Re-enter TROILUS.

2

TRO. Ajax hath ta'en Æneas; Shall it be?
No, by the flame of yonder glorious heaven,
He shall not carry him; I'll be taken too,
Or bring him off:-Fate, hear me what I fay!
I reck not though I end my life to-day.

Enter one in fumptuous armour.

[Exit.

HECT. Stand, ftand, thou Greek; thou art a goodly mark:

No? wilt thou not?—I like thy armour well;3

2

carry him;] i. e. prevail over him. So, in All's well

that ends well:

3

The count he wooes your daughter, "Refolves to carry ber;" STEEVENS.

I like thy armour well;] This circumftance is taken from Lydgate's poem, p. 196:

Guido in his hiftorie doth fhew

"By worthy Hector's fall, who coveting

"To have the fumptuous armor of that king, &c.
"So greedy was thereof, that when he had

"The body up, and on his horse it bare,

"To have the fpoil thereof such haste he made
"That he did hang his fhield without all care
"Behind him at his back, the easier

"To pull the armour off at his defire,

"And by that means his breast clean open lay." &c. This furnished Shakspeare with the hint for the following line: "I am unarm'd; forego this vantage, Greek.'

I quote from the original, 1555:

in this while a Grekish king he mette,

"Were it of hap or of adventure,

"The which in fothe on his cote armoure
"Embrouded had full many ryche stone,
"That gave a lyght, when the fonne shone,

"Full bryght and cleare, that joye was to fene,
"For perles white and emerawdes grene
"Full many one were therein fette.-

"Of whose arraye when Hector taketh hede,

STEEVENS.

I'll frufh it, and unlock the rivets all,

"Towardes him faft gan him drawe.
"And fyrst I fynde how he hath him flawe,
"And after that by force of his manheade
"He hent him up afore him on his stede,
"And faft gan wyth him for to ryde
"From the wardes a lytell out of syde,
"At good leyfer playnly, if he maye,
"To fpoyle him of his rych arraye.—
"On horse-backe out whan he him ladde,
"Recklessly the ftorye maketh mynde
"He cafte his fhelde at his backe behynde,
"To weld him felfe at more libertye,-

"So that his breft difarmed was and bare." MALONE.

4 I'll frufh it,] The word frush I never found elsewhere, nor understand it. Sir T. Hanmer explains it, to break or bruife. JOHNSON.

Mr. M. Mafon obferves, that "Hanmer's explanation appears to be right; and the word frush, in this fenfe, to be derived from the verb froiffer, to bruife, or break to pieces."

To fruh a chicken &c. is a term in carving, as ancient as Wynkyn de Worde's book on that fubject, 1508; and was fucceeded by another phrafe which we may suppose to have been fynonymous, viz.-to" break up a capon;" words that occur in Love's Labour's Loft.

Holinfhed (as Mr. Tollet has obferved) employs the verb-to frufh, in his Defcription of Ireland, p. 29: "When they are fore fruht with ficknefs, or too farre withered with age." The word feems to be fometimes used for any action of violence by which things are feparated, difordered, or deftroyed. So, in Hinde's Elifto Libidinofo, 1606: " High cedars are frufhed with tempefts, when lower fhrubs are not touched with the wind." Again, in Hans Beer-pot's invifible Comedy, &c. 1618:

"And with mine arm to fruh a turdy lance." Again, in The Hiftory of Helyas Knight of the Swan, bl. 1. no date: fmote him fo courageoufly with his fworde, that he frushed all his helm, wherewith the erle fell backward," &c. Again, in Stanyhurst's translation of the first book of Virgil's Æneid, 1582: "All the frube and leavings of Greeks, of wrathful Achilles."

Again:

yf that knight Antheus haplye "Were fruht, or remanent," &c.

Again, in Sir John Mandevile's account of the magical entertainments exhibited before the Grete Chan, p. 285: "And then they

But I'll be mafter of it:-Wilt thou not, beast,

abide?

Why then, fly on, I'll hunt thee for thy hide.

[Exeunt.

The fame.

Enter ACHILLES, with Myrmidons.

ACHIL. Come here about me, you my Myrmidons; Mark what I fay.-Attend me where I wheel: Strike not a stroke, but keep yourselves in breath; And when I have the bloody Hector found, Empale him with your weapons round about; In felleft manner execute your arms.' Follow me, firs, and my proceedings eye:It is decreed-Hector the great muft die. [Exeunt.

make knyghtes to jouften in armes full luftyly, &c.—and they frufchen togidere full fiercely." Again, in Fairfax's Taffo:

"Rinaldo's armour frush'd and hack'd they had."

STEEVENS.

The meaning of the word is afcertained by the following paffage in The Deftruction of Troy, a book which Shakspeare certainly had before him, when he wrote this play :

"Saying these wordes, Hercules caught by the head poor Lychas, and threw him against a rocke fo fiercely that hee to-frushed and all to-burft his bones, and fo flew him." MALONE.

5

· execute your arms. s.] To execute their arms is to employ them; to put them to use. A fimilar expreffion occurs in Othello, where lago fays:

Witnefs that here Iago doth give up

"The execution of his wit, hands, heart,
"To wrong'd Othello's fervice."

And in Love's Labour's Loft, Rofaline fays to Biron :

"Full of comparisons and wounding flouts,

"Which you on all eftates will execute." M. MASON.

SCENE

The fame.

VIII.

Enter MENELAUS and PARIS, fighting; then THER

SITES.

THER. The cuckold, and the cuckold-maker are at it: Now, bull! now, dog! 'Loo, Paris, 'loo! now my double-henn'd fparrow! 'loo, Paris, 'loo! The bull has the game:-'ware horns, ho!

[Exeunt PARIS and MENELAUS,

Enter MARGARELON.

MAR. Turn, flave, and fight.

THER. What art thou?

MAR. A baftard fon of Priam's."

THER. I am a baftard too; I love baftards: I am a baftard begot, baftard inftructed, baftard in mind, baftard in valour, in every thing illegitimate. One bear will not bite another, and wherefore fhould one baftard? Take heed, the quarrel's most ominous to us: if the fon of a whore fight for a whore, he tempts judgement: Farewell, baftard.

MAR. The devil take thee, coward!

[Exeunt.

6 A baftard fon of Priam's.] Baftard, in ancient times, was a reputable appellation. So, in King Henry VI. Part I:

Baftard of Orleans, thrice welcome to us." See note on this paffage, Vol. IX. p. 520. STEEVENS.

SCENE IX.

Another Part of the Field.

Enter HECTOR.

HECT. Moft putrified core, so fair without, Thy goodly armour thus hath coft thy life. Now is my day's work done; I'll take good breath: Reft, fword; thou haft thy fill of blood and death! [Puts off his helmet, and hangs his field behind him.

Enter ACHILLES and Myrmidons.

ACHIL. Look, Hector, how the fun begins to fet; How ugly night comes breathing at his heels: Even with the vail and dark'ning of the fun, To close the day up, Hector's life is done.

6

HECT. I am unarm'd; forego this vantage, Greek."

6 Even with the vail-] The vail is, I think, the finking of the fun; not veil or cover. JOHNSON.

So, in Measure for Meafure, "vail your regard upon," fignifics,Let your notice defcend upon &c. STEEVENS.

7 I am unarm'd; forego this vantage, Greek.] Hector, in Lydgate's poem, falls by the hand of Achilles; but it is Troilus who, having been inclofed round by the Myrmidons, is killed after his armour had been hewn from his body, which was afterwards drawn through the field at the horfe's tail. The Oxford editor, I believe, was mifinformed; for in the old ftory-book of The Three Destructions of Troy, I find likewife the fame account given of the death of Troilus. Heywood, in his Rape of Lucrece, 1638, seems to have been indebted to fome fuch work as Sir T. Hanmer mentions:

"Had puiffant Hector by Achilles' hand
"Dy'd in a fingle monomachie, Achilles

"Had been the worthy; but being flain by odds,
"The pooreft Myrmidon had as much honour

"As faint Achilles, in the Trojan's death."

It is not unpleasant to obferve with what vehemence Lydgate, who in the grofleft manner has violated all the characters drawn by