The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask.
The heavens themselves, the planets, and this
centre, 53

Observe degree, priority, and place,
Insisture, 59 course, proportion, season, forin,
Office, and custoin, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol,
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
Amidst the other; 60 whose med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,

58. This centre. Here used for the earth, the terrestrial globe (see Note 17, Act ii., "Winter's Tale"). According to the system of Ptolemy, our earth is the centre round which the planets move.

59 Insisture. Fixed position, appointed situation, steadfast place. See Note 31, Act iv., "Measure for Measure."

60. Amidst the other. Here "other" is used for others' or 'other planets.' See Note 91, Act ii., "First Part Henry IV." 61. Sans. Without.' A French word in frequent English use when Shakespeare wrote. See Note 49, Act v., "King John."

And posts, like the commandinent of a king,
Sans check, to good and bad: but when the
planets,

In evil mixture, to disorder wander, 62
What plagues and what portents! what mutiny!
What raging of the sea! shaking of earth!
Commotion in the winds! frights, changes, horrors,
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate 63
The unity and married calm of states
Quite from their fixure! Oh, when degree is shak'd,

62. The planets, in evil mixture, to disorder wander. "Evil mixture" refers to the astrological belief in certain adverse conjunctions of the planets (see Note 38, Act iii., "Henry VIII."), which were supposed to have inauspicious influence upon mankind, and to foretell impending disasters. The planets were believed not to be confined to orbits of their own, but were thought to "wander" about erratically, as their name indicates, being derived from the Greek word, plane, érror, erring or wandering.

63. Deracinate. 'Root out,' 'wrench apart.' See Note 31, Act v., "Henry V."

Which is the ladder to all high designs,
The enterprise is sick !64 How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods 65 in cities,
Peaceful commérce from dividable 66 shores,
The primogenitive 7 and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy :68 the bounded waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores,
And make a sop of all this solid globe :
Strength should be lord of imbecility,

And the rude son should strike his father dead:
Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong
(Between whose endless jar justice resides)
Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
Then everything includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite, a universal wolf,

So doubly seconded with will and power,
Must make perforce a universal prey,
And last eat up himself. Great Agamemnon,
This chaos, when degree is suffocate,
Follows the choking.

And this neglection 69 of degree it is,

That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose
It hath to climb. The general's disdain'd
By him one step below: he, by the next:
That next, by him beneath: so every step,
Exampled by the first pace that is sick
Of his superior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodless emulation :

64. Oh, when degree. the enterprise is sick. Hanmer proposed to change "the" to 'then,' here; but the previous when" renders 'then' needless, and "the" is used to designate enterprise" generally.

65. Brotherhoods. Confraternites,' 'corporations,' 'companies.'

66. Dividable. Here used for 'divided,'' separated by distance.' Shakespeare sometimes thus uses words ending in "ble;" the active and passive form of adjectives, the one for the other. See Note 50, Act iv., "Twelfth Night."

67. Primogenitive. Several editors have changed this to 'primogeniture,' and the Quarto prints 'primogenitie : | but we think it probable that "primogenitive was Shakespeare's word, derived from the two Latin words primo, first, and genitivus, that which is born with us, to signify the claims or right of the first-born. He sometimes thus coins classicallyderived words to suit his special purpose (see Note 45, Act v.. "Twelfth Night "); and, thus considered, a word made up from primo and genitivus would perhaps more fully express his meaning than one from primo, first, and genitus, born.

68. Mere oppugnancy. "Mere" is used in its sense of 'absolute,' 'thorough' (see Note 48, Act iii., "Merchant of Venice"). and " oppugnancy " is a word framed by Shakespeare directly from the Latin oppugnans, resisting, assaulting, or fighting against, to express 'warring opposition.' It is worthy of observation how frequently Shakespeare uses his own specially coined words here; not only in this speech, but throughout this play. It is as if he were in a peculiarly minting vein at this period; which tends to support a theory we have, that certain prevalences of expression running through certain of his plays indicate particular phases of mental process, and, as it

And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,
Not her own sinews. To end a tale of length,
Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength.
Nest. Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover'd
The fever whereof all our power is sick.
Agam. The nature of the sickness found,
Ulysses,

What is the remedy?

Ulyss. The great Achilles,-whom opinion

crowns

The sinew and the forehand of our host,

Having his ear full of his airy fame,
Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent
Lies mocking our designs: with him, Patroclus,
Upon a lazy bed, the livelong day
Breaks scurril jests;

And with ridiculous and awkward action
(Which, slanderer, he imitation calls)

He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon,
Thy topless deputation 70 he puts on;
And, like a strutting player,-whose conceit
Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich
To hear the wooden dialogue?1 and sound
'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage,72—
Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrested 73 seeming
He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks,
'Tis like a chime a-mending; with terms unsquar'd,
Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon74

dropp'd,

Would seem hyperboles. At this fusty stuff, The large Achilles, on his press'd bed lolling, From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause ; Cries, "Excellent! 'tis Agamemnon just.

were, fashions of composition. See Note 14, Act i., "Winter's Tale."

69. Neglection. A form of 'neglect,' or 'negligence,' rarely used; but occurring three times in Shakespeare's plays; here, in "First Part Henry VI.," Act iv., sc. 3, and in "Pericles," Act iii., sc. 3. The mode of expression is very condensed here; and the employment of "it" in reference to "neglection of degree," rather than mentioning those who neglect degree, tends to obscure the meaning, which may be thus interpreted :-" By neglecting to observe due degree of priority, men lose ground while striving to advance;" since each person who pushes on regardless of his superiors, will be pushed back in turn by them. 70. Topless deputation. Highest dignity as deputed by the other Grecian leaders, who constituted Agamemnon commanderin-chief of their united army. "Topless" is used by other writers, as well as Shakespeare, to express that which is without anything to 'top' or surpass it; 'supreme,' 'pre-eminent.'

71. The wooden dialogue. The epithet "wooden" here has admirable significance; not only conveying to the ear the resounding tread of the "strutting player" on the boards, but bringing to our eye his puppet hardness and stiffness as well as the awkward stupidity of his look and action. See Note 23, Act V., "First Part Henry VI."

72. The scaffoldage. The floor of the stage; the word 'scaffold' was sometimes used by old writers for a theatrical stage. 73. O'er-wrested. 'Over-strained,' wrested beyond truth and nature; as strings of an instrument are overstrained, when drawn up too tightly in tuning, by means of a 'wrest,' or tuningkey. The Folio misspells the word 'ore-rested.'

74. Typhon. A giant who, warring against heaven, uttered such discordant yells as to terrify the gods themselves.

Now play me Nestor; hem, and stroke thy beard,
As he, being 'drest to some oration."
That's done ;-as near as the extremest ends
Of parallels; as like as Vulcan and his wife:
Yet god Achilles still cries,75" Excellent!

'Tis Nestor right. Now play him me, Patroclus, Arming to answer in a night alarm."

And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age
Must 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, “Oh, enough, Patroclus;
Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all

In pleasure of my spleen." 76 And in this fashion,
All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,
Severals and generals of grace exact,77
Achievements, plots, orders, preventions,
Excitements to the field, or speech for truce,
Success or loss, what is or is not, serves
As stuff for these two to make paradoxes.
Nest. And in the imitation of these twain
(Whom, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns
With an imperial voice,) many are infect.
Ajax is grown self-will'd; and bears his head
In such a rein, in full as proud a place78
As broad Achilles; keeps his tent like him ;79
Makes factious feasts; rails on our state of war,
Bold as an oracle; and sets Thersites

(A slave whose gall coins slanders like a mint)
To match us in comparisons with dirt,
To weaken and discredit our exposure,
How rank soever rounded in with danger.80

Ulyss. They tax our policy, and call it cowardice;
Count wisdom as no member of the war;
Forestall prescience, 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 measure
Of their observant toil, the enemies' weight,-
Why, this hath not a finger's dignity:

75. Yet god Achilles still cries. Here the first Folio and Quartos have the word 'god;' and yet the misprint of the second, third, and fourth Folios, 'good,' has been adopted by the Variorum editors and others. In "god Achilles" we have one of those nouns used adjectively which Shakespeare occasionally gives as a vigorous and expressive epithet; and here it imparts an effect of sneering disdain in its irony of exaggerated adulation, which forms an excellent reprisal for the insolence that has taken delight in the mimicry of the speaker and his associates. To banish "god Achilles" here and substitute 'good Achilles,' appears to us to be wilful effacement of the fine, bold, strong dash of a poetical pencil, to make way for a tame and comparatively inapt and ineffective commonplace.

76. Spleen. Here used for fit of laughter. See Note 40, Act iii, "Twelfth Night."

77. Severals and generals of grace exact. This has been variously altered; but we think the line, as it stands, may be taken to mean, 'Our qualifications, severally and generally, distinguished by the grace of exactness:' for Ulysses is asserting his own and his colleagues' excellences of ability and methodical propriety as depreciated and travestied by Achilles and Patro

clus. "Severals" may here elliptically imply 'several peculiarities' (see Note 19, Act v., "Henry V."); and "generals," 'general characteristics.'

78. In full as proud a place. Pope and others substitute 'pace' for "place" here; but though the word' pace' might be supposed to consist better with "rein," yet to bear his head in a proud pace' would be a forced expression. "Bears his head in such a rein" presents the same idea of a loftily-held head, with a proud motion of the neck, as is presented by the phrase, How she bridles!' said of a girl who gives herself haughty airs, or as when we see a caparisoned horse toss its head and shake its trappings.

79. Keeps his tent like him. See Note 13, Act v., “Richard III."

80. How rank soever rounded in with danger. 'In howsoever high a degree encompassed by danger.' One of the meanings of "rank" is 'high-grown' or 'rampant.'

81. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse makes many Thetis' sons. 'If this be granted, then is the horse of Achilles equal in value to many men like its master.' Achilles was the son of the sea-nymph Thetis.

Nothing so full of heart.82 But peace, Æneas,
Peace, Trojan; lay thy finger on thy lips!
The worthiness of praise distains his worth,
If that the prais'd himself bring the praise forth:
But what the repining enemy commends,

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 86 in his arms; And will to-morrow with his trumpet call,

Trumpet, blow loud,

Ene. Send thy brass voice through all these lazy tents; And every Greek of mettle, let him know, What Troy means fairly shall be spoke aloud, [Trumpet sounds. We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy A prince call'd Hector,-Priam is his father,Who in this dull and long-continu'd truce 84 Is rusty grown: he bade me take a trumpet, And to this purpose speak. Kings, princes, lords! If there be one among the fair'st of Greece, That holds his honour higher than his ease; That seeks his praise more than he fears his peril; That knows his valour, and knows not his fear; That loves his mistress more than in confession 85 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.

82. And, Jove's accord, nothing so full of heart. This has been variously altered; but we take it to be elliptically expressed, meaning, 'And, through Jove's granting, there's nothing so full of courage as they are.'

83. That praise, sole pure, transcends. Different substitutions have been made here; but, taking "sole" to mean 'solely, the sentence precisely expresses Shakespeare's tenet that that praise' (the reluctant praise from foes, in contradistinction to self-praise), the only pure praise, transcends all other praise.' See Note 73, Act iii., "Merchant of Venice."

84. This dull and long-continu'd truce. The mention of this truce is taken from "The Destruction of Troy."

85. That loves his mistress more, &c. The meaning of these two lines appears to us to be obscured by retaining the parenthesis which the Folio puts to the second of them; as is its frequent practice where no parenthesis should be placed. The sentence means, that loves his mistress more than he tells her he does amid vows and kisses.' There is, of course, a play upon the word "arms" immediately afterwards.

86 Compass. Here used for 'embrace' or 'clasp round;' as in the passage explained in Note 12, Act iv., "Comedy of Errors.'

If none, he'll say in Troy when he retires,
The Grecian dames are sunburn'd,87 and not worth
The splinter of a lance.88 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!89
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 host
One noble man that hath one spark of fire,
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 ;9
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,"1
I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood.
Ene. Now heavens forbid such scarcity of youth!
Ulyss. Amen.

.90

87. Sunburn'd. Here used to express 'not fair,' 'unlovely.' See Note 45, Act ii., "Much Ado."

88. The splinter of a lance. The wording of this challenge is in the true chivalric tone; and it affords one of the instances of the skill with which the dramatist has blended the rich hues of the romance-writers with the Doric simplicity of outline in the classic poets. See Note 1, Act i. of the present play.

89. That means not, hath not, or is not in love! This passage is constructed in the same style of ellipsis as the one commented upon in Note 55, Act iii., "Henry VIII.;" and each of these two passages serves as an illustration of the other, showing how largely elliptical our poet occasionally makes his diction. Here 'to be' is understood after the first "not" in the sentence, and 'been' after the second "not." Been' is also again understood, in the next line, after "hath."

"

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 : 92
And, in the publication, make no strain,
But that Achilles,93 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, 'tis 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 95
In this wild action; for the success,
Although particular, shall give a scantling 96
Of good or bad unto the general;
And in such indexes, although small pricks

92. The purpose is perspicuous even as substance, whose grossness little characters sum up. 'The person ultimately purposed in this challenge is as obvious as material substance itself; the bulk of which is formed by small amounts, which may be calculated by small marks of the pen, and which may be estimated by persons of small intelligence.' Shakespeare's use of the word "characters" in this sentence, allows all these various senses to be included in the meaning of this sentence, and they serve to give punningly sarcastic point to Nestor's figurative allusion to Achilles. See Note 21, Act iii., "Henry VIII."

93. In the publication, make no strain but that, &c. When the challenge comes to be made publicly known, entertain not the least doubt but that,' &c. "Strain" is here and elsewhere used by Shakespeare for 'demur,' or 'difficulty of doubt.' 94. Libya. The classical name for Africa.

95. Our imputation shall be oddly pois'd. Our imputed excellence shall be unequally weighed.' "Imputation" is here and elsewhere used by Shakespeare for that which is attributed as a merit, that which is adjudged to be excellent; and "oddly pois'd" has here the force of 'unfairly matched' and 'awkwardly risked,' as well as unequally weighed.'

96. A scantling. A small portion, a slight sample; as the French use their word, échantillon, and the Italians their word, ciantolino, which latter Florio interprets into English by "a little scantling."

Which entertain'd, limbs are his instruments,99
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.

Nest. I see them not with my old eyes: what are they?

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 Afric 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 100 crush
In taint of our best man. No, make a lottery;
And, by device, let blockish 101 Ajax draw
The sort 102 to fight with Hector: among ourselves
Give him allowance for the better man ;

97. In such indexes, although small pricks to their subsequent volumes. In such indexes, although small points compared with their subsequent volumes.' Indexes were often in Shakespeare's time placed at the commencement of a book.

98. Who miscarrying, what heart receives from hence, &c. In this passage we have an instance of the form of question that, strictly constructed, requires the word 'not;' but, Shakespereanly constructed, allows 'not' to be understood. See Note 22, Act v., "Henry VIII." The meaning of the sentence is, If this selected champion should fail, what spirit would not hence be received by the conquering side, to give fresh edge to a high opinion of themselves?' Shakespeare elsewhere uses the verb "to steel" for 'to put fresh point or edge to; to strengthen, to give added force to.' See passage adverted to in Note 54, Act i., "Richard II."

99. Which entertain'd, limbs are his instruments. 'Which opinion entertained, limbs are its instruments.'

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