Achil. What? Ther. Ajax goes up and down the field, afking for himself. Achil. How fo? Ther. He must fight fingly to-morrow with Hector, and is fo prophetically proud of an heroical cudgelling, that he raves in faying nothing. Achil. How can that be? Ther. Why, he talks up and down like a peacock, a ftride and a stand; ruminates like an hostess, that hath no arithmetic but her brain, to fet down her reckoning; bites his lip with a politic regard, as who fhould fay, there were wit in his head, if it would out; and fo there is, but it lyes as coldly in him as fire in a flint, which will not fhew without knocking. The man's undone for ever: for if He&or break not his neck i' th' combat, he'll break't him. felf in vain-glory. He knows not me: I faid, Good-morrow, Ajax: and he replies, Thanks, Aga memnon. What think you of this man, that takes me for the General? he's grown a very land-fifh, language-lefs, a monfter. A plague of opinion! a wear it on both fides, like a leather man may jerkin. Achil. Thou must be my ambaffador to him, Therfites. Ther. Who, I?—why, he'll anfwer nobody: he profeffes not anfwering; fpeaking is for beggars; he wears his tongue in his arms. I will put on his prefence; let Patroclus make his demands to me, you fhall fee the pageant of Ajax. Achil. To him, Patroclus tell him, I humbly defire the valiant Ajax, to invite the most valorous Hector to come unarmed to my tent, and to procure fafe conduct for his perfon of the magnanimous and moft illuftrious, fix or feven times honoured, captain general of the Grecian army, Agamemnon, & Do this. Pat. Jove blefs great Ajax. Ther. Hum. Pat. I come from the worthy Achilles. Pat. Who moft humbly defires you to invite Hector to his tent. Pat. What fay you to't? Ther. God be wi' you, with all my heart. Pat. Your answer, Sir. Ther. If to-morrow be a fair day, by eleven o'clock it will go one way or other; howfoever, he fhall pay for me ere he has me. Pat. Your anfwer, Sir. Ther. Fare ye well, with all my heart. Achil. Why, but he is not in this tune, is he? Ther. No, but he's out o'tune thus. What mufic will be in him, when Hector has knocked out his brains, I know not: but, I am fure, none; unless the fidler Apollo get his finews to make catlings on Achil. Come, thou shalt bear a letter to him ftraight. Ther. Let me carry another to his horfe; for that's the more capable creature. Achil. My mind is troubled like a fountain stirred, And I myself fee not the bottom of it. [Exit. Ther. 'Would the fountain of your mind were plear again, that I might water an afs at it! I had rather be a tick in a fheep, than fuch a valiant ig norance. A C T IV. [Exeunts SCENE, a Street in Troy. Enter at one door NEAS, with a Torch; at another, PARIS, DEIPHOBUS, ANTENOR, and DIOMEDE Grecians, with Torches, PARIS. SEE, ho! who is that there? Dei. It is the Lord Æneas. Ene Is the Prince there in perfon ? ̈ Had I fo good occafion to ly long, As you, Prince Paris, nought but heavenly business Dio. That's my mind too: good morrow, Lord Par. A valiant Greek, Æneas; take his hand; (30) Witness the procefs of your speech, wherein, You told, how Diomede a whole week, by days, Did haunt you in the field. (30) Witness the process of your fpeech, wherein You told how Diomede a whole week by days. Did haunt you in the field.] Allowing this circumftance të be mere invention in the Poet, it is a very artful compli ment to Diomede, and a brave confeffion of his worth from, the mouth of an enemy. Homer, in the fifth book of his Ilias, makes Diomede rush upon Æneas, though he knew him protected by Apollo, and affault him four times, in fpite of that god's interpofition: Με το δ ̓ ἀιεὶ Αινείαν κλεῖναι, I own I have a fufpicion our Poet had Virgil in his eye, and meant to copy that fine praife which Diomede pays to Ene. Health to you, valiant Sir, Dio. The one and the other Diomede embraces Our bloods are now in calm, and, fo long, health; But when contention and occafion meet, By Jove, I'll play the hunter for thy life, Ene. And thou fhalt hunt a lion that will fly (31) With his face back.. Welcome to Troy Welcome, indeed! In human gentleness, Now, by Anchifes' life, -by Venus' hand I swear, No man alive can love, in fuch a fort, The thing he means to kill, more excellently. Eneas's valour, where Venulus comes from the Latins to fo licit Diomede's aid against Æneas : Stetimus tela afpera contrà, Contulimufque manus: - experto credite, quantus In clypeum adfargat, quo turbine torqueat baftam. Æneid. xl. (31). And thou hali hunt a lion that will fly With his face back in human gentleness.] Thus Mr Pope in his great fagacity pointed this paffage in his first edition. What conception he had to himself of a lion flying in hdman gentleness, I won't pretend to affirm: I fuppofe he had the idea of as gentle as a lamb, or as what our vulgar call an· Effex lion, a calf. If any other lion fly with his face turned backward, it is, fighting all the way as he retreats; and in this manner it is Eneas profeffes that he fhall fly when he's hunted. But where then are the symptoms of human gentle nefs? My correction of the pointing reftores good fenfe, and a proper behaviour in Æneas. As foon as ever he has returned Diomede's brave, he ftops fhort and corrects him-felf for expreffing fo much fury in a time of truce; from the fierce foldier becomes the courtier at once, and remembering his enemy to be a guest and an ambaffador, welcomes him as fuch to the Trojan camp. I made this regulation in the appendix to my Shakespeare Reftored, and Mr Pope re- formed the text from thence in his last edition. Dio. We fympathize.---Jove, let Æneas live (If to my fword his fate be not the glory) A thoufand complete courfes of the fun : But in mine emulous honour let him die, With every joint a wound, and that to-morrow. Ene. We know each other well. Dio. We do; and long to know each other worke Par. This is the most defpightful, gentle greeting; The nobleft, hateful love, that e'er I heard of. What bufinefs, Lord, fo early?, Ene. I was fent for to the King; but why, I know not. Par. His purpofe meets you; 'twas to bring this Greek To Calchas' houfe, and there to render him Ene. That affure you. Troilus had rather Troy were borne to Greece, Par. There is no help; The bitter difpofition of the time Will have it fo. On, Lord, we'll follow you. [Exit Par. And tell me, noble Diomede; tell me true, Even in the foul of good found fellowship, Who in your thoughts merits fair Helen most? Myfelf, or Menelaus? Dio. Both alike. He merits well to have her, that doth feek her, |