Instance, O, instance, 12 strong as Pluto's gates! The fractions of her faith, orts of her love, The fragments, scraps, the bits, and greasy relics Tro. Ay, Greek; and that shall be divulgèd well Inflamed with Venus: ne'er did young man fancy 15 Hark, Greek: As much as I do Cressid love, So much by weight hate I her Diomed: Shakespeare meant the spider into which Arachne was transformed, and which in Greek bears the same name; and that the woof he meant was finer than was ever produced by human hand, namely, the woof of the spider's web, those delicate transverse filaments which cross the main radial threads or warps, and which are perhaps the nearest material approach to mathematical lines! Thus has Shakespeare in one beautiful allusion wrapt up in two or three little words the whole story of Arachne's metamorphosis, the physical fact of the fineness of the woof-filaments of a spider's web, and an antithesis, effective in the highest degree, to the vastness of the yawning space between earth and heaven! For what orifice could be imagined more exquisitely minute than the needle's eye which would not admit the spider's woof to thread it?" 12 The exact meaning of instance here is not easy to catch. Shakespeare uses the word in a rather subtile variety of senses, among which are proof, example, inducement, assurance. See vol. iv. page 86, note 4, and vol. xii. page 36, note 12. 13 A knot five-finger-tied, because she gave her hand, with its five fingers, to Diomed. 14 Faith must be taken here in the sense of truth or troth. The meaning is, that she had surfeited of her troth-plight to Troilus, and so had thrown up the relics of it. 15 To love is among the old meanings of to fancy. Shakespeare uses the substantive very often in that sense. That sleeve is mine that he'll bear on his helm; Constringed 16 in mass by the almighty Sun, Ther. He'll tickle it for his concupy.17 Tro. O Cressid! O false Cressid! false, false, false ! Let all untruths 18 stand by thy stainèd name, And they'll seem glorious. Ulyss. O, contain yourself; Your passion draws ears hither. Enter ENEAS. Ene. I have been seeking you this hour, Hector, by this, is arming him in Troy; Ajax, your guard, stays to conduct you home. my lord: Tro. Have with you, prince. My courteous lord, adieu. – Farewell, revolted fair!-and, Diomed, Stand fast, and wear a castle 19 on thy head! 16 Constringed is drawn together. It was an old notion that the Sun sucked up water from the earth in the shape of fogs, vapours, and waterspouts. So, in King Lear, ii. 4, we have "fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the powerful Sun." See vol. xv. page 80, note 1. 17 Concupy is simply an old form of concupiscence. 18 Untruths for untrue persons, the abstract for the concrete; as Walker says, a mode of speech very common in our old dramatists, when a person is addressed or spoken of." 19 It appears that a close kind of helmet or casque was called a castle. So in The History of Prince Arthur, 1634: "Do thy best, said Sir Gawaine; therefore hie thee fast, and wit thou well we shall soon come after, and breake the strongest castle that thou hast upon thy head." But this explanation can hardly be the right one here; for Diomed would of course always wear a helmet in battle. Probably Heath explains it rightly, — that Ulyss. I'll bring you to the gates. Tro. Accept distracted thanks. [Exeunt TROILUS, ENEAS, and ULYSSES. Ther. Would I could meet that rogue Diomed! I would croak like a raven; I would bode, I would bode. Patroclus will give me any thing for the inteligence of this whore: the parrot will not do more for an almond than he for a commodious drab. Lechery, lechery; still, wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion: a burning devil take them! SCENE III. Troy. Before PRIAM'S Palace. Enter HECTOR and ANDROMACHE. [Exit. bining wronne an and. When was my lord so much ungently temper'd, To stop his ears against admonishment? Unarm, unarm, and do not fight to-day. Hect. You train me to offend you; get you in: By all the everlasting gods, I'll go ! And. My dreams will, sure, prove ominous to-day. Cas. Enter CASSANDRA. Where is my brother Hector? And. Here, sister; arm'd, and bloody in intent. Consort with me in loud and dear petition, Pursue we him on knees; for I have dream'd Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night. Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of slaughter. Hect. Ho! bid my trumpet sound! Cas. No notes of sally, for the Heavens, sweet brother. Troilus advises Diomed "to guard his head with the most impenetrable armour, to shut it up in a castle, if it were possible, else his sword should reach it." Hect. Be gone, I say: the gods have heard me swear. Cas. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows : They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd Than spotted livers in the sacrifice. And. O, be persuaded! do not count it holy To hurt by being just it is as lawful, For we'd give much, to count as virtues thefts, And rob in the behalf of charity. Cas. It is the purpose that makes strong the vow; But vows to every purpose must not hold: Unarm, sweet Hector. Hect. Hold you still, I say; Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate:2 Enter TROILUS. How now, young man ! mean'st thou to fight to-day? [Exit CASSANDRA. Hect. No, faith, young Troilus; doff thy harness, youth; I am to-day i' the vein of chivalry: Let grow thy sinews till their knots be strong, And tempt not yet the brushes of the war. Tro. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you, 1 For in the sense of because. A frequent usage which I have often noted. 2 To keep the weather is to keep the wind, that is, the advantage. A nautical phrase. So in a naval action one ship is said to have the weathergage of another when she is to the windward of her, or between her and the wind. 8 This ascription of generosity to the lion is very ancient; and Spenser has made it classical in English by the behaviour of Una's four-footed page. Hect. What vice is that, good Troilus? chide me for it. Tro. When many times the captive Grecians fall, Even in the fan and wind of your fell sword, You bid them rise, and live. Hect. O, 'tis fair play. Tro. Fool's play, by Heaven, Hector. Hect. How now! how now ! For th' love of all the gods, Let's leave the hermit pity with our mothers; Tro. Hector, then 'tis wars. Hect. Troilus, I would not have you fight to-day. Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars Their eyes o'ergallèd with recourse of tears; 4 Nor you, my brother, with your true sword drawn, Re-enter CASSANDRA with PRIAM. Cas. Lay hand upon him, Priam, hold him fast: He is thy crutch; now, if thou lose thy stay, Thou on him leaning, and all Troy on thee, Shakespeare has it again in As You Like It, iv. 3: "'Tis the royal disposition of that beast to prey on nothing that doth seem as dead." So in Pliny's Natural History: "The lion alone of all wild beasts is gentle to those that humble themselves before him, and will not touch any such upon their submission, but spareth what creature soever lieth prostrate before him." 4 Eyes inflamed, or made sore and red, with weeping, or with floods of "eye-offending brine." See vol. xiv. page 160, note 33. |