I feek. 8 ACHIL. Strike, fellows, strike; this is the man [HECTOR falls. So, Ilion, fall thou next! now, Troy, fink down; Here lies thy heart, thy finews, and thy bone.— On, Myrmidons; and cry you all amain, Achilles bath the mighty Hector flain. 8 [A retreat founded. Hark! a retreat upon our Grecian part. MrR. The Trojan trumpets found the like, my lord. ACHIL. The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth, And, ftickler-like, the armies feparates. Homer, takes upon him to reprehend the Grecian poet as the original offender. Thus, in his fourth book: "Oh thou, Homer, for fhame be now red, "In thy bokes for his chivalrye, "Above echone that doft hym magnyfye, "That was fo fleyghty and fo full of fraude, Why geveft thou hym fo hye a prayfe and laude?" STEEVENS. Strike, fellows, ftrike;] This particular of Achilles overpowering Hector by numbers, and without armour, is taken from the old ftory-book. HANMER. 9 On, Myrmidons; and cry you all amain, Achilles hath the mighty Hector flain.] Ηράμεθα μέγα κύδ @• επέφνομεν Εκτορα δίον, Ὦ Τρώες κατὰ ἄςυ, θεῷ ὡς, εὐχετόωνο. II. XXII. v. 393. MALONE. 2 The dragon wing of night-] See Vol. X. p. 122, n. 2. MALONE. 3 And, tickler-like,] A ftickler was one who ftood by to part the combatants when victory could be determined without bloodfhed. They are often mentioned by Sidney. "Anthony (fays Sir Thomas North, in his translation of Plutarch,) was himself in perfon a fickler to part the young men when they had fought enough." They were called ficklers, from carrying sticks or ftaves in their hands, with which they interpofed between the duellifts. My half-fupp'd fword,' that frankly would have fed, Come, tie his body to my horse's tail; [Exeunt. We now call thefe fticklers-fidefmen. So again, in a comedy called, Fortune by Land and Sea, by Heywood and Rowley: "—'tis not fit that every apprentice fhould with his fhop-club play between us the fickler." Again, in the tragedy of Faire Mariam, 1613: "And was the fickler 'twixt my heart and him.” Again, in Fuimus Troes, 1633: "As ficklers in their nation's enmity." STEEVENS. Minfheu gives the fame etymology, in his DICT. 1617: “A fickler betweene two, fo called as putting a flick or staffe betweene two fighting or fencing together." MALONE. Sticklers are arbitrators, judges, or, as called in fome places, fidefmen. At every wrestling in Cornwall, before the games begin, a certain number of ticklers are chofen, who regulate the proceedings and determine every difpute. The nature of the English language, as I conceive, does not allow the derivation of tickler from flick, which, as a word, it has not the remotest connection with. Stickler (ftic-kle-er) is immediately from the verb stickle, to interfere, to take part with, to bufy one's felf in any matter. RITSON. 3 My half-fupp'd fword, &c.] Thefe four despicable verses, as well as the rhyming fit with which the blockish Ajax" is afterwards feized, could fcarce have fallen from the pen of our author, in his most unlucky moments of compofition. STEEVENS. Whatever may have been the remainder of this fpeech as it came out of Shakspeare's hands, we may be confident that this bombaft ftuff made no part of it. Our author's gold was stolen and the thief's brafs left in its place. RITSON. Perhaps this play was hastily altered by Shakspeare from an elder piece, which the reader will find mentioned in p. 214, n. 2. Some of the fcenes in it therefore he might have fertilized, and left others as barren as he found them. STEEVENS. 4 Along the field I will the Trojan trail.] Such almoft (changing the name of Troilus for that of Hector) is the argument of Lydgate's 31ft chapter, edit. 1555: "How Achilles flewe the worthy Troylus unknyghtly, and after trayled his body through the fyelde tyed to his horfe.' STEEVENS. SCENE X. The fame. Enter AGAMEMNON, AJAX, MENELAUS, NESTOR, DIOMEDES, and Others, marching. Shouts within. AGAM. Hark! hark! what fhout is that? NEST. [Within.] Peace, drums. Achilles ! Achilles! Hector's flain! Achilles! Dio. The bruit is-Hector's flain, and by A chilles. AJAX. If it be fo, yet braglefs let it be; Great Hector was as good a man as he. Το AGAM. March patiently along:-Let one be sent pray Achilles fee us at our tent. If in his death the gods have us befriended, Great Troy is ours, and our fharp wars are ended. [Exeunt, marching. SCENE XI. Another Part of the Field. Enter ENEAS, and Trojans. ENE. Stand, ho! yet are we masters of the field : Never go home; here ftarve we out the night.' 5 Never go home; &c.] This line is in the quarto given to Troilus. JOHNSON. H Enter TROILUS. TRO. Hector is flain. ALL. Hector? The gods forbid! TRO. He's dead; and at the murderer's horfe's tail, In beastly fort, dragg'd through the fhameful field.- ENE. My lord, you do discomfort all the hoft. 6 fmile at Troy!] Thus the ancient copies; but it would better agree with the reft of Troilus's wish, were we to read, with a former editor: fmite at Troy! I fay, at once! STEEVENS. There can be no doubt but we fhould read fmite at, inftead of fmile. The following words, I fay at once," make that unqueftionable. To call upon the heavens to frown, and on the Gods to fmile, at the felf-fame moment, would be too abfurd even for that violent agitation of mind with which Troilus is supposed to be actuated. M. MASON. Smite was introduced into the text by Sir Thomas Hanmer, and adopted by Dr. Warburton. I believe the old reading is the true one. Mr. Upton thinks that Shakspeare had the Pfalmift in view. "He that dwelleth in heaven fhall laugh them to fcorn; the Lord fhall have them in derifion." Pf. ii. 4. "The Lord fhall laugh him to fcorn; for he hath feen that his day is coming." Pf. xxxvii. 13. In the paffage before us, (he adds,)" the heavens are the minifters of the Gods to execute their vengeance, and they are bid to frown on; but the Gods themfelves fmile at Troy; they hold Troy in derifion, for its day is coming." MALONE. Who fhall tell Priam fo, or Hecuba? Let him, that will a fcreech-owl aye be call'd, Thus proudly pight upon our Phrygian plains, I'll through and through you!-And thou, great- No space of earth fhall funder our two hates; [Exeunt ENEAS, and Trojans. 5 Make wells and Niobes of the maids and wives,] I adopt the conjecture of a deceafed friend, who would read-welland, i. e. weeping Niobes. The Saxon termination of the participle in and, for ing, is common in our old poets, and often corrupted at the prefs. So, in Spenfer: "His glitterand armour shined far away." Where the common editions have glitter and. WHALLEY. There is furely no need of emendation. STEEVENS. 6 Ccold-] The old copy-Coole. STEEVENS. 7 pight-] i. e. pitched, fixed. The obfolete preterite and participle paffive of to pitch. So, Spenfer: 8 "Then brought the me into this defert vaft, And by my wretched lover's fide me pight." with comfort go: STEEVENS. Hope of revenge ball hide our inward woe.] This couplet affords a full and natural clofe to the play; and though I once thought differently, I must now declare my firm belief that Shakspeare defigned it fhould end here, and that what follows is either a fubfequent and injudicious restoration from the elder drama mentioned in p. 214, or |