To call upon him; he hopes, it is no other,
But, for your health and your digestion sake,
An after-dinner's breath.

Agam.

Hear you, Patroclus;

We are too well acquainted with these answers:
But his evasion, wing'd thus swift with scorn,
Cannot outfly our apprehensions.

Much attribute he hath; and much the reason
Why we ascribe it to him: yet all his virtues,-
Not virtuously on his own part beheld,—
Do, in our eyes, begin to lose their gloss;
Yea, like fair fruit in an unwholesome dish,
Are like to rot untasted. Go and tell him,

We come to speak with him: And you shall not sin,
If you do say we think him over-proud,

And under-honest; in self-assumption greater,

Than in the note of judgment ;7 and worthier than himself
Here tend the savage strangeness he puts on;
Disguise the holy strength of their command,
And underwrite in an observing kind1
His humorous predominance; yea, watch
His pettish lunes, 2 his ebbs, his flows, as if

Yet Mr. Steevens's interpretation appears to me to agree better with the context here. Malone.

6 breath.] Breath, in the present instance, stands forbreathing, i. e. exercise. So, in Hamlet: "—it is the breathing time of day with me." Steevens.

7 Than in the note &c.] Surely the two unnecessary words-in the, which spoil the metre, should be omitted. Steevens.

8

tend the savage strangeness-] i. e. shyness distant behaviour. So, in Venus and Adonis:

“Measure my strangeness with my unripe years."

Again, in Romeo and Juliet:

I'll prove more true,

"Than those that have more cunning to be strange."

To tend is to attend upon. Malone.

9 underwrite] To subscribe, in Shakspeare, is to obey.

Johnson.

So, in King Lear: "You owe me no subscription." Steevens.

11

in an observing kind —] i. e. in a mode religiously attentive. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

"To do observance to a morn of May." Steevens.

2 His pettish lunes,] This is Sir T. Hanmer's emendation of his pettish lines. The old quarto reads:

His course and time.

The passage and whole carriage of this action
Rode on his tide. Go, tell him this; and add,
That, if he overhold his price so much,
We'll none of him; but let him, like an engine
Not portable, lie under this report—

Bring action hither, this cannot go to war:
A stirring dwarf we do allowance give3

Before a sleeping giant:-Tell him so.

Patr. I shall; and bring his answer presently. [Exit. Agam. In second voice we 'll not be satisfied,

We come to speak with him.-Ulysses, enter.^

[Exit ULYSS.

Ajax. What is he more than another? Agam. No more than what he thinks he is. Ajax. Is he so much? Do you not think, he thinks himself a better man than I am?

Agam. No question.

Ajax. Will you subscribe his thought, and say—he is? Agam. No, noble Ajax; you are as strong, as valiant, as wise, no less noble, much more gentle, and altogether more tractable.

Ajax. Why should a man be proud? How doth pride grow? I know not what pride is.

Agam. Your mind's the clearer, Ajax, and your virtues the fairer. He that is proud, eats up himself: pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle; and whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise.5

This speech is unfaithfully printed in modern editions. Johnson. The quarto reads:

His course and time, his ebbs and flows and if

The passage and whole stream of his commencement

Rode on his tide.

His [his commencement] was probably misprinted for this, as it is in a subsequent passage in this scene in the quarto copy: "And how his silence drinks up his applause." Malone. allowance give-] Allowance is approbation. So, in King

3

Lear:

4

5

66- If your sweet sway

"Allow obedience." Steevens.

enter.] Old copies, regardless of metre,-enter you."

Steevens.

whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in

the praise.] So, in Coriolanus:

Ajax. I do hate a proud man, as I hate the engendering of toads."

Nest. And yet he loves himself: Is it not strange?

Re-enter ULYSSES.

Ulyss. Achilles will not to the field to-morrow.
Agam. What's his excuse?

[Aside.

· He doth rely on none;

Ulyss.
But carries on the stream of his dispose,
Without observance or respect of any,

In will peculiar and in self-admission.

Agam. Why will he not, upon our fair request, Untent his person, and share the air with us?

Ulyss. Things small as nothing, for request's sake only,

He makes important: Possess'd he is with greatness;
And speaks not to himself, but with a pride
That quarrels at self-breath: imagin'd worth
Holds in his blood such swoln and hot discourse,
That, 'twixt his mental and his active parts,
Kingdom'd Achilles in commotion rages,"
And batters down himself: What should I say?
He is so plaguy proud,8* that the death tokens of it
Cry No recovery.

6

Agam.

Let Ajax go to him.

power, unto itself most commendable, "Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair

"To extol what it hath done." Malone.

the engendering of toads.] Whoever wishes to comprehend the whole force of this allusion, may consult the late Dr. Gold. smith's History of the World, and animated Nature, Vol. VII, p. 92-93. Steevens.

7 Kingdom'd Achilles in commotion rages,] So, in Julius Cæsar "The genius and the mortal instruments

"Are then in council; and the state of man,

"Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
"The nature of an insurrection."

Malone.

8 He is so plaguy proud, &c.] I cannot help regarding the vul gar epithet-plaguy, which extends the verse beyond its proper length, as the wretched interpolation of some foolish player."

Steevens

* Yet Mr. Steevens, in the note which follows, gives a differen explanation to this vulgarism. In fact, to deprive the line of the word plaguy would be to destroy the allusion. Am. Ed.

Dear lord, go you and greet him in his tent:
'Tis said, he holds you well; and will be led,
At your request, a little from himself.

Ulyss. O Agamemnon, let it not be so!
We'll consecrate the steps that Ajax makes
When they go from Achilles: Shall the proud lord,
That bastes his arrog nce with his own seam;1
And never suffers matter of the world

Enter his thoughts.-save such as do revolve
And ruminate himself,-shall he be worshipp❜d
Of that we hold an idol more than he?
No, this thrice-worthy and right-valiant lord
Must not so stale his palm, nobly acquir'd;
Nor, by my will, assubjugate his merit,
As amply titled as Achilles is,

By going to Achilles:

That were to enlard his fat-already pride; 2
And add more coals to Cancer, when he burns
With entertaining great Hyperion. 3

This lord go to him! Jupiter forbid;

91

the death-tokens of it —] Alluding to the decisive spots appearing on those infected by the plague. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Valentinian:

"Now, like the fearful tokens of the plague,

"Are mere fore-runners of their ends." Steevens.

Dr. Hodges, in his Treatise on the Plague, says: "Spots of a dark complexion, usually called tokens, and looked on as the pledges or forewarnings of death, are minute and distinct blasts, which have their original from within, and rise up with a little pyramidal protuberance, the pestilential poison chiefly collected at their bases, tainting the neighbouring parts, and reaching to the surface." Reed.

11

with his own seam:] Swine-seam, in the North, is hog'slard. Ritson.

See Sherwood's English and French Dictionary, folio, 1650.

Malone. 2 That were to enlard, &c.] This is only the well-known proverb -Grease a fat sow &c. in a more stately dress Steevens.

3 to Cancer, when he burns

With entertaining great Hyperion.] Cancer is the Crab, a sign in the zodiac.

The same thought is more clearly expressed by Thomson, whose words, on this occasion, are a sufficient illustration of our author's:

"And Cancer reddens with the solar blaze." Steevens.

And say in thunder-Achilles, go to him.

Nest. O, this is well; he rubs the vein of him. [Aside. Dio. And how his silence drinks up this applause!

[Aside. Ajax. If I go to him, with my arm'd fist I 'll pash him Over the face.4

Agam.

O, no, you shall not go. Ajax. An he be proud with me, I'll pheeze his pride:5

Let me go to him.

Ulyss. Not for the worth that hangs upon our quarrel. Ajax. A paltry, insolent fellow,

Nest.

Himself!

How he describes

[Aside.

Ajax. Can he not be sociable?

Ulyss.

The raven

Chides blackness.

[Aside.

I'll pash him

Over the face i. e. strike him with violence. So, in The Virgin Martyr, by Massinger, 1623:

when the batt'ring ram

"Were fetching his career backward, to pash
"Me with his horns to pieces."

the pot

Again, in Churchyard's Challenge, 1596, p. 91: "which goeth often to the water comes home with a knock, or at length is pashed all to pieces." Reed.

5

pheeze his pride:] To pheeze is to comb or curry.

Johnson.

Mr. Steevens has explained the word Feaze, as Dr. Johnson does, to mean the untwisting or unravelling a knotted skain of silk or thread. I recollect no authority for this use of it. To feize is to drive away; and the expression-I'll feize his pride, may signify, I'll humble or lower his pride. See Vol. VI, p. 11, n. 1. Whalley.

To comb or curry, undoubtedly, is the meaning of the word here. Kersey, in his Dictionary, 1708, says that it is a sea-term, and that it signifies, to separate a cable by untwisting the ends; and Dr. Johnson gives a similar account of its original meaning. [See the reference at the end of the foregoing note.] But whatever may have been the origin of the expression, it undoubtedly signified, in our author's time, to beat, knock, strike, or whip. Cole, in his Latin Dictionary, 1679, renders it, flagellare, virgis cædere, as he does to feage, of which the modern school-boy term, to fag, is a corruption. Malone.

6 Not for the worth-] Not for the value of all for which we are fighting. Johnson.