is? Is not birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that season a man? Cres. Ay, a minced man: and then to be baked with no date in the pye,3—for then the man's date is out. Pan. You are such a woman! one knows not at what ward you lie.* Cres. Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon my wit, to defend my wiles; upon my secrecy, to defend mine honesty; my mask, to defend my beauty; and you, to defend all these: and at all these wards I lie, at a thousand watches. Pan. Say one of your watches. Cres. Nay, I'll watch you for that; and that's one of the chiefest of them too; if I cannot ward what I would not have hit, I can watch you for telling how I took the blow; unless it swell past hiding, and then it is past watching. Pan. You are such another! Enter TROILUS' Boy. Boy. Sir, my lord would instantly speak with you. Pan. Where? Boy. At your own house; there he unarms him. Pan. Good boy, tell him I come: [Erit Boy.] I doubt, he be hurt.-Fare ye well, good niece. Cres. Adieu, uncle. Pan. I'll be with you, niece, by and by. no date in the pye,] To account for the introduction of this quibble, it should be remembered that dates were an ingredient in ancient pastry of almost every kind. fence. at what ward you lie.] A metaphor from the art of de Pan. Ay, a token from Troilus. Cres. By the same token-you are a bawd.— [Exit PANDARUs. Words, vows, griefs, tears, and love's full sacrifice, He offers in another's enterprize: But more in Troilus thousand fold I see Than in the glass of Pandar's praise may be; Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is: SCENE III. The Grecian Camp. Before Agamemnon's Tent. Trumpets. Enter AGAMEMNON, NESTOR, ULYSSES, MENELAUS, and Others. Agam. Princes, What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks? The ample proposition, that hope makes In all designs begun on earth below, Fails in the promis'd largeness: checks and disasters Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd; Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech:] The meaning of this obscure line seems to be-" Men, after possession, become our commanders; before it, they are our suppliants." — my heart's content-] Content for capacity, or perhaps for consent. As knots, by the confiúx of meeting sap, But the protractive trials of great Jove, The fineness of which metal is not found In fortune's love: for then, the bold and coward, Nest. With due observance of thy godlike seat, Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall applys Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance Lies the true proof of men: The sea being smooth, How many shallow bauble boats dare sail Upon her patient breast, making their way With those of nobler bulk? But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage "—affin'd-] i. e. joined by affinity. Nestor shall apply-] Perhaps Nestor means, that he will attend particularly to, and consider, Agamemnon's latest words. The gentle Thetis, and, anon, behold The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut, Like Perseus' horse: Where's then the saucy boat, And flies fled under shade,' Why, then, the thing of courage,2 As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize, Ulyss. Agamemnon, Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece, The which, most mighty for thy place and sway,- 9 by the brize,] The brize is the gad or horse-fly. 1 And flies fled under shade,] i. e. And flies are fled under shade. -the thing of courage,] It is said of the tiger, that in storms and high winds he rages and roars most furiously. Returns to chiding-] Chiding is noisy, clamorous. The secality of re1 hath been neglected: grecha,—wiach were such, As Agamemawn and the hand of Greece kat all the Greekish ears To his experienc d tongue, Ulysses begins his oration with praising those who had spoken before him, and marks the characteristick excellencies of their different eloquence,—strength, and sweetness, which he expresses by the different metals on which he recommends them to be engraven for the instraction of posterity. The speech of Agamemnon is such that it ought to be engraven in brass, and the tablet held up by him on the one side, and Greece on the other, to show the union of their opinion. And Nestor ought to be exhibited in silver, uniting all his audience in one mind by his soft and gentle elocution. Brass is the common emblem of strength, and silver of gentleness. We call a soft voice a silver voice, and a persuasive tongue a silver tongue. To hatch is a term of art for a particular method of engraving. Hacher, to cut, Fr. The Commentators differ in some respects from this explanation. expect-] Expect for expectation. The specialty of rule-] The particular rights of supreme authority. |