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Helt. I would they could.

Neft. Ha! by this white beard, I'd fight with thee

to-morrow.

Well, welcome, welcome! I have seen the time-
Ulyff. I wonder now how yonder city ftands,
When we have here the bafe and pillar by us.
Het. I know your favour, lord Ulyffes, well.
Ah, Sir, there's many a Greek and Trojan dead,
Since first I faw yourfelf and Diomed

In Ilion, on your Greekifh embaffy.

Ulyff. Sir, I foretold you then what would enfue: My prophecy is but half his journey yet; For yonder walls, that pertly front your town, Yon towers, whofe wanton tops do bufs the clouds, Muft kifs their own feet.

Het. I must not believe you :

There they stand yet; and, modeftly I think,
The fall of every Phrygian stone will coft
A drop of Grecian blood: the end crowns all
And that old common arbitrator, Time,
Will one day end it.

Ulyff. So to him we leave it.

Moft gentle, and most valiant Hector, welcome:
After the general, I befeech you next

To feaft with me, and fee me at my tent.

Achil. 3 I fhall foreftal thee, lord Ulyffes-Thou!

4 Now, Hector, I have fed mine eyes on thee; I have with exact view perus'd thee, Hector, And quoted joint by joint.

Helt. Is this Achilles?

Achil. I am Achilles.

3 I shall forestal thee, lord Ulyffes-Thou!] Should we not read-though? Notwithstanding you have invited Hector, to your tent, I fhall draw him firft into mine. T. T.

* Now, Hector, I have fed mine eyes on thee;] The hint for this fcene of altercation between Achilles and Hector is taken from Lidgate. See page 178. STEEVENS.

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Het. Stand fair, I pr'ythee. Let me look on thee? Achil. Behold thy fill.

Het. Nay, I have done already.

Achil. Thou art too brief. I will the fecond time, As I would buy thee, view thee, limb by limb.

Heft. O, like a book of sport thou❜lt read me o'er : But there's more in me than thou understand'st. Why doft thou fo opprefs me with thine eye?

Achil. Tell me, you heavens, in which part of his body

Shall I destroy him? whether there, or there?
That I may give the local wound a name;
And make diftinct the very breach, whereout
Hector's great fpirit flew. Answer me, heavens !
Het. It would difcredit the bleft gods, proud mang
To answer fuch a queftion. Stand again:
Think'ft thou to catch my life fo pleafantly,
As to prenominate, in nice conjecture,
Where thou wilt hit me dead?

Achil. I tell thee, yea.

Helt. Wert thou the oracle to tell me fo, I'd not believe thee. Henceforth guard thee well; For I'll not kill thee there, nor there, nor there; But, by the forge that ftithied Mars his helm, I'll kill thee every where, yea, o'er and o'er. You wifeft Grecians, pardon me this brag, His infolence draws folly from my lips:

But I'll endeavour deeds to match these words, may I never

Or

Ajax. Do not chafe thee, coufin:——
And you, Achilles, let thefe threats alone,
Till accident or purpose bring you to't.
You may have every day enough of Hector,
If you have ftomach. The general state, I fear,
Can fcarce intreat you to be odd with him.
Het. I pray you, let us fee you in the fields:
We have had pelting wars fince you refus'd
The Grecians' caufe.

2

Achil

Achil. Doft thou intreat me, Hector? To-morrow do I meet thee, fell as death; To-night, all friends.

Het. Thy hand upon that match.

Aga. First, all you peers of Greece, go to my tent; There in the full convive we: afterwards,

As Hector's leifure and your bounties shall
Concur together, feverally intreat him.

5 Beat loud the tabourines; let the trumpets blow;
That this great foldier may his welcome know.
[Exeunt.

Manent Troilus and Ulyffes.

Troi. My lord Ulyffes, tell me, I beseech you, In what place of the field doth Calchas keep?

Uly. At Menelaus' tent, moft princely Troilus : There Diomed doth feaft with him to-night; Who neither looks on heaven, nor on the earth, But gives all gaze and bent of amorous view On the fair Creffid.

Troi. Shall I, fweet lord, be bound to thee fo much, After you part from Agamemnon's tent,

To bring me thither?

Uly. You fhall command me, Sir.

But, gentle, tell me, of what honour was

This Creffida in Troy? Had fhe no lover there
That wails her abfence?

Troi. O, Sir, to fuch as boafting fhew their fears,

A mock is due.

She was belov'd,

Will you

Will you walk on, my lord? she lov'd; fhe is, and doth:

But, ftill, fweet love is food for fortune's tooth.

[Exeunt.

Beat loud the tabourines ;- -] For this the quarto and the

latter editions have,

To tafte your bounties.

The reading which I have given from the folio feems chofen at the revifion, to avoid the repetition of the word bounties.

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I'

ACT V. SCENE I.

Achilles's tent.

Enter Achilles and Patroclus.

ACHILLE S.

'LL heat his blood with Greekifh wine to-night, Which with my fcimitar I'll cool to-morrow. Patroclus, let us feaft him to the height.

Patr. Here comes Therfites.

Enter Therfites.

Achil. How now, thou core of envy?
Thou crusty batch of nature, what's the news?
Ther. Why, thou picture of what thou seem'ft, and
idol of idiot-worshippers, here's a letter for thee.
Achil. From whence, fragment?

Ther. Why, thou full dish of fool, from Troy.
Patr. Who keeps the tent now?

Ther. The furgeon's box, or the patient's wound.
Patr. Well faid, adverfity! and what need these

tricks?

Ther. Pr'ythee be filent, boy, I profit not by thy talk. Thou art thought to be Achilles's male-varlet.

Thou crufty batch of nature,] Batch is changed by Theobald to botch, and the change is juftified by a pompous note, which difcovers that he did not know the word batch. What is more ftrange, Hanmer has followed him. Batch is any thing baked. JOHNSON.

Batch does not fignify any thing baked, but all that is baked at one time, without heating the oven afresh. So Ben Jonfon in his Cataline:

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Except he were of the fame meal and batch."
STEEVENS,

2 The furgeon's box,-] In this anfwer Therfites only quibbles upon the word tent. HANMER.

Patr.

Patr. 3 Male-varlet, you rogue! what's that? Ther. Why, his masculine whore. Now the rotten difeafes of the fouth, the guts-griping, ruptures, catarrhs, loads o' gravel i' the back, lethargies, 4 cold palfies, raw eyes, dirt-rotten livers, wheezing lungs, bladders full of impofthume, fciatica's, lime-kilns i' the palm, incurable bone-ach, and the rivell'd feefimple of the tetter, take and take again fuch prepofterous discoveries!

Patr. Why, thou damnable box of envy, thou, what meaneft thou to curse thus ?

Ther. Do I curfe thee?

Patr. Why, no, 5 you ruinous butt; you whorefon indiftinguishable cur, no.

6

Ther. No? why art thou then exafperate, thou idle immaterial fkeyn of fley'd filk, thou green farcenet flap for a fore eye, thou taffel of a prodigal's purfe, thou? Ah, how the poor world is pefter'd with such water flies; diminutives of nature!

Patr. 7 Out, gall!

3 Male-varlet,- JHANMER reads male-harlot, plaufibly enough, except that it feems too plain to require the explanation which Patroclus demands. JOHNSON.

+ cold pulfies,] This catalogue of loathfome maladies ends in the folio at cold palfies. This paffage, as it stands, is in the quarto the retrenchment was in my opinion judicious. It may be remarked, though it proves nothing, that, of the few alterations made by Milton in the fecond edition of his wonderful poem, one was, an enlargement of the enumeration of difeafes. JOHNSON.

5

you ruinous, &c.] Patroclus reproaches Therfites with deformity, with having one part crowded into another.

JOHNSON,

6 thou idle immaterial fkein of fley'd filk,-] All the terms ufed by Therfites of Patroclus, are emblematically expreffive of flexibility, compliance, and mean officioufnefs. JOHNSON.

7 Out, gall!] HANMER reads nut-gall, which anfwers well enough to finch-egg; it has already appeared, that our author thought the nut-gall the bitter gall. He is called nut, from the conglobation of his form; but both the copies read, Out, gall! JOHNSON.

H 4

Ther.

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