AGAM.

Let Diomed bear him, And bring us Creffid hither; Calchas fhall have What he requests of us.-Good Diomed, Furnish you fairly for this interchange:

Withal, bring word-if Hector will to-morrow Be answer'd in his challenge: Ajax is ready.

Dio. This fhall I undertake; and 'tis a burden Which I am proud to bear.

[Exeunt DIOMEDES and CALCHAS.

Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS, before their Tent.

ULrss. Achilles ftands i'the entrance of his

tent:

Please it our general to pass strangely by him,
As if he were forgot; and, princes all,
Lay negligent and loofe regard upon him :-
I will come laft: 'Tis like, he'll queftion me,
Why fuch unplaufive eyes are bent, why turn'd on
him: 7

If fo, I have derifion med'cinable,

To ufe between your strangeness and his pride,
Which his own will fhall have defire to drink ;
It may do good: pride hath no other glass
To fhow itself, but pride; for fupple knees
Feed arrogance, and are the proud man's fees.

AGAM. We'll execute your purpose, and put on

Her prefence, fays Calchas, hall frike off, or recompence the fervice I have done, even in thofe labours which were most accepted.

JOHNSON.

Why fuch unplaufive eyes are bent, why turn'd on him:] If the eyes were bent on him, they were turn'd on him. This tautology therefore, together with the redundancy of the line, plainly thow that we ought to read, with Sir Thomas Hanmer :

Why fuch unplaufive eyes are bent on him:

STEEVENS.

A form of strangeness as we pass along ;-
So do each lord; and either greet him not,
Or else disdainfully, which fhall shake him more
Than if not look'd on. I will lead the way.

ACHIL. What, comes the general to speak with me?

You know my mind, I'll fight no more 'gainst Troy. AGAM. What fays Achilles? would he aught with

us?

NEST. Would you, my lord,aught with the general? ACHIL.

NEST. Nothing, my lord.

No.

ACHIL.

[Exeunt AGAMEMNON and NESTOR. Good day, good day.

MEN. How do you? how do you?

PATR. They pass by strangely: they were us'd

to bend,

8 Good morrow.] Perhaps in this repetition of the falute, we should read, as in the preceding inftance,-Good morrow, Ajax; or, with more colloquial fpirit,-I Jay, good morrow. Otherwise the metre is defective. STEEVENS.

To fend their fmiles before them to Achilles ;
To come as humbly, as they us'd to creep
To holy altars.

ACHIL.

What, am I poor of late? 'Tis certain, Greatnefs, once fallen out with for

tune,

Muft fall out with men too: What the declin❜d is,
He shall as foon read in the eyes of others,
As feel in his own fall: for men, like butterflies,
Show not their mealy wings, but to the fummer;
And not a man, for being fimply man,

Hath any honour; but honour for those honours
That are without him, as place, riches, favour,
Prizes of accident as oft as merit:

Which when they fall, as being flippery ftanders,
The love that lean'd on them as flippery too,
Do one pluck down another, and together
Die in the fall. But 'tis not fo with me:
Fortune and I are friends; I do enjoy

At ample point all that I did poffefs,

Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out
Something not worth in me fuch rich beholding
As they have often given. Here is Ulyffes;
I'll interrupt his reading.-

How now, Ulyffes?

ULYSS.

Now, great Thetis' fon?

A ftrange fellow here

ACHIL. What are you reading?

ULrss.

Writes me, That man-how dearly ever parted,

7

honour'd.

8

but honour-] Thus the quarto. The folio reads-but MALONE.

how dearly ever parted,] However excellently endowed, with however dear or precious parts enriched or adorned.

JOHNSON. Johnson's explanation of the word parted is juft. So, in B. Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, he defcribes Macilente as a man

How much in having, or without, or in,—
Cannot make boast to have that which he hath,
Nor feels not what he owes, but by reflection;
As when his virtues fhining upon others
Heat them, and they retort that heat again
To the first giver.

ACHIL.

This is not strange, Ulyffes.
The beauty that is borne here in the face,
The bearer knows not, but commends itself
To others' eyes: nor doth the eye itself,
(That most pure fpirit' of fenfe) behold itself,
Not going from itfelf; but eye to eye oppos'd

Salutes each other with each other's form.
For fpeculation turns not to itself,3

Till it hath travell'd, and is marry'd there
Where it may fee itself: this is not strange at all.

ULrss. I do not strain at the position,

It is familiar; but at the author's drift:

well parted; and in Maflinger's Great Duke of Florence, Sanazarro fays of Lydia:

"And I, my lord, chofe rather

"To deliver her better parted than the is,
"Than to take from her." M. MASON.

So, in a fubfequent paffage :

66

no man is the lord of any thing,

(Though in and of him there is much confifting,) "Till he communicate his parts to others."

MALONE.

nor doth the eye itself &c.] So, in Julius Cæfar:

"No Caffius; for the eye fees not itself,

"But by reflexion, by fome other things." STEEVENS.

2 To others' eyes:

(That most pure Spirit &c.] These two lines are totally omitted in all the editions but the first quarto. PoPE.

3 For fpeculation turns not &c.] Speculation has here the fame meaning as in Macbeth:

Thou haft no fpeculation in thofe eyes
"Which thou doft glare with." MALONE.

Who, in his circumftance, expressly proves-
That no man is the lord of any thing,

(Though in and of him there be much confifting,)
Till he communicate his parts to others:
Nor doth he of himself know them for aught
Till he behold them form'd in the applaufe
Where they are extended; which, like an arch,
reverberates

The voice again; or like a gate of steel
Fronting the fun," receives and renders back
His figure and his heat. I was much rapt in this;
And apprehended here immediately

The unknown Ajax.'

Heavens, what a man is there! a very horse; That has he knows not what. Nature, what things there are,

Moft abject in regard, and dear in use!
What things again most dear in the esteem,
And poor in worth! Now fhall we fee to-morrow,
An act that very chance doth throw upon him,
Ajax renown'd. O heavens, what fome men do,

4

+ in his circumftance,] In the detail or circumduction of his argument. JOHNSON.

5

which, like-] Old copies-who, like. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

6

a gate of fleel

Fronting the fun,] This idea appears to have been caught from fome of our ancient romances, which often defcribe gates of fimilar materials and effulgence. STEEVENS.

7 The unknown Ajax.] Ajax, who has abilities which were never brought into view or ufe. JOHNSON.

8 Now hall we fee to-morrow,

An act that very chance doth throw upon him,

Ajax renown'd.] I once thought that we ought to read renown. But by confidering the middle line as parenthetical, the paffage is fufficiently clear. MALONE.

By placing a break after him, the conftruction will be:-Now