(With truant vows to her own lips he loves,")
And dare avow her beauty and her worth,
In other arms than hers,8-to him this challenge.
Hector, in view of Trojans and of Greeks,
Shall make it good, or do his best to do it,
He hath a lady, wifer, fairer, truer,
Than ever Greek did compafs in his arms;
And will to-morrow with his trumpet call,
Mid-way between your tents and walls of Troy,
To roufe a Grecian that is true in love:
If any come, Hector fhall honour him;
If none, he'll fay in Troy, when he retires,
The Grecian dames are fun-burn'd, and not worth
The splinter of a lance. Even fo much.

AGAM. This fhall be told our lovers, lord Æneas;
If none of them have foul in such a kind,
We left them all at home: But we are foldiers;
And may that foldier a mere recreant prove,
That means not, hath not, or is not in love!
If then one is, or hath, or means to be,
That one meets Hector; if none else, I am he.

NEST. Tell him of Neftor, one that was a man When Hector's grandfire fuck'd: he is old now; But, if there be not in our Grecian host' One noble man, that hath one spark of fire

to her own lips he loves,] That is, confeffion made with idle vows to the lips of her whom he loves. JOHNSON. 8 In other arms than hers,] Arms is here ufed equivocally for the arms of the body, and the armour of a foldier.

9

and not worth

MALONE.

The Splinter of a lance.] This is the language of romance. Such a challenge would better have fuited Palmerin or Amadis, than Hector or Æneas. STEEVENS.

I

in our Grecian hoft-] So the quarto. The folio has-Grecian mould. MALONE.

To answer for his love, Tell him from me,-
I'll hide my filver beard in a gold beaver,
And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn
And, meeting him, will tell him, That my lady
Was fairer than his grandame, and as chafte
As may be in the world; His youth in flood,
I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood.3
ENE. Now heavens forbid fuch fcarcity of youth!
ULYSS. Amen.

AGAM. Fair lord Æneas, let me touch your hand;

To our pavilion fhall I lead you, fir.

Achilles fhall have word of this intent;
So fhall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent:
Yourself shall feaft with us before you go,

And find the welcome of a noble foe.

[Exeunt all but ULYSSES and NESTOR.

ULYSS. Neftor,

NEST. What fays Ulyffes?

ULYSS. I have a young conception in my brain, Be you my time to bring it to fome shape.

2 And in my vantbrace-] An armour for the arm, avant

bras. POPE.

Milton uses the word in his Sampfon Agonifies, and Heywood in his Iron Age, 1632:

perufe his armour,

"The dint's ftill in the vantbrace."

STEEVENS.

3 I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood.] So, in Coriolanus, one of the Volcian Guard fays to old Menenius, "Back, I fay, go, left I let forth your half pint of blood." Thus the quarto. The folio reads-I'll pawn this truth.

MALONE.

4 Be you my time &c.] i. e. be you to my prefent purpose what time is in respect of all other fchemes, viz. a ripener and bringer of them to maturity. STEEVENS.

NEST. What is't?

ULYSS. This 'tis :

Blunt wedges rive hard knots: The seeded pride 5
That hath to this maturity blown up

In rank Achilles, muft or now be cropp'd,
Or, fhedding, breed a nursery of like evil,
To overbulk us all. :

NEST.

Well, and how? 7

ULYSS. This challenge that the gallant Hector fends,

However it is spread in general name,
Relates in purpose only to Achilles.

NEST. The purpofe is perfpicuous even as fubftance,

Whofe groffness little characters fum up:8

I believe Shakspeare was here thinking of the period of geftation which is fometimes denominated a female's time, or reckoning. T. C.

5-The feeded pride &c.] Shakspeare might have taken this idea from Lyte's Herbal, 1578 and 1579. The Oleander tree or Nerium "hath fcarce one good propertie." It may be compared to a Pharifee, "who maketh a glorious and beautiful fhow, but inwardly is of a corrupt and poifoned nature."-" It is high time &c. to fupplant it (i.e. pharifaifm) for it hath already floured, fo that I feare it will fhortly feede, and fill this wholesome foyle full of wicked Nerium." TOLLet.

So, in The Rape of Lucrece:

6

"How will thy fhame be feeded in thine age,
"When thus thy vices bud before thy fpring?"

MALONE.

-nursery-] Alluding to a plantation called a nursery. JOHNSON.

7 Well, and how ?] We might complete this defective line by reading:

Well, and how then?

Sir T. Hanmer reads-how now? STEEVENS.

The purpofe is perfpicuous even as fubftance,

Whofe groffness little characters fum up :] That is, the

And, in the publication, make no strain,
But that Achilles, were his brain as barren
As banks of Libya,-though, Apollo knows,
'Tis dry enough,—will with great fpeed of judg-

ment,

Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose

Pointing on him.

ULYSS. And wake him to the answer, think you? NEST.

Yes,

It is most meet; Whom may you elfe oppofe,
That can from Hector bring those honours' off,
If not Achilles? Though't be a sportful combat,
Yet in the trial much opinion dwells;

For here the Trojans tafte our dear'ft repute
With their fin'ft palate: And truft to me, Ulyffes,
Our imputation fhall be oddly pois'd

In this wild action: for the fuccefs,

purpose is as plain as body or fubftance; and though I have collected this purpofe from many minute particulars, as a grofs body is made up of fmall infenfible parts, yet the refult is as clear and certain as a body thus made up is palpable and visible. This is the thought, though a little obfcured in the concifenefs of the expreffion. WARBURTON.

Subftance is eftate, the value of which is ascertained by the ufe of small characters, i. e. numerals. So, in the prologue to King Henry V:

a crooked figure may

"Atteft, in little place, a million."

The grofs fum is a term used in The Merchant of Venice. Groffness has the fame meaning in this inftance. STEEVENS.

And, in the publication, make no ftrain,]

Neftor goes on

to fay, make no difficulty, no doubt, when this duel comes to be proclaimed, but that Achilles, dull as he is, will discover the drift of it. This is the meaning of the line. So afterwards, in this play, Ulyffes fays:

66

I do not train at the pofition."

i. e. I do not hesitate at, I make no difficulty of it. THEOBALD,,

I

thofe honours] Folio-his honour. MALONE.

2

Although particular, fhall give a fcantling *
Of good or bad unto the general;
And in fuch indexes, although fmall pricks 3
To their fubféquent volumes, there is feen
The baby figure of the giant mass

Of things to come at large. It is fuppos'd,
He, that meets Hector, iffues from our choice:
And choice, being mutual act of all our fouls,
Makes merit her election; and doth boil,
As 'twere from forth us all, a man distill'd
Out of our virtues; Who mifcarrying,
What heart receives from hence a conquering part,
To fteel a ftrong opinion to themselves?

Which entertain'd,4 limbs are his inftruments,5
In no lefs working, than are fwords and bows
Directive by the limbs.

ULYSS. Give pardon to my fpeech ;

Therefore 'tis meet, Achilles meet not Hector.
Let us, like merchants, fhow our fouleft wares,
And think, perchance, they'll fell; if not,

2

-fcantling-] That is, a meafure, proportion. The carpenter cuts his wood to a certain Scantling. JOHNSON.

So, in John Florio's tranflation of Montaigne's Elays, folio, 1603: "When the lion's fkin will not fuffice, we must add a Scantling of the fox's." MALONE.

3

fmall pricks-] Small points compared with the volumes. JOHNSON.

Indexes were, in Shakspeare's time, often prefixed to books. MALONE.

4 Which entertain'd, &c.] These two lines [and the concluding hemiftich] are not in the quarto. JOHNSON.

S limbs are his inftruments,] The folio reads: limbs are in his inftruments.

I have omitted the impertinent prepofition. STEEVENS. if not,] I fuppofe, for the fake of metre, we should

6

read:

if they do not. STÉEVENS.