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 this, 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; 5 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 6 for consent. As knots, by the conflúx of meeting sap, That gav't surmised shape. Why then, you princes, But the protractive trials of great Jove, In fortune's love: for then, the bold and coward, The hard and soft, seem all affin'd' and kin: Nest. With due observance of thy godlike seat, Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance Upon her patient breast, making their way But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage 7affin'd] i. e. joined by affinity. 8 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 As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize, Returns to chiding3 fortune. 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. 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. 3 Returns to chiding-] Chiding is noisy, clamorous. Should with a bond of air (strong as the axletree That matter needless, of importless burden, Ulyss. Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down, And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master, But for these instances. The specialty of rule hath been neglected: And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions. When that the general is not like the hive," 4 speeches,-which were such, As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece knit all the Greekish ears To his experienc'd tongue,] Ulysses begins his oration with praising those who had spoken before him, and marks the cha racteristick 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 instruction 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. S expect-] Expect for expectation. 6 The specialty of rule-] The particular rights of supreme authority. To whom the foragers shall all repair, What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded, Observe degree, priority, and place, What plagues, and what portents? what mutiny? The unity and married calm of states Quite from their fixure? O, when degree is shak'd, The enterprize is sick! How could communities, 7 When that the general is not like the hive,] The meaning is,When the general is not to the army like the hive to the bees, the repository of the stock of every individual, that to which each particular resorts with whatever he has collected for the good of the whole, what honey is expected? what hope of advantage? The sense is clear, the expression is confused. JOHNSON. 8 the planets, and this center,] By this center, Ulysses means the earth itself, not the center of the earth. According to the system of Ptolemy, the earth is the center round which the planets move. 1 9 deracinate] i. e. force up by the roots. brotherhoods in cities,] Corporations, companies, con fraternities. 2- dividable shores,] i. e. divided. |