who wears his wit in his belly, and his guts in his head, -I'll tell you what I fay of him.

Achil. What?

Ther. I fay, this Ajax

Achil. Nay, good Ajax.

[Ajax offers to frike him, Achilles interposes.

Ther. Has not fo much wit

Achil. Nay, 1 must hold you.

Ther. As will ftop the eye of Helen's needle, for whom he comes to fight.

Achil. Peace, fool!

Ther. I would have peace and quietness, but the fool will not: he there; that he look ;

you there. Ajax. O thou damn'd cur! I shall

Achil. Will you fet your

wit to a fool's ?

Ther. No, I warrant you; for a fool's will shame it. Patr. Good words, Therfites.

Achil. What's the quarrel?

Ajax. I bade the vile owl, go learn me the tenour of the proclamation, and he rails upon me.

Ther. I ferve thee not.

Ajax. Well, go to, go to.

Ther. I ferve here voluntary.

Achil. Your laft fervice was fufferance, 'twas not voluntary; no man is beaten voluntary: Ajax was here the voluntary, and you as under an imprefs.

Ther. Even fo? -a great deal of your wit too lies in your finews, or elfe there be liars. Hector fhall have a great catch, if he knock out either of your brains s; a were as good crack a fufty nut with no kernel.

Acbil. What, with me too, Therfites?

Ther. There's Ulyffes and old Neftor,-whofe wit was mouldy ere your grandfires had nails on their toes,yoke you like draft oxen, and make you plough up the

wars.

Achil. What, what?

Ther. Yes, good footh; To, Achilles! to, Ajax! to! Ajax. I fhall cut out your tongue.

Ther. 'Tis no matter; I fhall fpeak as much as thou, afterwards.

Patr.

Patr. No more words, Therfites; peace.

Ther. I will hold my peace when Achilles' brach & bids me, fhall I ?

Achil. There's for you, Patroclus.

Ther. I will fee you hang'd, like clotpoles, ere I come any more to your tents; I will keep where there is wit ftirring, and leave the faction of fools.

Patr. A good riddance.

[Exit.

Achil. Marry this, fir, is proclaim'd through all our

hoft:

That Hector, by the first hour of the fun,

Will, with a trumpet, 'twixt our tents and Troy,
To-morrow morning call fome knight to arms,
That hath a ftomach; and fuch a one, that dare
Maintain-I know not what; 'tis trafh: Farewel.
Ajax. Farewel. Who fhall answer him?
Achil. I know not, it is put to lottery; otherwife,
He knew his man.

Ajax. O, meaning you :-I'll go learn more of it.

SCENE II.

Troy. A Room in Priam's Palace.

[Exeunt.

Enter PRIAM, HECTOR, TROILUS, PARIS, and He

LENUS.

Pri. After fo many hours, lives, fpeeches spent, Thus once again fays Neftor from the Greeks; Deliver Helen, and all damage elfe

As honour, lofs of time, travel, expence,

Wounds, friends, and what elje dear that is confum'd
In hot digeftion of this cormorant war,-

Shall be truck off:-Hector, what fay you to't?
Hect. Though no man leffer fears the Greeks than E,
As far as toucheth my particular, yet,

Dread Priam,

There is no lady of more fofter bowels,

More fpungy to fuck in the fenfe of fear,

8 Brach was properly a trinket with a pin affixed to it, and is confequently fed by Shakspeare for an ornament in general.

More ready to cry out-Who knows what follows??
Than Hector is: The wound of peace is furety,
Surety fecure; but modeft doubt is call'd
The beacon of the wife, the tent that fearches
To the bottom of the worst. Let Helen go:
Since the firft fword was drawn about this question,
Every tithe foul, 'mongst many thousand difmes,
Hath been as dear as Helen; I mean, of ours:
If we have loft fo many tenths of ours,

To guard a thing nor ours; not worth to us,
Had it our name, the value of one ten;

What merit's in that reafon, which denies
The yielding of her up?

Tro. Fie, fie, my brother!

Weigh you the worth and honour of a king,
So great as our dread father, in a scale
Of common ounces? will you with counters fum
The paft proportion of his infinite??

And buckle-in a waist most fathomlefs,
With spans and inches fo diminutive

As fears and reafons? fie, for godly fhame!

Hel. No marvel, though you bite fo fharp at reafons 3, You are fo empty of them. Should not our father Bear the great fway of his affairs with reafons, Becaufe your fpeech hath none, that tells him fo? Tro. You are for dreams and flumbers, brother prieft, You fur your gloves with reafon. Here are your reafons: You know, an enemy intends you harm; You know, a fword employ'd is perilous, And reason flies the object of all harm: Who marvels then, when Helenus beholds A Grecian and his fword, if he do fet The very wings of reafon to his heels; And fly like chidden Mercury from Jove,

Or

9 Who knows what ill confequences may follow from pursuing this or that courfe?

1

Difme, Fr. is the tithe, the tenth.

The meaning is, that greatness to which no measure bears any proportion. The modern editors filently give: The vaft propertion.

3 Here is a wretched quibble between reafons and raisins, which in Shakspeare's time were pronounced alike,

Or like a ftar dif-orb'd?-Nay, if we talk of reason,
Let's fhut our gates, and fleep: Manhood and honour
Should have hare hearts, would they but fat their thoughts
With this cramm'd reason: reafon and refpect
Make livers pale, and luftihood deject.

Heat. Brother, fhe is not worth what he doth coft
The holding.

Tro. What is aught, but as 'tis valu'd?

Heft. But value dwells not in particular will;
It holds his estimate and dignity

As well wherein 'tis precious of itself,
As in the prizer: 'tis mad idolatry,
To make the service greater than the god;
And the will dotes, that is attributive+
To what infectioully itself affects,
Without fome image of the affected merit *.
Tro. I take to-day a wife, and my election
Is led on in the conduct of my will;
My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears,
Two traded pilots 'twixt the dangerous fhores
Of will and judgment; How may I avoid,
Although my will diftafte what it elected,
The wife I chofe? there can be no evafion
To blench from this, and to stand firm by honour :
We turn not back the filks upon the merchant,
When we have foil'd them; nor the remainder via ids
We do not throw in unrespective sieve",

8

Because we now are full. It was thought meet,
Paris fhould do fome vengeance on the Greeks:
Your breath with full concent belly'd his fails;
The feas and winds (old wranglers) took a truce,
And did him fervice: he touch'd the ports defir'd;

P 4

And,

4 The will dotes that attributes or gives the qualities which it affects; that firft caufes excellence, and then admires it.

5 The will affects an object for fome fuppofed merit, which Hector fays is cenfurable, unless the merit fo affected be really there.

6in the conduct of my will; i. c. under the guidance of my will. 7 That is, into a common voider.

8 Your breaths all blowing together; your unanimous approbation.

And, for an old aunt, whom the Greeks held captive,
He brought a Grecian queen, whose youth and freshness
Wrinkles Apollo's, and makes pale the morning.
Why keep we her? the Grecians keep our aunt:
Is the worth keeping? why, fhe is a pearl,
Whose price hath launch'd above a thousand fhips,
And turn'd crown'd kings to merchants.

If you'll avouch, 'twas wisdom Paris went,
(As you must needs, for you all cry'd-Go, go,)
If you'll confefs, he brought home noble prize,
(As you must needs, for you all clapp'd your hands,
And cry'd-Ineftimable!) why do you now
The iffue of your proper wifdoms rate;
And do a deed that fortune never did',
Beggar the eftimation which you priz'd
Richer than fea and land? O theft most base ;
That we have stolen what we do fear to keep!
But, thieves, unworthy of a thing fo ftolen,
That in their country did them that disgrace,
We fear to warrant in our native place!
Caf. [within.] Cry, Trojans, cry!
Pri. What noife? what fhriek is this?

Tro. 'Tis our mad fifter, I do know her voice.
Caf. [within] Cry, Trojans !

Hect. It is Caffandra.

Enter CASSANDRA, raving.

Caf. Cry, Trojans, cry! lend me ten thousand eyes, And I will fill them with prophetick tears.

Hect Laomedon's

9 Priam's fifter, Hefione, whom Hercules, being enraged at Priam's breach of faith, gave to Telamon, who by her had Ajax.

If I understand this paffage, the meaning is: "Why do you, by cenfuring the determination of your own wifdoms, degrade Helen, whom fortune has not yet deprived of her value, or against whom, as the wife of Paris, fortune has not in this war fo declared, as to make us value her lefs ?" This is very harsh, and much trained. JOHNSON.

Fortune was never fo unjuft and mutable as to rate a thing on one day above all price, and on the next to fet no estimation whatsoever upon it. You are now going to do what fortune never did.Such, I think, is the meaning. ΜΑΙΟΝΣ.