In other arms than hers,7-to him this challenge.
Hector, in view of Trojans and of Greeks,
Shall make it good, or do his best to do it,
He hath a lady, wiser, fairer, truer,
Than ever Greek did compass in his arms;
And will to-morrow with his trumpet call,
Mid-way between your tents and walls of Troy,
To rouse a Grecian that is true in love:
If any come, Hector shall honour him;
If none, he'll say in Troy, when he retires,
The Grecian dames are sun-burn'd, and not worth
The splinter of a lance. Even so much.

Agam. This shall be told our lovers, lord Æneas;
If none of them have soul in such a kind,
We left them all at home: But we are soldiers;
And may that soldier a mere recreant prove,
That means not, hath not, or is not in love!
If then one is, or hath, or means to be,

That one meets Hector; if none else, I am he.

Nest. Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man
When Hector's grandsire suck'd: he is old now;
But, if there be not in our Grecian host9

One noble man, that hath one spark of fire
To answer for his love, Tell him from me,-
I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver,
And in my vantbrace1 put this wither'd brawn;
And, meeting him, will tell him, That my lady
Was fairer than his grandame, and as chaste
As may be in the world: His youth in flood,

7 In other arms than hers,] Arms is here used equivocally for the arms of the body, and the armour of a soldier. Malone.

The splinter of a lance] This is the language of romance. Such a challenge would better have suited Palmerin or Amadis, than Hector or Æneas. Steevens

9 in our Grecian host-] So, the quarto. The folio hasGrecian mould. Malone.

1 And in my vantbrace —] An armour for the arm, avantbras.

Pope.

Milton uses the word in his Sampson Agonistes, and Heywood in his Iron Age, 1632:

peruse his armour,

"The dint 's still in the vantbrace." Steevens.

I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood.2 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 ULYSS. and NEST.

Nest. What says Ulysses?

Ulyss. I have a young conception in my brain,
Be you my time to bring it to some shape.3
Nest. What is 't?

Ulyss. This 'tis :

Blunt wedges rive hard knots: The seeded pride1
That hath to this maturity blown up

In rank Achilles, must or now be cropp'd,

Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil,
To overbulk us all.

2 I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood.] So, in Coriolanus, one of the Volcian Guard says to old Menenius, "Back, I say, go, lest I let forth your half pint of blood."

Thus the quarto. The folio reads-I'll pawn this truth.

Malone.

3 Be you my time &c.] i. e. be you to my present purpose what time is in respect of all other schemes, viz. a ripener and bringer of them to maturity. Steevens.

I believe Shakspeare was here thinking of the period of gestation which is sometimes denominated a female's time, or reckoning. T. C.

4

The seeded pride &c.] Shakspeare might have taken this idea from Lyte's Herbal, 1578 and 1579. The Oleander tree or Nerium "hath scarce one good propertie." It may be compared to a Pharisee," who maketh a glorious and beautiful show, but inwardly is of a corrupt and poisoned nature."-"It is high time &c. to supplant it (i. e pharisaism) for it hath already floured, so that I feare it will shortly seede, and fill this wholesome soyle full of wicked Nerium." Tollet.

So, in The Rape of Lucrece:

5

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

Malone.

Johnson

nursery-] Alluding to a plantation called a nursery.

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, Whose grossness little characters sum up:7 And, in the publication, make no strain, 8 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.

It is most meet; Whom may you else oppose,
That can from Hector bring those honours off,
If not Achilles? Though 't be a sportful combat,
Yet in the trial much opinion dwells;

Yes,

Well, and how?] We might complete this defective line by reading:

Well, and how then?

Sir T. Hanmer reads-how now?

Steevens.

7 The purpose is perspicuous even as substance,

Whose grossness little characters sum up:] That is, the purpose is as plain as body or substance; and though I have collected this purpose from many minute particulars, as a gross body is made up of small insensible parts, yet the result is as clear and certain as a body thus made up is palpable and visible. This is the thought, though a little obscured in the conciseness of the expression. Warburton.

Substance is estate, the value of which is ascertained by the use 1 of small characters, i. e. numerals. So, in the prologue to King Henry V:

a crooked figure may

"Attest, in little place, a million."

The gross sum is a term used in The Merchant of Venice. Grossness has the same meaning in this instance.

Steevens.

8 And, in the publication, make no strain,] Nestor goes on to say, make no difficulty, no doubt, when this duel comes to be proclaimed, but that Achilles, dull as he is, will discover the drift of it. This is the meaning of the line. So, afterwards, in this play, Wysses says:

"I do dot strain at the position."

.i. e. I do not hesitate at, I make no difficulty of it. Theobald those honours] Folio-his honour. Malone.

9

For here the Trojans taste our dear'st repute
With their fin'st palate: And trust to me, Ulysses,
Our imputation shall be oddly pois'd

In this wild action: for the success,
Although particular, shall give a scantling1
Of good or bad unto the general;

And in such indexes, although small pricks2
To their subséquent volumes, there is seen
The baby figure of the giant mass

Of things to come at large. It is suppos'd,
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 a conquering part,
To steel a strong opinion to themselves?
Which entertain'd,3 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 of the better shall exceed,

By showing the worse first. Do not consent,

1- scantling-] That is, a measure, proportion. The carpenter cuts his wood to a certain scantling. Johnson.

So, in John Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essays, folio, 1603: "When the lion's skin will not suffice, we must add a scantling of the fox's." Malone.

2 · small pricks —] Small points compared with the volumes.

Johnson.

Indexes were, in Shakspeare's time, often prefixed to books.

Malone.

3 Which entertain'd, &c.] These two lines [and the concluding hemistich] are not in the quarto. Johnson.

4

limbs are his instruments,] The folio reads:
limbs are in his instruments.

I have omitted the impertinent preposition. Steevens.

5 if not,] I suppose, for the sake of metre, we should read: if they do not. Steevens.

6 The lustre of the better shall exceed,

By showing the worse first.] The folio reads:

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

with him:

And we were better parch in Africk sun,
Than in the pride and salt scorn 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 lustre of the better, yet to show,

Shall show the better.

8

I once thought that the alteration was made by the author; but a more diligent comparison of the quartos and the first folio has convinced me that some arbitrary alterations were made in the latter copy by its editor. The quarto copy of this play is in general more correct than the folio. Malone.

7—

share —] So, the quarto. The folio-wear. Johnson. 8 — our main opinion —] is, our general estimation or character. See Vol. VIII, p. 328, n. 5. Opinion has already been used in this scene in the same sense. Malone.

9

·blockish Ajax —] Shakspeare, on this occasion, has deserted Lydgate, who gives a very different character of Ajax: "Another Ajax (surnamed Telamon)

Again:

"There was, a man that learning did adore," &c.

"Who did so much in eloquence abound,

"That in his time the like could not be found."

"And one that hated pride and flattery," &c.

Our author appears to have drawn his portrait of the Grecian chief from the invectives thrown out against him by Ulysses in the thirteenth Book of Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Golding, 1587; or from the prologue to Harrington's Metamorphosis of Ajax, 1596, in which he is represented as "strong, heady, boisterous, and a terrible fighting fellow, but neither wise, learned, staide, nor polliticke." Steevens.

I suspect that Shakspeare confounded Ajax Telamonius with Ajax Oileus. The characters of each of them are given by Lydgate. Shakspeare knew that one of the Ajaxes was Hector's nephew, the son of his sister; but perhaps did not know that he was Ajax Telamonius, and in consequence of not attending to this circumstance has attributed to the person whom he has introduced in this play part of the character which Lydgate had drawn for Ajax Oileus: