To match us in comparisons with dirt; Ulyss. They tax our policy, and call it cowardice; They call this-bed-work, mappery, closet-war: Nest. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse Agam. [Trumpet sounds. What trumpet? look, Menelaus. Agam. Ene. May one, that is a herald, and a prince, Do a fair message to his kingly ears? Agam. With surety stronger than Achilles' arm 'Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice Call Agamemnon head and general. How rank soever rounded in with danger.] A rank weed is a high weed. by measure-] i. e. "by means of their observant toil." Ene. Fair leave, and large security. How may A stranger to those most imperial looks Know them from eyes of other mortals? I ask, that I might waken reverence, How? Which is that god in office, guiding men? Agam. This Trojan scorns us; or the men of Troy Are ceremonious courtiers. Ene. Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm'd, Nothing so full of heart. But peace, Æneas, 8 A stranger to those most imperial looks-] And yet this was the seventh year of the war. Shakspeare, who so wonderfully preserves character, usually confounds the customs of all nations, and probably supposed that the ancients (like the heroes of chivalry) fought with beavers to their helmets. So, in the fourth Act of this play, Nestor says to Hector: "But this thy countenance, still lock'd in steel, "I never saw till now." Shakspeare might have adopted this error from the wooden cuts to ancient books, or from the illuminators of manuscripts, who never seem to have entertained the least idea of habits, manners, or customs more ancient than their own. There are books in the British Museum of the age of King Henry VI; and in these the heroes of ancient Greece are represented in the very dresses worn at the time when the books received their decorations. 9 they have galls, &c.] This is not very intelligible, but perhaps the speaker meant to say, that, when they have the accord of Jove on their side, nothing is so courageous as the Trojans. But what the repining enemy commends, That breath fame follows; that praise, sole pure, transcends. Agam. Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself Æneas? Agam. Ene. Nor I from Troy come not to whisper him: I bring a trumpet to awake his ear; To set his sense on the attentive bent, And then to speak. Agam. Speak frankly as the wind; It is not Agamemnon's sleeping hour: He tells thee so himself. Ene. Trumpet, blow loud, Send thy brass voice through all these lazy tents;And every Greek of mettle, let him know, What Troy means fairly, shall be spoke aloud. [Trumpet sounds. We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy A prince call'd Hector, (Priam is his father,) Who in this dull and long-continued truce1 Is rusty grown; he bade me take a trumpet, And to this purpose speak. Kings, princes, lord! If there be one, among the fair'st of Greece, That holds his honour higher than his ease; That seeks his praise more than he fears his peril; That knows his valour, and knows not his fear; That loves his mistress more than in confession,2 long-continued truce-] Of this long truce there has been no notice taken; in this very Act it is said, that Ajax coped Hector yesterday in the battle. Here we have another proof of Shakspeare's falling into inconsistencies, by sometimes adhering to, and sometimes deserting, his original. - more than in confession,] Confession for profession. (With truant vows to her own lips he loves,) Agam. This shall be told our lovers, lord Æneas; One noble man, that hath one spark of fire prove this truth with my three drops of blood. Æne. Now heavens forbid such scarcity of youth! Ulyss. Amen. Agam. Fair lord Æneas, let me touch your hand; And in my vantbrace-] An armour for the arm, avantbras. To our pavilion shall I lead you, sir. Achilles shall have word of this intent; So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent: And find the welcome of a noble foe. [Exeunt all but ULYSSES and NEstor. Ulyss. Nestor, Nest. What says Ulysses? Ulyss. I have a young conception in my brain, Uyss. This 'tis: Blunt wedges rive hard knots: The seeded pride In rank Achilles, must or now be cropp'd, Nest. Well, and how? Ulyss. This challenge that the gallant Hector sends, However it is spread in general name, Relates in purpose only to Achilles. Nest. The purpose is perspicuous even as substance, Whose grossness little characters sum up: Ulyss. And wake him to the answer, think you? + Be you my time, &c.] i. e. be you to my present purpose what time is in respect of all other schemes, viz. a ripener and bringer of them to maturity. 5 And, in the publication, make no strain,] i. e. make no difficulty, no doubt. |