other fide, the policy of thofe crafty fneering rafcals, that ftale old moufe-eaten dry cheefe Neftor, and that fame dog-fox Ulyffes, is not proved worth a black-berry.They fet me up in policy that mungri cur Ajax, against that dog of as bad a kind, Achilles. And now is the cur Ajax prouder than the cur Achilles, and will not arm to-day; whereupon the Grecians begin to proclaim barbarifm, and policy grows into an ill opinion.

Soft

Enter DIOMEDE and TROILUS.

here comes fleeve and t'other.

Troi. Fly not; for fhouldft thou take the river I would fwim after.

Dio. Thou doft mifcal retire:

I do not fly; but advantageous care

Withdrew me from the odds of multitude;

Have at thee!

[Styx,

[They go of, fighting. Ther. Hold thy whore, Grecian; now for thy whore, Trojan: now the fleeve, now the fleeve, now the fleeve !

Enter HECTOR.

Heft. What art thou, Greek! art thou for HecArt thou of blood and honour? [tor's match? Ther. No, no: I am a rafcal; a fcurvy railing knave; a very filthy rogue.

Heft. I do believe thee---live.

[Exit.

Ther. God o' mercy, that thou wilt believe me; but a plague break thy neck for frighting me! What's become of the wenching rogues? I think they have fwallowed one another. I would laugh

fwear? I am pofitive I have restored the true reading. They had collogued with Ajax, and trimmed him up with infincere praifes, only in order to have ftirred Achilles's emulation. In this they were true fneerers; betraying the first, to gain their ends on the latter by that artifice.

at that miracle---yet, in a fort, letchery eats itself: I'll feek them. [Exit.

Enter DIOMEDE and Servant.

Dio. Go, go, my fervant, take thou Troilus' horfe, Prefent the fair steed to my Lady Creffid: Fellow, commend my fervice to her beauty: Tell her, I have chaftifed the amorous Trojan, And am her knight by proof.

Serv. I go, my Lord.

Enter AGAMEMNON.

Aga. Renew, renew: the fierce Polydamas
Hath beat down Menon: bastard Margarelon
Hath Doreus prisoner,

And ftands Coloffus-wife, waving his beam
Upon the pashed corfes of the Kings,
Epiftropus and Odius. Polyxenus is flain;
Amphimachus and Thoas deadly hurt;
Patroclus ta'en or flain, and Palamedes
Sore hurt and bruised; the dreadful Sagittary (50)
Appals our numbers: hafte we, Diomede,
To reinforcement, or we perish all.

(50) The dreadful Sagittary

Appals our numbers.] Mr Pope will have it that by Sagittary is meant Teucer, because of his skill in archery. Were we to take this interpretation for granted, we might expect that upon this line in Othello,

Lead to the Sagittary the raised fearch,

Mr Pope fhould tell us, this meant, to the fign of Teucer's head; though, indeed, it means only that fign which the Poet, in his Comedy of Errors, calls by an equivalent name the Centaur. Befides, when reucer is not once mentioned by name throughout the whole play, would Shakespeare decypher him by fo dark and precarious a defcription? I dare be pofitive, he had no thought of that archer here. To con

Enter NESTOR.

Neft. Go, bear Patroclus' body to Achilles, And bid the fnail-paced Ajax arm for fhaine. There are a thoufand Hectors in the field: Now, here he fights on Galathe his horse, And there lacks work; anon, he's there a-foot, And there they fly or die, like fcaled fhoals Before the belching whale: then is he yonder, And there the ftrawy Greeks, ripe for his edge,. Fall down before him, like the mower's fwath: Here, there, and every where, he leaves and takes;

"Be

fefs the truth, this paffage contains a piece of private hif tory, which, perhaps, Mr Pope never met with, unless he confulted the old chronicle containing the three destructions of Troy, printed by Caxton in 1471, and Wynken de Werde in 1503, from which book our Poet has borrowed more circumstances of this play, than from Lollius and Chaucer. I fhall tranfcribe a fhort quotation from thence, which will fully explain Shakespeare's meaning in this paffage. yonde the royalme of Amafonne came an auncyent kynge, wyfe and dyfcreete, named Epiftrophus, and brought a M. knyghtes, and a mervayiloufe beste that was called Sagittarye, that behynde the myddes was an horfe, and to fore a man; this befte was heery lyke an horie, and had his eyen rede as a cole, and fhotte well with a bowe; this beste made the Greeks fore aferde, and flewe many of them with

his bowe."

This directly answers to what our Poet fays;

-The dreadful Sagittary

Appals our numbers.

That our Author traded with the above quoted book, is: demonftrable from certain circumftances, which he could pick up no where elfe, and which he has thought fit to tranfplant into this play; viz. The making Neoptolemus a diftinct hero from Pyrrhus, who was afterwards fo called; the corruption in the namics of the fix gates of Troy; Galathe, the name of Hector's horfe; the baftard Margarelon; Diomede getting. one of Creflid's gloves; Achilles abfenting from battle di account of his love for Polyxena, and the meffages of Queen Hecuba to him; his taking He&tor at a difadvantage when. he killed him, &c.

VOL. XI.

H b

Dexterity fo obeying appetite,

That what he will, he does; and does so much, That proof is called impoffibility.

Enter ULYSSES.

Uly. Oh, courage, courage, Princes; great Achilles Is arming, weeping, curfing, vowing vengeance; Patroclus' wounds have rouzed his droufy blood, Together with his mangled Myrmidons,

That nofelefs, handless, hack'd and chip'd, come to
Crying on Hector. Ajax hath loft a friend, [him,
And foams at mouth; and he is armed, and at it,
Roaring for Troilus, whe hath done to-day
Mad and fantastic execution;

Engaging and redeeming of himself,

With fuch a carelefs force, and forcelefs care,
As if that luck in very fpite of cunning

Bade him win all.

Enter AJAX.

Ajax Troilus, thou coward Troilus ! [Exit

Dio. Ay, there, there.

Neft. So, fo, we draw together.

Enter ACHILLES.

Achil. Where is this Hector ?

[Exeunt.

Come, come, thou boy-killer, fhew me thy face: Know what it is to meet Achilles angry.

Hector, where's Hector? I will none but Hector.

Re-enter AJAX.

[Exit.

Ajax. Troilus, thou coward Troilus, fhew thy

head!

Re-enter DIOMEDE.

Dio. Troilus, I fay, where's Troilus.?

Ajax. What would't thou?

Dio. I would correct him.

Ajax. Were I the general, thou fhouldft have my office,

Ere that correction: Troilus, I fay, what! Troilus?

Enter TROILUS.

Troi. Oh, traitor Diomede! turn thy false face, thou traitor,

And pay thy life thou oweft me for

my horse.

Dio. Ha, art thou there?
Ajax. I'll fight with him alone: stand, Diomede.
Dio. He is my prize, I will not look upon.
Troi. Come both, you cogging Greeks, have at
you both.
[Exeunt fighting.

Enter HECTOR

Hed. Yea, Troilus? O well fought my youngest "brother.

Enter ACHILLES.

Achil. Now do I fee thee; have at thee, Hector.
Hect. Paufe, if thou wilt.

[Fight. Achil. I do difdain thy courtesy, proud Trojan.

Be happy that my arms are out of use,
My reft and negligence befriend thee now,
But thou anon thalt hear of me again:
Till when, go feek thy fortune.

Het. Fare thee well;

I would have been much more a frefher man,
Had I expected thee. How now, my brother?
Enter TROILUS.

Troi. Ajax hath ta'en Æneas; fhall it be?
No, by the flame of yonder glorious heaven,
He fhall not carry him: I'll be taken too,