Achil. How can that be?

Ther. Why, he stalks up and down like a peacock; a stride, and a stand: ruminates, like an hostess, that hath no arithmetic but her brain to set down her reckoning bites his lip with a politic regard, as who should say there were wit in this head, an 'twould out and so there is; but it lies as coldly in him as fire in a flint, which will not show without knocking. The man's undone for ever; for if Hector break not his neck i' the combat, he'll break 't himself in vainglory. He knows not me: I said, "Good-morrow, Ajax ;" and he replies, "Thanks, Agamemnon." What think you of this man, that takes me for the general? He's grown a very land-fish, languageless, a monster. A plague of opinion! a man may wear it on both sides, like a leather jerkin.

Achil. Thou must be my ambassador to him, Thersites.

Ther. Who, I? why, he'll answer nobody; he professes not answering: speaking is for beggars; he wears his tongue in his arms. I will put on his presence: let Patroclus make his demands to me, you shall see the pageant of Ajax.

Achil. To him, Patroclus: tell him,-I humbly desire the valiant Ajax to invite the most valorous Hector to come unarmed to my tent; and to procure safe conduct for his person of the magnanimous, and most illustrious, six-or-seven-times-honoured, captaingeneral of the Grecian army, Agamemnon. Do this. Patr. Jove bless great Ajax.

Ther. Humph!

Patr. I come from the worthy Achilles,-
Ther. Ha!

Patr. Who most humbly desires you to invite Hector to his tent.

8

of the GRECIAN army,] The word "Grecian" is not in the quartos; and in the folio" Agamemnon" is followed by " &c."

Ther. Humph!

Patr. And to procure safe conduct from Agamemnon.

Ther. Agamemnon?

Patr. Ay, my lord.

Ther. Ha!

Patr. What say you to't?

Ther. God be wi' you, with all my heart.

Patr. Your answer, sir.

Ther. If to-morrow be a fair day, by eleven o'clock it will go one way or other: howsoever, he shall pay

for me ere he has me.

Patr. Your answer, sir.

Ther. Fare you well, with all my heart.

Achil. Why, but he is not in this tune, is he?

Ther. No, but he's out o' tune thus. What music will be in him when Hector has knocked out his brains, I know not; but, I am sure, none, unless the fiddler Apollo get his sinews to make catlings on.

Achil. Come, thou shalt bear a letter to him straight. Ther. Let me bear another to his horse', for that's the more capable creature.

Achil. My mind is troubled, like a fountain stirr❜d; And I myself see not the bottom of it.

[Exeunt ACHILLES and PATROCLUS. Ther. Would the fountain of your mind were clear again, that I might water an ass at it. I had rather be a tick in a sheep, than such a valiant ignorance.

[Exit.

9 Let me BEAR another to his horse,] The folio alters "bear" to carry, but the repetition of the word used by Achilles was probably intended.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

Troy. A Street.

Enter, at one side, ÆNEAS, and Servant, with a Torch; at the other, PARIS, DEIPHOBUS, ANTENOR, DIOMEDES, and Others, with Torches.

Par. See, ho! who is that there?

Dei.

It is the lord Eneas.

Ene. Is the prince there in person?

Had I so good occasion to lie long,

As you, prince Paris, nothing but heavenly business
Should rob my bed-mate of my company.

Dio. That's my mind too.-Good morrow, lord
Eneas.

Par. A valiant Greek, Æneas, take his hand,
Witness the process of your speech, wherein'
You told how Diomed, a whole week by days,
Did haunt you in the field.

Ene.

Health to you, valiant sir,

During all question of the gentle truce;

But when I meet you arm'd, as black defiance,
As heart can think, or courage execute.

Dio. The one and other Diomed embraces.
Our bloods are now in calm, and so long health;
But when contention and occasion meet,

By Jove, I'll play the hunter for thy life,
With all my force, pursuit, and policy.

Ene. And thou shalt hunt a lion, that will fly
With his face backward.-In humane gentleness,
Welcome to Troy: now, by Anchises' life,
Welcome, indeed. By Venus' hand I swear,
No man alive can love, in such a sort,

1 Witness the process of your speech, WHEREIN] So the quarto: the folio changes "wherein" to within.

The thing he means to kill, more excellently.

Dio. We sympathize.-Jove, let Æneas live,
If to my sword his fate be not the glory,
A thousand complete courses of the sun!
But, in mine emulous honour, let him die,
With every joint a wound, and that to-morrow!
Ene. We know each other well.

Dio. We do; and long to know each other worse. Par. This is the most despiteful' gentle greeting, The noblest hateful love, that e'er I heard of.What business, lord, so early?

Ene. I was sent for to the king; but why, I know

not.

Par. His purpose meets you. "Twas to bring this Greek

To Calchas' house; and there to render him,

For the enfreed Antenor, the fair Cressid.
Let's have your company; or, if you please,
Haste there before us. I constantly do think,
(Or, rather, call my thought a certain knowledge)
My brother Troilus lodges there to-night:
Rouse him, and give him note of our approach,
With the whole quality wherefore: I fear,
We shall be much unwelcome.

Ene.

Troilus had rather Troy were borne to Greece,
Than Cressid borne from Troy.

Par.

That I assure you:

There is no help;

[Exit.

The bitter disposition of the time

Will have it so. On, lord; we'll follow you.

Ene. Good morrow, all.

Par. And tell me, noble Diomed; 'faith, tell me

true,

Even in the soul of sound good-fellowship,

Who, in your thoughts, merits fair Helen best,

2 This is the most DESPITEFUL-] Thus the quartos: the folio, "This is the most despitefull'st," &c.

Myself, or Menelaus?

Dio.

Both alike:

He merits well to have her, that doth seek her
Not making any scruple of her soilure3,

With such a hell of pain, and world of charge;
And you as well to keep her, that defend her
Not palating the taste of her dishonour,
With such a costly loss of wealth and friends:
He, like a puling cuckold, would drink up
The lees and dregs of a flat tamed piece;
You, like a lecher, out of whorish loins
Are pleas'd to breed out your inheritors:
Both merits pois'd, each weighs nor less nor more;
But he as he, the heavier for a whore.

Par. You are too bitter to your countrywoman.
Dio. She's bitter to her country. Hear me, Paris:-
For every false drop in her bawdy veins

A Grecian's life hath sunk; for every scruple

Of her contaminated carrion weight,

A Trojan hath been slain. Since she could speak,
She hath not given so many good words breath,
As for her Greeks and Trojans suffer'd death.

Par. Fair Diomed, you do as chapmen do,
Dispraise the thing that you desire to buy;
But we in silence hold this virtue well,—
We'll not commend what we intend to sell.
Here lies our way.

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

The Same. A Court before the House of PANDarus.

4

Enter TROILUS and CRESSIDA.

Tro. Dear, trouble not yourself: the morn is cold.

3 of her SOILURE,] The quartos, " of her soil."

THE heavier-] "Which heavier" is the reading of the folio, which does not seem to afford so distinct a meaning as the quartos.