Arming to answer in a night alarm.
And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age
Muft be the scene of mirth; to cough, and spit,
And with a palsy-fumbling on his gorget,
Shake in and out the rivet :- and at this sport,
Sir Valour dies; cries, O!-enough, Patroclus ;-
Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all
In pleasure of my spleen. And in this fashion,
All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,
Severals and generals of grace exact,
Achievements, plots, orders, preventions,
Excitements to the field, or speech for truce,
Success, or lofs, what is, or is not, serves
As stuff for these two to make paradoxes."

NEST. And in the imitation of these twain
(Whom, as Ulyffes says, opinion crowns
With an imperial voice,) many are infect.
Ajax is grown felf-will'd; and bears his head

8 -a palfy-fumbling -) Old copies give this as two distinct words. But it should be written palsy-fumbling, i. e. paralytick fumbling. TYRWHITT.

Fumbling is often applied by our old English writers to the speech. So, in King John, 1591:

-he fumbleth in the mouth;

"His fpeech doth fail."

Again, in North's Tranflation of Plutarch:

he heard his wife Calphurnia being fast afleepe, weepe and figh, and put forth many fumbling lamentable speaches." Shakspeare, I believe, wrote in his gorget. MALONE.

On feems to be used for-at. So, p. 268: "Pointing on him." i, e. at him. STEEVENS.

$ All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, Severals and generals of grace exact,

Achievements, plots, &c.] All our good grace exalt, means

our excellence irreprehenfible. JOHNSON.

6

to make paradoxes.] Paradoxes may have a meaning, but it is not clear and diftinct. I wish the copies had given: - to make parodies. JOHNSON.

In such a rein," in full as proud a place
As broad Achilles: keeps his tent like him;
Makes factious feasts; rails on our state of war,
Bold as an oracle: and sets Thersites

(A flave, whose gall coins flanders like a mint,*)
To match us in comparisons with dirt;
To weaken and difcredit our expofure,
How rank soever rounded in with danger.

ULrss. They tax our policy, and call it cow

ardice;

Count wisdom as no member of the war;
Forestall prefcience, and esteem no act
But that of hand: the still and mental parts,-
That do contrive how many hands shall strike,
When fitness calls them on; and know, by mea-

fure

Of their obfervant toil, the enemies' weight,-
Why, this hath not a finger's dignity :
They call this-bed-work, mappery, closet war:
So that the ram, that batters down the wall,
For the great fwing and rudeness of his poize,
They place before his hand that made the engine;

1bears his head

In fuch a rein, That is, holds up his head as haughtily. We ftill fay of a girl, she bridles. JOHNSON.

8-whofe gall coins flanders like a mint,] i. e. as fast as a mint

coins money. 'See Vol. VIII. p. 415, n. 9. MALONE.

9 How rank forver rounded in with danger.]

high weed. The modern editions filently read:

2

How hard foever. JOHNSON.

- and know, by meafure

A rank weed is a

Of their obfervant toil, the enemies' weight, I think it were

better to read:

and know the measure,

By their obfervant toil, of the enemies' weight. JOHNSON.

-by measure-] That is, " by means of their obfervant toil."

M. MASON.

Or those, that with the fineness of their fouls
By reason guide his execution.

NEST. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horfe Makes many Thetis' fons.

[Trumpet founds.

AGAM. What trumpet? look, Menelaus.

2

Enter ÆNEAS.

MEN. From Troy.

AGAM. What would you 'fore our tent? ANE.

Great Agamemnon's tent, I pray?

AGAM.

Is this

Even this.

ÆNE. May one, that is a herald, and a prince, Do a fair message to his kingly ears?'

AGAM. With surety stronger than Achilles' arm* 'Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice Çall Agamemnon head and general.

ANE. Fair leave, and large fecurity. How may A stranger to those most imperial looks'

2 What trumpet? look, Menelaus.] Surely, the name of Menelaus only serves to destroy the metre, and should therefore be omitted, STREVENS

-Achilles' arm-] So the copies. Perhaps the author wrote:

Alcides' arm. JOHNSON.

5 A ftranger to those most imperial looks-) And yet this was the feventh year of the war. Shakspeare, who so wonderfully preferves character, usually confounds the customs of all nations, and probably supposed that the ancients (like the heroes of chivalry) fought with beavers to their helmets. So, in the fourth act of this play, Neftor fays to Hector:

"But this thy countenance, still lock'd in steel,
" I never saw till now."

Shakspeare might have adopted this error from the wooden cuts Know them from eyes of other mortals?

AGAM.

ENE. Ay;

I ask, that I might waken reverence,
And bid the cheek be ready with a blush
Modest as morning when she coldly eyes
The youthful Phœbus:

How?

Which is that god in office, guiding men?
Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon?

AGAM. This Trojan scorns us; or the men of

Troy

Are ceremonious courtiers.

ÆNE. Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm'd, As bending angels; that's their fame in peace: But when they would feem soldiers, they have

galls,

Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, Jove's accord,

7

Nothing fo full of heart. But peace, Æneas,

to ancient books, or from the illuminators of manufcripts, who never feem to have entertained the leaft idea of habits, manners, or customs more ancient than their own. There are books in the British Museum of the age of King Henry VI; and in these the heroes of ancient Greece are represented in the very dresses worn at the time when the books received their decorations. STEEVENS.

In The Destruction of Troy, Shakspeare found all the chieftains of each army termed knights, mounted on stately horses, defended with modern helmets, &c. &C. MALONE.

6-bid the cheek-] So the quarto. The folio has:

7

on the cheek. JOHNSON.

they have galls,

Good arms, strong joints, true fwords; and, Jove's accord,

Nothing so full of heart. I have not the smallest doubt that the poet wrote (as I suggested in my SECOND APPENDIX, 8vo. 1783)

-they have galls,

Good arms, ftrong joints, true swords; and, Jove's a god
Nothing so full of heart.

Peace, Trojan; lay thy finger on thy lips!

So, in Macbeth:

" Sleek o'er your rugged looks; be bright and jovial

Among your guests to-night."

Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

Cæfar, why he's the Jupiter of men."

Again, ibidem:

Thou art, if thou dar'st be, the earthly Jove." The text in my apprehenfion is unintelligible, though I have not ventured on my own opinion to disturb it. In the old copy there is no point after the word accord, which adds some support to my conjecture. It alfo may be observed, that in peace the Trojans have just been compared to angels; and here Æneas in a fimilar ftrain of panegyrick compares them in war to that God who was proverbially diftinguished for high spirits.

The present punctuation of the text was introduced by Mr. Theobald. The words being pointed thus, he thinks it clear that the meaning is, They have galls, good arms, &c. and, Jove annuente, nothing is so full of heart as they. Had Shakspeare written" with Jove's accord," and "Nothing's so full," &c. fuch an interpretation might be received; but as the words ftand, it is inadmifssible.

The quarto reads:

and great Jove's accord-&c. MALONE.

Perhaps we should read:

_ and Love's a lord Nothing fo full of heart.

The words Jove and Love, in a future scene of this play, are substituted for each other, by the old blundering printers. In Love's Labour's Loft, Cupid is stiled "Lord of ay-mees;" and Romeo fpeaks of his "bofom's Lord." In Othello, Love is commanded to "yield up his hearted throne." And, yet more ap. pofitely, Valentine, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, fays,

love's a mighty lord-."

The meaning of Æneas will then be obvious. The most confident of all passions is not so daring as we are in the field. So, in Romeo and Juliet :

"And what Love can do, that dares Love attempt."

Mr. M. Mafon would read" and Jove's own bird." Perhaps, however, the old reading may be the true one, the speaker meaning to say, that, when they have the accord of Jove on their fide, nothing is so courageous as the Trojans. Thus, in Coriolanus :

"The god of foldiers

" (With the confent of fupreme Jove) inform

Thy thoughts with nobleness."