Achil. Nay, good Ajax. [AJAX offers to strike him, ACHILLES interposes. Ther. Has not so much wit Achil. Nay, I must hold you. Ther. As will stop 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. Ajar. O thou damned cur! I shall Achil. Will you set your wit to a fool's? Ther. No, I warrant you; for a fool's will shame it. Patr. Good words, Thersites. Achil. What's the quarrel? Ajar. I bade the vile owl, go learn me the tenour of the proclamation, and he rails upon me. Ajax. Well, go to, go to. Achil. Your last service was sufferance, 'twas not voluntary; no man is beaten voluntary; Ajax was here the voluntary, and you as under an impress. Ther. Even so?-a great deal of your wit too lies in your sinews, or else there be liars. Hector shall have a great catch, if he knock out either of your brains; 'a were as good crack a fusty nut with no kernel. Achil. What, with me too, Thersites? Ther. There's Ulysses, and old Nestor, whose wit was mouldy ere your grandsires had nails on their toes,-yoke you like draught oxen, and make you plough up the wars. Achil. What, what? Is beaten voluntary:] i. e. voluntarily. Shakspeare often uses adjectives adverbially. to! Ther. Yes, good sooth; To, Achilles! to, Ajax! Ajar. I shall cut out your tongue. Ther. 'Tis no matter; I shall speak as much as thou, afterwards. Patr. No more words, Thersites; peace. Ther. I will hold my peace when Achilles' brach bids me, shall I ? Achil. There's for you, Patroclus. Ther. I will see you hanged, like clotpoles, ere I come any more to your tents; I will keep where there is wit stirring, and leave the faction of fools. Patr. A good riddance. [Exit. Achil. Marry this, sir, is proclaimed through all our host: That Hector, by the first hour of the sun, Achil. I know not, it is put to lottery; otherwise, He knew his man. Ajar. O, meaning you :-I'll go learn more of it. [Exeunt, 8 when Achilles' brach bids me,] The commentators are not agreed on the meaning of this word, some referring it to a spe cies of dog, and some to an ornament called a broche, or broach. SCENE II. Troy. A Room in Priam's Palace. Enter PRIAM, HECTOR, TROILUS, PARIS, and Pri. After so many hours, lives, speeches spent, There is no lady of more softer bowels, Tro. tenth. Fye, fye, my brother! many thousand dismes,] Disme, Fr. is the tithe, the Weigh you the worth and honour of a king, Hel. No marvel, though you bite so sharp at You are so empty of them. Should not our father priest, You fur your gloves with reason. Here are your A Grecian and his sword, if he do set 1 The very wings of reason to his heels; And fly like chidden Mercury from Jove, T Or like a star dis-orb'd-Nay, if we talk of reason, thoughts With this cramm'd reason; reason and respect 6 Hect. Brother, she is not worth what she doth cost The holding. Tro. What is aught, but as 'tis valued? 5 The past-proportion of his infinite?] i. e. that greatness to which no measure bears any proportion. 6 - reason and respect, Make livers pale, &c.] Respect is caution, a regard to con sequences. 1 Hect. But value dwells not in particular will; It holds his estimate and dignity 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 shores Of will and judgment: How may I avoid, Although my will distaste what it elected, The wife I chose? there can be no evasion..... To blench from this, and to stand firm by honour: We turn not back the silks upon the merchant, When we have soil'd them: nor the remainder viands We do not throw in unrespective sieve, Because we now are full. It was thought meet, Paris should do some vengeance on the Greeks: Your breath with full consent bellied his sails, The seas and winds (old wranglers) took a truce, And did him service: he touch'd the ports desir'd; 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: 1 And the will dotes, that is attributive-] i. e. the will dotes that attributes or gives the qualities which it affects; that first causes excellence, and then admires it. 8 - unrespective sieve,] That is, unto a common voider. 9 Your breath with full consent - Your breaths all blowing together; your unanimous approbation. And, for an old aunt,] Priam's sister, Hesione, whom Hercules, being enraged at Priam's breach of faith, gave to Telamon, who by her had Ajax. |