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ACHIL. Welcome, brave Hector; welcome, princes all.

AGAM. So now, fair prince of Troy, I bid good

night.

Ajax commands the guard to tend on you.

HECT. Thanks, and good night, to the Greeks general.

MEN. Good night, my lord.

HECT.

Good night, sweet Menelaus."

THER. Sweet draught: 3 Sweet, quoth 'a! sweet sink, sweet sewer.

ACHIL. Good night,

And welcome, both to those that go, or tarry.

AGAM. Good night.

[Exeunt AGAMEMNON and MENELAUS. ACHIL. Old Nestor tarries; and you too, Diomed, Keep Hector company an hour or two.

DIO. I cannot, lord; I have important business, The tide whereof is now.-Good night, great Hector.

HECT. Give me your hand.

-sweet Menelaus.] Old copy, redundantly,-sweet lord Menelaus. STEEVENS.

3

Sweet draught:] Draught is the old word for forica. It is used in the vulgar translation of the Bible. MALONE.

So, in Holinshed, and a thousand other places. STEEVens.

ULYSS.
To Calchas' tent; I'll keep you company.

Follow his torch, he goes

[Aside to TROIlus.

And so good night.

TRO. Sweet sir, you honour me.

HECT.

[Exit DIOMED; ULYSSES and TROILUS following.

ACHIL. Come, come, enter my tent.

[Exeunt ACHILLES, HECTOR, Ajax, and NESTOR.

THER. That same Diomed's a false-hearted rogue, a most unjust knave; I will no more trust him when he leers, than I will a serpent when he hisses he will spend his mouth, and promise, like Brabler the hound; but when he performs, astronomers foretell it; it is prodigious,5 there will come some change; the sun borrows of the moon, when Diomed keeps his word. I will rather leave to see Hector, than not to dog him: they say, he keeps a Trojan drab," and uses the traitor Calchas' tent: I'll after.-Nothing but lechery! all incontinent varlets!

[Exit.

he will spend his mouth, and promise, like Brabler the hound;] If a hound gives his mouth, and is not upon the scent of the game, he is by sportsmen called a babler or brabler. The proverb says " Brabling curs never want sore ears."

ANONYMOUS.

-prodigious,] i. e. portentous, ominous. So, in King

Richard III:

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• they say, he keeps a Trojan drab,] This character of Diómed is likewise taken from Lydgate. STEEVENS.

SCENE II.

The same. Before Calchas' Tent.

Enter DIOMEDES.

DIO. What are you up here, ho? speak.
CAL. [Within.] Who calls?

DIO. Diomed.-Calchas, I think.-Where's

your daughter?

CAL. [Within.] She comes to you.

Enter TROILUS and ULYSSES, at a distance; after them THERSITES.

ULYSS. Stand where the torch may not discover us.

Enter CRESSIDA.

TRO. Cressid come forth to him!

DIO.

How now, my charge?

CRES. Now, my sweet guardian!-Hark! a word

with you.

TRO. Yea, so familiar!

[Whispers.

ULYSS. She will sing any man at first sight." THER. And any man may sing her, if he can take her cliff; she's noted.

7 She will sing any man at first sight.] We now say-sing at sight. The meaning is the same.

MALONE.

"her cliff;] That is, her key. Clef, French.

JOHNSON.

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DIO. Will you remember?

CRES.

Remember? yes.

DIO.

Nay, but do then;'

And let your mind be coupled with your words. TRO. What should she remember?

ULYSS. List!

CRES. Sweet honey Greek, tempt me no more to folly.

THER. Roguery!

DIO. Nay, then,

CRES.

I'll tell you what:

Dro. Pho! pho! come, tell a pin: You are for

sworn.

CRES. In faith, I cannot: What would you have me do?

THER A juggling trick, to be-secretly open. DIO. What did you swear you would bestow on me?

CRES. I pr'ythee, do not hold me to mine oath; Bid me do any thing but that, sweet Greek.

Cliff, i. e. a mark in musick at the beginning of the lines of a song; and is the indication of the pitch, and bespeaks what kind of voice-as base, tenour, or treble, it is proper for.

SIR J. HAWKINS. So, in The Chances, by Beaumont and Fletcher, where Antonio, employing musical terms, says:

66

Will none but my C. cliff serve your turn?” Again, in The Lover's Melancholy, 1629:

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"Whom art had never taught cliffs, moods, or notes."

STEEVENS,

Nay, but do then ;] I suppose, for the sake of metre, the word-Nay, should be omitted. Yet such is the irregularity or mutilation of this dialogue, that it is not always easy to determine how much of it was meant for prose or verse. STEEVENS.

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DIO. No, no, good night: I'll be your fool no

more.

TRO. Thy better must.

CRESS.

Hark! one word in your ear.

TRO. O plague and madness!

ULYSS. You are mov'd, prince; let us depart, I
pray you,

Lest your displeasure should enlarge itself
To wrathful terms: this place is dangerous;
The time right deadly; I beseech you, go.
TRO. Behold, I pray you!

ULYSS.

You flow to great destruction;' come, my lord.

Now, good my lord, go off:

You have not patience; come.

TRO. I pr'ythee, stay.

ULYSS.

You flow to great destruction;] Means, I think, your impetuosity is such as must necessarily expose you to imminent danger. MALOne.

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I would adhere to the old reading: You flow to great destruction, or distraction, means the tide of your imagination will hurry you either to noble death from the hand of Diomedes, or to the height of madness from the predominance of your own passions. STEEVENS.

Possibly we ought to read destruction, as Ulysses has told Troilus just before:

66 this place is dangerous;

"The time right deadly." M. MASON.

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