Made tame and most familiar to my nature; To give me now a little benefit, Out of those many register'd in promise, AGAM. What would'st thou of us, Trojan? make demand. CAL. You have a Trojan prisoner, call'd Antenor, Again, in Daniel's Civil Warres, B. IV. st. 72, edit. 1602; "She doth conspire to have him made away,"Thrust thereinto not only with her pride, "But by her father's counsell and consent.” Again, in our author's All's well that ends well: 66 I'll stay at home, "And pray God's blessing into thy attempt." MALONE, The folio reads -in things to love, which appears to me to have no meaning, unless we adopt the explanation of Mr. Steevens, which would make sense of it. The present reading, though supported by Johnson and Malone, is little better than nonsense, and there is this objection to it, that it was Juno, not Jove, that persecuted the Trojans. Jove wished them well; and though we may abandon a man to his enemies, we cannot, with propriety, say, that we abandon him to his friends. Let me add, that the speech of Calchas would have been incomplete, if he had said that he abandoned Troy, from the sight he bore of things, without explaining it by adding the words to come. I should, therefore, adhere to that reading, which I consider as one of those happy amendments which do not require any authority to support them. The merit of Calchas did not merely consist in his having come over to the Greeks; he also revealed to them the fate of Troy, which depended on their conveying away the palladium, and the horses of Rhesus, before they should drink of the river Xanthus. M. MASON. 8 -Antenor,] Very few particulars respecting this Trojan are preserved by Homer. But as Professor Heyne, in his seventh Excursus to the first Æneid, observes, "Fuit Antenor inter Yesterday took; Troy holds him very dear. eos, in quorum rebus ornandis ii maxime scriptores laborarunt, qui narrationes Homericas novis commentis de suo onerarunt; non aliter ac si delectatio a mere fabulosis & temere effusis figmentis proficisceretur." STEEvens. 9 such a wrest in their affairs,] According to Dr. Johnson, who quotes this line in his Dictionary, the meaning is, that the loss of Antenor is such a violent distortion of their affairs, &c. But as in a former scene [p. 273-see n. 2,] we had o'er-rested for o'er-wrested, so here I strongly suspect wrest has been printed instead of rest. Antenor is such a stay or support of their affairs, &c. All the ancient English muskets had rests by which they were supported. The subsequent wordswanting his manage-appear to me to confirm the emendation. To say that Antenor himself (for so the passage runs, not the loss of Antenor,) is a violent distortion of the Trojan negociations, is little better than nonsense. MALONE. I have been informed that a wrest anciently signified a sort of tuning-hammer, by which the strings of some musical instruments were screwed or wrested up to their proper degree of tension. Antenor's advice might be supposed to produce a congenial effect on the Trojan councils, which otherwise 66 66 must slack, Wanting his manage ; STEEVENS. Wrest is not misprinted for rest, as Mr. Malone supposes, in his correction of Dr. Johnson, who has certainly mistaken the sense of this word. It means an instrument for tuning the harp by drawing up the strings. Laneham, in his Letter from Kenilworth, p. 50, describing a minstrel, says, "his harp in good grace dependaunt before him; his wreast tyed to a green lace and hanging by." And again, in Wynne's History of the Gwedir Family: "And setting forth very early before day, unwittingly carried upon his finger the wrest of his cosen's harpe." To wrest, is to wind. See Minsheu's Dictionary. The form of the wrest may be seen in some of the illuminated service books, wherein David is represented playing on his harp; in the second part of Mersenna's Harmonics, p. 69; and in the Syntagmata of Prætorius, Vol. II. Fig. xix. DOUCE. That their negotiations all must slack, In change of him: let him be sent, great princes, AGAM. Let Diomedes bear him, Withal, bring word-if Hector will to-morrow [Exeunt DIOMEDES and CALCHAS. Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS, before their Tent. ULYSS. Achilles stands i'the entrance of his Please it our general to pass strangely by him, 1 1 In most accepted pain.] Sir T. Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton after him, read: In most accepted pay. They do not seem to understand the construction of the passage. Her presence, says Calchas, shall strike off, or recompense the service I have done, even in those labours which were most accepted. JOHNSON. 2 Why such unplausive eyes are bent, why turn'd on him:] If the eyes were bent on him, they were turn'd on him. This If so, I have derision med'cinable, AGAM. We'll execute your purpose, and put on ACHIL. What, comes the general to speak with me? You know my mind, I'll fight no more 'gainst Troy. AGAM. What says Achilles? would he aught with us? NEST. Would you, my lord, aught with the general? MEN. How do you? how do you? [Exit MENELAUs, tautology, therefore, together with the redundancy of the line, plainly show that we ought to read, with Sir Thomas Hanmer: Why such unplausive eyes are bent on him STEEVENS. ACHIL. Good morrow.3 AJAX. Ay, and good next day too. [Exit AJAX. ACHIL. What mean these fellows? Know they not Achilles? PATR. They pass by strangely: they were us'd to bend, To send their smiles before them to Achilles; ACHIL. What, am I poor of late? Hath any honour; but honour for those honours Which when they fall, as being slippery standers, Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out Good morrow.] Perhaps, in this repetition of the salute, we should read, as in the preceding instance,-Good morrow, Ajax; or, with more colloquial spirit,-I say, good. morrow. Otherwise the metre is defective. STEEVENS. but honour-] Thus the quarto. The folio reads but honour'd. MALONE. |