tent his mailed garniture. But do thou, child, with affection grasping thy father as well as thou hast strength to, ease this his side with me; for yet do the warm gashes exhale a black gore. But come every one that says he is here as a friend, let him hurry, let him go, toiling for this hero, in all things good, and for none among mankind more excellent than Ajax'.

CH. How many things is it man's by seeing to know! but ere he have seen, there is no prophet of the future, as to what it will bring to pass.

1 The words "Αιαντος, ὅτ ἦν, τότε φωνῶ, are thrown out by Dindorf and Wunder.

B.

PHILOCTETES.

1-14

THE sufferings of Philoctetes on the island of Lemnos, whither he had been brought by Ulysses, in obedience to the oracular advice of Helenus, and his being led away from thence by Ulysses in company with Neoptolemus1. B.

ULYSSES. This is the shore of the wave-encircled land of Lemnos, untrodden by man, and uninhabited, where, O thou reared from a sire the mightiest of Greeks, Neoptolemus, thou son of Achilles, I once set on shore, having been appointed to do this by the princes, the son of Poias the Melian2, running at the foot with a corroding disease, when it was not possible for us to set our hand either to libation3 or sacrifice unmolested, but continually did he fill the whole camp with wild and ill-omened cries, shrieking and groaning. Yet what need is there to speak of this? For 'tis no season for length of words to us, lest he learn that I am come, and I waste our whole artifice, by which I expect I presently shall ensnare

1 I must observe that this play, from the evidently disturbed arrangement of the dialogue, and the many verbal corruptions with which it is replete, is one of the most difficult to deal with. This will perhaps serve as an apology for the greater attention to critical details, than in the previous plays. B.

2 Philoctetes is said by some to have accompanied the Argonautic expedition, and was certainly the armour-bearer and particular friend of Hercules; which must either bring the dates of the Argonautic voyage and Trojan war nearer each other than they are generally placed, or present him a very aged candidate for the hand of Helen.

3 Distinctly mentioned, because libations were made on all the petty affairs of life, at the reception of a stranger, or on going to bed; sacrifices, on account of their expense, only on great occasions.

him. But now it is thy business to serve me in the rest, and to spy out where hereabouts is the cavern of double mouth, of such a nature as that there in cold weather is at hand a double place to sit in the sun, and in the summer the breeze wafts slumber through the vault hollowed throughout'. But a little way below, on the left, thou mightest haply see a pure fountain, if it yet be preserved. Which approaching silently, signify to me whether yet he keeps to this very same spot, or whether he happens to be elsewhere, that thou mayest hear, and I instruct thee in, the residue of my counsels, and the business in common may proceed by means of both.

NEOPTOLEMUS.

O king Ulysses, thou speakest of no distant labour, since I fancy I perceive a cavern, such as thou hast mentioned.

UL. Above or below? for I do not discern it.

NE. Here above us, and there is at least no noise2 of a footstep.

UL. See, whether he chance to be laid down to sleep. NE. I see a dwelling-place empty and void of men. UL. Is there not some home made3 sustenance within? NE. At any rate there are trodden leaves, as if for some one who sleeps there.

UL. But is all else deserted, and nothing beneath the roof?

NE. There is a drinking-vessel all of wood, the workmanship of some sorry craftsman, and together with it these materials for lighting a fire.

1 The difficulty here lies in the looseness of the expression, which would more simply have been, ἵνα διπλῆ πάρεστιν ἐνθάκησις, [εἷς] μὲν ἡλίου ἐν ψύχει, [εἷς δὲ ᾖ] πνοή πέμπει κτλ., i. e., “ ubi duplex sit sessio, una quidem, hyemis tempore, solem versus, una vero, ubi æstate soporem inducat aura;" λíov is the genitive of place or reference. 2 i. e., Neoptolemus hears no one stirring within.

B.

B.

3 Oikóπolos must here be taken passively, cibus domi paratus, as doλóπоιog áváукη in the Trachiniæ, dolor fraude comparatus. TR.Wunder takes it passively, but prefers the conjecture of Welcker (and Burges), Tovoń. B.

4 It appears then that Ulysses had at least one point of superiority over the unfortunate man over whom he had exercised such rigour, that of being a better carpenter. See Odyss. XXIII.

5

The materials in question were two flints (see v. 296), and some tinder, made of burnt rags, as appears from the words following: kaì ταῦτά γ' ἄλλαράκη.” Burges. Β.

UL. This store that thou tellest me of is his.

NE. Alas, alas! Here are besides these rags drying, full of some offensive matter from a sore.

UL. The man evidently is an inhabitant of these parts, and is somewhere not far off. For how should a lame man, diseased with a fatal malady, of old standing, go out to any distance? No, but either for food hath he gone forth on his way, or if he knows of some pain-assuaging plant anywhere. Send, therefore, the man who is here to spy out, that he may not light on me unobserved, since he had rather lay hands on me than all the other Greeks.

NE. Nay, he is both on his way thither, and the path shall be watched; but do thou, if thou desirest aught, instruct me by thy next words.

UL. Son of Achilles, it becomes thee to act a brave part in the work for which thou hast come, not merely in thy person, but if thou shouldst hear aught new, whereof thou hast not heard before, to lend aid therein, since thou art here an assistant.

NE. What then dost thou bid me do?

66

UL. It needs thou [consider] how speaking thou shalt by thy words cajole the mind of Philoctetes. When he asks thee who and whence thou art, say, the son of Achilles," (this must not be concealed,) "and that thou art sailing homewards, having abandoned the naval armament of the Greeks, hating them with great hatred, for that having with supplications fetched thee to come from thy home, possessing these only means of taking Troy, they thought thee not worthy of Achilles' arms, to give them thee when arrived and of right demanding them; but on the contrary transferred them to Ulysses3,' -venting whatever abuse, the lowest of the low, 1 Suidas, quoted by Wunder, voorOS . ἀπὸ τόπου εἰς τόπον. See Hermann. Β.

καταχρηστικῶς ἡ ἄφιξις

2 A mute personage, who had accompanied them. B.

3 The contest concerning the arms of Achilles was solely between Ajax and Ulysses; we have no account that Neoptolemus laid claim to them. As Philoctetes, however, had been absent during the whole affair, Ulysses was at liberty to substitute Neoptolemus in the room of Ajax, especially as his being the son of Achilles naturally justified his pretensions to the arms of his father. The fiction was therefore probable. Franklin.

4 Gloster, in his instructions to Buckingham to pave the way for his assumption of the crown, goes even further than this, and commissions

thou wilt against me. For in nothing of all this wilt thou pain me; but if thou wilt not do this, thou wilt strike sorrow into all the Greeks. For if the bow and arrows of this man be not procured, it is not for thee to sack the Dardan1 plain. But that I have not and thou hast sure and safe communion with this man, learn of me. Thou hast sailed, bound by oath to none, nor on compulsion2, nor on the first expedition: but none of these can be denied by me. So that, if while master of his weapons he shall discover me, I am undone, and shall involve thee in my ruin by being with thee. But this very point must be cunningly devised, that thou mayest be by stealth the possessor of the resistless arms. I am aware, O youth, that thou art not naturally inclined to utter such words, nor to contrive evil. But, for in sooth it is delightful to gain the possession of victory, dare it, but afterwards again will we show ourselves upright. Now however for the brief portion of a day resign thyself to me unto shamelessness, and then for after time be called the most religious of all

men.

NE. Son of Laertes, the words which I grieve to hear, them I also abhor to practise. For my nature is to do nothing with evil treachery, neither mine own, nor, as they say, my father's that begot me. But I am ready to carry off the man by violence, and not by craft; for he will not with but one foot overpower so many as we are by force. Yet still, having been sent as thy coadjutor, I dread being called thy betrayer; but, O prince, I had rather fail acting nobly, than basely prevail.

UL. Son of a noble father, I too formerly in youth pos

him to charge his (Gloster's) own mother with adultery. Rich. III.

act 3. sc. 5.

1 Dardanus was son to Jupiter by Electra, and the founder of the Trojan race.

2 Such wa Echepolus, Hom. II. XXIII. 293:

hen Menelaus his Podargus brings,

And the famed courser of the king of kings,
Whom rich Echepolus, (more rich than brave,)

To 'scape the war, to Agamemnon gave. Pope.

3 It is not to be wondered at that Ulysses should recommend this conduct to Neoptolemus, since at v. 1049, we find him glorying in it as his own system of action.

U