Tro. O, that I thought it could be in a woman, O virtuous fight, Might be affronted with the match and weight As iron to adamant, as earth to the centre,- As truth's authentic author to be cited, Cres. Prophet may you be! If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth, When time is old and hath forgot itself, When water-drops have worn the stones of Troy, And mighty states characterless are grated 1 Met with and equalled. 2 In the old copy this line stands,— "Wants similes truth tired with iteration." The emendation was proposed by Mr. Tyrwhitt. 3 Plantage is here put for any thing planted, which was thought to depend for its success upon the influence of the moon. 4 i. e. conclude it. To dusty nothing; yet let memory, From false to false, among false maids in love, Upbraid my falsehood! When they have said-as false As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth, As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf, Yea, let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood, Pan. Go to, a bargain made; seal it, seal it; I'll be the witness.-Here I hold your hand; here, my cousin's. If ever you prove false one to another, since I have taken such pains to bring you together, let all pitiful goers-between be called to the world's end after my name; call them all-Pandars: let all constant1 men be Troiluses, all false women Cressids, and all brokers-between Pandars! say, amen. Tro. Amen. Cres. Amen Pan. Amen. Whereupon I will show you a chamber and a bed; which bed, because it shall not speak of your pretty encounters, press it to death; away. And Cupid grant all tongue-tied maidens here, Bed, chamber, Pandar, to provide this gear. [Exeunt. SCENE III. The Grecian Camp. Enter AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES, DIOMEDES, NESTOR, AJAX, MENELAUS, and CALCHAS. Cal. Now, princes, for the service I have done you, The advantage of the time prompts me aloud To call for recompense. Appear it to your mind, 1 Hanmer altered this to "inconstant men;" but the Poet seems to have been less attentive to make Pandarus talk consequentially, than to account for the ideas actually annexed to the three names in his own time. That, through the sight I bear in things, to Jove1 2 As new into the world, strange, unacquainted. To give me now a little benefit, Out of those many registered in promise, Agam. What wouldst thou of us, Trojan! make demand. Cal. You have a Trojan prisoner, called Antenor, In change of him. Let him be sent, great princes, 1 The old copies all concur in reading “That through the sight I bear in things to love." The present reading of the text is supported by Johnson and Malone; to which Mason makes this objection:-"That it was Juno, and not Jove, that persecuted the Trojans. Some modern editions have the line thus :"That through the sight I bear in things to come." As Mason observes, "the speech of Calchas would have been incomplete, if he had said he abandoned Troy, from the sight he bore of things, without explaining it by adding the words to come." The merit of Calchas did not merely consist in having come over to the Greeks; he also revealed to them the fate of Troy, which depended on their conveying away the palladium, and the horses of Rhesus, before they should drink of the river Xanthus. 2 Into for unto; a common form of expression in old writers. 3 A wrest is an instrument for tuning harps, &c. by drawing up the strings. Shall quite strike off all service I have done, Agam. Withal, bring word-if Hector will to-morrow [Exeunt DIOMEDES and CALCHAS. Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS, before their tent. Lay negligent and loose regard upon him. To use between your strangeness and his pride, Achil. What, comes the general to speak with me? You know my mind; I'll fight no more 'gainst Troy. Agam. What says Achilles? would he aught with us? Nest. Would you, my lord, aught with the general? Achil. 1 Hanmer and Warburton read, "In most accepted pay." But the construction of the passage, as it stands, appears to be," Her presence shall strike off, or recompense the service I have done, even in those labors which were most accepted." Nest. Nothing, my lord. Agam. The better. Achil. [Exeunt AGAMEMNON and NEStor. Good day, good day. Men. How do you? how do you? Achil. [Exit MENELAUS. What, does the cuckold scorn me? Ajax. How now, Patroclus? Achil. Good morrow, Ajax. Ajax. Ha! Achil. Good morrow. Ajax. Ay, and good next day too. [Exit AJAX. Achil. What mean these fellows? Know they not Achilles? Patr. They pass by strangely; they were used to bend, To send their smiles before them to Achilles; To come as humbly as they used to creep To holy altars. Achil. What, am I poor of late? As feel in his own fall; for men, like butterflies, Hath any honor; but honor for those honors Which when they fall, as being slippery standers, At ample point all that I did possess, Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out How now, Ulysses! |