8

(With truant vows to her own lips he loves,")
And dare avow her beauty and her worth,
In other arms than hers, to him this challenge.
Hector, in view of Trojans and of Greeks,
Shall make it good, or do his best to do it,
He hath a lady, wiser, fairer, truer,

Than ever Greek did compass in his arms;
And will to-morrow with his trumpet call,
Mid-way between your tents and walls of Troy,
To rouse a Grecian that is true in love:
If any come, Hector shall honour him;
If none, he'll say in Troy, when he retires,
The Grecian dames are sun-burn'd, and not worth
The splinter of a lance. Even so much.

AGAM. This shall be told our lovers, lord Æneas;
If none of them have soul in such a kind,
We left them all at home: But we are soldiers;
And may that soldier a mere recreant prove,
That means not, hath not, or is not in love!
If then one is, or hath, or means to be,
That one meets Hector; if none else, I am he.

NEST. Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man When Hector's grandsire suck'd: he is old now; But, if there be not in our Grecian host1

One noble man, that hath one spark of fire

7

to her own lips he loves,] That is, confession made with idle vows to the lips of her whom he loves. Johnson. 8 In other arms than hers,] Arms is here used equivocally for the arms of the body, and the armour of a soldier.

MALONE.

The splinter of a lance.] This is the language of romance. Such a challenge would better have suited Palmerin or Amadis, than Hector or Æneas. STEEVENS.

1

in our Grecian host-] So the quarto. The folio has-Grecian mould. MALONE.

To answer for his love, Tell him from me,-
I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver,
And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn;
And, meeting him, will tell him, That my lady
Was fairer than his grandame, and as chaste
As may be in the world; His youth in flood,
I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood.s
ENE.Now heavens forbid such scarcity of youth!
ULYSS. Amen.

AGAM. Fair lord Æneas, let me touch your hand;

To our pavilion shall I lead you, sir.

Achilles shall have word of this intent;
So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent:
Yourself shall feast with us before you go,

And find the welcome of a noble foe.

[Exeunt all but ULYSSES and NESTOR.

ULYSS. Nestor,

NEST. What says Ulysses?

ULYSS. I have a young conception in my brain, Be you my time to bring it to some shape.*

2 And in bras. POPE.

my

vantbrace-] An armour for the arm, avant

Milton uses the word in his Sampson Agonistes, and Heywood in his Iron Age, 1632:

peruse his armour,

"The dint's still in the vantbrace."

STEEVENS.

I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood.] So, in Coriolanus, one of the Volscian Guard says to old Menenius, "Back, I say, go, lest I let forth your half pint of blood." Thus the quarto. The folio reads—I'Ù pawn this truth.

MALONE.

• Be you my time &c.] i. e. be you to my present purpose what time is in respect of all other schemes, viz. a ripener and bringer of them to maturity. STEEVENS.

NEST. What is't?

ULYSS. This 'tis :

Blunt wedges rive hard knots: The seeded prides
That hath to this maturity blown up

In rank Achilles, must or now be cropp'd,
Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil,
To overbulk us all.

sends,

However it is spread in general name,
Relates in purpose only to Achilles.

NEST. The purpose is perspicuous even as substance,

Whose grossness little characters sum up

:8

I believe Shakspeare was here thinking of the period of gestation which is sometimes denominated a female's time, or reckoning. T. C.

5

The seeded pride &c.] Shakspeare might have taken this idea from Lyte's Herbal, 1578 and 1579. The Oleander tree or Nerium "hath scarce one good propertie." It may be compared to a Pharisee, "who maketh a glorious and beautiful show, but inwardly is of a corrupt and poisoned nature."—" It is high time &c. to supplant it (i. e. pharisaism) for it hath already floured, so that I feare it will shortly seede, and fill this wholesome soyle full of wicked Nerium." TOLlet.

So, in The Rape of Lucrece:

"How will thy shame be seeded in thine age,
"When thus thy vices bud before thy spring?"

MALONE.

nursery-] Alluding to a plantation called a nursery. JOHNSON.

'Well, and how?] We might complete this defective line by reading:

Well, and how then?

Sir T. Hanmer reads-how now? STEEVENS.

8 The purpose is perspicuous even as substance,

Whose grossness little characters sum up:] That is, the

And, in the publication, make no strain,9
But that Achilles, were his brain as barren
As banks of Libya,-though, Apollo knows,
'Tis dry enough,-will with great speed of judg-
ment,

Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose
Pointing on him.

ULYSS. And wake him to the answer, think you?
NEST.

Yes,

It is most meet; Whom may you else oppose, That can from Hector bring those honours' off, If not Achilles? Though't be a sportful combat, Yet in the trial much opinion dwells;

For here the Trojans taste our dear'st repute With their fin'st palate: And trust to me, Ulysses, Our imputation shall be oddly pois'd

In this wild action: for the success,

purpose is as plain as body or substance; and though I have collected this purpose from many minute particulars, as a gross body is made up of small insensible parts, yet the result is as clear and certain as a body thus made up is palpable and visible. This is the thought, though a little obscured in the conciseness of the expression. WARBURTON.

Substance is estate, the value of which is ascertained by the use of small characters, i. e. numerals. So, in the prologue to King Henry V:

2

66 a crooked figure may

"Attest, in little place, a million."

The gross sum is a term used in The Merchant of Venice. Grossness has the same meaning in this instance. STEEVENS.

And, in the publication, make no strain,] Nestor goes on to say, make no difficulty, no doubt, when this duel comes to be proclaimed, but that Achilles, dull as he is, will discover the drift of it. This is the meaning of the line. So afterwards, in this play, Ulysses says:

"I do not strain at the position."

e. I do not hesitate at, I make no difficulty of it.

1

those honours] Folio-his honour.

THEOBALD. MALOne.

Although particular, shall give a scantling2
Of good or bad unto the general;
And in such indexes, although small pricks
To their subséquent volumes, there is seen
The baby figure of the giant mass

Of things to come at large. It is suppos'd,
He, that meets Hector, issues from our choice:
And choice, being mutual act of all our souls,
Makes merit her election; and doth boil,
As 'twere from forth us all, a man distill'd
Out of our virtues; Who miscarrying,
What heart receives from hence a conquering part,
To steel a strong opinion to themselves?

Which entertain'd, limbs are his instruments,5
In no less working, than are swords and bows
Directive by the limbs.

ULYSS. Give pardon to my speech ;Therefore 'tis meet, Achilles meet not Hector. Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares, And think, perchance, they'll sell; if not,

2

6

Scantling-] That is, a measure, proportion. The carpenter cuts his wood to a certain scantling. JOHNSON.

So, in John Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essays, folio, 1603: "When the lion's skin will not suffice, we must add a scantling of the fox's." MALONE.

3 small pricks-] Small points compared with the

volumes. JOHNSON.

Indexes were, in Shakspeare's time, often prefixed to books.

MALONE.

Which entertain'd, &c.] These two lines [and the concluding hemistich] are not in the quarto. JOHNSON.

5

limbs are his instruments,] The folio reads:
limbs are in his instruments.

I have omitted the impertinent preposition. STEevens.
if not,] I suppose, for the sake of metre, we should

6

read:

if they do not. STEEVENS.