SCENE III. The Grecian Camp. Enter AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES, DIOMEDES, NEStor, AJAX, MENELAUS, and CALCHAS. CAL. Now, princes, for the fervice I have done you, The advantage of the time prompts me aloud Appear it to your mind,] Sir Thomas Hanmer, very properly in my opinion, reduces this line to measure, by reading: Appear it to you,-. STEEVENS. through the fight I bear in things, to Jove &c.] This paffage in all the modern editions is filently depraved, and printed thus: -through the fight I bear in things to come,-. The word is fo printed that nothing but the fenfe can determine whether it be love or Jove. I believe that the editors read it as love, and therefore made the alteration to obtain some meaning. JOHNSON. I do not perceive why love, the clear and evident reading of both the quartos and folios, fhould be paffed over without fome attempt to explain it. In my opinion it may fignify-"No longer affifting Troy with my advice, I have left it to the dominion of love, to the confequences of the amour of Paris and Helen." STEEVENS. 3 That, through the fight I bear in things, to Jove I have abandon'd Troy, &c.] This reafoning perplexes Mr. Theobald; "He forefaw his country was undone; he ran over to the Greeks; and this he makes a merit of (fays the editor). I own (continues he) the motives of his oratory feem to be fomewhat perverfe and unnatural. Nor do I know how to reconcile it, unless our poet purpofely intended to make Calchas act the part of a true prieft, and fo from motives of felf-intereft infinuate the merit of fervice." Incurr'd a traitor's name; expos'd myself, The editor did not know how to reconcile this. Nor I neither. For I do not know what he means by " the motives of his oratory," or, "from motives of felf-intereft to infinuate merit." But if he would infinuate, that it was the poet's defign to make his prieft felf-interefted, and to reprefent to the Greeks that what he did for his own prefervation, was done for their fervice, he is miftaken. Shakspeare thought of nothing fo filly, as it would be to draw his prieft a knave, in order to make him talk like a fool. Though that be the fate which generally attends their abufers. But Shakspeare was no fuch; and confequently wanted not this cover for dulnefs. The perverfenefs is all the editor's own, who interprets, through the fight I have in things to come, I have abandon'd Troy to fignify, "by my power of prefcience finding my country muft be ruined, I have therefore abandoned it to feek refuge with you;" whereas the true fenfe is, "Be it known unto you, that on account of a gift or faculty I have of feeing things to come, which faculty I fuppofe would be efteemed by you as acceptable and ufeful, I have abandoned Troy my native country.' That he could not mean what the editor fuppofes, appears from thefe confiderations: Firft, if he had reprefented himself as running from a falling city, he could never have said: "I have expos'd myself, "From certain and poffefs'd conveniencies, "To doubtful fortunes ; Secondly, the abfolute knowledge of the fall of Troy was a fecret hid from the inferior gods themselves; as appears from the poetical hiftory of that war. It depended on many contingencies, whofe existence they did not forefee. All that they knew was, that if fuch and fuch things happened, Troy would fall. And this fecret they communicated to Caffandra only, but along with it, the fate not to be believed. Several others knew each a feveral part of the fecret; one, that Troy could not be taken unless Achilles went to the war; another, that it could not fall while it had the palladium; and so on. But the fecret, that it was abfolutely to fall, was known to none.- -The fenfe here given will admit of no difpute amongst those who know how acceptable a feer was amongst the Greeks. So that this Calchas, like a true prift, if it needs muft be fo, went where he could exercife his profeflion with most advantage. For it being much lefs common amongst the Greeks than the Afiatics, there would be a greater demand for it. WARBURTON. I am afraid, that after all the learned commentator's efforts From certain and poffefs'd conveniences, to clear the argument of Calchas, it will ftill appear liable to objection; nor do I difcover more to be urged in his defence, than that though his skill in divination determined him to leave Troy, yet that he joined himself to Agamemnon and his army by unconftrained good-will; and though he came as a fugitive efcaping from deftruction, yet his fervices after his reception, being voluntary and important, deferved reward. This argument is not regularly and diftinctly deduced, but this is, I think, the best explication that it will yet admit. JOHNSON. In p. 224, n. 5, an account has been given of the motives which induced Calchas to abandon Troy. The fervices to which he alludes, a fhort quotation from Lydgate will fufficiently explain. Auncient Hift. &c. 1555: "He entred into the oratorye,— "And befily gan to knele and praye, 66 "And fayd Calchas twies by his name; "Be right well 'ware thou ne tourne agayne "This is in footh, whych may not be denied. "With the Greekes, and with Achilles go "To them anone; my will is, it be so :— "And be right helping to their good spede." Mr. Theobald thinks it ftrange that Calchas fhould claim any merit from having joined the Greeks after he had faid that he knew his country was undone; but there is no inconfiftency: he had left, from whatever caufe, what was dear to him, his country, friends, I do beseech you, as in way of taste, behalf. AGAM. What would'st thou of us, Trojan? make demand. CAL. You have a Trojan prifoner, call'd Antenor, Yesterday took; Troy holds him very dear. Oft have you (often have you thanks therefore,) Defir'd my Creffid in right great exchange, Whom Troy hath ftill deny'd: But this Antenor, I know, is fuch a wreft in their affairs,' children, &c. and, having joined and ferved the Greeks, was entitled to protection and reward. On the phrafe-As new into the world, (for fo the old copy reads,) I muft obferve, that it appears from a great number of paffages in our old writers, the word into was formerly often used in the fenfe of unto, as it evidently is here. In proof of this affertion, the following paffages may be adduced: "It was a pretty part in the old church-playes when the nimble Vice would skip up nimbly like a jackanapes into the devil's necke, and ride the devil a courfe." Harínet's Declaration of Popish Impoftures, 4to. 1602. Again, in a letter written by J. Pafton, July 8, 1468; Pafton Letters, Vol. II. p. 5: " and they that have jufted with him into this day, have been as richly befeen," &c. 66 Again, in Lancham's Account of the Entertainment at Kenelworth, what time it pleafed her to ryde forth into the chase, 15758 to hunt the hart of fors; which found, anon," &c. Chafe indeed may mean here, the place in which the queen hunted; but I believe it is employed in the more ordinary fenfe. Again, in Daniel's Civil Warres, Book IV. ft. 72, edit. 1602: "She doth confpire to have him made away,"Thruft thereinto not only with her pride, "But by her father's counfell and confent." Again, in our author's All's well that ends well: 66 I'll stay at home, -- And pray God's bleffing into thy attempt." MALONE. 5fuch a wreft in their affairs,] According to Dr. Johnfon, who quotes this line in his Dictionary, the meaning is, that the That their negociations all must slack, But lofs of Antenor is such a violent diftortion of their affairs, &c. as in a former scene [p. 257. See n. 6.] we had o'er-refted for 'er-wrefted, fo here I ftrongly fufpect wreft has been printed inftead of reft. Antenor is fuch a stay or fupport of their affairs, &c. All the ancient English mufkets had refts by which they were fupported. The fubfequent words-wanting his manage-appear to me to confirm the emendation. To fay that Antenor himself (for fo the paffage runs, not the lofs of Antenor,) is a violent dif tortion of the Trojan negotiations, is little better than nonfenfe. MALONE. I have been informed that a wreft anciently fignified a fort of tuning-hammer, by which the strings of fome musical instruments were screwed or wrefted up to their proper degree of tenfion. Antenor's advice might be fuppofed to produce a congenial effect on the Trojan councils, which otherwise muit flack, Wanting his manage ; Wreft is not mifprinted for reft, as Mr. Malone fuppofes in his correction of Dr. Johnson, who has certainly miftaken the fense of this word. It means an inftrument for tuning the harp by drawing up the ftrings. Lancham, in his Letter from Kenilworth p. 50, defcribing a minstrel, fays, "his harp in good grace dependaunt before him; his wreaft tyed to a green lace and hanging by.” And again, in Wynne's Hiftory of the Gwedir family: " And fetting forth very early before day, unwittingly carried upon his finger the wrest of his cofen's harpe." To wreft, is to wind. See Minfheu's Dictionary. The form of the wreft may be feen in fome of the illuminated fervice books, wherein David is reprefented playing on his harp; in the Second Part of Merfenna's Harmonics, p. 69; and in the Syntagmata of Prætorius, Vol. II. Fig. xix. DouCE. 6 In moft accepted pain.] Sır T. Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton after him, read: In most accepted pay. They do not feem to understand the construction of the passage. |