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Now, Hector, I have fed mine eyes on thee;
I have with exact view perus'd thee, Hector,
And quoted joint by joint.3

HECT.

ACHIL. I am Achilles.

Is this Achilles?

2

HECT. Stand fair, I pray thee: let me look on thee.

your tent, I shall draw him first into mine. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Cupid's Revenge, Act III. sc. i:

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O dissembling woman,

“Whom I must reverence though

99 TYRWHITT.

The repetition of thou! was anciently used by one who meant to insult another. So, in Twelfth-Night: "—if thou thou'st him some thrice, it shall not be amiss."

Again, in The Tempest:

"Thou ly'st, thou jesting monkey, thou!" Again, in the first scene of the fifth Act of this play: tassel of a prodigal's purse, thou!" STEEVENS.

66 -thou

Steevens's observations on the use of the word thou are perfectly just, and therefore I agree with Tyrwhitt that we ought to read: "lord Ulysses, though!" as it could not be the intention of Achilles to affront Ulysses, but merely to inform him, that he expected to entertain Hector before he did.

M. MASON. Mr. Steevens's remark is incontrovertibly true; but Ulysses had not said any thing to excite such contempt. MALONE.

Perhaps the scorn of Achilles arose from a supposition that Ulysses, by inviting Hector immediately after his visit to Agamemnon, designed to represent himself as the person next in rank and consequence to the general of the Grecian forces.

STEEVENS.

2 Now, Hector, I have fed mine eyes on thee;] The hint for this scene of altercation between Achilles and Hector is taken from Lydgate. See p. 178. STEEVENS.

3 And quoted joint by joint.] To quote is to observe. So, in Hamlet:

"I'm sorry that with better heed and judgment
"I had not quoted him."

Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"Thu. And how quote you my folly?

"Val. I quote it in your jerkin." STEEVENS.

ACHIL. Behold thy fill.

HECT.

Nay, I have done already.

ACHIL. Thou art too brief; I will the second

time,

As I would buy thee, view thee limb by limb. HECT. O, like a book of sport thou❜lt read me o'er;

But there's more in me than thou understand'st.
Why dost thou so oppress me with thine eye?
ACHIL. Tell me, you heavens, in which part of
his body

Shall I destroy him? whether there, there, or there?
That I may give the local wound a name;
And make distinct the very breach, whereout
Hector's great spirit flew: Answer me, heavens!
HECT. It would discredit the bless'd gods, proud

man,

To answer such a question: Stand again :
Think'st thou to catch my life so pleasantly,
As to prenominate in nice conjecture,
Where thou wilt hit me dead?

ACHIL.

I tell thee, yea,

HECT. Wert thou an oracle to tell me so, I'd not believe thee. Henceforth guard thee well; For I'll not kill thee there, nor there, nor there; But, by the forge that stithied Mars his helm,* I'll kill thee every where, yea, o'er and o'er.You wisest Grecians, pardon me this brag, His insolence draws folly from my lips;

4

But, by the forge that stithied Mars his helm,] A stithy is an anvil, and from hence the verb stithied is formed.

The word is still used in Yorkshire. MALONE.

M. MASON.

A stith is an anvil, a stithy a smith's shop. See Hamlet, Act III. sc. ii. Vol. XVIII. STEEVENS.

But I'll endeavour deeds to match these words, I never

Or may
AJAX.

Do not chafe thee, cousin;And you, Achilles, let these threats alone, Till accident, or purpose, bring you to't: You may have every day enough of Hector, If you have stomach; the general state, I fear, Can scarce entreat you to be odd with him.5

6

HECT. I pray you, let us see you in the field; We have had pelting wars, since you refus'd The Grecians' cause.

ACHIL.

Dost thou entreat me, Hector? To-morrow, do I meet thee, fell as death; To-night, all friends.

HECT.

Thy hand upon that match.

AGAM. First, all you peers of Greece, go to my

tent;

There in the full convive" we: afterwards,
As Hector's leisure and your bounties shall
Concur together, severally entreat him.—

5

the general state, I fear,

Can scarce entreat you to be odd with him.] Ajax treats Achilles with contempt, and means to insinuate that he was afraid of fighting with Hector. "You may every day (says he) have enough of Hector, if you choose it; but I believe the whole state of Greece will scarcely prevail on you to engage with him."

To have a stomach to any thing is, to have an inclination to it. M. MASON.

6

-pelting wars,] i. e. petty, inconsiderable ones. So, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream:

"Have every pelting river made so proud," &c.

See Vol. IV. p. 357, n. 5. STEevens.

7

-convive-] To convive is to feast. This word is not peculiar to Shakspeare. I find it several times used in The History of Helyas Knight of the Swanne, bl. 1. no date.

STEEVENS.

Beat loud the tabourines, let the trumpets blow,
That this great soldier may his welcome know."
[Exeunt all but TROILUS and ULYSSES.
TRO. My lord Ulysses, tell me, I beseech you,
In what place of the field doth Calchas keep?

ULYSS. At Menelaus' tent, most princely Troilus:
There Diomed doth feast with him to-night;
Who neither looks upon the heaven, nor earth,
But gives all gaze and bent of amorous view
On the fair Cressid.

TRO. Shall I, sweet lord, be bound to you so

much,

After we part from Agamemnon's tent,

To bring me thither?

ULYSS.

You shall command me, sir. As gentle tell me, of what honour was

This Cressida in Troy? Had she no lover there That wails her absence?

TRO. O, sir, to such as boasting show their scars, A mock is due. Will you walk on, my lord? She was belov'd, she lov'd; she is, and doth : But, still, sweet love is food for fortune's tooth. [Exeunt.

Beat loud the tabourines,] For this the quarto and the latter editions have

To taste your bounties.

The reading which I have given from the folio seems chosen at the revision, to avoid the repetition of the word bounties.

JOHNSON.

Tabourines are small drums. The word occurs again in Antony and Cleopatra. STEEVENS.

That this great soldier may his welcome know.] So, in Macbeth:

"That this great king may kindly say,

"Our duties did his welcome pay." STEEVENS.

ACT V. SCENE I.

The Grecian Camp. Before Achilles' Tent.

Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS.

ACHIL. I'll. heat his blood with Greekish wine to-night,

Which with my scimitar I'll cool to-morrow.'Patroclus, let us feast him to the height.2

PATR. Here comes Thersites.

ACHIL.

Enter THERSITES.

How now, thou core of envy?

Thou crusty batch of nature,3 what's the news?

'I'll heat his blood with Greekish wine to-night,

Which with my scimitar I'll cool to-morrow.] Grammar requires us to read

With Greekish wine to-night I'll heat his blood,

Which &c.

Otherwise, Achilles threatens to cool the wine, instead of Hector's blood. STEEVENS.

2

to the height.] The same phrase occurs in King Henry VIII:

"He's traitor to the height." STEEvens.

Thou crusty batch of nature,] Batch is changed by Theobald to botch, and the change is justified by a pompous note, which discovers that he did not know the word batch. What is more strange, Hanmer has followed him. Batch is any thing baked. JOHNSON.

Batch does not signify any thing baked, but all that is baked at one time, without heating the oven afresh. So, Ben Jonson, in his Catiline:

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Except he were of the same meal and batch."

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