Alexander, her Servant.
Cre.
Who were those went by?
Serv.
Queen Hecuba and Helen.
Cre.
And whither go they?
Serv.
Up to th' eastern tower,
Whose height commands as subject all the vale,
To see the fight. 6 note
Hector, whose patience
Is as a Virtue fix'd, to day was mov'd,
He chid Andromache, and struck his armorer;
And like as there were husbandry in war,
7 note
Before the Sun rose, he was harness'd light,
-- 415 --
And to the field goes he; where ev'ry flower
Did as a prophet weep what it foresaw,
In Hector's wrath.
Cre.
What was his cause of anger?
Serv.
The noise goes thus; There is among the Greeks
A Lord of Trojan blood, nephew to Hector,
They call him Ajax.
Cre.
Good; and what of him?
Serv.
They say, he is a very man per se, and stands
alone.
Cre.
So do all men, unless they are drunk, sick, or
have no legs.
Serv.
This man, lady, hath robb'd many beasts of
-- 416 --
their particular additions; he is as valiant as the lion,
churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant; a man into
whom Nature hath so crowded humours, 8 note
that his valour
is crusht into folly, his folly sauced with discretion;
there is no man hath a virtue, that he has not a
glimpse of; nor any man an attaint, but he carries
some stain of it. He is melancholy without cause,
and merry against the hair; he hath the joints of
every thing, but every thing so out of joint, that he
is a gouty Briareus, many hands and no use; or purblind
Argus, all eyes and no sight.
Cre.
But how should this man, that makes me smile,
make Hector angry?
Serv.
They say, he yesterday cop'd Hector in the
battle and struck him down; the disdain and shame
whereof hath ever since kept Hector fasting and waking.
Samuel Johnson [1765], The plays of William Shakespeare, in eight volumes, with the corrections and illustrations of Various Commentators; To which are added notes by Sam. Johnson (Printed for J. and R. Tonson [and] C. Corbet [etc.], London) [word count] [S11001].
