NEST. Ulyffes, Now I begin to relish thy advice; 4 And I will give a taste of it forthwith To Agamemnon: go we to him ftraight. [Exeunt. ACT II.6 SCENE I. EnAnother Part of the Grecian Camp. Enter AJAX and THERSITES. AJAX. Therfites, THER. Agamemnon-how if he had boils? full, all over, generally? AJAX. Therfites, THER. And those boils did run?—Say fo,—did not the general run then? were not that a botchy core? AJAX. Dog, 4 Ulyffes, Now I begin &c.] The quarto and folio have-Now, The tranfpofition was made by Mr. 5 Muft tarre the mastiffs on,] Tarre, an old English word, fignifying to provoke or urge on. See King John, A&IV. sc. i: 66 like a dog, "Snatch at his mafter that doth tarre him on." POPE. Act II.] This play is not divided into Acts in any of the original editions. JOHNSON. THER. Then would come fome matter from him; Í fee none now. AJAX. Thou bitch-wolf's fon, canft thou not hear? Feel then. [Strikes him. THER. The plague of Greece upon thee," thou mongrel beef-witted lord !8 AJAX. Speak then, thou unfalted leaven, fpeak:9 I will beat thee into handsomeness. 7 The plague of Greece upon thee,] Alluding perhaps to the plague fent by Apollo on the Grecian army. JOHNSON. The following lines of Lydgate's Auncient Hiftorie of the Warres between the Trojans and the Grecians, 1555, were probably here in our author's thoughts: “And in this whyle a great mortalyte, "Both of fworde and of peftilence, Among Greekes, by fatal influence "Of noyous hete and of corrupt eyre, Engendred was, that tho in great dispayre Whereby theyr nombre faft gan dyfcrece ; "For thirty dayes, and Priamus the kinge MALONE. Our author may as well be supposed to have caught this circumftance, relative to the plague, from the firft Book of Hall's or Chapman's verfion of the Iliad. STEEVENS. 8 66 thou mongrel beef-witted lord!] So, in TwelfthNight: -I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit." STEEVENS. He calls Ajax mongrel on account of his father's being a Grecian and his mother a Trojan. See Hector's speech to Ajax, in Act IV. fc. v: "Thou art, great lord, my father's fifter's fon," &c. MALONE. • Speak then, thou unfalted leaven, Speak:] Unfalted leaven means four without falt, malignity without wit. Shakspeare THER. I fhall fooner rail thee into wit and holinefs: but, I think, thy horse will fooner con an oration, than thou learn a prayer without book. Thou canst ftrike, canft thou? a red murrain o'thy jade's tricks !! AJAX. Toads-ftool, learn me the proclamation. THER. Doft thou think, I have no sense, thou ftrikeft me thus? AJAX. The proclamation, THER. Thou art proclaimed a fool, I think. AJAX. Do not, porcupine, do not; my fingers itch. THER. I would, thou didft itch from head to foot, and I had the scratching of thee; I would wrote first unfalted; but recollecting that want of falt was no fault in leaven, changed it to vinew'd. JOHNSON. The want of falt is no fault in leaven; but leaven without the addition of falt will not make good bread: hence Shakspeare used it as a term of reproach. MALONE. Unfalted is the reading of both the quartos. Francis Beaumont, in his letter to Speght on his edition of Chaucer's works, 1602, fays: " Many of Chaucer's words are become as it were vinew'd and hoarie with over long lying." Again, in Tho. Newton's Herbal to the Bible, 8vo. 1587: "For being long kept they grow hore and vinewed." STEEVENS. In the Preface to James the Firft's Bible, the tranflators speak of fenowed (i.e. vinewed or mouldy) traditions. BLACKSTONE. The folio has-thou whinid'ft leaven; a corruption undoubtedly of vinnewdft, or vinniedft: that is, thou moft mouldy leaven. In Dorsetshire they at this day call cheese that is become mouldy, vinny cheese. MALONE. I -- a red murrain &c.] A fimilar imprecation is found in The Tempeft: "The red plague rid you!" STEEVENS. make thee the loathfomeft fcab in Greece.2 When thou art forth in the incurfions, thou strikeft as flow as another. AJAX. I fay, the proclamation, THER. Thou grumbleft and raileft every hour on Achilles; and thou art as full of envy at his greatnefs, as Cerberus is at Proferpina's beauty, ay, that thou barkeft at him.3 AJAX. Miftrefs Therfites! THER. Thou shouldest strike him. AJAX. Cobloaf! 4 THER. He would pun thee into shivers 5 with his fift, as a failor breaks a bifcuit. 2 in Greece.] [Thus far the folio.] The quarto addswhen thou art forth in the incurfions, thou ftrikeft as low as another. JOHNSON. 3 ay, that thou barkeft at him.] I read,-O that thou barkedft at him. JOHNSON. The old reading is I, which, if changed at all, should have been changed into ay. TYRWHITT. 4 Cobloaf!] A crusty, uneven, gibbous loaf, is in some counties called by this name. STEEVENS. A cob-loaf, fays Minfheu, in his Dictionary, 1616, is a bunne. It is a little loaf made with a round head, fuch as cob-irons which fupport the fire. G. Bignet, a bigne, a knob or lump risen after a knock or blow." The word Bignets Cotgrave, in his Dictionary, 1611, renders thus: "Little round loaves or lumps, made of fine meale, oyle, or butter, and reafons: bunnes, lenten loaves." Cob-loaf ought, perhaps, to be rather written cop-loaf. MALONE. 5 pun thee into shivers-] Pun is in the midland counties the vulgar and colloquial word for-pound. JOHNSON. It is used by P. Holland, in his tranflation of Pliny's Natural Hiftory, Book XXVIII. ch. xii: "-punned altogether and AJAX. You whorefon cur! THER. Do, do. AJAX. Thou ftool for a witch !6 [Beating him. THER. Ay, do, do; thou sodden-witted lord! thou haft no more brain than I have in mine elbows; an affinego may tutor thee: Thou scurvy valiant reduced into a liniment." Again, Book XXIX. ch. iv: gall of these lizards punned and diffolved in water." The STEEVENS. Cole, in his Dictionary, renders it by the Latin words contero, contundo. Mr. Pope, who altered whatever he did not underftand, reads-pound, and was followed by three fubfequent editors. MALONE. • Thou fool for a witch!] In one way of trying a witch they used to place her on a chair or ftool, with her legs tied across, that all the weight of her body might reft upon her feat; and by that means, after fome time, the circulation of the blood would be much ftopped, and her fitting would be as painful as the wooden horfe. GREY. 7 an affinego-] I am not very certain what the idea conveyed by this word was meant to be. Afinaio is Italian, fays Sir T. Hanmer, for an afs-driver: but, in Mirza, a tragedy, by Rob. Baron, Act III. the following paffage occurs, with a notę annexed to it: "This (fays the author) is the ufual trial of the Perfian fhamfheers, or cemiters, which are crooked like a crefcent, of fo good metal, that they prefer them before any other, and fo fharp as any razor." 66 I hope, for the credit of the prince, that the experiment was rather made on an afs, than an afs-driver. From the following paffage I fhould fuppofe afinego to be merely a cant term for a foolish fellow, an idiot: They apparelled me as you fee, made a fool, or an afinego of me." See The Antiquary, a comedy, by S. Marmion, 1641. Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady: "all this would be forfworn, and I again an afinego, as your fifter left me.” STEEVENS. Afinego is Portuguefe for a little afs. MUSGRAVE.· |