THER. 'Would the fountain of your mind were clear again, that I might water an ass at it! I had rather be a tick in a sheep, than such a valiant ig

norance.

[Exit.

Enter, at one fide, ÆNEAS, and Servant, with a torch; at the other, PARIS, DEIPHOBUS, ANTENOR, DIOMEDES, and Others, with torches.

PAR. See, ho! who's that there?

DEI.

'Tis the lord Æneas.

ÆNE. Is the prince there in perfon?

Had I fo good occafion to lie long,

As you, prince Paris, nothing but heavenly bufi

nefs

Should rob my bed-mate of my company.

Dio. That's my mind too.-Good morrow, lord

Æneas.

PAR. A valiant Greek, Æneas; take his hand: Witness the process of your speech, wherein You told-how Diomed, a whole week by days, Did haunt you in the field.

8

ANE.

Health to you, valiant fir,

valiant fir,] The epithet-valiant, appears to have been caught by the compofitor from the preceding speech, and is introduced here only to spoil the metre. STEEVENS.

During all question of the gentle truce :1
But when I meet you arm'd, as black defiance,
As heart can think, or courage execute.

Dio. The one and other Diomed embraces.
Our bloods are now in calm; and, so long, health:
But when contention and occafion meet,
By Jove, I'll play the hunter for thy life,
With all my force, pursuit, and policy.

ANE. And thou shalt hunt a lion, that will fly With his face backward.-In humane gentleness, Welcome to Troy ! now, by Anchifes' life, Welcome, indeed! By Venus' hand I swear, No man alive can love, in such a fort, The thing he means to kill, more excellently.

Dio. We fympathize:-Jove, let Æneas live, If to my fword his fate be not the glory, A thousand cómplete courses of the fun! But, in mine emulous honour, let him die, With every joint a wound; and that to-morrow! ÆNE. We know each other well.

DIO. We do; and long to know each other worfe. PAR. This is the most despiteful gentle greeting,

1 During all question of the gentle truce :) I once thought to

read:

During all quiet of the gentle truce : But I think question means intercourse, interchange of conversation. JOHNSON.

See Vol. V. p. 503, n. 5. Question of the gentle truce is, converfation while the gentle truce lasts. MALONE.

8-By Venus' hand I swear,] This oath was used to infinuate his resentment for Diomedes' wounding his mother in the hand. WARBURTON.

I believe Shakspeare had no fuch allufion in his thoughts. He would hardly have made Æneas civil and uncivil in the fame breath. STEEVENS.

The noblest hateful love, that e'er I heard of.What business, lord, so early?

ANE. I was sent for to the king; but why, I know not.

PAR. His purpose meets you; 'Twas to bring this Greek

To Calchas' house; and there to render him,
For the enfreed Antenor, the fair Cressid :
Let's have your company; or, if you please,
Hafte there before us: I constantly do think,
(Or, rather, call my thought a certain knowledge,)
My brother Troilus lodges there to-night;
Rouse him, and give him note of our approach,
With the whole quality wherefore: I fear,
We shall be much unwelcome.

ANE.

That I affure you;

Troilus had rather Troy were borne to Greece,

Than Cressid borne from Troy.
PAR.

The bitter difpofition of the time

There is no help;

[Exit.

Will have it fo. On, lord; we'll follow you.

ÆNE. Good morrow, all.

PAR. And tell me, noble Diomed; 'faith, tell

me true,

Even in the foul of found good-fellowship,-
Who, in your thoughts, merits fair Helen beft,

Myfelf, or Menelaus?

D10.

Both alike:

He merits well to have her, that doth feek her
(Not making any fcruple of her foilure,)
With fuch a hell of pain, and world of charge;
And you as well to keep her, that defend her

9 His purpose meets you;) I bring you his meaning and his orders. JOHNSON.

(Not palating the taste of her dishonour,)
With fuch a costly loss of wealth and friends :
He, like a puling cuckold, would drink up
The lees and dregs of a flat tamed piece;
You, like a lecher, out of whorish loins
Are pleas'd to breed out your inheritors :
Both merits pois'd, each weighs nor less nor more;
But he as he, the heavier for a whore.

3

PAR. You are too bitter to your countrywoman. Dio. She's bitter to her country: Hear me, Paris,

For every false drop in her bawdy veins

2

- a flat tamed piece ;] i. e. a piece of wine out of which the spirit is all flown. WARBURTON.

This word, with a fomewhat similar sense, occurs in Coriolanus: "His remedies are tame i'the present peace.”

3 Both merits pois'd, each weighs nor less nor more;

STEEVENS.

But he as he, the heavier for a whore.] I read:
But he as he, each heavier for a whore ?

Heavy is taken both for weighty, and for fad or miserable. The quarto reads:

But he as be, the heavier for a whore.

I know not whether the thought is not that of a wager. It must then be read thus:

But he as he. Which heavier, for a whore?

That is, for a whore staked down, which is the heavier?

As the quarto reads,

the heavier for a whore,

JOHNSON.

I think all new pointing or alteration unnecessary. The sense appears to be this: the merits of either are funk in value, because the conteft between them is only for a strumpet. STEEVENS.

The merits of each, whatever they may be, being weigh'd one against the other, are exactly equal; in each of the scales, however, in which their merits are to be weighed, a harlot must be placed, fince each of them has been equally attached to one. - This is the reading of the quarto. The folio reads,

which heavier for a whore. MALONE.

A Grecian's life hath funk; for every fcruple
Of her contaminated carrion weight,
A Trojan hath been flain: fince the could speak,
She hath not given so many good words breath,
As for her Greeks and Trojans suffer'd death.
PAR. Fair Diomed, you do as chapmen do,
Dispraise the thing that you defire to buy:
But we in filence hold this virtue well,
We'll not commend what we intend to fell.4
Here lies our way.

[Exeunt.

4 We'll not commend what we intend to fell.] I believe the meaning is only this: though you practice the buyer's art, we will not practise the seller's. We intend to fell Helen dear, yet will not commend her. JOHNSON.

Dr. Warburton would read-not fell. STEEVENS.

The sense, I think, requires we should read condemn.

TYRWHITT. When Dr. Johnson says, they meant to fell Helen dear, he evidently does not mean that they really intended to fell her at all, (as he has been understood,) but that the Greeks should pay very dear for her, if they had her. We'll not commend what we intend to make you pay very dear for, if you have her. So Ajax fays in a former scene, "however, he shall pay for me, ere he has me." Commend is, I think, the true reading, our author having introduced a fimilar sentiment in two other places. In Love's Labour's Loft, we have

"'To things of fale a seller's praise belongs."

Again, in his 21ft Sonnet:

" I will not praise, that purpose not to fell."

This passage favours Dr. Warburton's emendation; but intend not fell founds very harsh. However, many very harth combinations may be found in these plays, where rhymes are introduced.

Surely Dr. Warburton's reading is the true one.
We'll not commend what we intend not fell,

in the same speech.

MALONE.

Of fuch elliptical phraseology as is introduced by Dr. Warburton's emendation, our author's plays will afford numerous examples. STEEVENS.