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 The Plains of Troy 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S 
 
 \'. 
 
 HISTORY OF 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 
 
 EDITED, WITH NOTES 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM J. ROLFE, Litt.D. 
 
 FORMERLY HEAD MASTER OF THE HIGH SCHOOL, 
 CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 NEW YORK • : • CINCINNATI • : • CHICAGO 
 
 AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 
 
 \K 
 
jQ ^^ S l^akespeariaria 
 
 LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
 Two CoDies Received 
 
 DEC 21 1905 
 
 Oopyrio-ht Entry 
 
 CLASS a. XXc. No 
 
 COPY B. 
 
 Copyright, 1882 and 1898, by 
 HARPER & BROTHERS. 
 
 Copyright, 1905, by 
 WILLIAM J. ROLFE. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 
 W. P. I 
 
 d^-f 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Troilus and Cressida is not a play for boys and girls, 
 whether in school or out; and it is seldom, if ever, 
 read in Shakespeare clubs, except the few that make a 
 special study of the less familiar plays. It would never 
 be taken up even by critical students or readers except 
 in a somewhat advanced stage of their acquaintance 
 with the dramatist. 
 
 The play is never put upon the stage. There is no 
 record of any performance in Shakespeare's day, though 
 the registers of the Stationers' Company indicate that 
 it was played by " my Lord Chamberlain's men " in 
 1603, and one of the title-pages of the 1609 quarto (see 
 p. 9 below) states that it was acted " at the Globe." 
 From that day to this, so far as we have any informa- 
 tion, it has never been reproduced in its original form. 
 Dryden's wretched adaptation of it — Troilus and Cres- 
 sida, or Truth Found Out Too Late — was reproduced 
 in London in 1679, and also in 1709 and 1723, but 
 apparently has not been acted since the latter date. 
 Mr. F. A. Marshall (" Henry Irving " ed.) states that 
 John Kemble planned a revival of Shakespeare's play 
 and prepared a stage version of it, but it was never 
 represented. There the stage history of the play ends, 
 and probably for all time. 
 
 These facts naturally affected the treatment of the 
 play in my former edition, and I have not modified it 
 
 5 
 
6 Preface 
 
 materially in the revision. The introduction, however, 
 has been rewritten, the notes have been carefully re- 
 vised and considerably augmented, and an account of 
 "The War of the Theatres" has been added in the 
 Appendix. As with the other volumes of the revised 
 edition, the book has also been made complete in itself 
 by the substitution of new notes for those referring to 
 my work on other plays. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction to Troilus and Cressida .... 9 
 
 The History of the Play ....... 9 
 
 The Sources of the Plot . . . . . . .12 
 
 General Comments on the Play . . . . . i^ 
 
 Troilus and Cressida . .0 .... 29 
 
 Act I . . .31 
 
 Act II . . . . . o . . . .65 
 Act HI . . . . . o . . » .90 
 
 Act IV 117 
 
 Act V . . . . . « • . • '145 
 
 Notes ........... 179 
 
 Appendix 
 
 " The War of the Theatres " 282 
 
 The Story of the Play in Chaucer and Shakespeare . 288 
 
 The Time-Analysis of the Play ..... 291 
 
 List of Characters in the Play ..... 292 
 
 Index of Words and Phrases Explained 
 
 295 
 
Tenedos 
 
Homer 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO TROILUS AND 
 CRESSIDA 
 
 The History of the Play 
 
 Troilus and Cressida was first published, so far as 
 we know, in 1609, when two quarto editions were 
 printed from the same type, but with somewhat dif- 
 ferent title-pages. Both state that the play is "by 
 William Shakespeare," and one refers to its having 
 been " acted by the Kings Maiesties servants at the 
 Globe." 
 
 One of these editions differs from the other in hav- 
 ing the following preface : — 
 
 " A neuer writer to an euer reader. 
 
 '' Newes. 
 
 " Eternall reader, you haue heere a new play, neuer 
 stal'd with the Stage, neuer clapper-clawd with the 
 
 9 
 
lo Troilus and Cressida 
 
 palmes of the vulger, and yet passing full of the palme 
 comicall ; for it is a birth of your braine, that neuer 
 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 see 
 all those grand censors, that now stile them such vani- 
 ties, flock to them for the maine grace of their grauities ; 
 especially this authors commedies, that are so fram'd 
 to the life, that they serue for the most common com- 
 mentaries of all the actions of our hues, showing such 
 a dexteritie, and power of witte, that the most displeased 
 with playes are pleasd with his commedies. And all 
 such dull and heauy-witted worldlings, as were neuer 
 capable of the witte of a commedie, comming by report 
 of them to his representations, haue found that witte 
 there that they neuer found in themselues, and haue 
 parted better-witted then they came ; feeling an edge of 
 witte set vpon them, more than euer they dream d they 
 had braine to grinde it on. So much and such sauord 
 salt of witte is in his commedies, that they seeme (for 
 their height of pleasure) to be borne in that sea that 
 brought forth Venus. Amongst all there is none more 
 witty then this ; and had I time I would comment vpon 
 it, though I know it needs not (for so much as will make 
 you thinke your testern well bestowd), but for so much 
 worth, as euen poore I know to be stuft in it. It de- 
 serues such a labour, as well as the best commedy in 
 Terence or Plautus : and beleeue this, that when hee is 
 gone, and his commedies out of sale, you will scramble 
 
Introduction ii 
 
 for them, and set vp a new English inquisition. Take 
 this for a warning, and at the perill of your pleasures, 
 losse, and iudgments, refuse not, nor Uke this the lesse 
 for not being sulUed, with the smoaky breath of the 
 multitude ; but thanke fortune for the scape it hath 
 made amongst you. Since by the grand possessors 
 wills, I belieue, you should haue prayd for them, rather 
 than beene prayd. And so I leaue all such to bee 
 prayd for (for the states of their wits healths) that will 
 not praise it. — Vale^ 
 
 The play was not reprinted until it appeared in the 
 folio of 1623, where it stands between the " Histories " 
 and " Tragedies ; " and it is not mentioned at all in the 
 " Catalogue," or table of contents, at the beginning of 
 the volume. The editors seem to have been puzzled 
 to classify it. The " Tragedies " at first began with 
 Coriolamis, followed by Titus Androniais and Romeo 
 and Juliet. Troilus and Cressida was evidently intended 
 to come next, and was put in type and paged for that 
 place ; but it was afterwards transferred to its present 
 position, and Timon of Athens used instead. The num- 
 bers of the pages were cancelled, with the exception of 
 the second and third, which were accidentally left with 
 the 79 and 80 of the original pagination. The only 
 reason that can be imagined for this change is that the 
 editors were in doubt whether the play was a " tragedy " 
 or a " history," and therefore decided to put it between 
 the two, and to evade the responsibility of cataloguing 
 
12 Troilus and Cressida 
 
 it in the table of contents. The writer of the prologue, 
 whoever he may have been, treats it as a comedy. 
 
 The date of the play cannot be determined with any 
 certainty. In 1599 Dekker and Chettle were preparing 
 a play on the same subject, and an entry in the Sta- 
 tioners' Registers, dated February 7, 1602-03, proves 
 that a Ti'oilus and Cressida had been acted by Shake- 
 speare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Servants. 
 This may possibly have been an early draught of Shake- 
 speare's play. Internal evidence is partly in favour of 
 a date as early as this, and partly of one some five or 
 six years later. Some critics have therefore decided 
 that the play was written as early as 1602 or 1603, while 
 others put it as late as 1608 or 1609. More likely, as 
 Verplanck, White, and others believe, it was first writ- 
 ten as early as 1602, and revised and enlarged some- 
 where between 1606 and 1609. 
 
 The Sources of the Plot 
 
 If Shakespeare did not draw his materials from some 
 earlier play, he probably took " the love-story " from 
 Chaucer's Troilus and Cresseide, and " the camp story " 
 from the Recuyell of the historyes of Troye, translated and 
 drawen out of frenshe into englishe by W. Caxton, 1471 
 (from Raoul le Fevre's Reciieil des His to ires de Troyes), 
 or Lydgate's Hystorye, Sege and dystruccyon of Troye, 
 15 ^3' 1555 (from Guido di Colonna), or both. Ther- 
 sites, or at least a hint of the character, seems to be 
 
Introduction 13 
 
 taken from Chapman's Iliad^ the first seven books of 
 which appeared in 1597. 
 
 General Comments on the Play 
 
 Troilus and Cressida has been a perplexing subject 
 for many of the ablest critics. Coleridge remarks : 
 " There is no one of Shakespeare's plays harder to 
 characterize. The name, and the remembrances con- 
 nected with it, prepare us for the representation of 
 attachment no less faithful than fervent on the side of 
 the youth, and of sudden and shameless inconstancy 
 on the part of the lady. And this is, indeed, as the 
 gold thread on which the scenes are strung, though 
 often kept out of sight, and out of mind by gems of 
 greater value than itself. But as Shakespeare calls for 
 nothing from the mausoleum of history, or the cata- 
 combs of tradition, without giving or eliciting some 
 permanent and general interest, and brings forward no 
 subject which he does not moralize or intellectualize, 
 so here he has drawn in Cressida the portrait of a 
 vehement passion, that, having its true origin and proper 
 cause in warmth of temperament, fastens on, rather 
 than fixes to, some one object by liking and temporary 
 preference. This Shakespeare has contrasted with the 
 profound affection represented in Troilus, and alone 
 worthy the name of love — affection, passionate indeed, 
 swollen with the confluence of youthful instincts and 
 youthful fancy, and growing in the radiance of hope 
 
14 Troilus and Cressida 
 
 newly risen, in short enlarged by the collective sym- 
 pathies of nature ; but still having a depth of calmer 
 element in a will stronger than desire, more entire than 
 choice, and which gives permanence to its own act 
 by converting it into faith and dut}^ Hence with ex- 
 cellent judgment, and with an excellence higher than 
 mere judgment can give, at the close of the play, when 
 Cressida has sunk into infamy below retrieval and 
 beneath hope, the same will which had been the sub- 
 stance and the basis of his love, while the restless 
 pleasures and passionate longings, like sea-waves, had 
 tossed but on its surface — this same moral energy is 
 represented as snatching him aloof from all neighbour- 
 hood with her dishonour, from all lingering fondness 
 and languishing regrets, whilst it rushes with him into 
 other and nobler duties, and deepens the channel which 
 his heroic brother's death had left empty for its col- 
 lected flood. . . . 
 
 " To all this, however, so little comparative projec- 
 tion is given — nay, the masterly group of Agamem- 
 non, Nestor, and Ulysses, and, still more in advance, 
 that of Achilles, Ajax, and Thersites, so manifestly 
 occupy the foreground — that the subservience and 
 vassalage of strength and animal courage to intellect 
 and policy seems to be the lesson most often in our 
 poet's view, and which he has taken little pains to 
 connect with the former more interesting moral imper- 
 sonated in the titular hero and heroine of the drama. 
 But I am half inclined to believe that Shakspeare's 
 
Introduction 15 
 
 main object, or, shall I rather say, his ruling impulse, 
 was to translate the poetic heroes of paganism into the 
 not less rude, but more intellectually vigorous, and 
 more featurely, warriors of Christian chivalry, and to 
 substantiate the distinct and graceful profiles or out- 
 lines of the Homeric epic into the flesh and blood of 
 the romantic drama — in short, to give a grand history- 
 piece in the robust style of Albert Diirer." 
 
 In an article " On Reading Shakespeare " (in The 
 Galaxy, for February, 1877), Grant White has some 
 admirable comments on this play, a few passages from 
 which may well supplement those from Coleridge : — 
 
 " Troilus and Cressida is Shakespeare's wisest play 
 in the way of worldly wisdom. It is filled choke-full of 
 sententious, and in most cases slightly satirical revela- 
 tions of human nature, uttered with a felicity of phrase 
 and an impressiveness of metaphor that make each one 
 seem like a beam of light shot into the recesses of man's 
 heart. 
 
 " The undramatic character of Troilus and Cressida 
 appears in its structure, its personages, and its purpose. 
 . . . There is also a singular lack of that peculiar 
 characteristic of Shakespeare's dramatic style, the 
 marked distinction and nice discrimination of the in- 
 dividual traits, mental and moral, of the various per- 
 sonages. Ulysses is the real hero of the play; the 
 chief, or, at least, the great purpose of which is the 
 utterance of the Ulyssean view of life ; and in this play 
 Shakespeare is Ulysses, or Ulysses, Shakespeare. In 
 
1 6 Troilus and Cressida 
 
 all his other plays Shakespeare so lost his personal 
 consciousness in the individuality of his own creations 
 that they think and feel, as well as act, like real men 
 and women other than their creator, so that we cannot 
 truly say of the thoughts and feelings which they ex- 
 press, that Shakespeare says thus or so ; for it is not 
 Shakespeare who speaks, but they with his lips. But in 
 Ulysses, Shakespeare, acting upon a mere hint, filling 
 up a mere traditionary outline, drew a man of mature 
 years, of wide observation, of profoundest cogitative 
 power, one who knew all the weakness and all the 
 wiles of human nature, and who yet remained with 
 blood unbittered and soul un soured — a man who saw 
 through all shams, and fathomed all motives, and who 
 yet was not scornful of his kind, not misanthropic, 
 hardly cynical except in passing moods ; and what 
 other man w^as this than Shakespeare himself ? What 
 had he to do when he had passed forty years but to 
 utter his own thoughts when he would find words for 
 the lips of Ulysses ? And thus it is that Troilus and 
 Cressida is Shakespeare's wisest play. If we would 
 know what Shakespeare thought of men and their 
 motives after he reached maturity, we have but to 
 read this drama — drama it is, but with what other 
 character who shall say ? For, like the world's pageant, 
 it is neither tragedy nor comedy, but a tragic-comic 
 history, in which the intrigues of amorous men and 
 light-o'-loves and the brokerage of panders are mingled 
 with the deliberations of sages and the strife and the 
 
Introduction 17 
 
 death of heroes. . . . And why, indeed, should Ulysses 
 not speak for Shakespeare, or how could it be other 
 than that he should ? The man who had written Ham- 
 let, King Lear, Othello^ and Macbeth, if he wished to 
 find Ulysses, had only to turn his mind's eye inward ; 
 and thus we have in this drama Shakespeare's only 
 piece of introspective work." 
 
 Verplanck (whom I quote, as elsewhere, because his 
 edition of Shakespeare, published in 1847, ^^^ been long 
 out of print, and is to be found in few of the libraries) 
 remarks : — 
 
 " The play is, in all respects, a very remarkable and 
 singular production ; and it has perplexed many a critic, 
 not, as usual, by smaller difficulties of readings and 
 interpretation, but by doubts as to the author's design 
 and spirit. Its beauties are of the highest order. It 
 contains passages fraught with moral truth and political 
 wisdom — high truths, in large and philosophical dis- 
 course, such as remind us of the loftiest disquisitions of 
 Hooker, or Jeremy Taylor, on the foundations of social 
 law. Thus the comments of Ulysses (i. 3) on the uni- 
 versal obligation of the law of order and degree, and 
 the confusion caused by rebellion to its rule, either in 
 nature or in society, are in the very spirit of the grand- 
 est and most instructive eloquence of Burke. The 
 piece abounds, too, in passages of the most profound 
 and persuasive practical ethics, and grave advice for 
 the government of life ; as when, in the third act, 
 Ulysses (the great didactic organ of the play) impresses 
 
 TROILUS — 2 
 
1 8 Troilus and Cressida 
 
 upon Achilles the consideration of man's ingratitude 
 'for good deeds past,' and the necessity of perseverance 
 to ' keep honour bright.' Other scenes again, fervid 
 with youthful passion, or rich in beautiful imagery, are 
 redolent with intense sweetness of poetic fancy. Such 
 is that splendid exhortation of Patroclus to Achilles, 
 of which Godwin has justly said that ' a more poetical 
 passage, if poetry consists in sublime, picturesque, and 
 beautiful imagery, neither ancient nor modern times 
 have produced.' 
 
 ' Sweet, rouse yourself; and the weak, wanton Cupid 
 Shall from your neck unloose his amorous folds, 
 And like a dewdrop from the lion's mane 
 Be shook to air.' 
 
 " Nor is there any drama more rich in variety and truth 
 of character. The Grecian camp is filled with real and 
 living men of all sorts of temper and talent, while Ther- 
 sites, a variation and improvement of the original de- 
 formed railer of the Iliad, is, in his way, a new study of 
 human nature, not (as some writers view him) a mere 
 buffoon, but a sort of vulgar and cowardly lago, with- 
 out the ' Ancient's ' courage and higher intellect, but 
 with the same sort of wit and talent, and governed by 
 the same self-generated malignity. So, too, Ulysses' 
 sarcastic sketch of Cressida is a gem of art, at once 
 arch, sagacious, and poetic. 
 
 " With all this, there is large alloy of inferior matter, 
 such as Shakespeare too often permitted himself to use, 
 in filling up the chasms of the scene, between loftier 
 
Introduction 19 
 
 and brighter thoughts. More especially is there felt, by 
 every reader, a sense of disappointment at the unsatis- 
 factory effect of the whole, arising mainly from the 
 want of unity in that effect, and in the interest of the 
 plot — at the desultory and purposeless succession of 
 incident and dialogue, all resembling (as Walter Scott 
 well observes) ' a legend, or a chronicle, rather than a 
 dramatic composition.' That power of comprising the 
 varied details of a great work in one view, and, while 
 preserving the individuality and truth of the parts, 
 blending them in the effect of one whole — the ponere 
 totum of Horace — so essential to excellence in all of 
 the higher works either of art or of literature, hardly 
 appears here. Yet it is a power that Shakespeare never 
 wanted or neglected, even in his earlier comedies ; and 
 at the date of Troibis and Cressida he had exhibited the 
 highest proof of it in Lear, Othello, and Macbeth. He 
 had, even in Henry IV. and other historical plays, 
 shown how the less pliable incidents and personages of 
 actual history could be made to harmonize in one cen- 
 tral and pervading interest. In this respect Troilus and 
 Cressida is so singularly deficient that Walter Scott 
 {Life of Dryden) characterizes it as having been ' left 
 by its author in a singular state of imperfection ; ' while 
 Dryden (in the preface to his own alteration of this 
 play) pronounces that ' the author began it with some 
 fire,' but that he grew weary of his task, and ' the latter 
 part of the tragedy is nothing but a confusion of drums 
 and trumpets, excursions and alarms ; ' the characters 
 
20 Troilus and Cressida 
 
 of Hector, Troilus, and others having, been, in his 
 opinion, 'begun and left unfinished.' 
 
 " The plot and incidents present other incongruities, 
 not easy of solution. The main story is founded on the 
 old legendary story of Troy, as the middle ages received 
 it ; Chaucer having given the leading idea of the hero 
 and heroine, and the story and other accessories, such 
 as Homer never dreamed of, having been incorporated 
 from old Lydgate and Caxton. Of this we have a 
 striking instance in the murder of Hector by Achilles 
 and his Myrmidons, so contradictory to all the notions 
 Homer gave us of his divine Pelides, Yet, on the other 
 hand, the Grecian chiefs are all so depicted, and with 
 such, minuteness, as not to permit a doubt but that the 
 author of these scenes was familiar with some contem- 
 porary translation of the Iliad. 
 
 " Moreover, the style, and the verbal and metrical 
 peculiarities, suggest other questions. There is much 
 in the play recalling the rhymes and the dialogue of the 
 poet's earlier comedies, while the higher and more con- 
 templative passages resemble the diction and measure 
 of his middle period — that of Measure for Measure 
 and Lear. It also abounds in singular words, unusual 
 accentuations, and bold experiments in language, such 
 as he most indulged in during that period, but to a 
 greater extent than can, I think, be found in any other 
 play. 
 
 " Under these circumstances, the Shakespearian 
 critics have found ample room for theory. I have 
 
Introduction 2i 
 
 already noticed the supposition of Dryden, and of 
 Walter Scott, that the play was left imperfect, or hur- 
 ried to a conclusion with little care, after parts had 
 been as carefully elaborated. Another set of English 
 commentators, from Steevens to Seymour, have satisfied 
 themselves that Shakespeare's genius and taste had 
 been expended in improving the work of an inferior 
 author, whose poorer groundwork still appeared through 
 his more precious decorations. This Steevens sup- 
 poses might be the ' Troyelles and Cresseda ' on which 
 Dekker and Chettle were employed, in 1599, as we 
 learn from Henslowe's Diary." 
 
 After referring to Coleridge's comments on the play, 
 as quoted above, Verplanck says : " He had before (in 
 1802) transiently suggested the opinion that the drama 
 was in part ironical, or, I suppose, mock-heroical. 
 Schlegel, who seems in some way to have picked up 
 ideas of Coleridge's, not published till after his death — 
 whether from his unwritten lectures, or from some com- 
 mon source, it is not clear — carries this notion further. 
 He asserts that Shakespeare, 'without caring for the- 
 atrical effect, here pleased his own malicious wit ; ' and 
 that the whole is one continued irony of the crown of 
 all heroic tales — the ' Tale of Troy.' The poet, there- 
 fore, puts in the strongest light the contemptible nature 
 of the origin of the war, and the discord and folly that 
 marked its progress. In short, it is an heroic comedy, 
 parodying every thing in the subject sacred from tradi- 
 tional fame or the pomp of poetry." 
 
22 Troilus and Cressida 
 
 Knight coincides with this notion of '' the grave irony 
 of Troilus and Ci'essiday His philosophical theory of 
 the play is that of the German Ulrici, that " the whole 
 tendency of the play — its incidents, its characteriza- 
 tion — is to lower what the Germans call herodom. 
 Ulrici maintains that ' the far-sighted Shakespeare cer- 
 tainly did not mistake as to the beneficial effect which 
 a nearer intimacy with the high culture of antiquity had 
 produced, and would produce, upon the Christian Euro- 
 pean mind. But he saw the danger of an indiscriminate 
 admiration of this classical antiquity ; for he who thus 
 accepted it must necessarily fall to the very lowest 
 station in religion and morality ; as, indeed, if we 
 closely observe the character of the eighteenth century, 
 we see has happened. Out of this prophetic spirit, 
 which penetrated with equal clearness through the 
 darkness of coming centuries and the clouds of a far- 
 distant past, Shakespeare wrote this deeply significant 
 satire upon the Homeric herodom. He had no desire 
 to debase the elevated, to deteriorate or make little the 
 great, and still less to attack the poetical worth of 
 Homer, or of heroic poetry in general. But he wished 
 to warn thoroughly against the over-valuation and idola- 
 try of them, to which man so willingly abandons him- 
 self ; and, at the same time, to bring strikingly to view 
 the truth that every thing merely human, even when it 
 is glorified with the nimbus of a poetic ideality and a 
 mythical past, yet, seen in the bird's-eye perspective of 
 a pure moral ideality, appears very small.' " 
 
Introduction 23 
 
 Dowden asks : " With what intention, and in what 
 spirit, did Shakspere write this strange comedy ? All 
 the Greek heroes who fought against Troy are pitilessly 
 exposed to ridicule : Helen and Cressida are light, 
 sensual, and heartless, for whose sake it seems infatu- 
 ated folly to strike a blow ; Troilus is an enthusiastic 
 young fool ; and even Hector, though valiant and 
 generous, spends his life in a cause which he knows to 
 be unprofitable, if not evil. All this is seen and said 
 by Thersites, whose mind is made up of the scum of 
 the foulness of human life. But can Shakspere's view 
 of things have been the same as that of Thersites ? 
 
 " The central theme, the young love and faith of 
 Troilus given to one who was false and fickle, and his 
 discovery of his error, lends its colour to the whole 
 play. It is the comedy of disillusion. And as Troilus 
 passed through the illusion of his first love for woman, 
 so by middle life the world itself often appears like one 
 that has not kept her promises, and who is a poor 
 deceiver. We come to see the seamy side of life ; and 
 from this mood of disillusion it is a deliverance to pass 
 on even to a dark and tragic view of life, to Which 
 beauty and virtue reappear, even though human weak- 
 ness or human vice may do them bitter wrong. Now such 
 a mood of contemptuous depreciation of life may have 
 come over Shakspere, and spoiled him, at that time, for 
 a writer of comedy. But for Isabella we should find 
 the coming-on of this mood in Measure for Measure ; 
 there is perhaps a touch of it in Hamlet. At this time 
 
24 Troilus and Cressida 
 
 Troilus and Cressida may have been written, and then 
 Shakspere, rousing himself to a deeper inquest into 
 things, may have passed on to his great series of 
 tragedies." 
 
 Furnivall remarks : " This is the most difficult of all 
 Shakspere's plays to deal with, as well for date as 
 position. We only know that it was published in 1609 
 with a preface by another man, and evidently without 
 Shakspere's consent, as his Sonnets of the same date 
 also were. This fact seems to point to Shakspere's 
 having left London, possibly in disgust at some neglect 
 of him by his patrons or the public, at which he has 
 been thought to hint in Achilles's complaints. Yet 
 Shakspere had just produced his greatest tragedies, and 
 no one could then have been his rival. The play is 
 evidently written in ill-humour with mankind ; it is a 
 bitter satire. Its purpose is not to show virtue her own 
 feature, but contemptible weakness, paltry vanity, false- 
 hood (like scorn), their own image." 
 
 However we may interpret the play, it seems to me 
 that it belongs to that period in the poet's career which 
 marks the transition from the " golden prime of com- 
 edy," as it has been aptly designated — the period of 
 As You Like It, Much Ado, and Twelfth Night — to that 
 of the great tragedies. It is one of a group of plays 
 that are in marked contrast to those of the preceding 
 period. They are comedies only in name, or because 
 they do not have a tragical ending. They are AlPs 
 Well, Measure for Measure, and the play we are con- 
 
Introduction 25 
 
 sidering — "one earnest, another dark and severe, the 
 last bitter and ironical " (Dowden). 
 
 That the prevailing tone of these plays, as Hallam, 
 Verplanck, Dowden, and others assume, was not due 
 merely to a change in taste or an inclination to try a 
 new experiment in dramatic composition, but was con- 
 nected in some way with Shakespeare's personal ex- 
 periences, can hardly be doubted ; though this view is 
 vehemently opposed by some excellent critics, who 
 insist that he simply wrote what theatrical managers 
 wanted, whether comedy or tragedy. " If a comedy 
 was called for," they ask, " would he have declined to 
 furnish it on the ground that he was in his tragic 
 period ? " Probably not ; but it would have proved to 
 be a comedy like A/^s Well or Measure for Measure 
 rather than As You Like It or Twelfth Night. 
 
 This marked change in the poet's mood and temper 
 has been compared to " the passage from a sunny 
 charming landscape to a wild mountain district whose 
 highest peaks are shrouded in thick mist." How can 
 we account for it? Shakespeare's father had died in 
 1601. The episode of the Sonnets had come to an end, 
 and had left the poet a sadder and wiser man. Per- 
 haps, as Ten Brink believes, certain events in the his- 
 tory of the time give us, partially at least, the true 
 explanation. In 1601 London was disturbed by the 
 conspiracy and rebellion of the Earl of Essex. The 
 earl evidently took a deep interest in Shakespeare's 
 works, and the dramatist doubtless followed the career 
 
i6 Troilus and Cressida 
 
 of the earl with peculiar interest and sympathy. The 
 Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare's friend and patron, 
 who was involved in the conspiracy, escaped the doom 
 of death which befell Essex and many of his followers, 
 but he was kept in prison while Elizabeth lived. The 
 play of Julius Ccesar was written at about this time, 
 but probably too early to justify the opinion of certain 
 critics that it followed close upon the tragic end of 
 Essex, due, like that of Brutus, to a fatal con- 
 spiracy. 
 
 But, whatever the cause may have been, Shakespeare 
 at this period " ceased to care for tales of mirth and 
 love," and was led " to sound with his imagination the 
 depths of the human heart, to study the great problem 
 of evil." The three comedies that are not comedies 
 have therefore been called " problem plays." They 
 involve abnormal conditions of thought and feeling, 
 and " intricate cases of conscience which demand a 
 solution by unprecedented methods." They show that 
 the author's mind is tending in the direction of tragedy, 
 and the great tragedies follow them. 
 
 That Troilus and Cressida has any connection what- 
 ever with the so-called " War of the Theatres " (for 
 which see further in the Appendix to my Notes) I do 
 not believe. Mr. Fleay's notion that the play is nothing 
 else than a satire on rival dramatists, — Hector repre- 
 senting Shakespeare, Thersites Dekker, Ajax Ben Jon- 
 son, and so on, — seems to me quite absurd. Mr. 
 Verity (in the " Henry Irving " edition) is nearer right. 
 
Introduction 27 
 
 I think, in his closing comments on the play. He 
 says : — 
 
 " Everyone remembers Edgar Poe's story of the man 
 who, having an important paper to conceal, put it in an 
 old vase on his mantel-shelf, arguing that no one would 
 ever look in so obvious a place. This old-vase idea 
 is not inapplicable sometimes in matters of criticism. 
 Critics in their efforts to find out a recondite interpreta- 
 tion are occasionally apt to overlook the obvious one ; 
 they forget the old vase. Perhaps it is so here. The 
 name of the play may be the vase. The ordinary mor- 
 tal, seeing the title of the play — Troilus and Cressida 
 — would expect to find in the piece a love-story. And 
 is it anything more than a love-story ? a love-story 
 coloured by the peculiar phase of feeling and emotion 
 through which the poet was passing at the time of its 
 composition ? Romeo and Juliet was written by a young 
 man. It is natural for youth to believe strongly in the 
 existence of such things as loyalty and love and truth. 
 Time brings disillusions. The poet does not become a 
 cynic and cease to believe in good ; only he perceives 
 that there is evil too in the world, fickleness and disloy- 
 alty as well as fidelity. And so, as a dramatist should, 
 he shows the other side of the shield. Romeo and Juliet 
 is a study of love from one stand-point ; Troilus and 
 Cressida is a study of love from exactly the opposite 
 ^stand-point ; et voila tout.^^ 
 
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 
 
DRAMATIS PERSONM 
 
 Priam, king of Troy. 
 
 Hector, 1 
 
 Troilus, I 
 
 Paris, )■ his sons. 
 
 Deiphobus, I 
 
 Helenus, j 
 
 Margarelon, a bastard son of Priam. 
 
 ^ENEAS, f rp . J 
 
 Antenor, ^^m^^^ov^^^x^^^xs. 
 
 Calchas, a Trojan priest, taking part with the Greeks. 
 
 Pandarus, uncle to Cressida. 
 
 Agamemnon, the Grecian general. 
 
 Menelaus, his brother 
 
 Achilles. ~! 
 
 AjAX. j 
 
 Ulysses, \ r^ ■ 
 
 Nestor, f <^^^"^" P"^'^^^' 
 
 Diomedes, ' 
 
 Patroclus, [i 
 
 Thersites, a deformed and scurrilous Grecian. 
 
 Alexander, servant to Cressida. 
 
 Servant to Troilus. 
 
 Servant to Paris. 
 
 Servant to Diomedes. 
 
 Helen, wife to Menelaus. 
 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. 
 
Ulysses (from ancient gem) 
 
 PROLOGUE 
 
 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, Helias, Chetas, Troien, 
 And Antenorides, with massy staples 
 
 31 
 
32 Troilus and Cressida 
 
 And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts, 
 
 Sperr up the sons of Troy. 
 
 Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits, 20 
 
 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. 
 
 Beginning in the middle, starting thence away 
 
 To what may be digested in a play. 
 
 Like or find fault, do as your pleasures are ; 30 
 
 Now good or bad, 't is but the chance of war. 
 
Before Agamemnon's Tent (Scene 3) 
 
 ACT I 
 
 Scene I. Troy. Be/ore Priam^s Palace 
 Enter Troilus, armed, and Pandarus 
 
 Troilus. Call here my varlet ; I '11 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. 
 
 Pandarus. Will this gear ne'er be mended ? 
 TROILUS — 3 33 
 
34 Troilus and Cressida [Act i 
 
 Troilus. 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, lo 
 
 Less valiant than the virgin in the night, 
 And skilless as unpractis'd infancy. 
 
 Pandarus. Well, I have told you enough of this ; 
 for my part, I '11 not meddle nor make no further. 
 He that will have a cake out of the wheat must needs 
 tarry the grinding. 
 
 Troilus. Have I not tarried ? 
 
 Pandarus. Ay, the grinding ; but you must tarry 
 the bolting. 
 
 T^'oilus. Have I not tarried ? 20 
 
 Pandarus. Ay, the bolting ; but you must tarry 
 the leavening. 
 
 Troilus. Still have I tarried. 
 
 Pandarus. 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 
 chance to burn your lips. 
 
 Troilus. Patience herself, what goddess e'er she be, 
 Doth lesser blench at sufferance than I do. 30 
 
 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 ? 
 
Scene I] Troilus and Cressida 35 
 
 Pajidarus. Well, she looked yesternight fairer than 
 ever I saw her look, or any woman else. 
 
 Troilus. 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. 
 Buried this sigh in wrinkle of a smile ; 40 
 
 But sorrow that is couch 'd in seeming gladness 
 Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness. 
 
 Pandarus. An her hair were not somewhat darker 
 than Helen's — well, go to — there were no more com- 
 parison 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 yes- 
 terday, as I did. I will not dispraise your sister Cas- 
 sandra's wit, but — 
 
 Troilus. O Pandarus ! I tell thee, Pandarus, — 
 When I do tell thee there my hopes lie drown'd, 
 Reply not in how many fathoms deep 52 
 
 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, 
 Handiest in thy discourse, O, that her hand. 
 In whose comparison all whites are ink, 
 Writing their own reproach, to whose soft seizure 
 The cygnet's down is harsh and spirit of sense 60 
 
 Hard as the palm of ploughman. This thou tell'st me, 
 As true thou tell'st me, when I say I love her ; 
 
^6 Troilus and Cressida [Act i 
 
 But, saying thus, instead of oil and balm. 
 
 Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given me 
 
 The knife that made it. 
 
 Pandarus. I speak no more than truth. 
 
 Troilus. Thou dost not speak so much. 
 
 Pandarus. Faith, I '11 not meddle in 't. Let her 
 be as she is : if she be fair, 't is the better for her ; 
 an she be not, she has the mends in her own 
 hands. 71 
 
 Troilus. Good Pandarus, how now, Pandarus ! 
 
 Pandarus. I have had my labour for my travail ; 
 ill-thought on of her and ill-thought on of you ; gone 
 between and between, but small thanks for my labour. 
 
 Troilus. What, art thou angry, Pandarus ? what, 
 wath me? 
 
 Patidarus. Because she 's 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 
 Sunday. But what care I ? I care not an she were 
 a blackamoor ; 't is all one to me. 82 
 
 Troilus. Say I she is not fair ? 
 
 Pandarus. 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 '11 tell her the next time I see 
 her. For my part, I '11 meddle nor make no more i' 
 the matter. 
 
 Troilus. Pandarus, — 
 
 Pandai'us. Not I. 90 
 
 Troilus. Sweet Pandarus, — 
 
Scene I] Troilus and Cressida 37 
 
 Pandarus. Pray you, speak no more to me ; I will 
 leave all as I found it, and there an end. 
 
 * [Exit Pandarus. An alarum. 
 
 Troilus. 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 ; 100 
 
 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 w^e ? 
 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 this sailing Pandar 
 Our doubtful hope, our convoy, and our bark. 
 
 Alarum. Enter ^neas 
 
 ^neas. How now, Prince Troilus ! wherefore not 
 afield ? no 
 
 Troilus. Because not there; this woman's answer 
 sorts, 
 For womanish it is to be from thence. 
 What news, ^neas, from the field to-day ? ^ 
 
 ^neas. That Paris is returned home and hurt. 
 
38 Troilus and Cressida [Act i 
 
 Troilus. By whom, ^neas ? 
 
 y^neas. Troilus, by Menelaus. 
 
 Troilus. Let Paris bleed : 't is but a scar to scorn ; 
 Paris is gor'd with Menelaus' horn. \^Alarum. 
 
 y^neas. Hark, what good sport is out of tOAvn to- 
 day ! 
 Troilus. Better at home, if ' would I might ' were 
 ' may.' 
 But to the sport abroad : are you bound thither ? 120 
 ^neas. In all swift haste. 
 
 Troilus. Come, go we then together. 
 
 \Exeunt. 
 
 Scene II. The Same. A Street 
 
 Enter Cressida and Alexander 
 
 Cressida. Who were those went by ? 
 
 Alexander. Queen Hecuba and Helen. 
 
 Cressida. And whither go they ? 
 
 Alexander. Up to the eastern tower. 
 
 Whose height commands as subject all the vale. 
 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, 
 Before the sun rose he was harness 'd light. 
 And to the field goes he ; where every flower 
 Did, as a prophet, weep what it foresaw 10 
 
 In Hector's wrath. 
 
 Cressida. What was his cause of anger ? 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida 39 
 
 Alexander. The noise goes, this : there is among the 
 Greeks 
 A lord of Trojan blood, nephew to Hector; 
 They call him Ajax. 
 
 Cressida. Good ; and what of him ? 
 
 Alexander. They say he is a very man per se, 
 And stands alone. 
 
 Ci^essida. So do all men, unless they are drunk, 
 sick, or have no legs. 18 
 
 Alexander. 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 cro^vded 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 pur- 
 blind Argus, all eyes and no sight. 30 
 
 Cressida. But how should this man that makes me 
 smile make Hector angry ? 
 
 Alexander. 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. 
 
 Cressida. Who comes here ? 
 
 Alexander. Madam, your uncle Pandarus, 
 
40 Troilus and Cressida [Act I 
 
 Enter Pandarus 
 
 Cressida. Hector 's a gallant man. 
 
 Alexander. As may be in the world, lady. 40 
 
 Pandarus. What 's that ? what 's that ? 
 
 Cressida. Good morrow, uncle Pandarus. 
 
 Pandarus. Good morrow, cousin Cressid ; what 
 do you talk of? — Good morrow, Alexander. — How 
 do you, cousin ? When were you at Ilium ? 
 
 Cressida. This morning, uncle. 
 
 Pandarus. What were you talking of when I came ? 
 Was Hector armed and gone ere ye came to Ilium ? 
 Helen was not up, was she ? 
 
 Cressida. Hector was gone, but Helen was not up. 
 
 Pandarus. Even so ; Hector was stirring early. 51 
 
 Cressida. That were we talking of, and of his anger. 
 
 Pandarus. Was he angry ? 
 
 Cressida. So he says here. 
 
 Pandarus. True, he was so ; I know the cause too. 
 He '11 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. 
 
 Cressida. What, is he angry too ? 
 
 Pandarus. Who, Troilus ? Troilus is the better 
 man of the two. 61 
 
 Cressida. O Jupiter ! there 's no comparison. 
 
 Pandarus. What, not between Troilus and Hector ? 
 Do you know a man if you see him ? 
 
 Cressida. Ay, if I ever sawhim before and knew him. 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida 41 
 
 Pandarus. Well, I say Troilus is Troilus. 
 
 Cressida. Then you say as I say ; for, I am sure, 
 he is not Hector. 
 
 Pandarus. No, nor Hector is not Troilus in some 
 degrees. 70 
 
 Cressida. 'T is just to each of them ; he is himself. 
 
 Pandarus. Himself ! Alas, poor Troilus ! I would 
 he were. 
 
 Cressida. So he is. 
 
 Pandarus. Condition, I had gone barefoot to India. 
 
 Cressida. He is not Hector. 
 
 Pandarus. 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. 81 
 
 Cressida. Excuse me, 
 
 Pandarus. He is elder. 
 
 Cressida. Pardon me, pardon me, 
 
 Pandarus. Th' other 's not come to 't ; you shall 
 tell me another tale when th' other 's come to 't. 
 Hector shall not have his wit this year, 
 
 Cressida. He shall not need it, if he have his own. 
 
 Pandarus. Nor his qualities. 
 
 Cressida. No matter. 90 
 
 Pandarus. Nor his beauty. 
 
 Cressida. 'T would not become him ; his own 's 
 better. 
 
 Pandarus. You have no judgment, niece ; Helen 
 
42 Troilus and Cressida [Act i 
 
 herself swore th' other day that Troilus, for a brown 
 favour — for so 't is, I must confess, — not brown 
 neither, — 
 
 Cressida. No, but brown. 
 
 Pandarus. Faith, to say truth, brown and not 
 brown. loo 
 
 Cressida. To say the truth, true and not true. 
 
 Pandarus. She praised his complexion above 
 Paris. 
 
 Cressida. Why, Paris hath colour enough. 
 
 Pandarus. So he has. 
 
 Cressida. 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 complex- 
 ion. I had as lief Helen's golden tongue had com- 
 mended Troilus for a copper nose. m 
 
 Pandarus. I swear to you, I think Helen loves 
 him better than Paris. 
 
 Cressida. Then she 's a merry Greek indeed. 
 
 Pandarus. Nay, I am sure she does. She came 
 to him th' other day into the compassed window, — 
 and, you know, he has not past three or four hairs 
 on his chin, — 
 
 Cressida. Indeed, a tapster's arithmetic may soon 
 bring his particulars therein to a total. 120 
 
 Pandarus. Why, he is very young ; and yet will 
 he, within three pound, lift as much as his brother 
 Hector. 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida ^3 
 
 Cressida. Is he so young a man and so old a 
 lifter ? 
 
 Pandarus. But to prove to you that Helen loves 
 him, — she came and puts me her white hand to his 
 cloven chin — 
 
 Cressida. Juno have mercy ! how came it cloven ? 
 
 Pandarus. Why, you know, 't is dimpled ; I think 
 his smiling becomes him better than any man in all 
 Phrygia. 132 
 
 Cressida. O, he smiles valiantly ! 
 
 Pandarus. Does he not ? 
 
 Cressida. O yes, an 'twere a cloud in autumn! 
 
 Pandarus. Why, go to, then ; but to prove to you 
 that Helen loves Troilus, — 
 
 Cressida. Troilus will stand to the proof, if you '11 
 prove it so. 
 
 Pandarus. Troilus ! why, he esteems her no more 
 than I esteem an addle &gg. 141 
 
 Cressida. If you love an addle egg as well as you 
 love an idle head, you would eat chickens i' the shell. 
 
 Pandarus. I cannot choose but laugh, to think 
 how she tickled his chin ; indeed, she has a marvel- 
 lous white hand, I must needs confess, — 
 
 Cressida. Without the rack. 
 
 Pandarus. And she takes upon her to spy a white 
 hair on his chin. 
 
 Cressida. Alas, poor chin ! many a wart is richer. 
 
 Pandarus. But there was such laughing ! Queen 
 Hecuba laughed that her eyes ran o'er. 152 
 
44 Troiius and Cressida [Act i 
 
 Cressida. With mill-stones. 
 
 Pandarus. And Cassandra laughed. 
 
 Cressida. But there was more temperate fire under 
 the pot of her eyes ; did her eyes run o'er too ? 
 
 Pandarus. And Hector laughed. 
 
 Cressida. At what was all this laughing ? 
 
 Pandarus. Marry, at the white hair that Helen 
 spied on Troiius' chin. i6o 
 
 Cressida. An 't had been a green hair, I should 
 have laughed too. 
 
 Pandarus. They laughed not so much at the hair 
 as at his pretty answer. 
 
 Cressida. What was his answer ? 
 
 Pandarus. Quoth she, ' Here 's but two and fifty 
 hairs on your chin, and one of them is white.' 
 
 Cressida. This is her question. i68 
 
 Pandarus, That 's true ; make no question of that. 
 ' Two and fifty hairs,' quoth he, ' and one white ; 
 that white hair is my father, and all the rest are his 
 sons.' 'Jupiter! ' quoth she, 'which of these hairs 
 is Paris my husband?' 'The forked one,' quoth 
 he ; ' pluck 't out, and give it him.' But there was 
 such laughing ! and Helen so blushed, and Paris so 
 chafed, and all the rest so laughed, that it passed. 
 
 Cressida. So let it now ; for it has been a great 
 while going by. 
 
 Pa?idarus. Well, cousin, I told you a thing yester- 
 day ; think on 't. 180 
 
 Cressida. So I do. 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida 45 
 
 Pandarus. I '11 be sworn 't is true ; he will weep 
 you an 't were a man born in April. 
 
 Cressida, And I '11 spring up in his tears an 
 't were a nettle against May. \A retreat sounded. 
 
 Pandarus. Hark ! they are coming from the field. 
 Shall we stand up here, and see them as they pass 
 toward Ilium ? good niece, do, sweet niece Cressida. 
 
 Cressida. At your pleasure. 189 
 
 Pandarus. Here, here, here 's an excellent place ; 
 here we may see most bravely. I '11 tell you them 
 all by their names as they pass by ; but mark Troilus 
 above the rest. 
 
 Cressida. Speak not so loud. 
 
 ^NEAS passes 
 
 Pandarus. That 's vEneas. Is not that a brave 
 man ? he 's one of the flowers of Troy, I can tell you ; 
 but mark Troilus ; you shall see anon. 
 
 Antenor passes 
 
 Cressida. Who 's that ? . 198 
 
 Pandarus. That 's Antenor. He has a shrewd 
 wit, I can tell you ; and he 's a man good enough. 
 He 's one o' the soundest judgments in Troy, whoso- 
 ever, and a proper man of person. — When comes 
 Troilus ? — I '11 show you Troilus anon ; if he see me, 
 you shall see him nod at me. 
 
 C?'essida. Will he give you the nod .'* 
 
 Pandarus. You shall see. 
 
46 Troilus and Cressida [Act i 
 
 Cressida. If he do, the rich shall have more. 
 Hector passes 
 
 Pandarus. That 's Hector, that, that, look you, 
 that ; there 's a fellow ! — Go thy way. Hector ! — 
 There 's a brave man, niece. — O brave Hector! — 
 Look how he looks ! there 's a countenance ! is 't not 
 a brave man ? 212 
 
 Cressida. O, a brave man ! 
 
 Pandarus. Is a' not ? it does a man's heart good. 
 Look you what hacks are on his helmet ! look you 
 yonder, do you see ? look you there ! there 's no jest- 
 ing ; there 's laying on, take 't off who will, as they 
 say ! there be hacks ! 
 
 Cressida. Be those with swords ? 219 
 
 Pandarus. Swords ! any thing, he cares not ; an 
 the devil come to him, it 's all one. By God's lid, it 
 does one's heart good ! Yonder comes Paris, yon- 
 der comes Paris. 
 
 Paris passes 
 
 Look ye yonder, niece ; is 't not a gallant man too, 
 is 't not ? Why, this is brave now. Who said he 
 came hurt home to-day ? he 's not hurt ; why, this 
 will do Helen's heart good now, ha ! — Would I 
 could see Troilus now ! — You shall see Troilus 
 anon. 229 
 
 Helenus passes 
 
 Cressida. Who 's that ? 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida 47 
 
 Pandarus. That 's Helenus. — I marvel where 
 Troilus is. — That 's Helenus. — I think he went not 
 forth to-day. — That 's Helenus. 
 
 Cressida. Can Helenus fight, uncle ? 
 
 Pandarus. Helenus ? no. Yes, he '11 fight indif- 
 ferent well. — I marvel where Troilus is. — Hark ! 
 do you not hear the people cry ' Troilus ' ? — Helenus 
 is a priest. 
 
 Cressida. What sneaking fellow comes yonder ? 
 
 Troilus passes 
 
 Pandarus. Where ? yonder ? that 's Deiphobus. — 
 'T is Troilus ! there 's a man, niece ! Hem ! Brave 
 Troilus ! the prince of chivalry ! 242 
 
 Cressida. Peace, for shame, peace ! 
 
 Pandarus. Mark him ; note him. O brave Troi- 
 lus ! Look well upon him, niece ; look you how his 
 sword is bloodied, and his helm more hacked than 
 Hector's, and how he looks, and how he goes ! O 
 admirable youth ! he ne'er saw three and twenty. — 
 Go thy way, Troilus, go thy way ! — Had I a sister 
 were a Grace, or a daughter a goddess, he should 
 take his choice. O admirable man ! Paris ? Paris 
 is dirt to him ; and, I warrant, Helen, to change, 
 would give an eye to boot. 253 
 
 Cressida. Here come more. 
 
 Forces pass 
 Pandarus. Asses, fools, dolts ! chaff and bran, 
 
48 Troilus and Cressida [Act I 
 
 chaff and bran ! porridge after meat ! I could live 
 and die i' the eyes of Troilus. Ne'er look, ne'er 
 look ; the eagles are gone 1 crows and daws, crows 
 and daws ! I had rather be such a man as Troilus 
 than Agamemnon and all Greece. 260 
 
 Cressida. There is among the Greeks Achilles, a 
 better man than Troilus. 
 
 Pandarus. Achilles ! a drayman, a porter, a very 
 camel. 
 
 Cressida. Well, well. 
 
 Pandarus. Well, well ! Why, have you any dis- 
 cretion ? have you any eyes ? do you know what a 
 man is ? Is not birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, 
 manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, liber- 
 ality, and such like, the spice and salt that season a 
 man ? 271 
 
 Cressida. Ay, a minced man ; and then to be 
 baked with no date in the pie, for then the man's 
 date 's out. 
 
 Pandarus. You are such another woman ! one 
 knows not at what ward you lie. 
 
 Cressida. Upon my back, to defend my belly; 
 upon my wit, to defend my wiles ; upon my secrecy, 
 to defend mine honesty ; my mask, to defend my 
 beauty ; and you, to defend all these ; and at all 
 these wards I lie, at a thousand watches. 281 
 
 Pandarus. Say one of your watches. 
 
 Cressida. Nay, I '11 watch you for that ; and that 's 
 one of the chiefest of them too. If I cannot ward 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida 49 
 
 what I would not have hit, I can watch you for tell- 
 ing how I took the blow ; unless it swell past hiding, 
 and then it 's past watching. 
 
 Pandarus. You are such another ! 
 
 Enter Troilus 's Boy 
 
 Boy. Sir, my lord would instantly speak wdth you. 
 
 Pandarus. Where ? 290 
 
 Boy. At your own house ; there he unarms him. 
 
 Pandarus. Good boy, tell him I come. — \Exit 
 Boy'\ I doubt he be hurt. — Fare ye well, good niece. 
 
 Cressida. Adieu, uncle. 
 
 Pandarus. I '11 be with you, niece, by and by. 
 
 Cressida. To bring, uncle ? 
 
 Pandarus. Ay, a token from Troilus. 
 
 Cressida. By the same token, you are a bawd. — 
 
 \Exit Pandarus. 
 Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full sacrifice, 
 He offers in another's enterprise ; 300 
 
 But more in Troilus thousand-fold I see 
 Than in the glass of Bandar's praise may be. 
 Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing ; 
 Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing. 
 That she belov'd knows nought that knows not this, ■ — 
 Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is ; 
 That she was never yet that ever knew 
 Love got so sweet as when desire did sue. 
 Therefore this maxim out of love I teach, — 
 Achievement is command ; ungain'd, beseech. 310 
 
 TROILUS — 4 
 
50 Troilus and Cressida [Act I 
 
 Then though my heart's content firm love doth bear, 
 Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear. [^Exeunf. 
 
 Scene III. The Grecian Camp. Before Agamemnon' s 
 
 Tent 
 
 Sennet. Enter Agamemnon, Nestor, Ulysses, Mene- 
 LAUS, and others 
 
 Agamemnon. Princes, 
 What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks ? 
 The ample proposition that hope makes 
 In all designs begun on earth below 
 Fails in the promis'd largeness ; checks and disasters 
 Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd. 
 As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap, 
 Infect the sound pine, and divert his grain 
 Tortive and errant from his course of growth. 
 Nor, princes, is it matter new to us lo 
 
 That we come short of our suppose so far 
 That after seven years' siege yet Troy walls stand ; 
 Sith every action that hath gone before. 
 Whereof we have record, trial did draw 
 Bias and thwart, not answering the aim 
 And that unbodied figure of the thought 
 That gave 't surmised shape. Why then, you princes. 
 Do you with cheeks abash 'd behold our works. 
 And think them shames, which are indeed nought else 
 But the protractive trials of great Jove 20 
 
 To find persistive constancy in men ? 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida 51 
 
 The fineness of which metal is not found 
 
 In fortune's love ; for then the bold and coward, 
 
 The wise and fool, the artist and unread, 
 
 The hard and soft, seem all affin'd and kin ; 
 
 But, in the wind and tempest of her frown, 
 
 Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan. 
 
 Puffing at all, winnows the light away. 
 
 And what hath mass or matter by itself 
 
 Lies rich in virtue and unmingled. 30 
 
 Nestor. With due observance of thy godlike seat, 
 Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply 
 Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance 
 Lies the true proof of men ; the sea being smooth, 
 How many shallow bauble boats dare sail 
 Upon her patient breast, making their w^ay 
 With those of nobler bulk ! 
 But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage 
 The gentle Thetis, and anon behold 
 The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut, 
 Bounding between the two moist elements, 41 
 
 Like Perseus' horse, — where 's then the saucy boat 
 Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now 
 Co-rivall'd greatness ? Either to harbour fled 
 Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so 
 Doth valour's show and valour's worth divide 
 In storms of fortune, for in her ray and brightness 
 The herd hath more annoyance by the brize 
 Than by the tiger ; but when the splitting wind 
 Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks, 50 
 
52 Troilus and Cressida [Act i 
 
 And flies fled under shade, why, then the thing of 
 
 courage 
 As rous'd with rage with rage doth sympathize, 
 And with an accent tun'd in selfsame key 
 Rechides to chiding fortune. 
 
 Ulysses. Agamemnon, 
 
 Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece, 
 Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit. 
 In whom the tempers and the minds of all 
 Should be shut up, hear what Ulysses speaks. 
 Besides the applause and approbation 
 The which, — \To Againemnoit] most mighty for thy 
 
 place and sway, — 60 
 
 \^To Nestor] And thou most reverend for thy stretch'd- 
 
 out life, — 
 I give to both your speeches, which were such 
 As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece 
 Should hold up high in brass, and such again 
 As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver, 
 Should with a bond of air, strong as the axletree 
 On which heaven rides, knit all the Greekish ears 
 To his experienc'd tongue, — yet let it please both, — 
 Thou great, and wise, — to hear Ulysses speak. 
 
 Agajneninoii. Speak, Prince of Ithaca ; and be 't of 
 
 less expect 7° 
 
 That matter needless, of importless burden, 
 Divide thy lips, than we are confident, 
 When rank Thersites opes his mastic jaws, 
 We shall hear music, wit, and oracle. 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida 53 
 
 Ulysses. Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down, 
 And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master, 
 But for these instances. 
 The specialty of rule hath been neglected ; 
 And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand 
 Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions. 80 
 
 When that the general is not like the hive 
 To whom the foragers shall all repair, 
 What honey is expected ? Degree being vizarded, 
 The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask. 
 The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre 
 Observe degree, priority, and place, 
 Insisture, course, proportion, season, form. 
 Office, and custom, in all line of order ; 
 And therefore is the glorious planet Sol 
 In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd 90 
 
 Amidst the other, whose medicinable eye 
 Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil, 
 And posts, like the commandment of a king. 
 Sans check to good and bad. But when the planets 
 In evil mixture to disorder wander. 
 What plagues and what portents, what mutiny ! 
 What raging of the sea, shaking of earth. 
 Commotion of the winds, frights, changes, horrors. 
 Divert and crack, rend and deracinate 
 The unity and married calm of states 100 
 
 Quite from their fixure ! O, when degree is shak'd, 
 Which is the ladder to all high designs. 
 Then enterprise is sick ! How could communities, 
 
54 Troilus and Cressida [Act I 
 
 Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods m cities, 
 
 Peaceful commerce from dividable shores, 
 
 The primogenity and due of birth, 
 
 Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels, 
 
 But by degree stand in authentic place ? 
 
 Take but degree away, untune that string. 
 
 And, hark, what discord follows ! each thing meets no 
 
 In mere oppugn ancy : the bounded waters 
 
 Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores. 
 
 And make a sop of all this solid globe ; 
 
 Strength should be lord of imbecility, 
 
 And the rude son should strike his father dead ; 
 
 Force should be right ; or rather, right and wrong. 
 
 Between whose endless jar justice resides. 
 
 Should lose their names, and so should justice too. 
 
 Then every thing includes itself in power, 
 
 Power into will, will into appetite ; 120 
 
 And appetite, an universal wolf. 
 
 So doubly seconded with will and power. 
 
 Must make perforce an universal prey. 
 
 And last eat up himself. Great Agamemnon, 
 
 This chaos, when degree is suffocate, 
 
 Follows the choking. 
 
 And this neglection of degree it is 
 
 That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose 
 
 It hath to climb. The general 's disdain 'd 
 
 By him one step below, he by the next, 130 
 
 That next by him beneath : so every step, 
 
 Exampled by the first pace that is sick 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida 55 
 
 Of his superior, grows to an envious fever 
 
 Of pale and bloodless emulation ; 
 
 And 't is this fever that keeps Troy on foot, 
 
 Not her own sinews. To end a tale of length, 
 
 Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength. 
 
 Nestor. Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover 'd 
 The fever whereof all our power is sick. 
 
 Agamemnon. The nature of the sickness found, 
 Ulysses, 140 
 
 What is the remedy ? 
 
 Ulysses. The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns 
 The sinew and the forehand of our host, 
 Having his ear full of his airy fame. 
 Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent 
 Lies mocking our designs. With him Patroclus 
 Upon a lazy bed the livelong day 
 Breaks scurril jests, 
 
 And with ridiculous and awkward action — 
 Which, slanderer, he imitation calls — 150 
 
 He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon, 
 Thy topless deputation he puts on. 
 And, like a strutting player, whose conceit 
 Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich 
 To hear the wooden dialogue and sound 
 'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage, — 
 Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrested seeming 
 He acts thy greatness in ; and when he speaks, 
 'T is like a chime a-mending, with terms unsquar'd, 
 Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropp'd, 
 
56 Troilus and Cressida [Act i 
 
 Would seem hyperboles. At this fusty stuff 161 
 
 The large Achilles, on his press'd bed lolling, 
 
 From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause, 
 
 Cries ' Excellent ! 't is Agamemnon just. 
 
 Now play me Nestor ; hem, and stroke thy beard, 
 
 As he being dress'd to some oration.' 
 
 That 's done, as near as the extremest ends 
 
 Of parallels, as like as Vulcan and his wife ; 
 
 Yet god Achilles still cries ' Excellent ! 
 
 'T is Nestor right. Now play him me, Patroclus, 170 
 
 Arming to answer in a night alarm.' 
 
 And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age 
 
 Must be the scene of mirth, — to cough and spit, 
 
 And, with a palsy-fumbling on his gorget. 
 
 Shake in and out the rivet, — and at this sport 
 
 Sir Valour dies, cries ' O, enough, Patroclus ; 
 
 Or give me ribs of steel ! I shall split all 
 
 In pleasure of my spleen.' And in this fashion, 
 
 All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, 
 
 Severals and generals of grace exact, 180 
 
 Achievements, plots, orders, preventions, 
 
 Excitements to the field, or speech for truce, 
 
 Success or loss, what is or is not, serves 
 
 As stuff for these two to make paradoxes. 
 
 Nestor. And in the imitation of these twain — 
 Who, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns 
 With an imperial voice — many are infect. 
 Ajax is grown self-will'd, and bears his head 
 In such a rein, in full as proud a place 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida 57 
 
 As broad Achilles, keeps his tent like him, 190 
 
 Makes factious feasts, rails on our state of war, 
 
 Bold as an oracle, and sets Thersites — 
 
 A slave whose gall coins slanders like a mint — 
 
 To match us in comparisons with dirt, 
 
 To weaken and discredit our exposure, 
 
 How rank soever rounded in with danger, 
 
 Ulysses. They tax our policy, and call it cowardice, 
 Count wisdom as no member of the war. 
 Forestall prescience, and esteem no act 
 But that of hand ; the still and mental parts, 200 
 
 That do contrive how many hands shall strike 
 When fitness calls them on, and know by measure 
 Of their observant toil the enemies' weight, — 
 Why, this hath not a finger's dignity. 
 They call this bed-work, mappery, closet-war ; 
 So that the ram that batters down the wall, 
 For the great swing and rudeness of his poise. 
 They place before his hand that made the engine, 
 Or those that with the fineness of their souls 
 By reason guide his execution. 210 
 
 Nestor. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse 
 Makes many Thetis' sons. \A tucket. 
 
 Agafnemnon. What trumpet? look, Menelaus. 
 
 Menelaus. From Troy. 
 
 Enter ^neas 
 
 Agamemnon. What would you fore our tent ? 
 ^neas. Is this great Agamemnon's tent, I pray you? 
 
58 Troilus and Cressida [Act i 
 
 Agamemnon. Even this. 
 
 JEneas. May one that is a herald and a prince 
 Do a fair message to his kingly ears ? 
 
 Agamemnon. With surety stronger than Achilles' arm 
 Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice 221 
 Call Agamemnon head and general. 
 
 ^neas. Fair leave and large security. How may 
 A stranger to those most imperial looks 
 Know them from eyes of other mortals ? 
 
 Agamemnon. How ! 
 
 ^neas. Ay ; 
 I ask, that I might waken reverence, 
 And bid the cheek be ready with a blush 
 Modest as morning when she coldly eyes 
 The youthful Phoebus. 230 
 
 Which is that god in office, guiding men ? 
 Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon ? 
 
 Agamemnon. This Trojan scorns us ; or the men of 
 Troy 
 Are ceremonious courtiers. 
 
 y^neas. Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm'd. 
 As bending angels ; that 's their fame in peace. 
 But when they would seem soldiers, they have galls, 
 Good arms, strong joints, true swords ; and, Jove's 
 
 accord, 
 Nothing so full of heart. But peace, ^neas ! 
 Peace, Trojan ! lay thy finger on thy lips ! 240 
 
 The worthiness of praise distains his worth, 
 If that the prais'd himself bring the praise forth, 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida 59 
 
 But what the repining enemy commends^ 
 That breath fame blows ; that praise, sole pure, tran- 
 scends. 
 
 Agame7nnon. Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself 
 apneas ? 
 
 ^neas. Ay, Greek, that is my name. 
 
 Agamemnon. What 's your affair, I pray you ? 
 
 ^neas. Sir, pardon ; 't is for Agamemnon's ears. 
 
 Agamemnon. He hears nought privately that comes 
 from Troy. 
 
 ^neas. Nor I from Troy come not to whisper him ; 
 I bring a trumpet to awake his ear, 251 
 
 To set his sense on the attentive bent, 
 And then to speak. 
 
 Agamejnnon. Speak frankly as the wind. 
 
 It is not Agamemnon's sleeping hour ; 
 That thou shalt know, Trojan, he is awake, 
 He tells thee so himself. 
 
 ^neas. Trumpet, blow loud, 
 
 Send thy brass voice through all these lazy tents ; 
 And every Greek of mettle, let him know, 
 What Troy means fairly shall be spoke aloud. — 
 
 \_Trumpet sounds. 
 We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy 260 
 
 A prince called Hector, — Priam is his father, — 
 Who in this dull and long-continued truce 
 Is rusty grown. He bade me take a trumpet, 
 And to this purpose speak : Kings, princes, lords ! 
 If there be one among the fair'st of Greece 
 
6o Troilus and Cressida [Act i 
 
 That holds his honour higher than his ease, 
 
 That seeks his praise more than he fears his peril, 
 
 That knows his valour, and knows not his fear, 
 
 That loves his mistress more than in confession 
 
 With truant vows to her own lips he loves, 270 
 
 And dare avow^ her beauty and her worth 
 
 In other arms than hers, — to him this challenge. 
 
 Hector, in view of Trojans and of Greeks, 
 
 Shall make it good, or do his best to do it. 
 
 He hath a lady, wiser, fairer, truer. 
 
 Than ever Greek did compass in his arms. 
 
 And will to-morrow with his trumpet call 
 
 Midway between your tents and walls of Troy, 
 
 To rouse a Grecian that is true in love. 
 
 If any come. Hector shall honour him ; 280 
 
 If none, he '11 say in Troy when he retires. 
 
 The Grecian dames are sunburnt and not worth 
 
 The splinter of a lance. Even so much. 
 
 Agamemnon. This shall be told our lovers. Lord 
 ^neas. 
 If none of them have soul in such a kind, 
 We left them all at home ; but we are soldiers, 
 And may that soldier a mere recreant prove 
 That means not, hath not, or is not in love ! 
 If then one is, or hath, or means to be, 
 That one meets Hector; if none else, I am he. 290 
 
 Nestor. Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man 
 When Hector's grandsire suck'd ; he is old now. 
 But if there be not in our Grecian host 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida 6i 
 
 One noble man that hath one spark of fire 
 
 To answer for his love, tell him from nie 
 
 I '11 hide my silver beard in a gold beaver, 
 
 And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn, 
 
 And meeting him will tell him that my lady 
 
 Was fairer than his grandam and as chaste 
 
 As may be in the world. His youth in flood, 300 
 
 I '11 prove this truth with my three drops of blood. 
 
 ^neas. Now heavens forbid such scarcity of youth ! 
 
 Ulysses. Amen. 
 
 Agamemnon. Fair Lord ^neas, let me touch your 
 hand ; 
 To our pavihon shall I lead you, sir. 
 Achilles shall have word of this intent ; 
 So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent. 
 Yourself shall feast with us before you go. 
 And find the welcome of a noble foe. 
 
 [Exeunt ail but Ulysses and Nestor. 
 
 Ulysses. Nestor ! 310 
 
 Nestor. What says Ulysses ? 
 
 Ulysses. I have a young conception in my brain ; 
 Be you my time to bring it to some shape. 
 
 Nestor. What is 't ? 
 
 Ulysses. This 't is : 
 Blunt wedges rive hard knots ; the seeded pride 
 That hath to this maturity blown up 
 In rank Achilles must or now be cropp'd, 
 Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil, 
 To overbulk us all. 
 
62 Troilus and Cressida [Act i 
 
 Nestor. Well, and how ? 320 
 
 Ulysses, This challenge that the gallant Hector sends, 
 However it is spread in general name, 
 Relates in purpose only to Achilles. 
 
 Nestor. The purpose is perspicuous even as substance, 
 Whose grossness little characters sum up ; 
 And, in the publication, make no strain 
 But that Achilles, were his brain as barren 
 As banks of Libya, — though, Apollo knows, 
 'T is dry enough, — will, with great speed of judgment. 
 Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose 330 
 
 Pointing on him. 
 
 Ulysses. And wake him to the answer, think you ? 
 
 Nestor. Yes, 't is most meet ; whom may you else 
 oppose. 
 That can from Hector bring his honour off, 
 If not Achilles ? Though 't be a sportful combat. 
 Yet in the trial much opinion dwells. 
 For here the Trojans taste our dear'st repute 
 With their fin'st palate, and trust to me, Ulysses, 
 Our imputation shall be oddly pois'd 
 In this wild action ; for the success, 340 
 
 Although particular, shall give a scantling 
 Of good or bad unto the general. 
 And in such indexes, although small pricks 
 To their subsequent volumes, there is seen 
 The baby figure of the giant mass 
 Of things to come at large. It is suppos'd 
 He that meets Hector issues from our choice, 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida 6^ 
 
 And choice, being mutual act of all our souls, 
 
 Makes merit her election, and doth boil. 
 
 As 'twere from forth us all, a man distill'd 350 
 
 Out of our virtues ; who miscarrying, 
 
 What heart receives from hence the conquering part, 
 
 To steel a strong opinion to themselves ? 
 
 Which entertain 'd, limbs are his instruments, 
 
 In no less working than are swords and bows 
 
 Directive by the limbs. 
 
 Ulysses. Give pardon to my speech : 
 Therefore 't is meet Achilles meet not Hector. 
 Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares, 
 And think, perchance, they '11 sell ; if not, 360 
 
 The lustre of the better yet to show 
 Shall show the better. Do not consent 
 That ever Hector and Achilles meet ; 
 For both our honour and our shame in this 
 Are dogg'd with tvv^o strange followers. 
 
 Nestor. I see them not with my old eyes ; what are 
 they? 
 
 Ulysses. What glory our Achilles shares from Hector, 
 Were he not proud, we all should share with him ; 
 But he already is too insolent, 
 
 And we were better parch in Afric sun 370 
 
 Than in the pride and salt scorn of his eyes. 
 Should he scape Hector fair. If he were foil'd. 
 Why, then we did our main opinion crush 
 In taint of our best man. No, make a lottery. 
 And by device let blockish Ajax draw 
 
64 Troilus and Cressida [Act i 
 
 The sort to fight with Hector ; among ourselves, 
 
 Give him allowance for the better man, 
 
 For that will physic the great Myrmidon 
 
 Who broils in loud applause, and make him fall 
 
 His crest that prouder than blue Iris bends. 380 
 
 If the dull brainless Ajax come safe off, 
 
 We '11 dress him up in voices ; if he fail. 
 
 Yet go we under our opinion still 
 
 That we have better men. But, hit or miss, 
 
 Our project's life this shape of sense assumes : 
 
 Ajax employ'd plucks down Achilles' plumes. 
 
 Nestor. Ulysses, 
 Now I begin to relish thy advice, 
 And I will give a taste of it forthwith 
 To Agamemnon ; go we to him straight. 390 
 
 Two curs shall tame each other ; pride alone 
 Must tarre the mastiffs on, as 't were their bone. 
 
 \Exeunt, 
 
Enter Cassandra (Scene 2) 
 
 ACT II 
 
 Scene I. A Part of the Grecian Camp 
 Enter Ajax and Thersites 
 
 Ajax. Thersites ! 
 
 Thersites. Agamemnon — how if he had boils? 
 full, all over, generally? 
 Ajax. Thersites ! 
 TRoiLus — 5 65 
 
66 Troilus and Cressida [Act il 
 
 Thersites. And those boils did rim ? say so, did not 
 the general run then ? were not that a botchy core ? 
 
 AJax. Dog ! 
 
 Thersites. Then would come some matter from 
 him ; I see none now. 
 
 AJax. Thou bitch-wolf's son, canst thou not hear ? 
 \_Beatmg him'] Feel, then. n 
 
 Thei'sites. The plague of Greece upon thee, thou 
 mongrel beef-witted lord ! 
 
 AJax. Speak then, thou vinewed'st leaven, speak ! 
 I will beat thee into handsomeness. 
 
 Thersites. I shall sooner rail thee into wit and 
 holiness ; but wl think thy horse will sooner con an 
 oration than thou learn a prayer without book. Thou 
 canst strike, canst thou ? a red murrain o' thy jade's 
 tricks ! 20 
 
 AJax. Toadstool, learn me the proclamation. 
 
 Thersites. Dost thou think I have no sense, thou 
 strikest me thus ? 
 
 AJax. The proclamation ! 
 
 Thersites. Thou art proclaimed a fool, I think. 
 
 AJax. Do not, porpentine, do not ! my fingers itch. 
 
 The?'sites. 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 slow as 
 another. 31 
 
 AJax. I say, the proclamation ! 
 
 Thersites^ Thou grumblest and railest every hour 
 
Scene I] Troilus and Cressida 67 
 
 on Achilles, and thou art as full of envy at his great- 
 ness as Cerberus is at Proserpina's beauty, ay, that 
 thou barkest at him. 
 
 Ajax. Mistress Thersites ! 
 
 Thersites. Thou shouldst strike him. 
 
 Ajax. Cobloaf ! 
 
 Thersites. He would pun thee into shivers with his 
 fisL, as a sailor breaks a biscuit. 41 
 
 Ajax. ^Beating hwi\ You whoreson cur ! 
 
 Thersites. Do, do. 
 
 Ajax. Thou stool for a witch ! 
 
 Thersites. Ay, do, do ; thou sodden-witted lord ! 
 thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows ; 
 an assinego may tutor thee. Thou scurvy-valiant 
 ass ! thou art here but to thrash Trojans ; and thou 
 art bought and sold among those of any wit, like a 
 barbarian slave. 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 ! 52 
 
 Ajax. You dog ! 
 
 Thersites. You scurvy lord ! 
 
 Ajax. \B eating hivi\ You cur ! 
 
 Thersites. Mars his idiot ! do, rudeness ; do, 
 camel, do, do ! 
 
 Enter Achilles and Patroclus 
 
 Achilles. Why, how now, Ajax ! wherefore do 
 you thus ? — How now, Thersites ! what' s the mat- 
 ter, man ? 60 
 
68 Troilus and Cressida [Act ii 
 
 Ther sites. You see him there, do you ? 
 
 Achilles. Ay ; what 's the matter ? 
 
 Thersites. Nay, look upon him. 
 
 Achilles. So I do ; what 's the matter ? 
 
 Thersites. Nay, but regard him well. 
 
 Achilles. Well ! why, I do so. 
 
 Thersites. But yet you look not well upon him ; 
 for, whosoever you take him to be, he is Ajax. 
 
 Achilles. I know that, fool. 
 
 Thersites. Ay, but that fool knows not himself. 70 
 
 Ajax. Therefore I beat thee. 
 
 Thersites. Lo, lo, lo, lo, what modicums of wit he 
 utters ! his evasions have ears thus long. I have 
 bobbed his brain more than he has beat my bones ; 
 I will buy nine sparrows for a penny, and his pia 
 mater is not worth the ninth part of a sparrow. 
 This lord, Achilles, — Ajax, who wears his wit in his 
 belly and his guts in his head, — I '11 tell you what I 
 say of him. 
 
 Achilles. What? 80 
 
 Thersites. I say, this Ajax — [Ajax offers to beat him. 
 
 Achilles. Nay, good Ajax. 
 
 Thersites. Has not so much wit — 
 
 Achilles. Nay, I must hold you. 
 
 Thersites. As will stop the eye of Helen's needle, 
 for whom he comes to fight. 
 
 Achilles. Peace, fool ! 
 
 Thersites. I would have peace and quietness, but 
 the fool will not, — he there, that he, look you there. 
 
Scene I] Troilus and Cressida 69 
 
 Ajax. O thou damned cur ! I shall — 90 
 
 Achilles. Will you set your wit to a fool's ? 
 
 Thersites. No, I warrant you ; for a fool's will 
 shame it. 
 
 Patroclus. Good words, Thersites. 
 
 Achilles. What 's the quarrel ? 
 
 Ajax. I bade the vile owl go learn me the tenor 
 of the proclamation, and he rails upon me. 
 
 Thersites. I serve thee not. 
 
 Ajax. Well, go to, go to. 
 
 Thersites. I serve here voluntary. 100 
 
 Achilles. Your last service was sufferance, 'twas 
 not voluntary ; no man is beaten voluntary. Ajax 
 was here the voluntary, and you as under an im- 
 press. 
 
 Thersites. E'en so ; a great deal of your wit, too, 
 lies in your sinews, or else there be liars. Hector 
 shall have a great catch if he knock out either of 
 your brains ; a' were as good crack a fusty nut with 
 no kernel. 
 
 Achilles. W^hat, with me too, Thersites ? iio 
 
 Thersites. There 's Ulysses and old Nestor, whose 
 wit was mouldy ere your grandsires had nails on 
 their toes, yoke you like draught-oxen and make you 
 plough up the wars. 
 
 Achilles. What, what? 
 
 Thersites. Yes, good sooth ! to, Achilles ! — to, 
 Ajax ! to ! 
 
 Ajax. I shall cut out your tongue. 
 
yo Troilus and Cressida [Act il 
 
 Thersites. 'T is no matter ; I shall speak as much 
 as thou afterwards. 120 
 
 Patroclus. No more words, Thersites ; peace ! 
 
 Thersites. I will hold my peace when Achilles' 
 brach bids me, shall I ? 
 
 Achilles. There 's for you, Patroclus. 
 
 Thersites. I will see you hanged, like clotpolls, 
 ere I come any more to your tents ; I will keep 
 where there is wit stirring, and leave the faction of 
 fools. \Exit. 
 
 Patroclus. A good riddance. 
 
 Achilles. Marry, this, sir, is proclaim 'd through all 
 our host : 130 
 
 That Hector, by the fifth hour of the sun. 
 Will with a trumpet 'twixt our tents and Troy 
 To-morrow morning call some knight to arms 
 That hath a stomach ; and such a one that dare 
 Maintain — I know not what ; 't is trash. Farewell. 
 
 Ajax. Farewell. Who shall answer him ? 
 
 Achilles. I know not. 'T is put to lottery ; otherwise 
 He knew^ his man. 
 
 Ajax. O, meaning you. I will go learn more of it. 
 
 \Exeunt. 
 
 Scene II. Troy. A Room in Priam'' s Palace 
 
 Enter Priam, Hector, Troilus, Paris, and Helenus 
 
 Priam. After so many hours, lives, speeches spent, 
 Thus once again says Nestor from the Greeks : 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida 71 
 
 ' Deliver Helen, and all damage else — 
 
 As honour, loss of time, travail, expense. 
 
 Wounds, friends, and what else dear that is consum'd 
 
 In hot digestion of this cormorant war — 
 
 Shall be struck off.' — Hector, what say you to 't ? 
 
 Hecto7'. Though no man lesser fears the Greeks than I 
 As far as toucheth my particular, 
 
 Yet, dread Priam, 10 
 
 There is no lady of more softer bowels. 
 More spongy to suck in the sense of fear. 
 More ready to cry out ' Who knows what follows ? ' 
 Than Hector is. The wound of peace is surety, 
 Surety secure ; but modest doubt is call'd 
 The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches 
 To the bottom of the worst. Let Helen go. 
 Since the first sword was drawn about this question, 
 Every tithe soul, 'mongst many thousand dismes, 
 Hath been as dear as Helen, — I mean, of ours. 20 
 
 If we have lost so many tenths of ours. 
 To guard a thing not ours, nor worth to us, 
 Had it our name, the value of one ten. 
 What merit 's in that reason which denies 
 The yielding of her up ? 
 
 Troilus. Fie, fie, my brother ! 
 
 Weigh you the worth and honour of a king 
 So great as our dread father in a scale 
 Of common ounces ? will you with counters sum 
 The past-proportion of his infinite. 
 And buckle in a waist most fathomless 30 
 
72 Troilus and Cressida [Act ii 
 
 With spans and inches so diminutive 
 
 As fears and reasons ? fie, for godly shame ! 
 
 Helenus. No marvel, though you bite so sharp at 
 reasons, 
 You are so empty of them. Should not our father 
 Bear the great sway of his affairs with reasons, 
 Because your speech hath none that tells him so ? 
 
 Ti^oilus. You are for dreams and slumbers, brother 
 priest ; 
 You fur your gloves with reason. Here are your 
 
 reasons : 
 You know an enemy intends you harm, 
 You know^ a sword employ'd is perilous, ' 40 
 
 And reason flies the object of all harm. 
 Who marvels then, when Helenus beholds 
 A Grecian and his sword, if he do set 
 The very wings of reason to his heels. 
 And fly like chidden Mercury from Jove, 
 Or like a star disorb'd ? — Nay, if we talk of reason. 
 Let 's shut our gates and sleep. Manhood and honour 
 Should have hare hearts, would they but fat their 
 
 thoughts 
 With this cramm'd reason ; reason and respect 
 Make livers pale and lustihood deject. 50 
 
 Hector. Brother, she is not worth what she doth cost 
 The holding. 
 
 T7'oilus. What is aught but as 't is valued ? 
 
 Hector. But value dwells not in particular will ; 
 It holds his estimate and dignity 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida 73 
 
 As well wherein 't is precious of itself 
 
 As in the prizer. 'T is mad idolatry 
 
 To make the service greater than the god ; 
 
 And the will dotes that is attributive 
 
 To what infectiously itself affects, 
 
 Without some image of the affected merit. 60 
 
 Troilus. I take to-day a wife, and my election 
 Is led on in the conduct of my will ; 
 My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears. 
 Two traded pilots 'twixt the dangerous shores 
 Of will and judgment. How may I avoid, 
 Although my will distaste what it elected, 
 The wife I chose ? there can be no evasion 
 To blench from this, and to stand firm by honour. 
 We turn not back the silks upon the merchant 
 When we have soil'd them, nor the remainder viands 
 We do not throw in unrespective sieve 71 
 
 Because we now are full. It was thought meet 
 Paris should do some vengeance on the Greeks. 
 Your breath of full consent bellied his sails ; 
 The seas and winds, old wranglers, took a truce 
 And did him service ; he touch 'd the ports desir'd, 
 And for an old aunt whom the Greeks held captive 
 He brought a Grecian queen, whose youth and fresh- 
 ness 
 Wrinkles Apollo's, and makes stale the morning. 
 Why keep we her ? the Grecians keep our aunt. 80 
 
 Is she worth keeping ? why, she is a pearl. 
 Whose price hath launch 'd above a thousand ships 
 
74 Troilus and Cressida [Act ii 
 
 And turn'd crown'd kings to merchants. 
 
 If you '11 avouch 't was wisdom Paris went — 
 
 As you must needs, for you all cried ' Go, go,' — 
 
 If you '11 confess he brought home noble prize — 
 
 As you must needs, for you all clapp'd your hands 
 
 And cried ' inestimable ! ' — why do you now 
 
 The issue of your proper wisdoms rate, 
 
 And do a deed that fortune never did, — 90 
 
 Beggar the estimation which you priz'd 
 
 Richer than sea and land ? O, theft most base. 
 
 That we have stolen what we do fear to keep 1 
 
 But, thieves, unworthy of a thing so stolen, 
 
 That in their country did them that disgrace 
 
 We fear to warrant in our native place ! 
 
 Cassandra. [ Withiii^ Cry, Trojans, cry ! 
 
 Priaj7i. What noise ? what shriek is this ? 
 
 Troilus. 'T is our mad sister, I do know her voice. 
 
 Cassandra. [ Within'\ Cry, Trojans ! 
 
 Hector. It is Cassandra. 100 
 
 Enter Cassandra, raving 
 
 Cassandra. Cry, Trojans, cry ! lend me ten thou- 
 sand eyes. 
 And I will fill them with prophetic tears. 
 Hector. Peace, sister, peace ! 
 
 Cassandra. Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled 
 eld. 
 Soft infancy, that nothing canst but cry. 
 Add to my clamours ! let us pay betimes 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida 75 
 
 A moiety of that mass of moan to come. 
 
 Cry, Trojans, cry ! practise your eyes with tears ! 
 
 Troy must not be, nor goodly I lion stand ; 
 
 Our firebrand brother, Paris, burns us all. no 
 
 Cry, Trojans, cry ! a Helen and a woe ! 
 
 Cry, cry ! Troy burns, or else let Helen go. \Exit. 
 
 Hector, Now, youthful Troilus, do not these high 
 strains 
 Of divination in our sister work 
 Some touches of remorse ? or is your blood 
 So madly hot that no discourse of reason. 
 Nor fear of bad success in a bad cause, 
 Can qualify the same ? 
 
 Troilus. Why, brother Hector, 
 
 We may not think the justness of each act 
 Such and no other than event doth form it, 120 
 
 Nor once deject the courage of our minds 
 Because Cassandra 's mad ; her brain-sick raptures 
 Cannot distaste the goodness of a quarrel 
 Which hath our several honours all engag'd 
 To make it gracious. For my private part, 
 I am no more touch 'd than all Priam's sons ; 
 And Jove forbid there should be done amongst us 
 Such things as might offend the weakest spleen 
 To fight for and maintain ! 
 
 Paris. Else might the world convince of levity 130 
 As well my undertakings as your counsels ; 
 But I attest the gods, your full consent 
 Gave wings to my propension and cut off 
 
76 Troilus and Cressida [Act il 
 
 All fears attending on so dire a project. 
 
 For what, alas, can these my single arms ? 
 
 What propugnation is in one man's valour, 
 
 To stand the push and enmity of those 
 
 This quarrel would excite ? Yet, I protest, 
 
 Were I alone to pass the difficulties. 
 
 And had as ample power as I have will, 140 
 
 Paris should ne'er retract what he hath done 
 
 Nor faint in the pursuit. 
 
 Priam. Paris, you speak 
 
 Like one besotted on your sweet delights. 
 You have the honey still, but these the gall ; 
 So to be valiant is no praise at all. 
 
 Paris. Sir, I propose not merely to myself 
 The pleasures such a beauty brings with it ; 
 But I would have the soil of her fair rape 
 Wip'd off in honourable keeping her. 
 What treason were it to the ransack'd queen, 150 
 
 Disgrace to your great w^orths and shame to me, 
 Now to deliver her possession up 
 On terms of base compulsion ! Can it be 
 That so degenerate a strain as this 
 Should once set footing in your generous bosoms? 
 There 's not the meanest spirit on our party 
 Without a heart to dare or sword to draw 
 When Helen is defended, nor none so noble 
 Whose life were ill bestow'd or death unfam'd 
 Where Helen is the subject ; then, I say, 160 
 
 Well may we fight for her whom, we know well, 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida 77 
 
 The world's large spaces cannot parallel. 
 
 Hector. Paris and Troilus, you have both said well, 
 And on the cause and question now in hand 
 Have gloz'd, but superficially ; not much 
 Unlike young men, whom Aristotle thought 
 Unfit to hear moral philosophy. 
 The reasons you allege do more conduce 
 To the hot passion of distemper'd blood 
 Than to make up a free determination 170 
 
 'Twixt right and wrong ; for pleasure and revenge 
 Have ears more deaf than adders to the voice 
 Of any true decision. Nature craves 
 All dues be render'd to their owners ; now, 
 What nearer debt in all humanity 
 Than wife is to the husband ? If this law 
 Of nature be corrupted through affection, 
 And that great minds, of partial indulgence 
 To their benumbed wills, resist the same, 
 There is a law in each well-order'd nation 180 
 
 To curb those raging appetites that are 
 Most disobedient and refractory. 
 If Helen then be wife to Sparta's king, 
 As it is known she is, these moral laws 
 Of nature and of nations speak aloud 
 To have her back return 'd ; thus to persist 
 In doing wrong extenuates not wrong, 
 But makes it much more heavy. Hector's opinion 
 Is this in way of truth ; yet ne'ertheless, 
 My spritely brethren, I propend to you 190 
 
78 Troilus and Cressida [Act 11 
 
 In resolution to keep Helen still, 
 
 For 't is a cause that hath no mean dependence 
 
 Upon our joint and several dignities. 
 
 Troilus. Why, there you touch 'd the life of our 
 design. 
 Were it not glory that we more affected 
 Than the performance of our heaving spleens, 
 I would not wish a drop of Trojan blood 
 Spent more in her defence. But, worthy Hector, 
 She is a theme of honour and renown, 
 A spur to valiant and magnanimous deeds, 200 
 
 Whose present courage may beat down our foes, 
 And fame in time to come canonize us ; 
 For, I presume, brave Hector would not lose 
 So rich advantage of a promis'd glory 
 As smiles upon the forehead of this action 
 For the wide world's revenue. 
 
 Hector. I am yours, 
 
 You valiant offspring of great Priamus. — 
 I have a roisting challenge sent amongst 
 The dull and factious nobles of the Greeks 
 Will strike amazement to their drowsy spirits. 210 
 
 I was advertis'd their great general slept, 
 Whilst emulation in the army crept ; 
 This, I presume, will wake him. [Exeunt. 
 
Scene III] . Troilus and Cressida 79 
 
 Scene III. The Grecian Camp. Before Achilles' Tent 
 
 Enter Thersites, solus 
 
 Thersites. How now, Thersites ! what, lost in the 
 labyrinth of thy fury ! Shall the elephant Ajax carry 
 it thus ? He beats me, and I rail at him. O, worthy 
 satisfaction ! would it were otherwise ; that I could 
 beat him, whilst he railed at me. 'Sfoot, I '11 learn 
 to conjure and raise devils but I '11 see some issue 
 of my spiteful execrations. Then -there 's Achilles, 
 a rare enginer ! If Troy be not taken till these two 
 undermine it, the walls will stand till they fall of 
 themselves. — O thou great thunder-darter of Olym- 
 pus, forget that thou art Jove, the king of gods, and, 
 Mercury, lose all the serpentine craft of thy cadu- 
 ceus, if ye take not that little, little, less than little 
 wit from them that they have ! which short-armed 
 ignorance itself knows is so abundant scarce it will 
 not in circumvention deliver a fly from a spider, 
 without drawing their massy irons and cutting the 
 web. After this, the vengeance on the whole camp ! 
 or, rather, the bone-ache ! for that, methinks, is the 
 curse dependent on those that war for a placket. I 
 have said my prayers, and devil Envy say Amen ! — 
 What ho ! my Lord Achilles ! 22 
 
 Enter Patroclus 
 
 Patroclus. Who 's there ? Thersites ! Good Ther- 
 sites, come in and rail. 
 
8o Troilus and Cressida [Act II 
 
 Thersites. If I could have remembered a gilt coun- 
 terfeit, thou wouldst not have slipped out of my con- 
 templation, but it is no matter ; thyself upon thyself ! 
 The common curse of mankind, folly and ignorance, 
 be thine in great revenue ! heaven bless thee from a 
 tutor, and discipline come not near thee ! Let thy 
 blood be thy direction till thy death ! then if she 
 that lays thee out says thou art a fair corse, I '11 
 be sworn and sworn upon 't she never shrouded 
 any but lazars. Amen. — Where 's Achilles ? 34 
 
 Patroclus. What, art thou devout? wast thou in 
 prayer ? 
 
 Thersites. Ay ; the heavens hear me ! 
 
 Enter Achilles 
 
 Achilles. Who 's there ? 
 
 Patroclus. Thersites, my lord. 
 
 Achilles. Where, where ? — Art thou come ? why, 
 my cheese, my digestion, why hast thou not served 
 thyself in to my table so many meals ? Come, what 's 
 Agamemnon ? 
 
 Thersites. Thy commander, Achilles. — Then tell 
 me, Patroclus, what 's Achilles ? 
 
 Patroclus. Thy lord, Thersites. Then tell me, I 
 pray thee, what 's thyself ? 
 
 Thersites. Thy knower, Patroclus. Then tell me, 
 Patroclus, what art thou ? 
 
 Patroclus. Thou mayst tell that knowest. 50 
 
 Achilles. O, tell, tell ! 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida 8i 
 
 Thersites. I '11 decline the whole question. Aga- 
 memnon commands Achilles ; Achilles is my lord ; 
 I am Patroclus' knower, and Patroclus is a fool. 
 
 Fatroclus. You rascal ! 
 
 Thersites. Peace, fool ! I have not done. 
 
 Achilles. He is a privileged man. — Proceed, 
 Thersites. 
 
 Thersites. Agamemnon is a fool ; Achilles is a 
 fool ; Thersites is a fool ; and, as aforesaid, Patro- 
 clus is a fool. 6i 
 
 Achilles. Derive this ; come. 
 
 Thersites. Agamemnon is a fool to offer to com- 
 mand Achilles ; Achilles is a fool to be commanded 
 of Agamemnon ; Thersites is a fool to serve such a 
 fool ; and Patroclus is a fool positive. 
 
 Patroclus. Why am I a fool ? 
 
 Thersites. Make that demand of the prover. It 
 suffices me thou art. Look you, who comes here ? 69 
 
 Achilles. Patroclus, I '11 speak with nobody. — 
 Come in with me, Thersites. \Exit. 
 
 Thersites. Here is such patchery, such juggling, 
 and such knavery ! all the argument is a cuckold and 
 a whore ; a good quarrel to draw emulous factions 
 and bleed to death upon ! Now, the dry serpigo on 
 the subject ! and war and lechery confound all ! \Exit. 
 
 Enter Agamemnon, Ulysses, Nestor, Diomedes, and 
 
 AjAX 
 
 Agamemnon. Where is Achilles ? 
 
 TROILUS — 6 
 
82 Troilus and Cressida [Act ii 
 
 Patroclus. Within his tent, but ill dispos'd, my 
 lord. 78 
 
 Agamemnon. L.et it be known to him that we are here. 
 He shent our messengers ; and we lay by 
 Our appertainments, visiting of him. 
 Let him be told so, lest perchance he think 
 We dare not move the question of our place, 
 Or know not what we are. 
 
 Patroclus. I shall say so to him. \Exit. 
 
 Ulysses. We saw him at the opening of his tent ; 
 He is not sick. 
 
 Ajax. Yes, lion-sick, sick of proud heart. You 
 may call it melancholy if you will favour the man, 
 but, by my head, 't is pride ; but why, why ? let him 
 show us the cause. — A word, my lord. 90 
 
 yTakes Agamemnon aside. 
 
 Nestor. What moves Ajax thus to bay at him ? 
 
 Ulysses. Achilles hath inveigled his fool from him. 
 
 Nestor. Who, Thersites ? 
 
 Ulysses. He. 
 
 Nestor. Then will Ajax lack matter, if he have 
 lost his argument. 
 
 Ulysses. No, you see, he is his argument that has 
 his argument, Achilles. 
 
 Nestor. All the better ; their fraction is more our 
 wish than their faction, but it was a strong com- 
 posure a fool could disunite. loi 
 
 Ulysses. The amity that wisdom knits not, folly 
 may easily untie. Here comes Patroclus. 
 
Scene iiij Troilus and Cressida 83 
 
 Re-enter Patroclus 
 
 Nestor. No Achilles with him. 
 
 Ulysses. The elephant hath joints, but none for 
 courtesy ; his legs are legs for necessity, not for 
 flexure. 107 
 
 Patroclus. Achilles bids me say he is much sorry 
 If any thing more than your sport and pleasure 
 Did move your greatness and this noble state 
 To call upon him ; he hopes it is no other 
 But for your health and your digestion sake, — 
 An after-dinner's breath. 
 
 Agamemnon. Hear you, Patroclus : 
 
 We are too well acquainted with these answers ; 
 But his evasion, wing'd thus swift with scorn, 
 Cannot outfly our apprehensions. 
 Much attribute he hath, and much the reason 
 Why we ascribe it to him ; yet all his virtues, 
 Not virtuously on his own part beheld. 
 Do in our eyes begin to lose their gloss, 120 
 
 Yea, like fair fruit in an unwholesome dish, 
 Are like to rot untasted. Go and tell him 
 We come to speak with him ; and you shall not sin 
 If you do say we think him over-proud 
 And under-honest, in self-assumption greater 
 Than in the note of judgment ; and worthier than him- 
 self 
 Here tend the savage strangeness he puts on, 
 Disguise the holy strength of their command, 
 
84 Troilus and Cressida [Act 11 
 
 And underwrite in an observing kind 
 
 His humorous predominance, yea, watch 130 
 
 His pettish lunes, his ebbs, his flows, as if 
 
 The passage and whole carriage of this action 
 
 Rode on his tide. Go tell him this, and add 
 
 That, if he overbold his price so much. 
 
 We '11 none of him, but let him, like an engine 
 
 Not portable, lie under this report, — 
 
 ' Bring action hither, this cannot go to war. 
 
 A stirring dwarf we do allowance give 
 
 Before a sleeping giant.' Tell him so. 139 
 
 Patroclus. I shall, and bring his answer presently. 
 
 S^Exit. 
 
 Agamemnon. In second voice we '11 not be satisfied ; 
 We come to speak with him. — Ulysses, enter you. 
 
 \Exit Ulysses. 
 
 Ajax. What is he more than another ? 
 
 Agamemnon. No more than what he thinks he is. 
 
 Ajax. Is he so much ? Do you not think he 
 thinks himself a better man than I am. 
 
 Agamemnon. No question. 
 
 Ajax. Will you subscribe his thought, and say 
 he is ? 149 
 
 Agamemnon. No, noble Ajax ; you are as strong, 
 as valiant, as wise, no less noble, much more gentle, 
 and altogether more tractable. 
 
 Ajax. Why should a man be proud ? How doth 
 pride grow ? I know not what pride is. 
 
 Agamemnon. Your mind is the clearer, Ajax, and 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida 85 
 
 your virtues the fairer. He that is proud eats up 
 himself ; pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his 
 own chronicle, and whatever praises itself but in the 
 deed devours the deed in the praise. 159 
 
 Ajax. I do hate a proud man as I hate the engen- 
 dering of toads. 
 
 Nestor. [Aside] Yet he loves himself ; is 't not 
 strange ? 
 
 Re-enter Ulysses 
 
 Ulysses. Achilles will not to the field to-morrow. 
 
 Agamemnon. What 's his excuse ? 
 
 Ulysses. He doth rely on none, 
 
 But carries on the stream of his dispose 
 Without observance or respect of any. 
 In will peculiar and in self-admission. 
 
 Agamemnon. Why will he not, upon our fair request, 
 Untent his person and share the air with us ? 170 
 
 Ulysses. Things small as nothing, for request's sake 
 only. 
 He makes important. Possess 'd he is with greatness, 
 And speaks not to himself but with a pride 
 That quarrels at self-breath ; imagin'd worth 
 Holds in his blood such swoln and hot discourse 
 That 'twixt his mental and his active parts 
 Kingdom 'd Achilles in commotion rages 
 And batters down himself. What should I say ? 
 He is so plaguy proud that the death-tokens of it 
 Cry 'No recovery,' 
 
86 Troilus and Cressida [Act ii 
 
 Agamemnon. Let Ajax go to him. — i8o 
 
 Dear lord, go you and greet him in his tent ; 
 'T is said he holds you well, and will be led 
 At your request a little from himself. 
 
 Ulysses. O Agamemnon, let it not be so ! 
 We 'II consecrate the steps that Ajax makes 
 When they go from Achilles. Shall the proud lord 
 That bastes his arrogance with his own seam, 
 And never suffers matter of the world 
 Enter his thoughts, save such as do revolve 
 And ruminate himself, shall he be worshipp'd 190 
 
 Of that we hold an idol more than he ? 
 No, this thrice worthy and right valiant lord 
 Must not so stale his palm, nobly acquir'd. 
 Nor, by my will, assubjugate his merit. 
 As amply titled as Achilles is. 
 By going to Achilles. 
 That were to enlard his fat-already pride, 
 And add more coals to Cancer when he burns 
 With entertaining great Hyperion. — 
 This lord go to him ! Jupiter forbid, 200 
 
 And say in thunder ' Achilles go to him ! ' 
 
 Nestor. \Aside to Diomedes'\ O, this is w^ell ; he rubs 
 the vein of him. 
 
 Diomedes. [Aside to Nesto?-] And how his silence 
 drinks up this applause ! 
 
 Ajax. If I go to him, with my armed fist 
 I '11 pash him o'er the face. 
 
 Agamemnon. O, no, you shall not go! 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida 87 
 
 Ajax. An a' be proud with me, I '11 pheeze his pride. 
 Let me go to him. 
 
 Ulysses. Not for the worth that hangs upon our 
 quarrel. 
 
 Ajax. A paltry, insolent fellow ! 210 
 
 Nestor. ^Aside] How he describes himself ! 
 
 Ajax. Can he not be sociable ? 
 
 Ulysses. \_Aside'\ The raven chides blackness. 
 
 Ajax. I '11 let his humours blood. 
 
 Agamemnon. ]^Aside'\ He will be the physician 
 that should be the patient. 
 
 Ajax. An all men were o' my mind, — 
 
 Ulysses. \_Aside'] Wit would be out of fashion. 
 
 Ajax. A' should not bear it so, a' should eat 
 swords first. Shall pride carry it ? 220 
 
 Nestor. [Aside'] An 't would, you 'd carry half. 
 
 Ulysses. [Aside] A' would have ten shares. 
 
 Ajax. I will knead him ; I '11 make him supple. 
 
 Nestor. [Aside] He 's not yet through warm ; force 
 him with praises. Pour in, pour in ; his ambition is 
 dry. 
 
 Ulysses. [To Agamemnon] My lord, you feed too 
 much on this dislike. 
 
 Nestor. Our noble general, do not do so. 
 
 Diomedes. You must prepare to fight without 
 
 Achilles. 
 Ulysses. Why, 'tis this naming of him does him 
 harm. 
 Here is a man — but 't is before his face ; 230 
 
88 Troilus and Cressida [Act ii 
 
 I will be silent. 
 
 Nestor. Wherefore should you so ? 
 
 He is not emulous, as Achilles is. 
 
 Ulysses. Know the whole world, he is as valiant. 
 
 Ajax. A whoreson dog, that shall palter thus with 
 us ! Would he were a Trojan ! 
 
 Nestor. What a vice were it in Ajax now, — 
 
 Ulysses. If he were proud, — 
 
 Diomedes. Or covetous of praise, — 
 
 Ulysses. Ay, or surly borne, — 240 
 
 Diomedes. Or strange, or self-affected ! 
 
 Ulysses. Thank the heavens, lord, thou art of sweet 
 composure ; 
 Praise him that got thee, she that gave thee suck, 
 Fam'd be thy tutor, and thy parts of nature 
 Thrice fam'd, beyond all erudition ; 
 But he that disciplin'd thy arms to fight. 
 Let Mars divide eternity in twain 
 And give him half, and, for thy vigour. 
 Bull-bearing Milo his addition yield 
 To sinewy Ajax. I will not praise thy wisdom, 250 
 
 Which, like a bourn, a pale, a shore, confines 
 Thy spacious and dilated parts. Here 's Nestor, — 
 Instructed by the antiquary times, 
 He must, he is, he cannot but be wise ; — 
 But pardon, father Nestor, were your days 
 As green as Ajax' and your brain so temper'd, 
 You should not have the eminence of him, 
 But be as Ajax. 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida 89 
 
 Ajax. Shall I call you father ? 
 
 Nestor. Ay, my good son. 
 
 Diomedes. Be rul'd by him, Lord Ajax. 
 
 Ulysses. There is no tarrying here ; the hart 
 Achilles " 260 
 
 Keeps thicket. Please it our great general 
 To call together all his state of war. 
 Fresh kings are come to Troy ; to-morrow 
 We must with all our main of power stand fast ; 
 And here 's a lord, — come knights from east to west, 
 And cull their flower, Ajax shall cope the best. 
 
 Agamemnon. Go we to council. Let Achilles sleep ; 
 Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks draw deep. 
 
 \_Exetint. 
 
Helen unarming Hector 
 
 ACT III 
 
 Scene I. Ti^oy. Pi-iani's Palace 
 
 Enter a Servant and Pandarus 
 
 Pandarus, Friend, you ! pray you, a word : do 
 not you follow the young Lord Paris ? 
 
 Servant. Ay, sir, when he goes before me. 
 
 90 
 
Scene I] Troilus and Cressida 91 
 
 Pandai'us. You depend upon him, I mean ? 
 
 Servant. Sir, I do depend upon the lord. 
 
 Pandarus. You depend upon a noble gentleman ; 
 I must needs praise him. 
 
 Servant. The Lord be praised ! 
 
 Pandarus. You know me, do you not? 
 
 Servant. P'aith, sir, superficially. 10 
 
 Pandarics. Friend, know me better ; I am the 
 Lord Pandarus. 
 
 Servant. I hope I shall know your honour better. 
 
 Pandarus. I do desire it. 
 
 Servant. You are in the state of grace. 
 
 Pandarus. Grace ! not so, friend ; honour and 
 lordship are my titles. — \Music lijithin^ What 
 music is this ? 
 
 Servant. I do but partly know, sir ; it is music in 
 parts. 20 
 
 Pandarus. Know you the musicians ? 
 
 Servant. Wholly, sir. 
 
 Pandarus. Who play they to ? 
 
 Servant. To the hearers, sir. 
 
 Pandarus. At whose pleasure, friend ? 
 
 Servant. At mine, sir, and theirs that love music. 
 
 Pandarus. Command, I mean, friend. 
 
 Servant. Who shall I command, sir ? 
 
 Pandarus. Friend, we understand not one an- 
 other ; I am too courtly, and thou art too cunning. 
 At whose request do these men play ? 31 
 
 Servant. That 's to 't indeed, sir. Marry, sir, at 
 
92 Troilus and Cressida [Act ill 
 
 the request of Paris my lord, who 's there in person ; 
 with him, the mortal Venus, the heart-blood of 
 beauty, love's invisible soul, — 
 
 Pandarus. Who, my cousin Cressida ? 
 
 Servant. No, sir, Helen ; could you not find out 
 that by her attributes ? 
 
 Pandarus. It should seem, fellow, that thou hast 
 not seen the Lady Cressida. I come to speak with 
 Paris from the Prince Troilus. I will make a com- 
 plimental assault upon him, for my business seethes. 
 
 Servant. Sodden business ! there 's a stewed phrase 
 indeed ! 44 
 
 Enter Paris afid Helen, attended 
 
 Pa7idarus. Fair be to you, my lord, and to all this 
 fair company ! fair desires, in all fair measure, fairly 
 guide them ! — especially to you, fair queen ! fair 
 thoughts be your fair pillow ! 
 
 Helen. Dear lord, you are full of fair words. 
 
 Pandarus. You speak your fair pleasure, sweet 
 queen. — Fair prince, here is good broken music. 51 
 
 Paris. You have broke it, cousin, and, by my life, 
 you shall make it whole again ; you shall piece it out 
 with a piece of your performance. — Nell, he is full 
 of harmony. 
 
 Pandarus. Truly, lady, no. 
 
 Helen. O, sir, — 
 
 Pandarus. Rude, in sooth ; in good sooth, very 
 rude. 59 
 
Scene I] Troilus and Cressida 93 
 
 Paris. Well said, my lord ! well, you say so in fits. 
 
 Pandarus. I have business to my lord, dear queen. 
 — My lord, will you vouchsafe me a word ? 
 
 Helen. Nay, this shall not hedge us out ; we '11 
 hear you sing, certainly. 
 
 Pandarus. Well, sweet queen, you are pleasant 
 wdth me. — But, marry, thus, my lord : my dear lord 
 and most esteemed friend, your brother Troilus, — 
 
 Helen. My Lord Pandarus ; honey-sweet lord, — 
 
 Pandarus. Go to, sweet queen, go to ; — commends 
 himself most affectionately to you, — 70 
 
 Helen. You shall not bob us out of our melody ; 
 if you do, our melancholy upon your head ! 
 
 Pandarus. Sweet queen, sweet queen ! that 's a 
 sweet queen, i' faith. 
 
 Helen. And to make a sweet lady sad is a sour 
 offence. 
 
 Panda7'us. Nay, that shall not serve your turn ; 
 that shall it not, in truth, la. Nay, I care not for 
 such words ; no, no! — And, my lord, he desires you, 
 that if the king call for him at supper, you will 
 make his excuse. 81 
 
 Helen. My Lord Pandarus, — 
 
 Pandarus. What says my sweet queen, my very 
 very sweet queen ? 
 
 Paris. What exploit 's in hand ? where sups he 
 to-night ? 
 
 Helen. Nay, but, my lord, — 
 
 Pandarus. What says my sweet queen ? — My 
 
94 Troilus and Cressida [Act iii 
 
 cousin will fall out with you. You must not know 
 where he sups. 90 
 
 Paris. I '11 lay my life, with my disposer Cressida. 
 
 Pandarus. No, no, no such matter, you are wide ; 
 come, your disposer is sick. 
 
 Paris. Well, I '11 make excuse. 
 
 Pandarus. Ay, good my lord. Why should you 
 say Cressida ? no, your poor disposer 's sick. 
 
 Paris. I spy. 
 
 Pandarus. You spy ! what do you spy ? — Come, 
 give me an instrument, — Now, sweet queen. 
 
 Helen. Why, this is kindly done. 100 
 
 Pandai'us. My niece is horribly in love with a 
 thing you have, sweet queen. 
 
 Helen. She shall have it, my lord, if it be not my 
 Lord Paris. 
 
 Pandaj'us. He ! no, she '11 none of him ; they two 
 are twain. 
 
 Helen. Falling in, after falling out, may make 
 them three. 
 
 Pandarus. Come, come, I '11 hear no more of this ; 
 I '11 sing you a song now. no 
 
 Helen. Ay, ay, prithee now. By my troth, sweet 
 lord, thou hast a fine forehead. 
 
 Pandarus. Ay, you may, you may. 
 
 Helen. Let thy song be love ; this love will undo 
 us all. — O Cupid, Cupid, Cupid ! 
 
 Pandarus. Love ! ay, that it shall, i' faith. 
 
 Paris. Ay, good now, love, love, nothing but love. 
 
Scene I] Troilus and Cressida 95 
 
 Pandarus. In good troth, it begins so. 
 [Sings.] Love, love, nothing but love, still more I 
 
 For, O, lovers bow 120 
 
 Shoots buck and doe ! 
 The shaft confounds^ 
 Not that it wounds, 
 But tickles still the sore. 
 These lovers C7j Oh ! oh ! they die ! 
 
 Yet that which seems the wound to kill, 
 Doth turn oh ! oh ! to ha ! ha ! he ! 
 
 So dying love lives still. 
 Oh ! oh / a while, but ha ! ha ! ha ! 
 Oh ! oh ! groans out for ha ! ha I ha ! 130 
 Heigh-ho ! 
 
 Helen. In love, i' faith, to the very tip of the nose. 
 
 Paris. He eats nothing but doves, love, and that 
 
 breeds hot blood, and hot blood begets hot thoughts, 
 
 and hot thoughts beget hot deeds, and hot deeds is 
 
 love. 
 
 Pandarus. Is this the generation of love ? hot 
 blood, hot thoughts, and hot deeds ? Why, they are 
 vipers ; is love a generation of vipers ? Sweet lord, 
 who 's a-field to-day ? 14° 
 
 Paris. Hector, Deiphobus, Helenus, Antenor, and 
 all the gallantry of Troy. I would fain have armed 
 to-day, but my Nell would not have it so. How 
 chance my brother Troilus went not ? 
 
 Helen. He hangs the lip at something. — You 
 know all. Lord Pandarus. 
 
96 Troilus and Cressida [Act ill 
 
 Pandarus. Not I, honey-sweet queen. 1 long to 
 hear how they sped to-day. — You '11 remember your 
 brother's excuse ? 
 
 Paris. To a hair. 150 
 
 Pandarus. Farewell, sweet queen. 
 
 Helen. Commend me to your niece. 
 
 Pandarus. I will, sweet queen. \Exit. 
 
 \A retreat sounded. 
 
 Paris. They 're come from field ; let us to Priam's 
 hall, 
 To greet the warriors. Sweet Helen, I must woo you 
 To help unarm our Hector. His stubborn buckles, 
 With these your white enchanting fingers touch'd, 
 Shall more obey than to the edge of steel 
 Or force of Greekish sinews ; you shall do more 
 Than all the island kings, — disarm great Hector. 160 
 
 Helen. 'T will make us proud to be his servant, 
 Paris ; 
 Yea, what he shall receive of us in duty 
 Gives us more palm in beauty than we have, 
 Yea, overshines ourself. 
 
 Paris. Sweet, above thought I love thee. {Exeunt. 
 
 Scene II. The Same. Pandarus' s Orchard 
 
 Enter Pandarus and Troilus 's Boy, meeting 
 
 Pandarus. How now ! where 's thy master ? at my 
 cousin Cressida's ? 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida 97 
 
 Boy. No, sir ; he stays for you to conduct him 
 
 thither. 
 Pandarus. O, here he comes. — 
 
 Enter Troilus 
 
 How now, how now ! 
 
 Troilus. Sirrah, walk off. \_Extt Boy. 
 
 Pandai'us. Have you seen my cousin ? 
 
 Troilus. No, Pandarus ; I stalk about her door, 
 Like a strange soul upon the Stygian banks 
 Staying for waftage. O, be thou my Charon, 10 
 
 And give me swift transportance to those fields 
 Where I may wallow in the lily-beds 
 Propos'd for the deserver ! O gentle Pandarus, 
 From Cupid's shoulder pluck his painted wings. 
 And fly with me to Cressid ! 
 
 Pandarus. Walk here i' the orchard, I '11 bring her 
 straight. [^Exit. 
 
 Troilus. I am giddy ; expectation whirls me round. 
 The imaginary relish is so sweet 
 That it enchants my sense ; what will it be 
 When that the watery palate tastes indeed 20 
 
 Love's thrice repured nectar ? death, I fear me. 
 Swooning destruction, or some joy too fine. 
 Too subtle-potent, tun'd too sharp in sweetness, 
 For the capacity of my ruder powers. 
 I fear it much ; and I do fear besides 
 That I shall lose distinction in my joys, 
 
 TROILUS — 7 
 
98 Troilus and Cressida [Act ill 
 
 As doth a battle when they charge on heaps 
 
 The enemy flying. 28 
 
 Re-enter Pandarus 
 
 Pandarus. She 's making her ready, she '11 come 
 straight ; you must be witty now. She does so blush, 
 and fetches her wind so short, as if she were frayed 
 with a sprite. I '11 fetch her. It is the prettiest 
 villain ; she fetches her breath as short as a new- 
 ta'en sparrow. \Exit. 
 
 Troihcs. Even such a passion doth embrace my 
 bosom ; 
 My heart beats thicker than a feverous pulse, 
 And all my powers do their bestowing lose. 
 Like vassalage at unawares encountering 
 The eye of majesty. 39 
 
 Re-enter Pandarus with Cressida 
 
 Pandarus. Come, come, what need you blush ? 
 shame 's a baby. — Here she is now ; swear the 
 oaths now to her that you have sworn to me. — 
 What, are you gone again ? you must be watched 
 ere you be made tame, must you ? Come your ways, 
 come your ways ; an you draw backw^ard, we '11 put 
 you i' the fills. — Why do you not speak to her ? — 
 Come, draw this curtain, and let 's see your picture. 
 Alas the, day, how loath you are to offend daylight! 
 an 't were dark, you'd close sooner. So, so ; rub on, 
 and kiss the mistress. How now! a kiss in fee-farm! 
 build there, carpenter ; the air is sweet. Nay, you 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida 99 
 
 shall fight your hearts out ere I part you. The 
 falcon as the tercel, for all the ducks i' the river ; 
 go to, go to. 54 
 
 Troilus. You have bereft me of all words, lady. 
 
 Pandarus. Words pay no debts, give her deeds ; 
 but she '11 bereave you o' the deeds too, if she call 
 your activity in question. What, billing again ? 
 Here 's ' In witness whereof the parties interchange- 
 ably ' — Come in, come in ; I '11 go get a fire. \Exit. 
 
 Cressida. Will you walk in, my lord ? 61 
 
 Troilus. O Cressida, how often have I wished me 
 thus ! 
 
 Cressida. Wished, my lord ! The gods grant, — 
 O my lord ! 
 
 Troilus. What should they grant ? what makes 
 this pretty abruption ? What too curious dreg 
 espies my sweet lady in the fountain of our love ? 
 
 Cressida. More dregs than water, if my fears have 
 eyes. 70 
 
 Troilus. Fears make devils of cherubins ; they 
 never see truly. 
 
 Cj-essida. Blind fear, that seeing reason leads, 
 finds safer footing than blind reason stumbling with- 
 out fear ; to fear the worst oft cures the worse. 
 
 Troilus. O, let my lady apprehend no fear ; in all 
 Cupid's pageant there is presented no monster. 
 
 Cressida. Nor nothing monstrous neither ? 78 
 
 Troilus. Nothing, but our undertakings ; when we 
 vow to weep seas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tigers ; 
 
 I* •■-■ 
 
lOO Troilus and Cressida [Act iii 
 
 thinking it harder for our mistress to devise imposi- 
 tion enough than for us to undergo any difficulty 
 imposed. This is the monstruosity in love, lady, 
 — that the will is infinite and the execution con- 
 fined, that the desire is boundless and the act a 
 slave to limit. 86 
 
 Cressida. They say all lovers swear more perform- 
 ance than they are able and yet reserve an ability 
 that they never perform, vowing more than the per- 
 fection of ten and discharging less than the tenth 
 part of one. They that have the voice of lions and 
 the act of hares, are they not monsters ? 92 
 
 Troilus. Are there such ? such are not we. Praise 
 us as we are tasted, allow us as we prove ; our head 
 shall go bare till merit crown it. No perfection in 
 reversion shall have a praise in present ; we will not 
 name desert before his birth, and, being born, his 
 addition shall be humble. Few words to fair faith ; 
 Troilus shall be such to Cressid as what envy can 
 say worst shall be a mock for his truth, and what 
 truth can speak truest not truer than Troilus. loi 
 
 Cressida. Will you walk in, my lord ? . 
 
 Re-enter Pandarus 
 
 Fandai^us. What, blushing still? have you not 
 done talking yet? 
 
 Cressida. Well, uncle, what folly I commit I dedi- 
 cate to you. 
 
 Pandarus. I thank you for that ; .if my lord get a 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida loi 
 
 boy of you, you '11 give him me. Be true to my lord ; 
 if he flinch, chide me for it. 
 
 Troilus. You know now your hostages ; your 
 uncle's word and my firm faith. m 
 
 Pandarus. Nay, I '11 give my word for her too. 
 Our kindred, though they be long ere they are 
 wooed, they are constant being won. They are burs, 
 I can tell you ; they '11 stick where they are thrown. 
 
 Cressida. Boldness comes to me now, and brings 
 me heart. — 
 Prince Troilus, I have lov'd you night and day 
 For many weary months. 
 
 Troilus. Why was my Cressid then so hard to 
 win ? 
 
 Cressida. Hard to seem won ; but I was won, my 
 lord, 120 
 
 With the first glance that ever — pardon me — 
 If I confess much, you will play the tyrant. 
 I love you now ; but not, till now, so much 
 But I might master it. — In faith, I lie ; 
 My thoughts were like unbridled children, grown 
 Too headstrong for their mother. See, we fools ! 
 Why have I blabb'd ? who shall be true to us 
 When we are so un secret to ourselves ? 
 But, though I lov'd you well, I woo'd you not ; 
 And yet, good faith, I wish'd myself a man, 130 
 
 Or that we women had men's privilege 
 Of speaking first. Sweet, bid me hold my tongue. 
 For in this rapture I shall surely speak 
 
I02 Troilus and Cressida [Act iii 
 
 The thing I shall repent. See, see, your silence, 
 Cunning in dumbness, from my weakness draws 
 My very soul of counsel ! stop my mouth. 
 
 Troilus. And shall, albeit sweet music issues thence. 
 
 Pandarus. Pretty, i' faith. 
 
 Cressida. My lord, I do beseech you, pardon me ; 
 'T was not my purpose thus to beg a kiss. 140 
 
 I am asham'd. — O heavens ! what have I done ? — 
 For this time will I take my leave, my lord. 
 
 Troilus. Your leave, sweet Cressid ! 
 
 Pandarus. Leave ! an you take leave till to-morrow 
 morning, — 
 
 Cressida. Pray you, content you. 
 
 Troilus. What offends you, lady? 
 
 Cressida. Sir, mine own company. 
 
 Troilus. You cannot shun yourself. 
 
 Cressida. Let me go and try. 
 I have a kind of self resides with you, 150' 
 
 But an unkind self that itself will leave 
 To be another's fool. I would be gone. — 
 Where is my wit ? I know not what I speak. 
 
 Troilus. Well know they what they speak that speak 
 so wisely. 
 
 Cressida. Perchance, my lord, I show more craft than 
 love, 
 And fell so roundly to a large confession. 
 To angle for your thoughts, but you are wise. 
 Or else you love not, for to be wise and love 
 Exceeds man's might ; that dwells with gods above. 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida 103 
 
 Troihis. O that I thought it could be in a woman — 
 As, if it can, I will presume in you — 161 
 
 To feed for aye her lamp and flames of love ; 
 To keep her constancy in plight and youth, 
 Outliving beauty's outward, with a mind 
 That doth renew swifter than blood decays ! 
 Or that persuasion could but thus convince me, — 
 That my integrity and truth to you 
 Might be affronted wdth the match and weight 
 Of such a winnow'd purity in love ! 
 How were I then uplifted ! but, alas ! 170 
 
 I am as true as truth's simplicity. 
 And simpler than the infancy of truth. 
 
 Cressida. In that I '11 war with you. 
 
 Troilus. O virtuous light. 
 
 When right with right wars who shall be most right ! 
 True swains in love shall in the world to come 
 Approve their truths by Troilus ; when their rhymes, 
 Full of protest, of oath, and big compare. 
 Want similes, truth tir'd with iteration, — 
 ' As true as steel, as plantage to the moon. 
 As sun to day, as turtle to her mate, 180 
 
 As iron to adamant, as earth to the centre,' — 
 Yet, after all comparisons of truth. 
 As truth's authentic author to be cited, 
 ' As true as Troilus ' shall crown up the verse 
 And sanctify the numbers. 
 
 Cressida. Prophet may you be ! 
 
 If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth. 
 
I04 Troilus and Cressida [Act iii 
 
 When time is old and hath forgot itself, 
 
 When water-drops have worn the stones of Troy, 
 
 And blind oblivion swallow 'd cities up, 
 
 And mighty states characterless are grated 190 
 
 To dusty nothing, yet let memory, 
 
 From false to false, among false maids in love. 
 
 Upbraid my falsehood ! when they 've said ' as false 
 
 As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth, 
 
 As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf, 
 
 Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son,' 
 
 ' Yea,' let them say. to stick the heart of falsehood, 
 
 ' As false as Cressid.' 198 
 
 Pandarus. Go to, a bargain made ! seal it, seal it ; 
 I '11 be the witness. Here I hold your hand, here 
 my cousin's. If ever you prove false one to another, 
 since I have taken such pains to bring you together, 
 let all pitiful goers-between be called to the world's 
 end after my name, call them all Pandars ; let all 
 constant men be Troiluses, all false women Cressids, 
 and all brokers-between Pandars ! Say, amen. 
 
 Troilus. Amen. 
 
 Cressida. Amen. 208 
 
 Pandarus. Amen. Whereupon I will show you a 
 chamber with a bed, which bed, because it shall not 
 speak of your pretty encounters, press it to death ; 
 away ! 
 
 And Cupid grant all tongue-tied maidens here 
 Bed, chamber, Pandar to provide this gear ! [Exetmt. 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida 105 
 
 Scene III. The Grecian Camp 
 
 Enter Agamemnon, Ulysses, Diomedes, Nestor, 
 AjAX, Menelaus, and Calchas 
 
 Calchas. Now, princes, for the service I have done 
 
 you, 
 The advantage of the time prompts me aloud 
 To call for recompense. Appear it to your mind 
 That, through the sight I bear in things to love, 
 I have abandon 'd Troy, left my possession, 
 Incurr'd a traitor's name ; expos 'd myself, 
 From certain and possess 'd conveniences, 
 To doubtful fortunes ; sequestering from me all 
 That time, acquaintance, custom, and condition 
 Made tame and most famihar to my nature, 10 
 
 And here, to do you service, am become 
 As new into the world, strange, unacquainted ; 
 I do beseech you, as in way of taste, 
 To give me now a little benefit. 
 Out of those many register'd in promise 
 Which, you say, live to come in my behalf. 
 
 Agamemnon. What wouldst thou of us, Trojan ? 
 
 make demand. 
 Calchas. You have a Trojan prisoner, call'd Antenor, 
 Yesterday took ; Troy holds him very dear. 
 Oft have you — often have you thanks therefore — 20 
 Desir'd my Cressid in right great exchange, 
 Whom Troy hath still denied ; but this Antenor, 
 
io6 Troilus and Cressida [Act in 
 
 I know, is such a wrest in their affairs 
 That their negotiations all must slack, 
 Wanting his manage, and they will almost 
 Give us a prince of blood, a son of -Priam, 
 In change of him. Let him be sent, great princes, 
 And he shall buy my daughter ; and her presence 
 Shall quite strike off all service I have done, 
 In most accepted pain. 
 
 Agamemnon. Let Diomedes bear him, 30 
 
 And bring us Cressid hither ; Calchas shall have 
 What he requests of us. — Good Diomed, 
 Furnish you fairly for this interchange. 
 Withal bring word if Hector will to-morrow 
 Be answer'd in his challenge ; Ajax is ready. 
 
 Diomedes. This shall I undertake ; and 't is a burden 
 Which I am proud to bear. 
 
 \_Exeunt Diomedes and Calchas 
 
 Enter Achilles and Patroclus, before their tent 
 
 Ulysses. Achilles stands i' the entrance of his tent. 
 Please it our general to pass strangely by him. 
 As if he were forgot ; — and, princes all, 40 
 
 Lay niegligent and loose regard upon him. 
 I will come last. 'T is like he '11 question me . 
 Why such unplausive eyes are bent on him ; 
 If so, I have derision medicinable 
 To use between your strangeness and his pride, 
 Which his own will shall have desire to drink. 
 It may do good ; pride hath no other glass 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida 107 
 
 To show itself but pride, for supple knees 
 Feed arrogance and are the proud man's fees. 
 
 Agameinnon. We '11 execute your purpose, and put on 
 A form of strangeness as we pass along. — 51 
 
 So do each lord, and either greet him not. 
 Or else disdainfully, which shall shake him more 
 Than if not look'd on. I will lead the way. 
 
 Achilles. What, comes the general to speak with me ? 
 You know my mind, I '11 fight no more 'gainst' Troy. 
 
 Agamemnon. What says Achilles ? would he aught 
 with us ? 
 
 Nestor. Would you, my lord, aught with the general ? 
 
 Achilles, No. 
 
 Nestor. Nothing, my lord. 60 
 
 Agamemnon. The better. 
 
 \Exeunt Agamemnon and Nestor. 
 
 Achilles. Good day, good day. 
 
 Menelaus. How do you ? how do you ? \Exit. 
 
 Achilles. What, does the cuckold scorn me? 
 
 Ajax. How now, Patroclus ! 
 
 Achilles. Good morrow, Ajax. 
 
 Ajax. Ha ? 
 
 Achilles. Good morrow. 
 
 Ajax. Ay, and good next day too. [Exit. 
 
 Achilles. What mean these fellows ? Know they not 
 Achilles ? 70 
 
 Patroclus. They pass by strangely; they were us'd 
 to bend. 
 To send their smiles before them to Achilles, 
 
io8 Troilus and Cressida [Act ill 
 
 To come as humbly as they us'd to creep 
 To holy altars. 
 
 Achilles. What, am I poor of late ? 
 
 'T is certain, greatness, once fallen out with fortune, 
 Must fall out with men too. What the declin'd is 
 He shall as soon read in the eyes of others 
 As feel in his own fall ; for men, like butterflies, 
 Show not their mealy wings but to the summer, 
 And not a man, for being simply man, 80 
 
 Hath any honour, but honour for those honours 
 That are without him, as place, riches, favour. 
 Prizes of accident as oft as merit, 
 Which when they fall, as being slippery standers. 
 The love that lean'd on them as slippery too, 
 Do one pluck down another and together 
 Die in the fall. But 't is not so with me : 
 Fortune and I are friends ; I do enjoy 
 At ample point all that I did possess. 
 Save these men's looks, who do, methinks, find out 90 
 Something not worth in me such rich beholding 
 As they have often given. Here is Ulysses ; 
 I '11 interrupt his reading. — 
 How now, Ulysses ! 
 
 Ulysses. Now, great Thetis' son ! 
 
 Achilles. What are you reading ? 
 
 Ulysses. A strange fellow here 
 
 Writes me that man — how dearly ever parted, 
 How much in having, or without or in — 
 Cannot make boast to have that which he hath, 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida 109 
 
 Nor feels not what he owes, but by reflection ; 
 
 As when his virtues shining upon others 100 
 
 Heat them and they retort that heat again 
 
 To the first giver. 
 
 Achilles. This is not strange, Ulysses. 
 
 The beauty that is borne here in the face 
 The bearer knows not, but commends itself 
 To others' eyes, nor doth the eye itself, 
 That most pure spirit of sense, behold itself, 
 Not going from itself ; but eye to eye oppos'd 
 Salutes each other with each other's form, 
 For speculation turns not to itself 
 
 Till it hath travell'd and is mirror'd there no 
 
 Where it may see itself. This is not strange at all. 
 
 Ulysses. I do not strain at the position, — 
 It is familiar, — but at the author's drift. 
 Who in his circumstance expressly proves 
 That no man is the lord of any thing. 
 Though in and of him there be much consisting. 
 Till he communicate his parts to others ; 
 Nor doth he of himself know them for aught - 
 Till he behold them form'd in the applause 
 Where they 're extended ; who, like an arch, reverber- 
 ates 120 
 The voice again, or, like a gate of steel 
 Fronting the sun, receives and renders back 
 His figure and his heat. I was much wrapt in this, 
 And apprehended here immediately 
 The unknown Ajax. 
 
no Troilus and Cressida [Act iii 
 
 Heavens, what a man is there ! a very horse, 
 
 That has he knows not what. — Nature, what things 
 
 there are 
 Most abject in regard and dear in use ! 
 What things again most dear in the esteem 
 And poor in worth ! — Now shall we see to-morrow — 130 
 An act that very chance doth throw upon him — 
 Ajax renown'd. — O heavens, what some men do 
 While some men leave to do ! 
 How some men creep in skittish fortune's hall 
 Whiles others play the idiots in her eyes ! 
 How one man eats into another's pride • 
 
 While pride is fasting in his wantonness ! 
 To see these Grecian lords ! — why, even already 
 They clap the lubber Ajax on the shoulder, 
 As if his foot were on brave Hector's breast, 140 
 
 And great Troy shrieking. 
 
 Achilles. I do believe it ; for they pass'd by me 
 As misers do by beggars, neither gave to me 
 Good word nor look. What, are my deeds forgot ? 
 
 Ulysses. Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back 
 Wherein he puts alms for oblivion, 
 A great-siz'd monster of ingratitudes. 
 Those scraps are good deeds past, which are devour'd 
 As fast as they are made, forgot as soon 
 As done. Perseverance, dear my lord, 150 
 
 Keeps honour bright ; to have done is to hang 
 Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail 
 In monumental mockery. Take the instant way, 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida 1 1 1 
 
 For honour travels in a strait so narrow 
 
 Where one but goes abreast ; keep then the path, 
 
 For emulation hath a thousand sons 
 
 That one by one pursue. If you give way 
 
 Or hedge aside from the direct forthright, 
 
 Like to an enter'd tide, they all rush by 
 
 And leave you hindmost ; i6o 
 
 Or, like a gallant horse fallen in first rank. 
 
 Lie there for pavement to the abject rear, 
 
 O'errun and trampled on. Then what they do in present, 
 
 Though less than yours in past, must o'ertop yours. 
 
 For time is like a fashionable host 
 
 That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand, 
 
 And with his arms outstretch'd, as he would fly, 
 
 Grasps in the comer ; welcome ever smiles. 
 
 And farewell goes out sighing. O, let not virtue seek 
 
 Remuneration for the thing it was ! 170 
 
 For beauty, wit. 
 
 High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service, 
 
 Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all 
 
 To envious and calumniating time. 
 
 One touch of nature makes the whole world kin, — 
 
 That all with one consent praise new-born gawds, 
 
 Though they are made and moulded of things past, 
 
 And give to dust that is a little gilt 
 
 More laud than gilt o'er-dusted. 
 
 The present eye praises the present object ; 180 
 
 Then marvel not, thou great and complete man, 
 
 That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax, 
 
112 Troilus and Cressida [Act ill 
 
 Since things in motion sooner catch the eye 
 
 Than what not stirs. The cry went once on thee, 
 
 And still it might, and yet it may again, 
 
 If thou wouldst not entomb thyself alive 
 
 And case thy reputation in thy tent, 
 
 Whose glorious deeds, but in these fields of late. 
 
 Made emulous missions 'mongst the gods themselves 
 
 And drave great Mars to faction. 
 
 Achilles, Of this my privacy 
 
 I have strong reasons. 
 
 Ulysses. But 'gainst your privacy 191 
 
 The reasons are more potent and heroical. 
 'T is known, Achilles, that you are in love 
 With one of Priam's daughters. 
 
 Achilles. Ha ! known .! 
 
 Ulysses. Is that a wonder ? 
 The providence that 's in a watchful state 
 Knows almost every grain of Plutus' gold. 
 Finds bottom in the uncomprehensive deeps. 
 Keeps place with thought, and almost, like the gods, 
 Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles. 200 
 
 There is a mystery — with whom relation 
 Durst never meddle — in the soul of state, 
 Which hath an operation more divine 
 Than breath or pen can give expressure to. 
 All the commerce that you have had with Troy 
 As perfectly is ours as yours, my lord ; 
 And better would it fit Achilles much 
 To throw down Hector than Polyxena. 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida 113 
 
 But it must grieve young Pyrrhus now at home, 
 
 When fame shall in our islands sound her trump, 210 
 
 And all the Greekish girls shall tripping sing, 
 
 ' Great Hector's sister did Achilles win, 
 
 But our great Ajax bravely beat down him.' 
 
 Farewell, my lord. I as your lover speak ; 
 
 The fool slides o'er the ice that you should break. [_jExt^. 
 
 Patrocliis. To this effect, Achilles, have I mov'd you. 
 A woman impudent and mannish grown 
 Is not more loath 'd than an effeminate man 
 In time of action. I stand condemn'd for this ; 
 They think my little stomach to the war 220 
 
 And your great love to me restrains you thus. 
 Sweet, rouse yourself ; and the weak wanton Cupid 
 Shall from your neck unloose his amorous fold. 
 And, like a dew-drop from the Hon's mane. 
 Be shook to air. 
 
 Achilles. Shall Ajax fight with Hector ? 
 
 Pati'oclus. Ay, and perhaps receive much honour by 
 him. 
 
 Achilles. I see my reputation is at stake ; 
 My fame is shrewdly gor'd. 
 
 Patroclus. O, then, beware ! 
 
 Those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves. 
 Omission to do what is necessary 230 
 
 Seals a commission to a blank of danger ; 
 And danger, like an ague, subtly taints 
 Even then when we sit idly in the sun. 
 
 Achilles. Go call Thersites hither, sweet Patroclus. 
 
 TROILUS — 8 
 
114 Troilus and Cressida [Act iii 
 
 I '11 send the fool to Ajax and desire him 
 
 To invite the Trojan lords after the combat 
 
 To see us here unarm 'd. I have a woman's longing, 
 
 An appetite that I am sick withal, 
 
 To see great Hector in his weeds of peace, 
 
 To talk with him and to behold his visage, 240 
 
 Even to my full of view. — 
 
 Enter Thersites 
 
 A labour sav'd ! 
 
 Thersites. A wonder ! 
 
 Achilles. What ? 
 
 Thersites. Ajax goes up and down the field, asking 
 for himself. 
 
 Achilles. How so ? 
 
 Thersites. He must fight singly to-morrow with 
 Hector, and is so prophetically proud of an heroical 
 cudgelling that he raves in saying nothing. 
 
 Achilles. How can that be ? 250 
 
 Thersites. Why, he stalks up and down like a 
 peacock, — a stride and a stand ; ruminates like an 
 hostess that hath no arithmetic but her brain to 
 set down her reckoning ; bites his lip with a politic 
 regard, as who should say ' There were wit in this 
 head an 't would out ; ' and so there is, but it lies 
 as coldly in him as fire in a flint, which will not 
 show without knocking. The man 's undone for 
 ever ; for if Hector break not his neck i' the com- 
 bat, he '11 break 't himself in vainglory. He knows 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida 115 
 
 not me ; I said ' Good morrow, Ajax ; ' and he replies 
 'Thanks, Agamemnon.' What think you of this 
 man that takes me for the general ? He 's grown a 
 very land-fish, languageless, a monster. A plague 
 of opinion ! a man may wear it on both sides, like a 
 leather jerkin. 266 
 
 Achilles. Thou must be my ambassador to him, 
 Thersites. 
 
 Thersites. Who, I ? why, he '11 answer nobody ; he 
 professes not answering. Speaking is for beggars ; 
 he wears his tongue in 's arms. I will put on his 
 presence ; let Patroclus make demands to me, you 
 shall see the pageant of Ajax. 
 
 Achilles. To him, Patroclus ; tell him I humbly 
 desire the valiant Ajax to invite the most valorous 
 Hector to come unarmed to my tent, and to procure 
 safe-conduct for his person of the magnanimous and 
 most illustrious six-or-seven-times-honoured captain- 
 general of the Grecian army, Agamemnon, et cet- 
 era. Do this. 280 
 
 Patroclus. Jove bless great Ajax. 
 
 Thersites. Hum ! 
 
 Patroclus. I come from the worthy Achilles, — 
 
 Thei'sites. Ha ! 
 
 Patroclus. Who most humbly desires you to invite 
 Hector to his tent, — 
 
 Thersites. Hum ! 
 
 Patroclus. And to procure safe-conduct from Aga- 
 memnon. 
 
1 1 6 Troilus and Cressida [Act ill 
 
 Thersites. Agamemnon ! 290 
 
 Patroclus. Ay, my lord. 
 
 Thersites. Ha ! 
 
 Pcrtroclus. What say you to 't ? 
 
 Thersites. God b' wi' you, with all my heart. 
 
 Patroclus. Your answer, sir. 
 
 Thersites. If to-morrow be a fair day, by eleven 
 o'clock it will go one way or other ; howsoever, he 
 shall pay for me ere he has me. 
 
 Patroclus. Your answer, sir. 
 
 Thersites. Fare you well, 'with all my heart. 300 
 
 Achilles. Why, but he is not in this tune, is he ? 
 
 Thersites. No, but he 's out o' tune thus. What 
 music will be in him when Hector has knocked out 
 his brains I know not, but, I am sure, none, unless 
 the fiddler Apollo get his sinews to make catlings on. 
 
 Achilles. Come, thou shalt bear a letter to him 
 straight. 
 
 Thersites. Let me bear another to his horse, for 
 that 's the more capable creature. 
 
 Achilles. My mind is troubled, like a fountain 
 stirr'd, 310 
 
 And I myself see not the bottom of it. 
 
 \_Exeunt Achilles and Patroclus. 
 
 Thersites. Would the fountain of your mind were 
 clear again, that I might water an ass at it ! I had 
 rather be a tick in a sheep than such a valiant 
 ignorance. \Exit, 
 
^NEAS MEETING PaRIS 
 
 ACT IV 
 
 Scene I. Ti-oy. A Street 
 
 Enter, from one side, ^neas, and Servant with a torch; 
 from the other, Paris, Deiphobus, Antenor, Dio- 
 MEDES, and others, with torches 
 
 Paris. See, ho ! who is that there ? 
 
 Deiphobus, It is the Lord ^neas. 
 
 117 
 
1 1 8 Troilus and Cressida [Act IV 
 
 ^neas. Is the prince there in person? — 
 Had I so good occasion to He long 
 As you, Prince Paris, nothing but heavenly business 
 Should rob my bed-mate of my company. 
 
 Diomedes. That 's my mind too. — Good morrow, 
 Lord yEneas. 
 
 Paris. A valiant Greek, ^neas, — take his hand, — 
 Witness the process of your speech, wherein 
 You told how Diomed, a whole week by days, 
 Did haunt you in the field. 
 
 y^neas. Health to you, valiant sir, 
 
 During all question of the gentle truce ; n 
 
 But when I meet you arm'd, as black defiance 
 As heart can think or courage execute ! 
 
 Diomedes. The one and other Diomed embraces. 
 Our bloods are now in calm ; and, so long, health ! 
 But when contention and occasion meet, 
 By Jove, I '11 play the hunter for thy life 
 With all my force, pursuit, and policy. 
 
 yEneas. And thou shalt hunt a lion, that will fly 
 With his face backward. — In humane gentleness, 20 
 Welcome to Troy ! now, by Anchises' life. 
 Welcome, indeed ! By Venus' hand I swear, 
 No man alive can love in such a sort 
 The thing he means to kill more excellently. 
 
 Diomedes. We sympathize. — Jove, let ^neas live, 
 If to my sword his fate be not the glory, 
 A thousand complete courses of the sun ! 
 But, in mine emulous honour, let him die, . 
 
Scene I] Troilus and Cressida 119 
 
 With every joint a wound, and that to-morrow ! 
 
 ^neas. We know each other well. 30 
 
 Diomedes. We do, and long to know each other 
 worse. 
 
 Paris. This is the most despiteful gentle greeting, 
 The noblest hateful love, that e'er I heard of. — 
 What business, lord, so early ? 
 
 y^neas. I was sent for to the king ; but why, I know 
 not. 
 
 Paris. His purpose meets you ; 't was to bring this 
 Greek 
 To Calchas' house, and there to render him. 
 For the enfreed Antenor, the fair Cressid. 
 Let 's have your company, or, if you please. 
 Haste there before us. I constantly do think — 40 
 
 Or rather, call my thought a certain knowledge — 
 My brother Troilus lodges there to-night. 
 Rouse him, and give him note of our approach, 
 With the whole quality wherefore ; I fear 
 We shall be much unwelcome. 
 
 yEneas. That I assure you ; 
 
 Troilus had rather Troy were borne to Greece 
 Than Cressid borne from Troy. 
 
 Paris. There is no help ; 
 
 The bitter disposition of the tinie 
 Will have it so. — On, lord ; we '11 follow you. 49 
 
 y^neas. Good morrow, all. \_Exit with Se?'vant. 
 
 Paris. And tell me, noble Diomed, faith, tell me true. 
 Even in the soul of sound good-fellowship, 
 
1 20 Troilus and Cressida [Act IV 
 
 Who, in your thoughts, merits fair Helen best. 
 Myself or Menelaus ? 
 
 Diojnedes. Both alike. 
 
 He merits well to have her that doth seek her, 
 Not making any scruple of her soilure. 
 With such a hell of pain and world of charge ; 
 And you as well to keep her, that defend her, 
 Not palating the taste of her dishonour. 
 With such a costly loss of wealth and friends. 60 
 
 He, like a puling cuckold, would drink up 
 The lees and dregs of a flat tamed piece ; 
 You, hke a lecher, out of whorish loins 
 Are pleas'd to breed out your inheritors. 
 Both merits pois'd, each weighs nor less nor more, 
 But he as he, the heavier for a whore. 
 
 Paris. You are too bitter to your countrywoman. 
 
 Diomedes. She 's bitter to her country. Hear me, 
 Paris : 
 For every false drop in her bawdy veins 
 A Grecian's life hath sunk ; for every scruple 70 
 
 Of her contaminated carrion weight, 
 A Trojan hath been slain. Since she could speak, 
 She hath not given so many good words breath 
 As for her Greeks and Trojans suffer'd death. 
 
 Paris. Fair Diomed, you do as chapmen do, 
 Dispraise the thing that you desire to buy ; 
 But we in silence hold this virtue well, — 
 We '11 but commend what we intend to sell. 
 Here lies our way. S^Exeunt. 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida 121 
 
 Scene II. The Same. Court of Pandarus's Hoicse 
 Enter Troilus and Cressida 
 
 Troilus. Dear, trouble not yourself ; the morn is 
 cold. 
 
 Cressida. Then, sweet my lord, I '11 call mine uncle 
 down ; 
 He shall unbolt the gates. 
 
 Troilus. Trouble him not ; 
 
 To bed, to bed ! sleep kill those pretty eyes, 
 And give as soft attachment to thy senses 
 As infants' empty of all thought ! 
 
 Cressida. Good morrow, then. 
 
 Troilics. I prithee now, to bed. 
 
 Cressida. Are you aweary of me ? 
 
 Troilus. O Cressida ! but that the busy day, 
 Wak'd by the lark, hath rous'd the ribald crows. 
 And dreaming night will hide our joys no longer, 10 
 I would not from thee. 
 
 Cressida. Night hath been too brief. 
 
 Troilus. Beshrew the witch ! with venomous wights 
 she stays 
 As tediously as hell, but flies the grasps of love 
 With wings more momentary-swift than thought. — 
 You will catch cold and curse me. 
 
 Cressida. Prithee, tarry. — 
 
 You men will never tarry. 
 O foolish Cressid ! I might have still held off, 
 
122 I'roilus and Cressida [Act IV 
 
 And then you would have tarried. Hark 1 There 's 
 one up. 
 Pandarus. [ Withi7i\ What, 's all the doors open here ? 
 Troilus. It is your uncle. 20 
 
 Cressida. A pestilence on him ! now will he be 
 mocking ; 
 I shall have such a life ! 
 
 Enter Pandarus 
 
 Pandarus. How now, how now ! how go maiden- 
 heads ? — Here, you maid ! where 's my cousin 
 Cressid ? 
 
 Cressida. Go hang yourself, you naughty mock- 
 ing uncle ! You bring me to do, and then you flout 
 me too. 
 
 Pa?idarus. To do what ? to do what ? let her say 
 what ; what have I brought you to do ? 30 
 
 Cressida. Come, come, beshrew your heart ! you '11 
 ■ ne'er be good, 
 Nor suffer others. 
 
 Pandarus. Ha, ha ! Alas, poor wretch ! ah, poor 
 capocchia ! hast not slept to-night ? would he not, a 
 naughty man, let it sleep ? a bugbear take him ! 
 
 Cressida. Did not I tell you? — Would he* were 
 knock'd i' the head ! — \Knocking within. 
 
 Who 's that at door ? good uncle, go and see. — 
 My lord, come you again into my chamber. 
 You smile and mock me, as if I meant naughtily. 
 
 Troilus. Ha, ha ! 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida 123 
 
 Cressida. Come, you are deceiv'd, I think of no 
 such thing. — [Knocking within. 
 
 How earnestly they knock ! — Pray you, come in : 42 
 I would not for half Troy have you seen here. 
 
 \Exeunt Troilus and Cressida. 
 Pandarus. Who 's there ? what 's the matter ? will 
 you beat down the door ? How now ! what 's the 
 matter ? 
 
 Enter ^neas 
 
 ^neas. Good morrow, lord, good morrow. 
 
 Pandarus. Who 's there ? my lord ^neas ! By 
 my troth, I knew you not ; what news with you so 
 early ? 
 
 yEneas. Is not Prince Troilus here ? 51 
 
 Pandarus. Here ! what should he do here ? 
 
 JEneas. Come, he is here, my lord ; do not deny him. 
 It doth import him much to speak with me. 
 
 Pandarus. Is he here, say you ? 't is more than I 
 know, I '11 be sworn ; for my own part, I came in 
 late. What should he do here? 
 
 yEneas. Who ! — nay, then, come, come, you '11 
 do him wrong ere you 're ware. You '11 be so true 
 to him, to be false to him. Do not you know of 
 him, but yet go fetch him hither ; go. 61 
 
 Re-enter Troilus 
 
 Troilus. How now ! what 's the matter ? 
 JEneas. My lord, I scarce have leisure to salute 
 you, 
 
124 Troilus and Cressida [Act iv 
 
 My matter is so rash. There is at hand 
 Paris your brother, and Deiphobus, 
 The Grecian Diomed, and our Antenor 
 DeKver'd to us ; and for him forthwith, 
 Ere the first sacrifice, within this hour, 
 We must give up to Diomedes' hand 
 The Lady Cressida. 
 
 Troilus. Is it so concluded ? 70 
 
 ^neas. By Priam and the general state of Troy. 
 They are at hand and ready to effect it. 
 
 Tf'oilus. How my achievements mock me ! 
 I will go meet them ; — and, my Lord ^neas, 
 We met by chance, you did not find me here. 
 
 ^neas. Good, good, my lord ; the secrets of nature 
 Have not more gift in taciturnity. 
 
 \Exeunt Troilus and ^neas. 
 
 Pandai'us. Is 't possible ? no sooner got but lost ? 
 The devil take Antenor ! the young prince will go 
 mad. A plague upon Antenor ! I would they had 
 broke 's neck ! 81 
 
 Re-enter Cressida 
 
 Cressida. How now ! what 's the matter ? who was 
 here ? 
 
 Pandarus. Ah, ah ! 
 
 Cressida. Why sigh you so profoundly ? where 's 
 my lord ? gone ! Tell me, sweet uncle, what 's the 
 matter ? 
 
 Pandarus. Would I were as deep under the earth 
 as I am above ! 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida 125 
 
 Cressida. O the gods ! what 's the matter ? 90 
 
 Pandarus. Prithee, get thee in. Would thou hadst 
 ne'er been born ! I knew thou wouldst be his death. 
 O, poor gentleman ! A plague upon Antenor ! 
 
 Cressida. Good uncle, I beseech you, on my knees 
 I beseech you, what 's the matter ? 
 
 Pandarus. Thou must be gone, wench, thou must 
 be gone ; thou art changed for Antenor. Thou must 
 to thy father, and be gone from Troilus ; 't will be 
 his death, 't will be his bane, he cannot bear it. 
 
 Cressida. O you immortal gods ! — I will not go. 
 
 Pandarus. Thou must. loi 
 
 Cressida. I will not, uncle. I have forgot my father ; 
 I know no touch of consanguinity, 
 No kin, no love, no blood, no soul so near me 
 As the sweet Troilus. — O you gods divine ! 
 Make Cressid's name the very crown of falsehood 
 If ever she leave Troilus ! Time, force, and death, 
 Do to this body what extremes you can ; 
 But the strong base and building of my love 
 Is as the very centre of the earth, no 
 
 Drawing all things to it. I '11 go in and weep, — 
 
 Pandarus. Do, do. 
 
 Cressida. Tear my bright hair and scratch my praised 
 cheeks. 
 Crack my clear voice with sobs and break my heart 
 With sounding Troilus. I will not go from Troy ! 
 
 \_Exeunt. 
 
126 Troilus and Cressida [Act IV 
 
 Scene III. The Same. Street before Pandarus' s House 
 
 Enter Paris, Troilus, tEneas, Deiphobus, Antenor, 
 and DiOMEDES 
 
 Paris. It is great morning, and the hour prefix'd 
 Of her delivery to this valiant Greek 
 Comes fast upon. — Good my brother Troilus, 
 Tell you the lady what she is to do. 
 And haste her to the purpose. 
 
 Troilus. Walk into her house, 
 
 I '11 bring her to the Grecian presently ; 
 And to his hand when I deliver her, 
 Think it an altar, and thy brother Troilus 
 A priest there offering to it his own heart. \Exit. 
 
 Paris. I know what 't is to love, . lo 
 
 And would, as I shall pity, I could help ! — 
 Please you walk in, my lords. [Exeunt. 
 
 Scene IV. The Sa??ie. Pandarus^s House 
 Enter Pandarus and Cressida 
 
 Pandarus. Be moderate, be moderate. 
 
 Cressida. Why tell you me of moderation ? 
 The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste, ' 
 And violenteth in a sense as strong 
 As that which causeth it ; how can I moderate it ? 
 If I could temporize with my affection, 
 Or brew it to a weak and colder palate. 
 The like allayment could I give my grief. 
 
Scene IV] Troilus and Cressida' 127 
 
 My love admits no qualifying dross ; 
 No more my grief, in such a precious loss. 10 
 
 Pandarus. Here, here, here he comes. — 
 
 Enter Troilus 
 
 Ah, sweet ducks ! 
 
 Cressida. O Troilus ! Troilus ! \_Embracmg him. 
 
 Pandarus. What a pair of spectacles is here ! Let 
 me embrace too, ' O heart,'' as the goodly saying is, 
 
 ' O heart, heavy hea?'t, 
 
 Why sights t thou without breaking ? ' 
 where he answers again, 
 
 ' Because thou canst not ease thy smart 
 
 By fi'iendship nor by speaking.^ , 20 
 
 There was never a truer rhyme. Let us cast away 
 nothing, for we may live to have need of such a verse ; 
 we see it, we see it. — How now, lambs ? 
 
 Troilus. Cressid, I love thee in so strain'd a purity 
 That the blest gods, as angry with my fancy, 
 More bright in zeal than the devotion which 
 Cold lips blow to their deities, take thee from me. 
 
 Cressida. Have the gods envy ? 28 
 
 Pandarus. Ay, ay, ay, ay ; 't is too plain a case. 
 
 C?'essida. And is it true that I must go from Troy ? 
 
 Troilus. A hateful truth. 
 
 Cressida. What, and from Troilus too ? 
 
 Troilus. From Troy and Troilus. 
 
 Cressida. Is it possible ? 
 
 Troilus. And suddenly ; where injury of chance 
 
128 Troilus and Cressida [Act iv 
 
 Puts back leave-taking, justles roughly by 
 
 All time of pause, rudely beguiles our lips 
 
 Of all rejoindure, forcibly prevents 
 
 Our lock'd embrasures, strangles our dear vows 
 
 Even in the birth of our own labouring breath. 
 
 We two, that with so many thousand sighs 
 
 Did buy each other, must poorly sell ourselves 40 
 
 With the rude brevity and discharge of one. 
 
 Injurious time now with a robber's haste 
 
 Crams his rich thievery up, he knows not how ; 
 
 As many farewells as be stars in heaven. 
 
 With distinct breath and consign'd kisses to them, 
 
 He fumbles up into a loose adieu, 
 
 And scants us with a single famish 'd kiss. 
 
 Distasted with the salt of broken tears. 
 
 yE7ieas. [ Withi7i] My lord, is the lady ready ? 
 
 Troilus. Hark ! you are called ; some say the Ge- 
 nius so 50 
 Cries ' come ' to him that instantly must die. — 
 Bid them have patience ; she shall come anon. 
 
 Pandarus, Where are my tears ? rain, to lay this 
 wind, or my heart will be blown up by the root. \Exit. 
 
 Cressida. I must then to the Grecians ? 
 
 Troilus. No remedy. 
 
 Cressida. A woful Cressid 'mongst the merry 
 Greeks ! 
 When shall we see again ? 
 
 Troilus. Hear me, my love : be thou but true of 
 heart, — 
 
Scene IV] Troilus and Cressida 129 
 
 Cressida. I true ! how now ! what wicked deem is 
 this? 
 
 Troilus. Nay, we must use expostulation kindly, 60 
 For it is parting from us. 
 I speak not ' be thou true,' as fearing thee, 
 For I will throw my glove to Death himself 
 That there 's no maculation in thy heart, 
 But ' be thou true,' say I, to fashion in 
 My secret protestation ; be thou true. 
 And I will see thee. 
 
 Cressida. O, you shall be expos'd, my lord, to dan- 
 gers 
 As infinite as imminent ! but I '11 be true. 
 
 Troilus. And I '11 grow friend with danger. Wear 
 this sleeve. 70 
 
 Cressida. And you this glove. When shall I see you ? 
 
 Troilus. I will corrupt the Grecian sentinels. 
 To give thee nightly visitation. 
 But yet be true. 
 
 Cressida. O heavens ! ' be true ' again ! 
 
 Ti'oilus. Hear why I speak it, love. 
 The Grecian youths are full of quality ; 
 They 're loving, well compos 'd with gifts of nature, 
 And flowing o'er with arts and exercise. 
 How novelty may move, and parts with person, 
 Alas, a kind of godly jealousy — 80 
 
 Which, I beseech you, call a virtuous sin — 
 Makes me afeard. 
 
 Cressida. O heavens ! you love me not. 
 
 TROILUS — 9 
 
ijo Troilus and Cressida [Act iv 
 
 Troilus. Die I a villain, then ! 
 In this I do not call your faith in question 
 So mainly as my merit. I cannot sing, 
 Nor heel the high lavolt, nor sweeten talk. 
 Nor play at subtle games, — fair virtues all. 
 To which the Grecians are most prompt and preg- 
 nant, — 
 But I can tell that in each grace of these 
 There lurks a still and dumb-discoursive devil 90 
 
 That tempts most cunningly ; but be not tempted. 
 
 Cirssida. Do you think I will ? 
 
 Troilus. No. 
 But something may be done that we will not ; 
 And sometimes we are devils to ourselves 
 When we will tempt the frailty of our powers, 
 Presuming on their changeful potency. 
 
 ^neas. \Within\ Nay, good my lord, — 
 
 Troilus. Come, kiss ; and let us part. 
 
 Paris. [ IVilhn'] Brother Troilus ! 
 
 Troilus. Good brother, come you hither ; 
 
 And bring JEneas and the Grecian with you. loc 
 
 Cressida. My lord, will you be true ? 
 
 Troilus. Who, I ? alas, it is my vice, my fault. 
 Whiles others fish with craft for great opinion, 
 I with great truth catch mere simplicity ; 
 Whilst some with cunning gild their copper crowns. 
 With truth and plainness I do wear mine bare. 
 Fear not my truth ; the moral of my wit 
 Is ' plain and true,' — there 's all the reach of it. — 
 
Scene IV] Troilus and Cressida 131 
 
 Enter ^neas, Paris, Antenor, Deiphobus, and 
 
 DiOMEDES 
 
 Welcome, Sir Diomed ! here is the lady 
 
 Which for Antenor we deliver you. no 
 
 At the port, lord, I '11 give her to thy hand, 
 
 And by the way possess thee what she is. 
 
 Entreat her fair ; and, by my soul, fair Greek, 
 
 If e'er thou stand at mercy of my sword, 
 
 Name Cressid and thy life shall be as safe 
 
 As Priam is in Ilion. 
 
 Diomedes. Fair Lady Cressid, 
 
 So please you, save the thanks this prince expects. 
 The lustre in your eye, heaven in your cheek, 
 Pleads your fair usage ; and to Diomed 
 You shall be mistress and command him wholly. 120 
 
 Troilus. Grecian, thou dost not use me courteously. 
 To shame the zeal of my petition to thee 
 In praising her. I tell thee, lord of Greece, 
 She is as far high-soaring o'er thy praises 
 As thou unworthy to be call'd her servant. 
 I charge thee use her well, even for my charge ; 
 For, by the dreadful Pluto, if thou do'st not. 
 Though the great bulk Achilles be thy guard, 
 I '11 cut thy throat. 
 
 Diomedes. O, be not mov'd, Prince Troilus. 
 
 Let me be privileg'd by my place and message 130 
 
 To be a speaker free ; when I am hence, 
 I '11 answer to my lust, and know you, lord. 
 
132 Troilus and Cressida [Act iv 
 
 I '11 nothing do on charge. To her own worth 
 She shall be priz'd ; but that you say ' be 't so,' 
 I '11 speak it in my spirit and honour, ' no.' 
 
 Troilus. Come, to the port. — I '11 tell thee, Diomed, 
 This brave shall oft make thee to hide thy head. — - 
 Lady, give me your hand, and, as we walk. 
 To our own selves bend we our needful talk. 
 
 [Exeunt Troilus, Cressida, and Dioinedes. 
 
 \Trumpet within. 
 
 Paris. Hark ! Hector's trumpet. 
 
 jEneas. How have we spent this morning ! 
 
 The prince must think me tardy and remiss 141 
 
 That swore to ride before him to the field. 
 
 Paris. 'T is Troilus' fault. Come, come, to field 
 with him. 
 
 Deiphobus. Let us make ready straight. 
 
 jEneas. Yea, with a bridegroom's fresh alacrity. 
 Let us address to tend on Hector's heels. 
 The glory of our Troy doth this day lie 
 On his fair worth and single chivalry. \Exeunt. 
 
 Scene V. The Grecian Camp. Lists set out 
 
 Enter Ajax, ar77ied ; Agamemnon, Achilles, Patro- 
 CLUS, Menelaus, Ulysses, Nestor, and others 
 
 Agamemnon. Here art thou in appointment fresh 
 and fair. 
 Anticipating time with starting courage. 
 Give with thy trumpet a loud note to Troy, 
 
Scene V] Troilus and Cressida 133 
 
 Thou dreadful Ajax, that the appalled air 
 May pierce the head of the great combatant 
 And hale him hither. 
 
 Ajax. Thou, trumpet, there 's my purse. 
 
 Now crack thy lungs, and split thy brazen pipe ; 
 Blow, villain, till thy sphered bias cheek 
 Outswell the colic of puff'd Aquilon. 
 Come, stretch thy chest, and let thy eyes spout blood ; 10 
 Thou blow'st for Hector. \Trumpet sounds. 
 
 Ulysses. No trumpet answers. 
 
 Achilles. 'T is but early days. 
 
 Agamemnon. Is not yond Diomed, with Calchas' 
 daughter ? 
 
 Ulysses. 'T is he, I ken the manner of his gait. 
 He rises on the toe ; that spirit of his 
 In aspiration lifts him from the earth. 
 
 Enter Diomedes, with Cressida 
 
 Agamemnon. Is this the lady Cressid ? 
 
 Diomedes. Even she. 
 
 Agamemnon. Most dearly welcome to the Greeks, 
 sweet lady. 
 
 Nestor. Our general doth salute you with a kiss. 
 
 Ulysses. Yet is the kindness but particular ; 20 
 
 'T were better she were kiss'd in general. 
 
 Nestor. And very courtly counsel ; I'll begin. — 
 So much for Nestor. 
 
 Achilles. I '11 take that winter from your lips, fair 
 lady; 
 Achilles bids you welcome. 
 
134 Xroilus and Cressida [Act iv 
 
 Menelaus. I had good argument for kissing once. 
 
 Patroclus. But that 's no argument for kissing now ; 
 For thus popp'd Paris in his hardiment, 
 And parted thus you and your argument. 29 
 
 Ulysses. O deadly gall, and theme of all our scorns, 
 For which we lose our heads to gild his horns! 
 
 Patroclus. The first was Menelaus' kiss ; this, mine. 
 Patroclus kisses you. 
 
 Menelaus. O, this is trim! 
 
 Patroclus. Paris and I kiss evermore for him. 
 
 Menelaus. I '11 have my kiss, sir. — Lady, by your 
 leave. 
 
 Cressida. In kissing, do you render or receive ? 
 
 Patroclus. Both take and give. 
 
 Cressida. I '11 make my match to live, 
 
 The kiss you take is better than you give ; 
 Therefore no kiss. 
 
 Menelaus. I '11 give you boot, I'll give you three for 
 one. 40 
 
 Cressida. You 're an odd man ; give even, or give 
 none. 
 
 Menelaus. An odd man, lady ! every man is odd. 
 
 Cressida. No, Paris is not ; for you know 't is true 
 That you are odd, and he is even with you. 
 
 Menelaus. You fillip me o' the head. 
 
 Cressida. No, I '11 be sworn. 
 
 Ulysses. It were no match, your nail against his 
 horn. — 
 May I, sweet lady, beg a kiss of you ? 
 
Scene V] Troilus and Cressida 135 
 
 Cressida. You may. 
 
 Ulysses. I do desire it. 
 
 Cressida. Why, beg, then. 
 
 Ulysses. Why then, for Venus' sake, give me a kiss, 
 When Helen. is a maid again, and his. 50 
 
 Cressida. I am your debtor, claim it when 't is due, 
 
 Ulysses. Never 's my day, and then a kiss of youo 
 
 Diomedes. Lady, a word. I '11 bring you to your 
 father. \^Exit with Cressida. 
 
 Nestor. A woman of quick sense. 
 
 Ulysses. Fie, fie upon her ! 
 
 Ther^e 's language in her eye, her cheek, her hp, 
 Xay, her foot speaks ; her wanton spirits look out 
 At every joint and motive of her body. 
 (), these encounterers, so glib of tongue, 
 I'hat give a coasting welcome ere it comes, 
 And wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts 60 
 
 To every ticklish reader ! set them down 
 For sluttish spoils of opportunity 
 And daughters of the game. \Trumpet within. 
 
 All. The Trojans' trumpet. 
 
 Aganienino?i. Yonder comes the troop. 
 
 Enter Hector, armed ; ^neas, Troilus, and other 
 Trojans, with Attendants 
 
 .^neas. Hail, all you state of Greece ! what shall 
 be done 
 To him that victory commands ? or do you purpose 
 
136 Troilus and Cressida [Act iv 
 
 A victor shall be known ? will you the knights 
 
 Shall to the edge of all extremity 
 
 Pursue each other, or shall be divided 
 
 By any voice or order of the field ? 70 
 
 Hector bade ask. 
 
 Agamemnon. Which way would Hector have it ? 
 
 vEneas, He cares not ; he '11 obey conditions. 
 
 Achilles. 'T is done like Hector ; but securely done, 
 A little proudly, and great deal misprizing 
 The knight oppos'd. 
 
 yEneas. If not Achilles, sir, 
 
 What is your name ? 
 
 Achilles. If not Achilles, nothing. 
 
 yEneas. Therefore Achilles ; but, whate'er, know this : 
 In the extremity of great and little, 
 Valour and pride excel themselves in Hector ; 
 The one almost as infinite as all, 80 
 
 The other blank as nothing. Weigh him well, 
 And that which looks like pride is courtesy. 
 This Ajax is half made of Hector's blood, 
 In love whereof half Hector stays at home ; 
 Half heart, half hand, half Hector comes to seek 
 This blended knight, half Trojan and half Greek. 
 
 Achilles. A maiden battle, then ? — 0,1 perceive you ! 
 
 Re-enter Diomedes 
 
 Agamemnon. Here is Sir Diomed. Go, gentle knight, 
 Stand by our Ajax, As you and Lord ^neas 
 Consent upon the order of their fight, 90 
 
Scene V] Troilus and Cressida 137 
 
 So be it, — either to the uttermost 
 
 Or else a breath ; the combatants being kin 
 
 Half stints their strife before their strokes begin. 
 
 \Ajax and Hector enter the lists. 
 
 Ulysses. They are oppos'd already. 
 
 Agamemnon. What Trojan is that same that looks so 
 heavy ? 
 
 Ulysses. The youngest son of Priam, a true knight, 
 Not yet mature, yet matchless, firm of word, 
 Speaking in deeds, and deedless in his tongue ; 
 Not soon provok'd, nor being provok'd soon calm'd ; 
 His heart and hand both open and both free ; 100 
 
 For what he has he gives, what thinks he shows. 
 Yet gives he not till judgment guide his bounty. 
 Nor dignifies an impair thought with breath ; 
 Manly as Hector, but more dangerous ; 
 For Hector in his blaze of wrath subscribes 
 To tender objects, but he in heat of action 
 Is more vindicative than jealous love. 
 They call him Troilus, and on him erect 
 A second hope, as fairly built as Hector. 
 Thus says ^Eneas ; one that knows the youth no 
 
 Even to his inches, and with private soul 
 Did in great Ilion thus translate him to me. 
 
 \j\larum. Hector and Aj ax fight. 
 
 Agamemnon. They are in action. 
 
 Nestor. Now, Ajax, hold thine own ! 
 
 Troilus. Hector, thou sleep'st ; 
 
 Awake thee 1 
 
138 Troilus and Cressida [Act IV 
 
 Agamemnon, His blows are well dispos'd. — There, 
 Ajax ! 
 
 Diomedes. You must no more. \Trumpets cease. 
 
 ^7ieas. Princes, enough, so please you. 
 
 AJax. I am not warm yet ; let us fight again. 
 
 Diomedes. As Hector pleases. 
 
 Hector. Why, then will I no more. — 
 
 Thou art, great lord, my father's sister's son, 120 
 
 A cousin-german to great Priam's seed; 
 The obligation of our blood forbids 
 A gory emulation 'twixt us twain. 
 Were thy commixtion Greek and Trojan so 
 That thou couldst say ' This hand is Grecian all 
 And this is Trojan, the sinews of this leg 
 All Greek and this all Troy, my mother's blood 
 Runs on the dexter cheek and this sinister 
 Bounds in my father's," by Jove multipotent, 
 Thou shouldst not bear from me a Greekish member 
 Wherein my sword had not impressure made 131 
 
 Of our rank feud ; but the just gods gainsay 
 That any drop thou borrow'dst from thy mother. 
 My sacred aunt, should by my mortal sword 
 Be drain'd ! Let me embrace thee, Ajax. — 
 By him that thunders, thou hast lusty arms ! 
 Hector would have them fall upon him thus. 
 Cousin, all honour to thee ! 
 
 Ajax. I thank thee, Hector ; 
 
 Thou art too gentle and too free a man. 
 I came to kill thee, cousin, and bear hence 140 
 
Scene V] Troilus and Cressida 139 
 
 A great addition earned in thy death. 
 
 Hector. Not Neoptolemus so mirable, 
 On whose bright crest Fame with her loud'st oyes 
 Cries ' This is he,' could promise to himself 
 A thought of added hofiour torn from Hector. 
 
 ^"Eneas. There is expectance here from both the sides 
 What further you will do. 
 
 Hector. We '11 answer it ; 
 
 The issue is embracement. — Ajax, farewell. 
 
 Ajax. If I might in entreaties find success — 
 As seld I have the chance — I would desire 150 
 
 My famous cousin to our Grecian tents. 
 
 Diomedes. 'T is Agamemnon's wish, and great 
 Achilles 
 Doth long to see unarm 'd the valiant Hector. 
 
 Hector. vEneas, call my brother Troilus to me, 
 And signify this loving interview 
 To the expecters of our Trojan part ; 
 Desire them home. — Give me thy hand, my cousin ; 
 I will go eat with thee and see your knights. 
 
 Ajax, Great Agamemnon comes to meet us here. 
 
 Hector. The worthiest of them tell me name by name ; 
 But' for Achilles, mine own searching eyes 161 
 
 Shall find him by his large and portly size. 
 
 Agamemnon. Worthy of arms ! as welcome as to one 
 That would be rid of such an enemy. 
 But that 's no welcome ; understand more clear, 
 What 's past and what 's to come is strew'd with husks 
 And formless ruin of oblivion, 
 
140 Troilus and Cressida [Act IV 
 
 But in this extant moment faith and troth, 
 
 Strain 'd purely from all hollow bias-drawing, 
 
 Bids thee, with most divine integrity, 170 
 
 From heart of very heart, great Hector, welcome. 
 
 Hector. I thank thee, most imperious Agamemnon. 
 
 Agatnemnon. [To Troi'hs] My well-fam'd lord of 
 Troy, no less to you. 
 
 Menelaus. Let me confirm my princely brother's 
 greeting ; 
 You brace of warlike brothers, welcome hither. 
 
 Hector. Who must we answer ? 
 
 Alneas. The noble Menelaus. 
 
 Hector. O, you, my lord ? by Mars his gauntlet, 
 thanks ! 
 Mock not that I affect the untraded oath ; 
 Your quondam wife swears still by Venus' glove. 
 She 's well, but bade me not commend her to you. 180 
 
 Menelaus. Name her not now, sir; she 's a deadly 
 theme. 
 
 Hector. O, pardon ! I offend. 
 
 Nestor. I have, thou gallant Trojan, seen thee oft, 
 Labouring for destiny, make cruel way 
 Through ranks of Greekish youth, and I have seen thee, 
 As hot as Perseus, spur thy Phrygian steed, 
 Despising many forfeits and subduements. 
 When thou hast hung thy advanced sword i' the air. 
 Not letting it decline on the declin'd, 
 That I have said to some my standers by, 190 
 
 ' Lo, Jupiter is yonder, dealing life ! ' 
 
Scene V] Troilus and Cressida 141 
 
 And I have seen thee pause and take thy breath, 
 
 When that a ring of Greeks have hemm'd thee in, 
 
 Like an Olympian wrestUng ; this have I seen, 
 
 But this thy countenance, still lock'd in steel, 
 
 I never saw till now. I knew thy grandsire, 
 
 And once fought with him ; he was a soldier good, 
 
 But, by great Mars, the captain of us all. 
 
 Never like thee. Let an old man embrace thee ; 
 
 And, worthy warrior, welcome to our tents. 200 
 
 ^neas. 'T is the old Nestor. 
 
 Hector. Let me embrace thee, good old chronicle, 
 That hast so long walk'd hand in hand with Time. 
 Most reverend Nestor, I am glad to clasp thee. 
 
 Nestor. I would my arms could match thee in con- 
 tention, 
 As they contend with thee in courtesy. 
 
 Hector. I would they could. 
 
 Nestor. Ha ! 
 By this white beard, I 'd fight with thee to-morrow. 
 Well, welcome, welcome ! — I have seen the time — 
 
 Ulysses. I wonder now how yonder city stands 211 
 When we have here her base and pillar by us. 
 
 Hector. I know your favour, Lord Ulysses, well. 
 Ah, sir, there 's many a Greek and Trojan dead 
 Since first I saw yourself and Diomed 
 In Ilion, on your Greekish embassy. 
 
 Ulysses. Sir, I foretold you then what would ensue. 
 My prophecy is but half his journey yet ; 
 For yonder walls, that pertly front your town, 
 
142 Troilus and Cressida [Act iv 
 
 Yond towers, whose wanton tops do buss the clouds, 
 Must kiss their own feet. 
 
 Hector. I must not believe you. 221 
 
 There they stand yet, and modestly I think 
 The fall of every Phrygian stone will cost 
 A drop of Grecian blood ; the end crowns all, 
 And that old common arbitrator, Time, 
 Will one day end it. 
 
 Ulysses. So to him we leave it. 
 
 Most gentle and most valiant Hector, welcome. 
 After the general, I beseech you next 
 To feast with me and see me at my tent. 
 
 Achilles. I shall forestall thee, Lord Ulysses, thou ! — 
 Now, Hector, I have fed mine eyes on thee ; 231 
 
 I have with exact view perus'd thee, Hector, 
 And quoted joint by joint. 
 
 Hector. Is this Achilles ? 
 
 Achilles. I am Achilles. 
 
 Hector. Stand fair, I pray thee ; let me look on thee. 
 
 Achilles. Behold thy fill. 
 
 Hector. Nay, I have done already. 
 
 Achilles. Thou art too brief ; I will the second time. 
 As I would buy thee, view thee limb by limb. 
 
 Hector. O, like a book of sport thou 'It read me o'er; 
 But there 's more in me than thou understand'st. 240 
 Why dost thou so oppress me with thine eye ? 
 
 Achilles. Tell me, you heavens, in which part of his 
 body 
 Shall I destroy him t whether there, or there, or there ? 
 
Scene V] Troilus and Cressida 143 
 
 That I may give the local wound a name 
 And make distinct the very breach whereout 
 Hector's great spirit flew ; answer me, heavens ! 
 
 Hector. It would discredit the blest gods, proud man, 
 To answer such a question. Stand again. 
 Think'st thou to catch my life so pleasantly 
 As to prenominate in nice conjecture 250 
 
 Where thou wilt hit me dead ? 
 
 Achilles. I tell thee, yea. 
 
 Hector. Wert thou an oracle to tell me so, 
 I 'd not believe thee. Henceforth guard thee well ; 
 For I '11 not kill thee there, nor there, nor there, 
 But, by the forge that stithied Mars his helm, 
 I '11 kill thee every where, yea, o'er and o'er. — 
 You wisest Grecians, pardon me this brag ; 
 His insolence draws folly from my lips. 
 But I '11 endeavour deeds to match these words. 
 Or may I never — 
 
 Ajax. Uo not chafe thee, cousin. — 260 
 
 And you, Achilles, let these threats alone 
 Till accident or purpose bring you to 't. 
 You may have every day enough of Hector 
 If you have stomach ; the general state, I fear. 
 Can scarce entreat you to be odd with him. 
 
 Hector. I pray you, let us see you in the field ; 
 We have had pelting wars since you refus'd 
 The Grecians' cause. 
 
 Achilles. Dost thou entreat me, Hector ? 
 
 To-morrow do I meet thee, fell as death ; 
 
144 Troilus and Cressida [Act iv 
 
 To-night all friends. 
 
 Hector. Thy hand upon that match. 270 
 
 Agamemnon. First, all you peers of Greece, go to my 
 tent ; 
 There in the full convive we ; afterwards, 
 As Hector's leisure and your bounties shall 
 Concur together, severally entreat him. — 
 Beat loud the tambourines, let the trumpets blow, 
 That this great soldier may his welcome know. 
 
 \Exeunt all except Troilus and Ulysses. 
 
 Troilus. My Lord Ulysses, tell me, I beseech you, 
 In what place of the field doth Calchas keep ? 
 
 Ulysses. At Menelaus' tent, most princely Troilus ; 
 There Diomed doth feast with him to-night, 280 
 
 Who neither looks upon the heaven nor earth, 
 But gives all gaze and bent of amorous view 
 On the fair Cressid. 
 
 Troilus. Shall I, sweet lord, be bound to you so 
 much. 
 After we part from Agamemnon's tent, 
 To bring me thither ? 
 
 Ulysses. You shall command me, sir. 
 
 As gentle tell me, of what honour was 
 This Cressida in Troy ? Had she no lover there 
 That wails her absence ? 
 
 Troilus. O, sir, to such as boasting show their scars 
 A mock is due ! Will you walk on, my lord ? 291 
 
 She was belov'd, she lov'd ; she is, and doth ; 
 But still sweet love is food for fortune's tooth. [Exeunt. 
 
The Death of Hector 
 
 ACT V 
 
 Scene I. The Grecian Camp. Before Achilles'' Tent 
 
 Enter Achilles and Patroclus 
 
 Achilles. I '11 heat his blood with Greekish wine 
 to-night, 
 
 TROILUS — lO 
 
 145 
 
146 Troilus and Cressida [Act V 
 
 Which with my scimitar I '11 cool to-morrow. — 
 Patroclus, let us feast him to the height, 
 Patroclus. Here comes Thersites. 
 
 Enter Thersites 
 
 Achilles. How now, thou core of envy ! 
 
 Thou crusty batch of nature, what 's the news ? 
 
 Thersites. Why, thou picture of what thou seemest, 
 and idol of idiot-worshippers, here 's a letter for thee. 
 
 Achilles. From whence, fragment ? 
 
 Thersites. Why, thou full dish of fool, from Troy. 
 
 Patroclus. Who keeps the tent now ? 10 
 
 Thersites. The surgeon's box or the patient's 
 wound. 
 
 Patroclus. Well said, adversity ! and what need 
 these tricks ? 
 
 Thersites. Prithee, be silent, boy, I profit not by 
 thy talk ; thou art thought to be Achilles' male varlet. 
 
 Patroclus. Male varlet, you rogue ! what's that? 17 
 
 Thersites. Why, his masculine whore. Now, the 
 rotten diseases of the south, the guts-griping, rup- 
 tures, catarrhs, loads o' gravel i' the back, lethargies, 
 cold palsies, raw eyes, dirt-rotten livers, wheezing 
 lungs, bladders full of imposthume, sciaticas, lime- 
 kilns i' the palm, incurable bone-ache, and the riv- 
 elled fee-simple of the tetter, take and take again 
 such preposterous discoveries ! 
 
 Patroclus. Why, thou damnable box of envy, thou, 
 what meanest thou to curse thus ? 
 
Scene I] Troilus and Cressida 147 
 
 Thersites. Do I curse thee ? 
 
 Patroclus. Why, no, you ruinous butt, you whore- 
 son indistinguishable cur, no. 30 
 
 Thersites. No! why art thou then exasperate, 
 thou idle immaterial skein of sleave-silk, thou green 
 scarcenet flap for a sore eye, thou tassel of a prodi- 
 gal's purse, thou ? Ah, how the poor world is pes- 
 tered with such waterflies, diminutives of nature ! 
 
 Patroclus. Out, gall ! 
 
 Thersites. Finch-egg ! 
 
 Achilles. My sweet Patroclus, I am thwarted quite 
 From my great purpose in to-morrow's battle. 
 Here is a letter from Queen Hecuba, 40 
 
 A token from her daughter, my fair love, 
 Both taxing me and gaging me to keep 
 An oath that I have sworn. I will not break it. 
 Fall Greeks, fail fame, honour or go or stay. 
 My major vow lies here, this I '11 obey. — 
 Come, come, Thersites, help to trim my tent ; 
 This night in banqueting must all be spent. — 47 
 
 Away, Patroclus ! \^Exeunt Achilles and Patroclus. 
 
 Thersites. With too much blood and too little 
 brain, these two may run mad ; but, if with too 
 much brain and too little blood they do, I '11 be a 
 curer of madmen. Here 's Agamemnon, an honest 
 fellow enough, and one that loves quails, but he has 
 not so much brain as ear-wax ; and the goodly trans- 
 formation of Jupiter there, his brother, the bull, — 
 the primitive statue and oblique memorial of cuck- 
 
148 Troilus and Cressida [Act V 
 
 olds, a thrifty shoeing-horn in a chain hanging at his 
 brother's leg, — to what form but that he is should wit 
 larded with malice and malice forced with wit turn 
 him to ? To an ass were nothing, he is both ass and 
 ox ; to an ox were nothing, he is both ox and ass. 
 To be a dog, a mule, a cat, a fitchew, a toad, a liz- 
 ard, an owl, a puttock, or a herring without a roe, I 
 would not care ; but to be Menelaus ! I would con- 
 spire against destiny. Ask me not what I would be 
 if I were not Thersites, for I care not to be the louse 
 of a lazar, so I were not Menelaus. — Hey-day ! 
 spirits and fires ! 
 
 Enter Hector, Troilus, Ajax, Agamemnon, Ulysses, 
 Nestor, Menelaus, and Diomedes, with lights 
 
 Agamemnon. We go wrong, we go wrong. 
 Ajax. No, yonder 't is ; 
 
 There, where we see the lights. 
 
 Hector. I trouble you. 70 
 
 Ajax. No, not a whit. 
 
 Ulysses. Here comes himself to guide you. 
 
 Re-enter Achilles 
 
 Achilles. Welcome, brave Hector ; welcome, princes 
 
 all. 
 Agamemnon. So now, fair Prince of Troy, I bid 
 
 good night. 
 Ajax commands the guard to tend on you. 
 
 Hector. Thanks and good night to the Greeks' 
 
 general. 
 
Scene I] Troilus and Cressida 149 
 
 Menelaus. Good night, my lord. 
 
 Hector. Good night, sweet Lord Menelaus. 
 
 Thersites. Sweet draught ; sweet, quoth 'a ! sweet 
 sink, sweet sewer. 
 
 Achilles. Good night and welcome, both at once, to 
 those 
 That go or tarry. 
 
 Agame7nnon. Good night. 
 
 \_Exeunt Agamemnon and Menelaus. 
 
 Achilles. Old Nestor tarries ; and you too, Diomed, 
 Keep Hector company an hour or two. 
 
 Diomedes. I cannot, lord ; I have important business. 
 The tide whereof is now. — Good night, great Hector. 
 
 Hector. Give me your hand. 
 
 Ulysses. [Aside to Troilus'] Follow his torch ; he goes 
 to Calchas' tent. 86 
 
 I '11 keep you company. 
 
 Troilus. Sweet sir, you honour me. 
 
 Hector. And so, good night. 
 
 [Exit Diomedes ; Ulysses and Troilus following. 
 
 Achilles. Come, come, enter my tent. 
 
 [Exeunt Achilles^ Hector, Ajax, and Nestor. 
 
 Thersites. That same Diomed 's a false-hearted 
 rogue, a most unjust knave ; I will no more trust 
 him when he leers than , I will a serpent when he 
 hisses. He will spend his mouth and promise, like 
 Brabbler the hound, but when he performs, astron- 
 omers foretell it ; it is prodigious, there will come 
 some change ; the sun borrows of the moon, when 
 
T 50 Troilus and Cressida [Act V 
 
 Diomed keeps his word. I will rather leave to see 
 Hector than not to dog him ; they say he keeps a 
 Trojan drab, and uses the traitor Calchas' tent. I '11 
 
 after. — Nothing but lechery ! all incontinent varlets ! 
 
 \Exit. 
 
 Scene II. The Same. Before Calchas' s Tent 
 Enter Diomedes 
 
 Diomedes. What, are you up here, ho ? speak. 
 
 Calchas. [ Within'\ Who calls ? 
 
 Diomedes. Diomed. — Calchas, I think. — Where's 
 your daughter? 
 
 Calchas. \Within'\ She comes to you. 
 
 Enter Troilus and Ulysses, at a distance ; after them, 
 
 Thersites 
 
 Ulysses. Stand where the torch may not discover us. 
 
 Enter Cressida 
 
 Troilus. Cress id comes forth to him. 
 Diomedes. How now, my charge ! 
 
 Cressida. Now, my sweet guardian ! Hark, a word 
 with you. [ Whispers. 
 
 Troilus. Yea, so familiar ! 
 Ulysses. She will sing any man at first sight. 
 Thersites. And any man may sing her, if he can 
 take her cliff ; she 's noted. n 
 
 Dio7nedes. Will you remember ? 
 Cressida. Remember ! yes. 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida 151 
 
 Diojnedes. Nay, but do, then. 
 And let your mind be coupled with your words. 
 
 Troilus. What should she remember ? 
 
 Ulysses. List. 
 
 Cressida. Sweet honey Greek, tempt me no more to 
 folly. 
 
 Thersites. Roguery ! 
 
 Diomedes. Nay, then, — 20 
 
 Cressida. I '11 tell you what, — 
 
 Diomedes. Foh, foh ! come, tell a pin ; you are for- 
 sworn. 
 
 Cressida. In faith, I cannot ; what would you have 
 me do? 
 
 Thersites. A juggling trick, — to be secretly open. 
 
 Diojnedes. What did you swear you would bestow on 
 me ? 
 
 Cressida. I prithee, do not hold me to mine oath ; 
 Bid me do any thing but that, sweet Greek. 
 
 Diomedes. Good night. 
 
 Troilus. Hold, patience ! 
 
 Ulysses. How now, Trojan ! 30 
 
 Cressida. Diomed, — 
 
 Diomedes. ■ No, no, good night ; I '11 be your fool no 
 more. 
 
 Troilus. Thy better must. 
 
 Cressida. Hark, one word in your ear. 
 
 Troilus. O plague and madness ! 
 
 Ulysses. You are mov'd, prince ; let us depart, I pray 
 you, 
 
152 Troilus and Cressida [Act v 
 
 Lest your displeasure should enlarge itself 
 To wrathful terms. This place is dangerous, 
 The time right deadly ; I beseech you, go. 
 
 Troilus. Behold, I pray you ! 
 
 Ulysses. Nay, good my lord, go off. 
 
 You flow to great distraction ; come, my lord. 41 
 
 TroiliLs. I pray thee, stay. 
 
 Ulysses. You have not patience ; come. 
 
 Troilus. I pray you, stay ; by hell and all hell's tor- 
 ments, 
 I will not speak a word ! 
 
 Diomedes. And so, good night. 
 
 Cressida. Nay, but you part in anger. 
 
 Troilus. Doth that grieve thee ? 
 
 wither'd truth ! 
 
 Ulysses. Why, how now, my lord ! 
 
 Troilus. By Jove, 
 
 1 will be patient. 
 
 Cressida. Guardian ! — why, Greek ! 
 
 Diomedes. Foh, foh ! adieu ; you palter. 
 
 C^'essida. In faith, I do not ; come hither once again. 
 
 Ulysses. You shake, my lord, at something ; will you 
 go? 50 
 
 You will break out. 
 
 Troilus. She strokes his cheek ! 
 
 Ulysses. Come, come. 
 
 Troilus. Nay, stay; by Jove, I will not speak a 
 word. 
 There is between my will and all offences 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida 153 
 
 A guard of patience ; stay a little while. 
 
 Thersites. How the devil Luxury, with his fat 
 rump and potato-finger, tickles these together ! Fry, 
 lechery, fry ! 
 
 Diomedes. But will you, then ? 
 
 Cressida. In faith^ I will, la ; never trust me else. 
 
 Diomedes. Give me some token for the surety of it. 
 
 Cressida. I '11 fetch you one. \^Exit. 
 
 Ulysses. You have sworn patience. 
 
 Troilus. Fear me not, sweet lord ; 
 
 I will not be myself, nor have cognition 63 
 
 Of what I feel : I am all patience. 
 
 Re-enter Cressida 
 
 Thersites. Now the pledge ; now, now, now ! 
 
 Cressida. Here, Diomed, keep this sleeve. 
 
 Troilus. O beauty ! where is thy faith ? 
 
 Ulysses. My lord, — 
 
 Troilus. I will be patient ; outwardly I will. 
 
 Cressida. You look upon that sleeve ; behold it well. 
 He lov'd me — O false wench ! — Give 't me again. 
 
 Diomedes. Whose was 't ? 71 
 
 Cressida. It is no matter, now I have 't again. 
 I will not meet with you to-morrow night ; 
 I prithee, Diomed, visit me no more. 
 
 Thersites. Now she sharpens. — Well said, whetstone. 
 
 Diojnedes. I shall have it. 
 
 Cressida. What, this ? 
 
 Diomedes. Ay, that. 
 
154 Troilus and Cressida [Act v 
 
 Cressida. O, all you gods ! — O pretty, pretty pledge ! 
 Thy master now lies thinking in his bed 
 Of thee and me, and sighs, and takes my glove 
 And gives memorial dainty kisses to it, 80 
 
 As I kiss thee. Nay, do not snatch it from me ; 
 He that takes that doth take my heart withal. 
 
 Diomedes. I had your heart before, this follows it. 
 
 Troilus. I did swear patience. 
 
 Cressida. You shall not have it, Diomed ; faith, you 
 shall not, 
 I '11 give you something else. 
 
 Diomedes. I will have this. Whose was it ? 
 
 Cressida. It is no matter. 
 
 Diomedes. Come, tell me whose it was. 
 
 Cressida. 'Twas one's that lov'd me better than 
 you will. 
 But, now you have it, take it. 
 
 Diomedes. Whose was it ? 90 
 
 Cressida. By all Diana's waiting-women yond, 
 And by herself, I will not tell you whose. 
 
 Diomedes. To-morrow will I wear it on^my helm. 
 And grieve his spirit that dares not challenge it. 
 
 Troilus. Wert thou the devil, and wor'st it on thy horn. 
 It should be challeng'd. 
 
 Cressida. Well, well, 't is done, 't is past, — and yet 
 it is not ; 
 I will not keep my word. 
 
 Diomedes. Why, then, farewell ; 
 
 Thou never shalt mock Diomed again. 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida 155 
 
 Cressida. You shall not go. — One cannot speak a 
 word 100 
 
 But it straight starts you. 
 
 Diomedes. I do not like this fooling. 
 
 Thersites. Nor I, by Pluto ; but that that likes not 
 you pleases me best. 
 
 Diomedes. What, shall I come ? the hour ? 
 
 Cressida. Ay, come. — O Jove ! — do come. — I 
 shall be plagu'd. 
 
 Diomedes. Farewell till then. 
 
 Cressida. Good night ; I prithee, come. — 
 
 S^Exit Diomedes. 
 Troilus, farewell ! one eye yet looks on thee, 
 But with my heart the other eye doth see. 
 Ah, poor our sex ! this fault in us I find, 
 The error of our eye directs our mind. no 
 
 What error leads must err ; O, then conclude 
 Minds sway'd by eyes are full of turpitude ! \^Exit. 
 
 Thersites. A proof of strength she could not pub- 
 lish more. 
 Unless she said, ' My mind is now turn'd whore.' 
 
 Ulysses. All 's done, my lord. 
 
 Troilus. It is. 
 
 Ulysses. Why stay we, then ? 
 
 Troilus. To make a recordation to my soul 
 Of every syllable that here was spoke. 
 But if I tell how these two did co-act. 
 Shall I not lie in publishing a truth ? 
 Sith yet there is a credence in my heart, 120 
 
156 Troilus and Cressida [Act V 
 
 An esperance so obstinately strong, 
 That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears, 
 As if those organs had deceptions functions, 
 Created only to calumniate. 
 Was Cressid here ? 
 
 Ulysses. I cannot conjure, Trojan. 
 
 Troilus. She was not, sure. 
 
 Ulysses. Most sure she was. 
 
 Troilus. Why, my negation hath no taste of mad- 
 ness. 
 
 Ulysses, Nor mine, my lord ; Cressid was here but 
 now. 
 
 Troilus. Let it not be believ'd for womanhood ! 
 Think, we had mothers ; do not give advantage 130 
 
 To stubborn critics — apt, without a theme. 
 For depravation — to square the general sex 
 By Cressid 's rule ; rather think this not Cressid. 
 
 Ulysses. What hath she done, prince, that can soil 
 our mothers ? 
 
 Troilus. Nothing at all, unless that this were she. 
 
 Thersites. Will he swagger himself out on 's own 
 eyes ? 
 
 Troilus. This she ? no, this is Diomed's Cressida. 
 If beauty have a soul, this is not she ; 
 If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimony, 140 
 
 If sanctimony be the gods' delight. 
 If there be rule in unity itself. 
 This is not she. O madness of discourse 
 That cause sets up with and against itself 1 
 
Scene II] Troilus and Cressida 157 
 
 Bifold authority ! where reason can revolt 
 
 Without perdition, and loss assume all reason 
 
 Without revolt. This is, and is not, Cressid. 
 
 Within my soul there doth conduce a fight 
 
 Of this strange nature, that a thing inseparate 
 
 Divides more wider than the sky and earth, 150 
 
 And yet the spacious breadth of this division 
 
 Admits no or if ex for a point as subtle 
 
 As Ariachne's broken woof to enter. 
 
 Instance, O instance ! strong as Pluto's gates ; 
 
 Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven. 
 
 Instance, O instance ! strong as heaven itself ; 
 
 The bonds of heaven are slipp'd, dissolv'd, and loos'd, 
 
 And with another knot, five-finger-tied. 
 
 The fractions of her faith, orts of her love, 
 
 The fragments, scraps, the bits and greasy relics 160 
 
 Of her o'er-eaten faith, are bound to Diomed. 
 
 Ulysses. May worthy Troilus be half attach'd 
 With that which here his passion doth express ? 
 
 Troilus. Ay, Greek, and that shall be divulged well 
 In characters as red as Mars his heart 
 Inflam'd with Venus ; never did young man fancy 
 With so eternal and so fix'd a soul. 
 Hark, Greek : as much as I do Cressid love, 
 So much by weight hate I her Diomed. 
 That sleeve is mine that he '11 bear on his helm ; 170 
 Were it a casque compos 'd by Vulcan's skill. 
 My sword should bite it. Not the dreadful spout 
 Which shipmen do the hurricano call, 
 
158 Troilus and Cressida [Act V 
 
 Constring'd in mass by the almighty sun, 
 Shall dizzy with more clamour Neptune's ear 
 In his descent than shall my prompted sword 
 Falling on Diomed. 
 
 Thersites. He'll tickle it for his concupy. 
 
 Troihis. O Cressid ! O false Cressid ! false, false, 
 false ! 
 Let all untruths stand by thy stained name, 180 
 
 And they '11 seem glorious. 
 
 Ulysses. O, contain yourself ; 
 
 Your passion draws ears hither. 
 
 Enter tEneas 
 
 ^neas. I have been seeking you this hour, my lord. 
 Hector, by this, is arming him in Troy ; 
 Ajax, your guard, stays to conduct you home. 
 
 Troilus. Have with you, prince. — My courteous 
 lord, adieu. — 
 Farewell, revolted fair ! — and, Diomed, 
 Stand fast, and wear a castle on thy head ! 
 
 Ulysses. I '11 bring you to the gates. 
 
 Troilus. Accept distracted thanks. 190 
 
 \_Exeunt Troilus., ySneas, and Ulysses. 
 
 Thersites. 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 
 intelligence of this whore ; the parrot will not do 
 more for an almond than he for a commodious 
 drab. Lechery, lechery ! still, wars and lechery ! 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida 159 
 
 nothing else holds fashion. A burning devil take 
 them ! \^Exit. 
 
 Scene III. Ti-oy. Before Priam's Palace 
 
 Enter Hector and Andromache 
 
 Andromache. When was my lord so much ungently 
 temper'd 
 To stop his ears against admonishment ? 
 Unarm, unarm, and do not fight to-day. 
 
 Hector. You train me to offend you ; get you in. 
 By all the everlasting gods, I '11 go ! 
 
 Androjuache. My dreams will, sure, prove ominous 
 
 to the day. 
 Hector. No more, I say. 
 
 Enter Cassandra 
 
 Cassandra. Where is my brother Hector ? 
 
 Andromache. 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 10 
 
 Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night 
 Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of slaughter. 
 Cassandra. O, 't is true. 
 
 Hector. Ho ! bid my trumpet sound ! 
 
 Cassandra. No notes of sally, for the heavens, sweet 
 
 brother. 
 Hector. Be gone, I say ; the gods have heard me 
 swear. 
 
i6o Troilus and Cressida [Act v 
 
 Cassandra. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish 
 vows ; 
 They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd 
 Than spotted livers in the sacrifice. 
 
 Andromache. O, be persuaded ! do not count it 
 holy 
 To hurt by being just ; it is as lawful, 20 
 
 For we would give much, to so use violent thefts 
 And rob in the behalf of charity. 
 
 Cassandra. It is the purpose that makes strong the 
 vow. 
 But vows to every purpose must not hold. 
 Unarm, sweet Hector. 
 
 Hector. Hold you still, I say ; 
 
 Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate. 
 Life every man holds dear ; but the brave man 
 Holds honour far more precious-dear than life. — 
 
 Enter Troilus 
 
 How now, young man ! mean'st thou to fight to-day ? 
 
 Androfnache. Cassandra, call my father to persuade. 
 
 [Exit Cassandra. 
 
 Hector. No, faith, young Troilus, doff thy harness, 
 youth ; 31 
 
 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. 
 Unarm thee, go, and doubt thou not, brave boy, 
 I '11 stand to-day for thee and me and Troy. 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida i6i 
 
 Troilus. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you 
 Which better fits a lion than a man. 
 
 Hector. What vice is that, good Troikis ? chide me 
 for it. 
 
 Troilus: When many times the captive Grecian falls, 
 Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword, 41 
 
 You bid them rise and live. 
 
 Hector. O, 't is fair play. 
 
 Troilus. Fool's play, by heaven. Hector. 
 
 Hector. How now ! how now ! 
 
 Troilus. For the love of all the gods, 
 
 Let 's leave the hermit pity with our mothers 
 And, when we have our armours buckled on, 
 The venom'd vengeance ride upon our swords, 
 Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth ! 
 
 Hector. Fie, savage, fie ! 
 
 Troilus. Hector, then 't is wars. 
 
 Hector. Troilus, I would not have you fight to-day. 
 
 Troilus. Who should withhold me ? •i\ 
 
 Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars 
 Beckoning with fiery truncheon my retire ; 
 Not Priamus and Hecuba on knees, 
 Their eyes o'ergalled with recourse of tears ; 
 Nor you, my brother, with your true sword drawn, 
 Oppos'd to hinder me, should stop my way 
 But by my ruin. 
 
 Re-enter Cassandra, with Priam 
 
 Cassandra. Lay hold upon him, Priam, hold him fast. 
 
 TROILUS — II 
 
1 62 Troilus and Cressida [Act v 
 
 He is thy crutch ; now if thou lose thy stay, 60 
 
 Thou on him leaning, and all Troy on thee. 
 Fall all together. 
 
 Priam. Come, Hector, come, go back. 
 
 Thy wife hath dream 'd, thy mother hath had visions, 
 Cassandra doth foresee, and I myself 
 Am like a prophet suddenly enrapt 
 To tell thee that this day is ominous ; 
 Therefore, come back. 
 
 Hector. vEneas is afield \ 
 
 And I do stand engag'd to many Greeks, 
 Even in the faith of valour, to appear 
 This morning to them. 
 
 Priam. Ay, but thou shalt not go. 70 
 
 Hector. I must not break my faith. 
 You know me dutiful ; therefore, dear sir, 
 Let me not shame respect, but give me leave 
 To take that course by your consent and voice 
 Which you do here forbid me, royal Priam. 
 
 Cassandra. O Priam, yield not to him ! 
 
 Andromache. Do not, dear father. 
 
 Hector. Andromache, I am offended with you ; 
 Upon the love you bear me, get you in. 
 
 \Exit Andromache. 
 
 Troilus. This foolish, dreaming, superstitious girl 
 Makes all these bodements. 
 
 Cassandra. O, farewell, dear Hector ! 
 
 Look, how thou diest ! look, how thy eye turns pale ! 
 Look, how thy wounds do bleed at many vents ! 82 
 
Scene III] Troilus and Cressida 163 
 
 Hark, how Troy roars ! how Hecuba cries out ! 
 How poor Andromache shrills her dolours forth ! 
 Behold, distraction, frenzy, and amazement, 
 Like witless antics, one another meet, 
 And all cry, ' Hector ! Hector 's dead ! O Hector ! ' 
 Troilus. Away ! Away ! 
 
 Cassandi-a. Farewell! — yet, soft! — Hector, I take 
 my leave ; 
 Thou dost thyself and all our Troy deceive. \Exit. 
 
 Hector. You are amaz'd, my liege, at her exclaim. 91 
 Go in and cheer the town ; we '11 forth and fight, 
 Do deeds worth praise, and tell you them at night. 
 Priam. Farewell ; the gods with safety stand about 
 thee! 
 [Exeunt severally Priam aiid Hector. Alarums. 
 Troilus. They are at it, hark ! — Proud Diomed, 
 believe, 
 I come to lose my arm or win my sleeve. 
 
 Enter Pandarus 
 
 Pandarus. Do you hear, my lord ? do you hear ? 
 
 Troilus. What now ? 
 
 Pandarus. Here 's a letter come from yond poor 
 girl. 
 
 Troilus. Let me read. loi 
 
 Pa7idarus. A whoreson tisick, a whoreson rascally 
 tisick so troubles me, and the fooHsh fortune of this 
 girl, and what one thing, what another, that I shall 
 leave you one o' these days ; and I have a rheum in 
 
164 Troilus and Cressida [Act v 
 
 mine eyes too, and such an ache in my bones that, 
 unless a man were cursed, I cannot tell what to think 
 on 't. — What says she there ? 
 
 Troilus. Words, words, mere words, no matter from 
 the heart ; 
 The effect doth operate another way. — 
 
 \Tearing the letter. 
 Go, wind, to wind, there turn and change together. — 
 My love with words and errors still she feeds, 112 
 
 But edifies another with her deeds. [^Exeunt severally. 
 
 Scene IV. Plains between Troy and the Grecian Camp 
 
 Alarums. Excursions. Enter Thersites 
 
 Thersites. Now they are clapper-clawing one an- 
 other ; I '11 go look on. That dissembling abominable 
 varlet, Diomed, has got that same scurvy doting fool- 
 ish young knave's sleeve of Troy there in his helm. I 
 would fain see them meet ; that that same young Tro- 
 jan ass, that loves the whore there, might send that 
 Greekish whoremasterly villain, with the sleeve, back 
 to the dissembling luxurious drab, of a sleeveless er- 
 rand. O' the t' other side, the policy of those crafty 
 swearing rascals — that stale old mouse-eaten dry 10 
 cheese, Nestor, and that same dog-fox, Ulysses — is 
 not proved worth a blackberry. They set me up, in 
 policy, that mongrel cur, Ajax, against that dog of 
 as bad a kind, Achilles ; and now is the cur Ajax 
 prouder than the cur Achilles, and will not arm to- 
 
Scene IV] Troilus and Cressida 165 
 
 day, whereupon the Grecians begin to proclaim bar- 
 barism and policy grows into an ill opinion. — Soft ! 
 here comes sleeve and t' other. 
 
 Enter Diomedes, Troilus following 
 
 Troilus. Fly not ; for shouldst thou take the river 
 Styx 
 I would swim after. 
 
 Dio7?iedes. Thou dost miscall retire ; 20 
 
 I do not fly, but advantageous care 
 Withdrew me from the odds of multitude. 
 Have at thee ! 
 
 Thersites. Hold thy whore, Grecian ! — now for thy 
 whore, Trojan ! — now the sleeve, now the sleeve ! 
 
 \_Exeunt Troilus and Diomedes., fighting. 
 
 Enter Hector 
 
 Hector. What art thou, Greek ? art thou for Hector's 
 match ? 
 Art thou of blood and honour ? 
 
 Thersites. No, no, I am a rascal ; a scurvy railing 
 knave, a very filthy rogue. 29 
 
 Hector. I do believe thee ; live. \_Exit. 
 
 Thersites. God-a-mercy, that thou wilt believe 
 me ; but a plague break thy neck for frighting me ! 
 What 's become of the wenching rogues ? I think 
 they have swallowed one another. I would laugh 
 at that miracle ; yet, in a sort, lechery eats itself. 
 I '11 seek them. [Exit. 
 
t66 Troilus and Cressida [Act v 
 
 Scene V. Another Part of the Plains 
 Enter Diomedes and a Servant 
 
 Diomedes. Go, go, my servant, take thou Troilus' 
 horse ; 
 Present the fair steed to my lady Cressid. 
 Fellow, commend my service to her beauty ; 
 Tell her I have chastis'd the amorous Trojan, 
 And am her knight by proof. 
 
 Servant. I go, my lord. [Exit. 
 
 Enter Agamemnon 
 
 Agamemno7i. Renew, renew ! The fierce Polydamas 
 Hath beat down Menon ; bastard Margarelon 
 Hath Doreus prisoner, 
 And stands colossus-wise, waving his beam, 
 Upon the pashed corses of the kings lo 
 
 Epistrophus and Cedius ; Polyxenes is slain, 
 Amphimachus and Thoas deadly hurt, 
 Patroclus ta'en or slain, and Palamedes 
 Sore hurt and bruis'd. The dreadful Sagittary 
 Appals our numbers. Haste we, Diomed, 
 To reinforcement, or we perish all. 
 
 Enter Nestor 
 
 Nestor. Go, bear Patroclus' body to Achilles ; 
 And bid the snail-pac'd Ajax arm for shame. 
 There is a thousand Hectors in the field. 
 Now here he fights on Galathe his horse, 20 
 
Scene V] Troilus and Cressida 167 
 
 And there lacks work ; anon he 's there afoot, 
 And there they fly or die, Hke scaled sculls 
 Before the belching whale ; then is he yonder, 
 xAnd there the strawy Greeks, ripe for his edge, 
 Fall down before him, like the mower's swath. 
 Here, there, and every where, he leaves and takes, 
 Dexterity so obeying appetite 
 That what he will he does, and does so much 
 That proof is call'd impossibility. 
 
 Enter Ulysses 
 
 Ulysses. O, courage, courage, princes ! great Achilles 
 Is arming, weeping, cursing, vowing vengeance. 31 
 
 Patroclus' wounds have rous'd his drowsy blood, 
 Together with his mangled Myrmidons, 
 That noseless, handless, hack'd and chipp'd, come to 
 
 him, 
 Crying on Hector. Ajax hath lost a friend 
 And foams at mouth, and he is arm'd and at it, 
 Roaring for Troilus, who hath done to-day 
 Mad and fantastic execution, 
 Engaging and redeeming of himself 
 With such a careless force and forceless care 40 
 
 As if that luck, in very spite of cunning, 
 Bade him win all. 
 
 Enter Ajax 
 
 Ajax. Troilus ! thou coward Troilus 1 \Exit. 
 
 Diomedes. Ay, there, there. 
 
 Nestor. So, so, we draw together. 
 
1 68 Troilus and Cressida [Actv 
 
 Enter Achilles 
 
 Achilles. Where is this Hector ? 
 
 Come, come, thou boy-queller, show thy face ; 
 Know what it is to meet Achilles angry. 
 Hector ! where 's Hector ? I will none but Hector. 
 
 \Exeunt. 
 
 Scene VI. Another Part of the Plains 
 
 Enter Ajax 
 
 Ajax. Troilus, thou coward Troilus, show thy head ! 
 
 Enter Diomedes 
 
 Diomedes. Troilus, I say ! where 's Troilus ? 
 Ajax. What wouldst thou ? 
 
 Diomedes. I would correct him. 
 Ajax. Were I the general, thou shouldst have my 
 office 
 Ere that correction. — Troilus, I say ! what, Troilus ! ' > 
 
 Enter Troilus 
 
 Troilus. O traitor Diomed ! turn thy false face, thou 
 traitor, 
 And pay thy life thou ow'st me for my horse ! 
 Diomedes. Ha, art thou there ? 
 Ajax. I '11 fight with him alone ; stand, Diomed. 
 Diomedes. He is my prize ; I will not look upon, lo 
 Troilus. Come, both you cogging Greeks ; have at 
 you both ! \_Exeunt, jighting. 
 
Scene VIJ Troilus and Cressida 169 
 
 Enter Hector 
 
 Hector. Yea, Troilus ? O, well fought, my youngest 
 brother ! 
 
 Enter Achilles 
 
 Achilles. Now do I see thee, ha ! have at thee, 
 Hector ! 
 
 Hector. Pause, if thou wilt. 
 
 Achilles. I do disdain thy courtesy, proud Trojan. 
 Be happy that my arms are out of use. 
 My rest and negligence befriends thee now. 
 But thou anon shalt hear of me again ; 
 Till when, go seek thy fortune. \Exit^ 
 
 Hector. Fare thee well ; 
 
 I would have been much more a fresher man, 20 
 
 Had I expected thee. — How now, my brother ! 
 
 Re-enter Troilus 
 
 Troilus. Ajax hath ta'en ^neas ; shall it be ? 
 No, by the flame of yonder glorious heaven. 
 He shall not carry him ; I '11 be ta'en too. 
 Or bring him off. — Fate, hear me what I say ! 
 I reck not though I end my life to-day. \^Exit. 
 
 Enter one in sumptuous armour 
 
 Hector. Stand, stand, thou Greek ; thou art a goodly 
 mark. — 
 No ? wilt thou not ? I like thy armour well ; 
 I '11 frush it and unlock the rivets all 29 
 
170 Troilus and Cressida , [Act V 
 
 But I '11 be master of it. — Wilt thou not, beast, abide ? 
 Why, then fly on, I '11 hunt thee for thy hide. \Exeunt. 
 
 Scene VII. Another Part of the Plains 
 
 Enter Achilles, with Myrmidons 
 
 Achilles. Come here about me, you my Myrmidons ; 
 Mark what I say. Attend me where I wheel. 
 Strike not a stroke, but keep yourselves in breath, 
 And when I have the bloody Hector found, 
 Empale him with your weapons round about ; 
 In fellest manner execute your arms. 
 P'ollow me, sirs, and my proceedings eye. — 
 It is decreed Hector the great must die. \Exeunt. 
 
 ^/^/^r Menelaus and Vakis, fighting : then Thersites 
 
 Thersites. The cuckold and the cuckold-maker 
 are at it. Now, bull ! now, dog ! 'Loo, Paris, 'loo ! 
 now my double-henned sparrow ! 'loo, Paris, 'loo ! 
 The bull has the game ; ware horns, ho ! 12 
 
 \_Exeunt Paris and Menelaus. 
 
 Enter Margarelon 
 
 Margarelon. Turn, slave, and fight. 
 
 Thersites. What art thou ? 
 
 Maj'garelon. A bastard son of Priam's. 
 
 Thersites. I am a bastard too ; I love bastards. 
 I am a bastard begot, bastard instructed, bastard in 
 mind, bastard in valour, in every thing illegitimate. 
 
Scene VIII] Troilus and Cressida 171 
 
 One bear will not bite another, and wherefore should 
 one bastard ? Take heed, the quarrel 's most ominous 
 to us ; if the son of a whore fight for a whore, he 
 tempts judgment. Farewell, bastard. \Exit. 
 
 Margarelon. The devil take thee, coward ! \^Exit. 
 
 Scene VIII. Another Part of the Plains 
 Enter Hector 
 
 Hector. Most putrefied core, so fair without, 
 Thy goodly armour thus hath cost thy life. 
 Now is my day's work done ; I '11 take good breath. 
 Rest, sword ; thou hast thy fill of blood and death. 
 
 \_Puts off his helmet and hangs his shield behind him. 
 
 Enter Achilles and Myrmidons 
 
 Achilles. Look, Hector, how the sun begins to set. 
 How ugly night comes breathing at his heels ! 
 Even with the vail and darking of the sun. 
 To close the day up, Hector's life is done. 
 
 Hector. I am unarm'd ; forego this vantage, Greek. 
 
 Achilles. Strike, fellows, strike ; this is the man I 
 seek. — [Hector falls. 
 
 So, Ilion, fall thou next ! now, Troy, sink down ! n 
 
 Here lies thy heart, thy sinews, and thy bone. — 
 On, Myrmidons, and cry you all amain, 
 Achilles hath the mighty Hector slain. — 
 
 \A retreat sounded. 
 Hark ! a retire upon our Grecian part. 
 
172 Troilus and Cressida [Act V 
 
 Myrmidon. The Trojan trumpets sound the Uke, my 
 
 lord. 
 Achilles. The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the 
 earth, 
 And, stickler-like, the armies separates. 
 My half-supp'd sword, that frankly would have fed, 
 Pleas'd with this dainty bait, thus goes to bed. — 20 
 
 \Sheathes his sword. 
 Come, tie his body to my horse's tail ; 
 Along the field I will the Trojan trail. [Exeunt. 
 
 Scene IX. Another Part of the Plains 
 
 Enter Agamemnon, Ajax, Menelaus, Nestor, Dio- 
 MEDES, and others, marching. Shouts within 
 
 Agamemnon. Hark ! hark ! what shout is that ? 
 Nestor. Peace, drums ! 
 [ Within'] Achilles ! Achilles ! Hector 's slain ! Achilles ! 
 Diomedes. The bruit is. Hector 's slain, and by 
 
 Achilles. 
 Ajax. If it be so, yet bragless let it be ; 
 Great Hector was a man as good as he. 
 
 Agamemnon. March patiently along. Let one be 
 sent 
 To pray Achilles see us at our tent. — 
 If in his death the gods have us befriended, 
 Great Troy is ours and our sharp wars are ended. 10 
 
 \_Exeunt marching. 
 
Scene X] Troilus and Cressida 173 
 
 Scene X. Another Part of the Plains 
 
 Enter ^neas and Trojans 
 
 ufEneas. Stand, ho ! yet are we masters of the field. 
 Never go home ; here starve we out the night. 
 
 Enter Troilus 
 
 Troilus, Hector is slain. 
 
 All. Hector ! the gods forbid ! 
 
 Troilus. He 's dead, and at the murtherer's horse's 
 tail, 
 In beastly sort, dragg'd through the shameful field. — 
 Frown on, you heavens, effect your rage with speed ! 
 Sit, gods, upon your thrones, and smile at Troy ! 
 I say, at once let your brief plagues be mercy, 
 And linger not our sure destructions on ! 
 
 yEneas. My lord, you do discomfort ail the host. 10 
 
 Troilus. You understand me not that tell me so. 
 I do not speak of flight, of fear, of death. 
 But dare all imminence that gods and men 
 Address their dangers in. Hector is gone ! 
 Who shall tell Priam so, or Hecuba ? 
 Let him that will a screech-owl aye be call'd, 
 Go in to Troy, and say there, ' Hector 's dead ! ' 
 There is a word will Priam turn to stone, 
 Make wells and Niobes of the maids and wives, 
 Cold statues of the youth, and, in a word, 20 
 
 Scare Troy out of itself. But, march away ; 
 Hector is dead, there is no more to say. 
 
174 Troilus and Cressida [Act v 
 
 Stay yet. — You vile abominable tents, 
 
 Thus proudly pight upon our Phrygian plains, 
 
 Let Titan rise as early as he dare, 
 
 I '11 through and through you ! — and, thou great-siz'd 
 
 coward, 
 No space of earth shall sunder our two hates ; 
 I'll haunt thee like a wicked conscience still 
 That mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy's thoughts. — 
 Strike a free march to Troy ! with comfort go ; 30 
 
 Hope of revenge shall hide our inward woe. 
 
 \Exeunt y£neas and Trojans. 
 
 As Troilus is going out, enter, from the other side, 
 
 Pandarus 
 
 Pandarus. But hear you, hear you ! 
 Troilus. Hence, broker-lackey ! ignomy and shame 
 Pursue thy life and li\'e aye with thy name ! S^Exit. 
 
 Pandarus. A goodly medicine for my aching 
 bones ! — O world ! world ! world ! thus is the poor 
 agent despised ! O traitors and bawds, how ear- 
 nestly are you set a-work, and how ill requited ! why 
 should our endeavour be so loved and the perform- 
 ance so loathed ? what verse for it ? what instance 
 for it ? Let me see : 41 
 
 Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing- 
 Till he hath lost his honey and his sting ; 
 And being once subdued in armed tail, 
 Sweet honey and sweet notes together fail. 
 Good traders in the flesh, set this in your painted cloths : 
 
Scene X] Troilus and Cressida 175 
 
 As many as be here of pander's hall, 
 
 Your eyes, half out, weep out at Pandar's fall ; 
 
 Or if you cannot weep, yet give some groans, 
 
 Though not for me, yet for your aching bones. 50 
 
 Brethren and sisters of the hold-door trade. 
 
 Some two months hence my will shall here be made ; 
 
 It should be now, but that my fear is this, — 
 
 Some galled goose of Winchester would hiss. 
 
 Till then I '11 sweat and seek about for eases, 
 
 And at that time bequeath you my diseases. [Exit. 
 
NOTES 
 
Chaucer 
 
 NOTES 
 
 Introduction 
 
 The Metre of the Play. — It should be understood at the 
 outset that metre, or the mechanism of verse, is something alto- 
 gether distinct from the music of verse. The one is matter of rule, 
 the other of taste and feeling. Music is not an -absolute necessity 
 of verse ; the metrical form is a necessity, being that which consti- 
 tutes the verse. 
 
 The plays of Shakespeare (with the exception of rhymed pas- 
 sages, and of occasional songs and interludes) are all in unrhymed 
 or blank verse ; and the normal form of this blank verse is illus- 
 trated by i. I. I of the present play : "Call here my varlet ; 
 I'll unarm again." 
 
 This line, it will be seen, consists of ten syllables, with the even 
 syllables (2d, 4th, 6th, 8th, and loth) accented, the odd syllables 
 (ist, 3d, etc.) being unaccented. Theoretically, it is made up of 
 five Z^^^" of two syllables each, with the accent on the second sylla- 
 ble. Such a foot is called an iambus (plural, iambuses, or the Latin 
 iambi), and the form of verse is called iambic. 
 
 This fundamental law of Shakespeare's verse is subject to certain 
 modifications, the most important of which are as follows : — 
 
 179 
 
i8o Notes 
 
 1. After the tenth syllable an unaccented syllable (or even two 
 such syllables) may be added, forming what is sometimes called a 
 female line ; as in i. i. 8 : " Fierce to their skill, and to their fierce- 
 ness valiant." The rhythm is complete with the first syllable of 
 valiant, the second being an extra eleventh syllable. In i. 2. 6 
 (" He chid Andromache and struck his armourer ") we have two 
 extra syllables, the rhythm being complete with the first syllable of 
 armourer. 
 
 2. The accent in any part of the verse may be shifted from an 
 even to an odd syllable ; as in i. i. 5 : " Let him to field ; Troilus, 
 alas! hath none ; " and i. I. 8, quoted above. In both lines the 
 accent is shifted from the second to the first syllable. This change 
 occurs very rarely in the tenth syllable, and seldom in the fourth ; 
 and it is not allowable in two successive accented syllables. 
 
 3. An extra unaccented syllable may occur in any part of the 
 line ; as in i. i. 30 and 106. In 30 the second syllable of suffer- 
 ance is superfluous ; and in 106 that of Ilium. In i. I. 60, the 
 second syllable of spirit is superfluous as often. 
 
 4. Any unaccented syllable, occurring in an even place immedi- 
 ately before or after an even syllable which is properly accented, is 
 reckoned as accented for the purposes of the verse ; as, for instance, 
 in i. I. 10 and 12. In 10 the last syllable of ignorance, and in 12 
 that of infancy are metrically equivalent to accented syllables ; 
 and so with the last syllable of Pandarus (twice) in i. I. 50, 
 and the last of comparison in i. i. 58. 
 
 5. In many instances in Shakespeare words must be lengthened 
 in order to fill out the rhythm : — 
 
 {a) In a large class of words in which e or i is followed by 
 another vowel, the e or i is made a separate syllable ; as ocean, 
 opinion, soldier, patience, partial, marriage, etc. For instance, 
 in this play, i. 3. 134 ("Of pale and bloodless emulation") appears 
 to have only nine syllables, but emulation has five syllables ; and 
 in i. 3, 166 oration is a quadrisyllable. Preventions in i. 3. 181 
 and execution in i. 3. 210 are similarly lengthened. This length^ 
 
Notes i8i 
 
 ening occurs most frequently at the end of the line, but in ii. 3. 
 178 ("and that great minds, of partial indulgence" — a female 
 line) par-tial is a trisyllable. 
 
 {J}) Many monosyllables ending in r, re, rs, res, preceded by a 
 long vowel or diphthong, are often made dissyllables ; 2^, fare, fear, 
 dear, fire, hair, hour, more, your, etc. If the word is repeated 
 in a verse it is often both monosyllable and dissyllable ; as in 
 M. of V. iii. 2. 20 : " And so, though yours, not yours. Prove it 
 so," where either yours (preferably the first) is a dissyllable, the 
 other being a monosyllable. In y. C. iii. i. 172: "As fire drives 
 out fire, so pity, pity," the first fire is a dissyllable. 
 
 (r) Words containing / or r, preceded by another consonants 
 are often pronounced as if a vowel came between or after the two ; 
 as in i. 3. 30 : " Lies rich in virtue and unmingled [unmingl(e)ed] ; 
 T. of S. ii. I. 158: "While she did call me rascal fiddler" 
 [fiddl(e)er] ; All's Well, iii. 5. 43: "If you will tarry, holy pil- 
 grim" [pilg(e)rimj; C. of E. v. i. 360: "These are the parents 
 of these children " [childeren, the original form of the word] ; 
 W. T. iv. 4. 76: "Grace and remembrance [rememb(e) ranee] 
 be to you both!" etc. See also on secrets (iv. 2. 72). 
 
 (^/) Monosyllabic exclamations {ay, O, yea, nay^ hail, etc.) and 
 monosyllables otherwise emphasized are similarly lengthened ; also 
 certain longer words; as cotnniandeiiient va. M. of V. (iv. I. 451); 
 safety (trisyllable) in Ham. i. 3. 21 ; business (trisyllable, as 
 originally pronounced) va J. C. iv. i. 22 : "To groan and sweat 
 under the business" (so in several other passages); and other 
 words mentioned in the notes to the plays in which they occur. 
 
 6. Words are also contracted for metrical reasons, like plurals 
 and possessives ending in a sibilant, as, balance, horse (for horses 
 and horse's'), princess, sense, marriage (plural and possessive), 
 image, etc. So with many adjectives in the superlative (Vikefair'st 
 in i. 3. 265, dear'st in i. 3. 337, stern' st, kindest, secret' st, etc.), and 
 certain other words. 
 
 7. The accent of words is also varied in many instances for met- 
 
1 82 Notes 
 
 rical reasons. Thus we find both revenue and revenue (see on ii. 
 2. 206) in the first scene of the M. N. D. (lines 6 and 158), cdnfine 
 (noun) and confine, mdture and mature, pursue and pursue, 
 distinct (see on iv. 4. 45) and distinct, etc. 
 
 These instances of variable accent must not be confounded with 
 those in which words were uniformly accented differently in the 
 time of Shakespeare ; like aspect (see on i. 3. 92), advertised (ii. 2. 
 211), humane (iv. i. 20), sinister (iv. 5. 28), candnize (ii. 3. 202), 
 sepulchre (verb), persever (never persevere^, perseveratice (iii. 3. 
 150), rheumatic, etc. 
 
 8. Alexandrines, or verses of twelve syllables, with six accents, 
 occur here and there in the plays. They must not be confounded 
 with female lines with two extra syllables (see on i above) or with 
 other lines in which two extra unaccented syllables may occur. 
 
 9. Incomplete verses, of one or more syllables, are scattered 
 through the plays. See i. I. 65, i. 3. 37, 77, 126, 141, 148, etc. 
 
 10. Doggerel measure is used in the earliest comedies (Z. Z. L. 
 and C. of E. in particular) in the mouths of comic characters, 
 but nowhere else in those plays, and never anywhere in plays 
 written after 1598. 
 
 11. Rhyme OQ.c\y.x% frequently in the early plays, but diminishes 
 with comparative regularity from that period until the latest. 
 Thus, in L. L. L. there are about iioo rhyming verses (about 
 one-third of the whole number), in M. N. D. about 900, in Rich, 
 II. and R. and f. about 500 each, while in Cor. and A. and C. 
 there are only about 40 each, in Temp, only two, and in W. T. 
 none at all, except in the chorus introducing act iv. Songs, inter- 
 ludes, and other matter not in ten-syllable measure are not included 
 in this enumeration. In the present play out of almost 1900 ten- 
 syllable verses, only about 180 are in rhyme. 
 
 Alternate rhymes are found only in the plays written before 1599 
 or 1600. In M. of V. there are only four lines at the end of iii. 2. 
 In Much Ado and A. Y. I., we also find a few lines, but none 
 at all in subsequent plays. 
 
Notes 183 
 
 Rhymed couplets, or " rhyme-tags," are often found at the end of 
 scenes ; as in 15 of the 24 scenes of the present play. In Ham. 14 
 out of 20 scenes, and in Macb. 21 out of 28, have such " tags ; " but 
 in the latest plays they are not so frequent. In Temp., for instance, 
 there is but one, and in W. T. none. 
 
 12. In this edition of Shakespeare, the final -ed of past tenses 
 and participles in verse is printed -d when the word is to be pro- 
 nounced in the ordinary way; as in coticKd, line 41, and drowned, 
 line 51, of the first scene. But when the metre requires that the -ed 
 be made a separate syllable, the e is retained ; as in wedged, line 37, 
 where the word is a dissyllable, and returned, line 114 (a tri- 
 syllable). The only variation from this rule is in verbs like cry, die, 
 sue, etc., the -ed of which is very rarely, if ever, made a separate 
 syllable. 
 
 Shakespeare's Use of Verse and Prose in the Plays. — This 
 is a subject to which the critics have given very little attention, 
 but it is an interesting study. In this play we find scenes entirely 
 in verse (none entirely in prose) and others in which the two are 
 mixed. In general, verse is used for what is distinctly poetical, 
 and prose for what is not poetical. The distinction, how- 
 ever, is not so clearly marktd in the earlier as in the later plays. 
 The second scene of M. of V., for instance, is in prose, because 
 Portia and Nerissa are talking about the suitors in a familiar and 
 playful way ; but in T. G. of V., where Julia and Lucetta are dis- 
 cussing the suitors of the former in much the same fashion, the 
 scene is in verse. Dowden, commenting on Rich. II., remarks : 
 " Had Shakespeare written the play a few years later, we may be 
 certain that the gardener and his servants (iii. 4) would not have 
 uttered stately speeches in verse, but would have spoken homely 
 prose, and that humour would have mingled with the pathos of the 
 scene. The same remark may be made with reference to the sub- 
 sequent scene (v. 5) in which his groom visits the dethroned king 
 in the Tower," Comic characters and those in low life generally 
 speak in prose in the later plays, as Dowden intimates, but in the 
 
1 84 Notes 
 
 very earliest ones doggerel verse is much used instead. See on 10 
 above. 
 
 The change from prose to verse is well illustrated in the third 
 scene of M. of V. It begins with plain prosaic talk about a busi- 
 ness matter ; but when Antonio enters, it rises at once to the higher 
 level of poetry. The sight of Antonio reminds Shylock of his 
 hatred of the Merchant, and the passion expresses itself in verse, 
 the vernacular tongue of poetry. 
 
 The reasons for the choice of prose or verse are not always so 
 clear as in this instance. "We are seldom puzzled to explain the 
 prose, but not unfrequently we meet with verse where we might 
 expect prose. As Professor Corson remarks (^Introduction to Shake- 
 speare, 1889), " Shakespeare adopted verse as the general tenor of 
 his language, and therefore expressed much in verse that is within 
 the capabilities of prose ; in other words, his verse constantly en- 
 croaches upon the domain of prose, but his prose can never be said 
 to encroach upon the domain of verse." If in rare instances we 
 think we find exceptions to this latter statement, and prose actually 
 seems to usurp the place of verse, I believe that careful study of 
 the passage will prove the supposed exception to be apparent rather 
 than real. 
 
 Some Books for Teachers and Students. — A few out of the 
 many books that might be commended to the teacher and the 
 critical student are the following : Halliwell-Phillipps's Outlines of 
 the Life of Shakespeare (7th ed. 1887); Sidney Lee's Life of Shake- 
 speare (1898; for ordinary students the abridged ed. of 1899 is 
 preferable); 'KoMe.''?, Life of Shakespeare {k^O/^^; Schmidt's ^/za/^<?- 
 speare Lexicon (3d ed. 1902) ; Littledale's ed. of Dyce's Glossary 
 (1902); Bartlett's Concordance to Shakespeare (1895); Abbott's 
 Shakespearian Grammar (1873); Furness's "New Variorum" ed. 
 of the plays (encyclopaedic and exhaustive) ; Dowden's Shakspere : 
 His Mind and Art (American ed. 1881); Hudson's Life, Art, and 
 Characters of Shakespeare (revised ed. 1882); Mrs. Jameson's 
 Characteristics of Women (several eds. ; some with the title, 
 
Notes 185 
 
 Shakespeare Heroines) ; Ten Brink's Five Lectures on Shakespeare 
 (1895); Boas's Shakespeare and His Predecessors (1895); Dyer's 
 Folk-lore of Shakespeare (American ed. 1884); Gervinus's Shake- 
 ^eare Co??i7?ienlaries (Bunnett's translation, 1875); Wordsworth's 
 Shakespeare's Knowledge of the Bible (3d ed. 1 880); Elson's 
 Shakespeare in Music (1901). 
 
 Abbreviations in the Notes. — The abbreviations of the 
 names of Shakespeare's plays will be readily understood ; as T. N. 
 for Ttvelfth Night, Cor. for Coriolanus, j Hen. VI. for The Third 
 Part of King Henry the Sixth, etc. P. P. refers to The Passionate 
 Pilgrim; V. and A. to Venus and Adonis; L. C. to Lover'' s 
 Complaint ; and Sonn. to the Sonnets. 
 
 Other abbreviations that hardly need explanation are Cf {confer, 
 compare), Fol. (following), Id. {idem, the same), and Prol. (pro- 
 logue). The numbers of the lines in the references (except for 
 the present play) are those of the " Globe " edition (the cheapest 
 and best edition of Shakespeare in one compact volume), which is 
 now generally accepted as the standard for line-numbers in works 
 of reference (Schmidt's Lexicon, Abbott's Grammar, Dowden's 
 Primer, the publications of the New Shakespere Society, etc.). 
 
Cassandra 
 
 PROLOGUE 
 
 The Prologue is not found in the quarto. Ritson and Steevens 
 (1793) were the first to suggest that it is not Shakespeare's — an 
 opinion in which the modern critics generally concur. White re- 
 marks : " Its style is not unlike Chapman's ; and he was just the 
 man to be called upon (perhaps by S. himself) to write it. May it 
 not be his ? " 
 
 2. Orgulous. Proud, haughty (Yx. orgueilleux^ ; " orgillous " in 
 the folios. The word is found in Froissart and other old writers. 
 
 4. Fraught. Laden ; participle of the old verb fraught ( Cyvib. 
 i. I. 126), now used only in a figurative sense. Cf. fraughtage in 
 13 below. 
 
 6. Crownets. Coronets ; used by S. in A. and C. iv. 2. 27 and 
 V. 2. 91. 
 
 8. Immures. Walls, fortifications. The noun occurs nowhere 
 else in S. ; but the verb is used seven times. See Z. L. L. iii. i. 26, 
 iv. 3. 328, M. of V. ii. 7. 52, etc. 
 
 13. Fraughtage. Freight ; used by S. in C. of E. iv. I. 87. 
 
 15. Brave, Fine, handsome ; as in i. 2. 191 below. 
 
 186 
 
Scene I] Notes 187 
 
 Six-gated city. Theobald reads " six gates i' th' city." The 
 names of the gates are those given by Caxton. 
 
 18. Fulfilling. Theobald prints " full-filling," which is what the 
 word means : filling full their sockets. Wiclif has, in Matthew, v. 
 6 : " Blessid be thei that hungren and thirsten rigtwisnesse : for 
 thei schal be fulfillid ; " and in Luke, xvi. 21 : " to be fulfillid of the 
 crummys that fellen down fro the riche mannes boord." Black- 
 stone cites the Prayer-Book : " fulfilled with grace and benedic- 
 tion." Corresponsive is used by S. only here, and correspondent 
 only in Temp. i. 2. 297. 
 
 19. Sperr. An old word =: shut, bar ; the emendation of Theo- 
 bald for the " Stirre " of the folio. It is used by Spenser, Warner, 
 and others. Knight quotes Chaucer, T. and C. : " For when he 
 saw her dores sperred all." 
 
 23. A prologue arnt'd, etc. " I come here to speak the pro- 
 logue, and come in armour ; not defying tKe audience, in confi- 
 dence of either the author's or actor's abilities, but merely in a 
 character suited to the subject — in a dress of war, before a war- 
 like play" (Johnson). The speaker of the prologue usually wore 
 a black cloak. 
 
 27. Vaunt. Beginning, first part ; from the Fr. avant. Cf. 
 vaunt-couriers in Lear, iii. 2. 5. 
 
 ACT I 
 
 Scene I. — Neither the quarto nor the folio text is divided into 
 acts and scenes. 
 
 I. Varlet. Servant, footman (the modern 7/«/f/f) ; as in Hen. V. 
 iv. 2. 2 : " My horse ! varlet ! laquais ! ha ! " Cf. the original 
 use of knave = boy, servant. 
 
 6. Gear. Business, matter. See P. and J. ii. 4. 107, M. of V. 
 i. I. no, ii. 2. 176, etc. 
 
 7. To. In addition to. Cf. MaclK in. i. ^2: — 
 
1 88 Notes [Act I 
 
 " And, to that dauntless temper of his mind, 
 He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour," etc, 
 
 lo. Fonder. More foolish ; the usual meaning of fond in S. 
 
 14. Meddle no7' make. A proverbial expression. Cf. Much Ado, 
 iii. 3. 56 : " the less you meddle or make with them, why, the more 
 is your honesty." 
 
 19. Bolting. Sifting ; as in W. T. iv. 4. 375. It is used figura- 
 tively in Hen. V. ii. 2. 137 and Cor. iii. i. 322. 
 
 30. Blench at sufferance. Flinch at suffering. Cf. Ham. ii. 
 2. 626, etc. See also ii. 2. 68 below. 
 
 33. So, traitor ! etc. The quarto reads : " So traitor then she 
 comes when she is thence ; " and the folio : " So (Traitor) then 
 she comes, when she is thence," The correction is due to Rowe 
 and commends itself. 
 
 39. Storm. The early eds. have " scorne ; " corrected by Rowe. 
 
 53. Indrench^d. Used by S. only here. 
 
 55. Pour''st in the open ulcer, etc. Hudson adopts the conjecture 
 of Barry and Lettsom that this line should be put after 63, changing 
 Pour''st to " Pour'd." This seems plausible at first thought, but it 
 makes a confusion of metaphor in the latter part of the passage ; 
 the ideas of an ulcer and a gash made by a knife being mixed. 
 Besides this change necessitates others quite as bold, but hardly to 
 be justified when the original text gives a consistent meaning. The 
 whole passage reads thus in Hudson : — 
 
 " I tell thee, I am mad 
 In Cressid's love: thou answer'st, She is fair ; 
 Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice 
 Handiest in thy discourse ; — (O that her hand, 
 In whose comparison all whites are ink. 
 Writing their own reproach ; to whose soft seizure 
 And spirit of sense the cygnet's down is harsh 
 As the hard hand of ploughman !) — this thou tell'st me, 
 And true thou tell'st me, when I say I love her : 
 But, saying thus, instead of oil and balm 
 
Scene I] Notes 189 
 
 Pour'd in the open ulcer of my heart, 
 
 Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given me 
 
 The knife that made it." 
 
 This may serve as a summary of the changes that have been pro- 
 posed by the editors and commentators, for it combines nearly all 
 of them. 
 
 57. O, that her hand, etc. Various changes have been made by 
 the editors, but none is needed. Malone notes the admiration of 
 S. for the beauty of a woman's hand. Cf. R. and J. iii. 3. 35, 
 W. T. iv. 4. 373, R. ofL. 393, etc. 
 
 59. To whose soft seizure, etc. White thinks it possible that we 
 should read : — 
 
 " to whose soft seizure 
 And spirit of sense the cygnet's down is harsh ; " 
 
 but adds : " But I am quite sure that rather than make so violent 
 a change we must accept the following construction : * to whose 
 soft seizure the cygnet's down and spirit of sense is harsh,' etc." 
 Schmidt well defines spirit of sense as " sense or sensibility itself; " 
 which seems to be its meaning in iii. 3. 106 below, where it is ap- 
 plied to the eye. Seizure (= clasp) seems a strong word here ; as 
 in K.John, iii. I. 241, where it refers to hands joined in betrothal. 
 The only other instance in S. (if it be his) is in P. /*. 152. 
 
 For to = compared to, cf. Ham. i. 2. 140, i. 5. 52, etc. 
 
 70. She has the mends in her own hands. This seems to have 
 been a proverbial expression. Steevens quotes, among other in- 
 stances of it, Beaumont and Fletcher, The Wild Goose Chase: 
 " The mends are in my own hands, or the surgeon's ; " and Burton, 
 Anat. of Melancholy : " if men will be jealous in such cases, the 
 mends is in their own hands, they must thank themselves." The 
 meaning seems generally to be that one " must make the best of 
 it ; " and that is probably the sense here. There can be no reason 
 for printing " 'mends," as some editors do. 
 
 80. As fair on Friday as Helen is on Sunday. As fair in her 
 
190 Notes [Act I 
 
 plainest dress as Helen in her best ; apparently alluding, as Clarke 
 remarks, to the Roman Catholic idea of making Friday a day of 
 abstinence and Sunday a day of festivity. 
 
 85. To stay behind her father. According to Caxton, as quoted 
 by Steevens, Calchas was " a great learned bishop of Troy," who 
 was sent by Priam to consult the Oracle at Delphi concerning the 
 result of the war threatened by Agamemnon. As soon as he 
 had made "his oblations and demands for them of Troy, Apollo 
 answered unto him saying : Calchas, Calchas, beware that thou 
 returne not back again to Troy ; but goe thou with Achylles, unto 
 the Greekes, and depart never from them, for the Greekes shall 
 have victorie of the Troyans by the agreement of the Gods." 
 Chaucer tells the story in much the same way. 
 
 loi. Tetchy. Touchy; spelt " teachy " in the early eds. Cf. 
 Rich. III. iv. 4. 168 and R. and J. i. 3. 32. 
 
 102. Stubborn- chaste. The hyphen was inserted by Theobald and 
 is generally adopted. The early eds. have a comma instead. 
 
 103. Daphne. For other allusions to the nymph, see M. N. D. 
 ii, I. 231 and T. of S. ind. 2. 59. 
 
 106. Ilium. The poetical name for the city of Troy; but S. 
 seems to use it for the palace of Priam, as Caxton does in his De- 
 struction of Troy, where the palace is thus described : " In this 
 open space of the city, upon a rock, King Priamus did build his 
 rich palace named Ilion, that was one of the richest and strongest 
 in all the world. It was of height five hundred paces, besides the 
 height of the towers, whereof there was great plenty, so high, as it 
 seemed to them that saw from far, they reacht Heaven. And in 
 this palace King Priamus did make the richest Hall that was at 
 that time in all the world : within which was his throne ; and the 
 table whereupon he did eat, and held his estate among his nobles, 
 princes, lords, and barons, was of gold and silver, precious stones, 
 and of ivory." 
 
 III. Sorts. Suits, is fitting; as in 3 Hen. VI. ii. i. 209 : "Why 
 then it sorts, brave warriors," etc. 
 
Scene II] Notes 19 1 
 
 116. A scar. A wound; as often. Cf. C. of E. v. I. 193, 
 2 Heji. VI. i. I. 87, etc. 
 
 Scene II. — Knight remarks : "This scene, in which Pandarus 
 so characteristically describes the Trojan leaders, is founded upon 
 a similar scene in Chaucer, in which the same personage recounts 
 the merits of Priam's two valiant sons : — 
 
 ' Of Hector needeth nothing for to tell ; 
 In all this world there n' is a better knight 
 Than he, that is of worthiness the well, 
 And he well more of virtue hath than might ; 
 This knoweth many a wise and worthy knight : 
 And the same praise of Troilus I say : 
 God help me, so I know not suche tway. 
 
 ' Pardie, quod she, of Hector there is soth, 
 And of Troilus the same thing trow I, 
 For dredelessi men telleth that he doth 
 In armes day by day so worthily, 
 And bear 'th him here at home so gently 
 To every wight, that alle praise hath he 
 Of them that me were levest praised be. 2 
 
 ' Ye say right soth, I wis, quod Pandarus, 
 For yesterday whoso had with him been 
 Mighten have wonder 'd upon Troilus ; 
 For never yet so thick a swarm of been 3 
 Ne flew, as Greekes from him gonnen fleen, 
 And through the field in every wightes ear 
 There was no cry but " Troilus is there ! " 
 
 ' Now here, now there, he hunted them so fast, 
 There n ' as but Greekes blood and Troilus ; 
 Now him he hurt, and him all down he cast ; 
 A)'-e where he went it was arrayed thus : 
 He was their death, and shield and life for us, 
 That as that day there durst him none withstand 
 While that he held his bloody sword in hand.' " 
 
 * Doubtless. 2 Whose praise I should most desire. 3 Bees. 
 
192 Notes [Act I 
 
 4. Battle. Changed by Pope to "fight;" but the second syl- 
 lable of battle may be an extra one. In either case patience is a 
 trisyllable. 
 
 7. Like as. Cf. Sonn. 60. I : " Like as the waves make towards 
 the pebbled shore," etc. Husbajidry = thrift, economy. Cf. 
 Macb. ii. 4 : — 
 
 " There 's husbandry in heaven ; 
 Their candles are all out," etc. 
 
 8. Harness' d light. It has been disputed whether this means 
 that he was armed promptly or in light armour. I am inclined to 
 accept the former explanation. For the adverbial use of light, cf. 
 M. N. D.N. I. 401 : " Hop as light as bird from brier," etc. 
 
 9. Where every flower, ^\.z. For the figure (evidently suggested 
 by the dewdrops), cf. M. N. D. iii. i. 204 : " And when she weeps, 
 weeps every little flower." 
 
 12. Noise. Rumour, report ; as in A. and C. i. 2. 145 : 
 "Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of this, dies instantly," 
 We still speak of a thing as being " noised abroad " (Z. L. L. 
 ii. I. 22). 
 
 15. Per se. By himself, of himself; pre-eminent. It was 
 applied in spelling to every letter which formed a separate syllable, 
 and hence came to be used figuratively of objects standing alone in 
 distinction or excellence. Chaucer calls Cresseide " the floure and 
 a per se of Troie and Grece." Cf. the Mirror for Magistrates: 
 " Beholde me, Baldwine, A per se of my age." Nares quotes H. 
 Petowe, in Brydges's Restituta : — 
 
 " And singing moume Eliza's funerall, 
 The £ per se of all that ere hath beene." 
 
 Dekker has, in the title of one of his pamphlets : " a new crier, 
 called O per se O," etc. 
 
 20. Additions. Qualities, characteristics ; literally, titles. Cf. 
 ii. 3. 249 below. 
 
Scene II] Notes 193 
 
 23, Crushed into folly. " Confused and mingled with folly, so 
 as that they make one mass together" (Johnson). 
 
 27. Against the hair. Or, as we say, " against the grain." For 
 this use of hair, see M. W. ii. 3. 41 : " against the hair of your 
 profession." Joints — limbs, as often ; here used for the pun that 
 follows. 
 
 29. Briareus. The only allusion to the old hundred-armed 
 giant in S. For other references to the many-eyed Argus, see 
 L. L. L. iii. I. 201 and M. of V. \. i. 230. 
 
 34. Disdaiji. Ignoring as in R. of L. 521: "hang their heads 
 at this disdain." 
 
 75. Condition. Hanmer reads "On condition;" which is of 
 course the meaning. Cf. Lord Cromivell, v. 4 : " Would 't were 
 otherwise, condition, I spent half the wealth I have." For walk- 
 ing barefoot, etc., cf. 0th. iv. 2. 38 : "I know a lady in Venice 
 would have walked barefoot to Palestine for a touch of his 
 nether lip." 
 
 78. Tifne must friend or ejtd. A proverbial expression. 
 
 87. Wit. The early eds. have " will ; " corrected by Rowe. 
 
 96. Favour. Face ; as often. Cf. iv. 5. 213 below. 
 
 114. Merry Greek. A play upon the expression, which was 
 often := reveller, boon companion. Cf. iv. 4. 56 below. 
 
 116. Compassed window. Bow-window, or bay-window, 
 
 119. A tapster'' s arithmetic. Which was limited to his small 
 dealings with his customers. Cf. L. L. L. i. 2. 40 : "I am ill at 
 reckoning ; it fitteth the spirit of a tapster." 
 
 125. Lifter. A play on the word as applied to a thief. Cf. the 
 modern shoplifter. 
 
 133. Valiantly. Singer conjectures "daintily;" but Cressida 
 uses the word as bravely was commonly used ( = finely), and ironi- 
 cally withal. 
 
 135. An V were a cloud in autumn. That is, like a cloud boding 
 bad weather, or more like a frown than a smile. 
 
 143. Ldle. There is an obvious play on addle. 
 TROILUS — 13 
 
194 Notes [Act I 
 
 145. Marvellous. The early eds. have "maruel's" or "mar- 
 vel^s ; " corrected by Pope. 
 
 147. Without the rack. Cf. M. of V. iii. 2. 23 : — 
 
 " Bassanio. Let me choose ; 
 
 For as I am I live upon the rack. 
 
 Portia. Upon the rack, Bassanio ! then confess 
 What treason there is mingled with your love." 
 
 153. With mill-stones. " To weep mill-stones " was a proverbial 
 expression = not to weep at all. Cf. /■^ich. HI. i. 3. 354 : " Your 
 eyes drop mill-stones when fools' eyes fall tears ;" and Id. i. 4. 
 
 246: — 
 
 " Bid Gloster think on this, and he will weep. 
 
 I Murderer. Ay, mill-stones ; as he lesson'd us to weep." 
 
 166. Two and fifty. So in all the early eds., both here and 
 below. Most of the modern editors follow Theobald in changing 
 two to " one ; " but, as White remarks, the error is probably Shake- 
 speare's. He was perhaps thinking for the moment of the famil- 
 iar use of two and fifty for an indefinite numVjer ; as in T. of S. i. 
 2. 81, etc. Knight remarks that " the Margarelon of the romance- 
 writers, w^ho makes his appearance in act v., is one of the addi- 
 tions to the old classical family ; " but others take the ground that 
 he was reckoned among the fifty. 
 
 173. Forked. That is, horned ; the trite joke about the horns 
 of the cuckold, as in i. i. 117 above. Cf. 0th. iii. 3. 276. 
 
 176. It passed. That is, passed description. Cf. M. W. i. I. 
 310, iv. 2. 127, etc. Cressida plays upon the word in her reply. 
 
 183. Born in April Cf. A. and C. iii. 2. 43 : "The April 's 
 in her eyes," etc. 
 
 185. Against May. That is, just before May. 
 
 191. Bravely. Finely, admirably. See on 133 above, and cf. 
 brave just below. 
 
 199. Shrewd. " Shrow'd " in the early eds. Cf. Z. L. L. v. 2. 
 46 : *' beshrew all shrows," etc. Steevens quotes Lydgate's descrip- 
 tion of Antenor : — 
 
Scene II] Notes 195 
 
 " Copious in words, and one that much time spent 
 To jest, whenas he was in companie, 
 So driely, that no man could it espie : 
 
 And therewith held his countenance so well, 
 That every man received great content 
 
 To hear him speake, and pretty jests to tell, 
 When he was pleasant and in merriment : 
 For tho' that he most commonly was sad, 
 Yet in his speech some jest he always had." 
 
 202. Proper /nan of person. Comely man in person ; a com- 
 mon use of proper. Of= as regards ; as often. 
 
 207. llie rich shall have more. That is, you '11 be all the more 
 a noddy ; apparently alluding to the Scriptural expression, "To him 
 that hath shall be given," combined with the old joke about giving 
 the nod, and thus indirectly calling a person a noddy. Cf. T. G. of 
 V. i. I. 119: — 
 
 " Proteus. But what said she ? 
 
 Speed. [^First nodding^ Ay. 
 
 Proteus. Nod — ay — why, that's noddy. 
 
 Speed. You mistook, sir: I say she did nod, and you asked me if 
 she did nod ; and I say ay. 
 
 Proteus. And that set together is noddy. 
 
 Speed. Now you have taken the pains to set it together, take it for 
 your pains." 
 
 221. By God^s lid. That is, by God's eye ; often contracted 
 into ^slid! as in M. W. iii. 4. 24 and T. N. iii. 4. 427. 
 
 253. An eye. The quarto reading ; the folios have "money." 
 
 264. Camel. Cf. ii. i. 55 below. 
 
 270. Suchlike. The quarto reading ; " so forth " in the folios, 
 
 273. No date in the pie. Dates were a common ingredient in 
 the pastry of the poet's time. Cf. R. and J. iv. 4. 2 : "They call 
 for dates and quinces in the pastry." 
 
 276. At what ward. In what posture of defence. Cf. i. Hen. 
 IV. ii. 4. 215 : "Thou know'st my old ward ; here I lay," etc. 
 
196 Notes [Act I 
 
 279. Honesty. Chastity ; as often. Cf. M. IV. i. 3. 55, ii. i. 88, 
 ii. 2. 75, etc. 
 
 281. At a thousand watches. Ever on the watch. 
 
 285. Watch you for telling. Watch against your telling, see that 
 you don't tell. 
 
 291. There he U7iarins him. Omitted in the folios. 
 
 293. Doubt. Suspect, fear ; as often, 
 
 296. To bring, uncle ? " I '11 be with you to bring " was an 
 idiomatic expression = I '11 briifg as good as I get, I'll be even with 
 you. Cf. The Spanish Tragedy : — 
 
 "And heere He haue a fling at him, that's flat ; 
 And, Balthazar, lie be with thee to bring ; " 
 
 and Hey wood. Fair Maid of the West : " And He go furnish my- 
 self with some better accoutriments, and He be with you to bring 
 presently." 
 
 307. That she. That woman. Qi. Hen. Kii. I. 83: "the only 
 she ; " Cy^nb. i. 6. 40 : " two such shes," etc. 
 
 310. Achievement is com??iand, etc. That is, after we have ob- 
 tained what we desire, we play the masters ; before it, the suitors. 
 Cf. achieve — win, gain ; z% in T. of S. \. I. 161: "If I achieve 
 not this young modest girl," etc. 
 
 311. My hear f s content, &\.c. True love is the foundation of my 
 heart's happiness. 
 
 Scene III. — 7. Conflux. Confluence, flowing together; used 
 by S. only here. 
 
 9. Tortive. Twisted, distorted. It is the only instance of the 
 word in S. ; and the same is true of errant. 
 
 11. Suppose. The noun occurs also in T. of S.v. i. 120 and 
 T. A. I. I. 440. 
 
 12. Troy walls. Cf. " Pisa walls " ( T. of S. ii. i. 369), " Corioli 
 walls" {Cor. i. 8. 8), etc. 
 
 13. Sith. Since. Cf. v. 2. 120 below. 
 
Scene III] Notes 197 
 
 14. Record. S. accents the noun on either syllable, according 
 to the measure. 
 
 15. Bias. Originally a term in the game of bowls. See on iv. 
 5. 8 below. It is here used adverbially = awry. So thwart = 
 athwart, or crosswise. 
 
 18. Our works. What we have done ; that is, the little we 
 have been able to accomplish. Works has been suspected, and 
 " mocks," " wrecks," etc., have been substituted. 
 
 20. Protractive. Like persistive, used by S. nowhere else. This 
 play abounds in words used only once by him. 
 
 24. Artist. Scholar. Cf. A. W. ii. 3. 10, where artists = learned 
 physicians. 
 
 25. Affined. United by affinity, related. Cf. 0th. i, i. 39, ii. 3. 
 218. 
 
 27. Broad. The quarto reading ; " lowd " in the folio. 
 
 30. Unmingled. A quadrisyllable. Cf. p. 181 above. 
 
 32. Apply. " Explain, interpret " (Schmidt) ; or apply to other 
 cases, illustrate by other instances. 
 
 2,Z- Reproof. Refutation, confutation. Cf. i Hen. IV. i. 2. 313, 
 iii. 2. 23, etc. 
 
 38. Boreas. The only instance of the classical name of the 
 north wind in S. 
 
 39. Thetis. The sea-goddess who was the mother of Achilles 
 (cf. 212 and iii. 3. 94 below) ; here used poetically for the sea — 
 perhaps, as Schmidt suggests, confounded with Tethys^ the wife of 
 Oceanus. 
 
 42. Perseus'' horse. Pegasus, the winged horse of Bellerophon, 
 is evidently meant. S. follows Caxton ; though, as Steevens re- 
 marks, " Pegasus might fairly be called Perseus^ horse, because the 
 heroism of Perseus had given him existence " — that is, by killing 
 Medusa, from whose blood the beast was said to have sprung. Cf. 
 Hen. V. iii. 7. 22: "le cheval volant, the Pegasus." See also 
 I Hen. IV. iv. i. 109. 
 
 45. A toast. That is, a dainty bit to be swallowed ; probably 
 
198 Notes [Act I 
 
 suggested hy the practice of putting a toast in a cup of sack. Cf. 
 M. W. iii. 5. 3 : " Go fetch me a quart of sack ; put a toast in 't." 
 
 48. Brize. Gadfly ; as in A. and C. iii. 10. 14 : " The brize 
 upon her, like a cow in June." 
 
 51. Fled. That is, have fled. 
 
 54. Rechides. The early eds. have " Retires " or " Retyres." 
 Pope has " Returns," Hanmer " Replies," and Dyce " Retorts." 
 Rechides is the conjecture of Lettsom. It is favoured by the fol- 
 lowing chiding, the repetition being in Shakespeare's manner. 
 Here, moreover, it is in keeping with the preceding line, 
 
 56. Spirit. Monosyllabic ; as very often. The quarto spells it 
 " spright." 
 
 63. Agamemnon and the hajtd of Greece, etc. " The speech of 
 Agamemnon is such that it ought to be engraven in brass, and the 
 tablet held up by him on the one side, and Greece on the other, to 
 show the union of their opinion" (Johnson). Cf. M. for M. v. 
 
 I. II : — 
 
 " When it deserves with characters of brass 
 Aforted residence 'gainst the tooth of time 
 And razure of oblivion." 
 
 For other instances of brass = brazen tablet, see W. T. i. 2. 360, 
 Hen. V. iv. 3. 97, and Hen. VIII. iv. 2. 45. On the other hand, S. 
 nowhere uses the word for a bronze statue. 
 
 65. Hatched in silver. Literally, engraved (Fr. hache) in sil- 
 ver ; a figurative way of calling Nestor silver-haired. The fine 
 lines cut in the metal by the engraver suggested the comparison. 
 Steevens cites love in a Maze, 1632 : — 
 
 " Thy hair is fine as gold, thy chin is hatch'd 
 With silver." 
 
 Johnson and Schmidt take the expression to refer to the speech of 
 Nestor, as high in brass does to that of Agamemnon ; and some- 
 thing can be said for that interpretation. 
 
 66. Should with a bond of air, etc. That is, should enforce the 
 
Scene III] Notes 1 99 
 
 attention of all the Greeks. Mr. Verity remarks that the whole 
 passage is evidently a reminiscence of a stanza in Lucrece^ 1401- 
 1407 : — 
 
 " There pleading might you see grave Nestor stand, 
 As t' were encouraging the Greeks to fight, 
 Making such sober action with his hand 
 That it beguiled attention, charm'd the sight. . 
 
 In speech, it seem'd, his beard, all silver white, 
 Wagg'd up and down, and from his lips did fly 
 Thin winding breath, which purl'd up to the sky." 
 
 67. Greekish. The folios have " Greekes " or " Greeks." See 
 on iii. 3. 211 below, 
 
 70. Expect. Expectation ; the only instance of the noun in S. 
 Suspect ( = suspicion) occurs eight or ten times. 
 
 73. Mastic. The reading of all the early eds., changed by Rowe 
 to " mastiff," to which, according to some, it is equivalent. White 
 remarks : " Mastix, said to be the feminine of mastigia, was used 
 to mean a whip or scourge, especially of a moral kind. See the 
 following passage from the Arcadia, in which the term is applied 
 to one of Thersites' kidney : ' and therefore sometimes looking 
 upon an old acquaintance of his called Mastix, one of the repin- 
 ingst fellowes in the world, and that beheld nobody but with a 
 mind of mislike, (saying still the world was amiss, but how it 
 should be amended he knew not,) ' etc. Alastic was probably 
 used here to avoid the cacophony of ' \i\s masti.*- jawj' ; ' or possibly 
 ' masticke ' is a misprint of ' masticks ; ' but it has generally been 
 regarded as an error for 'mastiff' — an epithet the appropriateness 
 of which to the jaws of Thersites I cannot see, as he was one of 
 those barking dogs that never bite." The meaning of the passage 
 is : " there is less expectation of hearing needless and purposeless 
 matter from you than confidence of hearing Thersites speak 
 sweetly, wittily, or wisely : . . . one of those sentences in which 
 S. gives the effect of antithesis instead of an actual antithesis" 
 (Clarke). 
 
200 Notes [Act I 
 
 77. These instances. Referring to what follows. 
 
 78. The specialty of rule. "The particular rights of supreme 
 authority" (Johnson). 
 
 80. Hollow upon this plain, etc. Mason would omit the first 
 holloiv, Steevens the second one. As it stands the line is an Alex- 
 andrine. 
 
 81. When that the general, etc. "When the general is not to 
 the army like the hive to the bees, the repository of the stock of 
 every individual, that to which each resorts with whatever he has 
 collected for the good of the whole, what honey is expected? what 
 hope of advantage ? " (Johnson). 
 
 ^iT). Degree = rank. Vizarded = covered with a vizard, or 
 vizor; masked. 
 
 85. This centre. The earth, the centre of the Ptolemaic uni- 
 verse. Cf. IV. T. ii. I. 102: — 
 
 " The centre is not big enough to bear 
 A school-boy's top." 
 
 Verplanck remarks here : " It is possible that the poet had this 
 thought suggested by an analogous passage, of equal eloquence, in 
 his contemporary Hooker's ' Ecclesiastical Polity,' of which the first 
 parts were published in 1594. If it were not, it was no very strange 
 coincidence between the thoughts of men of large and excursive 
 minds, at once poetical and philosophical, applied to the most 
 widely differing subjects. There is a noble passage in the first 
 book of Hooker, singularly like this in thought, and in sustained, 
 lofty, moral eloquence. In his magnificent generalization of Law, 
 as at once the rule of moral action and government, and the rule 
 of natural agents, he says : — 'If nature should intermit her course, 
 and leave altogether, though it were but for a while, the observa- 
 tion of her own laws ; if those principal and mother elements, 
 whereof all things in this lower world are made, should lose the 
 qualities which now they have ; if the frame of that heavenly arch, 
 now united above our heads, should loosen and dissolve itself; if 
 
Scene III] Notes 20 1 
 
 celestial spheres should forget their wonted motions, and, by irregu- 
 lar volubility, turn themselves any way as it might happen ; if the 
 prince of the lights of heaven, which now, as a giant, doth run his 
 unwearied course, should, through a languishing faintness, begin to 
 stand and to rest himself; if the moon should wander from her 
 beaten way, the times and seasons of the year blend themselves by 
 disordered and confused mixture, the winds breathe out their last 
 gasp, the clouds yield no rain, the earth be defeated of heavenly 
 influence, the fruits of the earth pine away, as children at the 
 withered breast of their mother, — what would become of man 
 himself ? See we not that obedience of creatures unto the law of 
 nature is the stay of the whole world ? ' 
 
 " Hooker's subsequent remarks on ' the law of the common 
 weal' singularly remind the reader of the more rapid view given 
 by the poet of ' the unity and married calm of states,' and the ills 
 by which it is disturbed." 
 
 87. Insisture. " Persistency, constancy " (Schmidt) ; a word 
 found nowhere else. 
 
 89. Planet Sol. According to the Ptolemaic astronomy, the sun 
 was one of the planets revolving around the centre. 
 
 90. Sphered. That is, set in its crystalline sphere, as each planet 
 was supposed to be. 
 
 91. Medicinable. Medicinal. The early eds. have "med'cin- 
 able," which indicates the pronunciation, as elsewhere in S. Cf. iii. 
 3. 44 below, and 0th. v. 2.351, etc. Othet' refers to the other planets. 
 
 92. Aspects. An astrological term for the peculiar position and 
 influence of a heavenly body. Cf. R. of L. 14, Sonn. 26. 10, W. T. 
 ii. I. 107, Lear, ii. 2. 1 1 2, etc. S. always accents the word on the 
 second syllable. 
 
 94. Sans. Without ; a word quite Anglicized in the time of S., 
 being used in French and Italian dictionaries to explain sans and 
 senza. 
 
 95. Evil mixture. Referring to the supposed malignant con- 
 junctions of the planets. 
 
202 Notes [Act I 
 
 99. Deracinate. Root out, tear up by the roots. The verb is 
 used again in Heti. V. v. 2. 47. 
 
 loi. Fixure! Stability. Tiie 3d and 4th folios have "fixture." 
 Fixure occurs again in W. T. v. 3. 67. For shak'd (cf. Hen, V. 
 ii. I. 124, Cymb. i. 5. 76, etc.) Rowe substitutes "shaken," which 
 S. uses less frequently. 
 
 104. Brotherhoods. " Corporations, companies, confraternities " 
 (Johnson). 
 
 105. Dividable. Divided ; used by S. only here. We find 
 dividant in the same sense in T. of A. iv. 3. 5. Individable occurs 
 in Ham. ii. 2. 418. Coimnerce is accented on the second syllable, 
 as in iii. 3. 205 below. 
 
 106. Primogenity. The quarto has " primogenitie " and the folio 
 " primogenitiue." Rowe reads "primogeniture," which is what the 
 word means. Some modern eds. read " primogenitive." 
 
 111. Mere. Absolute ; as in 287 below. Cf. 0th. ii. 2. 3: "the 
 mere perdition of the Turkish fleet," etc. Oppugnancy (= antag- 
 onism) is used by S. only here. 
 
 112. Shotdd. Would ; as in the following lines. 
 
 117. Jar. Conflict, contention; as in V. and A. ICX), etc. 
 119. Includes itself in. Ends in, finally comes to. Cf. T. G. of 
 V. V. 4. 160. 
 125. Suffocate. For the form, cf. infect '\r\ 187 below. 
 
 127. Neglection. Neglect, disregard ; found also in i ^^;/. VI. 'w. 
 3. 49 and Per. iii. 3. 20 (in the quartos ; "neglect " in the folios). 
 
 128. By a pace. " Step by step " (Johnson). The meaning is : 
 " By neglecting to observe due degree of priority, men lose ground 
 while striving to advance ; since each person who pushes on re- 
 gardless of his superiors will be pushed back in turn by them " 
 (Clarke). 
 
 132. Pace. Referring, like the preceding step, to the officer oc- 
 cupying the grade. Sick = envious. 
 
 134. Pale and bloodless. " Not vigorous and active" (Johnson). 
 Emulation is metrically five syllables. 
 
Scene III] Notes 203 
 
 138. Discover'' d. Disclosed, unfolded ; as often, 
 
 139. Power. Army ; as often used in both numbers. 
 
 148. Scurril. Used by S. only here, as scuriliotis only in 
 W. T. iv. 4. 215. 
 
 151. Pageants. Mimics; as in 2i pageant, or theatrical repre- 
 sentation. For the noun, cf. iii. 2. 77 and iii. 3. 273 below. Some- 
 iivie is used by S. interchangeably with sometijfies. 
 
 152. Thy topless deputation. The supreme power deputed to 
 thee (by the other Greek chiefs). " Topless is that which has noth- 
 ing topping or overtopping it " (Johnson). 
 
 153. Like a strutting player, etc. Cf. Macb. v. 5. 24: — 
 
 • " Life 's but a walking shadow, a poor player 
 That struts and frets his hour upon the stage 
 And then is heard no more." 
 
 155. The wooden dialogue. "The epithet tvooden has admirable 
 significance here ; not only conveying to the ear the resounding 
 tread of the strutting player on the boards, but bringing to our eye 
 his puppet hardness and stiffness as well as the awkward stupidity 
 of his look and action " (Clarke). 
 
 156. Stretched. Strained, affected. Scaffoldage = the floor of 
 the stage ; used by S. only here. Cf. the similar use of scaffold in 
 Hen. V. prol. 10 : " On this unworthy scaffold." 
 
 157. O^er-wrested. Overstrained, exaggerated. The early eds. 
 have " ore-rested "or" o're-rested ; " corrected by Pope. 
 
 159. Like a chime a-mending. Cf. Hajn. iii. i. 166: "Like 
 sweet bells jangled out of tune and harsh." Unsquarhl = unsuit- 
 able, not shaped and adapted to the purpose. Cf. square in v. 2. 
 132 below. 
 
 160. Typhon. Typhoeus, a mythical giant, who attempted to 
 dethrone Jupiter, but was defeated and imprisoned under Etna. 
 
 161. Hyperboles. White thinks that the word is pronounced 
 hy-per-boles, but I cannot agree with him. Fusty = musty, mouldy ; 
 as in ii. i. 100 below. 
 
 166. Dressed. Some editors print " 'dress'd," as if contracted 
 
204 Notes [Act I 
 
 from " address'd ; " but the original meaning of dress is to put in 
 order, prepare. Cf. Hen. V. iv. i. lo, M.for M. i. i. 20, etc. Ora- 
 tion is a quadrisyllable. 
 
 168. Parallels. Johnson thinks that " parallels on a map " are 
 meant ; but the reference is probably to the opposite extremities 
 of parallel lines, which can be prolonged indefinitely without meet- 
 ing. His wife = Venus. 
 
 174. Gorget. The part of the armour that defended the throat. 
 The hyphen in palsy-ftimbling (perhaps not necessary) was inserted 
 by Steevens, and is generally adopted. 
 
 178. Spleen. Often used for a sudden impulse or fit beyond the 
 control of reason; as here of laughter. Cf. L. L. L. iii. i. 77, v. 2. 
 117, T. of S. ind. i. 137, etc. 
 
 180. Sever ah and generals of grace exact. Our individual and 
 general qualities of "excellence irreprehensible " (Johnson). 
 Schmidt makes it = "the minutest peculiar and general excellen- 
 cies." Hudson thinks that of grace exact is probably = " exact or 
 perfect in respect of grace." Various changes have been made by 
 the editors. 
 
 181. Preventions. A quadrisyllable. Cf. execution in 210 below. 
 184. Paradoxes. Absurdities. 
 
 187. Infect. For the form see on 125 above. 
 
 189. In such a rein. "That is, holds up his head as haughtily" 
 (Johnson). Y ox. place Pope reads "pace ; " but no change is really 
 called for, and, as Clarke remarks, " to bear his head in a forced 
 pace would be a forced expression." 
 
 190. Broad. Apparently = puffed up with pride. 
 
 191. State. Council of w^ar. The word is often used for "per- 
 sons representing a body politic" (Schmidt). Cf. ii. 3. 262 and 
 iv. 2. 71 below. 
 
 193. Like a mint. As fast as a mint coins money. 
 
 195. Exposure. That is, exposure of ourselves in the field. 
 
 196. How rank soever, etc. "In howsoever high a degree en- 
 compassed by danger" (Clarke). 
 
Scene III] Notes 205 
 
 199. Prescience. Here accented on the second syllable, but on 
 the first in the other two instances in which S. uses it in verse. Cf. 
 Temp. I. 2. 180 and R. of L. 727. 
 
 205. Mappery. Study of maps ; used by S. only here. 
 
 210. His execution. Its (the ram's) working, or operation. 
 For his = its, cf. 354 below. 
 
 211. Achilles' horse, etc. That is, "at this rate Achilles' horse 
 is as good as Achilles himself" — he being the son of Thetis. 
 
 228. Bid. The folio has " on." 
 
 235. Debonair. The Fr. de bott azr (= gentle, affable); used 
 by S. only here. 
 
 238. And, Jove's accord. And with Jove's accord, Jove grant- 
 ing or favouring. The passage may be corrupt. Malone conjec- 
 tures that we should read " And with Jove's accord Nothing 's," etc. 
 Schmidt would point it " And Jove's accord, Nothing," etc. He 
 takes the meaning to be "and Jove's assent that nothing is so full 
 of heart." White makes it = " and Jove's spontaneous geniality 
 is not so hearty — as they are, whether as friends or foes." The 
 quarto inserts " great " before foveas. 
 
 241. Distains. The Variorum of 1 82 1 prints "disdains" in 
 text and notes ; not recorded in the Cambridge ed. The meaning 
 evidently is that even deserved praise stains or sullies a person if 
 he himself speaks it or induces others to speak it for him. 
 
 243. Repining. Mortified by defeat. 
 
 244. Thai praise, sole pure, transcends. Such praise, the only 
 pure or disinterested praise, transcends all other. 
 
 253. Speak frankly as the wind. Cf. 0th. v. 2. 220 : " I will 
 speak as liberal as the north." 
 
 256. Trumpet. Trumpeter ; as in iv. 5. 6 below. 
 
 262. Long-continued truce. As Johnson notes, this is inconsist- 
 ent with i. 2. 33 above ; but S. is often guilty of these little incon- 
 sistencies. He takes the idea of the truce from Caxton. 
 
 269. Confession. The meaning is, " confession made with idle 
 vows to the lips of her whom he loves " (Johnson). 
 
2o6 Notes [Act I 
 
 282. Sunburnt. That is, not fair. Cf. Much Ado, ii. i. 331 : 
 "and I am sunburnt," 
 
 283. The splinter of a lance. "The wording of this challenge 
 is in the true chivalric tone ; and it affords one of the instances of 
 the skill with which the dramatist has blended the rich hues of the 
 romance-writers with the Doric simplicity of outline in the classic 
 poets" (Clarke). 
 
 Knight remarks : " Steevens says the challenge thus sent ' would 
 better have suited Palmerin or Amadis than Hector or .Eneas.' 
 Precisely so. And this was not only the language of romance, but 
 of real life, almost up to the days of Shakspere. In a challenge 
 of the reign of Mary, four Spanish and English knights will main- 
 tain a fight on foot at the barriers against all comers, that ' they 
 may show their great desires to serve their ladies by the honourable 
 adventure of their person.' But would Steevens assert that Shak- 
 spere did not purposely make the distinction between the Homeric 
 and the feudal ages ? He found the challenge of Hector in 
 Homer ; he invested it with its Gothic attributes in accordance 
 with a principle. The commentators sneer at Shakspere's violation 
 of chronology in the mention of Aristotle : what do they say to 
 Chaucer's line in the Troilus and Creseide — ' He sung, she play'd, 
 he told a tale of Wade ' ? Wade was a hero of the same fabulous 
 school as Bevis and Launcelot. The challenge of Hector is thus 
 rendered by Chapman : — 
 
 ' Hear, Trojans, and ye well-arm'd Greeks, what my strong mind, 
 diffus'd 
 Through all my spirits, commands me speak ; Saturnius hath not us'd 
 His promis'd favour for our truce, but, studying both our ills. 
 Will never cease till Mars, by you, his ravenous stomach fills 
 With ruin'd Troy ; or we consume your mighty sea-born fleet. 
 Since then the general peers of Greece in reach of one voice meet. 
 Amongst you all whose breast includes the most impulsive mind 
 Let him stand forth as combatant, by all the rest design'd ; 
 Before whom thus I call high Jove to witness of our strife, 
 
Scene III] Notes 207 
 
 If he with home-thrust iron can reach th' exposure of my life, 
 Spoihng my arms, let him at will convey them to his tent; 
 But let my body be return'd, that Troy's two-sex'd descent 
 May waste it in the funeral-pile : if I can slaughter him, 
 Apollo honouring me so much, I '11 spoil his conquer'd limb, 
 And bear his arms to Ilion, where in Apollo's shrine 
 I '11 hang them as my trophies due : his body I '11 resign 
 To be disposed by his friends in flamy funerals, 
 And honour'd with erected tomb where Hellespontus falls 
 Into Egasum, and doth reach even to your naval road; 
 That, when our beings in the earth shall hide their period. 
 Survivors sailing the Black Sea may thus his name renew. 
 This is his monument whose blood long since did fates embrue, 
 Whom passing fair in fortitude illustrate Hector slew. 
 This shall posterity report, and my fame never die.' " 
 
 288. That means not, etc. A good example of the freedom of 
 ellipsis in the Elizabethan time. 
 
 293. Host. The folio has " mould." 
 
 296. Beaver. Helmet ; properly, the movablp front of the hel- 
 met. Cf. Bain. i. 2. 230 : "he wore his beaver up." 
 
 297. Vantbrace. Armour for the arm (Fr. avant bras) ; used by 
 S. only here. Steevens cites examples of it from Milton (6'. A. 
 1 121) and Heywood {Iron Age). 
 
 300. In flood. That is, "taken at the flood" (/. C. iv. 3. 219) 
 or its full flow. The metaphor is evidently drawn from the flow- 
 ing of the tide. 
 
 301. Prove this truth. The folio has " pawne " for prove, and the 
 quarto " troth " for truth. 
 
 313. Be you my time. Play the part of Time in bringing it to 
 maturity. 
 
 319. Nursery. The metaphor is from a place where plants are 
 raised. Cf. T.of S.'\. i. 2 : "Padua, nursery of arts," etc. 
 
 324. As substance, etc. As wealth, whose value, though great, 
 may be summed up in a few little figures. Steevens aptly quotes 
 Hen. V. prol. 15 : — 
 
2o8 Notes [Act I 
 
 " since a crooked figure may 
 Attest in little place a million." 
 
 See also W. T. i. 2. 6 : " like a cipher, Yet standing in rich place." 
 Schmidt explains the passage thus : " as the material world, which 
 seems immense, but is calculated and defined by means of little 
 figures ; " but S. often uses substance for property or wealth, and 
 that sense seems more natural here. 
 
 326. And, in the publication, etc. "Nestor goes on to say, make 
 no difficulty, no doubt, when this duel comes to be proclaimed, but 
 that Achilles, dull as he is, will discover the drift of it. So [in iii. 
 3. 112 below] Ulysses says, ' I do not strain at the position ; ' that is, 
 I do not hesitate at, I make no difficulty of it" (Theobald). 
 
 328. Banks of Libya. That is, the African desert. 
 
 332. Wake him. Rouse himself. 
 
 336. Much opinion dzvells. Much reputation is involved. Cf. 
 373 below. 
 
 337. Dearest. Most precious. 
 
 339. Our imputation shall be oddly pois'd. " Our imputed excel- 
 lence shall be unequally weighed" (Clarke). Cf. 2 Hen. IV. v. I. 
 81 : "I would humour his men with the imputation of being near 
 their master," etc. 
 
 340. Success. Issue, result. Cf. ii. 2. 117 below. 
 
 341. Scantling. Small portion ; used by S. only here. Malone 
 quotes Florio's Montaigne : " When the lion's skin will not suffice, 
 we must add a scantling of the fox's." 
 
 343. Small pricks. "Small points compared with the volumes" 
 (Johnson). Index in S. always means a preface, prologue, or table 
 of contents. Cf. Ham. iii. 4. 51, 0th. ii. I. 263, etc. 
 
 344. Subsequent. Accented on the second syllable ; the only 
 instance of the word in S. 
 
 349. Election. Choice, the thing chosen. 
 
 351. Who miscarrying. If he is defeated, what encouragement 
 will the victorious side draw thence, to strengthen their good opin- 
 ion of themselves ? For part = party, side, cf. iv. 5. 156 below : 
 
Scene III] Notes 209 
 
 " our Trojan part," etc. Hudson strangely takes heart to be the 
 subject and part the object, explaining the passage thus : " If the 
 man of our choice should fail, what heart among us will then draw 
 from the issue any hope of success, or of conquering, to strengthen 
 his confidence in our ability ? " 
 
 354. His. Its ; referring to opinion. 
 
 356. Directive. Capable of being directed ; used by S. only 
 here. 
 
 357-365. Give . . . followers. The quarto reads here : — 
 
 " Glue pardon to my speech ? therefore tis meete, 
 Achilles meete not Hector, let vs like Marchants 
 First shew foule wares, and thinke perchance theile sell; 
 If not ; the luster of the better shall exceed, 
 By shewing the worst first ; do not consent 
 That euer Hector and Achilles meet, 
 
 For both our honour and our shame in this, are dog'd with 
 two strange followers," 
 
 361. To show. To be shown. 
 368. Share. The folios have "weare." 
 371. Salt. Bitter, pungent. 
 
 373. Our main opinion. Our general reputation. See on 336 
 above. Crush = destroy. 
 
 375. Blockish. Clumsy, stupid ; used by S. only here ; as block- 
 head only in Cor. ii. 3. 31. Block he has several times in a similar 
 sense ; as in T. G. of V. ii. 5. 27, W. T. i. 2. 225, /. C.i.i. 40, etc. 
 
 376. Sort. Lot (Fr. sort) ; the only instance of this meaning 
 inS. 
 
 377. Allowance. Acknowledgment, approval; as in ii. 3. 138 
 below. The folio reads '' as the worthier man." 
 
 378. The great Myrmidon. Achilles is so called as being the 
 chief of the Myrmidons. Cf. v. 5. 33, v. 7. I, etc., below. 
 
 379. Broils in loud applause. " Basks in the sunshine of ap- 
 plause, even to broiling " (Schmidt) ; or, perhaps, as Clarke puts 
 it, "swells and sweats in the fire of applause, as broiling meat 
 
 TROILUS — 14 
 
2IO Notes [Act I 
 
 swells, spits, and exudes above the red coals." The transitive use 
 oi fall (= let fall) is common in S. Cf. _/. C. iv. 2. 26, etc. 
 
 382. Voices. That is, applauding voices. 
 
 392. Tarre the mastiffs on. That is, set them on, urge them on. 
 Cf. K.John, iv. i, 117 and Ham. ii. 2, 370. 
 
Achilles 
 
 ACT II 
 
 Scene I. — Knight remarks : "Thersites has been termed by 
 Coleridge ' the Caliban of demagogic life ; ' and he goes on to de- 
 scribe him as ' the admirable portrait of intellectual power deserted 
 by all grace, all moral principle, all not momentary impulse ; just 
 wise enough to detect the weak head, and fool enough to provoke 
 the armed fist, of his betters.' This is the Thersites of Shakspere ; 
 he of Homer is merely a deformed jester. The wonderful finished 
 portrait is made out of the slightest of sketches : — 
 
 ' All sat, and audience gave ; 
 Thersites only would speak all. A most disorder'd store 
 Of words he foolishly pour'd out ; of which his mind held more 
 Than it could manage ; any thing with which he could procure 
 Laughter, he never could contain. He should have yet been sure 
 To touch no kings. T' oppose their states becomes not jesters' parts, 
 But he the filthiest fellow was of all that had deserts 
 In Troy's brave siege : he was squint-eyed, and lame of either foot : 
 So crook-back'd that he had no breast : sharp-headed, where did shoot 
 
 211 
 
212 Notes [Act II 
 
 (Here and there sperst) thin mossy hair. He most of all envied 
 
 Ulysses and ^acides, whom still his spleen would chide ; 
 
 Nor could the sacred king himself avoid his saucy vein, 
 
 Against whom, since he knew the Greeks did vehement hates sustain, 
 
 (Being angry for Achilles' wrong,) he cried out, railing thus : — 
 
 " Atrides, why complain'st thou now ? what wouldst thou more of us ? 
 Thy tents are full of brass, and dames ; the choice of all are thine : 
 With whom we must present thee first, when any towns resign 
 To our invasion. Want'st thou then (besides all this) more gold 
 From Troy's knights to redeem their sons ? whom, to be dearly sold, 
 I, or some other Greek, must take ? or wouldst thou yet again 
 Force from some other lord his prize, to soothe the lusts that reign 
 In thy encroaching appetite ? It fits no prince to be 
 A prince of ill, and govern us ; or lead our progeny 
 By rape to ruin. O base Greeks, deserving infamy, 
 And ills eternal ! Greekish girls, not Greeks, ye are : Come, fly 
 Home with our ships ; leave this man here, to perish with his preys, 
 And try if we help'd him, or not : he wrong'd a man that weighs 
 Far more than he himself in worth : he forc'd from Thetis' son. 
 And keeps his prize still : nor think I that mighty man hath won 
 The style of wrathful worthily ; he 's soft, he 's too remiss, 
 Or else, Atrides, his had been thy last of injuries." 
 
 Thus he the people's pastor chid ; but straight stood up to him 
 Divine Ulysses, who, with looks exceeding grave and grim. 
 This bitter check gave : " Cease, vain fool, to vent thy railing vein 
 On kings thus, though it serve thee well ; nor think thou canst restrain 
 With that thy railing faculty, their wills in least degree. 
 For not a worse, of all this host, came with our king than thee 
 To Troy's great siege : then do not take into that mouth of thine 
 The names of kings, much less revile the dignities that shine 
 In their supreme states ; wresting thus this motion for our home 
 To soothe thy cowardice ; since ourselves yet know not what will come 
 Of these designments, — if it be our good to stay or go : 
 Nor is it that thou stand'st on ; thou revil'st our general so. 
 Only because he hath so much, not given by such as thou. 
 But by our heroes. Therefore this thy rude vein makes me vow 
 (Which shall be curiously observ'd), if ever I shall hear 
 This madness from thy mouth again, let not Ulysses bear 
 
Scene I] Notes 213 
 
 This head, nor be the father call'd of young Telemachus, 
 
 If to thy nakedness I take and strip thee not, and thus 
 
 Whip thee to fleet from council ; send, with sharp stripes, weeping hence, 
 
 This glory thou affect'st to rail." This said, his insolence 
 
 He settled with his sceptre, strook his back and shoulders so 
 
 That bloody wales rose : he shrunk round, and from his eyes did flow 
 
 Moist tears ; and, looking filthily, he sat, fear'd, smarted ; dried 
 
 His blubber'd cheeks ; and all the press (though griev'd to be denied 
 
 Their wish'd retreat for home) yet laugh 'd delightsoraely, and spake 
 
 Either to other' [Chapman's Homer, bk. ii.]." 
 
 White says of Thersites {Galaxy, Feb., 1877): " Thersites sits 
 with Caliban high among Shakespeare's minor triumphs. He was 
 brought in to please the mob. He is the Fool of the piece, fulfil- 
 ling the functions of Touchstone, and Launce, and Launcelot, and 
 Costard. As the grave-diggers were brought into Hatnlet for the 
 sake of the groundlings, so Thersites came into Troilus and Cres- 
 sida. As if that he might leave no form of human utterance un- 
 gilded by his genius, Shakespeare in Thersites has given us the 
 apotheosis of blackguardism and billingsgate. Thersites is only a 
 railing rascal. Some low creatures are mere bellies with no brain. 
 Thersites is merely mouth, but this mouth has just enough coarse 
 brain above it to know a wise man and a fool when he sees them. 
 But the railings of this deformed slave are splendid. Thersites is 
 almost as good as Falstaff . He is of course a far lower organization 
 intellectually, and somewhat lower, perhaps, morally. He is coarser 
 in every way ; his humour, such as he has, is of the grossest kind ; 
 but still his blackguardism is the ideal of vituperation. He is far 
 better than Apemantus in Timon of Athens, for there is no hypoc- 
 risy in him, no egoism, and, comfortable trait in such a personage, 
 no pretence of gentility. For good downright ' sass ' in its most 
 splendid and aggressive form, there is in literature nothing equal to 
 the speeches of Thersites." 
 
 2, Boils. All the early eds. have " biles," indicating the common 
 pronunciation in the time of S. 
 
114 Notes [Act II 
 
 6. Core. Ulcer; as in v. i. 4 below. In both passages there 
 may be a quibble on the sense of heart, 
 
 8. Matter. The play upon the word is obvious. Cf. L. L. L. iii. 
 I. 120. For matter ■= good sense, cf. A. Y. L. ii, i. 68 : "he's full 
 of matter," etc. 
 
 12. The plague of Greece. " Alluding perhaps to the plague 
 sent by Apollo on the Grecian army " (Johnson). 
 
 13. Beef-witted. Steevens quotes T. N. i. 3. 90 : "I am a great 
 eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit." " He calls 
 Ajax mongrel on account of his father's being a Grecian and his 
 mother a Trojan " (Malone). 
 
 14. Vinewed^st. Mouldiest, mustiest ; found nowhere else in S. 
 The folios have " whinid'st," and the quarto " vnsalted." As Malone 
 remarks, the folio reading is " a corruption undoubtedly of vinnezudst 
 or vinniedst.^'' He adds that in Dorsetshire vinny is = mouldy. 
 
 \(). A red murrain. Cf. Temp, i, 2. 364: "The red plague 
 rid you!" and Cor. iv. i. 13: "the red pestilence," etc. 
 
 21. Learn me. Tell me. For learn = teach, cf. Temp. i. 2. 
 365, Much Ado, iv. i. 31, etc. 
 
 26. Porpentine. Porcupine ; the only name of the animal in S. 
 
 29. Scab. He plays upon the word, which was often used as a 
 term of contempt. For similar quibbles, see Much Ado, iii. 3. 107, 
 2 Hen. IV. iii. 2. 296, and Cor. i. i. 169. The next sentence is 
 omitted in the folio. 
 
 37. Mistress. Used in contempt, comparing him to an old 
 woman or a termagant. 
 
 39. Cobloaf " A crusty, uneven loaf" (Steevens); a hit at the 
 misshapen Thersites. 
 
 40. Pu7z. Pound ; used by S. only here. Steevens quotes ex- 
 amples of it from Holland's Pliny. Cole, in his Latin Diet., defines 
 it by " contero, contundo." 
 
 44. Thou stool for a witch I Alluding to one of the forms of 
 torture for a witch. See Brand's Poptdar Antiquities (Bohn's ed.), 
 iii. 23. 
 
Scene I J Notes 215 
 
 45. Sodden-witted. Stupid. Sodden is the old participle of 
 seethe. For the figure, cf. Temp. v. i. 60 and W. T. iii. 3. 64. 
 
 47. Assinego. The early eds. have " asinico," which some take 
 to be a corruption of the Spanish asnico, a little ass. Pope has 
 been followed by most of the modern editors in reading assinego, 
 which is used by Beaumont and Fletcher and other writers of the 
 time. Asinego is the Portuguese equivalent of asnico, and seems 
 to have become in a measure Anglicized. Ben Jonson, in his 
 Epigrams, plays upon it for the sake of a fling at Inigo Jones : 
 " You 'd be an ass-inigo by your years." 
 
 49. Bought and sold. Made a fool of. Cf. K. John, v. 4. 10, 
 Rich. III.v. 3. 305, etc. 
 
 50. Use to beat me. " Continue to beat me, make a practice of 
 beating me " (Steevens). 
 
 56. Mars his idiot. Mars's idiot. Cf. iv. 5. 177, 255 below. 
 72. Alodicum. Used by S. only here. 
 
 74. Bobbed. Beaten, drubbed. Cf. Rich. III. v. 3. 334 : " beaten, 
 bobb'd, and thump'd." 
 
 75. Pia mater. The membrane covering the brain put for the 
 brain itself; as in T. N. i. 5. 123 and L. L. L. iv. 2. 71. 
 
 78. Gilts. The word was not so offensive in the time of S. as 
 now ; but if it had been, he would not have hesitated to make 
 Thersites use it. 
 
 91. Set your ivit to. Oppose it to. Cf. M. N. D. iii. i. 137: 
 " who would set his wit to so foolish a bird ? " 
 
 10 1. Sufferance. Suffering, See on i. i. 30 above. 
 
 102. Voluntary. Adverbial; a.?, \n K. John, y. I. 29, etc. 
 
 116. To, Achilles ! That is, on ! forward ! To ! was thus used 
 in urging on draught-oxen. 
 
 123. Brach. Hound, dog (properly feminine). Cf. I Hen. IV. 
 iii. I. 240: "Lady, my brach;" and Lear, i. 4. 125: " the lady 
 brach." The early eds. have " brooch," which the Cambridge ed. 
 retains, and which Schmidt thinks (as Johnson did) to be perhaps 
 = appendage, or hanger-on. But, as Clarke notes, S. elsewhere 
 
2i6 Notes [Act II 
 
 uses brooch only in the sense of something choice or costly ; and 
 Rowe's emendation of brack is on the whole to be preferred. 
 
 125. Clotpolls. Blockheads. Cf. Z(?«r, i. 4. 5 1 : " Call the clot - 
 poll back." For the literal sense (= head), cf. Cymb. iv. 2. 184: 
 " Cloten's clotpoll." 
 
 134. Stomach. Cf. Hen. V. iv. 3. 35 : "he which hath no stom- 
 ach to this fight," etc. 
 
 Scene II. — 9. Toucheth 7ny particular. That is, concerns me 
 personally. 
 
 1 1 . More softer. Cf. v. 6. 20 below. 
 
 15. Secure. Careless, over-confident (Jj^\Sxi secu7'us) . Cf. Ham. 
 i. 5. 61 : " my secure hour," etc. So surety = false confidence. 
 
 16. Tent. Probe. Cf. the play upon the word in v. i. 11 below. 
 19. Dismes. Tenths ; not necessarily = " tens," as some make 
 
 it, neither is every tithe soul — " every ten souls." The meaning is 
 that not only is every tenth soul taken, but there are many thousand 
 of these souls. For tithe, cf. A. W. i. 3. 89 : " One good woman in 
 ten, madam ; ... we 'd find no fault with the tithe-woman, if I 
 were the parson." 
 
 29. Past-proportion. Immensity. The meaning is : " that great- 
 ness to which no measure bears any proportion" (Johnson). 
 
 33. Reasons. Malone suspected a quibble on reasons and 
 raisins; as in Much Ado, v. I. 211. 
 
 46. DisorUd. That is, thrown out of the crystalline sphere which 
 gives it regular motion. See on i. 3. 90 above. This line and the 
 preceding are transposed in the folios. 
 
 48. Fat. Feed, nourish ; as in T. A. iii. i. 204: " fat me with 
 the very thoughts of it." 
 
 49. Respect. Deliberation, consideration of consequences. Cf. 
 R. of L. 274: — 
 
 " Then, childish fear avaunt ! debating die ! 
 Respect and reason wait on wrinkled eld! " 
 
Scene II] Notes 217 
 
 50. Make. The folios have " Makes," which the grammar of 
 the time allowed ; but the quarto reading is to be preferred. For 
 the association of cowardice with a white or bloodless liver, cf. 
 M. of V. iii. 2. 86, T. N. iii. 2. 66, 2 Hen. IV. iv. 3. 113, etc. 
 Lustikood = spirit, vigour ; as in Muck Ado, v. I. 76. For deject, 
 see on i. 3. 125 above and on 121 below. 
 
 52. What is alight, etc. Cf. Hudibras : — 
 
 " For what 's the worth of anything 
 But so much money as 't will bring ? " 
 
 54. J/is. Its ; referring to value. 
 
 56. As in the prizer. That is, as in the estimation of the 
 prizer. 
 
 58. That is attributive, etc. " That attributes, or gives, the 
 qualities which it affects ; that first causes excellence, and then 
 admires it " (Johnson). In 60 Warburton would read "affected 's 
 merit ; " but Johnson defends the old text : " The will affects an 
 object for some supposed merit, which Hector says is censurable, 
 unless the »ierit so affected be really there." For attributive the 
 folios have " inclinable," which Pope prefers. 
 
 64. Traded. Practised, expert. Cf. K. John, iv. 3. 109 : " long 
 traded in it." 
 
 68. Blench. Shrink. See on i. i. 30 above. And stand firm 
 by honour = and yet maintain one's honour. 
 
 71. Unrespective. Unregardful, or unregarded. Sieve here = 
 basket ; a sense not unknown in England at this day. The refer- 
 ence is to a waste-basket into which the refuse of the table was 
 thrown. The quarto has " sine," the 1st folio " same," and the 
 later folios " place." 
 
 77. An old aunt. " Priam's sister, Hesione, whom Hercules, 
 being enraged at Priam's breach of faith, gave to Telamon, who 
 by her had Ajax" (Malone). 
 
 79. Stale. The quarto has " pale. " Dyce quotes Wither, Epi- 
 thalamia, 1 620 : — 
 
2i8 Notes [Act II 
 
 " Faire Iris would haue lookt but stale and dimme 
 In her best colours, had she there appear'd." 
 
 See also W. T. iv. i. 13 : — 
 
 "and make stale 
 The glistering of this present." 
 
 82. Whose price^ etc. Evidently suggested by Marlowe's Doctor 
 Faustus : — 
 
 " Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships 
 And burnt the topless towers of Ilium ? " 
 
 Mr. Verity remarks : " It may be worth while to note that Christo- 
 pher Marlowe is the only contemporary dramatist to whom Shake- 
 speare definitely alludes in terms of admiration ; it is pleasant to 
 think that it should be so. Modern criticism abundantly recognizes 
 the fact that Marlowe rendered English literature the most signal 
 and sovereign services, at once by freeing blank verse from the 
 fetters imposed upon it by the authors of the dreary Gorboduc, by 
 elevating and to a certain extent fixing the form and style of the 
 romantic drama, and by driving off the stage the 'jigging veins of 
 rhyming mother wits ' that are satirized in the prologue to Tani- 
 burlaine. Shakespeare's debt to Marlowe was great, and passages 
 in his plays show that he was familiar with the works of his brother 
 poet. Thus in A. Y. L. we have (iii. 5. 82) the direct apostrophe to 
 the ' Dead shepherd,' followed by the quotation of the line from 
 Hero and Leander which soon became a proverb : ' Who ever 
 lov'd that lov'd not at first sight ?' Again, in M. W. iii. I. 17-20, 
 a stanza is introduced from the immortal lyric, ' Come live with me 
 and be my love.' For similar Marlowe touches compare T. G. of V. 
 i. I. 20-27 (a less complimentary allusion), A. W. i. 3. 74, 75, and 
 R. and J. v. i. 8, where Romeo's 'breath'd such life with kisses in 
 my lips ' is an obvious reminiscence of Hero and LeanderT 
 
 89. Your proper. Your own. Cf. Temp. iii. 3. 60 : "Their 
 proper selves," etc. Rate = find fault with, 
 
Scene II] Notes 219 
 
 90. And do a deed that fortune never did. "Act with more in- 
 constancy and caprice than ever did fortune" (Henley). 
 
 104. Eld. The quarto has " elders," the folios " old." Eldviz.% 
 the conjecture of Theobald, and is favoured by the use of the word 
 in M. W. iv. 4. 36 and M.for M. iii. I. 36. 
 
 107. Moiety. Portion ; not a half. Cf I Hen. IV. iii. I. 96 : 
 " my moiety . . . equals not one of yours," etc. 
 
 109. Ilion. The Greek form of the word, used interchangeably 
 with the Latin Ilitim. 
 
 no. Our firebrand brother. Hecuba before the birth of Paris 
 dreamed that she should be delivered of a burning torch. Cf. 
 Virgil, ^neid, x. 705 : — 
 
 " una quem nocte Theano 
 In lucem genitori Amyco dedit, et face praegnans 
 Cisseis regina Parim." 
 
 116. Discourse of reason. Cf. Ham. i. 2. 150 : "that wants dis- 
 course of reason" (see Id. iv. 4. 36), and 0th. iv. 2. 153 : "dis- 
 course of thought." Discourse formerly meant the logical process 
 of reasoning. 
 
 117. Bad success. A bad issue. See on i. 3. 340 above. 
 
 121. Nor once deject the courage, etc. That is, lower or depress 
 it. Elsewhere S. uses only the participle dejected, or the contrac- 
 tion deject (as in 50 above and Ham. iii. I. 163). 
 
 123. Distaste. Spoil the taste or quality of. In 66 above it is = 
 disrelish, dislike ; and in iv. 4. 48, if we adopt the folio distasting, 
 it is intransitive and = to be distasteful (cf. 0th. iii. 3. 327). 
 
 125. To make it gracious. To grace it, or set it off. 
 
 128. The weakest spleen. "The dullest and coldest heart" 
 (Schmidt). 
 
 130. Convince. Convict ; not used elsewhere by S. in this 
 sense. 
 
 132. Attest. Call to witness ; the only instance of this sense 
 in S. 
 
220 Notes [Act II 
 
 133. Propensio7i. Propensity, inclination ; used by S. only here, 
 z.% prop end ( = incline) only in 190 below. 
 
 135. Can. For the absolute and transitive use, of. Lear, iv. 
 
 4- 
 
 " What can man's wisdom 
 In the restoring his bereaved sense ? " 
 
 136. Propugnation. Defence ; used by S. only here. 
 
 139. Pass. Pass through, undergo ; as in (9//;.i. 3, 131, 167, etc. 
 
 145. So to be valiant. To be valiant in that way. 
 
 148. Rape. Abduction, carrying off. So ransacked just below 
 = carried off, taken by force ; like the Latin rapta. Verity 
 remarks : " Schmidt explains the word as = ravished in this play ; 
 but this might be misleading, unless it were explained that ravish- 
 ment, in legal phraseology, meant, originally, what we now call ' ab- 
 duction ; ' and therefore ravished \vov\^ mean simply 'abducted,' 
 and not, as it would imply generally nowadays, the crime uf rape. 
 It will be noticed that just above, in line 148, Paris uses rape in 
 the sense in which it was used in Shakespeare's time, for mere 
 * abduction.' According to Cowell rape was used only in this sense 
 in civil law, never in criminal. Spenser uses the word ransacked 
 in the sense of ' violate ' (i. 6. 5) in the well-known passage where 
 Archimago tries to ravish Una : ' And win rich spoils of ransackt 
 chastitee.' Of course the queen is Helen, not, as Hunter says, 
 Hesione." 
 
 152. Her possession. Possession of her. 
 
 154. Strain. Impulse ; as often. Cf. M. W.\\. i. 91, L. L. Z. 
 V. 2. 170, etc. 
 
 156. On our party. On oViX: part, or side. Cf. K.John, i. I. 34 : 
 " Upon the right and party of her son." 
 
 165. Gloz'd. Commented ; but, as usual in S., with the added 
 idea of sophistry. Cf. Hen. V. i. 2. 40 : " unjustly gloze," etc. 
 Mr. Verity cites Milton's "well-plac'd words oi glozing courtesy" 
 {Comus, 161). It is not hard to see how the meaning arose. The 
 gloss was the word which needed explanation ; then it came to 
 
Scene II] Notes 221 
 
 signify the explanation itself ; and finally, by an easy transition, a 
 false explanation. A good instance of its use occurs in Ford's 
 Perkin Warbeck, i. 2 : — 
 
 " You construe my griefs to so hard a sense, 
 That where the text is argument of pity, 
 Matter of earnest \o\e, your gloss corrupts it," 
 
 1 66. Young men, zvhom Aristotle thought, etc. Aside from the 
 anachronism — common enough in S. — there is a mistake which 
 Bacon has also made in Adv. of L. ii. : " Is not the opinion of Aris- 
 totle worthy to be regarded, wherein he saith that young men are 
 not fit auditors of moral philosophy, because they are not settled 
 from the boiling heat of their affections, nor attempered with time 
 and experience ? " As Mr. Ellis has pointed out, it is not of moral 
 but oi political philosophy that Aristotle speaks. It is possible that 
 S. may have taken the allusion from Bacon's book, which was pub- 
 lished in 1605. Judge Holmes (^Authorship of Sh.) of course tries 
 to make the coincidence tell in favour of the Baconian theory. It 
 is curious that Virgilio Malvezzi, in his Discorsi sopra Cornelia 
 Tacito, 1622, makes the same mistake : "E non e discordante da 
 questa mia opinione Aristotele, il qual dice, che i giovanni non sono 
 buoni ascultatori delle morali.''^ Other instances of it have been 
 pointed out. 
 
 172. More deaf than adders. For this old superstition, cf. Sonn. 
 112. 10 and 2 Hen. VI. iii. 2. 76. See also Randolph, Muse^s 
 Looking Glass : — 
 
 " How happy are the moles that have no eyes ! 
 How blessed the adders that they have no ears ! " 
 
 177. Affection. Here apparently = sensual passion, lust ; as in 
 W. T. i. 2. 138 : "Affection ! thy intention stabs the centre." 
 
 178. Of partial indulgence. That 'xs, from or through such in- 
 dulgence (Mason). Partial = to which they are unduly inclined. 
 S. does not use the word in the sense of " in part." 
 
222 Notes [Act II 
 
 179, Benumbed. Insensible, or "no longer obedient to superior 
 direction" (Johnson). 
 
 184. These moral laws, etc. "What the law does in every 
 nation between individuals, justice ought to do between nations" 
 (Johnson). 
 
 189. hi %vay of t'l uth, etc. "Though, considering truth and 
 justice in this question, this is my opinion, yet as a question of 
 honour I think on it as you" (Johnson). 
 
 190. Spritely. Spirited ; also spelt sprightly. Cf. I Hen. IV. 
 ii. 4. 377, etc. 
 
 196. The performance of our heaving spleens. The carrying out 
 of our resentful impulses. 
 
 202. Canonize. Enroll among heroes or demigods ; accented 
 on the second syllable, as elsewhere in S. Cf. K. John, iii. i. 177 
 or Ham. i. 4. 47. 
 
 206. Revenue. Accented by S. on the first or second syllable 
 according to the measure. 
 
 208. Hoisting. Roistering, bullying ; used by S. nowhere else. 
 
 211. Advertis'' d. Regularly accented by S. on the second 
 syllable. 
 
 212. Emulation. In a bad sense (= envy), as often in S. Cf. 
 /. C. ii. 3. 14 : — 
 
 " My heart laments that virtue cannot live 
 Out of the teeth of emulation." 
 
 Scene III. — 5. ' Sfoot. Corrupted from " God's foot." See on 
 i. 2. 221 above. 
 
 8. Enginer. An early form of engineer. Cf. Ham. iii. 4. 206 
 and 0th. ii. i. 65. Cf. also mutiner, pioner, etc. 
 
 12. Serpentine. Used by S. only here. It is suggested by the 
 serpents twined on the caduceus. 
 
 14. Short-armed. Some editors adopt Dyce's conjecture of 
 " short-aimed ;" but short-armed (^^ not reaching far) is no bad 
 epithet. 
 
Scene III] Notes 223 
 
 19, Bone-ache. Cf. v. 1. 23 below, the only other instance of 
 the word in S. It alludes to the effects of venereal diseases. 
 
 20. Placket. Petticoat ; here = woman, Cf. L. L. L. iii. i, 
 186, W. T. iv. 4. 245, 622, and Lear, iii. 4. 100. 
 
 26. Slipped. There is a play upon slip as applied to a counter- 
 feit coin ; as in R. and J. ii. 4. 51. 
 
 29. Heaven bless thee from. That is, preserve thee from. Cf. 
 Rich. III. iii. 3. 5 : "God bless the prince from all the pack of 
 you ! " where the quartos have " keep " for bless. 
 
 31. Blood. "Passions, natural propensities" (Malone). Cf. 
 M.for M. ii. i. 12, ii. 4. 15, 178, v. i. 477, Much Ado, ii. i. 187, 
 etc. 
 
 34. Lazars. Lepers ; as in v. i. 67 below. 
 
 52. Decline. That is, go through in detail, like one declining a 
 noun. Cf. Rich. III. iv. 4. 97, M. W. iv. i. 42, etc. 
 
 62. Derive. Deduce. 
 
 68. Of the prover. That is, of him who proves to be a fool, or 
 yourself. The reading is that of the quarto ; the folio has " to the 
 creator." 
 
 72. Patchery. Botching ; or " gross and bungling hypocrisy " 
 (Schmidt). The word occurs again in T. of A. v. i. 99. 
 
 74. Emulous. Envious. See on ii. 2. 212 above. The folio 
 has " emulations." 
 
 75. Serpigo. Tetter, leprosy ; mentioned again in M. for M. 
 iii. I. 31. The subject — the subject of the quarrel. 
 
 80. Shent. Rated, scolded ; as in T. N. iv. 2. 112: "I am 
 shent for speaking to you," etc. The quarto has " sate," and the 
 folio " sent ; " corrected by Theobald. 
 
 81. Appertain77ients. That is, the dignity belonging to us. 
 The quarto has " appertainings," which is found in L. C. 115. 
 
 99. Fraction. Breach, discord ; zs, faction = union, alliance. 
 
 100. Cojnposure. Combination, bond ; the only instance of this 
 sense in S. In 242 below, as in A. and C. i. 4, 22, it is = com- 
 position. 
 
224 Notes [Act II 
 
 105. The elephatit hath joints, etc. It was an old notion that the 
 elephant had no joints in his legs. Steevens quotes All ''s Lost by 
 Lust, 1633 : " Stubborn as an elephant's leg, no bending in her ;" 
 and All Fools, 1605 : "I hope you are no elephant, you have 
 joints." Sir Thomas Browne discusses the matter soberly in his 
 Vulgar Errors. 
 
 no. This noble state. Johnson took this to be = "person of 
 high dignity," referring to Agamemnon ; but it probably means 
 " the stately train " accompanying him, as Steevens explains it. Cf. 
 262 below and iv. 2. 71. 
 
 112. Digestion sake. The possessive inflection was often 
 omitted before sake, not only in nouns ending with a sibilant, but 
 in others. Cf. " fashion sake " (^A. Y. L. iii. 2. 271), " oath sake " 
 {T. N. iii. 4. 326), "sport sake" (i Lien. LV. ii. I. 78), etc. 
 
 113. Breath. "Breathing" (^A. W. i. 2. 17), or exercise. Cf. 
 iv. 5. 92 below. 
 
 116. Apprehensions. Capacity to apprehend, perception. Cf. 
 Lien. V. iii. 7. 145, LLa77i. ii. 2. 319, etc. 
 
 117. Attribute. Reputation; as in IIa7ti. i. /[. 22: "The pith 
 and marrow of our attribute." 
 
 119. Not virtuously, etc. "Not regarded by himself as it be- 
 comes a virtuous man, but with pride and arrogance" (Schmidt). 
 
 127. Savage strangeness. Rude distance or "ofhshness" of 
 manner. Cf. iii. 3. 45, 51 below. Tend ^= attend, wait on ; 
 like tend on in iv. 4. 146 and v. I. 74 below. 
 
 129. Underwrite. Subscribe or submit to. Cf. subscribes to in 
 iv. 5. 105 below, and subscription (= submission) in Lear, iii. 2. 
 118, the only instance of the word in S. 
 
 130. LLu-morous. Capricious ; as often. Predominance was 
 originally an astrological term. 
 
 131. Lunes. Lunatic freaks; as in IV. T. ii. 2. 30: "These 
 dangerous unsafe lunes i' the king, beshrew them ! " The folio 
 has " pettish lines," and the quarto " course, and time." Lunes is 
 due to Hanmer. Until recently lunes had been found in no other 
 
Scene III] Notes 225 
 
 English writer, but Rev. Dr. A. B. Stark informs me that two 
 instances of it occur in Greene's Mamillia, reprinted as Vol. I. 
 of Grosart's " Huth Library." On p. 189, we have : "The more 
 she strove against the streame the lesse it did prevaile, the closer 
 shee couered the sparke, the more it kindled : yea, in seeking to 
 unlose the Lunes, the more she was intangled;" and, again, on 
 p. 198 : "either thou must be the man which must unlose me from 
 the Lunes, or else I shal remaine in a lothsome Laberinth til the 
 extreme date of death deliuer me." The Neiv Eng. Diet, gives 
 no example except from S. earlier than 1778. 
 
 133. Rode on his tide. Were dependent on him. 
 
 135. Engine. Used by S. for any instrument or device. Cf. V. 
 and A. 367 : " the engine of her thoughts " (her tongue) ; A. W. 
 iii. 5. 21 : "promises, enticements, oaths, token, and all these 
 engines of lust;" 0th. \\\. 3. 355 : "mortal engines" (cannon), 
 etc. 
 
 138. Allowance. See on i. 3. 377 above. 
 
 141. In second voice. With a substitute, or proxy. He must 
 come himself. 
 
 1 60. Engendering. Spawn. 
 
 166. Dispose. Disposition ; as in 0th. i. 3. 403. Elsewhere it 
 is = disposal. 
 
 168. Self-admission. Self-approbation ; or at his own choice. 
 
 170. Untent. Used by S. only here. 
 
 174. Self-breath. That is, the speaking to himself, his own 
 words. 
 
 177. Kingdom' d Achilles in commotion rages, etc. Qi.J. C. ii„ 
 
 I. 66: — 
 
 " The genius and the mortal instruments 
 Are then in council ; and the state of man, 
 Like to a little kingdom, suffers then 
 The nature of an insurrection." 
 
 179. Plaguy. There is a play upon the word, as shown by the 
 following death-tokens ( = plague-spots). These were the dark 
 
 TROILUS — 15 
 
226 Notes [Act II 
 
 spots on people afflicted with the plague which were supposed 
 to portend death. Cf. A. and C. iii. lo. 9. Steevens wanted to 
 strike out plaguy, which he believed to be "the wretched inter- 
 polation of some foolish player." 
 
 187. Seam. Fat. Ritson says that swine-sea?n \s, = hog^s-Xsixd, 
 in the North of England. Cf, enseamed vix Ham. iii. 4. 92, 
 
 190. Ruminate. Ruminate on, have reference to. 
 
 191. Of that we hold. By him whom we regard. 
 
 193. Stale. Make stale or vulgar. Cf. A. atid C. iv, i. 38 and 
 y. C. i. 2. 73. Pal?n ; that is, emblem of honour. 
 
 194. Assubjugate. Bring into subjection, debase ; used by S. 
 only here. 
 
 198. Add niore coals to Cancer. Add heat to the summer; 
 Cancer being the zodiacal sign the sun enters at the summer 
 solstice. For Hyperion = Apollo, the sun-god, cf. Ham. i. 2. 140, 
 iii. 4. 56, Hen. V. iv. i. 292, etc. 
 
 204. Pash. Smash, strike hard enough to crush ; used by S. 
 only here and in v. 5. 10 below. Cf. Jonson, Sejanus : "You pash 
 yourselves in pieces, ne'er to rise;" Chapman, Iliad: "pash'd 
 with mighty stones," etc. Browning has it in Childe Roland^ 
 stanza 12. 
 
 207. Pheeze. Probably = tease, torment, but explained by some 
 as = beat. Cf. T. of S. ind, i. i ; the only other instance in S. 
 
 213. The raven chides blackness, "The pot calls the kettle 
 black." 
 
 214. Let his humours blood. Bleed his humours. Cf. Cymb. iv. 
 2. 168 : " I 'd let a parish of such Clotens blood," etc, 
 
 224. Through warm. Warmed through, or thoroughly warmed. 
 Force = stuff ; as in v. i. 59 below. Force-meat is still in use, 
 233. Emulous. Envious. See on 74 above, 
 235. Palter. Shuffle, equivocate ; as in v. 2. 48 below. 
 
 241. Strange. Distant, reserved. See on 127 above. Self- 
 affected = self-loving. 
 
 242. Composure. See on 100 above. 
 
Scene III] Notes 227 
 
 243. She. Changed by Pope and White to " her ; " but such 
 confusion of the inflections of pronouns occurs often in S. On the 
 passage Steevens compares Luke, xi. 27. 
 
 244. Fam^d. The quarto reading ; the folio has " Fame." 
 249. Miio. The famous athlete of Crotona, who is said to have 
 
 carried a four-year-old bull more than forty yards on his shoulders. 
 For addition = title, see on i. 2. 20 above. 
 
 252. Dilated. "Expansive" (Schmidt). 
 
 253. Antiquary. Ancieftt, or full of old lore ; used by S. only 
 here. 
 
 254. He must, he is, he cannot but be wise. For the ellipsis, cf. 
 i. 3. 289 above. 
 
 258. Shall I call you father ? " S. had a custom prevalent about 
 his own time in his thoughts. Ben Jonson had many who called 
 themselves his sons. Mr. Vaillant adds that Cotton dedicated his 
 Treatise on Fishing to his father Walton; and that Ashmole, in 
 his Diary, observes : * Mr. William Backhouse, of Swallowfield, 
 in com. Berks, caused me to call him father thenceforward ' " 
 (Steevens). 
 
 259. Ay, my good son. The folio gives this to " Ulis.,^^ and 
 Clarke thinks it should be so ; but the question seems to have 
 been suggested by tht father Nestor in 255. 
 
 262. State. Council. See on i. 3. 191 above. 
 
 264. Main. Might, full force. Cf. Ham. iv. 4. 15, etc. 
 
 266. Cope. Cf. i. 2. 2>Z above. 
 
ACT III 
 
 Scene I. — 3. When he goes before. Cf. Goldsmith, Elegy on 
 Mrs. Mary Blaize : — 
 
 " The king himself has followed her — 
 When she has walked before." 
 
 13. Knoiv your honour better. "The servant means to quibble. 
 He hopes that Pandarus will become a better man than he is at 
 present. In his next speech he chooses to understand Pandarus as 
 if he had said he wished to grow better, and hence the servant 
 affirms that he is in the state of grace " (Malone). 
 
 16. Honour and lordship. According to Steevens, jj/^«r honour 
 and your lordship were used interchangeably in the time of S. 
 Grace was the title only of persons of the highest rank — kings, 
 princes, dukes, etc. 
 
 23. Who play they to ? Allowable in the Elizabethan grammar. 
 Cf. Cyjnb. iv. 2. 75 : " To who ? " 0th. iv. 2. 99 : " With who ? " etc. 
 
 35. Invisible. Changed by Hanmer to "visible;" but it prob- 
 ably means, as Johnson suggests, " invisible everywhere else ; " or 
 
 228 
 
Scene I] Notes 229 
 
 as Clarke well puts it, " the ethereal spirit of love as impersonated 
 in her." 
 
 42. Seethes. A figure like that of " hot haste." The servant 
 plays upon it in his reply, in which some see an allusion to the 
 "sweating-tub" (cf. M.for M. iii. 2. 60, Hen. V. ii. i. 79, etc.). 
 
 51. Broken music. Chappell says : " Some instruments, such as 
 viols, violins, flutes, etc., were formerly made in sets of four, which 
 when played together formed a * consort.' If one or more of the 
 instruments of one set were substituted for the corresponding ones 
 of another set, the result was no longer a ' consort,' but ' broken 
 music' " For the play upon the expression, cf. A. Y. L. i. 2. 149 
 and Hen. V. v. 2. 263, White makes broken-music = " music in 
 parts." 
 
 52. Cousin. Used of almost any relationship ; as nephew, niece, 
 uncle, brother-in-law, grandchild, etc. 
 
 60. In fits. Apparently = when the humour takes yoii ; with a 
 play upon the musical sense of fits as applied to the divisions of a 
 song or tune. 
 
 68. Honey-sweet lord. Cf. Hen. K ii. 3. i : " honey-sweet hus- 
 band," etc. See also 147 below, 
 
 71. Bob. Cheat. Cf. 0th. v. i. 16 : "Of gold and jewels that I 
 bobb'd from him," etc. 
 
 78. Itt truth, la I For the use of la ! to emphasize a statement, 
 cf. M. W.\. I. 86, 266, 322, ii. 2. 108, Cor. i. 3. 73, 100, etc. 
 
 89. You must not knoxu where he sups. The early eds. give this 
 to Helen ; corrected by Hanmer. 
 
 91. Disposer. Dyce is probably right in taking the word here to 
 be = " disposed or inclined to pleasant talk — my merry, free- 
 spoken damsel." Cf. L. L. L. ii. i. 250. Clarke remarks : "This 
 epithet serves to aid in depicting Cressida with the consistency of 
 frivolous character by which the dramatist has marked her. Our 
 here being let to perceive by a single significant word that she has 
 been a light talker with Paris, a gay flutterer and chatterer with him 
 who caused Helen's abduction, is perfectly in accordance with her 
 
230 Notes [Act III 
 
 manner throughout the play, and especially at the time of her 
 introduction to the assembled generals of the Grecian camp, in 
 iv. 5." 
 
 113. You may, you 7nay. That is, you may have your little 
 joke. Cf. Cor. ii. 3. 39, where it is used in the same way. 
 
 117. Good now. Explained by Hudson as = " well now ; " but 
 pretty certainly a vocative phrase, as in W. T.v. i. 19, Ham. i. i. 
 70, etc. 
 
 126. The wound to kill. The fatal wound. 
 
 139. Vipers. Cf. Acts, xxviii. 3 and Matthew, iii. 7. 
 
 142. Gallantry. The only instance of the word in S. 
 
 / would fain have armed to-day, etc. Verplanck remarks : 
 '* This trait of Paris, painted as a man of spirit and ability, yet 
 wasting important hours in submission to the whims of his mistress, 
 oddly resembles the anecdotes, of which the English memoirs are 
 full, of the habits of Charles II. ; and to this the coincidence of 
 the name, Nell, adds effect. It affords a proof of the general truth 
 of the portrait, that the grandson of the monarch who reigned when 
 this play was written should have thus, half a century afterwards, 
 re-enacted the sauntering indolence of Paris." 
 
 143. How chance, etc. How chances it, etc. Cf. M. N. D.'\. i. 
 129, V. I. 318, etc. 
 
 158. Obey . . . to. Cf. Phoenix and Turtle, 4 : "To whose 
 sound chaste v^^ings obey; " Spenser, F. Q. iii. 11. 34 : " Lo now 
 the heavens obey to me aloiie," etc. See also Romans, vi. 16. 
 
 163. Palm. Cf. ii. 3. 193 above. 
 
 Scene II, — 9. The Stygian banks. For other allusions to the 
 infernal river Styx, see v. 4. 19 belovi^, T. A. i. I. 88, and Rich. III. 
 i. 4. 45. 
 
 10. Waftage. Ferriage, passage. Cf. C. of E. iv. i. 95 : "A 
 ship you sent me to, to hire waftage." Charon is the " sour ferry- 
 man " of Rich. III. i. 4. 46. 
 
 13. Pandarus. The quarto has " Pandar." Pope omits (9. 
 
Scene II] Notes 231 
 
 16. OrcHard. Garden; the usual meaning in S. Ci.Ham.i. 
 5- 50> etc. 
 
 20. Palate tastes. The folio has " watry pallats taste ; " corrected 
 by Hanmer. Watery = watering, longing. 
 
 21. Reptired. Purified; the reading of the quarto. The Cam- 
 bridge ed. says : " Steevens's reprint has ' reputed ' — an error 
 which seems to have been the source of the statement that some 
 copies of the quarto have that reading." The folios all have 
 " reputed." 
 
 22. Swooning. The early eds. have " Sounding," as in some 
 other passages. The Cambridge ed. reads " Swounding," a form 
 which was also common. 
 
 23. Subtle-potent. The hyphen was inserted by Theobald. For 
 tunhi too the folios have " and too." 
 
 27. Battle. Army ; as often. On heaps = in heaps, or crowds ; 
 as in Hen. V. iv. 5. 18 : " Let us on heaps go offer up our lives," 
 etc. 
 
 30. Aftist be witty. " Must have your wits about you " (Clarke). 
 
 31. Frayed with. Frightened by ; the only instance of the verb 
 inS. 
 
 2,2,. Villain. For the use of the word as a term of endearment, 
 cf. W. T. i. 2. 136 : " Sweet villain ! " 
 
 36. Thicker. Quicker. Cf. 2 Hen. IV. ii. 3. 24 : " speaking 
 thick," etc. 
 
 37. Bestowing. Functions. 
 
 38. Vassalage. Vassals, subjects ; the abstract for the concrete. 
 43. Watched. Kept from sleeping ; as hawks were in taming 
 
 them. Cf. T. of S. iv. i. 198, 0th. iii. 3. 23, etc. 
 
 46. Fills. Shafts. Cf. fill-horse in M. of V. ii. 2. 10 1. The 
 word is still in familiar use in New England, but obsolete in Old 
 England. 
 
 47. Draw this curtain, etc. Cf. T. N. i. 5. 251 : "but we will 
 draw the curtain and show you the picture ; " where, as here, the 
 reference is to unveiling the face. 
 
232 Notes [Act III 
 
 49. Rub on, and kiss the mistress. " The allusion is to bowling. 
 What we now call the jack [cf. Cymb. ii. i. 2 : "kissed the jack," 
 etc.] seems, in Shakespeare's time, to have been termed the mis- 
 tress. A bowl tliat kisses Xh-o. jack or mistress is in the most advan- 
 tageous position. Rtib on is a term at the same game" (Malone). 
 Cf. K. John, iii. 4. 1 28. 
 
 50. In fee-far?n. In perpetuity ; " a y^(?-yar/« being a grant of 
 lands in fee, that is, for ever, reserving a certain rent " (Malone). 
 
 52. The falcon as the tercel. The female hawk as good as the 
 male ; that is, Cressida will be as good as Troilus. In what follows 
 we have an allusion to hawking along river banks. In Jonson's 
 The Forest one of the rural amusements mentioned is : " hawk- 
 ing at the river." Cf. also Chaucer, Sir Thopas: — 
 
 " Couthe hunt at wild deer, 
 And ride on hawkyng for ryver, 
 With gray goshawk on honde." 
 
 For all the ducks V the river. " Pandarus means that he '11 match 
 his niece against her lover for any bet" (Theobald). 
 
 59. * In witness zvhereof the parties interchangeably — .' "Have 
 set their hands and seals " would naturally follow. Cf. 190 below : 
 " a bargain made ; seal it, seal it ! " Malone cites AI. for M. 
 iv. 1.5: — 
 
 " But my kisses bring again, bring again ; 
 Seals of love, but seal'd in vain, seal'd in vain ; " 
 
 V. and A. 511 : — 
 
 " Pure lips, sweet seals in my soft lips imprinted. 
 What bargains may I make, still to be sealing ? " 
 
 and K. John, ii. i . 20 : — 
 
 " Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss, 
 As seal to the indenture of my love." 
 
 He might have added M. N. D. iii. 2. 144 and 2 Hen. VI. iii. 2. 
 344. There is a play on the preceding billing. 
 
Scene II] Notes 233 
 
 67. Abruption. Breaking off ; used by S. only here. Curious 
 = causing care, embarrassing. 
 
 69. Fears. The reading of the 3d folio ; the earlier eds. have * 
 " teares." 
 
 71. Cherubins. S. has cherubin regularly for the singular (ex- 
 cept in Ham. iv. 3. 50, where we find cherub') and cherubins for the 
 plural. 
 
 73. Fear. Steevens assumes that there is an allusion to Fear as 
 a personage in the old moralities ; but it is not necessary to sup- 
 pose anything more than an ordinary personification. 
 
 77. Pageant. A theatrical exhibition ; the regular sense in S. 
 Cf. iii. 3. 273 below. See also on the verb in i. 3. 151 above. Pre- 
 sented = represented ; as often. 
 
 81. Imposition. A task if?iposed ox enjoined. Cf. M. of V. i. 2. 
 114, iii- 4. ZZ, etc. 
 
 diT). ATonstruosity . The reading of both quarto and folio. It is 
 used by S. only here ; monstrosity not at all. Undergo = under- 
 take ; as in W. T. ii. 3. 164, iv. 4. 554, etc. 
 
 94. Allow us as we prove. Acknowledge us what we prove to 
 be. 
 
 98. Addition. Title. See on i. 2, 20 above. 
 
 100. A mock, etc. "That is, only a mock for his truth. Even 
 malice (for such is the meaning of the word envy) shall not be 
 able to impeach his truth, or attack him in any other way, except 
 by ridiculing him for his constancy " (Malone). 
 
 115. rheyUl stick, etc. Cf. M. for M. iv. 3. 189 : "Nay, friar, 
 I am a kind of burr ; I shall stick." 
 
 135. Cunning. The early eds. have "Comming;" corrected 
 by Pope. 
 
 150. A kind of self, etc. Cf. Sonn. 133, 13. 
 
 152, 153. / would be gone, etc. The quarto reading and ar- 
 rangement. The folio has 
 
 " Where is my wit ? 
 I would be gone : I speake I know not what." 
 
234 Notes [Act III 
 
 155. Show. The quarto reading. The folio has "shew" ( = 
 showed). 
 
 156. Roundly. Frankly, plainly; the only sense in S. Cf. 
 A. y. L. V. 3. II, T. of S. i. 2. 59, iv. 4. 108, v. 2. 21, etc. 
 
 158. For to be wise and love, etc. Tyrwhitt quotes Spenser, 
 Shep. Kal. March : — 
 
 " To be wise, and eke to love 
 Is granted scarce to gods above." 
 
 Malone finds the sentiment in Publius Syrus : " Amare et sapere 
 vix Deo conceditur." Cf. Bacon, Essay x. : " It was well said that 
 it is impossible to love and be wise ; " and Adv. of L. ii. : " it is 
 not granted to man to love and be wise." " But the real difficulty, 
 the rock over which the editorial barques of Hanmer and others 
 have hopelessly been shattered, is the unlucky for in line 149. 
 * V^hy for,'' said Malone, finding the unfortunate for 'inconsequen- 
 tial.' No doubt Cressida's reasoning is a trifle irregular. Such 
 arguments would not pass muster in Mill's Logic ; but the editors 
 might have remembered that, in the first place, the speaker is a 
 woman ; and, in the second place, being in love, she cannot, 
 according to her own showing, * be wise.' Really, it is perfectly 
 easy to trace the line of thought. * I angled,' she says, ' for your 
 thoughts, but got nothing out of you, either because you are not 
 in love, or because you are too wise ; ' and then the words zvise 
 and love remind her of the proverb, and she whimsically rounds 
 off her sentence with, ' for you know, you can't both love and be 
 wise.' It is an admirable non sequitur, a triumph of feminine 
 reasoning power, and ten times as true to life as the logical pro- 
 prieties suggested by the commentators" (Verity). 
 
 168. Affronted. Confronted. "I wish my integrity might be 
 met and matched with such equality and force of pure unmingled. 
 love" (Johnson). For affronted, cf. Ham, iii. i. 31: "affront 
 Ophelia," etc. 
 
 177. Compare. For the noun, cf. R. and J. ii. 5. 43, iii. 5. 238, etc. 
 
Scene II] Notes 235 
 
 179. Plantage. Vegetation; alluding to the old belief that 
 plants grew with the increase of the moon. vScot, in his Discov- 
 erie of Witchcraft (which we know that S. had read), says: "The 
 poore husbandman perceiveth that the increase of the moone 
 maketh plants frutefull," etc. 
 
 180. Turtle. Turtle-dove ; the only sense of the word in S. 
 
 181. Adamant. The lodestone ; as in.i1/. A'l Z>. ii. I. 195 : "You 
 draw me, you hard-hearted adamant." Cf. The Return from Par- 
 nassus, ii. I : " I am her needle, she my adamant." 
 
 The centre. That is, its place in the centre of the Ptolemaic 
 system. See on i. 3. 85 above. 
 
 190. Characterless. Unrecorded ; accented on the second syl- 
 lable, as the verb character often is, and the noun in Rich. III. iii. 
 I. 81. 
 
 205. Constant. Changed by Hanmer to "inconstant," on ac- 
 count of the " false one to another " which precedes ; but as 
 Malone and Heath remark, S. may have had in mind "the event 
 of the story." White (though he decides to retain constant^ says 
 that Malone's suggestion is " more than plausible," but that " S. 
 writing a speech for a character would write as that character 
 would think under the circumstances in which he was placed." 
 But it is not necessary to suppose that he purposely made the 
 statement correspond with the event ; he may have done it inad- 
 vertently. Or it may be that Pandarus, though he says " false to 
 one another," is thinking of the " true as Troilus " and " false as 
 Cressida" that have ended and emphasized the preceding speeches, 
 and shapes his imprecation accordingly. I am inclined personally 
 to think this last the correct explanation. 
 
 210. With a bed. These words are not in the early eds., but 
 were supplied by Hanmer. The context requires it, or something 
 like it. Because it shall not = that it may not. 
 
 211. Press it to death. A punning allusion to the punishment 
 of pressing to death, for which cf. Much Ado, ii. i. 76, M. for M. 
 v. I. 528, etc. 
 
236 
 
 Notes [Act III 
 
 213. Pandar. The folios have "and Pander." Y ox gear, see 
 on i. I. 6 above. 
 
 Scene III. — 3. Appear it. Let it appear. It is not necessary to 
 resort to the desperate expedient of making appear a transitive verb. 
 
 4. Things to love. If this be what S. wrote, the meaning of the 
 passage must be, "Through my peculiar knowledge as to where 
 it is well to place affection or regard, I have abandoned Troy " 
 (White). The quarto and the ist foHo both have "loue," though 
 some have thought it might be " loue," and therefore, with John- 
 son, read " Jove," connecting " to Jove " with what follows. The 
 2d and 3d folios have love, which the 4th folio changes to " come." 
 Steevens explained the passage thus : " No longer assisting Troy 
 with my advice, I have left it to the dominion of love, to the con- 
 sequences of the amour of Paris and Helen." It is an objection to 
 Johnson's reading (though attempts have been made to explain it 
 away) that Jove favoured the Trojans, and Calchas would hardly 
 speak of abandoning them to a friend or patron. It may be added 
 that some connect "to Jove " with things, making it mean "things 
 pertaining to Jove ; " but that seems a forced interpretation. A 
 writer in the Edin. Rev. (July, 1 869) , who thus explains " things to 
 Jove," also thinks that sight is not foresight, but " has the general 
 sense of acquaintance, skill, technical knowledge, professional con- 
 versancy — a meaning by no means unusual in Shakespeare's day ; " 
 but S. does not use sight in that sense (though he has well-seen = 
 well-skilled in T. of S.\. 2. 134), and I cannot see that to explain 
 it so here would help us in the least. The sole difficulty is in the 
 to love or to Jove. 
 
 8. Sequestering from me. Separating from me, putting aside. 
 Cf. A. Y. L. ii. I. 33 : "a poor sequester'd stag" (that is, separated 
 from the herd). 
 
 12. Into. Changed by some to "unto ; " but cf. A. W. i. 3. 
 260 : " And pray God's blessing into thy attempt." See also T. A'. 
 v. I. 87, Hen. V. i. 2. 102, ii. 2. 173, Ham. ii. 2. 28, etc. 
 
Scene III] Notes 237 
 
 21. In right great exchange. That is, offering a distinguished 
 Trojan prisoner in exchange. 
 
 23. Wrest, Literally, a tuning-key ; therefore, figuratively, 
 " that upon which the harmonious ordering of their affairs depends " 
 (Clarke). Hanmer has "rest" (the conjecture of Theobald); but 
 slack carries out the metaphor in wrest, and shows that the old 
 reading is correct. Cf. the same figure in " o'er- wrested," i. 3. 157 
 above. See also Macb. i. 7. 60. Verity quotes a very curious 
 letter : " whearin, part of the entertainment untoo the queenz 
 Maiesty, at Killingwoorth Castl, in Warwick Sheer, in this Soomerz 
 Progress, 1575, is signified," written by Robert Laneham, and 
 quoted in part in the introductory essay to Percy's Reliques of 
 Ancient English Poetry. It gives a minute account of the equip- 
 ment of an ancient minstrel, and among his accoutrements were : 
 "About his neck a red ribband suitable to his girdle. His harp in 
 good grace dependent before him. His wrest tyed to a green lace 
 and hanging by." So again in A treatise between trouth and in- 
 formation, printed among Skelton's Works, and referred to by 
 Douce, we find : — 
 
 " A harpe geveth sounde as it is sette, 
 The harper may wrest it untunablye ; 
 A harper with his wrest may tune the harpe wrong, 
 Mystunyng of an instrument shal hurt a true songe." 
 
 Equally to the point is his reference to King James's edict against 
 combats: "this small instrument the tongue being kept in tune 
 by the wri?^/ of awe." In Minsheu's Dictionary, 1627, the verb to 
 wrest is explained : " to winde, to wring, to straine," and translated 
 by the Latin torquere, contorquere. 
 
 25. Manage. The noun occurs often in S. Cf. Temp. i. 2. 70, 
 M. of V. iii. 4. 25, etc. 
 
 30, In most accepted pain. " Even in those labours which were 
 most accepted" (Steevens), or most acceptable to you. Clarke 
 makes it = " as trouble that I have undergone most willingly," and 
 
238 Notes [Act III 
 
 compares what Diomed says in the next speech but one. This 
 seems to be the meaning. 
 
 43. Unplausive. Unapproving, indifferent; used by S. only 
 here. 
 
 Are bent on. The early eds. have "are bent ? why turn'd on ; " 
 corrected by Pope. 
 
 44. Medicinable. See on i. 3. 91 above. 
 
 86. Do. The early eds. have "Doth" (corrected by Hanmer), 
 which may have been a " confusion of construction." 
 
 96. Writes nie that tnaji, etc. Some editors make "That man," 
 etc. (or "Man," etc.), a passage which Ulysses reads from the 
 book ; but I prefer, with others, to regard it as merely the sub- 
 stance of what he professes to have been reading. 
 
 How dearly ever parted. " However excellently endowed, with 
 however dear or precious parts enriched or adorned" (Johnson). 
 Mason notes that Jonson, in Every Man Out of his Humour, 
 speaks of a man " well parted ; " and Massinger, in his Great Duke 
 of Florence, says of Lydia that he chooses to " deliver her better 
 parted than she is," etc. 
 
 97. Having. Endowment. Cf. L. C.it^^\ "Whose rarest hav- 
 ings made the blossoms dote," etc. Or without or in = either 
 externally or internally, either in body or in mind. 
 
 99. Owes. Owns, possesses ; as very often. 
 
 105, 106. To others' . . . itself These lines are omitted in the 
 folio. 
 
 That most pure spirit of sense. "Which is sense itself, the very 
 emblem of perceptivity" (Schmidt). See on i. i. 60 above. On 
 the passage, cf.y. C. i. 2. 52 : — 
 
 " No, Cassius ; for the eye sees not itself 
 But by reflection by some other things." 
 
 109. Speculation. The power of vision, including the idea of 
 intelligence ; as in Macb. iii. 4. 95 : " Thou hast no speculation in 
 those eyes," etc. 
 
Scene III] Notes 239 
 
 no. Mirrored. The early eds. have "married," which Dr. 
 Ingleby defends. On the passage, of. K. John, ii. i. 496 fol, 
 
 1 14. Circumstance. " Detail or circumduction of his argu- 
 ment " (Johnson). Cf. T. G. of V. iii. 2. 36, C. of E. v. i. 16, etc. 
 
 116. Though in mid of hi77i, etc. However great his powers 
 and possessions may be. Cf. 97 above. 
 
 120. Who, like an arch, etc. Rowe changes who to "which ; '' 
 but the former is often used for the latter. Cf. 201 below. 
 
 123—128. I was much wrapt . . . dear in use. This is substan- 
 tially the folio reading, and makes good sense. The quarto 
 
 reads : — 
 
 " I was much rap't in this, 
 And apprehended here immediately. 
 The unknoune Aiax, heavens what a man is there ? 
 A very horse, that has he knowes not what 
 Nature what things there are. 
 Most abject in regard, and deere in use." 
 
 Pope followed the folio down to Ajax ; afterwards he read : — 
 
 " Heavens what a man is there ? A very horse. 
 He knows not his own nature : what things are 
 Most abject in regard, and dear in use." 
 
 Hanmer, who in his preface declared that his guiding principle had 
 been never " to give a loose to fancy, or indulge a licentious spirit 
 of criticism," printed the lines thus : — 
 
 " I was much rapt 
 In this / read, and apprehended here 
 Immediately the unknown Ajax : heavens ! 
 What a man 's there ? A very horse, that has 
 He knows not what : in nature what things there are 
 Most abject in regard, and dear in use." 
 
 125. The unhtown Ajax. Johnson takes this to mean "Ajax, 
 who has abilities which were never brought into view or use ; " but 
 it may simply refer to the fact that Ajax was unknown to the writer, 
 
240 Notes [Act III 
 
 though so well described by him. Clarke makes unknown = 
 " unknown to himself, wanting in true self-knowledge." 
 
 126. A very horse. A mere horse. Cf. ii. i. 17 above, where 
 Thersites makes him stupider than a horse. 
 
 128. Abject in regard, etc. Poor in estimation, but precious in 
 utility, little valued but very useful. 
 
 131. An act, etc. Malone is clearly correct in making this line 
 parenthetical. Capell makes act the object of see; and Rowe 
 points the passage thus (perhaps equivalent to my pointing) : — 
 
 " Now shall we see to-morrow, 
 An act that very chance doth throw on him, 
 Ajax renown'd ! " 
 
 134. How so7ne men creep, etc. " While some men remain 
 tamely inactive in Fortune's hall, without any effort to excite her 
 attention, others, etc." (Malone). Johnson makes creep — "keep 
 out of notice." Schmidt may be right in taking creep in to be 
 = get secretly into. 
 
 135. Play the idiots, etc. Act like fools while enjoying her favour. 
 137. Fasting, etc. " Haughtily resting on his laurels" (Herford). 
 145. Wallet. Bag, or knapsack. The word is used again in 
 
 Temp. iii. 3. 46 : — 
 
 " Who would believe that there were mountaineers 
 Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at 'em 
 Wallets of flesh ? " 
 
 Cf. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 24 : — 
 
 " But tell me, Lady, wherefore doe you beare 
 This bottle thus before you with such toile, 
 And eeke this wallet at your backe arreare, 
 That for these Carles to carry much more comely were ? " 
 
 " ' Here in this bottle ' (sayd the sorry Mayd) 
 * I put the tears of my contrition. 
 Till to the brim I have it full defrayd : 
 And in this bag, which I behinde me don, 
 I put repentaunce for things past and gon.' " 
 
Scene III] Notes 241 
 
 Collier says that this quotation is not in point, because it does not 
 refer to the Time but to Mirabell ; but it may none the less have 
 suggested the description of Time here. 
 
 147. Ingratitudes. Repeated or habitual acts of ingratitude. 
 For this use of the plural, not uncommon in S., cf. behaviours in 
 Much Ado, ii, 3. 9, ii. 3. 100, etc. Great-siz^d is used by S. only 
 here and in v. 10. 26 below. 
 
 150. Perseverance. Accented on the second syllable, as in Macb. 
 iv. 3. 93, the only other instance of the word in S. Persever is his 
 only form for the verb. 
 
 152. Mail. Coat of mail, suit of armour. 
 
 158. Forthright. Straight path. Cf. 7>;w/. iii. 3. 3 : "forthrights 
 and meanders." 
 
 162. Lie there. That is, you lie there. 
 
 168. Grasps in the cofjier. Hanmer reads " Grasps the in-comer," 
 which would be well enough if any change were needed. 
 
 175. One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. One 
 natural trait is characteristic of all men. A writer in the London 
 AthencEutn, March 18, 1871, conjectures that touch should be tache 
 (— defect or blemish), and cites sundry examples of that old word; 
 but toiich may mean either a good or a bad characteristic, and may 
 therefore stand. The context makes all clear. White paraphrases 
 it thus (^Galaxy, Feb. 1877): "There is one point on which 
 all men are alike, one touch of human nature which shows the 
 kindred of all mankind — that they slight familiar merit and prefer 
 trivial novelty." Of the common misapplication of the line he 
 says : " It has come to be always quoted with the meaning implied 
 in the following indication of emphasis : ' One touch of nature 
 makes the whole world kin.' Shakespeare wrote no such senti- 
 mental twaddle. Least of all did he write it in this play, in which 
 his pen ' pierces to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of 
 the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents 
 of the heart.' The line which has been thus perverted mto an 
 exposition of sentimental brotherhood among all mankind, is on 
 
 TROILUS— 16 
 
242 Notes [Act III 
 
 the contrary one of the most cynical utterances of an undisputable 
 moral truth, disparaging to the nature of all mankind, that ever 
 came from Shakespeare's pen. . . . The meaning is too manifest to 
 need or indeed to admit a word of comment, and it is brought out 
 by this emphasis : ' One touch of nature makes the whole zvorld kin ' 
 —-that one touch of their common failing being an uneasy love 
 of novelty. Was ever poet's or sage's meaning so perverted, so 
 reversed ! And yet it is hopeless to think of bringing about a 
 change in the general use of this line and a cessation of its perver- 
 sion to sentimental purposes, not to say an application of it as the 
 scourge for vsrhich it was wrought ; just as it is hopeless to think of 
 changing by any demonstration of unfitness and unmeaningness a 
 phrase in general use — the reason being that the mass of the users 
 are utterly thoughtless and careless of the right or the wrong, the 
 fitness or the unfitness, of the words that come from their mouths, 
 except that they serve their purpose for the moment. That done, 
 what care they ? And what can we expect, when even the ' Globe ' 
 edition of Shakespeare's works has upon its very title-page and its 
 cover a globe with a band around it, on which is written this line, 
 in its perverted sense, that sense being illustrated, enforced, and 
 deepened into the general mind by the union of the band-ends by' 
 clasped hands. I absolve, of course, the Cambridge editors of the. 
 guilt of this twaddling misuse of Shakespeare's line ; it was a mere 
 publisher's contrivance ; but I am somewhat surprised that they 
 should have even allowed it such sanction as it has from its appear- 
 ance on the same title-page with their names." Quotations from S. 
 are often used to express a meaning, or shade of meaning, which is 
 different from his ; but it does not always imply a misunderstanding 
 of the passage, and is not necessarily objectionable. In the present 
 instance, however, the real meaning has generally been misunder- 
 stood, though the context makes it perfectly clear. 
 
 178. Give. The early eds. have "goe" or " go ; " corrected by 
 Theobald. 
 . 179. Than gilt. Than /<? what is gilt, or golden. The quarto 
 
Scene III] Notes 243 
 
 and thei ist and 2d folios have "then guilt ; " the later folios "in 
 gilt." Hanmer reads' "tlian they will give to gold;" but of. 
 Rich. II. ii. I. 294 : "our sceptre's gilt;; " Hen. V. ii. chor. 26 : 
 " the gilt of France," etc. 0' er-dusted ; that is, if it happens to be 
 covered with dust. 
 
 181. Complete. Accented on the first syllable because before 
 a noun so accented ; as in iv. i. 27 below. 
 
 183. Sooner catch. The folio has "begin to catch," changed in 
 the later folios to "gin to catch." 
 
 189. Made emulous missions, etc. Referring to the descent of 
 the gods to fight on one or the other side. As Steevens notes, S, 
 probably followed Chapman's Iliad here : "In the 5th book, 
 Diomed wounds Mars, who on his return to heaven is rated by 
 Jupiter for having interfered in the battle." 
 
 194. One of Priam'' s daughters. " Polyxena, in the act of marry- 
 ing whom he was afterwards killed by Paris" (Steevens). Hud- 
 son, in copying this note, inadvertently puts it thus : " Polyxena, 
 whom he afterwards married, and graced the wedding with the 
 killing of Paris." 
 
 197. Phittis' gold. The folio has ^^ Pluto es gold ; " as in J. C. 
 iv. 3. 102 it has " Pluto's Mine." The quarto reads " almost every 
 thing." 
 
 198. Uncomprehensive. Incomprehensible, mysterious ; used by 
 S. only here. For deeps the quarto has " depth." 
 
 199. Keeps place with thought. Hanmer reads "Keeps pace." 
 Clarke remarks : " S. not only uses keeps place in another passage 
 \_M. W. ii. I. 63] where keep pace might be substituted, but he 
 also employs the word place where pace could be supposed to 
 accord better with the context [cf. i. 3. 189 above]. Her.e, though 
 keeps pace would accord with the swiftness of thought, yet keeps 
 place consists more fully with the general scope of the passage, 
 which treats of the universal diving of provident vigilance into the 
 penetralia and innermost places where thinking conception origi- 
 nates and dwells." 
 
244 Notes [Act III 
 
 200. Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles. Malone con- 
 jectured " infant thoughts," which is the meaning of course — 
 thoughts not yet sufficiently developed for expression in words. 
 Cradles may be a trisyllable, as some make it. Cf, p. 181. 
 
 201. Whom. Changed by Pope to "which." Cf. 120 above. 
 Johnson paraphrases the passage thus : " There is a secret admin- 
 istration of affairs which no history was ever able to discover." 
 
 204. Expressure. S. does not use expression. Expressure 
 occurs again in T. N. ii. 3. 171 : " the expressure of his eye ; " and 
 in M. W. V. 5. 71 : "The expressure it bears." 
 
 205. Commerce. Accented on the second syllable, as in i. 3. 105 
 above. These are the only instances in which S. uses the word in 
 verse. 
 
 210. Otir islajids. The quarto has " our iland," and the folio 
 " her Iland." 
 
 211. Greekish. The adjective occurs ten times in this play; 
 but elsewhere (and much oftener) S. has Grecian. We find Greek 
 as an adjective in iv. 5. 130, as in A. Y. L. ii. 5. 61 and T. of S. ii. 
 
 I. lOI. 
 
 214. Lover. One who loves you. Cf. M. of V. iii. 4. 7, 17, etc. 
 
 224. And like a dew-drop, etc. Godwin (^Life of Chaucer^ 
 remarks : " A more poetical passage, if poetry consists in sublime, 
 picturesque, and beautiful imagery, neither ancient nor modern 
 times have produced than the exhortation addressed by Patroclus 
 to Achilles, to persuade him to shake off his passion for Polyxena, 
 the daughter of Priam, and resume the terrors of his military 
 greatness : — 
 
 " ' Sweet, rouse yourself; and the weak wanton Cupid 
 Shall from your neck unloose his amorous fold, 
 And like a dew-drop from the lion's mane, 
 Be shook to air." " 
 
 228. Shrewdly gor''d. Badly wounded. For shrewdly, cf. Hen. V. 
 iii. 7. 52, 163, etc.; and for gor''d, Hajn. v. 2. 261 : "To keep my 
 name ungor'd." 
 
Scene III] Notes 245 
 
 231. A blank of danger. Unknown or indefinite danger; the 
 metaphor being taken from a blank commission to which one sets 
 his seal before knowing how the document is to be filled out. For 
 this use of blank, cf. Rich. II. ii. I. 250. Schmidt strangely takes 
 blank to be the white mark in a target (cf. W. T. ii. 3. 5). 
 
 238. An appetite, etc. This is fromCaxton : " The truce during, 
 Hector went on a day unto the tents of the Greeks, and Achilles 
 beheld him gladly, forasmuch as he had never seen him unarmed. 
 And at the request of Achilles, Hector went into his tent ; and as 
 they spake together of many things, Achilles said to Hector, I have 
 great pleasure to see thee unarmed, forasmuch as I have never 
 seen thee before." 
 
 239. Weeds. Garments, dress ; as often. 
 
 253. That hath no arithmetic, etc. Cf. the sneer at " a tapster's 
 arithmetic " in i. 2. 1 19 above. 
 
 254. Politic regard. " A sly look " (Johnson) . 
 
 265. Opinion! Self-conceit; as in i Hen. IV. iii. i. 185 and 
 Z. L. L. V. I. 6. In i. 3. 353 above it is used in a good sense 
 (= self-confidence). 
 
 273. Pageant. A theatrical representation. See on iii. 2. 77 
 above. 
 
 305. Catlings. Catgut strings. C^//m^ is made the name of a 
 musician in R. and J. iv. 5. 132. On = of; as often. 
 
 309. The more capable creature. That is, having better capa- 
 bilities, or more intelligent. See on 126 above. For capable, cf. 
 Rich. III. iii. i. 155, etc. The word is still used in New England 
 in this sense. Within a few hours I have heard a man spoken of 
 as " very smart and capable." 
 
DiOMEDES 
 
 ACT IV 
 
 Scene I. — 8. Process of your speech. The course of it, or what 
 you said in it. 
 
 9. A whole zveek by days. That is, day after day for a week. 
 Some take it to mean seven days, but not all in one week. 
 
 II. During all questio7i, tXz. During all intercourse permitted 
 by the truce. For question, cf. A. V. L. iii. 4. 39, etc. 
 
 14. The one and other. Cf. C. of E. iv. 3. 86 : ' " Both one and 
 other he denies," etc. The omission of the article with one or with 
 other, or both, is not uncommon in S. 
 
 20. Humatie. The early eds. make no distinction between 
 humane and htiman. The accent is regularly on the first syllable. 
 
 22. By Venus^ hajid. Warburton saw here a hint of " his re- 
 sentment for Diomedes' wounding his mother in the hand," and 
 Clarke believes there is such an allusion ; but this is very im- 
 probable. 
 
 27. Complete. For the accent, see on iii. 3. 181 above. 
 
 246 
 
Scene I] Notes 247 
 
 ^^. Hateful. Full of hate, malignant ; as m Rich. IT. ii. 2. 1 38 : 
 " the hateful commons," etc. Some print " noblest-hateful." 
 
 36. His purpose meets you. " I bring you his meaning and his 
 orders" (Johnson). 
 
 40. Constantly do think. Am firmly persuaded. 
 
 44. Wherefore. The folio has " whereof." Quality — character, 
 tenor. 
 
 48. Disposition. Situation, circumstances. 
 , 56, Soilure. Stain, defilement ; used by S. only here. 
 
 57. Charge. Cost, expense ; as 60 shows. 
 
 59. Palating. For the verb, cf. Cor. iii. I. 104 and A, and C. 
 Vi 2. 7. 
 
 62. A flat tamed piece. A cask that has been broached, and the 
 contents of which have thus become flat to the taste. Y ox piece, cf. 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas, v. 10 : " Strike a fresh 
 piece of wine," etc. 
 
 . 75. .Chapmen.. Buyers. In L. L. L. ii. i. 16 (the only other 
 instance in S.) it means sellers. 
 
 78. We '// but commend what we intend to sell. The early eds. 
 have " not " for but,, which is adopted by most of the editors. The 
 Cambridge editors conjecture "without'' for what of the old text. 
 Johnson and Malone retain the original reading, alnd take the 
 meaning to be : " though you practise the buyer's art, we will not 
 practise the seller's. We intend to sell Helen dear [that is, if we 
 have to part with her], yet will not commend her." It has been 
 objected to the reading in the text that it contradicts in silence; 
 but it does not, for since they did not intend to sell Helen they had 
 nothing to say in praise of her : We'll commend only what we 
 intend to sell, and so we keep silence. Cf. Sonn. 21. 14 : "I 
 will not praise that purpose not to sell." 
 
 Scene II. — 4. Kill. If this be what S. wrote, it is a bit of lov- 
 ing playfulness. " Seal," " lull," and " still " have been suggested 
 as emendations. 
 
248 Notes [Act IV 
 
 5. Attachment. Arrest, stop ; the only instance of the word 
 in S. Cf. the verb attach (= arrest) in C. of E. iv. i. 69, 75, 106, 
 iv. 2. 43, iv. 4. 85, etc. 
 
 9. Ribald. " Base, rudely obstreperous, in contradistinction to 
 the lark?" (Schmidt). Some make it = thievish, or roguish. 
 
 12. Venomotis. Probably in a general sense = malignant, as 
 opposed to lovers. Most editors follow Steevens in making 
 venomous wights = " venefici, those who practise nocturnal sor- 
 cery ; " but this seems forced and improbable. 
 
 13. Tediously. The folio has " hidiously." 
 
 34. Capocchia. " A fabricated feminine form of the Italian word 
 capocchio, which means a dolt, a simpleton, a fool" (Clarke). The 
 adjective capocchio (=1 dull, stupid) has the regular feminine capoc- 
 chia. The noun capocchia means " the head of a stick, pin, nail, etc." 
 The spelling of the early eds. is " chipochia." 
 
 59. You '// be so trtie, etc. In pretending that he is not here 
 you '11 harm him rather than help him. Some print " 'ware," but 
 the word is not a contraction of aware. 
 
 64. My 7natter is so rash. My business demands such haste. 
 
 69. We must give up, etc. This part of the story is thus told by 
 Caxton : " Calcas, that by the commandment of Apollo had left the 
 Troyans, had a passing fair daughter, and wise, named Briseyda — 
 Chaucer, in his book that he made of Troylus, named her Cresida 
 — for which daughter he prayed to King Agamemnon, and to the 
 other princes, that they would require the King Priamus to send 
 Briseyda unto him. They prayed enough to King Priamus at the 
 instance of Calcas, but the Troyans blamed sore Calcas, and called 
 him evil and false traitor, and worthy to die, that had left his own 
 land and his natural lord for to go into the company of his mortal 
 enemies : yet, at the petition and earnest desire of the Greeks, the 
 King Priamus sent Briseyda to her father." 
 
 71. State of Troy. See on i. 3. 191 above. 
 
 75. We met by chance. That is, let it be so understood. Cf. A. 
 and C. i. 3. 4 : " I did not send you." 
 
Scene IV] Notes 249 
 
 76. The secrets of nature. The folio reading ; the quarto has 
 "the secrets of neighbor Pandar." Secrets may be a trisyllable. 
 Dyce cites passages from Marlowe, Middleton, Ben Jonson, and 
 Kyd in which it is so used. See p. 181 above. 
 
 108. Extremes. The quarto has "extreames," the folio "ex- 
 tremitie." 
 
 Scene III. — i. Great morning. Broad day (Yt. grand jour 
 ox grand matUi). Cf. Cymb. iv. 2. 62. 
 
 3. Fast upon. Cf. Ham. i. 2. 179 : " it foUow'd hard upon," etc. 
 
 Scene IV. — 4. Violenteth. Rageth, is violent; the only in- 
 stance of the verb in S. The folio reads " And. no lesse in a sense," 
 etc. Steevens quotes Fuller, Worthies : " His former adversaries 
 violented any thing against him." Latimer has " Maister Pole 
 violentes the text," etc. 
 
 10. Such a precious loss. The loss of what is so precious. 
 
 20. Friendship. That is, mere friendship as opposed to love ; 
 as speaking = mere words, as opposed to loving acts. 
 
 24. Strained. The folio has "strange." Cf. iv. 5. 169 below. 
 
 25. Fancy. Love; as often. Cf. the verb in v. 2. 166 below. 
 33. Where. Changed by Rowe to " while ; " but where is often 
 
 = in which, in which case, etc. 
 
 36. Rejoindure. Being rejoined, or united again ; used by S. 
 only here. The same is true of embrasures (= " embraces," which 
 Pope substitutes) in the next line. 
 
 42. Injurious. Often used by S. in a stronger sense than the 
 word now has. 
 
 45. Distinct. Accented on the first syllable, as in M. of V. ii. 
 9. 61 : "To offend and judge are distinct offices." See on complete, 
 iii. 3. 181 above. The accent of consigned is to be explained in the 
 same way. 
 
 Consigned kisses to them. Kisses allotted to them. Some make 
 consign^ d-= consigning, that is, sealing, confirming. 
 
250. Notes [Act IV 
 
 48. Distasted, Made distasteful, embittered. See on ii. 2. 123 
 above. Broken = interrupted. 
 
 50. The Genius. The spirit that was supposed to direct the 
 actions of man. Qi. Macb.m.. i. 56:^ 
 
 " and under him 
 My Genius is rebuk'd, as it is said 
 Mark Antony's was by Caesar." 
 
 See also A. and C. ii. 3. 19, and C. of E. v. i. 332. 
 
 51. Cries ^ come^ etc. The editors naturally refer to Pope, The 
 Dying Christian to his Soul : — 
 
 " Hark ! they whisper; angels say 
 ' Sister spirit, come away' " 
 
 Pope repeats the thought in Eloisa to Abelard : — 
 
 " ' Come, sister, come,' it said, or seemed to say, ' 
 
 ' Thy place is here, sad sister, come away.' " 
 
 53. Rain, to lay this wind, etc. Malone quotes R. of L. 1788 : — 
 
 " This windy tempest, till it blow up rain. 
 Held back his sorrow's tide, to make it more ; 
 At last it rains, and busy winds give o'er." 
 
 See also Macb. i. 7. 25. 
 
 56. The merry Greeks. See on i. 2. 1 14 above. 
 
 57. When shall we see again? The same question is found in 
 Cymb. i. i. 124. See also Hen. VIII. \. i. 2 : "Since last we saw 
 in France." 
 
 58. Be thou but true of heart. Knight remarks : "The parting 
 of Troilus and Cressida was very beautifully told by Chaucer ; but 
 as Shakspere's conception of the character of Cressida is altogether 
 different from that of Chaucer, we see little iii the scene before us 
 to make us believe that Cressida will keep her vows. In the elder 
 poet she manifests a loftiness of character which ought to have pre- 
 served her faith. Shakspere has made her consistent : — 
 
Scene IV] Notes 25 T 
 
 ' And o'er all this, I pray you, quod she tho.l 
 Mine owne heartes sothfast suffisance ! 
 Sith I am thine all whole withouten mo, 
 That while that I am absent, no pleasance 
 Of other do me from your remembrance, 
 For I am e'er aghast ; for why ? men rede 3 
 That love is thing aye full of busy drede. 
 
 ' For in this world there liveth lady none, 
 If that ye were untrue, as God defend ! 
 That so betrayed were or woe begone 
 As I, that alle truth in you intend : 
 And doubteless, if that I other ween'd, 
 I n'ere but dead, and ere ye cause yfind, 
 . For Goddes love, so be me nought unkind. 
 
 ' To this answered Troilus, and said, 
 Now God, to whom there is no cause awry, 
 . Me glad, as wis I never to Cressid, 
 Sith thilke day I saw her first with eye, 
 Was false, nor ever shall till that I die : 
 At short wordes, well ye may me believe, 
 I can no more ; it shall be found at preve,3 
 
 ' Grand mercy, good heart mine ! iwis, (quod she,) 
 And, blissful Venus ! let me never sterve ^ 
 Ere I may stand of pleasance in degree 
 To quite him well that so well can deserve ; 
 And while that God my wit will me conserve 
 I shall so do, so true I have you found, 
 That aye honour to me-ward shall rebound : 
 
 ' Fdr trusteth well that your estate roydl, 
 Nor vain delight, nor only worthiness 
 Of you in war or tourney martial, 
 Nor pomp, array, nobley,5 or eke richess, 
 Ne maden me to rue on your distress, 
 
 1 Then. 2 Say. 8 Proof. 4 Die. 5 Nobility, 
 
2^2 Notes [Act IV 
 
 But moral virtue, grounded upon truth ; — 
 That was the cause I first had on you ruth : 
 
 ' Eke gentle heart, and manhood that ye had. 
 And that ye had (as me thought) in despite 
 Every thing that souned into i bad, 
 As rudeness, and peoplish 2 appetite, 
 And that your reason bridled your delight ; 
 This made aboven every creature 
 That I was yours, and shall while I may dure.' " 
 
 59. Deem. Surmise, thought ; the only instance of the noun 
 in S. 
 
 63. Throw my glove to Death himself. "I will challenge Death 
 himself in defence of thy fidelity " (Johnson) . 
 
 64. Maculation. Stain of inconstancy ; used by S. only here, 
 as maculate only in Z. Z. Z. i. 2. 97. 
 
 65. To fashion in, etc. As an introduction to the promise that 
 follows. Schmidt defines fashion as " to contrive to put in or 
 insert. " 
 
 70. Wear this sleeve. Hall, in his Chronicle, refers to the cus- 
 tom of wearing a lady's sleeve or glove as a favour : " One ware 
 on his head-piece his lady's sleeve, and another bare on his helme 
 the glove of his deareling." So Drayton, Barons' Wars: "A 
 lady's sleeve high-spirited Hastings wore," etc. Malone remarks 
 that the sleeve which Troilus here gives Cressida may be " an orna- 
 mented cuff, such perhaps as was worn by some of the young 
 nobility at a tilt." She afterwards (v. 2. 66 below) gives it to 
 Diomed. 
 
 75-78. Hear why . . . exercise. The quarto reads : — 
 
 " Here why I speake it loue, 
 The Grecian youths are full of quality, 
 And swelling ore with arts and exercise." 
 
 1 Verged towards. 2 Vulgar. 
 
Scene IV] Notes 253 
 
 The folio has : — 
 
 " Heare why I speake it ; Lone : 
 The Grecian youths are full of qualitie, 
 Their louing well compos'd, with guift of nature, 
 Flawing and swelling ore with Arts and exercise : " 
 
 It would take too much space to give the readings of the leading 
 editors, which fill a page in the Cambridge ed. Knight and Ver- 
 planck follow the folio closely (except in punctuation, and " Flow- 
 ing" for "Flawing" ), and the former explains lines 77, 78 thus : 
 " their loving is well composed with the gift of nature, which gift 
 ( natural quality) is flowing, and swelling over, with arts and exer- 
 cise." White reads : — 
 
 " They 're loving, well compos'd with gifts of nature, 
 Flowing and swelling o'er with arts and exercise." 
 
 The reading in the text is from Staunton, and is adopted by the 
 Cambridge editors, who remark that " the word ' Flowing ' was in 
 all probability a marginal correction for ' swelling,' which the printer 
 of the folio by mistake added to the line." 
 
 76. Full of quality. "Highly accomplished" (Steevens). Cf. 
 Chapman, Iliad: "he was well qualitied." 
 
 79. Novelty . . . person. The quarto has " novelty . . . por- 
 tion." Person = personal appearance, comeliness. 
 
 86. Lavolt. The lavolta, a dance in which there was much lofty 
 capering. Cf. Hen. V . iii. 5. 33. 
 
 88. Pregnant. Ready; as often. Cf. Lear, ii. I. 78, iv. 6. 
 227, etc. 
 
 97. Their changeful potency. Their inconstant or uncertain 
 power. The expression is perfectly in keeping with the frailty of 
 our powers in the preceding line ; but changes have been made by 
 the editors. Presuming on = presuming too much upon, Cf. 
 Rich. II. ii. I. 116: "Presuming on an ague's privilege," etc. 
 
 103. Whiles others fish, etc. " While others, by their art, gain 
 
254' Notes [Act IV 
 
 high estimatioin, I, by honesty, obtain a plain, simple approbatiu'n " 
 (Johnson). 
 
 107. Moral. Meaning. Cf. T. of S. iv. 4. 79 : "to expound 
 the meaning or moral of his signs and tokens." 
 
 111. Port. Gate. Cf. Cor. i. 7. i, v. 6. 6, etc. 
 
 112. Possess. Inform ; as in M. of V. i. 3. 65 : — 
 
 " Is he yet possess'd 
 How much ye would ? " etc. 
 
 113. Entreat her fair. Treat her well. Cf. Rich. III. iv. 4. 151 : 
 "entreat me fair," etc. See also Genesis, xii. 16, Jeremiah, xv. 
 II, etc. 
 
 122. Zeal. The early eds. have "seale" or "seal; " corrected 
 by Theobald. 
 
 132. / '// answer to my lust. I '11 do as I please ; not, as some 
 explain it, I '11 answer you as I please. Lust = pleasure ; as in 
 P. of L. 1384 : "Gazing upon the Greeks with little lust." 
 
 133. On charge. At your orders; "on compulsion," as Falstaff 
 put it (i Hen. IV. ii. 4. 263). 
 
 136. / 7/ tell thee. Capell reads " I tell thee ; " but cf. K. John, 
 V. 6. 39, Hen. V.\. i. i, etc. 
 
 137. Brave. Bravado, bullying. Cf. T. of S. iii. i. 15: "I will 
 not bear these braves of thine." 
 
 144. Let us make ready straight. The folio gives this speech to 
 " Dio. y " corrected by Malone. 
 
 144-148. The last five lines of the scene are not in the quarto. 
 146. Address. Prepare, make ready. Cf. v. 10. 14 below. 
 
 Scene V. — i. Appointment. Equipment ; as in Ham, iv. 6. 16 : 
 " a pirate of very warlike appointment," etc. 
 
 6. Hale. Haul, draw. Cf. Much Ado, ii. 3. 62, T. N. iii. 2. 
 64, etc. Trumpet = trumpeter. See on i. 3. 256 above. 
 
 8. Sphered bias cheek. That is, rounded like a bowl on the 
 biassed or weighted side. Mr. Verity notes the frequency of allu- 
 
Scene V] Notes 255 
 
 sions in the dramatists to bowls, a game at which churchwardens 
 s^eem to have been peculiarly proficient. An exact parallel to the 
 present line occurs in Webster's Vittoria Coroinbona, i, : " That 
 nobleman Corib ! faith his cheek hath a most excellent bias ; it would 
 fain jump with my mistress.''^ Steevens thinks that, in the present 
 passage, *' the idea is taken from the puffy cheeks of the winds as 
 represented in old prints and maps." The bias of a bowl is the 
 weight of lead inserted in one side of it, causing the bowl to twist in 
 its course towards that side. If the bowl is held with the bias on the 
 outer side, it will run with an outward curve ; if on the inside, it 
 will " twist in." Bowling-greens are still kept up and in constant 
 use in villages in Warwickshire and other parts of England. I 
 have often watched the play of a summer evening at Stratford 
 and Warwick. See on iii. 2. 49 above ; and cf. T. of S. iv. 5. 25, 
 Rich. II. iii. 4. 5, Ham. ii. I. 65, etc. 
 
 9. Colic. For the figure, cf. I Hen. IV. iii. i. 29 fol. Aquilon, 
 like Boreas (i. 3. 38 above), is a classical name for the north 
 wind. 
 
 13. Yond. Yonder ; but not a contraction of that word, as often 
 printed. The folio misprints " yong." 
 
 14. Ken. Recognize in the distance. Cf. 2 Hen. VI. iii. 2. loi : 
 " As far as I could ken thy chalky cliffs." 
 
 20. Particular. Ulysses plays upon particular (= personal, 
 individual) d^ndi general, as Cade does in 2 Hen. VI. iv. 2. 119. 
 
 26. Argument. The play upon the various senses of the word 
 is obvious. 
 
 2^. Hardiment. Hardihood, boldness. Cf. Cymb. v. 4. 75 and 
 I Hen. IV. i. 3. loi. The next line is omitted in the folio. 
 
 29. Thus. Here of course he kisses her ; and to this he refers 
 in 32 as Menelaus' kiss. 
 
 31. Horns. The old much-worn joke of the cuckold's horns. 
 Cf. i. I. 117 above. 
 
 37. / '// fmake my match to live. I '11 wager my life. Johnson 
 explained it thus : " I will make such bargains as I may live by, 
 
256 Notes [Act IV 
 
 such as may bring nie profit, therefore will not take a worse kiss 
 than I give." 
 
 46. Your nail. That is, your finger-nail as used va filliping him 
 on the head. 
 
 57. Motive. " Part that contributes to motion " (Johnson) . The 
 word sometimes means instrument ; as in A. W. iv. 4. 20, Rich. II. 
 i. I. I93» etc. 
 
 58. Encounterers. Those who meet the advances of another 
 halfway. 
 
 59. Coasting. Sidelong, alluring. Some read " accosting " (the 
 conjecture of Theobald). It is a close question between the two. 
 The antecedent of it is implied in encounterers, and = amorous 
 advances. Cf. the use of encounter in M. W. iii. 5. 74, etc. 
 
 60. Tables. Tablets, note-book. Cf. Ham. i. 5. 107, etc. 
 
 61. Ticklish. Prurient. The folio has " tickling." 
 
 62. Sluttish spoils of opportunity. " Corrupt wenches, of whose 
 chastity every opportunity may make a prey" (Johnson). 
 
 65. You state. The quarto has "the state," Cf. i. 3. 191 and 
 ii. 3. 262 above. 
 
 Steevens remarks that what shall be done, etc., is Scriptural 
 phraseology, and quotes I Samuel, xvii. 26, 
 
 68. To the edge of all extremity. To the uttermost, a outrance. 
 
 73. Securely. Carelessly, confidently. Cf. secure in ii. 2. 15 
 above. The early eds. give the speech to " Aga. ; " but the reply 
 shows that it belongs to ^neas. 
 
 79. Valour and pride, etc. " Valour (says ^Eneas) is in Hector 
 greater than valour in other men, and pride in Hector is less than 
 pride in other men. So that Hector is distinguished by the excel- 
 lence of having pride less than others' pride, and valour more than 
 others' valour" (Johnson). 
 
 83. This Ajax, etc. Ajax and Hector were cousins. Cf. 120 
 below. 
 
 87. Maiden battle. Bloodless contest, like that of novices ; not 
 "a gory emulation" (123). 
 
Scene V] Notes 257 
 
 90. Consent Agree ; as often. 
 
 92. A breath. An exercise. Cf. ii. 3. 113 above. 
 
 98. Speaking in deeds, etc. Letting his deeds speak for him, 
 not boasting of them himself. 
 
 103. Impair. Unsuitable, unworthy. The folios have "im- 
 paire " or " impair," and the quarto " impare." Capell reads 
 " impar," and Dyce adopts Johnson's conjecture of "impure," a 
 word which seems not at all in place here. Impair probably rep- 
 resents the Latin impar. Steevens cites Chapman, Shield of 
 Homer, preface : " Nor is it more impaire to an honest and abso- 
 lute man," etc. ; where, however, it seems to be a noun. Johnson 
 paraphrases an impair thought by " a thought unsuitable to the 
 dignity of his character." Some would derive impair from the 
 Latin i}?iparatus, unprepared, unready ; and others would connect 
 it with the verb and noun impair, and make it = impairing, injuri- 
 ous, or detractive. The Cambridge editors remark : " Although we 
 have not been able to find any other instance of impair as an 
 adjective, we have retained it ; for . . . etymologically impair 
 may have the sense of unsuitable, unequal to the theme. . . . Int- 
 pure, though plausible, is not entirely satisfactory, as it is Troilus's 
 ripeness of judgment and not his modesty which is the subject of 
 praise." 
 
 105. Subscribes To tender objects. Yields to occasions of tender- 
 ness. For subscribes, cf. T. of S.\. \.%i'. "Sir, to your pleasure 
 humbly I subscribe," etc. 
 
 107. Vindicative. Vindictive ; used by S. only here. Vindic- 
 tive he does not use at all. 
 
 109. As fairly built as Hector. Ellipses after as are common. 
 
 111. Even to his inches. That is, minutely, even to the smallest 
 details of his character. Cf. ii. i. 51 above. With private soul =::■ 
 confidentially. 
 
 112. Translate. Interpret ; as in Ham. iv. i. 2, etc. 
 
 120. Thou art, great lord, my father'' s sister'' s son, etc. This 
 incident is thus related byCaxton: "As they were fighting, they 
 
 TROILUS — 17 
 
258 Notes [Act IV 
 
 spake and talked together, and thereby Hector knew that he was 
 his cousin-german, son uf his aunt : and then Hector, for courtesy, 
 embraced him in his arms, and made great cheer, and offered to 
 him to do all his pleasure, if he desired any thing of him, and 
 prayed him that he would come to Troy with him for to see his 
 lineage of his mother's side : but the said Thelamon, that intended 
 to nothing but to his best advantage, said that he would not go at 
 this time. But he prayed Hector, requesting that, if he loved him 
 so much as he said, that he would for his sake, and at his instance, 
 cease the battle for that day, and that the Troyans should leave the 
 Greeks in peace. The unhappy Hector accorded unto him his 
 request, and blew a horn, and made all his people to withdraw 
 into the city." 
 
 128. Sinister o Accented on the second syllable, as elsewhere 
 in S. 
 
 129, Multipotent. Almighty ; used by S. only here. 
 
 131. Impressure. Impression. S. generally uses zV;z/r(?^i'/(7«, but 
 impressure occurs in A, Y. L. iii. 5. 23 and T. N. ii. 5. 103. Cf. 
 expressiire in iii. 3. 204 above. 
 
 134. Aly sacred aunt. Steevens believes that this use of sacred 
 was suggested by the Grecism (for which he cites Vaillant) of giv- 
 mg the uncle the title of Qetos (godlike, divine). The word is very 
 often used by S. as an epithet of royalty. 
 
 139. Freeo Generous, noble. Cf. i. 3. 235 above. 
 
 141. Addition. Title. See on i. 2. 20 above. 
 
 142. Mirable. Admirable (Latin mirabilis'); used by S. only 
 here, and perhaps of his own coining. 
 
 As Malone remarks, the reference here seems to be to Achilles, 
 and not to his son Neoptolemus, who had not yet distinguished 
 himself. Johnson suggests that, as S. knew the son to be called 
 Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, he " considered Neoptolemus as the nomen 
 gentilitium, and thought the father was likewise Achilles Neoptole- 
 mus," Pyrrhus cannot be meant, for, as Steevens notes, he has 
 been mentioned in iii. 3. 209 above as " now at home ; " but the 
 
Scene V] Notes 259 
 
 mistake here is probably the poet's, and not the printer's. Various 
 emendations have been adopted. 
 
 143. Oyes. Hear ye (Fr. oyez) ; the crier's call at the opening 
 of a court. Cf. M. W. v. 5. 45 : "Crier Hobgoblin, make the fairy 
 oyes." 
 
 148. Embracement. Used by S. oftener than embrace. 
 
 150. Seld. Seldom. Cf. P. P. 175 : " seld or never found ; " and 
 "seld-shown" in Cor. ii. I. 229. 
 
 159, Great Aga7)iemnon comes, etc. Before this speech the folio 
 has '^ Enter Agamemnon and the rest;'''' but they are already on 
 the stage. As White suggests, the front of the stage vi^as probably 
 occupied by the lists, and during the combat "Agamemnon and 
 the rest " remained in the inner or second apartment of the stage, 
 which was sometimes shut off by a curtain. At this point they 
 "come forward," as Rowe's stage-direction requires. Capell has 
 " Chiefs enter the lists" 
 
 165-170. But . . . integrity. These lines are not in the quarto. 
 
 169. Bias-drawing. Turning awry, like the bowl v\ith its bias 
 or weight on one side. Cf. T. iV. v. i. 267: "Nature to her bias 
 drew in that ; " K. John, ii. I. 577 : " this vile-drawing bias," etc. 
 See also on 8 above. 
 
 171. From, heart of very heart. From my inmost heart. 
 Steevens quotes Ham. iii. 2. 78 : " In my heart's core, ay, in my 
 heart of heart." 
 
 172. Imperious. Often = i?nperiaL Cf. Ha?n. v. i. 236, A. 
 and C. iv. 15. 23, etc. 
 
 176. Who. The reading of the quarto and 1st folio, changed 
 in the 2d folio to "Whom." See on iii. i. 23 above. 
 
 177. Mars his gauntlet. Cf. i Hen. VI. i. 2. i : "Mars his 
 true moving," etc. See also ii. i. 56 above, and 255 and v. 2. 165 
 below. 
 
 178. Untraded. Unhackneyed ; used by S. only here. 
 
 184. Labouring for destiny. "The vicegerent of Fate" 
 (Malone). 
 
26o Notes [Act IV 
 
 187. Subduements. Conquests ; used by S. nowhere else. 
 For Despising many the folio has " And seene thee scorning." 
 
 188. Hung thy advanced sword. Checked thy uplifted sword. 
 For the use of hung, cf. 2 Hen. IV. iv. i. 213 : — 
 
 " And hangs resolv'd correction in the arm 
 That was uprear'd to execution." 
 
 and for advanced, see Cor. i. 6. 61, ii. i. 178, etc. 
 
 189. Decline on the declined. Descend on the fallen. Cf. Ham. 
 ii. 2. 500 : — 
 
 "for, lo ! his sword, 
 Which was declining on the milky head 
 Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick." 
 
 196. Thy grandsire. Laomedon, the father of Priam. 
 
 206. As they, etc. The line is not in the quarto. 
 
 213. Favour. Face. See on i. 2. 96 above. 
 
 220. Buss. Kiss. In K. John, iii. 4. 35, Pope changed the 
 word to " kiss," but buss was not vulgar in the time of S. On the 
 figure here, cf. R. of L. 1370 : "Threatening cloud-kissing Ilion 
 with annoy." 
 
 224. The end crowns all. " Finis coronat opus." Cf. A. W. iv. 
 
 4- 35- 
 
 230. Thou ! Changed by the editors to " now," " there," and 
 
 " then ; " but this use of the pronoun is not rare in S.; and, as 
 
 Clarke remarks, here it has characteristic effect : " it includes a 
 
 dash of insolence, a dash of off-hand freedom, and a dash of half 
 
 compliment, as though he had said, * I shall forestall thee, Lord 
 
 Ulysses, even thou I '" Cf. v. i. 26, 34 below. 
 
 232. Exact. Accented on the first syllable, as in i Hen. IV. iv. 
 I. 46. For the reason, see on complete, iii. 3. 181 above. 
 
 233. Quoted. Noted, marked. Cf. Ham. ii. i. 112 and R. and 
 J. i. 4. 31. 
 
 242. Tell me, you heavens, etc. Knight remarks : "It was a 
 fine stroke of art in Shakspere to borrow the Homeric incident of 
 
Scene V] Notes 261 
 
 Achilles surveying Hector before he slew him, not using it in the 
 actual scene of the conflict, but more characteristically in the place 
 which he has given it. The passage of Homer is thus rendered 
 by Chapman : 
 
 ' His bright and sparkling eyes 
 Look'd through the body of his foe, and sought through all that prize 
 The next way to his thirsted life. Of all ways, only one 
 Appear'd to him ; and this was, where th' unequal winding bone 
 That joins the shoulders and the neck had place, and where there lay 
 The speeding way to death : and there his quick eye could display 
 The place it sought, — even through those arms his friend Patroclus wore 
 When Hector slew him.' " 
 
 250. Prenominate. Cf. Ham. ii. i. 43 : " the prenominate 
 crimes." Nice = precise, critical. 
 
 255. Stithied. Forged ; the only instance of the verb in S. 
 The noun stithy (quarto) or stith (folio) occurs in Ham, iii. 2. 89. 
 
 260. Chafe thee. Let yourself become chafed, or angry. Cf. 
 Hen. VIII. i. i. 123 : " What, are you chaf'd ?" 
 
 264. Stomach. Inclination, appetite ; with perhaps a reference 
 to the other sense of courage. Ajax treats Achilles with contempt, 
 and means to insinuate that he is afraid of fighting with Hector. 
 
 265. To be odd with him. That is, to be at odds with him, 
 contend with him. 
 
 267. Pelting. Paltry, petty. Cf. M. N. D.\\. \.^\, Lear, ii. 3. 
 18, etc. 
 
 272. Convive we. Let us feast ; the only instance of convive in 
 S. CojiviviaDie. does not use at all. In the full = all together; 
 not ''to the full." 
 
 274. Severally entreat him. Separately invite or entertain him. 
 
 275. Tabourines. Drums. Cf. A. and C. iv. 8. 37 : " our 
 rattling tabourines." For Beat loud the tabourines the quarto 
 has " To taste your bounties." 
 
 278. Keep. Dwell, reside. Cf. Ham. ii. i. 8, etc. 
 
A Phrygian (from AxNtique Bronze) 
 
 ACT V 
 
 Scene I. — 4. Core. Ulcer. Cf. ii. i. 6 above. 
 
 5. Crusty batch. A crusty loaf, and equivalent to cobloaf in ii. 
 I. y) above. 
 
 8. Fragment. For the contemptuous use, cf. Cor. i. i. 226 : 
 " Go, get you home, you fragments ! " Here there may be a 
 reference to the deformed figure of Thersites, who, like Richard, 
 was " unfinish'd . . . half made up." 
 
 ID, Tent. In the reply there is a play upon the sense of a 
 surgeon's probe. Cf. ii. 2. 16 above. 
 
 13. Adversity': Steevens suggests that this is = contrariety, or 
 being adverse. 
 
 16,17. Varlet. Apparently sometimes = harlot. Farmer quotes 
 Dekker, Honest Whore : " 't is a male varlet sure, my lord ! " 
 where the person spoken of is a harlot who is introduced in boy's 
 clothes. In both lines the quarto and the first three folios have 
 " varlot," which the 4th folio changes to varlet. Theobald has 
 " harlot," which is adopted by many editors ; but harlot would not 
 seem to require the explanation which Patroclus asks, as the less 
 
 262 
 
Scene I] Notes 263 
 
 familiar varlet might. Schmidt believes that varlot is " a kind of 
 hermaphroditical form between varlet ^.n.^ harlotP 
 
 21-24. Rd"^ £y<^s • ' ' tetter. The folio omits this much of the 
 catalogue, substituting " and the like." 
 
 22. Imposthume. Collection of purulent matter. Cf. Ham. iv. 
 4. 27 and V. and A. 743. 
 
 Limekilns ?"' the palm. The reference is to the gout, " one 
 phase of which is to have hard vi^hite lumps in the joints and 
 knuckles of the fingers and hands that are commonly known as 
 chalk-stones^ 
 
 23. Rivelled. Wrinkled ; used by S. only here. 
 
 25. Discoveries. As Schmidt notes, " there may be a play on 
 the sense of uncovering." Lettsom quotes Isaiah, Ivii. 8. " De- 
 baucheries," "discoverers," and " discolourers " have been pro- 
 posed. 
 
 30. Indistinguishable. Apparently referring to his deformity. 
 
 31. Exasperate. For the form, cf. suffocate in i. 3. 125 above. 
 Idle = useless, good-for-nothing ; as often. 
 
 32. Sleave-silk. Raw silk. Cf. sleave in Macb. ii. 2. 37. 
 
 35. Waterjlies. For the contemptuous use, cf. Ham. v. 2. 84 : 
 " Dost know this waterfly ? " Diminutives = dwarfs, or insignifi- 
 cant things. Cf. A. and C. iv. 12. 37. 
 
 37. Finch-egg ! Cf. L. L. L. v. i. 78 : "thou pigeon-egg of 
 discretion ! " and Macb. iv. 2. 83 : " What, you egg ! " 
 
 42. Gaging. Engaging, binding. Cf. I Hen. IV, i. 3. 173. 
 
 53. Quails. A cant term for loose women. Clarke thinks the 
 reference may be only to the practice of matching quails against 
 one another, like cocks nowadays. Cf. A. and C. ii. 3. 37. 
 
 54. Transformation of Jupiter. Alluding to the story of Europa. 
 Cf. M. ^. V. 5. 4 : " Remember, Jove, thou wast a bull for thy 
 Europa; love set on thy horns." Hudson remarks that "the 
 passage looks as if S. supposed that the ancient ascription of horns 
 to a dishonoured husband grew from the exploit of Jupiter ; " and 
 adds that " Europa was a maiden " at the time. I see no reason 
 
264 Notes [Act V 
 
 for assuming that S. had any such notion. The transformation 
 of Jupiter is merely a jocose periphrasis for the bull, and the bull 
 is the memorial of cuckolds simply because he has horns. Cf. 
 Much Ado, i. I. 264, v. 4. 44, etc. 
 
 56. Oblique. Perhaps = indirect, as Steevens explains it. This 
 is at least not so bad as Malone's conjecture that it refers to " the 
 bull's horns being crooked or oblique.''^ Shoeing-horn = a sub- 
 servient tool ; with the old joke on horn. 
 
 59. Forced. "Farced" (Pope's reading), or stuffed. See on 
 ii. 3. 224 above. 
 
 62. Fitcheiu. Polecat. Cf. 0th. iv. i. 150 ; the only other in- 
 stance of the word in S. The quarto has here " a day, a Moyle, 
 a Cat, a Fichooke." 
 
 63. Puttock. A kite, or an inferior kind of hawk. Cf. Cymb. 
 i. I. 140. 
 
 A herring without a roe, Cf. R. and J. ii. 4. 39 : " Without his 
 roe, like a dried herring." The expression was proverbial. 
 
 67. Lazar. Leper. Cf. ii. 3. 34 above. 
 
 Hey-day. " Hoy-day " in the folio, as in some other passages. 
 
 68. Spirits and fires ! " This Thersites speaks upon the first 
 sight of the distant lights" (Johnson). 
 
 77. Draught. Privy. Cf. T. of A. v. I. 105 ; and see also 
 2 Kings, X. 27. 
 
 84. Tide. The fit time. It is probably a metaphor, not an 
 instance of tide=- time, as in K. John, iii. i. 86, etc. 
 
 92. Spend his mouth. Bark ; as in V. and A. 695 : " Then do 
 they spend their mouths ; " and Hen. V. ii. 4. 70 : — 
 
 " coward dogs 
 Most spend their mouths when what they seem to threaten 
 Runs far before them ; " 
 
 which well illustrates the present passage. " If a hound gives his 
 mouth, and is not upon the scent of the game, he is by sportsmen 
 called a babbler or brabbler. The proverb says, ' Brabbling curs 
 never want sore ears ' " ( Variorum of 1821). 
 
Scene II] Notes 265 
 
 94. Prodigious. That is, something so rare as to be esteemed 
 z. prodigy ; the only meaning of the word in S. 
 
 96. Leave to see. Give up seeing. Cf. iii. 3. 133 above. 
 
 99. Varlets. Here the quarto has " varlots." See on 16 above. 
 
 Scene II. — 11. Cliff. Clef, or key. Cf. T. of S. iii. i. 77 : 
 "one clef, \.^NO notes," etc. 
 
 18. Sweet honey Greek. Cf. Hen. IV. i. 2. 179 : "my good 
 sweet honey lord," etc. 
 
 41. Flow to. Are hastening to, fast inclining to. 
 
 48. Palter. Shuffle, equivocate. See on ii. 3. 235 above. 
 
 55. Luxury. Lust ; the only meaning in S. 
 
 56. Potato -finger. The sweet potato, according to the old 
 writers, was provocative of lust. Cf. M. W. v. 5. 21 (where it 
 has the same meaning), the only other reference to potatoes 
 in S. 
 
 66. Sleeve. See on iv. 4. 70 above. 
 
 81. Nay, do not snatch it from me. The early eds. give this to 
 ^^ Dio.;" corrected by Theobald. He conjectured, however, that 
 As I kiss thee should be Diomed's, with the stage-direction, " Dio- 
 mede, kissing her, offers to snatch the sleeve T 
 
 91. Diana^ s waiting-women. " The stars, which she points to " 
 (Warburton). Cf. R. of L. 785 : — 
 
 " Were Tarquin Night, as he is but Night's child, 
 The silver-shining queen he would disdain ; 
 Her twinkling handmaids too, by him defil'd. 
 Through Night's black bosom should not peep again." 
 
 Steevens quotes Milton, Elegy, i. 77 : — 
 
 " caelo scintillant astra sereno 
 Endymioneae turba ministra deae." 
 
 102. Likes not yon. Does not please you. Cf. Ham. v. 2. 276 : 
 " this likes me well," etc. 
 
 108. Ah, poor our sex ! Like good -my lord, etc. Mr. Verity 
 remarks : " This, it will be noticed, is the last speech that Cressidjt 
 
266 Notes [Act V 
 
 makes ; henceforth she passes out of the play, and, but for a 
 scornful reference, is forgotten. This did not suit Dryden's taste ; 
 a guilty heroine unpunished in the fifth act was an anomaly in 
 Restoration tragedy, and accordingly the denouement in his version 
 is contrived on more orthodox lines. Troilus overcomes Diomede, 
 and is on the point of killing him, when Cressida enters and inter- 
 poses. She pleads for Diomede's life, protests innocence, is re- 
 proached and repelled by Troilus, and then to clear herself of guilt 
 produces the inevitable dagger : — 
 
 ' Enough, my lord ; you've said enough. 
 The faithless, perjured, hated Cressida 
 Shall be no more the subject of your curses. 
 Some few hours hence, and grief had done your work ; 
 But then your eyes had missed the satisfaction 
 Which thus I give you — thus — {She stabs herself.' 
 
 A slight dialogue follows ; the heroine blesses her lover * with her 
 latest breath,' and dies ; and afterwards ' the dragnet of death,' to 
 employ a phrase of Mr. Swinburne's, gathers in its meshes most 
 of the remaining characters. Dramatically, such a catastrophe is 
 effective enough ; a heroine dying, after the manner of Otway's 
 Monimia, with innocence and love on her lips, can never fail of 
 pathos ; but, after all, it is but a stage-artifice, and inappropriate 
 here, because nothing could win our sympathies for Cressida. Scott 
 rightly censures Dryden's perversion of Shakespeare's design 
 {^Dry den's Works, Vol. VI. p. 228)." 
 
 113. A proof of strength, etc. " She could not publish a stronger 
 proof" (Johnson). 
 
 116. Make a recordation to my soul. Fix in my memory. 
 Cf. 2 Hen. IV. ii. 3. 61 : "For recordation to my noble husband." 
 
 120. Sith. See on i. 3. 13 above. Credence ^= con'a^^ViC^ ; as 
 xnA. W. i. 2. II, iii. 3. 2, the only other instances of the word in S. 
 
 121. Esperance. Hope. Cf. Lear, iv. i. 4. It was the motto 
 of the Percies. Cf. i Hen. IV. ii. 3. 74, etc. 
 
 122. The attest. The folio has " that test." 
 
Scene iij Notes 267 
 
 123. Deceptious. Deceiving, delusive ; used by S. only here. 
 125. I cannot conjure. "That is, I cannot raise spirits in the 
 form of Cressida " (Johnson). 
 
 131. Critics. Carpers ; the only sense in S. Cf. L. L. L. iii. 
 I. 178 and Sonn. 112. 10. 
 
 132. Depravation. Detraction ; the only instance of the noun 
 in S. For deprave = detract, see Much Ado, v. I. 95. 
 
 Sqtiare. Measure by, adjust to. Cf. M. for M. v. i. 487, 
 A. W. ii. I. 153, W. T. V. I. 52, etc. See also on unsquared, i. 
 5. 159 above. 
 
 142. If there be rule in unity itself. " If there be certainty in 
 unity, if there be a rule that one is one " (Johnson) ; that is, if 
 it be a rule that one is not two, that Cressida is not two wholly 
 different persons. 
 
 143. Discourse. Reasoning. Cf. ii. 2. 116 and ii. 3. 175 above. 
 
 144. That cause sets up, etc. " In which a man reasons for and 
 against himself upon authority which he knows not to be valid " 
 (Johnson). 
 
 145. Bifold. The quarto has " By-fould," and the foHo " By 
 foule," which some editors prefer. 
 
 Where reason can revolt, etc. Where reason can rebel without 
 loss of reason, and lost reason can assume to be reasonable without 
 rebellion against itself. For perdition = loss, cf. /len. V. iii. 6. 
 103, etc. 
 
 148. There doth conduce a fight. A battle is joined, the oppos- 
 ing forces are brought together. Conduce seems to be used in 
 its etymological sense ; but there may be some corruption. 
 
 149. Inseparate. Inseparable, indivisible ; not found elsewhere 
 in S. 
 
 150. More wider. See on ii. 2. ii above, and cf. v. 6. 20 below. 
 152. Orifex. " Orifice," which is the reading of the later folios. 
 
 151. Ariachne's. The folio has '• Ariachnes," the quarto " Ari- 
 achna's" (" Ariathna's " in Steevens's copy in the British Museum). 
 The allusion is to Arachne, and some editors "correct" the word 
 
268 Notes [Act V 
 
 accordingly, to the injury of the metre. Others assume that S. con- 
 founded Arachne and Ariadne, and the web of the former with the 
 clue of the latter. Steevens shows that other writers confused the 
 two. As Dr. Ingleby (^Sk. Hermeneutics, p. 65) remarks : "The 
 point is of no moment. What is of moment for us to see is that 
 by Ariachne S. meant the spider into which Arachne was trans- 
 formed, 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 wai'ps, and which 
 are perhaps the nearest material approach to mathematical lines. 
 Thus has S. in one beautiful allusion wrapt up in two or three little 
 words the w^hole 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 web to thread it ! " 
 
 154. Instance. Proof. Cf. Muck Ado, ii. 2. 42, etc. 
 
 158. Five-finger-tied. "Tied by giving her hand to Diomed " 
 (Johnson). 
 
 159. The fractions of her faith. The remnants of her broken 
 faith. 
 
 161. e'er-eaten. " Eaten and begnawn on all sides " (Schmidt). 
 Malone thinks it is = which she has thrown up, like one who has 
 overeaten ; and he compares 2 Hen. IV. i. 3. 87 fol. 
 
 162. May worthy Troilus, etc. " Can Troilus really feel, on this 
 occasion, half of what he utters ? A question suitable to the calm 
 Ulysses " (Johnson). For attached with = affected by, cf. Temp. 
 iii. 3. 5 : " attach'd with weariness," etc. 
 
 165. Mars his heart. See on ii. I. 56 above. 
 
 166. Fancy. Love. Cf. the noun in iv. 4. 25 above. 
 
 173. Hurricano. Water-spout. See Lear^ iii. 2. 2, the only 
 other instance of the word in S. 
 
Scene II] NoteS 269 
 
 174. Sun. The folio has " Fenne," and Rowe "finger." Con- 
 string' d (= contracted) is used by S. only here. 
 
 176. His. Its ; as often. Cf. i. 3. 210, 354, ii. 2. 54, etc., above. 
 
 178. HeHl tickle it, etc. The meaning may be, he'll tickle him 
 (Diomed) for his concupiscence : tickle being used ironically, as 
 in T. TV. V. I. 198 and i Hen. IV. ii. 4. 189 ; while it is used con- 
 temptuously for kim (the following his being = its'), as it is play- 
 fully for her in iv. 2. 35 above. Schmidt takes tickle it to be used 
 like lord it, foot it, etc. We find it so used in Two Noble Kins- 
 men, ii. 3. 27 : "I '11 tickle 't out Of the jades' tails to-morrow ! " 
 Concupy is used by S. only here ; concupiscence not at all. Con- 
 cupiscible (= lustful) occurs in M. for M. v. I. 98. 
 
 188. Wear a castle on thy head. That is, defend it with more 
 than common armour (Steevens). It is said that a certain kind of 
 helmet was called a castle, but here the word is plainly a metaphor. 
 
 194. The parrot, etc. A proverbial expression. Verity quotes 
 Skelton, Speke, Parrot, stanza i : — 
 
 " And sen me to greate ladyes of estate ; 
 Then Parrot must have an almon or a date." 
 
 So later in same poem : — 
 
 " An Almon now for Parrot delycatly drest." 
 
 Scene III. — 4, Train. Draw, tempt ; as in C. of E. ill. 2. 45, 
 K.John, iii. 4. 175, etc. 
 
 6. Aly dreams, ttc. Knight remarks : " Chaucer has mentioned 
 the presaging dreams of Andromache in the Canterbury Tales. 
 We find the same relation in The Destruction of Troy : — 
 
 " ' Andromeda saw that night a marvellous vision, and her seemed 
 if Hector went that day to the battle he should be slain. And she^ 
 that had great fear and dread of her husband, weeping, said to 
 him, praying that he would not go to the battle that day : whereof 
 Hector blamed his wife, saying that she should not believe nor 
 give faith to dreams, and would not abide nor tarry therefore. 
 
I'jo Notes [Act V 
 
 When it was in the morning, Andromeda went to the King Pria- 
 mus and to the queen, and told to them the verity of her vision ; 
 and prayed them with all her heart that they would do so much at 
 her request as to dissuade Hector, that he should not in any wise 
 that day go the battle, etc. It happened that day was fair and 
 clear, and the Troyans armed them, and Troylus issued first into 
 the battle ; after him ^Eneas. . . . And the King Priamus sent to 
 Hector that he should keep him well that day from going to battle. 
 Wherefore Hector was angry, and said to his wife many reproach- 
 ful words, as that he knew well that his commandment came by 
 her request ; yet, notwithstanding the forbidding, he armed him. 
 ... At this instant came the Queen Hecuba, and the Queen 
 Helen, and the sisters of Hector, and they humbled themselves and 
 kneeled down presently before his feet, and prayed and desired 
 him with weeping tears that he would do off his harness, and un- 
 arm him, and come with them into the hall : but never would he 
 do it for their prayers, but descended from the palace thus armed 
 as he was, and took his horse, and would have gone to battle. But 
 at the request of Andromeda the King Priamus came running anon, 
 and took him by the bridle, and said to him so many things of one 
 and other, that he made him to return, but in no wise he would be 
 made to unarm him.' " 
 
 9. Dear. Earnest. Cf. iv. 4. 37 above. Consort — join ; as in 
 M. N. D. iii. 2. 387, R. and J. iii. i. 48, etc. 
 
 16. Peevish. Foolish ; as often. 
 
 20, To hurt by being just. To do injury by being true to your 
 word. Cf. K.John, iii. i. 272 : — 
 
 " where doing tends to ill 
 The truth is then most done, not doing it." 
 
 In the folio (lines 20-22 are not in the quarto) the passage reads 
 thus : — 
 
 " And O be perswaded, doe not count it holy. 
 To hurt by being iust ; it is as lawfull : 
 
Scene III] Notes 0.yi 
 
 For we would count giue much to as violent thetts, 
 And rob in the behalfe of charitie." 
 
 This is obviously corrupt, and many have been the attempts a 
 emendation. Tyrw^hitt suggested : — 
 
 " it is as lawful, 
 For we would give much, to use violent thefts," etc. ; 
 
 and this reading is adopted by the Cambridge editors and others. 
 It assumes that coun^ was accidentally repeated and that " as " is a 
 misprint for use — both easy errors. The expression use thefts has 
 been objected to, but Dyce cites Middleton, Women beivare 
 IVomen: "Is it enough to use adulterous thefts," etc. Hudson 
 criticises the measure of the hne, but violent is often a dissyllable 
 in S. Cf. A. W. iii. 2. 112 : "That ride upon the violent speed of 
 fire ; " Mach. iv. 2. 21 : " But float upon a wild and violent sea," 
 etc. For is of course = because. It is a rather close question be- 
 tween this reading and the one in the text, which is due to Ver- 
 planck.i The latter, however, has the merit of making no verbal 
 change except of as to so, and no other change but the transposition 
 of count, which is evidently out of place in the original. The mean- 
 ing, as Verplanck states it, is : " Do not count it holy to inflict in- 
 jury in the pursuit of right ; we might as well so count (that is 
 count holy) violent thefts, committed to enable us to give liberally." 
 For we would we might print " we 'd," but the former, like many 
 similar combinations, not unfrequently occurs where it is metrically 
 equivalent to the other. Other readings are : " For us to count 
 we give what 's gain'd by thefts ; " "For we would give much, to 
 count violent thefts ; " " (For we would give much) to commit 
 violent thefts ; " " For we would give as much to violent thefts ; " 
 
 1 The note in Verplanck is liable to be misunderstood owing to the 
 fact that the quotation from Knight is not marked as a quotation. As 
 it stands, Verplanck appears to give and defend two different readings, 
 but a comparison with Knight will show that one of these belongs to 
 that editor. 
 
27 2 Notes [Act V 
 
 and " For we 'd give much, to count as virtues thefts/' which is 
 both awkward and harsh. 
 
 26. Keeps the weather of. " Keeps the weather-gage of ; " a 
 nautical phrase = have the advantage of. 
 
 27, Brave man. The early eds. have " deere " or " dear," which 
 is explained by Johnson and Schmidt as = valuable, worthy, or 
 estimable ; and by others as = zealous, earnest. Brave is the 
 emendation of Pope ; perhaps not absolutely necessary. 
 
 38. A lion. " The traditions and stories of the darker ages 
 abounded with examples of the lion's generosity" (Johnson). 
 Cf. A. V. L. iv. 3. 118. 
 
 40. Grecian falls. The majority of the editors follow Rowe in 
 reading " Grecians fall ; " but the old text may be what S. wrote, 
 the antecedent of them being implied in niany times. Captive must 
 here be = conquered ; as in R. of L. 730, Sonn. 66. 12, etc. Cf. 
 the noun in R. of L. 75, L. L. L. iv. i. 76, etc. 
 
 41. The fan and wind, etc. Cf. Ham. ii. 2. 495: "But with 
 the whiff and wind of his fell sword," etc. Verity quotes Marlowe, 
 Dido, ii. I : — 
 
 " Which he disdaining, whisk'd his sword about, 
 And with the wind thereof the King fell down." 
 
 48. Ruthful. Piteous ; as elsewhere in S. Cf. Rich III. iv. 3. 5 : 
 " ruthful butchery," etc. 
 
 55. Eyes d'ergalled. That is, inflamed with weeping. Cf. Rich. 
 III. iv. 4. 53 : "galled eyes of weeping souls ; " and Ham.'\. 2. 
 155 : "her galled eyes." Recourse of tears = \.^zx% that course 
 (follow) one another down the face. 
 
 73. Shame respect. " Disgrace the respect I owe you, by acting 
 in opposition to your commands" (Steevens). 
 
 84. Shrills. The only instance of the verb in S. Cf. Spenser, 
 Epithalamium : — 
 
 " Harke ! how the Minstrils gin to shrill aloud 
 Their merry Musick ; " 
 
Scene IV] Notes 273 
 
 and F. O. vi. 8. 46 : " Then gan the bagpypes and the homes to 
 shrill." Steevens quotes Heywood, Silver Age : " I have shrill'd 
 thy daughter's loss," etc. 
 
 85. Distraction. The quarto has "destruction." See on v. 
 2. 41 above. 
 
 86. Antics. Buffoons. Cf. Hen. V. iii. 2. 32 : " three such 
 antics," etc. 
 
 91. Exclai?n. For the noun (elsewhere only in the plural), cf. 
 Rich. II. i. 2. 2, Rick. III. i. 2. 52, iv. 4. 135, etc. 
 
 loi. Tisick. Phthisic; used by S. only here, and as a name in 
 2 Hen. IV. ii. 4. 92 : " Master Tisick." 
 
 104. Rheu77i. Watering. It is often = tears ; as in Much 
 Ado, V. 2. 85, K. John,\\\. I. 22, iv. I. 33, iv. 3. 108, etc. 
 
 106. Cursed. That is, under the influence of a curse or male- 
 diction (Steevens), 
 
 111. Words and errors. " Misleading words " (Herford). 
 
 112. But edifies, etc. After this line the folio has the fol- 
 lowing : — 
 
 " Pand. Why, but heare you ? 
 
 Troy. Hence brother lackie ; ignomie and shame 
 Pursue thy life, and liue aye with thy name." 
 
 These lines are not in the quarto, and as they occur with a slight 
 variation in v. 10. 32-34 below, I follow the majority of the editors 
 in omitting them here. It might be better, however, as Walker 
 suggests, to omit them there, and insert them here. 
 
 Scene IV. — i. Clapper-clazving. Used again in J/. ^. ii. 3. 67. 
 It occurs also in the old preface to the present play. See p. 9 
 above. 
 
 8. Luxurious. Lustful ; the only sense in S. Cf. the noun in 
 V. 2. 55 above. Sleeveless (the only instance of the word in S.) 
 = bootless ; but it is not clear how the word got that meaning. 
 Nash, in Lenten Stuff, has " a sleeveless answer." 
 
 10, Swearing. Changed by Theobald to " sneering ; " but, as 
 TROILUS — 18 
 
274 Notes [Act V 
 
 Clarke remarks, crafty sivearing may be = " craftily swearing, 
 pledging themselves to any thing for their own crafty purposes." 
 
 .16. Proclaim barbarism. " To set up the authority of ignorance, 
 to declare that they will be governed by policy no longer " (Johnson). 
 
 20. Retire. For the noun, cf. v. 3. 53 above. 
 
 27. Of blood and honour. x\ccording to the rules of chivalry, a 
 person of superior birth might not be challenged by an inferior, or, 
 if challenged, might refuse the combat (Reed). 
 
 31. God-a-mercy. The expression was sometimes = God have 
 mercy (as in T. of S. iv. 3. 154, i Hen. IV. iii. 3. 58, etc.) ; but 
 sometimes, as here, used like Gramercy (= great thanks), for 
 which see Z". ^5. i. i. 41, 168, etc. 
 
 Scene V. — i. Go, go, jny servant, etc. This circumstance is 
 also copied from Caxton : " And of the party of the Troyans came 
 the King Ademon that jousted against Menelaus, and smote him, 
 and hurt him in the face : and he and Troylus took him, and had 
 led him away, if Diomedes had not come the sooner with a great 
 company of knights, and fought with Troylus at his coming, and 
 smote him down, and took his horse, and sent it to Briseyda, and 
 did cause to say to her by his servant that it was Troylus's horse, 
 her love, and that he had conquered him by his promise, and 
 prayed her from thenceforth that she would hold him for her love." 
 
 7. Margarelon. Pronounced Mar-gar' -e-lon (properly Mar- 
 gar' -i-ton^. This bastard son of Priam is mentioned by both 
 Lydgate and Caxton. 
 
 9. Colossus-wise. "Like a Colossus" {/. C. i. 2. 136). His 
 beam = his mighty lance. Cf. i Samuel, xvii. 7. 
 
 10. Pashed. Stricken down, crushed. Cf. ii. 3. 205 above. 
 
 14. Sagittary. A monster described by Caxton as "a mer- 
 vayllouse beste that was called sagittayre, that behynde the 
 myddes was an horse, and to fore, a man : this beste was heery 
 like an horse, and had his eyen rede as a cole, and shotte well 
 with a bowe : this beste made the Grekes sore aferde, and slewe 
 
Scene V] Notes 275 
 
 many of them with his bowe " (quoted by Theobald). Lydgate 
 also describes the Sagittary thus (as quoted by Knight) : — 
 
 " And with him Guido saith that he had 
 A wonder archer of sight mervaylous, 
 Of form and shape in manner monstrous: 
 For like mine auctour as I rehearse can, 
 Fro the navel upward he was man, 
 And lower down like a horse yshaped : 
 And thilke part that after man was marked 
 Of skin was black and rough as any bear, 
 Cover'd with hair fro cold him for to wear. 
 Passing foul and horrible of sight, 
 Whose eyes twain were sparkling as bright 
 As is a furnace with his red leven. 
 Or the lightning that falleth from the heaven ; 
 Dreadful of look, and red as fire of cheer, 
 And, as I read, he was a good archer ; 
 And with his bow both at even and morrow 
 Upon Greeks he wrought much sorrow." 
 
 Sagittary occurs also (as the name of an inn or house) in 0th. 
 i. I. 159 and 1.3. 115. 
 
 20. Galathe. The name given to Hector's horse by both 
 Caxton and Lydgate. Hudson inadvertently calls this " another 
 instance of the old genitive form," and compares " Mars his gaunt- 
 let" in iv. 5. 177 above, 
 
 22. Scaled sculls. Scaly shoals of fish. Pope reads " shoals " 
 for sculls, which, like school (as applied to fishes), is etymologically 
 the same word. Steevens quotes Milton, P. L. vii. 399 : — 
 
 " Forthwith the sounds and seas, each creek and bay, 
 With fry innumerable swarms, and shoals 
 Of fish, that with their fins and shining scales 
 Glide under the green wave, in sculls that oft 
 Bank the mid sea ; " 
 
 and Drayton, Polyolbion, song 26 : " My silver-scaled sculls about 
 my streams do sweep." 
 
276 Notes [Act V 
 
 24. Strawy. The folio has " straying." 
 
 29. Pj'oof. What is proved, or the fact. 
 
 35. Crying on. Crying out. Cf. 0th, v. I. 48: "cries on 
 murther," etc. It may, however, be = exclaiming against, as 
 some make it. 
 
 44. We draw together. As Steevens remarks, this seems to 
 refer to the return of Ajax and Achilles to the field after having 
 withdrawn from active participation in the war. Verity thinks it 
 possible that the metaphor suggested is "that of a pack of hounds 
 drawing a covert ; Ajax, Diomede, and Nestor all trying to track 
 down Troilus." 
 
 45. Boy-queller. Boy-killer. Cf. man-queller and woman- 
 queller in 2 Hen. IV. ii. i. 58. Cf. also quell ( = murder) in 
 Macb. i. 7. 72. 
 
 Scene VI. — 7. For my horse ! Cf. v. 5. i above. 
 
 10. Look upon. Be a mere looker-on. a.T^Hen. F/. ii. 3. 27: — 
 
 " And look upon, as if the tragedy 
 Were play'd in jest by counterfeiting actors." 
 
 11. Cogging. Cheating. Cf. Much Ado, v. i. 95, 0th. iv. 2. 
 132, etc. 
 
 17. Befriends. The reading of quarto and 1st folio, changed in 
 the 2d folio to " befriend." 
 
 20. Much more a fresher man. A much more fresher. Such 
 transposition of the article is not uncommon. For the double 
 comparative, cf. ii. 2. ii above. 
 
 24. Carry. Bear off as a prize, conquer. Cf. A. W. iii. 7. 19 : 
 " Resolv'd to carry her," etc. 
 
 26. / end. The folio has " thou end." 
 
 29. Frush. Bruise, batter {Yx. froisser') ; the only instance of 
 the word in S. Steevens quotes Holinshed : "sore frusht with 
 sickness ; " Fairfax, Tasso : " Rinaldo's armour frush'd and hack'd 
 they had," etc. Caxton has " to-frushed." 
 
Scene VIII] Notes 277 
 
 Scene VII. — 6. Execute your arms. If this be what S. wrote, 
 it must be = ply your arms, make use of them. Most editors 
 follow Capell in reading "aims" for arms; but the Myrmidons 
 were executing the ai7ns of Achilles, not their own. The state- 
 ment made by Collier (repeated by White and others), that the 
 Duke of Devonshire's copy of the quarto has " aimes," is incorrect ; 
 the letter mistaken for i being "an imperfect r" (Cambridge ed.). 
 Capell's copy and the two copies in the British Museum have 
 " armes." 
 
 II. Double-henned sparrow. " Perhaps = sparrow with a double- 
 hen, that is, with a female married to two cocks, and hence false 
 to both" (Schmidt). 
 
 Scene VIII. — 2. Thy goodly armour. As Clarke remarks, 
 this links the present scene to scene 6, where " one in sumptuous 
 armour " appears and is challenged by Hector. 
 
 4. Rest, sword, etc. Cf. Caxton : " When Achilles saw that 
 Hector slew thus the nobles of Greece, and so many other that it 
 was marvel to behold, he thought that, if Hector were not slain, 
 the Greeks would never have victory. And forasmuch as he had 
 slain many kings and princes, he ran upon him marvellously, . . . 
 but Hector cast to him a dart fiercely, and made him a wound in 
 his thigh : and then Achilles issued out of the battle, and did bind 
 up his wound, and took a great spear in purpose to slay Hector, if 
 he might meet him. Among all these things Hector had taken a 
 very noble baron of Greece, that was quaintly and richly armed, 
 and, for to lead him out of the host at his ease, had cast his shield 
 behind him at his back, and had left his breast discovered : and as 
 he was in this point, and took none heed of Achilles, he came 
 privily unto him, and thrust his spear within his body, and Hector 
 fell down dead to the ground." 
 
 From the same authority S. took the incident of Achilles employ- 
 ing his Myrmidons for the destruction of a Trojan chief; but the 
 chief is Troilus, not Hector : "After these things the nineteenth 
 
278 Notes [Act V 
 
 battle began with great slaughter ; and afore that Achilles entered 
 into the battle he assembled his Myrmidons, and prayed them that 
 they would intend to none other thing but to enclose Troylus, and 
 to hold him without flying till he came, and that he would not be 
 far from them. And they promised him that they so would. And 
 he thronged into the battle. And on the other side came Troylus, 
 that began to flee and beat down all them that he caught, and did 
 so much, that about mid-day he put the Greeks to flight ; then the 
 Myrmidons (that were two thousand fighting men, and had not 
 forgot the commandment of their lord) thrust in among the 
 Troyans, and recovered the field. And as they held them together, 
 and sought no man but Troylus, they found him that he fought 
 strongly, and was enclosed on all parts, but he slew and wounded 
 many. And as he was all alone among them, and had no man to 
 succour him, they slew his horse, and hurt him in many places, and 
 plucked off his head helm, and his coif of iron, and he defended 
 him in the best manner he could. Then came on Achilles, when 
 he saw Troylus all naked, and ran upon him in a rage, and smote 
 off his head, and cast it under the feet of his horse, and took the 
 body and bound it to the tail of his horse, and so drew it after him 
 throughout the host." 
 
 7. Vail. Descent, not veiling. It is the only instance of the 
 noun in S., but the verb occurs several times. Cf. AT. ofV. i. i. 28, 
 Ham. i. 2. 70, etc. For darking (cf. Per. iv. prol. 35) the quarto 
 has " darkning." 
 
 15. Retire. The folio has " retreat." Cf. v. 4. 20 above. 
 
 17. Dragon wing of night. Cf. M. N. D. iii. 2. 379 : "For 
 night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast ; " and Cymb. ii. 2. 48 : 
 " Swift, swift, you dragons of the night," etc. 
 
 18. Stickler-like. Like the stickler, or umpire in a knightly 
 combat ; used by S. only here. Cf. Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, iv. 2 : 
 " So he may have fair play shown himi and the liberty to choose his 
 stickler." 
 
 19. Half-supfd. That has but half supped. 
 
Scene X] Notes 279 
 
 20. Bait. The ist folio has " bed," changed in the 2d to "bitt." 
 Steevens says of 19-22 : "These four despicable verses, as well as 
 the rhyming fit with which 'the blockish Ajax' is afterwards seized, 
 could scarce have fallen from the pen of our author, in his most 
 unlucky moments of composition." Clarke calls the closing couplet 
 " flabby bombast. " 
 
 22. Along the field I will the Trojan trail. Knight believes 
 that S. here follows Chapman {Iliad, xxii.) : — 
 
 " This said, a work not worthy him he set to ; of both feet 
 He bor'd the nerves through from the heel to th' ankle, and then knit 
 Both to his chariot with a thong of white leather, his head 
 Trailing the centre. Up he got to chariot, where he laid 
 The arms repurchas'd, and scourg'd on his horse that freely flew ; 
 A whirlwind made of startled dust drave with them as they drew. 
 With which were all his black-brown curls knotted in heaps and fill'd. 
 And there lay Troy's late gracious, by Jupiter exil'd. 
 To all disgrace in his own land, and by his parents seen." 
 
 But this portion of Chapman's translation was not published when 
 the play was written. As the poet was not likely to be familiar 
 with the Greek original, he may here have been indebted to Lyd- 
 gate, who, in his 31st chapter, tells " How Achilles slew the worthy 
 Troylus unknightly, and after trayled his body through the fyelds, 
 tyed to his horse ; " or, as Verplanck suggests, he may have got the 
 incident from Virgil {^neid, ii. 272), either in the original, or 
 from the translation of Phaer (1584) or that of Stanyhurst, of about 
 the same date. See also 4 above. 
 
 Scene IX. — 4. Bruit. Rumour; as in T. of A.v. \. 196, etc. 
 For the verb, see Alach. v. 7. 22. 
 
 5. Bragless. Used by S. only here. 
 
 Scene X. — 7. Smile at. If this is not corrupt, it is — smile 
 derisively at. Hanmer has " smite all," and Warburton " smite 
 at." The former is very plausible, and is adopted by Dyce. 
 
28o Notes [Act V 
 
 White, who retains smile, remarks : " smite at is hardly a phrase 
 that S. would use to express the action of the gods when sitting 
 upon their thrones." 
 
 19. Niobes. For the allusion, cf. Ham. i. 2. 149 : " Like Niobe, 
 all tears." 
 
 24. Pight. Pitched, fixed. Cf. Lear, ii. i. 67 : "found him 
 pight to do it ; " that is, firmly resolved. 
 
 25. Titan. The god of the sun ; as in V. and A. 177, R.andJ. 
 ii. 3. 4, Cy?nb. iii. 4. 166, etc. 
 
 26. Great-si£d. Cf. iii. 3. 147 above. 
 
 31. Hope of revenge, etc. I am inclined to agree with Walker 
 that the play, so far as S. is concerned, ends here. As he says, 
 " the mind of the reader is fully satisfied, and anything additional 
 sounds like an impertinence and obtrusion." Verses 32-34 he 
 would place at the end of v. 3 ; and the rest of Pandarus' epilogue 
 he regards as an interpolation. As Verity remarks, one would 
 gladly believe that the ribald rubbish with which the play ends was 
 not written by Shakespeare. Troilus here survives. In Caxton 
 (see on v. 8. 4) he is killed by Achilles, and the event is nar- 
 rated with considerable circumstantiality. Curiously enough, this 
 detail is unknown to Homer. He merely mentions (^Iliad xxiv. 
 257) that Troilus had been slain in battle before the time of the 
 Iliad. Probably Virgil was the authority for the later accounts. 
 Cf. ^neid, i. 474-478 : — 
 
 " Parte alia fugiens amissis Troilus armis, 
 Infelix puer atque impar congressus Achilli," etc. 
 
 33. Ignomy. Cf. i Hen. IV. v. 4. 100 and T. A. iv. 2. 115. 
 
 46. Painted cloths. The painted hangings of rooms, which had 
 mottoes connected with the figures on them. Cf. A. Y. L. iii 2. 
 290 : " I answer you right painted cloth," etc. Malone quotes 
 from a tract published in 1 60 1 : — 
 
 " Read what is written on the painted cloth ; 
 Do no man wrong ; be good unto the poor. 
 
Scene X] Notes 28 1 
 
 Beware the mouse, the maggot and the moth, 
 And ever have an eye into the door." 
 
 Bible scenes were often found on these painted cloths, and on 
 more elaborate hangings of tapestry used for adorning rooms. A 
 favourite subject was the story of the Prodigal and that of Lazarus. 
 Cf. I Hen. IV. iv. 2. 27 and M, W. iv. 5. 9. Sometimes the sub- 
 jects were classical. Cf. Ford, The Fancies, ii. i : — 
 
 " he stands 
 Just like Actaeon in the painted cloth." 
 
 See also Much Ado, iii. 3. 145 : " the shaven Hercules in the 
 smirched worm-eaten tapestry." 
 
 54. Some galled goose of Winchester. "As the public stews 
 were under the control of the Bishop of Winchester, a strumpet 
 was called a Winchester goose^'' (Mason). Ca/Z^fS^ = diseased or 
 offended, or perhaps both. 
 
 55. Sweat. An allusion to the treatment of certain diseases. 
 See on iii. i. 42 above. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 "The War of the Theatres" 
 
 As I have said in the Introduction, I do not believe that the 
 present play had any connection with the so-called " War of the 
 Theatres," as some excellent critics have supposed it had ; but that 
 memorable controversy was an interesting episode in the dramatic 
 history of the closing years of the sixteenth century, and a brief 
 account of it may not be out of place here. 
 
 The " war " was due to the quarrels of Marston and Dekker 
 with Ben Jonson, and the record of it is mainly to be found in 
 their plays written between 1598 and 1602. Other dramatists have 
 been supposed to be involved in it, but there is no satisfactory 
 evidence that they were. 
 
 Marston's Satires have generally been regarded as the first cause 
 of the quarrel ; but the critics do not agree as to the passages 
 in which Jonson is supposed to be satirized. Some believe that 
 Torquatus in the Scourge of Villanie (1598) was meant for Jon- 
 son ; but this view is not supported by what Jonson himself says 
 concerning the beginning of the quarrel. See the Apologetical 
 Dialogue appended to The Poetaster, first printed in 161 6, and 
 stated to have been "only once spoken on the stage:" — 
 
 " But sure I am, three years 
 They did provoke me with their petulant styles 
 On every stage ; and I at last, unwilling, 
 But weary, I confess, of so much trouble, 
 Thought I would try if shame could win upon 'em." 
 
 In the Conversations with Drummoud, we read: "He [Jonson] 
 
 282 
 
Appendix 283 
 
 had many quarrels with Marston, beat him, and took his pistol 
 from him, wrote his Poetaster on him ; the beginning of them were 
 that Marston represented him on the stage, in his youth given to 
 venerie." 
 
 If, as these passages both assert, the quarrel arose from some 
 stage representation, it could not have been the Scourge ofVillanie, 
 which was a satire in verse ; and the internal evidence in the poem 
 that Jonson is ridiculed is by no means decisive. 
 
 Whether Marston began the quarrel or not, it is clear that Jon- 
 son attacked him in Every Alan Out of His Humour (acted in 
 1599), where certain peculiar words used by Marston in the Scourge 
 of Villanie and Histriomastix are ridiculed, and the latter play is 
 mentioned by name. Marston appears to have had a hand in His- 
 triomastix, if he was not the sole author of it. The character of 
 Chrisoganus in the play is quite certainly intended for Jonson ; 
 and Carlo Buffone in Every Man Out of His Humour is meant 
 by Jonson for Marston. 
 
 Several plays by Dekker have been thought by critics to be 
 connected with the quarrel between Jonson and Marston, and 
 concerning Satiromastix (1601) at least there can be no doubt, as 
 it is avowedly a reply to Ben's satirical comedies, especially to The 
 Poetaster, in which Dekker is introduced as Demetrius, who is to 
 w-rite a play ridiculing Horace (Jonson). 
 
 Cynthia's Revels (1601) was written by Jonson to satirize the 
 four men (probably Marston, Daniel, Lodge, and Munday) who 
 had been ridiculed in Every Man Out of His Humour. The 
 Poetaster, however, is his only avowed reply to the attacks made 
 upon him. It was first performed in 1 60 1 by the Children of the 
 Chapel, with whom Jonson had formed an alliance, and who had 
 also rendered Cynthia's Revels. 
 
 The scene of The Poetaster is laid in Rome, in the time of 
 Augustus, and Jonson appears as Horace. The " poetaster " is 
 Crispinus (Marston), who has associated Demetrius (Dekker) with 
 him " to abuse Horace and bring him in in a play." The most 
 
284 Appendix 
 
 famous scene (v. i) is that in which Horace administers an emetic 
 pill to Crispinus, who, with Demetrius, has been condemned for 
 attacking Horace. The scene is an adaptation of the Lexipkanes 
 of Lucian, which Jonson often follows in both incidents and lan- 
 guage. The pill compels Crispinus to disgorge the peculiar words 
 that marked his style, and many of them have been identified in 
 Marston's works. Demetrius is recommended for mercy by Hor- 
 ace ; the " oath for good behaviour " is administered to both him 
 and Crispinus, who swear that they will never again " malign, tra- 
 duce, or detract the person or writings of Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 
 or any other eminent man." 
 
 In this play Jonson, who had learned that Marston and Dekker 
 were conspiring to attack him in Satiromasiix, anticipated and 
 answered the charges they intended to bring against him. So far 
 as he was concerned. The Poetaster ended the " War of the Thea- 
 tres," and peace soon followed. Marston and Jonson were both 
 contributors to Chester's Loves Martyr in 1601 ; and in 1604 they 
 both collaborated with Chapman in writing Eastward Ho, in which 
 allusions to the Scots offended King James and his friends, and 
 sent all three dramatists to jail. In the same year (1604) Marston 
 dedicated his Malcontent to " Benjamino Jonsonio, poetae elegan- 
 tissimo, gravissimo, amico suo, candido et cordato." 
 
 Some writers have assumed that the " war " was injurious to the 
 interests of both dramatists and actors ; but Jonson, in more than 
 one passage, intimates that the plays to which it gave rise were 
 profitable to the authors ; and, if so, they must have been profitable 
 to the actors as well. Jonson, in the Apologetical Dialogue, says : — 
 
 " Now for the players, it is true I taxed them, 
 And yet but some ; and those so sparingly 
 As all the rest might have sat still unquestioned. 
 Had they but had the wit or conscience 
 To think well of themselves. But, impotent, they 
 Thought each man's vice belonged to their whole tribe ; 
 And much good do 't them ! What they have done 'gainst me, 
 
Appendix 285 
 
 I am not moved with : if it gave them meat, 
 
 Or got them clothes, 't is well ; that was their end. 
 
 Only amongst them, I am sorry for 
 
 Some better natures, by the rest so drawn 
 
 To run in that vile line." 
 
 The plays helped to get the authors meat and clothes, and this w^as 
 their end in writing them. Histrio says that the reason for hiring 
 Demetrius to bring in Horace and his gallants in a play is " that it 
 will get us a huge deal of money . . . and we have need on 't." 
 " Of course," as Professor J. H. Penniman, in his scholarly War 
 of the Theatres, 1897 (to which I have been much indebted), re- 
 marks, " any profit to be derived from satirical plays could be 
 gained by Jonson as well as by his opponents. Although he was 
 several times involved in legal difficulties on account of his plays, 
 and although the Elizabethan laws concerning libel and slander 
 were severe, and the people of the time were litigious, yet we have 
 no record of any legal action instituted by the playwrights against 
 Jonson, or by Jonson against the playwrights. There was undoubt- 
 edly much bitterness of feeling on both sides, but, much as they 
 hated each other, they sought no legal redress, for the almost 
 libellous plays were a source of profit, and legal proceedings might 
 have killed the goose that laid the golden eggs." 
 
 In the plays already mentioned as connected with the " War of 
 the Theatres " there is no evidence worthy of serious consideration 
 to show that Shakespeare was involved in the wordy conflict. It 
 is improbable, indeed, that he would have been supposed to be one 
 of the combatants except for a perplexing allusion to him in The 
 Return from Parnassus, a play " publiquely acted by the students 
 in St. Johns Colledge, in Cambridge," as the title-page of the edition 
 of 1606 informs us. This performance at Cambridge was at Christ- 
 mastide, 1601-2, and not improbably on the ist of January, 1602. 
 
 The play must have been written after The Poetaster, to which 
 there is a direct allusion. In iv. 3, Kempe says to Burbage : " Few 
 of the university pen plaies well, they smell too much of that writer 
 
286 Appendix 
 
 Ovid, and that writer Metamorphosis, and talke too much of Pro- 
 serpina and Juppiter. Why heres our fellow Shakespeare puts them 
 all downe, I [ay] and Ben Jonson too. O that Ben Jonsojt is a 
 pestilent fellow, he brought up Horace giving the Poets a pill, but 
 our fellow Shakespeare hath given him a purge that made him 
 beray his credit." 
 
 At first thought it is natural to suppose that the " purge " given 
 by Shakespeare to Ben Jonson is a play ; and the only play of 
 Shakespeare's that can possibly be considered as meant is Troilus 
 and Cressida, the date of which is put by some critics (see p. 12 
 above) as early as 1 601. 
 
 A play upon Shakespeare's name has been fancied to occur in 
 Histriomastix in the following passage : — 
 
 " Thy knight his valiant elbow wears, 
 That when he shakes his furious speare 
 The foe in shivering fearful sort 
 May lay him down in death to snort." 
 
 In Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida the line (i. 3. 73), " When 
 rank Thersites opes his mastic jaws," has been supposed to con- 
 tain in the word mastic an allusion to Histriomastix, and Thersites 
 has been suspected to represent Marston, while Ajax is Ben 
 Jonson. Fleay declares that " hardly a word is spoken of or by 
 Ajax in ii. 3 and iii. 3 which does not apply literally to Jonson ; 
 and in ii. I he beats Thersites of the ' mastic jaws ' as Jonson 
 'beat Marston' (^Conversations with Drummond).^'' ^Moreover, 
 "Thersites in all respects resembles Marston, the railing satirist;" 
 and the "purge " is from Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3. 215 : " He 
 will be the physician that should be the patient," In another 
 passage Fleay says that " the setting up of Ajax as a rival to 
 Achilles shadows forth the putting forward of Dekker by the 
 King's men to write against Jonson his Satiromastix ;" and in 
 yet another passage he says that Dekker is Thersites in 'Troilus 
 and Cressida. It will be seen that Fleav is not consistent with 
 
Appendix 287 
 
 himself, as indeed he has often failed to be in discussing other 
 dramatic questions. In the first passage, Ajax is Jonson, and 
 Thersites is Marston ; in the second, Ajax is Dekker and Achilles 
 is Jonson ; in the third, Thersites is Dekker. Gifford maintained 
 that the " purge " was merely Shakespeare's great superiority to 
 other playwrights ; and Sidney Lee takes it to refer to the fact that 
 " Shakespeare had signally outstripped Jonson in popular esteem ; " 
 adding that, " as the author of Julius Ccesar, he had just proved 
 his command of topics that were peculiarly suited to Jonson's vein, 
 and had in fact outrun his churlish comrade on his own ground." 
 Professor Penniman thinks that the "purge" must be "some- 
 thing more definite " than Gifford suggests, and was " presumably 
 a play ; " and Dr. Brinsley Nicholson supposes it to be some play 
 of Shakespeare's that has not come down to us. Dr. Cartwright, in 
 his Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, Dramatic versus Wit Combats, 
 connects Shakespeare's Much Ado, As You Like It, Tinion of 
 Athens, and Othello with the quarrel : " Who can doubt that lago 
 is malignant Ben ? " Fleay recognizes Marston as Malvolio in 
 Twelfth Night, and Maria's " M. O. A. I." in the forged letter as 
 " lo. Ma. (John Marston)." "With the locking up of Crispinus 
 in some dark place, compare the imprisonment of Malvolio." 
 Verily, as Dowden says of certain wild theories concerning the 
 Sonnets, " these be the pranks of Puck among the critics ! " 
 
 The simplest solution of the problem is, on the whole, the most 
 satisfactory ; and Sidney Lee (^Life of Shakespeare, p. 219 fol.) is, 
 to my thinking, substantially right, though it does not seem neces- 
 sary to suspect a specific allusion to Julius Ccesar. The author 
 of The Return from Parnassus makes simply a metaphorical 
 reference to Ben Jonson's purgative pill, which was a disagreeable 
 dose for his patients. Shakespeare gave Ben an equally unpalata- 
 ble dose by outdoing him as a playwright and thus physicking his 
 abounding self-conceit ; and this treatment was wholly indepen- 
 dent of Ben's quarrel with his fellow dramatists, in which the " gentle 
 Shakespeare " had no part whatsoever. 
 
288 Appendix 
 
 The Story of the Play in Chaucer and Shakespeare. 
 
 William Godwin, in his Life of Chaucer, has some interesting 
 comments on this subject. He says : — 
 
 " Since two of the greatest writers this island has produced have 
 treated the same story, each in his own peculiar manner, it may be 
 neither unentertaining nor uninstructive to consider the merit of 
 their respective modes of composition as illustrated in the present 
 example. Chaucer's poem includes many beauties, many genuine 
 touches of nature, and many strokes of an exquisite pathos. It is 
 on the whole, however, written in that style which has unfortu- 
 nately been so long imposed upon the world as dignified, classical, 
 and chaste. It is naked of incidents, of ornament, of whatever 
 should most awaken the imagination, astound the fancy, or hurry 
 away the soul. It has the stately march of a Dutch burgomaster 
 as he appears in a procession, or a French poet as he shows him- 
 self in his works. It reminds one too forcibly of a tragedy of 
 Racine. Every thing partakes of the author, as if he thought he 
 should be everlastingly disgraced by becoming natural, inartificial, 
 and alive. We travel through a work of this sort as we travel over 
 some of the immense downs with which our island is interspersed. 
 All is smooth, or undulates with so gentle and slow a variation as 
 scarcely to be adverted to by the sense. But all is homogeneous 
 and tiresome ; the mind sinks into a state of aching torpidity ; 
 and we feel as if we should never get to the end of our eternal 
 journey. What a contrast to a journey among mountains and 
 valleys, spotted with herds of various kinds of cattle, interspersed 
 with villages, opening ever and anon to a view of the distant ocean, 
 and refreshed with rivulets and streams ; where if the eye is ever 
 fatigued, it is only with the boundless flood of beauty which is 
 incessantly pouring upon it ! Such is the tragedy of Shakespeare. 
 
 " The historical play of Troilus and Cressida exhibits as full a 
 specimen of the different styles in which this wonderful writer was 
 qualified to excel as is to be found in any of his works." 
 
Appendix 289 
 
 Then follows the passage I have quoted in the note on iii. 3. 
 224 above. Mr. Godwin proceeds thus : — 
 
 " Never did morality hold a language more profound, persuasive 
 and irresistible than in Shakespeare's Ulysses, who in the same 
 scene, and engaged in the same cause with Patroclus, thus expostu- 
 lates with the champion of the Grecian forces : — 
 
 ' For emulation hath a thousand sons, 
 That one by one pursue. If you give way, 
 Or hedge aside from the direct forthright. 
 Like to an enter'd tide, they all rush by. 
 And leave you hindmost : there you lie, 
 Like to a gallant horse fallen in first rank. 
 For pavement to the abject rear, o'er-run 
 And trampled on. ... 
 
 O, let not virtue seek 
 Remuneration for the thing it was ! 
 For beauty, wit, high birth, desert in semce, 
 Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all 
 To envious and calumniating time. 
 One touch of nature makes the whole world kin, — 
 That all with one consent praise new-born gauds, 
 And give to dust that is a little gilt 
 More praise than they will give to gold o'erdusted. 
 Then marvel not, thou great and complete man, 
 That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax. . . . 
 
 The cry went once on thee, 
 And still it might, and yet it may again, 
 If thou wouldst not entomb thyself alive, 
 And case thy reputation in thy tent.' 
 
 *' But the great beauty of this play, as it is of all the genuine writ- 
 ings of Shakespeare, beyond all didactic morality, beyond all mere 
 flights of fancy, and beyond all sublime — a beauty entirely his own, 
 and in which no waiter, ancient or modern, can enter into competi- 
 tion with him — is that his men are men; his sentiments are living, 
 and his characters marked with those delicate, evanescent, unde- 
 
 TROILUS — 19 
 
290 Appendix 
 
 finable touches which identify them with the great delineation of 
 nature. The speech of Ulysses just quoted, when taken by itself, 
 is purely an exquisite specimen of didactic morality; but when 
 combined with the explanation given by Ulysses, before the entrance 
 of Achilles, of the nature of his design, it becomes the attribute of 
 a real man and starts into life, 
 
 "When we compare the plausible and seemingly affectionate 
 manner in which Ulysses addresses himself to Achilles with the key 
 which he here furnishes to his meaning, and especially with the 
 epithet ' derision,' we have a perfect elucidation of his character, 
 and must allow that it is impossible to exhibit the crafty and smooth- 
 tongued politician in a more exact or animated style. The advice 
 given by Ulysses is in its nature sound and excellent, and in its form 
 inoffensive and kind ; the name therefore of ' derision ' which he 
 gives to it, marks to a wonderful degree the cold and self-centred 
 subtlety of his character. 
 
 " Cressida's confession to Troilus of her love is a most beautiful 
 example of the genuine Shakespearian manner. What charming 
 ingenuousness, what exquisite naivete, what ravishing confusion of 
 soul, are expressed in these words I We seem to perceive in them 
 every fleeting thought as it rises in the mind of Cressida, at the 
 same time that they delineate with equal skill all the beautiful 
 timidity and innocent artifice which grace and consummate the 
 feminine character. Other writers endeavour to conjure up before 
 them their imaginary personages, and seek with violent effort to 
 arrest and describe what their fancy presents to them : Shakespeare 
 alone (though not without many exceptions to this happiness) 
 appears to have the whole train of his characters in voluntary 
 attendance upon him, to listen to their effusions, and to commit 
 to waiting all the w'ords, and the very words, they utter. 
 
 "The whole catalogue of the dramatis personce in the play of 
 Troihcs and Cressida, so far as they depend upon a rich and orig- 
 inal vein of humour in the author, are drawn with a felicity which 
 never was surpassed. The genius of Homer has been a topic of 
 
Appendix 29 j 
 
 admiration to almost every generation of men since the period in 
 which he wrote. But his characters will not bear the slightest com- 
 parison with the delineation of the same characters as they stand 
 in Shakespeare. . . . Homer's characters are drawn with a laud- 
 able portion of variety and consistency; but his Achilles, his Ajax, 
 and his Nestor are, each of them, rather a species than an indi- 
 vidual, and can boast more of the propriety of abstraction than of 
 the vivacity of a moving scene of absolute life. The Achilles, the 
 Ajax, and the various Grecian heroes of Shakespeare, on the other 
 hand, are absolute men, deficient in nothing which can tend to 
 individualize them, and already touched with the Promethean fire 
 that might infuse a soul into what, without it, were lifeless form. 
 From the rest perhaps the character of Thersites deserves to be 
 selected (how cold and schoolboy a sketch in Homer !) as exhibit- 
 ing an appropriate vein of sarcastic humour amidst his cow^ardice, 
 and a profoundness and truth in his mode of laying open the 
 foibles of those about him, impossible to be excelled. " 
 
 The Time-Analysis of the Play 
 
 This is summed up by Mr. P. A. Daniel, in his paper " On the 
 Times or Durations of the Action in Shakspere's Plays " ( Trans. 
 of New Shaks. Soc. 1877-1879, p. 183), as follows : — 
 
 " The duration of the action of this play is so distinctly marked 
 by Hector's challenge that, notwithstanding the discrepancies 
 pointed out in Act H. sc. iii.i and Act HI. sc. i.^ and iii.,-^ it is 
 impossible to assign to it more than four days, with an interval be- 
 tween the first and second. 
 
 "Day I. Act I. sc. i. and ii. 
 
 Interval : the long-continued truce. 
 " 2. Act I. sc. iii., Act II., and Act III. 
 " 3. Act IV., Act. V. sc. i. and ii. 
 " 4. Act V. sc. iii.-x." 
 
292 Appendix 
 
 1 " The commanders ' rub the vein ' of Ajax. Achilles declines to see 
 them, but through Ulysses informs them that he ' will not to the field to- 
 morrow.' At the end of the scene Ulysses remarks : — 
 
 ' To-morrow 
 We must with all our main of power stand fast.' 
 
 These two passages are somewhat ambiguous, for in fact only the single 
 combat between Hector and Ajax is resolved on for the morrow." 
 
 2 " In this scene commences an extraordinary entanglement of the 
 plot of the Play. It is quite clear that from its position it must represent 
 a portion of the day on which Hector sends his challenge to the Greeks : 
 a day on which there could be no encounters between the hostile forces, 
 and which in fact is but one day of a long-continued truce ; yet in this 
 scene Pandarus asks Paris, ' Sweet lord, who 's afield to-day ? ' Paris 
 replies, ' Hector, Deiphobus, Helenus, Antenor, and all the gallantry of 
 Troy.' Paris himself, it seems, nor Troilus, went not. Towards the 
 end of the scene a retreat is sounded, and Paris says — 
 
 ' They 're come from field : let us to Priam's hall 
 To greet the warriors ; ' 
 
 and he begs Helen to come ' help unarm our Hector.' " 
 
 3 " The allusions to the combat which is to come off to-morrow be- 
 tween Hector and Ajax are numerous in this scene, so that we are 
 clearly still in the day on which Hector sent his challenge. But the en- 
 tanglement of the plot which we noticed in Act III. sc. i. becomes here 
 still more involved. Calchas says — 
 
 ' You have a Trojan prisoner, called Antenor, 
 Yesterday took ; ' 
 
 and he requests that Antenor may be exchanged for his daughter Cres- 
 sida. The commanders assent, and Diomedes is commissioned to 
 effect the exchange. From this it appears that Antenor, who goes out 
 to fight on this very day (see Act III. sc. i.) — when there is no fighting 
 — was nevertheless taken prisoner the day before, during the long-con- 
 tinued truce," 
 
Appendix 293 
 
 List of Characters in the Play 
 
 The numbers in parentheses indicate the lines the characters 
 have in each scene. 
 
 Priam : a. 2(12) ; v. 3(8). Whole no. 20. 
 
 I/ec/or: ii. 2(75); iv. 5(79); v. 1(5), 3(35), 4(3), 6(10). 
 8(5). Whole no. 212. 
 
 Troilus: i. 1(74); ii- 2(85); iii. 2(90); iv. 2(21), 3(5), 4(92), 
 5(11); V. 1(1), 2(90), 3(32), 4(2), 6(8), 10(30). Whole no. 541. 
 
 Paris: ii. 2(30); iii. 1(31); iv. 1(31), 3(8), 4(3). Whole 
 no. 103. 
 
 Deiphobus : iv. i(i), 4(1)- Whole no. 2. 
 
 Helenus : ii. 2(4). Whole no. 4. 
 
 .^neas: i. 1(5), 3(58); iv. 1(20), 2(20), 4(9), 5(25); v. 2(3), 
 10(3). Whole no. 143. 
 
 Calchas : iii. 3(29); v. 2(2). Whole no. 31. 
 
 Pandariis: i. 1(42), 2(172); iii. 1(91), 2(61); iv. 2(36), 
 4(18); v. 3(9), 10(24). Whole no. 453. 
 
 Agamemnon: i. 3(66); ii. 3(59); i". 3(H); 1^.5(36); v. 1(4), 
 5(ii)»9(5)- Whole no. 195. 
 
 Menelaus : i. 3(1); iii. 3(1); iv. 5(9); v. i(i). Whole no. 12. 
 
 Achilles: ii. 1(28), 3(11); iii- 3(74); iv. 5(25); v. 1(23), 
 5(4), 6(6), 7(8), 8(16). WTiole no. 195. 
 
 Ajax: ii. 1(26), 3(28); iii. -^^iT,); iv. 5(21); v. 1(3), 5(1), 
 6(5), 9(2). Whole no. 89. 
 
 Ulysses: i. 3(179); ii. 3(80; iii- 3(122); iv. 5(62); v. 1(3), 
 2(28), 5(13). Whole no. 488. 
 
 Nestor: i. 3(93); ii. 3(20); iii. 3(2); iv. 5(28); v. 5(14), 
 9(1). Whole no. 158. 
 
 Patroclus: ii. 1(3), 3(19); iii. 3(30; iv. 5(7); v. 1(10). 
 Whole no. 70. 
 
 Diomedes: ii. 3(5); iii. 3(2); iv. 1(32), 4(12), 5(6); v. 1(2), 
 2(29), 4(4), 5(6), 6(4), 9(1). Whole no. 103. 
 
294 Appendix 
 
 Thersites: ii. 1(85), 3(61); 111.3(48); v. 1(61), 2(23), 4(30), 
 7(13). Whole no. 321. 
 . Alexander : 1. 2(35). Whole no. 35. 
 
 Margarelon : v. 7(3). Whole no. 3. 
 
 Myrmidon : v. 8(1). Whole no. I. 
 
 Servant: Hi. 1(20); v. 5(1). Whole no. 21. 
 
 Boy : 1. 2(3); ill. 2(2). Whole no. 5. 
 
 Helen : lil. I (30). Whole no. 30. 
 ^AndrojJiache : v. 3(15). Whole no. 15. 
 
 Cassandra : ii. 2(13); v. 3(24). Whole no. 37. 
 
 Cressida: l 2(115); i"- 2(71); iv. 2(44), 4(25), 5("); v. 
 2(46). Whole no. 312. 
 
 "Air\- iv. 5(1); V. 9(1), 10(1). Whole no 3. 
 
 "Prologue" : (31). Whole no. 31. 
 
 Antenor is on the stage in 1. 2 and iv. I, 3, and 4, but does not 
 speak at all. 
 
 In the above enumeration, parts of lines are counted as whole 
 lines, making the total in the play greater than it is. The actual 
 number of lines in each scene is as follows : prol. (31); i. 1(119), 
 2(321)' 3(392); ii. 1(142), 2(213), 3(277); i"- 1(172), 2(220), 
 3C316); iv. 1(79), 2(115), 3(12), 4(150)' 5(293); V. 1(106), 
 2(i97)> 3(112), 4(38), 5(47), 6(31), 7(24), 8(22), 9(10), 10(57). 
 Whole no. in the play, 3496. 
 
 Iroiliis and Cressida is the longest of the plays, except 
 Hamlet, which has 3930 lines, and Richard III., which has 3618. 
 2 Henry IV. has 3446, and Coriolamcs 3410. 
 
INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES 
 EXPLAINED 
 
 a (transposed), 276 
 abject in regard, 240 
 abruption, 233 
 accepted pain, 237 
 achievement is command, 
 
 196 
 adamant, 235 
 add coals to Cancer, 226 
 addition (= quality) , 192 
 addition (= title), 227, 
 
 233. 258 
 address (= prepare), 254 
 advanced (= uplifted), 
 
 260 
 adversity, 262 
 advertised (accent), 222 
 affection (=lust), 221 
 affined, 197 
 
 affront (= confront) , 234 
 against May, 194 
 against the hair, 193 
 allow us as we prove, 
 
 233 
 allowance, 209, 225 
 an 't were, 193 
 answer to my lust, 254 
 antics (= buffoons) , 273 
 antiquary (=ancient) , 227 
 appear it, 236 
 appertainments, 223 
 apply (= explain), 197 
 appointment, 254 
 apprehensions, 224 
 Aquilon, 255 
 argument (play upon), 
 
 255 
 Argus, 193 
 Ariachne, 267 
 artist (= scholar) , 197 
 aspect (accent), 201 
 assinego, 215 
 assubjugate, 226 
 at a thousand watches, 
 
 196 
 attached with, 268 
 attachment (=stop), 248 
 attest, 219 
 
 attribute (= reputation), 
 
 224 
 attributive, 217 
 
 bad success, 219 
 
 banks of Libya, 208 
 
 batch, 262 
 
 battle (=army), 231 
 
 be with you to bring, 196 
 
 beam (= lance), 274 
 
 beaver (= helmet) , 207 
 
 beef-witted, 214 
 
 benumbed, 222 
 
 bestowing, 231 
 
 bias, 197, 254 
 
 bias-drawing, 259 
 
 billing (play upon), 232 
 I blank of danger, 245 
 j blench, 188, 217 
 j bless thee from, 223 
 I blockish, 209 
 
 blood (= passions), 223 
 
 bob (= cheat) , 229 
 
 bobbed, 215 
 
 boils (spelling), 213 
 
 bolting, 188 
 I bone-ache, 223 
 I Boreas, 197, 255 
 
 born in April, 194 
 I bought and sold, 215 
 ' boy-queller, 276 
 I brabbler, 264 
 
 brach, 215 
 
 bragless, 279 
 
 brass (= tablet) , 19S 
 
 brave (= bravado) , 254 
 
 brave (= fine), 186 
 
 bravely (= finely) , 194 
 
 breath (= exercise), 224, 
 
 257 
 Briareus, 193 
 brize, 198 
 
 broad (= puffed up) , 204 
 broils in applause, 209 
 broken (= interrupted) , 
 
 250 
 I broken music, 229 
 
 295 
 
 brotherhood, 202 
 bruit, 279 
 buss, 260 
 by a pace, 202 
 
 Calchas, 190 
 
 camel (personal), 195 
 
 can (absolute), 220 
 
 Cancer (= summer), 226 
 
 canonize (accent), 222 
 
 capable, 245 
 
 capocchia, 248 
 
 captive (= conquered), 
 272 
 
 carry (= bear off) , 276 
 
 castle (on thy head), 
 269 
 
 catlings, 245 
 
 centre (= earth), 200 
 
 centre (of Ptolemaic sys- 
 tem) , 235 
 
 chafe thee, 261 
 
 changeful potency, 253 
 
 chapmen, 247 
 
 characterless (accent) , 
 
 235 
 charge (= expense) , 247 
 Charon, 230 
 cherubins, 233 
 chime a-mending, 203 
 circumstance, 239 
 clapper-clawing, 273 
 cliff (= clef), 265 
 clotpolls, 216 
 coasting (= alluring), 256 
 cobloaf, 214 
 cogging, 276 
 cotic (figurative) , 255 
 colossus-wise, 274 
 commerce (accent), 202, 
 
 244 
 compare (noun), 234 
 compassed window, 193 
 complete (accent), 243, 
 
 246 
 composure, 223, 226 
 concupy, 269 
 
296 
 
 Index of Words and Phrases 
 
 condition (= on condi- 
 tion), 193 
 conduce, 267 
 conflux, 196 
 conjure, 267 
 consent (= agree), 257 
 consigned (accent), 249 
 constant as Troilus, 235 
 constringed, 269 
 content, 196 
 
 convince (= convict), 219 
 convive, 261 
 cope, 227 
 
 core (= ulcer), 214, 262 
 cousin, 229 
 credence, 266 
 creep, 240 
 
 critics (= carpers) , 267 
 crownets, 186 
 crush (= destroy) , 209 
 crushed into folly, 193 
 crusty batch, 262 
 crying on, 276 
 curious (= causing care) , 
 
 233 
 cursed, 273 
 
 Daphne, 190 
 darking, 278 
 date in pie, 195 
 deaf (of adders) ,221 
 dear (= earnest) , 270 
 dearly parted, 238 
 dear'st, 208 
 death-tokens, 225 
 debonair, 205 
 deceptions, 267 
 decline, 223 
 decline on the declined, 
 
 260 
 deem (noun), 252 
 degree (= rank) , 200 
 deject (= depress), 219 
 depravation, 267 
 deracinate, 202 
 derive, 223 
 Diana's waiting-women, 
 
 265 
 digestion sake, 224 
 dilated, 227 
 diminutives, 263 
 directive, 209 
 discourse, 219, 267 
 discovered, 203 
 discoveries, 263 
 disdain, 193 
 
 dismes, 216 
 disorbed, 216 
 dispose (noun), 225 
 disposer, 229 
 disposition, 247 
 distaste (verb), 219 
 distasted, 250 
 distinct (accent), 249 
 dividable, 202 
 double-henned sparrow, 
 
 276 
 doubt (= suspect) , 196 
 dragon wing of night, 278 
 draught (= privy) , 264 
 draw this curtain, 231 
 draw together, 276 
 dressed, 203 
 
 edge of extremity, 256 
 eld, 219 
 election, 208 
 elephant (joints of), 224 
 embracement, 259 
 embrasures, 249 
 emulation (= envy) , 222 
 emulous (= envious), 223, 
 
 226 
 encounterers, 256 
 end crowns all, the, 260 
 engendering, 225 
 engine, 224 
 enginer, 222 
 entreat (= invite), 260 
 entreat her fair, 254 
 envy (= malice) , 233 
 errant, 196 
 esperance, 266 
 evil mixture, 201 
 exact (accent), 260 
 exasperate (form), 263 
 exclaim (noun), 273 
 execute your arms, 276 
 expect (noun), 199 
 exposure, 204 
 expressure, 244 
 eyes o'ergalled, 272 
 
 faction (= union), 223 
 fair on Friday, etc., 189 
 falcon as the tercel, the, 
 
 232 
 fall (= let fall), 210 
 fan and wind, 272 
 fancy (=love), 249, 268 
 fast upon, 249 
 fastingj 240 
 
 fat (=feed), 216 
 father (figurative), 227 
 favour (=face), 193, 260 
 fee-farm, in, 232 
 fills (= shafts), 231 
 finch-egg, 263 
 firebrand brother, 219 
 fitchew, 264 
 five-finger-tied, 268 
 fixure, 202 
 flat tamed piece, 247 
 flow to, 265 
 fond (= foolish), 188 
 for (= against), 196 
 force (= stuffy, 226, 264 
 forked (= horned), 196 
 forthright, 241 
 fraction (= discord) , 223 
 fractions of faith, 268 
 fragment, 262 
 fraught, 186 
 fraughtage, 186 
 frayed with, 230 
 free (= noble) , 258 
 frush, 276 
 fulfilling, 187 
 full of quality, 253 
 fusty, 203 
 
 gaging, 263 
 Galathe, 275 
 gallantry, 230 
 galled, 281 
 gear, 187 
 Genius, 250 
 gilt (= golden) , 242 
 glozed, 220 
 God-a-mercy, 274 
 God's lid, 195 
 good now, 230 
 goose (= harlot) , 281 
 gored, 244 
 gorget, 204 
 grace exact, 204 
 grace (title), 228 
 great morning, 249 
 great-sized, 241, 280 
 Greek, merry, 193, 250 
 Greekish, 198, 244 
 guts, 215 
 
 hale (verb). 254 
 half-supped, 278 
 hardiment, 255 
 harnessed light, 192 
 
Index of Words and Phrases 
 
 297 
 
 hatched in silver, 198 
 hateful (= malignant) ,247 
 having (noun), 238 
 heart of very heart, 259 
 heaving spleens. 222 
 herring without a roe, 264 
 hey-day (spelling), 264 
 him (reflexive), 208 
 his (= its), 205, 209, 217 
 honesty (= chastity), 196 
 honey (adjective), 265 
 honey-sweet lord, 229 
 honour and lordship, 228 
 horns, 255 
 how chance, 230 
 humane (accent), 246 
 humorous, 224 
 hung, 260 
 hurricano, 268 
 hurt by being just, 270 
 husbandry (= thrift), 192 
 hyperboles (pronuncia- 
 tion), 203 
 Hyperion, 226 
 
 I '11 tell thee, 254 
 
 idle (play upon), 193 
 
 idle (= useless) , 263 
 
 ignomy, 280 
 
 I lion, 219 
 
 Ilium, 190 
 
 immures (noun), 186 
 
 impair (adjective), 257 
 
 imperious, 259 
 
 imposition, 233 
 
 imposthume, 263 
 
 iinpressure, 258 
 
 imputation, 208 
 
 in fee-farm, 232 
 
 in fits (play upon) , 229 
 
 in flood, 207 
 
 in great exchange, 237 
 
 in most accepted pain, 
 
 . 237 
 
 in second voice, 225 
 in the full, 261 
 includes itself in. 202 
 index, 208 
 
 indistinguishable, 263 
 indrenched, 188 
 infect (= infected) , 204 
 ingratitudes, 241 
 injurious, 249 
 inseparate, 267 
 insisture, 201 
 instance (= proof) , 268 
 
 into (= unto), 236 
 
 jar, 202 
 
 joints (= limbs), 193 
 
 Jove's accord, 205 
 
 keep (= dwell) , 260 
 keep the weather of, 272 
 keeps place with thought, 
 
 243 
 ken, 255 
 kill (those pretty eyes), 
 
 247 
 kingdom'd Achilles, 225 
 kiss the mistress, 232 
 
 la ! 229 
 
 labouring for destiny, 259 
 
 lavolt, 253 
 
 lazars, 223, 264 
 
 learn (= teach), 214 
 
 leave (= cease) , 265 
 
 let blood, 226 
 
 lifter (play upon) , 193 
 
 light (adverb), 192 
 
 like a mint, 204 
 
 like as, 192 
 
 likes (= pleases) , 265 
 
 limekilns i' the palm, 263 
 
 livers pale, 217 
 
 look upon, 276 
 
 lover, 244 
 
 lunes, 224 
 
 lustihood, 217 
 
 luxurious (= lustful), 273 
 
 luxury (= lust), 265 
 
 maculation, 252 
 maiden battle, 256 
 mail, 241 
 
 main (= might) , 227 
 make a recordation to my 
 
 soul, 266 
 make it gracious, 219 
 make my match to live, 
 
 255 
 manage (noun), 237 
 mappery, 205 
 Margarelon, 274 
 Mars his (= Mars's), 215, 
 
 259, 268 
 mastic, 199 
 
 matter (= business), 248 
 matter (play upon), .214 
 meddle nor make, 188 
 medicinable, 201, 238 
 
 mends in her own hands, 
 
 189 
 mere (= absolute) , 202 
 merry Greek, 193, 250 
 mill-stones, to weep, 194 
 Milo, 227 
 mirable, 258 
 miscarry, 208 
 mistress (in bowling), 232 
 Mistress Thersites, 214 
 modicum, 215 
 moiety, 219 
 mongrel, 214 
 monstruosity, 233 
 moral (= meaning), 254 
 moral philosophy, 221 
 more fresher, 276 
 more softer, 216 
 more wider, 267 
 motive, 256 
 multipotent, 258 
 Myrmidon, 209 
 
 neglection, 202 
 
 Neoptolemus, 258 
 
 nice, 261 
 
 Niobes, 280 
 
 no date in the pie, 195 
 
 noddy, 195 
 
 noise (= rumour) , 192 
 
 nursery, 207 
 
 obey to, 230 
 
 oblique, 264 
 
 odd with him, 261 
 
 oddly poised, 208 
 
 o'er-dusted, 243 
 
 o'er-eaten, 268 
 
 o'ergalled (eyes), 272 
 
 o'er-wrested, 203 
 
 of (= as regards). 195 
 
 of (= by) , 226 
 
 of grace exact, 204 
 
 on (=of), 245 
 
 on charge, 254 
 
 on heaps, 231 
 
 on our party, 220 
 
 one touch of nature, etc., 
 
 24f , 
 
 opinion (.= reputation), 
 
 208, 209 
 opinion (= self-conceit), 
 
 245 
 oppugnancy, 202 
 oration (metre), 204 
 orchard ( = garden) , 231 
 
298 
 
 Index of Words and Phrases 
 
 orgulous, 186 
 orifex, 267 
 owes (= owns) , 238 
 oyes, 259 
 
 pace, 202 
 
 pageant (noun), 233, 245 
 pageant (verb), 203 
 painted cloths, 280 
 palating, 247 
 palm, 230 
 
 palsy-fumbling, 204 
 palter, 226, 265 
 paradoxes, 204 
 parallels, 204 
 parrot (and almond), 269 
 part (= party), 208 
 parted (= gifted) , 238 
 partial, 221 
 
 particular (noun), 216 
 particular (play upon) , 
 
 255 
 pash, 226, 274 
 pass (= undergo) , 220 
 passed, 194 
 past-proportion, 216 
 patchery, 223 
 peevish (= foolish) , 270 
 pelting (= petty), 261 
 per se, 192 
 
 perdition (= loss) , 267 
 Perseus' horse, 197 
 perseverance (accent) , 
 
 241 
 persistive, 197 
 person, 253 
 pheeze, 226 
 pia mater, 215 
 pight, 280 
 placket, 223 
 
 plaguy (play upon), 225 
 planet Sol, 201 
 plantage, 235 
 politic regard, 245 
 poor our sex, 265 
 porpentine, 214 
 port (= gate) , 254 
 possess (= inform) , 254 
 potato-finger, 265 
 power (= army) , 203 
 precious loss, 249 
 predominance, 224 
 pregnant (= ready) , 253 
 prenominate, 261 
 prescience (accent), 205 
 presented, 233 
 
 press to death (play 
 
 upon), 235 
 presuming on, 253 
 preventions (metre), 204 
 pricks, 208 
 primogenity, 202 
 process of speech, 246 
 proclaim barbarism, 274 
 prodigious, 264 
 prologue armed, 187 
 proof, 276 
 propension, 220 
 proper (= comely), 195 
 proper (= own), 218 
 propugnation, 220 
 protractive, 197 
 pun (= pound), 214 
 puttock, 264 
 
 quails (= harlots) , 263 
 quality (= tenor), 247 
 question, 246 '■■ 
 
 quoted (= noted) , 260 
 
 rack, 194 
 
 rain, to lay wind, 250 
 
 rank (adjective), 204 
 
 ransacked (= stolen) , 220 
 
 rape, 220 
 
 rash, 248 
 
 rate (= find fault with) , 
 
 218 
 reasons (play upon ?) , 216 
 rechides, 198 
 record (accent), 197 
 recordation, 267 
 recourse of tears, 272 
 red murrain, 214 
 rejoindure, 249 
 repining, 205 
 reproof (= refutation), 
 
 197 
 repured, 230 
 respect (= deliberation ) , 
 
 217 
 retire (noun), 274, 278 
 revenue (accent), 222 
 rheum, 273 
 ribald, 248 
 
 rich shall have more, 195 
 rivelled, 263 
 rode on his side, 225 
 roisting, 222 
 
 roundly (= plainly), 234 
 rub on, 232 
 
 rule in unity, 267 
 ruminate, 226 
 ruthful, 272 
 
 sacred aunt, 258 
 
 Sagittary, 274 
 
 salt (= bitter), 209 
 
 sans, 201 
 
 savage strangeness, 224 
 
 scab (play upon), 214 
 
 scaffoldage, 203 
 
 scaled sculls, 275 
 
 scantling, 208 
 
 scar (= wound), 191 
 
 scurril, 203 
 
 seam (= fat) , 226 
 
 secrets (trisyllable ?),249 
 
 secure (= careless), 216 
 
 securely (= carelessly) , 
 
 256 
 see (= see each other) , 
 
 250 
 seethes, 229 
 seizure, 189 
 seld, 259 
 
 self-admission, 225 
 self-affected, 226 
 self-breath, 225 
 sequestering, 236 
 serpentine, 222 
 serpigo, 223 
 set your wit to, 215 
 severally entreat, 261 
 severals and generals, 204 
 'sfoot, 222 
 shaked, 202 
 shame respect, 272 
 she (= her), 227 
 she (= woman) , 196 
 shent, 223 
 shoeing-horn, 264 
 short-armed, 222 
 should (= would) , 202 
 shrewd (spelling), 194 
 shrewdly gored, 244 
 shrills (verb), 272 
 sick (= envious) , 202 
 sieve (= basket) , 217 
 sinister (accent), 259 
 sith, 196, 266 
 six-gated city, 187 
 sleave silk, 263 
 sleeve, 252, 265 
 sleeveless, 273 
 'slid, 195 
 slipped (play upon) , 223 
 
Index of Words and Phrases 299 
 
 sluttish spoils of oppor- 
 tunity, 256 
 
 small pricks, 208 
 
 smile at, 279 
 
 sodden-witted, 215 
 
 soilure, 247 
 
 sometime, 203 
 
 sort (= lot), 209 
 
 sorts (= suits), igo 
 
 speaking in deeds, 257 
 
 specialty of rule, 200 
 
 speculation, 238 
 
 spend his mouth, 264 
 
 sperr, 187 
 
 sphered, 201 
 
 sphered bias cheek, 254 
 
 spirit (monosyllable), 198 
 
 spirit of sense, 238 
 
 spirits and fires! 264 
 
 spleen, 204, 219 
 
 spritely (= spirited) , 222 
 
 square (verb), 267 
 
 stale (verb), 226 
 
 state (= council) , 204, 227, 
 248 
 
 state (= train), 224 
 
 stickler-like, 274. 
 
 stithied, 260 
 
 stomach, 216, 261 
 
 stool for a witch, 214 
 
 strain (= impulse) , 220 
 
 strange (= distant), 226 
 
 stretched (= affected), 203 
 
 stubborn-chaste, 190 
 
 Stygian banks, 230 
 
 subduements, 260 
 
 subscribes to tender ob- 
 jects, 257 
 
 subsequent (accent), 208 
 
 substance (= wealth), 207 
 
 subtle-potent, 231 
 
 success (= issue) , 208, 219 
 
 sufferance (= suffering) , 
 188, 215 
 
 suffocate (form), 202 
 
 sunburnt, 206 
 
 suppose Cnoun), 196 
 
 surety, 216 
 
 suspect (noun), 199 
 
 sweat, 281 
 
 sweet honey Greek, 265 
 
 swoon (spelling), 231 
 
 tables (= note-book) , 256 
 
 tabourines, 261 
 
 tapster's arithmetic, 193 
 
 tarre, 210 
 
 tend (= attend) , 224 
 
 tent (play upon), 262 
 
 tent (= probe), 216, 262 
 
 tercel, 232 
 
 tetchy, T90 
 
 Thersites, 211 
 
 Thetis, 197 
 
 thicker (= quicker), 231 
 
 thwart (= athwart), 197 
 
 tickle it, 269 
 
 ticklish, 256 
 
 tide (= time) , 264 
 
 Time must friend or end, 
 
 tisick, 273 
 
 Titan, 280 
 
 tithe (= tenth), 216 
 
 to (= compared to), 189 
 
 to (=in addition to), 187 
 
 to! (= on!), 215 
 
 to his inches, 257 
 
 toast, 197 
 
 topless deputation, 203 
 
 tortive, 196 
 
 traded (= expert), 217 
 
 train (= tempt), 269 
 
 transformation of Jupiter, 
 
 263 
 translate, 257 
 Troy walls, 196 
 trumpet (= trumpeter) , 
 
 205, 254 
 turtle (= dove) , 235 
 Typhon, 203 
 
 uncomprehensive, 243 
 undergo (= undertake) , 
 
 233 
 underwrite, 224 
 unknown, 239 
 unmingled (metre), 197 
 unplausive, 238 
 unrespective, 217 
 unsquared, 203, 267 
 untent, 225 
 
 untraded, 259 
 
 use (= continue), 215 
 
 use thefts, 271 
 
 vail (= descent), 274 
 valiantly (= finely) , 193 
 vantbrace, 207 
 varlet (= harlot), 263 
 varlet (= servant), 187, 
 
 265 
 vassalage, 231 
 vaunt (= beginning), 187 
 venomous, 248 
 villain, 231 
 vindictive, 257 
 vinewed'st, 214 
 violent (dissyllable) , 271 
 violenteth, 249 
 vipers, 230 
 vizarded, 200 
 voices, 210 
 voluntary (adverb), 215 
 
 waftage, 230 
 
 wallet (= bag) , 240 
 
 ward, 195 
 
 ware (= aware) , 248 
 
 watched, 231 
 
 waterflies, 263 
 
 watery, 231 
 
 wear a castle on thy head, 
 
 269 
 weeds (= garments) , 245 
 weep mill stones, 194 
 wells and Niobes, 280 
 where (= in which) , 249 
 who (= which), 239, 244 
 who (=whom), 228, 259 
 whole week by days, 246 
 Winchester goose, 281 
 with private soul, 257 
 witty, 231 
 
 wooden dialogue, 203 
 words and errors, 273 
 wound to kill, 230 
 wrest (noun), 237 
 
 yond, 255 
 
 you may, you may, 230 
 
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