His heart and hand both open, and both free; For Hector, in his blaze of wrath, subscribes [Alarum. HECT. and AJAX fight. Agam. They are in action. Tro. Awake thee! Agam. His blows are well dispos'd:-there, Ajax! Dio. You must no more. Hector, thou sleep'st; [Trumpets cease. Princes, enough, so please you. Why then, will I no more: Ene. Hect. Thou art, great lord, my father's sister's son, A cousin-german to great Priam's seed; The obligation of our blood forbids A gory emulation 'twixt us twain: 8 an impair thought--] A thought unsuitable to the digaity of his character. This word I should have changed to impure, were I not overpowered by the unanimity of the editors, and concurrence of the old copies. Johnson. So, in Chapman's preface to his translation of the Shield of Homer, 1598: "-nor is it more impaire to an honest and absolute man" &c. Steevens. To tender objects;] That is, yields, gives way. Johnson. So, in King Lear: "— - subscrib'd his power;" i. e. submitted. Steevens. 1- thus translate him to me.] Thus explain his character. So, in Hamlet: Johnson "There's matter in these sighs, these profound heaves; "You must translate." Steevens. Were thy commixtion Greek and Trojan so, Ajax. Hect. Not Neoptolemus so mirable (On whose bright crest Fame with her loud'st O yes Cries, This is he,) could promise to himself 2 My sacred aunt,] It is remarkable that the Greeks give to the uncle the title of Sacred, Jelos. Patruus avunculus ὁ πδὸς παλεος los, Gaz. de Senec. patruus "gos μnlgóc bus, avunculus, Budæi Lexic.—Juos is also used absolutely for ‘o ægòs walgos Juos, Euri. pid. Iphigen. Taurid. 1.930 66 e “ Ιφι. Η που νοσούντας θεῖος υβρισεν δόμους.” And Xenoph. Kugu waid. Lib. I. passim. Vaillant. This circumstance may tend to establish an opinion I have else. where expressed, that this play was not the entire composition of Shakspeare, to whom the Grecism before us was probably un known. Steevens. 3 A A great addition -] i. e. denomination. Steevens. 4 Not Neoptolemus so mirable (On whose bright crest Fame with her loud'st O yes, Cries, This is he,) coull promise to himself &c.] Dr. Warburton observes, that "the sense and spirit of Hector's speech requires that the most celebrated of his adversaries should be picked out to be defied, and this was Achilles himself, not his son Neoptolemus, who was yet but an apprentice in warfare." In the rage of correction therefore he reads: Not Neoptolemus's sire irascible. Such a licentious conjecture deserves no attention. Malone. My opinion is, that by Neoptolemus the author meant Achilles A thought of added honour torn from Hector. Ene. There is expectance here from both the sides, What further you will do. Hect. Dio. 'Tis Agamemnon's wish: and great Achilles himself; and remembering that the son was Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, considered Neoptolemus as the nomen gentilitium, and thought the father was likewise Achilles Neoptolemus. Johnson. Shakspeare might have used Neoptolemus for Achilles. Wilfride Holme, the author of a poem called The Fall and evil Sucesse of Rebellion, &c. 1537, had made the same mistake before him, as the following stanza will show: "Also the triumphant Troyans victorious, "By Anthenor and Eneas false confederacie, Sending Polidamus to Neoptolemus, "Who was vanquished and subdued by their conspiracie. "For multitude of people was there mortificate In Lydgate, however, Achilles, Neoptolemus, and Pyrrhus, are distinct characters. Neoptolemus is enumerated among the Grecian princes who first embarked to revenge the rape of Helen: "The valiant Grecian called Neoptolemus, "That had his haire as blacke as any jet," &c. p. 102. and Pyrrhus, very properly, is not heard of till after the death of his father: "Sith that Achilles in such traiterous wise "Is slaine, that we a messenger should send "He may revenge his father's death," &c. p. 237. Steevens. I agree with Dr. Johnson and Mr Steevens, in thinking that Shakspeare supposed Neoptolemus was the nomen gentilitium: an error into which he might have been led by some book of the time That by Neoptolemus he meant Achilles, and not Pyrrhus, may be inferred from a former passage in p. 121, by which it appears that he knew Pyrrhus had not yet engaged in the siege of Troy: "But it must grieve young Pyrrhus, now at home," &c. Malone. 5 We'll answer it;] That is, answer the expectance. Johnson. To the expecters of our Trojan part; Desire them home. Give me thy hand, my cousin; I will go eat with thee, and see your knights." Ajax. Great Agamemnon comes to meet us here. Hect. The worthiest of them tell me name by name; But for Achilles, my own searching eyes Shall find him by his large and portly size. Agam. Worthy of arms!7 as welcome as to one That would be rid of such an enemy; But that's no welcome: Understand more clear, But in this extant moment, faith and troth, From heart of very heart, great Hector, welcome. [To TRO. Men. Let me confirm my princely brother's greeting; You brace of warlike brothers, welcome hither. 6 - your knights.] The word knight, as often as it occurs, is sure to bring with it the idea of chivalry, and revives the memory of Amadis and his fantastick followers, rather than that of the mighty confederates who fought on either side of the Trojan war. I wish that eques and armiger could have been rendered by any other words than knight and 'squire. Mr. Pope, in his translation of the Iliad, is very liberal of the latter. Steevens. These knights, to the amount of about two hundred thousand, (for there were not less in both armies) Shakspeare found, with all the appendages of chivalry, in The Three Destructions of Troy. Malone. 7 Worthy of arms!] Folio Worthy all arms! Quarto. The quarto has only the first, second, and the last line of this salutation; the intermediate verses seem added on a revision. Johnson. divine integrity,] i. e. integrity like that of heaven. 8 Steevens. 9 most imperious Agamemnon] Imperious and imperial had formerly the same signification. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis: "Imperious supreme of all mortal things." Malone. Again, in Titus and Andronicus: 65 King, be thy thoughts imperious, like thy name." Steevens. Men: The noble Menelaus. Hect. O you, my lord? by Mars his gauntlet, thanks! Mock not, that I affect the untraded oath; Your quondam wife swears still by Venus' glove:2 Nest. I have, thou gallant Trojan, seen thee oft, Through ranks of Greekish youth:3 and I have seen thee, As hot as Perseus, spur thy Phrygian steed, 1 Men. The noble Menelaus.] Mr. Ritson supposes this speech to belong to Æneas. Reed. As I cannot suppose that Menelaus would style himself " the noble Menelaus," I think Ritson right in giving this speech to Eneas. M Mason. 2 Mock not, &c.] The quarto bas here a strange corruption: Mock not thy affect, the untreaded earth Johnson the untraded oath;] A singular oath, not in common use. So, in King Richard II: -some way of common trade." Under the lady's oath perhaps more is meant than meets the ear; unless the poet caught his idea from Grange's Golden Aphroditis, 4to. 1577, sign. Mij: "At this upper borde next unto Jupiter on the right hande sat Juno, that honourable and gracious goddesse his wyfe: Nexte unto hyr satte Venus, the goddesse of love, with a GLOVE made of floures sticking in hyr bosome." Malone. Glove, in the preceding extract, must be a corruption of some other word, perhaps of-Globe. A flowery globe might have been worn by Venus as an emblem of the influence of Love, which, by adding graces and pleasures to the world, may, poetically, be said to cover it with flowers. Our ancient nosegays also (as may be known from several old engravings) were nearly globular. But what idea can be communicated by a glove made of flowers? or how could any form resembling a glove, be produced out of such materials? Steevens. 3 Labouring for destiny, &c.] The vicegerent of Fate. So, in Coriolanus: 66 His sword, death's stamp, "Where it did mark, it took; from face to foot 4 As hot as Perseus, spur-] As the equestrian fame of Perseus, on the present occasion, must be alluded to, this simile will serve |