He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon, He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks, That's done;-as near as the extremest ends 8 Thy topless deputation] Topless is that which has nothing topping or overtopping it; supreme; sovereign. Johnson. So, in Doctor Faustus, 1604: "Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, Again, in The Blind Beggar of Alexandria, 1598: "And topless honours be bestow'd on thee." Steevens. 9 'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage,] The galleries of the Theatre, in the time of our author, were sometimes termed the scaffolds. Malone. 1 o'er-wrested seeming —] i. e. wrested beyond the truth; overcharged. Both the old copies, as well as all the modern editions, have-o'er rested, which affords no meaning Malone. Over-wrested is-wound up too high. A wrest was an instrument for tuning a harp, by drawing up the strings. See Mr. Douce's note on Act III, sc. iii. Steevens. 2 a chime a mending;] To this comparison the praise of originality must be allowed. He who, like myself, has been in the tower of a church while the chimes were repairing, will never wish a second time to be present at so dissonantly noisy an operation. Steevens. 3 - unsquar'd,] i. e. unadapted to their subject, as stones are unfitted to the purposes of architecture, while they are yet unsquared. Steevens. Of parallels;] The parallels to which the allusion seems to be made, are the parallels on a map. As like as east to west. Johnson. Yet good Achilles still cries, Excellent! 'Tis Nestor right! Now play him me, Patroclus, And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age 8 5- a palsy fumbling -] Old copies give this as two distinct words. But it should be written-palsy-fumbling, i. e. paralytick fumbling Tyrwhitt. Fumbling is often applied by our old English writers to the speech. So, in King John, 1591: 66 he fumbleth in the mouth; "His speech doth fail." Again, in North's translation of Plutarch: ". - he heard his wife Calphurnia being fast asleepe, weepe and sigh, and put forth ma. ny fumbling lamentable spe.iches." Shakspeare, I believe, wrote-in his gorget. Malone. On seems to be used for-at. So, p. 53: "Pointing on him." i. e. at him. Steevens. 6 All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, Severals and generals of grace exact, Achievements, plots, &c] All our good grace exact, means our excellence irreprehensible. Johnson. 7 to make paradoxes.] Paradoxes may have a meaning, but it is not clear and distinct I wish the copies had given : to make parodies 8-- bears his head Johnson. In such a rein,] That is, holds up his head as haughtily. We still say of a girl, she bridles. Johnson. As broad Achilles: keeps his tent like him; (A slave, whose gall coins slanders like a mint,9) To weaken and discredit our exposure, Ulyss. They tax our policy, and call it cowardice; But that of hand: the still and mental parts,- They call this-bed-work, mappery, closet-war: Nest. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse Agam. Men. From Troy. [Trumpet sounds. What trumpet? look, Menelaus.3 Enter ENEAS. whose gall coins slanders like a mint,] i. e. as fast as a mint coins money. See Vol. VIII, p. 195, n. 6. Malone. 1 How rank soever rounded in with danger.] A rank weed is a high weed. The modern editions silently read: 2 How hard soever —. Johnson. rounded in with danger.] So, in King Henry V "How dread an army hath enrounded him." Steevens. and know, by measure Of their observant toil, the enemies' weight,] I think it were better to read: and know the measure, By their observant toil, of the enemies' weight. Johnson. by measure-] That is, "by means of their observant toil." M. Mason. 3 What trumpet? look, Menelaus.] Surely, the name of Menelaus only serves to destroy the metre, and should therefore be omitted. Steevens. Agam. What would you 'fore our tent? Great Agamemnon's tent, I pray? Agam. Even this. Ene. May one, that is a herald, and a prince, Do a fair message to his kingly ears?4 Is this Agam. With surety stronger than Achilles' arm5 'Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice Call Agamemnon head and general. Ene. Fair leave, and large security. How may A stranger to those most imperial looks Know them from eyes of other mortals? I ask, that I might waken reverence, How? 5- Achilles' arm-] So the copies. Perhaps the author wrote: Alcides' arm. Johnson. 6 A stranger to those most imperial looks-] And yet this was the seventh year of the war. Shakspeare, who so wonderfully preserves character, usually confounds the customs of all nations, and probably supposed that the ancients (like the heroes of chivalry) fought with beavers to their helmets. So, in the fourth Act of this play, Nestor says to Hector: "But this thy countenance, still lock'd in steel, "I never saw till now." Shakspeare might have adopted this error from the wooden cuts to ancient books, or from the illuminators of manuscripts, who never seem to have entertained the least idea of habits, manners, or customs more ancient than their own. There are books in the British Museum of the age of King Henry VI; and in these the heroes of ancient Greece are represented in the very dresses worn at the time when the books received their decorations. Steevens In The Destruction of Troy Shakspeare found all the chieftains of each army termed knights, mounted on stately horses, defended with modern helmets, &c. &c. Malone. In what edition did these representations occur in Shakspeare? Steevens. bid the cheek -] So the quarto. The folio has: on the cheek Which is that god in office, guiding men? Agam. This Trojan scorns us; or the men of Troy Are ceremonious courtiers. Ene. Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm❜d, As bending angels; that's their fame in peace: Nothing so full of heart. But peace, Æneas, they have galls, Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, Jove's accord, Nothing so full of heart.] I have not the smallest doubt that the poet wrote-(as 1 suggested in my SECOND APPENDIX, 8vo. 1783): they have galls, Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, Jove's a god So, in Macbeth: "Sleek o'er your rugged looks; be bright and jovial Again, in Antony and Cleopatra: "Cæsar, why he 's the Jupiter of men." Again, ibidem: "Thou art, if thou dar'st be, the earthly Fove." The text, in my apprehension, is unintelligible, though I have not ventured, on my own opinion, to disturb it. In the old copy there is no point after the word accord, which adds some support to my conjecture. It also may be observed, that in peace the Trojans have just been compared to angels; and here Eneas, in a similar strain of panegyrick, compares them in war to that God who was proverbially distinguished for high spirits. The present punctuation of the text was introduced by Mr. Theobald. The words being pointed thus, he thinks it clear that the meaning is-They have galls, good arms, &c. and, Jove annuente, nothing is so full of heart as they. Had Shakspeare written, "with Jove's accord, and "Nothing 's so full," &c. such an interpretation might be received; but, as the words stand, it is inadmissible. The quarto reads: and great Joves accord-&c. Malone. Perhaps we should read: and Love's a lord Nothing so full of heart. The words Jove and Love, in a future scene of this play, are substituted for each other, by the old blundering printers. In Love's Labour's Lost, Cupid is styled "Lord of ay-mees;" and Romeo speaks of his "bosom's Lord." In Othello, Love is commanded |