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'Tis ten to one, this play can never please
All that are here: Sme come to take their ease,
And sleep an act or two; but those, we fear,
We have frighted with our trumpets; so, 'tis clear,
They'll say, 's naught: others, to hear the city
Abus'd extremely, and to cry,—that's witty!
Which we have not done neither: that, I fear,
Ail the expected good we are like to hear
For this play at this time, is only in

The merciful construction of good women;1
For such a one we show'd them; If they smile,
And say,
'twill do, I know, within a while

All the best men are ours; for 'tis ill hap,
If they hold, when their ladies bid them clap.

THE play of Henry VIII. is one of those which still keeps possession of the stage by the splendour of its pageantry. The coronation, about forty years ago, drew the people together in multitudes for a great part

1 A verse with as unmusical a close may be found Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, Part III. sect. ii.:Rose the pleasure of fine comen."

of the winter. Yet pomp is not the only merit of this play. The meek sorrows and virtuous distress of Ka tharine have furnished some scenes which may be just. ly numbered among the greatest efforts of tragedy. But the genius of Shakspeare comes in and goes out with Katharine. Every other part may be easily conceived and easily written.

The historical dramas are now concluded, of which the two parts of Henry IV. and Henry V. are among the happiest of our author's compositions; and King John, second class. Those whose curiosity would refer the R.chard III. and Henry VIII. deservedly stand in the historical scenes to their original, may consult Holinshed, and sometimes Hall. From Holinshed, Shakspeare has often inserted whole speeches with no more altera. in than was necessary to the numbers of his verse. To transcribe them into the margin was unnecessary, because the original is easily examined, and they are sel lom less perspicuous in the poet than in the historian. To lay histories, or to exhibit a succession of eventa by action and dialogue, was a common entertainment among our rude ancestors upon great festivities.* The parish clerks once performed at Clerkenwell a play which lasted three days, containing the History of the World. JOHNSON.

It appears that the tradesmen of Chester were three days einployed in the representation of twenty-four Whitsun plays or mysteries. Sec Mr. Markland's Disinquisition, prefixed to his very elegant and interesting se lection from the Chester Mysteries, printed for private distribution; which may be consulted in the third volune of the late edition of Malone's Shakspeare, by Mr. Boswell. The Coventry Mysteries must have taken up a longer time, as they were no less than forty in number.

In Ben Jonson's Alchemist there is also a line in which
the word woman is accented on the last syllable :-
And then your red man, and your white woman.'

TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

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MR.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

R. Steevens informs us that Shakspeare received the greater part of the materials that were used in the construction of this play from the Troy Book of Lydgate. It is presumed that the learned commentator would have been nearer the fact had he substituted the Troy Bok, or Recuey!, translated by Carton from Ra. sul Le Ferre; which together with a translation of Homer, supplied the incidents of the Trojan war. Lydgate's work was becoming obsolete, whilst the other was at this time in the prime of its vigour. From its first publication, to the year 1619, it had passed through six editions, and continued to be popular even in the eigh teenth century. Mr. Steevens is still less accurate in etating Le Fevre's work to be a translation from Guido of Colonna; for it is only in the latter part that he has made any use of him. Yet Guido actually had a French translation before the time of Raoul; which translation, though never printed, is remaining in MS. under the whimsical title of La Vie de la pitieuse Destruction de la noble et superlative Cite de Trove le grant. Translatee en Francois l'an MCCCLXXX." Such part of the present play as relates to the loves of Troilus and Cressida was most probably taken from Chaucer, as no other work, accessible to Shakspeare, could have sup plied him with what was necessary. This account is by Mr. Douce, from whom also what follows on this subject is abstracted.

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Phrygius, and Dicty's Cretensis, neither of whom mantion the name of Cressida. Mr. Tyrwhitt conjectured, and Mr. Douce confirmed the conjecture, that Guido's Dares was in reality an old Norman poet, named Benoit de Saint More, who wrote in the reign of our Henry the Second, and who himself made use of Dares. Guido is said to have come into England, where he found the Metrical Romance of Benoit, and translated it into Latin prose; and, following a practice too prevalent in the middle ages, he dishonestly suppressed the mention of his real original. Benoit's work exists also in a prose French version. And there is a compilation also in French prose, by Pierre de Beauvau, from the Filos

trato.

Lydgate professedly followed Guido of Colonna, occasionally making use of and citing other authorities. In a short time after Raoul le Fevre compiled from various materials his Recueil des Histoires de Troye, which was translated into English and published by Caxton: but neither of these authors have given any more of the story of Troilus and Cressida than any of the other romances on the war of Troy, Lydgate contenting himself with referring to Chaucer.

Chaucer having made the loves of Troilus and Cressida famous, Shakspeare was induced to try their fortunes on the stage. Lydgate's Troy Book was printed by Pynson in 1519. In the books of the Stationers' Chaucer, in his Troilus and Creseide, asserts that he Company, anno 1591, is entered, 'A proper Ballad followed Lollius, and that he translated from the Latin; dialoguewise betwen Troilus and Cressida. Again, but who Lollius was, and when he lived, we have no by J. Roberts, Feb. 7, 1602: The Booke of Troilus and certain indication, though Dryden bolly asserts that he Cressida, as it is acted by my Lord Chamberlain's men.' was an historiographer of Urbino, in Ioily, and wrote in And in Jan. 23, 1609, entered by Richard Bonian and Latin verse. Nothing can be more apparent than that Hen. Whalley: A Booke called the History of Troilus the Filostrato of Boccaccio afforded Chaucer the fable and Cressida. This last entry is made by the bookseland characters of his poem, and even numerous passa-lers, who published this play in 4to. in 1609. To this ges appear to be mere literal translations; but there are large auditions in Chaucer's work, so that it is possible he may have followed a free Latin version, which may have had for its author Lollius.

Boccaccio does not give his poem as a translation, and we must therefore suppose him to have been the inventor of the fable, until we have more certain indications respecting Lollius. So much of it as relates to the departure of Cressida from Troy, and her subsequent amour with Diome 1, is to be found in the Troy Book of Guido of CoJouna, composed in 1287, and, as he states, from Dares

edition is prefixed a preface, showing that the play was printed before it had been acted; and that it was pub lished, without the author's knowledge, from a copy that had fallen into the booksellers' hands. This preface, as bestowing just praise on Shakspeare, and showing that the original proprietors of his plays thought it their interest to keep them unprinted, is prefixed to the play in the present edition. It appears from some entries in the accounts of Henslowe the player, that a drama on this subject, by Decker and Cheule, at first called Troyelles and Cressida, but, before its produc

fion, altered in its title to The Tragedy of Agamemnon, Shakspeare possessed, no man in a higher perfecwas in existence anterior to Shakspeare's play, and tion, the true dignity and loftiness of the poetical afflatus, that it was licensed by the Master of the Revels on the which he had displayed in many of the finest passages Bd of June, 1599. Malone places the date of the com- of his works with miraculous success. But he knew position of Shakspeare's play in 1602; Mr. Chalmers in that no man ever was, or ever can be always dignified. 1600; and Dr. Drake in 1601. They have been led to He knew that those subtler traits of character which this conclusion by the supposed ridicule of the circum-identify a man are familiar and relaxed, pervaded with stance of Cressid receiving the sleeve of Troilus and passion, and not played off with an eye to external degiving him her glove in the comedy of Histriomastix, corum. In this respect the peculiarities of Shakspeare's 1510. I think that the satire was pointed at the older genius are no where more forcibly illustrated than in drama of Decker and Chettle; and should certainly the play we are here considering.' give a later date to the play of Shakspeare than that The champions of Greece and Troy, from the hour which has been assigned to it. If we may credit the in which their names were first recorded, had always preface to the 4to, of 1609 this play had not then ap-worn a certain formality of attire, and marched with a peared on the stage, and could not therefore have been slow and measured step. No poet, till this time, had riliculed in a piece written previous to the death of ever ventured to force them out of the manner which Queen Elizabeth (see note on Act iv. Sc. 4.) Malone their epic creator had given them. Shakspeare first Bays, Were it not for the entry in the Stationers' books supplied their limbs, took from them the classic stiffness [of which there is no proof that it relates to this play;] I of their gait, and enriched them with an entire set of should have been led, both by the colour of the style, and those attributes which might render them completely from this preface, to class it in the year 160s.' beings of the same species with ourselves.

There is no reason for concluding with Schlegel that Shakspeare intended his drama as one continued irony of the crown of all heroic tales-the tale of Troy.' The poet abandoned the classic and followed the gothic or romantic authorities; and this influenced the colour of his performance. The fact probably is, that he pursued the manner in which parts of the story had been before dramatised. There is an interlude on the subject of Thersites, resembling the Old Mysteries in its structure, bat full of the lowest buffoonery. If the drama of Decker and Chettle were now to be found, I doubt not we should see that the present play was at least founded on it, if not a mere rifacimento.t

PREFACE

TO THE QUARTO EDITION OF THIS PLAY, 1609.

A never writer, to an ever reader. Neues. ETERNALL reader, you have heere a new play, never stal'd with the stage, never clapper-claw'd with the palmes of the vulger, and yet passing full of the palme comicall; for it is a birth of your braine, that never under-tooke any thing commicall, vainely and were but the vaine names of commedies changde for the titles of commodities, or of playes for pleas; you should 'The whole catalogue of the Dramatis Personæ in see all those grand censors, that now stile them such the play of Troilus and Cressida (says Mr. Godwin,) so vanities, flock to them for the maine grace of their gra far as they depend upon a rich and original vein of hu.vities; especially this authors commedies, that are so mour in the author, are drawn with a felicity which framed to the life, that they serve for the most commen never was surpassed. The genius of Homer has been commentaries of all the actions of our lives, shewing a topic of admiration to almost every generation of men such a dexteritie and power of witte, that the most dis. rince the period in which he wrote. But his characters pleased with playes, are pleased with his commedies. will not bear the slightest comparison with the delinea. And all such dull and heavy witted worldlings, as were tion of the same characters as they stand in Shakspeare. never capable of the witte of a commedie, comming by This is a species of honour which ought by no means report of them to his representations, have found that to be forgotten when we are making the eulogium of witte there, that they never foond in them-selves, and our immortal bard, a sort of illustration of his greatness have parted better-wittied than they came: feeling an which cannot fail to place it in a very conspicuous light. edge of witte set upon them, more than ever they The dispositions of men, perhaps, had not been suffi-dreamd they had braine to grind it on. So much and ciently unfolded in the very early period of intellectual such savored salt of witte is in his commedies, that they refinement when Homer wrote; the rays of humour seem (for their height of pleasure) to be borne in that had not been dissected by the glass, or rendered per-sea that brought forth Venus. Amongst all there is durable by the rays of the poet. Homer's characters none more witty, than this: and had I time I would comare drawn with a laudable portion of variety and con-ment upon it, though I know it needs not (for so much sixency; but his Achilles, his Ajax, and his Nestor are, as will make you think your testern well bestowd,) but each of them, rather a species than an individual, and for so much worth, as even poore I know to be stuft in tan boast more of the propriety of abstraction than of it. It deserves such a labour, as well as the best com. the vivacity of the moving scene of absolute life. The medy in Terence or Plautus. And beleeve this, that Achilles, Ajax, and the various Grecian heroes of Shak-when hee is gone, and his commedies out of sale, you speare, on the other hand, are absolutely men deficient will scramble for them, and set up a new English inqui In nothing which can tend to individualise them, and sition. Take this for a warning, and at the perill of already touched with the Promethean fire that might in your pleasures losse, and judgements, refuse not, nor fase a soul into what, without it, were lifeless form like this the lesse, for not being sullied with the smoaky From the rest, perhaps, the character of Thersites de- breath of the multitude; but thank fortune for the scape Berves to be selected (how cold and schoolboy a sketch it hath made amongst you. Since by the grand posses. in Homer,) as exhibiting an appropriate vein of sarcas-sors wills I believe you should have prayd for them tic humour amidst his cowardice, and a profoundness and truth in his mode of laying open the foibles of those about him, impossible to be excelled.'

*This interlude, together with another not less curious, calle 1 Jack Juggler, was reprinted from a unique Cpy by Mr. Haslewood for the Roxburgh club. I owe the friendly kindness of that gentleman the marked stinction of possessing one of four additional copies puted for friends not members of that society. These le dramas are not mere literary curiosities, they form a prominent feature in the history of the progress of the stage, and are otherwise valuable as illustrating the Rate of manners and language in the reign of Henry

rather then beene prayd. And so I leave all such to bee prayd for (for the states of their wits healths) that will not praise it.-Vale.

the Eighth. I have found colloquial phrases and words explained by them, of which it would be vain to seek illustrations elsewhere.

Mr. Tyrwhitt has observed that there are more hard bombastical phrases in this play than can be picked out of any other six plays of Shakspeare. Would not this be an additional argument in favour of what I have here advanced, that it may be a mere alteration of the older play above mentioned?

Life of Chaucer, vol. i. p. 509-12, Svo. ed.

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ENEAS,

ANTENOR,

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

Trojan Commanders.

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CALCHAS, a Trojan Priest, taking part with the HELEN, Wife to Menelaus.

Greeks.

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ANDROMACHE, Wife to Hector.

CASSANDRA, Daughter to Priam; a Prophetess.
CRESSIDA, Daughter to Calchas.

Trojan and Greek Soldiers, and Attendants.
SCENE-Troy, and the Grecian Camp before it.

PROLOGUE.1

IN Troy, there lies the scene. From isles of Greece
The princes orgulous, their high blood chaf'd,
Have to the port of Athens sent their ships,
Fraught with the ministers and instruments
Of cruel war: Sixty and nine, that wore
Their crownets regal, from the Athenian bay
Put forth toward Phrygia and their vow is made,
To ransack Troy; within whose strong immures
The ravish'd Helen, Menelaus' queen,

With wanton Paris sleeps; And that's the quarrel.
To Tenedos they come;

And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorge
Their warlike fraughtage: Now on Dardan plains
The fresh and yet unbruised Greeks do pitch
Their brave pavilions: Priam's six-gated city,
Dardan, and Tymbria, Ilias, Chetas, Trojan,
And Antenorides, with massy staples,
And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts,
Sperr up the sons of Troy.

Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits,
On one and other side, Trojan and Greek,
Sets all on hazard: And hither am I come,
A prologue arm'd,-but not in confidence
Of author's pen, or actor's voice; but suited
In like conditions as our argument,—
To tell you, fair beholders, that our play
Leaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils,
'Ginning in the middle; starting thence away
To what may be digested in a play.
Like or find fault; do as your pleasures are;
Now, good, or bad, 'tis but the chance of war.

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CALL here my varlet, I'll unarm again:
Why should I war without the walls of Troy,

That find such cruel battle here within?
Each Trojan, that is master of his heart,
Let him to field; Troilus, alas! hath none.

Pan. Will this geer ne'er be mended?

Tro. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their
strength,"

Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant;
But I am weaker than a woman's tear,
Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance;
Less valiant than the virgin in the night,
And skill-less as unpractis'd infancy.

Pan. Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part I'll not meddle nor make no further. He that will have a cake out of the wheat, must tarry the grinding.

Tro. Have I not tarried?

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Pan. Ay, to the leavening: but here's yet in the word-bereafter, the kneading, the making of the cake, the heating of the oven, and the baking ; nay, you must stay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips.

Tro. Patience herself, what goddess e'er she be,
Doth lesser blench at sufferance than I do.
At Priam's royal table do I sit;

And when fair Cressid comes into my thoughts,-
So, traitor!-when she comes!When is she
thence ?

Pan. Well, she looked yesternight fairer than ever I saw her look, or any woman else.

Tro. I was about to tell thee,-When my heart,
As wedged with a sigh, would rive in twain,
Lest Hector or my father should perceive me,
I have (as when the sun doth light a storm,)
Bury'd this sigh in wrinkle of a smile:

6 This word which we have from the old French varlet or radlet, anciently signified a groom, a servant of the meaner sort. Holinshed, speaking of the battla 1 This prologue is wanting in the quarto editions. of Agincourt, says, Diverse were releeved by their Steevens thinks that it is not by Shakspeare; and that varlets and conveied out of the field. Cotgrave says, perhaps the drama itself is not entirely of his construc-In old time it was a more honourable title; for all tion. It appears to have escaped Heminge and Condell, the editors of the first folio, until the volume was almost printed off; and is thrust in between the tragedies and histories without any enumeration of pages, except on one leaf. There seems to have been a previous play on the same subject by Henry Chettle and Thomas Decker. Entries appear in the accounts of Henslowe of money advanced to them in earnest of Troylles and Cressida, in April and May, 1599.

2 Orgulous, proud, disdainful; orgueilleur, Fr. 8 Freight.

4 Sperr or spar, to close, fasten, or bar up.

5 i. e. the arant, what went before. Thus in Lear: 'Vaunt couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts.' What is now called the van of an army was formerly called the vaunt-guard.

young gentlemen until they came to be eighteen yeres of age were so tearmed.' He says, the term came into disesteem in the reign of Francis I. till when the gentle. men of the king's chamber were called valets de cham bre. In one of our old statutes, 1 Henry IV. c. 7, anno 1399, are these words:- Et que nulle radlet appelle yoman preigne ne use nulle liveree du roi ne de null autre seignour sur peine demprisonement.'

7. e. in addition to. This kind of phraseology occurs in Macheth, Act i. Sc. ii.; see note there.

8 i. e. more weak or foolish. Dryden has taken this speech as it stands in his alteration of this play, except that he has changed skill-less, in the last line, to artless; which, as Johnson observes, is no improvement.

9 To blench is to shrink, start, or fly off. See Hamlet, Act il. Sc 2.

But sorrow, that is couch'd in seeming gladness, Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness. Pan. An her hair were not somewhat darker than Helen's (well, go to,) there were no more comparison between the women,-But, for my part, she is my kinswoman; I would not, as they term it, praise her,-But I would somebody had heard her talk yesterday, as I did. I will not dispraise your sister Cassandra's wit; but

Tro. O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus,-
When I do tell thee, There my hopes lie drown'd,
Reply not in how many fathoms deep
They lie indrench'd. I tell thee, I am mad
In Cressid's love: Thou answer'st, She is fair;
Pour'st in the open ulcer of my heart

Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice,
Handfest in thy discourse ;-0, that her hand!!
In whose comparison all whites are ink,
Writing their own reproach; To whose soft seizure
The cygnet down is harsh, and spirit of sense2
Hard as the palm of ploughman! This thou tell'st me,
As true thou tell'st me, when I say-I love her;
But, saying, thus, instead of oil and balm,

Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given me
The knife that made it.

Pan. I speak no more than truth.
Tro. Thou dost not speak so much.

Pan. 'Faith, I'll not meddle in't. Let her be as she is; if she be fair, 'tis the better for her; an she be not, she has the mends in her own hands."

Tro, Good Pandarus! How now, Pandarus? Pan. I have had my labour for my travel; illthought on of her, and ill-thought on of you; gone between and between, but small thanks for my labour.

Tro. What, art thou angry, Pandarus? what, with me?

Tro. Peace, you ungracious clamours! peace
rude sounds!

Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair,
When with your blood you daily paint her thus.
I cannot fight upon this argument;
It is too starv'd a subject for my sword.
But, Pandarus-O gods, how do you plague me!
I cannot come to Cressid, but by Pandar;
And he's as tetchy to be woo'd to woo,
As she is stubborn-chaste against all suit.
Tell me, Apollo, for thy Daphne's love,
What Cressid is, what Pandar, and what we?
Her bed is India; there she lies, a pearl ;
Between our Ilium, and where she resides,
Let it be call'd the wild and wandering flood;
Ourself, the merchant; and their sailing Pandar,
Our doubtful hope, our convoy, and our bark.
Alarum. Enter ENEAS.

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Tro. Because not there; This woman's answer sorts,"

For womanish it is to be from thence.

What news, Eneas, from the field to-day?
Ene. That Paris is returned home, and hurt.
Tro. By whom, Æneas?

Ane.
Troilus, by Menelaus.
Tro. Let Paris bleed: 'tis but a scar to scorn;
Paris is gor'd with Menelaus' horn. [Alarum.
Ene. Hark! what good sport is out of town
to-day!

Tro. Better at home, if would I might, were

may.

But, to the sport abroad ;-Are you bound thither?
Ene. In all swift haste.
Tro.

Come, go we then together.
[Exeunt.

Pan. Because she is kin to me, therefore, she's not so fair as Helen: an she were not kin to me, she would be as fair on Friday as Helen is on Sun- SCENE II. The Same. A Street. Enter CRES: But what care I? I care not, an she were a black-a-moor; 'tis all one to me. Tro. Sav I, she is not fair?

day.

Pan. I do not care whether you do or no.

She's

a fool to stay behind her father; let her to the Greeks; and so I'll tell her the next time I see her: for my part, I'll meddle nor make no more in

the matter.

Tro. Pandarus,-
Pan. Not I.

Tro. Sweet Pandarus,

Pan. Pray you, speak no more to me; I will leave all as I found it, and there an end. [Exit PANDARUS. An Alarum.

1 Handlest is here used metaphorically, with an allusion, at the same time, to its literal meaning. The same play on the words is in Titus Andronicus:

'O handle not the theme, to talk of hands, Lest we remember still that we have none! Steevens remarks that the beauty of a female hand seems to have had a strong impression on the poet's mind. Antony cannot endure that the hand of Cleopatra should be touched.

2 Warburton rashly altered this to spite of sense. Hanmer reads: to th' spirit of sense.' Which is considered right and necessary by Mason. Johnson does not rightly understand the passage, and therefore erroneously explains it. It appears to me to mean The spirit of sense (i. e. sensation,) in touching the cygnet's down, is harsh and hard as the palm of a ploughman, compared to the sensation of softness in pressing Cressid's hand.'

3. She has the mends in her own hands' is a prover bial phrase common in our old writers, which probably signifies It is her own fault; or the remedy lies with herself.

4 Calchas, according to the Old Troy Book, was a great learned bishop of Troy, who was sent by Priam to consult the oracle of Delphi concerning the event of the war which threatened Agamemnon. As soon as he had made his oblations and demands for them of Troy, Apollo aunswered unto him saying, Calchas, Calchas, beware thou returne not back againe to Troy, but goe thou with Achylles unto the Greekes, and depart never

SIDA and ALEXANDER. Cres. Who were those went by? Alex.

Queen Hecuba, and Helen.
Cres. And whither go they?
Alex.

Whose height commands as subject all the vale,
Up to the eastern tower,
To see the battle. Hector, whose patience
Is, as a virtue, fix'd, to-day was mov'd:
He chid Andromache, and struck his armourer;
And, like as there were husbandry in war,
And to the field goes he; where every flower
Before the sun rose, he was harness'd light,10
Did, as a prophet, weep11 what it foresaw

In Hector's wrath.

from them, for the Greekes shall have victorie of the Trojans, by the agreement of the gods.'-Hist. of the Destruction of Troy, translated by Carton, ed. 1617. The prudent bishop immediately joined the Greeks,

5 Ilium, properly speaking, is the name of the city; Troy that of the country. But Shakspeare, following the Troy Book, gives that name to Priain's palace, said to have been built upon a high rock.

6

This punk is one of Cupid's carriers;
Clap on more sails,' &c.

Merry Wives of Windsor 7 Troilus was pronounced by Shakspeare and his contemporaries as a dissyllable. Pope has once or twice fallen into the same error.

8 i. e. fits, suits, is congruous. So in King Henry V.: It sorts well with thy fierceness.'

9 Husbandry is thrift. Thus in King Henry V. :— our bad neighbours make us early stirrers, Which is both healthful and good husbandry.' 10 The commentators have all taken light here as referring to armour. Poor Theobald, who seems to have had a suspicion that it did not, falls under the lash of Warburton for his temerity. Light, however, here has no reference to the mode in which Hector was arm. ed, but to the legerity or alucrity with which he armed himself before sunrise. Light and lightly are often used for nimbly, quickly, readily, by our old writers. No expression is more common than light of foot. And Shakspeare has even used 'light of ear.' 11 And when she iceps, weeps every little flower,

Lamenting,' &c. Midsummer Night's Dream

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And stands alone.

Cres. So do all men; unless they are drunk, sick, or have no legs.

Alex. This man, lady, hath robbed many beasts of 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 that his valour is crushed into folly, his folly sauced with discretion; there is no man hath a virtue that he hath 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.

Cres. But how should this man, that makes me smile, make Hector angry?

Alex. They say, he yesterday coped Hector in the battle, and struck him down; the disdain and shame whereof hath ever since kept Hector fasting and waking.

Enter PANDARUS.

Cres. Who comes here?

Alex. Madam, your uncle Pandarus. Cres. Hector's a gallant man. Alex. As may be in the world, lady. Pan. What's that? what's that? Cres. Good morrow, uncle Pandarus. Pan. Good morrow, cousin Cressid: What do you talk of ?-Good morrow, Alexander.-How do you, cousin? When were you at Ilium?

Cres. This morning, uncle.

Pan. What were you talking of, when I came ? Was Hector armed, and gone, ere ye came to Ilium? Helen was not up, was she?

Cres. Hector was gone; but Helen was not up.
Pan. E'en so; Hector was stirring early.
Cres. That were we talking of, and of his anger.
Pan. Was he angry?

Cres. So he says here.

Pan. True, he was so; I know the cause too: he'll lay about him to-day, I can tell them that; and there is Troilus will not come far behind him; let them take heed of Troilus; I can tell them that

too.

Cres. What, is he angry too?

Pan. Who, Troilus ? Troilus is the better man of the two.

Cres. O, Jupiter! there's no comparison. Pan. What, not between Troilus and Hector? Do you know a man if you see him?

Cres. Ay, if ever I saw him before, and knew

him.

Pan. Well, I say, Troilus is Troilus.

Cres. Then you say as I say; for I am sure, he is not Hector.

Pan. No, nor Hector is not Troilus, in some degrees.

Cres. 'Tis just to each of them; he is himself. 1 i. e. an extraordinary or incomparable person, like the letter A by itself. The usual mode of this old expression is A Thus in Henrysoun's Testament per se. of Cresseid, wrongly attributed by Steevens to Chau

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Cres. So he is.

Pan. India.

Condition, I had gone barefoot to

Cres. He is not Hector.

Pan. Himself? no, he's not himself—'Would 'a were himself! Well, the gods are above; Time must friend, or end: Well, Troilus, well,-I would, my heart were in her body!-No, Hector is not a better man than Troilus.

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Cres. No, but brown.

Pan. 'Faith, to say truth, brown and not brown.
Cres. To say the truth, true and not true.
Pan. She prais'd his complexion above Paris.
Cres. Why, Paris hath colour enough.
Pan. So he has.

Cres. Then, Troilus should have too much. if she praised him above, his complexion is higher than his; he having colour enough, and the other higher, is too flaming a praise for a good complexion. I had as lief, Helen's golden tongue had commended Troilus for a copper nose.

Pan. I swear to you, I think, Helen loves him better than Paris.

Cres. Then she's a merry Greek,' indeed.

Pan. Nay, I am sure she does. She came to him the other day into a compassed window,and, you know, he has not past three or four hairs on his chin.

Cres. Indeed, a tapster's arithmetic may soon bring his particulars therein to a total.

Pan. Why, he is very young and yet will he, within three pound, lift as much as his brother Hector.

Cres. Is he so young a man, and so old a lifter!" Pan. But, to prove to you that Helen loves him ;-she came, and puts me her white hand to his cloven chin,

Cres. Juno have mercy!-How came it cloven? Pan. Why, you know, 'tis dimpled: I think, his smiling becomes him better than any man in all Phrygia.

Cres. O, he smiles valiantly.

Pan. Does he not?

Cres. O yes, an 'twere a cloud in autumn. Pan. Why, go to, then :-But to prove to you that Helen loves Troilus,

Cres. Troilus will stand to the proof, if you'll prove it so.

Pan. Troilus? why, he esteems her no more than I esteem an addle egg.

Cres. If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle head, you would eat chickens i' the

shell.

Pan. I cannot choose but laugh to think how

4 Equivalent to a phrase still in use-Against the grain. The French say a contre poil. 5 See Twelfth Night, Act iv. Sc. 1.

6 A compassed window is a circular bow window. The same epithet is applied to the cape of a woman's gown in the Taming of the Shrew ;-'A small compas sed cape. A coved ceiling is yet in some places called a compassed ceiling.

7 Lifter, a term for a thief; from the Gothic kliftus. Thus in Holland's Leaguer, 1638:- Broker, or pan der,cheater, or lifter. Dryden uses the verb to lift, for to rob. Shop-lifter is still used for one who robe a shop

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