ACT II.6 SCENE I. Another Part of the Grecian Camp. Enter Ajax and THERSITES. AJAx. Thersites, THER. Agamemnon-how if he had boils? full, all over, generally? AJAX. Thersites, THER. And those boils did run?-Say so, did not the general run then? were not that a botchy core? Ajax. Dog, THER. Then would come some matter from him; I fee none now. Ajax. Thou bitch-wolf's fon, canst thou not hear? Feel then. [Strikes him. THER. The plague of Greece upon thee, thou mongrel beef-witted lord! 8 6 A& II.] This play is not divided into acts in any of the original editions. JOHNSON. 1 The plague of Greece upon thee, Alluding perhaps to the plague sent by Apollo on the Grecian army. JOHNSON. The following lines of Lydgate's Auncient Historie of the Warres between the Trojans and the Grecians, 1555, were probably here in our author's thoughts: " And in this whyle a great mortalyte, " Both of sworde and of pestilence, Among Greekes, by fatal influence "Of noyous hete and of corrupt eyre, Engendred was, that tho in great dispayre i AJAX. Speak then, thou unfalted leaven, speak: " I will beat thee into handfomeness. "Of theyr life in the fyelde they leye, Whereby theyr nombre fast gan dyscrece; "And whan they fawe that it ne wolde fece, By theyr advyse the kyng Agamemnowne "For a trewse sent unto the towne, "For thirty dayes, and Priamus the kinge Our author may as well be supposed to have caught this circumstance relative to the plague, from the first book of Hall's or Chapman's verfion of the Iliad. STEEVENS. 8 -thou mongrel beef-witted lord!] So, in Twelfth Night: I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit." STEEVENS. He calls Ajax mongrel on account of his father's being a Grecian and his mother a Trojan. See Hector's speech to Ajax, in Act IV. fc. v: "Thou art, great lord, my father's fifter's fon," &c. MALONE. 9 Speak then, thou unfalted leaven, speak:] Unsalted leaven means four without falt, malignity without wit. Shakspeare wrote first unfalted; but recollecting that want of falt was no fault in leaven, changed it to vinew'd. JOHNSON. The want of falt is no fault in leaven; but leaven without the addition of falt will not make good bread: hence Shakspeare ufed it as a term of reproach. MALONE. Unfalted is the reading of both the quartos. Francis Beaumont, in his letter to Speght on his edition of Chaucer's works, 1602, says: "Many of Chaucer's words are become as it were vinew'd and hoarie with over long lying." Again, in Tho. Newton's Herbal to the Bible, 8vo. 1587: "For being long kept they grow hore and vinerwed." STEEVENS. In the preface to James the First's Bible, the tranflators speak of fenowed (i. e. vinewed or mouldy) traditions. BLACKSTONE. The folio has thou whinid'st leaven; a corruption undoubtedly of vinnewedft, or vinniedft: that is, thou most mouldy leaven. In Dorsetshire they at this day call cheese that is become mouldy, vinny cheese. MALONE. i THER. I shall fooner rail thee into wit and holi ness: but, I think, thy horse will fooner con an oration, than thou learn a prayer without book. Thou canft strike, canst thou ? a red murrain o'thy jade's tricks! 2 AJAX. Toads-stool, learn me the proclamation. THER. Dost thou think, I have no sense, thou strik'st me thus? Agax. The proclamation, THER. Thou art proclaim'd a fool, I think. Ajax. Do not, porcupine, do not; my fingers itch. THER. I would, thou didst itch from head to foot, and I had the scratching of thee; I would make thee the loathsomest scab in Greece. When thou art forth in the incursions, thou strikest as flow as another. Afax. I say, the proclamation, THER. Thou grumblest and railest every hour on Achilles; and thou art as full of envy at his greatnefs, as Cerberus is at Proferpina's beauty, ay, that thou bark'st at him.4 2 AJAX. Mistress Thersites ! THER. Thou should'st strike him. a red murrain &c.] A fimilar imprecation is found in The red plague rid you!" STEEVENS. The Tempest: 3 " -in Greece.] [Thus far the folio.] The quarto adds when thou art forth in the incursions, thou strikest as flow as another. 4 JOHNSON. ay, that thou bark'st at him.] I read, - that thou bark'dit at him. JOHNSON. The old reading is I, which, if changed at all, should have been changed into ay. TYRWHITT. AJAX. Cobloaf! 4 THER. He would pun thee into shivers with his fift, as a failor breaks a biscuit. AJAX. You whorefon cur! THER. Do, do. Agax. Thou stool for a witch! [Beating him. : THER. Ay, do, do; thou sodden-witted lord! thou haft no more brain than I have in mine elbows; an affinego may tutor thee: Thou scurvy valiant 4 Cobloaf!] A crusty, uneven, gibbous loaf, is in fome counties called by this name. STEEVENS. A cob-loaf, fays Minsheu in his Dictionary, 1617, is " a bunne. It is a little loaf made with a round head, such as cob-irons which support the fire. G. Bignet, a bigne, a knob or lump risen after a knock or blow." The word Bignets Cotgrave in his Dict. 1611, renders thus: "Little round loaves or lumps, made of fine meale, oyle, or butter, and reasons: bunnes, lenten loaves." Cob-loaf ought perhaps to be rather written cop-loaf. MALONE. 9 --pun thee into shivers - Pun is in the midland counties the vulgar and colloquial word for-pound. JOHNSON. It is used by P. Holland in his translation of Pliny's Natural History, Book XXVIII. ch. xii: "punned altogether and reduced into a liniment." Again, Book XXIX. ch. iv: "The gall of these lizards punned and dissolved in water." STEEVENS. Cole in his Dictionary, renders it by the Latin words contero, contundo. Mr. Pope, who altered whatever he did not understand, reads-pound, and was followed by three subsequent editors. MALONE. * Thou ftool for a witch!] In one way of trying a witch they ufed to place her on a chair or stool, with her legs tied across, that all the weight of her body might rest upon her feat; and by that means, after some time, the circulation of the blood would be much stopped, and her fitting would be as painful as the wooden horse. GREY. 3 an affinego-] I am not very certain what the idea conveyed by this word was meant to be. Afinaio is Italian, says Sir T. Hanmer, for an afs-driver: but in Mirza, a tragedy by 1 ass! thou art here put to thrash Trojans; and thou art bought and fold + among those of any wit, like a Barbarian flave. If thou use to beat me, I will begin at thy heel, and tell what thou art by inches, thou thing of no bowels, thou! Rob. Baron, Act III. the following passage occurs, with a note annexed to it: "This (fays the author) is the usual trial of the Perfian shamsheers, or cemiters, which are crooked like a crefcent, of fo good metal, that they prefer them before any other, and so sharp as any razor." I hope, for the credit of the prince, that the experiment was rather made on an afs, than an ass-driver. From the following pafssage I should suppose afinego to be merely a cant term for a foolish fellow, an idiot: "They apparell'd me as you fee, 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: - all this would be forfworn, and I again an afinego, as your fifter left me." STEEVENS. Afinego is Portuguese for a little afs. MUSGRAVE. And Dr. Musgrave might have added, that, in his native county, it is the vulgar name for an ass at present. HENLEY. The fame term, as I am informed, is also current among the lower rank of people in Norfolk. STEEVENS. An afinego is a be afs. " A fouldiers wife abounding with more lust than love, complaines to the king, her husband did not fatisfie her, whereas he makes her to be coupled to an Afinego, whose villainy and luft took away her life." Herbert's Travels, 1634, P. 98. RITSON. 4 thou art bought and fold preffion. See Vol. X. p. 688, n. 2. So, in King Richard III: This was a proverbial ex MALONE. "For Dickon thy master is bought and fold." Again, in King Henry VI. Part I: "From bought and fold lord Talbot." STEEVENS. 5 If thou use to beat me,] i. e. if thou continue to beat me, or make a practice of beating me. STEEVENS. |