網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil,
To overbulk us all.

Nest.

Well, and How?

Ulyss. This challenge that the gallant Hector sends,

However it is spread in general name,

Relates in purpose only to Achilles.

Nest. The purpose is perspicuous even as substance,

40

Whose grossness little characters sum up
And in the publication make no strain 41,
But that Achilles, were his brain as barren
As banks of Libya,-though Apollo knows,
'Tis dry enough,—will with great speed of judgment,
Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose
Pointing on him.

Ulyss. And wake him to the answer,
Nest.

think you?

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,

40 The intent is as plain and palpable as substance, and it is to be collected from small circumstances, as a gross body is made up of many small parts.' This is the scope of Warburton's explanation, to which I incline. Steevens says that substance is estate, the value of which is ascertained by the use of small characters, i. e. numerals: grossness is the gross sum.

41 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. Thus in a subsequent scene Ulysses says:

I do not strain at the position,

It is familiar.'

Although particular, shall give a scantling 42
Of good or bad unto the general;

And in such indexes, although small pricks 43
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,
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,
The lustre of the better shall exceed,

By showing the worse first. Do not consent,
That ever Hector and Achilles meet;

For both our honour and our shame, in this,
Are dogg'd with two strange followers.

42 A scantling is a measure, a proportion.

When the lion's

skin will not suffice, we must add a scantling of the fox's.' Montaigne's Essays, by Florio, 1603.

43 i. e. small points compared with the volumes. Indexes, were formerly often prefixed to books."

44 The folio reads:

:

The lustre of the better, yet to show

Shall show the better.'

But as the quarto copy of the play is generally more correct than the folio, it has been followed. Malone thinks that some arbitrary alterations have been made in the text of this play by the editors of the folio.

Nest. I see them not with my old eyes;

they?

what are

Ulyss. What glory our Achilles shares from Hector, Were he not proud, we all should share with him : · But he already is too insolent;

And we were better parch in Africk sun,
Than in the pride and salt scorn of his eyes,
Should he 'scape Hector fair: if he were foil'd,
Why, then we did our main opinion 45 crush
In taint of our best man. No, make a lottery;
And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw
The sort 46 to fight with Hector: Among ourselves,
Give him allowance for the better man,

For that will physick the great Myrmidon,
Who broils in loud applause; and make him fall
His crest, that prouder than blue Iris bends.
If the dull brainless Ajax come safe off 47,
We'll dress him up in voices; If he fail,

45 Opinion for estimation or reputation. See King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. iv. p. 242. The word occurs before in this scene, in the same sense :

'Yet in the trial much opinion dwells.'

46 Lot. Sort, Fr. sors, Lat. Thus Lydgate :

[ocr errors]

Of sorte also, and divynation.'

47 Shakspeare, misled by The,Destruction of Troy, appears to have confounded Ajax Telamonius with Ajax Oileus, for in that book the latter is called simply Ajax, as the more eminent of the two. Ajax was of a huge stature, great and large in the shoulders, great armes, and always was well clothed, and very richly, and was of no great enterprise, and spake very quicke.' Lydgate describes him as

High of stature, and boystrous in a pres,
And of his speech rude, and rechles.

Full many a word in ydel hym asterte,

And but a coward was he of his herte.'

Harington too, in the prologue to his witty Metamorphosis of Ajax, 1596, represents him as strong, heady, boisterous, and a terrible fighting fellow, but neither wise, learned, staide, nor polliticke.' The thirteenth book of Ovid's Metamorphosis, by Golding, may also have been consulted.

[blocks in formation]

Yet go we under our opinion 48 still

That we have better men. But, hit or miss,
Our project's life this shape of sense assumes,-
Ajax, employ'd, plucks down Achilles' plumes.
Nest. Ulysses,

Now I begin to relish thy advice:

And I will give a taste of it forthwith

To Agamemnon: go we to him straight.
Two curs shall tame each other: Pride alone
Must tarre 49 the mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone.

[Exeunt.

ACT II1.

SCENE I. Another part of the Grecian Camp. Enter AJAX and THERSITES.

Ajax. Thersites,

Ther. Agamemnon-how if he had boils? full, all over, generally?

Ajax. Thersites,

Ther. And those boils did run?-Say so,-did not the general run then? were not that a botchy core?

Ajax. Dog,

Ther. Then would come some matter from him; I see none now.

Ajax. Thou bitch-wolf's son, canst thou not hear? Feel then. [Strikes him.

48 See note 45.

49 i. e. urge, stimulate, or set the mastiffs on. See King John, Act iv. Sc. 1.

This play is not divided into acts in any of the original editions.

2

Ther. The plague of Greece upon thee, thou mongrel beef-witted lord 3!

Ajax. Speak then, thou unsalted leaven*, speak! I will beat thee into handsomeness.

Ther. I shall sooner rail thee into wit and holiness: but, I think, thy horse will sooner con an oration, than thou learn a prayer without book. Thou canst strike, canst thou? a red murrain o'thy jade's tricks!

Ajax. Toads-stool, learn me the proclamation.

Ther. Dost thou think, I have no sense, thou strikest me thus?

Ajax. The proclamation,

Ther. Thou art proclaimed a fool, I think.

Ajax. Do not, porcupine, do not; my fingers itch. Ther. I would, thou didst itch from head to foot, and I had the scratching of thee; I would make thee the loathsomest scab in Greece. When thou art forth in the incursions, thou strikest as slow as another.

Ajax. I say, the proclamation,

Ther. Thou grumblest and railest every hour on Achilles; and thou art as full of envy at his greatness, as Cerberus is at Proserpina's beauty, ay, that thou barkest at him.

Ajax. Mistress Thersites !

2 Alluding to the plague sent by Apollo on the Grecian army. 3 He calls Ajax mongrel, on account of his father being a Grecian and his mother a Trojan. Sir Andrew Aguecheek says, in Twelfth Night, I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit.'

4 The folio has thou whinid'st leaven,' a corruption undoubtedly of vinew'dst or. r vinniedst, i. e. mouldy leaven. Thou unsalted leaven, is as much as to say thou foolish lump.' Thus Baret::-' Unsavoury, foolish, without smacke of salt; without wisdome, that hath no grace, that hath no pleasant facion in wordes or gesture; that no man can take pleasure in. Insulsus.' 5 In The Tempest, Caliban says, ' The red plague rid you.'

« 上一頁繼續 »