Before the fun rofe, he was harness'd light,'

3 Before the fun rofe, he was harness'd light,] Does the poet mean (fays Mr. Theobald) that Hector had put on light armour? mean! what elfe could he mean? He goes to fight on foot; and was not that the armour for his purpofe? So, Fairfax, in Tafso's Jerufalem:

"The other princes put on harness light

"As footmen use.'

Yet, as if this had been the higheft abfurdity, he goes on, Or does he mean that Hector was Sprightly in his arms even before funrife? or is a conundrum aimed at, in fun rofe and harness'd light? Was any thing like it? But to get out of this perplexity, he tells us, that a very flight alteration makes all these conftructions unnecessary, and fo changes it to harness-dight. Yet indeed the very flightest alteration will at any time let the poet's fenfe through the critick's fingers: and the Oxford editor very contentedly takes up what is left behind, and reads harness-dight too, in order, as Mr. Theobald well expreffes it, to make all construction unnecessary. WARBURTON.

How does it appear that Hector was to fight on foot rather today, than on any other day? It is to be remembered, that the ancient heroes never fought on horfeback; nor does their manner of fighting in chariots feem to require lefs activity than on foot. JOHNSON.

It is true that the heroes of Homer never fought on horfeback; yet fuch of them as make a second appearance in the Eneid, like their antagonifts the Rutulians, had cavalry among their troops. Little can be inferred from the manner in which Afcanius and the young nobility of Troy are introduced at the conclufion of the funeral games; as Virgil very probably, at the expence of an anachronism, meant to pay a compliment to the military exercises inftituted by Julius Cæfar, and improved by Auguftus. It appears from different paffages in this play, that Hector fights on horfeback; and it fhould be remembered, that Shakspeare was indebted for most of his materials to a book which enumerates Efdras and Pythagoras among the baftard children of King Priamus. Our author, however, might have been led into his mistake by the manner in which Chapman has tranflated feveral parts of the Iliad, where the heroes mount their chariots or defcend from them. Thus Book VI. fpeaking of Glaucus and Diomed:

from horfe then both defcend." STEEVENS.

If Dr. Warburton had looked into The Deftruction of Troy already quoted, he would have found, in every page, that the leaders on each fide were alternately tumbled from their horfes by the prowess of their adverfaries. MALONE.

And to the field goes he; where every flower
Did, as a prophet, weep what it forefaw

In Hector's wrath.

A lord of Trojan blood, nephew to Hector;

They call him, Ajax.

CRES.

the

Good; And what of him?

ALEX. They fay he is a very man per fe,+ And ftands alone.

CRES. So do all men; unless they are drunk, fick, or have no legs.

ALEX. This man, lady, hath robb'd many beasts of their particular additions; he is as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear, flow as the elephant: a man into whom nature hath fo crowded humours, that his valour is crufh'd into folly, his folly

6

4 per fe,] So, in Chaucer's Teftament of Creffeide: "Of faire Creffeide the floure and a per fe

"Of Troie and Greece."

Again, in the old comedy of Wily Beguiled: "In faith, my fweet honeycomb, I'll love thee a per fe a."

Again, in Blurt Mafter Conftable, 1602:

"That is the a per fe of all, the creame of all." STEEVENS.

5 their particular additions;] iftick qualities or denominations. originally forenfick. MALONE. So, in Macbeth:

6

66

Their peculiar and character

The term in this fenfe is

whereby he doth receive
"Particular addition, from the bill

"That writes them all alike." STEEVENS.

that his valour is crush'd into folly,] To be crushed into folly, is to be confufed and mingled with folly," "fo as that they make one mafs together. JOHNSON.

So, in Cymbeline:

"Crush him together, rather than unfold
"His measure duly." STEEVENS.

fauced with difcretion: there is no man hath a virtue, that he hath not a glimpse of; nor any man an attaint, but he carries fome ftain of it: he is melancholy without caufe, and merry against the hair: He hath the joints of every thing; but every thing fo out of joint, that he is a gouty Briareus, many hands and no ufe; or purblind Argus, all eyes and no fight.

CRES. But how fhould this man, that makes me fmile, make Hector angry?

ALEX. They fay, he yesterday coped Hector in the battle, and ftruck him down; the difdain and fhame whereof hath ever fince kept Hector fafting and waking.

Enter PANDARUS.

CRES. Who comes here?

ALEX. Madam, your uncle Pandarus.

CRES. Hector's a gallant man.

ALEX. As may be in the world, lady.
PAN. What's that? what's that?

CRES. Good morrow, uncle Pandarus.

PAN. Good morrow, coufin Creffid: What do you talk of?-Good morrow, Alexander.-How do you, coufin? When were you at Ilium??

8

7 against the hair] is a phrafe equivalent to another now in ufe-against the grain. The French fay-à contrepoil. See STEEVENS.

Vol. VIII. p. 540, n. 2.

See Vol. III. p. 393, n. 5.

MALONE.

8 Good morrow, coufin Creffid: What do you talk of ?-Good mor row, Alexander.-How do you, coufin?] Good morrow, Alexander, is added in all the editions, (fays Mr. Pope,) very abfurdly, Paris not being on the ftage.-Wonderful acutenefs! But, with fubmiffion, this gentleman's note is much more abfurd; for it falls out

4

CRES. This morning, uncle.

PAN. What were you talking of, when I came? Was Hector arm'd, and gone, ere ye came to Ilium? Helen was not up, was the?

CRES. Hector was gone; but Helen was not up. PAN. E'en fo; Hector was ftirring early.

CRES. That were we talking of, and of his anger. PAN. Was he angry?

CRES. So he fays here.

PAN. True, he was fo; I know the cause too; he'll lay about him to-day, I can tell them that: and there is Troilus will not come far behind him; let them take heed of Troilus; I can tell them that

too.

CRES. What, is he angry too?

PAN. Who, Troilus? Troilus is the better man of the two.

very unluckily for his remark, that though Paris is, for the generality, in Homer called Alexander; yet, in this play, by any one of the characters introduced, he is called nothing but Paris. The truth of the fact is this: Pandarus is of a bufy, impertinent, infinuating character: and it is natural for him, fo foon as he has given his coufin the good-morrow, to pay his civilities too to her attendant. This is purely, as the grammarians call it; and gives us an admirable touch of Pandarus's character. And why might not Alexander be the name of Creffida's man? Paris had no patent, I fuppofe, for engroffing it to himself. But the late editor, perhaps, because we have had Alexander the Great, Pope Alexander, and Alexander Pope, would not have fo eminent a name prostituted to a common varlet. THEOBALD.

This note is not preferved on account of any intelligence it brings, but as a curious fpecimen of Mr. Theobald's mode of animadverfion on the remarks of Mr. Pope. STEEVENS.

9 —— at Ilium ?] Ilium or Ilion (for it is fpelt both ways) was according to Lydgate and the author of The Destruction of Troy, the name of Priam's palace, which is faid by these writers to have been built upon a high rock. See a note in Act IV. fc. v. on the words "Yon towers," &c. MALONE.

CRES. O, Jupiter! there's no comparison.

PAN. What, not between Troilus and Hector? Do you know a man, if you fee him?

CRES. Ay; if I ever faw him before, and knew him.

PAN. Well, I fay, Troilus is Troilus.

CRES. Then you fay as I fay; for, I am fure, he is not Hector.

PAN. No, nor Hector is not Troilus, in fome degrees.

CRES. 'Tis juft to each of them; he is himself. PAN. Himself? Alas, poor Troilus! I would, he were,

CRES. So he is.

ΡΑΝ.

India.

-'Condition, I had gone bare-foot to

CRES. He is not Hector.

PAN. Himfelf? no, he's not himself.-'Would 'a were himself! Well, the gods are above; Time must friend, or end: Well, Troilus, well,-I would, my heart were in her body!-No, Hector is not a better man than Troilus.

CRES. Excufe me.

PAN. He is elder.

CRES. Pardon me, pardon me.

PAN. The other's not come to't; you fhall tell me another tale, when the other's come to't. Hector fhall not have his wit' this year.

CRES. He fhall not need it, if he have his own.

2 Well, the gods are above;] So, in Othello:" Heaven's above all." MALONE.

3 his wit-] Both the old copies have-will. Corrected by Mr. Rowe.

MALONE.