!

That, through the fight I bear in things to come,
I have abandon'd Troy, left my poffeffion,
Incurr'd a traitor's name, expos'd myself,
From certain and poffeft conveniences,
To doubtful fortunes; fequeftred from all
That time, acquaintance, cuftom, and condition,
Made tame and moft familiar to my nature:
And here, to do you service, am become
As new into the world, ftrange, unacquainted.
I do beseech you, as in way of taste,

To give me now a little benefit,

Out of those many registred in promife,

Which, you fay, live to come in my behalf.

Aga. What wouldst thou of us, Trojan? make
demand.

Cal. You have a Trojan prifoner, call'd Antenor,
Yesterday took: Troy holds him very dear.

abandoned Troy my native Country. That he could not mean
what the Editor fuppofes, appears from these confiderations, First,
If he had reprefented himfelt as running from a falling city, he
could never have said,

I have

expos'd my felf

From certain and poffefs'd conveniences,

To doubtful fortunes

Secondly, The abfolute knowledge of the fall of Troy was a fecret. hid from the inferior Gods themselves; as appears from the poetical hiftory of that war. It depended on many contingences whose existence they did not forefee. All that they knew was, that if fuch and fuch things happened Troy would fall. And this fecret they communicated to Caffandra only, but along with it, the fate not to be believed. Several others knew each a several part of the fecret; one, that Troy could not be taken unless Achilles went to the war; another, that it could not fall while it had the Palladium; and so on. But the fecret, that it was abfolutely to fall, was known to none.

The fenfe here given will admit of no difpute amongst those who know how acceptable a Seer was amongst the Greeks. So that this Calchas, like a true priest, if it must needs be so, went where he could exercife his profeffion with moft advantage. For it being much less common amongit the Greeks than the Afiatics, there would be there a greater demand for it.

Oft

Oft have you (often have you thanks therefore;)
Defir'd my Creffid in right-great exchange,
Whom Troy hath ftill deny'd: but this Antenor,
I know, is fuch a wreft in their affairs,
That their negotiations all must flack,
Wanting his Manage; and they will almoft
Give us a Prince o'th' blood, a fon of Priam,
In change of him. Let him be fent, great Princes,
And he shall buy my daughter: and her prefence
Shall quite ftrike off all service I have done,
(a) In most accepted pay.

Aga. Let Diomedes bear him,

And bring us Creffid hither: Calchas fhall have
What he requests of us. Good Diomede,
Furnish you fairly for this enterchange;

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

Dio. This fhall I undertake, and 'tis a burthen
Which I am proud to bear.

Enter Achilles and Patroclus, before their Tent.
Ulyf. Achilles ftands i'th' 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 question me,
Why fuch unplaufive eyes are bent on him:
If fo, I have decifion medicinable

To use between your strangeness and his pride,
Which his own will fhall have defire to drink.
It may do good: Pride hath no other glafs
To fhew itself, but pride; for fupple knees

[(a) In most accepted pay. Oxford Editor.-Vulg. In met accepted pain.]

Feed

Feed arrogance, and are the proud man's fees.
Aga. We'll execute your purpose, and put on
A form of ftrangeness as we pafs along;

So do each lord; and either greet him not,
Or elfe difdainfully, which fhall shake him more
Than if not look'd on. I will lead the way.

Achil. What, comes the General to fpeak with me?
You know my mind. I'll fight no more 'gainst Troy.
Aga. What fays Achilles? would he aught with us?
Neft. Would you, my lord, aught with the General?
Achil. No.

Neft. Nothing, my lord.

Aga. The better.

Achil. Good day, good day.

Men. How do you? how do you?

Achil. What, does the cuckold fcorn me?

Ajax. How now, Patroclus?

Achil. Good morrow, Ajax.

Ajax. Ha?

Achil. Good morrow.

Ajax. Ay, and good next day too.

[Exeunt.

Achil. What mean thefe fellows? know they not

Achilles?

Patr. They pass by ftrangely: they were us'd to bend,

To fend their smiles 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, Greatness, once fall'n out with fortune,
• Must fall out with men too: what the declin'd is,
• He fhall as foon read in the eyes of others,

As feel in his own Fall: for men, like butterflies,
• Shew not their mealy wings but to the fummer;
• And not a man, for being fimply man,

Hath honour, but is honour'd by thofe honours
That are without him; as place, riches, favour,

• Prizes

• Prizes of accident as oft as merit :

• Which, when they fall, (as being flipp'ry standers) The love that lean'd on them, as flipp'ry too, • Doth 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 in me not worth that rich beholding,
As they have often giv'n. Here is Ulyffes.

I'll interrupt his reading.Now, Ulyffes?
Ulyf. Now, Thetis' fon!

Achil What are you reading?
Uyf. A ftrange fellow here

Writes me, that man, 7 how dearly ever parted,
How much in Having, or without, or in,
Cannot make boaft 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 firft giver.

Achil. This is not ftrange, 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 spirit of sense) behold itself
Not going from itfelf; but eyes oppos'd
Salute each other with each others' form.
For fpeculation turns not to itself,

'Till it hath travell'd, and is marry'd there
Where it may fee its felf; this is not strange.

7bow dearly ever parted,] i. . how exquifitely foever his virtues be divided and balanced in him. So in Romeo and Juliet, Stufft, as they fay with honourable parts, proportioned as ones thoughts would wish a man.

8 To others' eyes, &c.

That most pure fpirit, &c.] These two lines are totally omitsed in all the editions but the first quarto.

Mr. Pope.

Uly

Ulyf. I do not ftrain at the pofition,
It is familiar; but the author's drift;
Who, in his circumftance, exprefly proves
That no man is the lord of any thing,

(Tho' in, and of, him there is much confifting)
'Till he communicate his parts to others;
Nor doth he of himself know them for aught,
'Till he behold them formed in th' applause

Where they're extended; which, like an arch, reverb'rates

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

The unknown Ajax

Heav'ns! what a man is there? a very horse,
That has he knows not what. Nature! what things
there are,

Most abject in regard, and dear in ufe?
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! Oh heav'ns, what fome men do,
While some men leave to do!

• How some men fleep in skittish Fortune's hall,
While others play the ideots in her eyes;
How one man eats into another's pride,
While pride is feafting in his wantonness!

9 How fome men CREEP in skittish Fortune's hall,] This is faid with defign that Achilles fhould apply it to himself and Ajax. But as creep is to be applied to Achilles, it conveys a wrong idea, as representing one who is timorous and afraid to atchieve great acts: whereas it should reprefent one entirely negligent in atchieving them. For this was then Achilles's cafe. So that we fhould read, How fome men SLEEP in skittish Fortune's hall. For he was the first favourite of fortune; yet when he got into her prefence instead of pufhing his way, he became entirely negligent and unconcerned for her tavours.

VOL. VII.

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