PAN. A whorefon ptifick, a whorefon rafcally ptifick fo troubles me, and the foolish fortune of this girl; and what one thing, what another, that I fhall leave you one o'these days: And I have a rheum in mine eyes too; and fuch an ache in my bones, that, unless a man were curs'd," I cannot tell what to think on't.-What fays the there? TRO. Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart; [Tearing the letter. The effect doth operate another way. Go, wind, to wind, there turn and change together.- SCENE [Exeunt feverally. IV. 19 Between Troy and the Grecian Camp. Alarums: Excurfions. Enter THERSITES. THER. Now they are clapper-clawing one ano ther; I'll go look on. That diffembling abominable varlet, Diomed, has got that fame fcurvy doting foolifh young knave's fleeve of Troy there, in his helm: I would fain fee them meet; that that fame young Trojan afs, that loves the whore there, might fend that Greckish whoremasterly villain, with the fleeve, back to the diffembling luxurious drab, on a fleevelefs errand. O' the other fide, The policy of those crafty fwearing rafcals,'-that ftale old moufe-eaten 6 curs'd,] i. e. under the influence of a malediction, fuch as mifchievous beings have been fuppofed to pronounce upon those who had offended them. STEEVENS. "O'the other fide, The policy of thofe crafty fwearing rafcals, &c.] But in what fenfe are Neftor and Ulyffes accused of being wear dry cheese, Neftor; and that fame dog-fox, Ulyffes, -is not prov'd worth a blackberry:-They fet me up, in policy, that mongrel 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! here come fleeve, and t'other. Enter DIOMED, TROILUS following. TRO. Fly not; for, fhouldst thou take the river Styx, I would fwim after. Thou doft miscall retire: I do not fly; but advantageous care THER. Hold thy whore, Grecian!-now for thy whore, Trojan!-now the fleeve, now the fleeve! [Exeunt TROILUS and DIOMED, fighting. Enter HECTOR. HECT. What art thou, Greek? art thou for Art thou of blood, and honour?? ing rafcals? What, or to whom, did they fwear? I am pofitive that neering is 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 the true fneerers; betraying the firft, to gain their ends on the latter by that artifice. THEOBALD. 8 to proclaim barbarifm,] To fet up the authority of ignorance, to declare that they will be governed by policy no longer. 9 Art thou of blood, and honour?] This is an idea taken from THER. No, no:-I am a rafcal; a fcurvy railing knave; a very filthy rogue. HECT. I do believe thee;-live. [Exit. THER. God-a-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 swallow'd one another: I would laugh at that miracle. Yet, in a fort, lechery eats itself. I'll feek them. [Exit. the ancient books of romantick chivalry, as is the following one in the fpeech of Diomed: "And am her knight by proof." STEEVENS. It appears from Segar on Honor, Military and Civil, folio, 1602, p. 122, that a perfon of fuperior birth might not be challenged by an inferior, or if challenged, might refufe the combat. Alluding to this circumftance Cleopatra fays: "Thefe hands do lack nobility, that they strike We learn from Melvil's Memoirs, p. 165, edit. 1735, that "the Laird of Grange offered to fight Bothwell, who answered, that he was neither Earl nor Lord, but a Baron; and fo was not his equal. The like anfwer made he to Tullibardine. Then my Lord Lindfay offered to fight him, which he could not well refufe. But his heart failed him, and he grew cold on the bufinefs." These punctilios are well ridiculed in Albumazar, A&t IV. fc. vii. REED. SCENE V. The fame. Enter DIOMED, and a Servant. Dio. Go, go, my fervant, take thou Troilus' horse; 2 Present the fair fteed to my lady Creffid: SERV. I go my lord. [Exit Servant. Enter AGAMEMNON. AGAM. Renew, renew! The fierce Polydamus Hath beat down Menon: baftard Margarelon' Hath Doreus prisoner; And ftands coloffus-wife, waving his beam,* 2 take thou Troilus' horfe;] So, in Lydgate: 3baftard Margarelon-] The introduction of a bastard fon of Priam, under the name of Margarelon, is one of the circumstances taken from the story book of The Three Deftructions of Troy. THEOBALD. The circumftance was taken from Lydgate, p. 194 "Which when the valiant knight, Margareton, STEEVENS. waving his beam,] i. e. his lance like a weaver's beam, Upon the pashed corfes of the kings as Goliath's fpear is defcribed. So, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. III. vii. 40: "All were the beame in bignes like a mast." STEEVENS. -pafhed-] i.e. bruifed, crushed. So, before, Ajax fays: "I'll pab him o'er the face." STEEVENS. -the dreadful Sagittary 66 Appals our numbers ;] Beyonde the royalme of Amafonne came an auncyent kynge, wyfe and dyfcreete, named Epyftrophus, and brought a M. knyghtes, and a mervaylloufe befte that was called SAGITTAYRE, that behynde the myddes was an horfe, and to fore, a man: this befte was heery like an horfe, and had his eyen rede as a cole, and fhotte well with a bowe: this befte made the Grekes fore aferde, and flewe many of them with his bowe." The Three Deftructions of Troy, printed by Caxton. THEOBALD. A more circumftantial account of this Sagittary is to be found in Lydgate's Auncient Hiftorie &c. 1555: "And with hym Guydo fayth that he hadde "Or the lyghtnyng that falleth from ye heauen; And, as I reade, he was a goode archer; "And with his bowe both at euen and morowe "So fterne he was that many of them quoke," &c. STEEVENS.. |