Or those, that with the fineness of their fouls NEST. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horfe Makes many Thetis' fons. AGAM. [Trumpet founds. What trumpet? look, Menelaus.* Enter NEAS. ENE. May one, that is a herald, and a prince, Do a fair meffage to his kingly ears?' AGAM. With furety ftronger than Achilles' arm+ 'Fore all the Greekifh heads, which with one voice Çall Agamemnon head and general. ENE. Fair leave, and large fecurity. How may A ftranger to those most imperial looks' 2 What trumpet? look, Menelaus.] Surely, the name of Menelaus only ferves to deftroy the metre, and fhould therefore be omitted, STEEVENS kingly ears?] The quarto: kingly eyes, JoHNSON. Achilles' arm-] So the copies. Perhaps the author wrote: Alcides' arm. JOHNSON. 5 Aftranger to those most imperial looks-] And yet this was the feventh year of the war. Shakspeare, who fo wonderfully preferves character, ufually confounds the cuftoms of all nations, and probably fuppofed that the ancients (like the heroes of chivalry) fought with beavers to their helmets. So, in the fourth act of this play, Neftor fays to Hector: "But this thy countenance, ftill lock'd in fteel, "I never faw till now." Shakspeare might have adopted this error from the wooden cuts. Know them from eyes of other mortals? AGAM. ENE. Ay; I afk, that I might waken reverence, And bid the cheek" be ready with a blufh The youthful Phoebus: How? Which is that god in office, guiding men? Are ceremonious courtiers. ENE. Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm'd, As bending angels; that's their fame in peace: But when they would feem foldiers, they have galls, Good arms, ftrong joints, true fwords; and, Jove's accord, Nothing fo full of heart." But peace, Æneas, to ancient books, or from the illuminators of manufcripts, who never feem to have entertained the leaft idea of habits, manners, or cuftoms more ancient than their own. There are books in the British Museum of the age of King Henry VI; and in these the heroes of ancient Greece are reprefented in the very dreffes worn at the time when the books received their decorations. STEEVENS. In The Deftruction of Troy, Shakspeare found all the chieftains of each army termed knights, mounted on ftately horses, defended with modern helmets, &c. &c. MALONE. 6 bid the cheek-] So the quarto. The folio has: on the cheek. JOHNSON. they have galls, Good arms, frong joints, true fwords; and, Jove's accord, Nothing fo full of heart.] I have not the smallest doubt that the poet wrote-(as I fuggefted in my SECOND APPENDIX, 8vo. 1783) they have galls, Good arms, frong joints, true fwords; and, Jove's a god Peace, Trojan; lay thy finger on thy lips! So, in Macbeth: "Sleek o'er your rugged looks; be bright and jovial Again, in Antony and Cleopatra: "Cæfar, why he's the Jupiter of men." Again, ibidem: "Thou art, if thou dar'ft be, the earthly Jove." The text in my apprehenfion is unintelligible, though I have not ventured on my own opinion to disturb it. In the old copy there is no point after the word accord, which adds fome fupport to my conjecture. It alfo may be obferved, that in peace the Trojans have juft been compared to angels; and here Æneas in a fimilar ftrain of panegyrick compares them in war to that God who was proverbially diftinguished for high spirits. The prefent punctuation of the text was introduced by Mr. Theobald. The words being pointed thus, he thinks it clear that the meaning is,-They have galls, good arms, &c. and, Jove annuente, nothing is fo full of heart as they. Had Shakspeare written with Jove's accord," and "Nothing's fo full," &c. fuch an interpretation might be received; but as the words ftand, it is inadmiffible. " The quarto reads: and great Jove's accord-&c. MALONE. Perhaps we should read: and Love's a lord Nothing fo full of heart. The words Jove and Love, in a future fcene of this play, are fubftituted for each other, by the old blundering printers. In Love's Labour's Loft, Cupid is ftiled "Lord of ay-inees;" and Romeo fpeaks of his "bofom's Lord." In Othello, Love is commanded to " yield up his hearted throne." And, yet more ap pofitely, Valentine, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, says, love's a mighty lord-." The meaning of Æneas will then be obvious. The moft confident of all paffions is not fo daring as we are in the field. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "And what Love can do, that dares Love attempt." Mr. M. Mafon would read-" and Jove's own bird.” Perhaps, however, the old reading may be the true one, the fpeaker meaning to fay, that, when they have the accord of fove on their fide, nothing is fo courageous as the Trojans. Thus, in Coriolanus: "The god of foldiers 66 (With the confent of fupreme Jove) inform "Thy thoughts with noblenefs." The worthiness of praise distains his worth, That breath fame blows; that praise, sole pure, tranfcends. AGAM. Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself Æneas? ENE. Ay, Greek, that is my name. AGAM. What's your affair, I pray you?? ENE. Sir, pardon; 'tis for Agamemnon's ears. AGAM. He hears nought privately, that comes from Troy. ENE. Nor I from Troy come not to whisper him: I bring a trumpet to awake his ear; AGAM. Speak frankly as the wind;" It is not Agamemnon's fleeping hour: Jove's accord, in the prefent inftance, like the Jove probante of Horace, may be an ablative absolute. STEEVENS. 8 The worthiness of praise diftains his worth, If that the prais'd himself bring the praise forth:] So, in Coriolanus: 66 power unto itself most commendable, "Hath not a tomb fo evident as a chair "To extol what it hath done." MALONE. 9 What's your affair, I pray you?] The words-I pray you, are an apparent interpolation, and confequently deftroy the measure. "En. Ay, Greek, that is my name. 66 Agam. What's your affair?" These hemiftichs, joined together, form a complete verse. STEEVENS. 2 Speak frankly as the wind;] So, Jaques, in As you like it: I must have liberty "Withal, as large a charter as the wind "To blow on whom I pleafe; -." STEEVENS, 1 That thou shalt know, Trojan, he is awake, ENE. 2 Trumpet, blow loud, -long-continued truce-] Of this long truce there has been no notice taken; in this very act it is faid, that Ajax coped Hector yesterday in the battle. JOHNSON. Here we have another proof of Shakspeare's falling into inconfiftencies by fometimes adhering to, and fometimes deferting, his original: a point, on which fome ftrefs has been laid in the Dif fertation printed at the end of the Third Part of King Henry VI. See Vol. X. p. 445-6. Of this dull and long continued truce (which was agreed upon at the defire of the Trojans, for fix months) Shakspeare found an account in the feventh chapter of the third book of The Deftruction of Troy. In the fifteenth chapter of the fame book the beautiful daughter of Calchas is first introduced. MALONE. 2 3 4 rufty-] Quarto,-refly. JOHNSON. more than in confeffion,] Confeffion for profeffion. WARBURTON, to her own lips he loves,] That is, confeffion made with idle vows to the lips of her whom he loves. JOHNSON. |