The Plays of William Shakespeare

Enter Boy.

Boy. Sir, my Lord would inftantly speak with you. Pan. Where?

Boy. At your own house, there he unarms him.

Pan. Good boy, tell him I come. I doubt, he be hurt. Fare ye well, good niece.

Cre. Adieu, uncle.

Pan. I'll be with you, niece, by and by.

Cre. To bring, uncle

Pan. Ay, a token from Troilus.

Cre. By the fame token, you are a bawd.

[Exit Pandarus.

Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full facrifice,
He offers in another's enterprize;

But more in Troilus thoufand-fold I fee,

Than in the glafs of Pandar's praise may be;
Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing;
Things won are done; 7 joy's foul lies in the doing:
That the belov'd knows nought, that knows not this;
Men prize the thing ungain'd, more than it is.

That she was never yet, that ever knew

Love got, fo fweet, as when Defire did fue:
Therefore this maxim out of love I teach;
Atchievement is Command; ungain'd, befeech.

Then though my heart's content firm love doth bear, Nothing of that fhall from mine eyes appear. [Exit.

6 At your own house, there he unarms him.] These neces fary words added from the quarto edition. POPE. The words added are only, there he unarms him.

7 —joy's foul lies in the doing:] So read both the old editions, for which the later editions have poorly given,

-the foul's joy lies in doing.

8 That he Means, that

woman.

9 Then though-] The quarto reads, then; the folio and the modern editions read improperly, that.

I -my heart's content- -]. Content, for capacity.

WARBURTON. SCENE

Changes to Agamemnon's Tent in the Grecian Camp. Trumpets. Enter Agamemnon, Neftor, Ulyffes, Diomedes, Menelaus, with others.

Agam.

RINCES,

What grief hath fet the jaundice on your cheeks?

The ample propofition, that hope makes

In all defigns begun on earth below,

Fails in the promis'd largenefs. Checks and difafters
Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd;

As knots by the conflux of meeting fap
Infect the found pine, and divert his grain
Tortive and errant from his courfe of growth.
Nor, Princes, is it matter new to us,
That we come fhort of our Suppose fo far,
That after fev'n years' fiege, yet Troy-walls ftand;
Sith every action that hath gone before,
Whereof we have record, trial did draw
Bias and thwart; not anfwering the aim,
And that unbodied figure of the thought

That gave 't furmifed fhape. Why then, you Princes,
Do you with cheeks abafh'd behold our Works?
And think them fhame, which are, indeed, nought
elfe

But the protractive trials of great Jove,

To find perfiftive conftancy in men?
The fineness of which metal is not found

In fortune's love; for then, the bold and coward,

The wife and fool, the artift and unread,

The hard and foft, feem all affin'd, and kin;
But in the wind and tempeft of her frown,
Diftinction with a broad and powerful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light away;

Broad, quarto; the folio reads leud

And

And what hath mafs, or matter by itself,
Lies rich in virtue, and unmingled.

Neft. With due obfervance of thy godlike Seat, Great Agamemnon, Neftor fhall apply

Thy lateft words. In the reproof of Chance
Lies the true proof of men: the Sea being smooth,

3 With due obfervance of thy goodly Seat.] Goodly is an epithet carries no very great compliment with it; and Neflor feems here to be paying deference to Agamemnon's ftate and pre-eminence. The old books have it,-to thy godly Seat; godlike, as I have reform'd the text, feems to me the epithet defign'd; and is very conformable to what Eneas afterwards fays of Aga

memnon;

Which is that God in office,

guiding men! So godlike Seat is here, State fupreme above other commanders. THEOBALD.

This emendation Theobald might have found in the quarto, which has,

-the godlike feat. 4-Neftor ball APPLY Thy latest words.] What were thefe latest words? A common-place obfervation, illuftrated by a particular image, that oppofition and adverfity were useful to try and diftinguish between the valiant man and the coward, the wife man and the fool. The application of this was to the Greeks, who had remained long unfuccessful before Troy, but might make a good ufe of their misfortunes by learning patience and perfeverance, Now Neftor pro

How

mifes that he will make this application; but we find nothing like it. He only 'repeats Aga memnon's general obfervation, and illuftrates it by another image; from whence it appears, that Shakespear wrote,

-Neftor ball sUPPLY Thy lateft words.And it must be owned, the poet never wrote any thing more in character. Neftor, a talkative old man, was glad to catch at this common-place, as it would furnish him with much matter for prate. And, therefore, on pretence that Agamemnon had not been full enough upon it, he begs leave to Supply the topic with fome diverfified flourishes of his own. And what could be more natural than for a wordy old man to call the repetition of the fame thought, a fupplial. We may obferve further, that according to this reading the introductory apology,

With due obfervance of thy goodly Seat,

is very proper: it being a kind of infinuation, to the prejudice of Agamemnon's facundity, that Neftor was forced to Supply his speech. Whereas had the true reading been apply, the apology had been impertinent: for in fuch a cafe we must have fuppofed,

How many shallow bauble boats dare fail

Upon her patient breaft, making their way
With those of nobler bulk?

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis, and anon, behold,

The ftrong-ribb'd Bark thro' liquid mountains cut,
Bounding between the two moilt elements,
Like Perfeus' horse. Where's then the faucy boat,
Whose weak untimber'd fides but even now
Co-rival'd Greatnefs? or to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even fo
Doth valour's fhew and valour's worth divide
In ftorms of fortune; for in her ray and brightness,
The herd hath more annoyance by the brize
Than by the tyger; but when fplitting winds
Make flexible the knees of knotted oaks,

And flies get under fhade; why then the thing of courage,

As rowz'd with rage, with rage doth fympathize;
And, with an accent tun'd in felf-fame key,
? Returns to chiding fortune.

Uly Agamemnon,

Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece,
Heart of our numbers, foul, and only spirit,
In whom the tempers and the minds of all
Should be fhut up, hear, what Ulyffes fpeaks.
Befides th' applause and approbation

The which, moft mighty for thy place and fway,

[To Agamemnon.

ancient breaft.

6-the thing of courage,] It is faid of the tiger, that in ftorms and high winds he rages and roars most furiously. HANMER,

7 Returns to chiding fortune.] For returns, Hamer reads replies, unneceffarily, the fenfe being the fame. The folio and quarto have retires, corruptly.

And

And thou, moft rev'rend for thy ftretcht-out life,
[To Neflor.
I give to both your fpeeches; which were such,
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece

Should hold up high in brafs; and fuch again,
As venerable Neftor, hatch'd in filver,

Should with a bond of air, ftrong as the axle-tree
On which heav'n rides, knit all the Grecians' ears
To his experienc'd tongue: yet let it please both
Thou great, and wife, to hear Ulyffes fpeak.

9 Agam. Speak, Prince of Ithaca, and be❜t of lefs
expect

That matter needlefs, of importless burden,
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,
When rank Therfites opes his mastiff jaws,
We fhall hear mufick, wit and oracle.

Uy. Troy, yet upon her bafis, had been down,
And the great Helter's fword had lack'd a mafter,
But for thefe inftances.

The fpeciality of Rule hath been neglected;

8 — speeches; which were fuch,
As Agamemnon and the hand
of Greece

Should hold up high in brofs;
and fuch again,

As venerable Neftor, hatch'd
in filver,

Should-krit all Greeks ears

To his experienc'd tongue:] Ulfs begins his oration with praifing thofe who had spoken before him, and marks the characteriftick excellencies of their different eloquence, ftrength and fweethefs, which he expreffes by the different metals on which he recommends them to be engraven for the instruction of pofterity. The fpeech of Agamemnon is fuch that it ought to be engraven in brafs, and the tablet held up by

him on the one fide, and Greece on the other, to fhew the union of their opinion. And Neftor ought to be exhibited in filver, uniting all his audience in one mind by his foft and gentle elocution. Brafs is the common emblem of itrength, and filver of gentleness. We call a foft voice a filver voice, and a perfuafive tongue a filver tongue.

I once read for hand, the band of Greece, but I think the text right.

To batch, is a term of art for a particular method of engraving. Hacher, to cut, French.

9 Agam. Speak, &c.] This fpeech is not in the quarto. The fpeciality of Rule-] The particular rights of fupreme authority.

And

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Llibres

The Plays of William Shakespeare: In Eight Volumes, with the ..., Volum 7