrow,
An act that very chance doth throw upon him,
Ajax renown'd.2 O heavens, what some men do,
While some men leave to do!

How some men creep in skittish fortune's hall,3*

7

in his circumstance,] In the detail or circumduction of his argument. Johnson.

8

which, like ] Old copies-who, like. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Malone.

9

-a gate of steel

Fronting the sun,] This idea appears to have been caught from some of our ancient romances, which often describe gates of Similar materials and effulgence. Steevens.

1 The unknown Ajax.] Ajax, who has abilities, which were never brought into view or use. Johnson.

2- Now shall we see to-morrow,

An act that very chance doth throw upon him,

Ajax renown'd.] I once thought that we ought to read renown. But by considering the middle line as parenthetical, the passage is sufficiently clear. Malone.

By placing a break after him, the construction will be:-Now we shall see to-morrow an act that very chance doth throw upon him— [we shall see] Ajax renown'd. Henley.

3 How some men creep in skittish fortune's hall,] To creep is to keep out of sight from whatever motive. Some men keep out of no

Whiles others play the idiots in her eyes!
How one man eats into another's pride.
While pride is fasting4 in his wantonness!
To see these Grecian lords!—why, even already
They clap the lubber Ajax on the shoulder;
As if his foot were on brave Hector's breast,
And great Troy shrinking."

Achil. I do believe it: for they pass'd by me,
As misers do by beggars; neither gave to me

tice in the hall of fortune, while others, though they but play the idiot, are always in her eye, in the way of distinction. Johnson.

I cannot think that creep, used without any explanatory word, can mean to keep out of sight. While some men, says Ulysses, remain tamely inactive in fortune's hali, without any effort to excite her attention, others, &c. Such, I think, is the meaning Malone.

* I must differ in opinion with both the learned commentators on this passage. The meaning I take to be this:

It is wonderful, how some men succeed, unendowed with talents; while some men, who possess every requisite, leave to do, or neglect to do: How some men creep into the good graces of fortune, whiles others, who have talents to command her smiles, play the fool, and forfeit her favours.

Mr. Malone's note on the next line supports what I have advanced, and the two lines which follow

"To see these Grecian lords!-why, even already

66 They clap the lubber Ajax on the shoulder;" sufficiently explains the moral, and points the application. Am. Ed. 4 —fasting —] Quarto. The folio has feasting. Either word may bear a good sense. Johnson.

I have preferred fasting, the reading of the quarto, to feasting, which we find in the folio, not only because the quarto copies are in general preferable to the folio, but because the original reading furnishes that kind of antithesis of which our poet was so fond. One man eats, while another fasts. Achilles is he who fasts; who capriciously abstains from those active exertions which would furnish new food for his pride. Malone.

5 And great Troy shrinking] The quarto-shrieking. The folio has, less poetically,-shrinking. The following passage in the subsequent scene supports the reading of the quarto:

"Hark, how Troy roars; how Hecuba cries out;

"How poor Andromache shrills her dolours forth;
"And all cry-Hector, Hector 's dead." Malone.

I prefer the reading of the folio. That the collective body of martial Trojans should shrink at sight of their hero's danger, is surely more natural to be supposed, than that, like frighted women, they would unite in a general shriek.

As to what Cassandra says, in the preceding note,-it is the fate of that lady's evidence-never to be received. Steevens.