the myddes was an horse, and to-fore a man.

This beste was

heery like an horse, and had his eyen red as a cole, and shotte well with a bowe: this beste made the Grekes sore aferde, and slewe many of them with his bowe." Likewise in Lydgate :

"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 maked
Of skin was black and rough as any beare,
Covered with hair fro cold him for to weare.
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 fro the heven;
Dredeful of looke, and red as fire of cheer,
And, as I rede, he was a good archer;
And with his bow both at even and morow
Upon the Grekes he wrought much sorrow."

20. So in Caxton's History:

Then, when Hector was richly arraied, and armed with good harnesse and sure, he mounted upon his horse named Galathe, that was one of the most great and strongest horses of the world."

Scene VIII.

1. Most putrefied core:-This is the "one in sumptuous armour," at the close of Scene vi. The incident was taken from The Destruction of Troy.

10. "The heroic greatness of Achilles is mere semblance," says Ulrici; "it is only by a treacherous attack that-with the aid of his Myrmidons-he succeeds in killing Hector, who was resting and unarmed."

22. The Poet applies to Hector a part of what the History relates of Troilus, as appears by the following: "Afore that Achilles entered into the battle, he assembled his Myrmidons, and prayed them that they would intend to none other thing but to inclose Troylus, and to hold him without flying till he came. 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 about two thousand fighting men, thrust in among the Trojans, and recovered the field. And as they held them together, and sought no man but Troylus, they found him, and he fought strongly and was inclosed on all parts; but he slew and wounded many. And as he was all alone among them, and had no man to help 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 took the body and bound it to the tail of his horse, and so drew it after him throughout the host."

Scene IX.

10. Great Troy is ours:-" In the play, as so frequently in life," says Lloyd, "the honours of success fall to the share of those who deserved it, but in a mode they neither expected nor influenced. The purposes of Agamemnon, Ulysses, and Nestor, have been sustained throughout and well pursued, and though as Thersites says, their policy promises little fruit from circumstances running cross, others arise that give full compensation. The trifling that they strove against brings on consequences that aid them shrewdly. Achilles is roused by the death of Patroclus and slaughter of his Myrmidons, Ajax also suffers for his absence, and is also roused by the loss of a friend. This is the same motive that gives the last force to the single-thoughted resolution of Troilus, and thus the play appropriately ends when on either side the levities and frivolousnesses that had drawn out to ten years' length the desultory and harassing war, are finally disposed of, and the decisive contest and crash of fully collected and determined powers is at last prepared for."

Scene X.

34. [Exit Troilus.] In the twenty-fourth book of the Iliad Homer makes his solitary mention of Troilus as a son whom Priam had lost before the opening of the poem. The old king says:

"O me, accursed man,

All my good sons are gone, my light the shades Cimmerian Have swallowed from me. I have lost Mestor, surnamed the Fair, Troilus, that ready knight at arms, that made his field repair Ever so prompt and joyfully."

This is all the great old-world poet says of the king's son, whose fame in the Middle Ages outshone Hector's own. This brief mention of an early death stirred the imagination and set fancy at work. The cyclic poets expanded the hint and developed Troilus into a handsome youth who fell by Achilles' lance. It had become the custom under imperial Rome to derive the empire from the Trojans, and the theory gave birth to many fabrications, professing to emanate from eye-witnesses of the war.

Questions on

Troilus and Cressida.

1. What difficulties are experienced in assigning the date of this play? What conjectures are advanced as to the possibility of different parts being written at different times?

2. What are the probable sources from which materials for the play were taken?

PROLOGUE.

3. What epithet is applied in the second line to the princes of Greece?

4. At what stage of the Trojan war does the action begin?

ACT FIRST.

5. What traits as a lover does Troilus display?

6. What is Troilus's comment on the war? How is the war and its cause thrown up thus early as a background for the lovestory? What key for the play is struck in Sc. i.?

7. What description is given of Ajax in Sc. ii.? With what Trojan warrior is he brought into comparison?

8. What is the purpose of the long dialogue in Sc. ii. as concerns Cressida: as concerns Pandarus; as concerns the plot? How does it serve in helping to create the enveloping atmosphere?

9. What is Cressida's attitude during the passing of the Trojan warriors? Does one guess her secret before she reveals herself at the end of Sc. ii.? What type of character does she represent?

10. In Sc. iii. what state of affairs at the end of the seventh year of the war does Agamemnon describe? To what does he assign the cause?

II. How does Nestor describe the situation? Does he attempt

to fathom a cause? Is his speech mere oratory and in accordance with his historic reputation?

12. Account for the temper of lines 70-74.

13. How does Ulysses solve the situation? What remedy does he propose? What picture of disorganization does he draw? What does he say of Ajax; of Thersites?

14. Should Agamemnon not have been known personally to Æneas at the end of seven years' fighting?

15. What challenge is brought from Hector? To what motive does the challenge appeal? Who penetrates its real significance? 16. What method of treating the challenge does Ulysses advise? 17. Does the first Act establish a motif for the action?

ACT SECOND.

18. How is Thersites introduced? Has the key to his character been already given? What is the quality of his wit?

19. What has embittered him, or is he a born railer? Does any one escape his vituperation?

20. What had been the effect of Thersites's gibes had Ajax or Achilles or Patroclus been worthier men? What new facts do Does Sc. i. advance the we learn concerning these heroes? plot any?

21. Indicate the personal touch with which Achilles quits the

scene.

22. To what preceding part of the play does Sc. ii. form a contrast? How is the contrast carried out as to characters?

23. What demand is sent to the Trojans concerning Helen? 24. What is Hector's advice? How is he answered by Troilus? Whose argument is the stronger?

25. What is the dramatic purpose of the warning of Cassandra? Does the argument take on a higher moral tone after her entrance?

26. What reason does Paris allege for keeping Helen?

27. Why does Shakespeare make Hector touch the high moral of the problem with illuminating vision and then calmly yield to the lower motives of the others?

28. What is effected by making the soliloquies of Thersites in Sc. iii. take on the form of prayers?

29. Is there an abatement of power in presenting the succeeding dialogue which suggests Thersites as the court fool?