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TRO. Let me read.

PAN. A whoreson ptisick, a whoreson rascally ptisick so troubles me, and the foolish fortune of this girl; and what one thing, what another, that I shall leave you one o'these days: And I have a rheum in mine eyes too; and such an ache in my bones, that, unless a man were cursed," I cannot tell what to think on't.-What says she there?

TRO. Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart; [Tearing the letter. The effect doth operate another way.― Go, wind, to wind, there turn and change toge

ther.

My love with words and errors still she feeds;
But edifies another with her deeds.

[Exeunt severally.

SCENE IV.

Between Troy and the Grecian Camp.

Alarums: Excursions. Enter THERSITES.

THER. Now they are clapper-clawing one another; I'll go look on. That dissembling abominable varlet, Diomed, has got that same scurvy doting foolish young knave's sleeve of Troy there, in his helm: I would fain see them meet; that that same young Trojan ass, that loves the whore there, might send that Greekish whoremasterly villain, with the

7 cursed,] i. e. under the influence of a malediction, such as mischievous beings have been supposed to pronounce upon those who had offended them. STEEVENS.

sleeve, back to the dissembling luxurious drab, on a sleeveless errand. O'the other side, The policy of those crafty swearing rascals,8-that stale old mouse-eaten dry cheese, Nestor; and that same dog-fox, Ulysses,-is not proved worth a blackberry:-They set me up, in policy, that mongrel cur, Ajax, against that dog of as bad a kind, Achilles and now is the cur Ajax prouder than the cur Achilles, and will not arm to-day; whereupon the Grecians begin to proclaim barbarism,ꞌ and policy grows into an ill opinion. Soft! here come sleeve, and t'other.

Enter DIOMEDES, TROILUS following.

TRO. Fly not; for, shouldst thou take the river Styx,

I would swim after.

DIO.

Thou dost miscall retire:

I do not fly; but advantageous care
Withdrew me from the odds of multitude:
Have at thee!

8

O' the other side, The policy of those crafty swearing rascals, &c.] But in what sense are Nestor and Ulysses accused of being swearing rascals? What, or to whom, did they swear? I am positive that sneering is the true reading. They had collogued with Ajax, and trimmed him up with insincere praises, only in order to have stirred Achilles's emulation. In this, they were the true sneerers; betraying the first, to gain their ends on the latter by that artifice. THEOBALD.

Sneering was applicable to the characters of Nestor and Ulysses, and to their conduct in this play; but swearing was not. M. MASON.

9—to proclaim barbarism,] To set up the authority of ignorance, to declare that they will be governed by policy no longer. JOHNSON.

THER. Hold thy whore, Grecian !-now for thy whore, Trojan!-now the sleeve, now the sleeve! [Exeunt TROILUS and DIOMEDES, fighting.

Enter HECTOR.

HECT. What art thou, Greek? art thou for Hector's match?

Art thou of blood, and honour? 1

THER. No, no:-I am a rascal; a scurvy railing knave; a very filthy rogue.

HECT. I do believe thee;-live.

[Exit.

THER. God-a-mercy, that thou wilt believe me; But a plague break thy neck, for frighting me! What's become of the wenching rogues? I think, they have swallowed one another: I would laugh at that miracle. Yet, in a sort, lechery eats itself. I'll seek them. [Exit.

1 Art thou of blood, and honour?] This is an idea taken from the ancient books of romantick chivalry, as is the following one in the speech of Diomedes:

"And am her knight by proof." STEEVENS.

It appears from Segar on Honor, Military and Civil, folio, 1602, p. 122, that a person of superior birth might not be challenged, by an inferior, or if challenged might refuse the combat. Alluding to this circumstance Cleopatra says:

"These hands do lack nobility, that they strike

"A meaner than myself."

We learn from Melvil's Memoirs, p. 165, edit. 1735, that "the Laird of Grange offered to fight Bothwell, who answered, that he was neither Earl nor Lord, but a Baron; and so was not his equal. The like answer made he to Tullibardine. Then my Lord Lindsay offered to fight him, which he could not well refuse. But his heart failed him, and he grew cold on the business."

These punctilios are well ridiculed in Albumazar, Act IV. sc. vii. REED.

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sleeve, back to the dissembling luxurious drab, on a sleeveless errand. O'the other side, The policy of those crafty swearing rascals,8-that stale old mouse-eaten dry cheese, Nestor; and that same dog-fox, Ulysses,-is not proved worth a blackberry-They set me up, in policy, that mongrel cur, Ajax, against that dog of as bad a kind, Achilles and now is the cur Ajax prouder than the cur Achilles, and will not arm to-day; whereupon the Grecians begin to proclaim barbarism," and policy grows into an ill opinion. Soft! here come sleeve, and t'other.

Enter DIOMEDES, TROILUS following.

TRO. Fly not; for, shouldst thou take the river
Styx,

I would swim after.

DIO.

Thou dost miscall retire:

I do not fly; but advantageous care
Withdrew me from the odds of multitude:
Have at thee!

8 O' the other side, The policy of those crafty swearing rascals, &c.] But in what sense are Nestor and Ulysses accused of being swearing rascals? What, or to whom, did they swear? I am positive that sneering is the true reading. They had collogued with Ajax, and trimmed him up with insincere praises, only order to have stirred Achilles's emulation. In this, they were the true sneerers; betraying the first, to gain their ends on the latter by that artifice. THEOBAld.

Sneering was applicable to the characters of Nestor and Ulysses, and to their conduct in this play; but swearing was M. MASON.

not.

9to proclaim barbarism,] To set up the authority of ignorance, to declare that they will be governed by policy no longer. JOHNSON.

THER. Hold thy whore, Grecian!-now for thy whore, Trojan!-now the sleeve, now the sleeve! [Exeunt TROILUS and DIOMEDES, fighting.

Enter HECTor.

HECT. What art thou, Greek? art thou for Hector's match?

Art thou of blood, and honour? 1

1

THER. No, no:-I am a rascal; a scurvy railing knave; a very filthy rogue.

HECT. I do believe thee;-live.

[Exit.

THER. God-a-mercy, that thou wilt believe me; But a plague break thy neck, for frighting me! What's become of the wenching rogues? I think, they have swallowed one another: I would laugh at that miracle. Yet, in a sort, lechery eats itself. I'll seek them. [Exit.

1 Art thou of blood, and honour?] This is an idea taken from the ancient books of romantick chivalry, as is the following one in the speech of Diomedes:

"And am her knight by proof." STEEVENS.

It appears from Segar on Honor, Military and Civil, folio, 1602, p. 122, that a person of superior birth might not be challenged, by an inferior, or if challenged might refuse the combat. Alluding to this circumstance Cleopatra says:

“These hands do lack nobility, that they strike

"A meaner than myself.”

We learn from Melvil's Memoirs, p. 165, edit. 1735, that "the Laird of Grange offered to fight Bothwell, who answered, that he was neither Earl nor Lord, but a Baron; and so was not his equal. The like answer made he to Tullibardine. Then my Lord Lindsay offered to fight him, which he could not well refuse. But his heart failed him, and he grew cold on the business."

These punctilios are well ridiculed in Albumazar, Act IV. sc. vii. REED.

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