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Our project's life this fhape of fense affumes,
Ajax, employ'd, plucks down Achilles' plumes.
Neft. Ulyffes,

Now I begin to relish thy advice;

And I will give a taste of it forthwith

To Agamemnon. Go we to him straight;
Two curs fhall tame each other; pride alone

9 Muft tarre the mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone.

'ACT II.

[Exeunt.

SCENE I

The Grecian camp.

Enter Ajax and Therfites.

AJAX.

THERSITES

Ther. Agamemnon-how if he had boils

full, all over, generally?

Ajax. Therfites

[Talking to himself.

Ther. And those boils did run?fay fo,—did not the general run then? were not that a botchy core?

Ajax. Dog!

Ther. Then there would come fome matter from him; I fee none now.

Ajax. Thou bitch-wolf's fon, canft thou not hear? feel then.

[Strikes him.

9 Muft tarre the mafliffs on,-] Tarre, an old English word fignifying to provoke or urge on. See King John, Act 4.

Scene 1.

- like a dog

Snatch at his mafter that doth tar him on.

POPE.

ACT II.] This play is not divided into acts in any of the original editions. JOHNSON.

Ther,

Ther. The plague of Greece upon thee, thou mungrel beef-witted lord!

Ajax. 3 Speak then, thou unfalted leaven, speak: I will beat thee into handsomeness

Ther. I fhall fooner rail thee into wit and holiness: but, I think, thy horfe will fooner con an oration, than thou learn a prayer without book. Thou canft ftrike, canft thou? a red murrain o' thy jade's tricks! Ajax. Toads-ftool, learn me the proclamation! Ther. Doft thou think I have no fenfe, thou ftrik'st me thus ?

Ajax. The proclamation

Ther. Thou art proclaim'd a fool, I think.
Ajax. Do not, porcupine, do not:-my fingers itch.

The plague of Greece-] Alluding perhaps to the plague fent by Apollo on the Grecian army. JOHNSON.

3 Speak then, thou unjalted leaven, Speak ;] The reading obtruded upon us by Mr. Pope, was unjalted leaven, that has no authority or countenance from any of the copies; nor that approaches in any degree to the traces of the old reading, you whinid'ft leaven. This, it is true, is corrupted and unintelligible; but the emendation, which I have coined out of it, gives us a fenfe apt and confonant to what Ajax would fay, unwinnow'dft leaven.- - Thou lump of four dough, kneaded up out of a flower, unpurged and unfifted, with all the "drofs and bran in it." THEOBALD.

Speak then, thou WHINID'ST leaven,] This is the reading of the old copies: it fhould be WINDY EST, i. e. moft windy; leaven being made by a great fermentation. This epithet agrees well with Therfites' character. WARBURTON.

HANMER preferyes whinid'ft, the reading of the folio; but does not explain it, nor do I understand it. If the folio be followed, I read, vinew'd, that is mouldy leven. Thou compofition of muftiness and fourne/s.Theobald's affertion, however confident, is falfe. Unfalted leaven is in the old quarto. It means four without falt, malignity without wit. Shakefpeare wrote firft unfalted; but recollecting that want of falt was no fault in leaven, changed it to vinew'd. JOHNSON. Unjalted is the reading of both the quartos. Francis Beaumont, in his letter to Speght on his edition of Chaucer's works, 1602, fays, Many of Chaucer's words are become as it were #vinew'd and hoarie with over long lying," STEEVENS. Ther.

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Ther. I would thou didft itch from head to foot, and I had the fcratching of thee; I would make thee the loathfomeft fcab 4 in Greece. When thou art forth in the incurfions, thou ftrikeft as flow as another.

Ajax. I fay, the proclamation

Ther. Thou grumbleft and raileft every hour on Achilles, and thou art as full of envy at his greatness, as Cerberus is at Proferpina's beauty, aye 5 that thou bark'ft at him.

Ajax. Miftrefs Therfites!

Ther. Thou fhouldft ftrike him.

Ajax. Cobloaf!

Ther. He would 6 pun thee into fhivers with his fift, as a failor breaks a bifket.

Ajax. You whorefon cur!

Ther. Do, do.

Ajax. 7 Thou ftool for a witch !

[Beating him.

8

Ther. Ay, do, do, thou fodden-witted lord! thou haft no more brain than I have in my elbows; affinego may tutor thee. Thou fcurvy, valiant afs!

an

thou

in Greece.] The quarto adds these words, when thou art forth in the incurfions, theu ftrikeft as flow as another. JOHNSON. 5that thou bark'ft at him.] I read, O that thou bark'dft at him. JOHNSON.

Aye, I believe, in this place means ever. Thou art, fays Therfites, as envious of the greatnefs of Achilies as is Cerberus of Proferpine's beauty, that thou art barking at him fo perpetually. So in the Midsummer Night's Dream,

"For aye to live in fhady cloifter mew'd." STEEVENS. 6 - pun thee into fhivers -] Pun is in the midland counties the vulgar and colloquial word for pound. JOHNSON.

7 Thou fool for a witch!-] In one way of trying a witch they ufed to place her on a chair or ftool, with her legs tied across, that all the weight of her body might rest upon her feat; and by that means, after fome time, the circulation of the blood would be much ftopped, and her fitting would be as painful as the wooden horfe. Dr. GRAY,

8

- an affinego] I am not very certain what the idea conveyed by this word was meant to be. Afinaio is Italian, fays

Hanmer,

thou art here put to thrash Trojans; and thou art bought and fold among those of any wit, like a Barbarian flave. If thou ufe to beat me, I will begin at thy heel, and tell what thou art by inches, thou thing of no bowels, thou!

Ajax. You dog!

Ther. You fcurvy lord!

Ajax. You cur!

[Beating him,

Ther. Mars his ideot! do, rudeness; do, camel; do, do.

Enter Achilles and Patroclus.

Achil. Why, how now, Ajax? wherefore do you
this?

How now, Therfites? what's the matter, man?
Ther. You fee him there, do you?

Achil. Ay; what's the matter?

Ther. Nay, look upon him.

Achil. So I do; what's the matter?

Ther. Nay, but regard him well.
Achil. Well, why, I do fo.

Ther. But yet you look not well upon him: for

whofoever you take him to be, he is Ajax.

Hanmer, for an afs-driver: but in Mirza, a tragedy by Rob. Baron, act 3. the following paffage occurs,

annexed to it:

66

the ftout trufty blade,

"That at one blow has cut an afinego

"Afunder like a thread."

with a note

"This (fays the author) is the ufual trial of the Perfian "fhamfheers or cemiters, which are crooked like a crescent, "of so good metal that they prefer them before any other, and "fo fharp as any razor."

I hope, for the credit of the prince, that the experiment was rather made on an afs than an afs-driver. From the following paffage I fhould fuppofe it to be merely a cant term for a foolish fellow, an ideot: "They apparell'd me as you see, made a "fool, or an afinego of me." See The Antiquary, a comedy, by S. Marmion, 1641. Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady,

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all this would be förfworn, and I again an afinego,
STEEVENS.
as your fifter left me."

Achil. I know that, fool.

Ther. Ay, but that fool knows not himself.
Ajax. Therefore I beat thee.

Ther. Lo, lo, lo, lo, what modicums of wit he utters! his evafions have ears thus long. I have bobb'd his brain, more than he has beat my bones. I will buy nine fparrows for a penny, and his pia mater is not worth the ninth part of a fparrow. This lord, Achilles, Ajax, who wears his wit in his belly and his guts in his head—I'll tell you what I fay of him.

Achil. What?

[Ajax offers to frike him, Achilles interpofes.

Ther. I fay, this Ajax

Achil. Nay, good Ajax.

Ther. Has not fo much wit

Achil. Nay, I must hold you.

Ther. As will ftop the eye of Helen's needle, for whom he comes to fight.

Achil. Peace, fool!

Ther. I would have peace and quietnefs, but the fool will not he there: that he; look you there. Ajax. O thou damn'd cur! I fhall

Achil. Will you fet your

wit to a fool's ?

Ther. No, I warrant you; for a fool's will shame it. Patr. Good words, Therfites.

Achil. What's the quarrel?

Ajax. I bade the vile owl go learn me the tenour of the proclamation, and he rails upon me.

Ther. I ferve thee not.

Ajax, Well, go to, go to.

Ther. I ferve here voluntary,

Achil. Your laft fervice was fufferance, 'twas not voluntary; no man is beaten voluntary: Ajax was here the voluntary, and you as under an imprefs. Ther. Even fo?-a great deal of your wit too lies in your finews, or else there be liars. Hector fhall have a great

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