SCENE IX.-Another Part of the Plains. Enter HECTOR. Hect. Most putrified core, so fair without, [Puts off his helmet, and hangs his shield behind him. Enter ACHILLES and Myrmidons. Achil. Look, Hector, how the sun begins to set; Hect. I am unarm'd; forego this vantage, Greek. So, Ilion, fall thou; now, Troy, sink down; [HECTOR falls. [A retreat sounded. Hark! a retreat upon our Grecian part. Myr. The Trojan trumpets sound the like, my lord. Achil. The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth, And, stickler-like, the armies separate." My half-supp'd sword that frankly would have fed, Pleas'd with this dainty bit, thus goes to bed. Come, tie his body to my horse's tail; [Exeunt. [Sheaths his sword. SCENE X-The same. Enter AGAMEMNON, AJAX, MENELAUS, NESTOR, DIOMEDES, and others, marching. Shouts within. Agam. Hark! hark! what shout is that? Nest. [Within.] Peace, drums. Achilles ! Achilles! Hector's slain! Achilles ! Dio. The bruit is Hector's slain, and by Achilles. Great Hector was a man as good as he. Agam. March patiently along :-let one be sent If in his death the gods have us befriended, [Exeunt, marching. SCENE XI.-Another part of the Plains. Enter ENEAS and Trojans. Ene. Stand, ho! yet are we masters of the field: Never go home; here starve we out the night. Enter TROILUS. Tro. Hector is slain. Hector!-The gods forbid! Ene. My lord, you do discomfort all the host. But dare all imminence that gods and men Thus proudly pight upon our Phrygian plains, I'll through and through you!—and thou great-siz'd coward! [Exeunt ÆNEAS and Trojans. As TROILUS is going out, enter, from the other side, Pandarus. Tro. Hence, broker lackey! ignomy and shame Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy name. [Exit TROILUS. Pan. A goodly medicine for mine aching bones!-O world! world! world! thus is the poor agent despised! [Exit. NOTES TO TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. PROLOGUE. 1 Princes orgulous; princes haughty and disdainful. Fr. orguilleux. 2 Dardan, and Tymbria, Ilias, Chetas, Trojan, And Antenorides. This list is the same as that given in Caxton's Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye. In the folio, the last name is Antenonidus. Lydgate, in his poem on Troy, writes it Anthonydes, which, in the edition of 1555, is corrected to Antinorydes. 3 Sperr up the sons of Troy. The folio has 'stir up;' but as the context declares that the sons of Troy were shut up and defended by bars, the old Teutonic word 'sperr' was substituted by Theobald. So in Spenser : The other which was enter'd labour'd fast Chaucer also has the word; and Tyrrwhit explains it as sparred. 4 A prologue arm'd. The actor who spoke the prologue was arrayed in armour, not dressed in black, as the prologue-speakers usually were. Afterwards he says that the play 'leaps o'er the vaunt'—that is, the commencement (Fr. avant) of the war. ACT I. 1 My varlet. This word, as Steevens says, anciently signified a servant or footman to a knight or warrior. 2 Doth lesser blench. To 'blench' is to shrink, start off, or fly from. The word was common in Shakespeare's time. 3 She has the mends in her own hands. A proverbial saying. 'If men will be jealous in such cases, the mends is in their own hands.'BURTON'S Anatomy of Melancholy. * The compassed window; a bay or bow window. 5 A lifter-a thief. Here's but one and fifty hairs. In the old copies, 'two and fifty." Theobald made the correction, observing, 'How else can the number make out Priam and his fifty sons?' 7 Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech. Mr Harness proposed 'Achiev'd men us command,' &c. But the text seems perfectly intelligible achievement is as good as command-it leads to it. Thus a famous metaphor in Junius' Letters-Private credit is wealth; public honour is security.' 8 Annoyance by the brize-by the horse-fly or gad. Retorts to chiding fortune. In the old copies, retires, an obvious misprint. Pope read returns; Hanmer, replies; Mr Staunton, re-chides. We have adopted the reading of Mr Dyce. 10 And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn. The 'vantbrace' (Fr. avantbras) was the armour for the arm. 11 Must tarre the mastiff's on. We have had this expression (signifying to incite, to provoke) in King John and Hamlet. АСТ II. 1 Thou vinewdst leaven-mouldy leaven. In the folio the word is spelt whinidst; the quartos have unsalted. 2 Pun thee into shivers-pound thee. 3 Assinego; the Portuguese diminutive for an ass. 4 Achilles' brach-Achilles' dog. The old editions have 'Achilles' brooch, which Rowe altered to 'brach.' 5 The tent that searches. To 'tent' a wound is to probe or search it. 6 Dismes-tenths. 7 Makes stale the morning. The quartos have pale. 8 Enter Cassandra, raving. In Lydgate's poem we have: 'This was the noise and the piteous cry Of Cassandra, that so dreadfully She 'gan to make about,' &c. The words in the text form the stage direction in the quartos. The folio is more specific, 'Enter Cassandra, with her hair about her ears.' 9 Our firebrand brother, Paris. When Hecuba was pregnant with Paris, she dreamt that she should be delivered of a burning torch. 10 He shent our messengers; he rebuked or rated them. The quarto has sate; the folio, sent. 11 His pettish lunes. In the folio, lines. Shakespeare has several times used the word 'lunes'-freaks of folly or lunacy. 12 I'll pheeze his pride; I'll dress or comb his pride. See Induction to Taming of the Shrew. |