Em. Come, come, thou reverend man of Rome,} Luc. Thanks, gentle Romans; May I govern so, 'Would I were dead, so you did live again!— Rom. You sad Andronici, have done with woes; Luc. Set him breast-deep in earth, and famish 10 There let him stand, and rave and cry for food: If any one relieves or pities him, 15 20 Marc. Ay, tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss, To melt in showers: Thy grandsire lov'd thee well: For the offence he dies. This is our doom: Aar. O, why should wrath be mute, and fury I am no baby, I, that, with base prayers, I do repent it from my very soul. Luc. Some loving friends convey the emperor And give him burial in his father's grave: No funeral rites, nor man in mournful weeds, 30 But throw her forth to beasts, and birds of prey: 35 [Exeunt omnes. INTroy, there lies the scene. From isles of Greece And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorge SCENE I. Troy. Priam's Palace. 5 And Antenoridas) with massy staples, Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits, 10 To tell you, fair beholders, that our play Like, or find fault; do as your pleasures are; 15 Now good, or bad, 'tis but the chance of war. ACT I. Troi. CALL here my varlet, I'll unarm again: 25 of Troy, That find such cruel battle here within? 1 Mr. Pope (after Dryden) informs us, that the story of Troilus and Cressida was originally the work of one Lollius, a Lombard: but Dryden goes yet further; he declares it to have been written in Latin verse, and that Chaucer translated it.-Lollius was a historiographer of Urbino in Italy.— Shakspeare received the greatest part of his materials for the structure of this play from the Troy Boke of Lydgate, printed in 1513.-Lydgate was not much more than a translator of Guido of Columpna, who was of Messina in Sicily, and wrote his History of Troy in Latin, after Dictys Cretensis, and Dares Phrygius, in 1287. On these, as Mr. Warton observes, he engrafted many new romantic inventions, which the taste of his age dictated, and which the connection between Grecian and Gothic fiction easily admitted; at the same time comprehending in his plan the Theban and Argonautic stories from Ovid, Statius, and Valerius Flaccus. 2 i. e. proud, disdainful. To fulfill in this place To sperre, or spar, from the old Teutonic word ' i. e. the acant, what went before. This word means to fill till there be no room for more. Fierce 1 Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant; 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. Troi. Have I not tarry'd? Pan. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the boulting. Troi. Have I not tarry'd? Pan. Ay, the boulting; but you must tarry the leavening. Troi. Still have I tarry'd. Pan. I speak no more than truth. Troi. 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 5 she be not, she has the mends in her own hands*, Troi. Good Pandarus! How now, Pandarus? Pan. I have had my labour for ny travel; illthought on of her, and ill-thought on of you: gone between and between, but small thanks for my labour. 10 Troi. What, art thou angry, Pandarus? what, with me? Pan. Because she is kin to me, therefore she's not so fair as Helen; an she were not kin to me, 15she would be as fair on Friday, as Helen is on Sunday. But what care I? I care not, an she were a black-a-moor; 'tis all one to me. Troi. Say I, she is not fair? Pan. Ay, to the leavening: but here's yet in the word hereafter 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 20a chance to burn your lips. 2 Troi. Patience herself, what goddess e'er she be, And when fair Cressid comes into my thoughts,-|25| thence? Pan. Well, she look'd yester-night fairer than ever I saw her look; or any woman else. Troi. I was about to tell thee,-When my heart, 30 Pan. I do not care whether you do or no. She's 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. Troi. Pandarus,— Troi, Sweet Pandarus, Pan. Pray you, speak no more to me; I will leave all as I found it, and there an end. [Exit Pandarus. [Sound alarum. Troi. Peace, you ungracious clamours! peace, rude sounds! Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair, But sorrow, that is couch'd in seeming gladness, 35 cannot fight upon this argument; 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 Troi. O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus!— 40 It is too starv'd a subject for my sword. Ourself, the merchant; and this sailing Pandar, When I dc tell thee, There my hopes lie drown'd, 45 Let it be call'd the wild and wandering flood; Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait; her voice 50 me, 3 As true thou tell'st me, when I say,-I love her; Fonder for more childish. 160 Ene. How now, prince Troilus? wherefore Ene. Troilus, by Menelaus. Troi. 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! 2 To blench is to shrink, start, or fly off. 3 The meaning is; In comparison with Cressid's hand, the spirit of sense, the utmost degree, the most exquisite power of sensibility, which implies a soft hand, since the sense of touching resides chiefly in the fingers, is hard as the callous and insensible palm of the ploughman. Mr, Steevens thinks this phrase means, She may make the best of a bad bargain. Enter Cressida, and Alexander her servant, Whose height commands as subject all the vale, Cres. What was his cause of anger? [Greeks Cres. Good; And what of him? Serv. They say he is a very man per se, And stands alone. Cres. So do all men; unless they are drunk, sick, or have no legs. Pan. True, he was so; I know the cause too 10 he'll lay about him to-day, I can tell them that and there's Troilus will not come far behind him; let them take heed of Troilus; I can tell them that too. 15 201 25 30 Serv. This man, lady, hath robb'd 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 35 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 40 every thing so out of joint, that he is a gouty Briareus, many hands and no use; or purblinded Argus, all eyes and no sight, Cres. 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. Enter Pandarus. Cres. Who comes here? Serv. Madam, your uncle Pandarus. Pan. Good morrow, cousin Cressid: What do you talk of?-Cood morrow, Alexander.-How do you, cousin? When were you at Ilium 3? Cres. This morning, uncle. Pan. What were you talking of, when I came? 145 Cres. What, is he angry too? Cres. O, Jupiter! there's no comparison. Cres. Ay; if I ever saw him before, and knew 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. Pan. Hiniself! Alas, poor Troilus! I would, he were, Cres. So he is. Cres. "I would not become him, his own's betPan. You have no judgement, niece: Helen herself swore the other day, that Troilus, for a 50 brown favour, (for so 'tis, I must confess)-Not brown neither. Cres. Then Troilus should have too much: if she prais'd him above, his complexion is higher than 60his; he having colour enough, and the other higher, is too flaming a praise for a good com 1 To be crushed into folly, is to be confused and mingled with folly, so as that they make one mass together. This is a phrase equivalent to another now in use, against the grain. Ilium was the palace of Troy, plexion, |