For here the Trojans taste our dear'st repute
With their fin'st palate: And trust to me, Ulysses,
Our imputation shall be oddly pois'd

In this wild action: for the success,
Although particular, shall give a scantling1
Of good or bad unto the general;

And in such indexes, although small pricks2
To their subséquent volumes, there is seen
The baby figure of the giant mass

Of things to come at large. It is suppos'd,
He, that meets Hector, issues from our choice:
And choice, being mutual act of all our souls,
Makes merit her election; and doth boil,
As 'twere from forth us all, a man distill'd
Out of our virtues; Who miscarrying,

What heart receives from hence a conquering part,
To steel a strong opinion to themselves?
Which entertain'd,3 limbs are his instruments,4
In no less working, than are swords and bows
Directive by the limbs.

Ulyss. Give pardon to my speech ;

Therefore 'tis meet, Achilles meet not Hector.
Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares,
And think, perchance, they'll sell; if not,5
The lustre of the better shall exceed,

By showing the worse first. Do not consent,

scantling-] That is, a measure, proportion. The carpen

ter cuts his wood to a certain scantling

Johnson.

So, in John Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essays, folio, 1603: "When the lion's skin will not suffice, we must add a scantling of the fox's." Malone.

2 -

small pricks—] Small points compared with the volumes.

Johnson.

Indexes were, in Shakspeare's time, often prefixed to books.

Malone. 3 Which entertain'd, &c.] These two lines [and the concluding hemistich] are not in the quarto. Johnson.

4

-limbs are his instruments,] The folio reads:
·limbs are in his instruments.

I have omitted the impertinent preposition. Steevens.

5 if not,] I suppose, for the sake of metre, we should read: if they do not. Steevens.

6 The lustre of the better shall exceed,

By showing the worse first.] The folio reads:

That ever Hector and Achilles meet;
For both our honour and our shame, in this,
Are dogg'd with two strange followers.

Nest. I see them not with my old eyes; what are they? Ulyss. What glory our Achilles shares from Hector, Were he not proud, we all should share with him: But he already is too insolent;

And we were better parch in Africk sun,
Than in the pride and salt scorn of his eyes,
Should he 'scape Hector fair: If he were foil'd,
Why, then we did our main opinion crush
In taint of our best man. No, make a lottery;
And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw

The lustre of the better, yet to show,

Shall show the better.

I once thought that the alteration was made by the author; but a more diligent comparison of the quartos and the first folio has convinced me that some arbitrary alterations were made in the latter copy by its editor. The quarto copy of this play is in general more correct than the folio Malone.

7

share] So, the quarto. The folio-wear. Johnson. 8 our main opinion] is, our general estimation or character. See Vol. VIII, p. 328, n. 5. Opinion has already been used in this scene in the same sense. Malone.

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-blockish Ajax -] Shakspeare, on this occasion, has deserted Lydgate, who gives a very different character of Ajax: "Another Ajax (surnamed Telamon)

Again:

"There was, a man that learning did adore," &c.

"Who did so much in eloquence abound,

"That in his time the like could not be found."

"And one that hated pride and flattery," &c.

Our author appears to have drawn his portrait of the Grecian chief from the invectives thrown out against him by Ulysses in the thirteenth Book of Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Golding, 1587; or from the prologue to Harrington's Metamorphosis of Ajax, 1596, in which he is represented as "strong, heady, boisterous, and a terrible fighting fellow, but neither wise, learned, staide, nor polliticke" Steevens.

I suspect that Shakspeare confounded Ajax Telamonius with Ajax Oileus. The characters of each of them are given by Lydgate. Shakspeare knew that one of the Ajaxes was Hector's nephew, the son of his sister; but perhaps did not know that he was Ajax Telamonius, and in consequence of not attending to this circumstance has attributed to the person whom he has introduced in this play part of the character which Lydgate had drawn for Ajax Oileus:

The sort to fight with Hector: Among ourselves,

"Oileus Ajax was right corpulent;

"To be well cladde he set all his entent.
"In rich aray he was full curyous,
"Although he were of body corsyous.

"Of armes great, with shoulders square and brode;
"It was of him almost a horse-lode.
"High of stature, and boystrous in a pres,
"And of his speech rude, and rechless.
"Full many worde in ydel hym asterte,
"And but a coward was he of his herte."

Ajax Telamonius he thus describes:

"An other Ajax Thelamonvius

"There was also, diserte and virtuous;
"Wonder faire and semely to behold,
"Whose heyr was black and upward ay gan folde,
"In compas wise round as any sphere;
"And of musyke was there none his pere.
yet had he good practike

"In armes eke, and was a noble knight.

"No man more orped, nor hardy er for to fight,
"Nor desirous for to have victorye;

"Devoyde of pomp, hating all vayn glorye,
"All ydle laud spent and blowne in vayne."

Lydgate's Auncient Historie, &c. 1555. There is not the smallest ground in Lydgate for what the author of the Rifacimento of this poem, published in 1614, has introduced, concerning his eloquence and adoring learning. See Mr. Steevens's note.

Perhaps, however, The Destruction of Troy led Shakspeare to give this representation; for the author of that book, describing these two persons, improperly calls Ajax Oileus, simply Ajax, as the more eminent of the two:

66

Ajax was of a huge stature, great and large in the shoulders, great armes, and always was well clothed, and very richly; and was of no great enterprize, and spake very quicke. Thelamon Ajax was a marvellous faire knight; he had black hayres, and he hadde great pleasure in musicke, and he sang him selfe very well: he was of greate prowesse, and a valiant man of warre, and without pompe." Malone.

Mr. Malone observes, that "there is not the smallest ground, &c. concerning his eloquence and adoring learning." But may we ask what interpretation this gentleman would give to the epithets diserte and virtuous ?"

By the first word, (formed from the Latin disertus,) eloquence must have been designed; and by the latter, the artes ingenue, which in the age of Lydgate were often called the virtuous arts.

1 The sort] i. e. the lot. Steevens. So, in Lydgate's Auncient Historie, &c:

Steevens.

Give him allowance for the better man,

For that will physick the great Myrmidon,
Who broils in loud applause; and make him fall
His crest, that prouder than blue Iris bends.
If the dull brainless Ajax come safe off,
We'll dress him up in voices: If he fail,
Yet go we under our opinion2 still,

That we have better men. But, hit or miss,
Our project's life this shape of sense assumes,—
Ajax, employ'd, plucks down Achilles' plumes.
Nest. Ulysses,

Now I begin to relish thy advice; 3

And I will give a taste of it forthwith

To Agamemnon: go we to him straight.

Two curs shall tame each other; Pride alone
Must tarre the mastiffs on,4 as 'twere their bone.

[Exeunt,

ACT II5.....SCENE I.

Another Part of the Grecian Camp.

Enter AJAX and THERSITES.

Ajax. Thersites,

Ther. Agamemnon-how if he had boils? full, all over, generally?

2

3

Especially of calculation;

"Of sorte also, and divynation." Malone.

under our opinion] Here again opinion means character.

Ulysses,

Malone.

Now I begin &c.] The quarto and folio have-Now Ulysses, I begin, &c. The transposition was made by Mr. Steevens.

Malone. 4 Must tarre the mastiffs on,] Tarre, an old English word, signifying to provoke or urge on. See King John, Act IV, sc. i:

66

like a dog,

"Snatch at his master that, doth tarre him on." Pope. 5 Act II.] This play is not divided into Acts in any of the original editions. Johnson.

Ajax. Thersites,

Ther. And those boils did run?—Say so,-did not the general run then? were not that a botchy core?

Ajax. Dog,

Ther. Then would come some matter from him; I

see none now.

Ajax. Thou bitch-wolf's son, canst thou not hear? Feel then. [Strikes him. Ther. The plague of Greece upon thee, thou mongrel beef-witted lord!"

Ajax. Speak then, thou unsalted leaven, speak: I will beat thee into handsomeness.

6 The plague of Greece upon thee,] Alluding perhaps to the plague sent by Apollo on the Grecian army. Johnson.

The following lines of Lydgate's Auncient Historie of the Warres between the Trojans and the Grecians, 1555, were probably here in our author's thoughts:

"And in this whyle a great mortalyte, "Both of sworde and of pestilence, "Among Greekes, by fatal influence "Of noyous hete and of corrupt eyre, "Engendred was, that tho in great dispayre "Of theyr life in the fyelde they leye, "For day by day sodaynly they deye, "Whereby theyr nombre fast gan dyscrece; "And whan they sawe that it ne wolde sece, "By theyr advyse the kyng Agamemnow ne "For a trew se sent unto the towne, "For thirty dayes, and Priamus the kinge "Without abode graunted his axynge." Our author may as well be supposed to have caught this circumstance, relative to the plague, from the first Book of Hall's or Chapman's version of the Iliad. Steevens.

Malone.

7 -thou mongrel beef-witted lord!] So, in Twelfth Night: "I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit." Steevens.

He calls Ajax mongrel on account of his father's being a Grecian and his mother a Trojan. See Hector's speech to Ajax, in Act IV, sc. v:

"Thou art, great lord, my father's sister's son," &c.

Malone.

8 Speak then, thou unsalted leaven, speak:] Unsalted leaven means sour without salt, malignity without wit. Shakspeare wrote first unsalted; but recollecting that want of salt was no fault in leaven, changed it to vinew'd. Johnson.

The want of salt is no fault in leaven; but leaven without the addition of salt will not make good bread: hence Shakspeare used it as a term of reproach. Malone.