Enter NESTOR. NEST. GO, bear Patroclus' body to Achilles; 6 on Galathe his horse,] From The Three Destructions of Troy is taken this name given to Hector's horse. THEOBALD. "Cal'd Galathe (the which is faid to have been) "The goodlieft horfe," &c. Lydgate, p. 142. Again, p. 175: And fought, by all the means he could, to take Heywood, in his Iron Age, 1632, has likewife continued the fame appellation to Hector's horfe: My armour, and my trusty Galatee." Heywood has taken many circumftances in his play from Lydgate. John Stephens, the author of Cinthia's Revenge, 1613, (a play commended by Ben Jonfon in fome lines prefixed to it,) has mounted Hector on an elephant. STEEVENS. 7 - fcaled fculls-] Sculls are great numbers of fishes swimming together. The modern editors not being acquainted with the term, changed it into boals. My knowledge of this word is derived from a little book called The English Expofitor, London, printed by John Legatt, 1616. The word likewife occurs in Lyly's Midas, 1592: "He hath, by this, ftarted a covey of bucks, or roused a fcull of pheasants." The humour of this fhort fpeech confifts in a mifapplication of the appropriate terms of one amusement, to another. Again, in Milton's Paradife Loft, B. VII. v. 399, &c. 66 each bay "With fry innumerable fwarms, and fhoals "Of fifh, that with their fins and fhining scales Again, in the 26th fong of Drayton's Polyolbion : "My filver-fcaled feuls about my ftreams do fweep." STEEVENS. Scaled means here, difperfed, put to flight. See Vol. IV. p. 292, n. 2; and Vol. XII. p. 9, n. 9. This is proved decifively by the 8 Before the belching whale; then is he yonder, And there the strawy Greeks," ripe for his edge, Fall down before him, like the mower's fwath:* Here, there, and every where, he leaves, and takes; Dexterity fo obeying appetite, original reading of the quarto, fcaling, which was either changed by the poet himself to scaled (with the fame fenfe) or by the editor of the folio. If the latter was the cafe, it is probable that not being fufficiently acquainted with our author's manner, who frequently uses the active for the paffive participle, he fuppofed that the epithet was merely defcriptive of fome quality in the thing described. The paffage quoted above from Drayton does not militate against this interpretation. There the added epithet filver fhews that the word fealed is used in its common fenfe; as the context here (to fay nothing of the evidence arifing from the reading of the oldeft copy) afcertains it to have been employed with the lefs usual fignification already stated. "The cod from the banks of Newfoundland (fays a late writer) purfues the whiting, which flies before it even to the fouthern fhores of Spain. The cachalot, a fpecies of whale, is faid, in the same manner, to purfue a fhoal of herrings, and to fwallow hundreds in a mouthful." Knox's Hiftory of Fish, 8vo. 1787. The throat of the cachalot (the fpecies of whale alluded to by Shakspeare) is fo large, that, according to Goldfmith, he could with ease swallow an ox. MALONE. Sculls and foals, have not only one and the fame meaning, but are actually, or at leaft originally, one and the fame word. A fcull of herrings (and it is to thofe fish that the fpeaker alludes) fo termed on the coaft of Norfolk and Suffolk, is elsewhere called a hoal. RITSON. 8 the belching avhale ;] So, in Pericles: "And humming water muft o'erwhelm thy corfe." Homer alfo compares Achilles to a dolphin driving other fishes before him, Iliad XXI. v. 22: 9 the ftrawy Greeks,] In the folio it is-the fraying Greeks. JOHNSON. 2 the mower's fwath :] Swath is the quantity of grafs cut down by a fingle ftroke of the mower's fcythe. So, Tuffer: "With toffing and raking, and fetting on cocks, "Grafs, lately in fwathes, is meat for an ox." STERVENS. That what he will, he does; and does fo much, Enter ULYSSES. ULYSS. O, courage, courage, princes! great Achilles Is arming, weeping, curfing, vowing vengeance: Patroclus' wounds have rous'd his drowsy blood, Together with his mangled Myrmidons, That nofeless, handlefs, hack'd and chipp'd, come to him, Crying on Hector. Ajax hath loft a friend, And foams at mouth, and he is arm'd, and at it, Roaring for Troilus; who hath done to-day Mad and fantaftick execution; Engaging and redeeming of himself, With fuch a careless force, and forceless care, 3 ACHIL. Where is this Hector? we draw together.] This remark feems to be made by Neftor in confequence of the return of Ajax to the field, he having lately refused to co-operate or draw together with the Greeks, though at present he is roufed from his fullen fit by the lofs of a friend. So, in Cynthia's Revels, by Ben Jonfon: "Tis the fwaggering coach-horfe Anaides, that draws with him there." STEEVENS. Come, come, thou boy-queller, show thy face; Know what it is to meet Achilles angry. Hector! where's Hector? I will none but Hector. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. Another Part of the Field. Enter AJAX. AJAX. Troilus, thou coward Troilus, show thy head! Enter DIOMED. Dio. Troilus, I fay! where's Troilus? Азах. DIO. I would correct him. What would't thou? AJAX. Were I the general, thou fhould't have my office, Ere that correction:-Troilus, I fay! what, Troilus! Enter TROILUS. TRO. O traitor Diomed!-turn thy false face, thou traitor, And pay thy life thou ow'ft me for my horfe! AJAX. I'll fight with him alone: ftand, Diomed. 8-boy-queller,] i. e. Henry IV. Part II: “ 9 murderer of a boy. So, in King a man-queller and a woman-queller." STEEVENS. I will not look upon.] That is, (as we should now fpeak,) I will not be a looker-on. So, in King Henry VI. P. III : TRO. Come both, you cogging Greeks; have at Enter HECTOR. HECT. Yea, Troilus? O, well fought, my youngest brother! Enter ACHILLES. ACHIL. Now do I fee thee: Ha!-Have at thee, HECT. Pause, if thou wilt. ACHIL. I do difdain thy courtesy, proud Trojan. Be happy, that my arms are out of use: My reft and negligence befriend thee now, HECT. [Exit. Fare thee well: I would have been much more a fresher man, Why ftand we here 66 Wailing our loffes,- "And look upon, as if the tragedy "Were play'd in jeft by counterfeited actors?" Thefe lines were written by Shakspeare. MALONE. 2you cogging Greeks;] This epithet has no particular propriety in this place, but the author had heard of Græcia mendax. JOHNSON. Surely the epithet had propriety in refpect of Diomed at least, who had defrauded him of his miftrefs. Troilus beftows it on both, unius ob culpam. A fraudulent man, as I am told, is ftill called in the North-a gainful Greek. Cicero bears witness to this character of the ancient Greeks: "Teftimoniorum religionem & fidem nunquam ifta natio coluit." Again-" Græcorum ingenia ad fallendum parata funt." STEEVENS. |