PERSONS REPRESENTE D.

Greeks.

Trojan and Greek Soldiers, with other Attendantș

SCENE, Troy, and the Grecian Camp before it.

N Troy, there lies the fcene. From ifles of Greece
The princes orgillous 2, their high blood chaf'd,
Have to the port of Athens fent their flips
Fraught with the minifters and inftruments
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 ranfack Troy; within whose strong immures
The ravifi'd Helen, Menelaus' queen,
With wanton Paris fleeps; And that's the quarrel.
To Tenedos they come;

And the deep-drawing barks do there difgorge
Their warlike fraughtage: Now on Dardan plains
The fresh and yet unbruifed Greeks do pitch
Their brave pavilions: Priam's fix-gated city
(Dardan, and Thymbria, Ilias, Chetas, Troyan,

And Antenoridas) with mally ftaples,
And correfponfive and fulfilling 3 bolts,
Sperrs up the fons of Troy.-

4

Now expectation, tickling skittish fpirits,
On one and other fide, Trojan and Greek,
Sets all on bazard:-And bither am I come
A prologue arm'd,—but not in confidence
Of author's pen, or actor's voice; but fuited
In like conditions as our argument,-
To tell you, fair bebolders, that our play
Leaps o'er the vaunt 5 and firflings of those broils,
'Ginning in the middle; farting thence away
To what may be digefed in a play.
Like, or find fault; do as your pleafures are;
Now good, or bad, 'tis but the chance of war.

ст

Troi. Why should I war without the walls

ALL here my varlet, I'll unarm again :

of Troy,

I.

That find fuch cruel battle here within?
Each Trojan, that is master of his heart,
Let him to field; Troilus, alas! hath none.

Pan. Will this geer ne'er be mended?
Troi. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their
strength,

1 Mr. Pope (after Dryden) informs us, that the ftory of Troilus and Creffida was originally the work of one Loilius, a Lombard; but Dryden goes yet further. He declares it to have been written in Latin verse, and that Chaucer tranflated it. Lollius was a hiftoriographer of Urbino in Italy. Shakspeare received the greatest part of his materials for the structure of this play from the Troy Boke of Lydgate, printed in 1513. Lydgate was not much more than a tranflator of Guido of Columpna, who was of Meflina in Sicily, and wrote his Hiftory of Troy in Latin, after Dictys Cretenfis, and Dares Phrygius, in 1287. On thefe, as Mr. Warton obferves, he engrafted mauy new romantic inventions, which the taste of his age dictated, and which the connection between Grecian and Gothic fiction easily admitted; at the fame time comprehending in his plan the Theban and Argonautic ftories from Ovid, Statius, and Valerius Flaccus. 2 i. e. proud, difdainful. 3 To fulfill in this place means to fill till there be no room for more. 4 To Sperre, or fpar, from the old Teutonic word fperen, fignifies to shut up, defend by bars, &c. 51. e. the avant, what went before. word anciently fignified a fervant or footman to a knight or warrior.

6 This

Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant

;

Pan. I fpeak no more than truth.

But I am weaker than a woman's tear,
Tamer than fleep, fonder than ignorance;
Lefs valiant than the virgin in the night,
And fkill-leis as unpractis'd infancy.

Pan. Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part, I'll not meddle nor make no further. He, that will have a cake out of the wheat, muft tarry the grinding.

Troi. Have I not tarry'd?

Pan. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the boulting.

Troi. Have I not tarry'd ?

Troi. Thou doft not speak so much.

Pan. 'Faith, I'll not meddle in 't. Let her be as fhe is if the be fair, 'tis the better for her; an fhe be not, fhe has the mends in her own hands 4. Troi. Good Pandarus! How now, Pandarus? Pan. I have had my labour for my travel; illthought on of her, and ill-thought on of you: gone between and between, but small thanks for my labour.

Troi. What, art thou angry, Pandarus ? what, with me?

Pan. Because she is kin to me, therefore she's

Pan. Ay, the boulting; but you must tarry the not fo fair as Helen: an fhe were not kin to me, leavening.

Troi. Still have I tarry'd.

Pan. Ay, to the leavening: but here's yet in the word hereafter the kneading, the making of the cake, the heating of the oven, and the baking; pay, you must stay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips.

fhe would be as fair on Friday, as Helen is on Sunday. But what care I? I care not, an fhe were a black-a-mpor; 'tis all one to me.

Troi. Say I, fhe is not fair?

Pan. I do not care whether you do or ne. She's a fool, to ftay behind her father; let her to the Greeks; and fo I'll tell her, the next time I fes

Troi. Patience herself, what goddess e'er she be, her: for my part, I'll meddle nor make no mare Doth leffer blench 2 at sufferance than I do.

At Priam's royal table do I fit;

And when fair Creffid comes into my thoughts,-
So, traitor!-when she comes !-When is fhe

thence ?

in the matter.

Troi. Pandarus,—

Pan. Not I.

Troi. Sweet Pandarus,

Pan. Pray you, speak no more to me; I w Pan. Well, the look'd yester-night fairer than leave all as I found it, and there an end. ever I faw her look; or any woman else.

Troi. I was about to tell thee,When my heart,
As wedged with a figh, would rive in twain ;
Left Hector or my father fhould perceive me,
I have (as when the fun doth light a storm)
Bury'd this figh in wrinkle of a smile:
But forrow, that is couch'd in feeming gladness,
Is like that mirth fate turns to fudden sadness.

Pan. An her hair were not somewhat darker than Helen's, (well, go to) there were no more comparison between the women,-But, for my part, the is my kinfwoman; I would not, as they term it, praise her, But I would fomebody had heard her talk yesterday, as I did, I will not difpraise your fifter Caffandra's wit: but

Troi. O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus !—
When I do tell thee, There my hopes lie drown'd,
Reply not in how many fathoms deep
They lie indrench'd. I tell thee, I am mad
In Creffid's love: Thou answer'ft, She is fair;
Pour'ft in the open ulcer of my heart
Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait; her voice
Handleft in thy difcourfe :-O that her hand!
In whofe comparison all whites are ink,
Writing their own reproach; to whose soft seizure
The cygnet's down is harth, and fpirit of fenfe 3
Hard as the palm of ploughman! This thou tell'ft

me,

As true thou tell'ft me, when I fay,-I love her;
But, faying thus, instead of oil and balm,
Thou lay'ft in every gafh that love hath given me
The knife that made it.

Fonder for more childish.

[Exit Pandarat [Sound alarm. Troi. Peace, you ungracious clamours! peace, rude founds!

Fools on both fides! Helen must needs be fair,
When with your blood you daily paint her thus.
I cannot fight upon this argument;
It is too ftarv'd a subject for my sword.
But Pandarus-O gods, how do you plague me!
I cannot come to Creffid, but by Pandar;
And he's as techy to be woo'd to woo,
As he is ftubborn-chaste against all fuit.
Tell me, Apollo, for thy Daphne's love,
What Creifid is, what Pandar, and what we?
Her bed is India; there fhe lies, a pearl:
Between our Ilium, and where the refides,
Let it be call'd the wild and wandering flood;
Ourfelf, the merchant; and this failing Pandar,
Our doubtful hope, our convoy, and our bark.
[Alarum.] Enter Encas.

Ene. How now, prince Troilus? wherefore
not afield?
[sorts
Troi. Because not there; This woman's aniwer
For womanifh it is to be from thence.
What news, Æneas, from the field to-day !
Ene. That Paris is returned home, and hurt.
Troi. By whom, Æneas?

Ene. Troilus, by Menelaus.

Troi. Let Paris bleed: 'tis but a fear to fcom; Paris is gor'd with Menelaus' horn. [Alarm Ene. Hark! what good sport is out of town

to-day!

To blench is to fhrink, ftart, or fly off. 3 The meaning is, In comparifon with Creffid's hand, the Spirit of fenfe, the utmost degree, the most exquifite power of fenfibility, which implies a foft hand, fince the fenfe of touching refides chiefly in the fingers, is hard as the callous and infenfible palm of the ploughman. 4 Mr. Steevens thinks this phrafe means

She may make the best of a bad bargain.

Troi. Better at home, if would I might, were may.-- Was Hector arm'd, and gone, ere ye came to But, to the fport abroad ;-Are you bound thither ?

Ent. In all fwift hafte.

Troi. Come, go we then together.

SCENE

A Street.

[Exeunt.

II.

Enter Creffida, and Alexander her fervant.
Cre. Who were thofe went by?
Serv. Queen Hecuba, and Helen.
Cre. And whither go they?

Serv. Up to the eastern tower,
Whofe height commands as fubject all the vale,
To fee the battle. Hector, whofe patience
Is, as a virtue, fix'd, to-day was mov'd:

He chid Andromache, and ftruck his armourer;
And, like as there were husbandry in war,
Before the fun rofe, he was harness'd light,
And to the field goes he; where every flower
Did, as a prophet, weep what it forefaw
In Hector's wrath.

Cre. What was his caufe of anger?

[Greeks

Serv. The noife goes this: There is among the

A lord of Trojan blood, nephew to Hector;
They call him, Ajax.

Cre. Good; And what of him?

Serv. They fay he is a very man per fe,

And ftands alone,

Cre. So do all men; unless they are drunk, fick, or have no legs.

Ilium?

Helen was not up, was the ?

Cre. Hector was gone; but Helen was not up.
Pan, E'en fo; Hector was ftirring early.

Cre. That were we talking of, and of his anger,
Pan. Was he angry?

Cre. So he fays here.

Pan. True, he was fo; I know the caufe too; he'll lay about him to-day, I can tell them that: and there's Troilus will not come far behind him ;、 let them take heed of Troilus; I can tell them

that too.

Cre. What, is he angry too?

Pan, Who, Troilus? Trolus is the better man
of the two.

Cre. O, Jupiter! there's no comparison.
Pan. What, not between Troilus and He&tor
Do you know a man, if you fee him?

Cre. Ay; if I ever faw him before, and knew him.
Pan. Well, I fay, Troilus is Troilus.

Cre. Then you fay as I fay; for, I am fure, he is not Hector.

Pan. No, nor Hector is not Troilus, infome degrees.

Cre, 'Tis juft to each of them; he is himfelt. Pan. Himself? Alas, poor Troilus! I would he were,

Cre. So he is.

Pan.-Condition, I had gone bare-foot to India.
Cre. He is not Hector. 1

Serv. This man, lady, hath robb'd many beafts Pan. Himself? no, he's not himself.-'Would of their particular additions; he is as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear, flow as the elephant: a 'a were himself! Well, the gods are above; Time man into whom nature hath so crowded humours, must friend or end: Well, Troilus, well,{ that his valour is crushed into folly, his folly would, my heart were in her body!-No, Hector fauced with difcretion; there is no man hath a is not a better man than Troilus. virtue, that he hath not a glimpse of; nor any man an attaint, but he carries fome ftain of it; he is melancholy without caufe, and merry against the hair 2: he hath the joints of every thing; but a gouty every thing fo out of joint, that he Briareus, many hands and no ufe; or purblinded Argus, all eyes and no fight.

Cre. But how should this man, that makes me fmile, make Hector angry?

Serv. They fay, he yesterday cop'd Hector in the battle, and ftruck him down; the difdain and fhame where of hath ever fince kept Hector fafting and waking.

Enter Pandarus.

Cre. Who comes here?

Serv. Madam, your uncle Pandarus.
Cre. Hector's a gallant man.
Serv. As may be in the world, lady.
Pan. What's that? what's that?
Čre. Good morrow, uncle Pandarus.

Pan. Good morrow, coufin Creffid: What do you talk of Good morrow, Alexander.-How do you, coufin? When were you at Ilium 3?

Cre. Excufe me.
Pan. He is elder.

Gre. Pardon me, pardon me.

Pan. The other's not come to 't; you shall tell me another tale, when the other's come to 't. Hector shall not have his wit this year.

Cre. He shall not need it, if he have his own.
Pan. Nor his qualities.
Cre. No matter.

Pan. Nor his beauty.

Cre. 'Twould not become him, his own's better. Pan. You have no judgement, niece: Helen her. felf fwore the other day, that Troilus, for a brow A favour, (for fo 'tis, I must confefs)-Not brown neither.

Cre. Then Troilus fhould have too much : if the prais'd him above, his complexion is higher than his; he having colour enough, and the other Pan. What were you talking of, when I came higher, is too flaming a praife for a good com

Cre. This morning, uncle.

3 Ilium was

1 To be crushed into folly, is to be confused and mingled with folly, fo as that they make one mafs together. 2 This is a phrafe equivalent to another now in ute-against the grain. the palace of Troy.

plexion.

Pan. Marry, at the white hair that Helen fpied you yonder, do you fee? look you there! There's on Troilus' chin.

no jefting: laying on; take't oft whe will, &

Cre. An't had been a green hair, I fhould have they fay: there be hacks! laugh'd too.

Pan. They laugh'd not fo much at the hair, as at his pretty anfwer.

Cre. What was his anfwer?

Pan. Quoth the, Here's but one and fifty bairs on does one's heart good chin, and one of them is white.

The compos'd window is the fame as the bow-window. fill call a perfon who plunders fhops, a fhop lifter. which, as now, did in our author's time, and long before, fignify a filly fellow, and may, by a etymology, guity Likewife full of neds. Creflid means, that a noddy shall have more huds.

day he's not hurt: why, this will do Helen's what I would not have hit, I can watch you for heart good now. Ha! 'would I could fee Troilus telling how I took the blow; unless it fwell pait hiding, and then it is paft watching. now!-you fhall fee Troilus anon.

Cre. Who's that?

Helenus paffes

ozier.

Pan. That's Helenus,-1 marvel, where Troilus is :-That's Helenus ;-1 think he went not forth to-day-That's Helenus.

Cre. Can Helenus fight, uncle?

Pan. Helenus? no ;--yes, he'll fight indifferent
well-I marvel, were Troilus is !-Hark; do
Helenus
you not hear the people cry, Troilus?
is a priest.

Cre. What fneaking fellow comes yonder ?
Troilus paljes over.

Pan. Where? yonder that's Deiphobus: 'Tis
Troilus! there's a man, niece!-Hem !—Brave
Troilus! the prince of chivalry!

Gre. Peace, for fhame, peace!

I

Pan. You are fuch another!
Enter Troilus' Boy.

Bey. Sir, my lord would inftantly speak with you.
Pan. Where ?

Boy. At your own houfe; there he unarms him.
Pan. Good boy, tell him I come [Exit Boy]:
doubt he be hurt.---Fare ye well, good niece.
Cre. Adien, uncle.

Pan. I'll be with you, niece, by and by.
Cre. To bring, uncle,-

Pan. Av, a token from Troilus.

Cre. By the fame token-you are a bawd.
[Exit Pandarus.
Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full facrifice,
He offers in another's enterprize:
But more in Troilus thoufand fold I fee

Pan. Mark him; note him :-0 brave Troi-Than in the glass of Pandar's praife may be; Women are angels, wooing; Jus-look well upon him, niece; look you, how Yet hold I off. his fword is bloody'd, and his helm more hack'd Things won are done, joy's foul lies in the doing : than Hector's; And how he looks, and how he That the 2 belov'd knows nought, that knows not this,goes!O admirable youth! he ne'er faw three and twenty. Go thy way, Troilus, go thy way; Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is: had I a fifter were a grace, or a daughter a god-That the 2 was never yet, that ever knew O admirable Love got fo fweet, as when defire did fue : defs, he fhould take his choice. Therefore this maxim out of love I teach,Archievement is, command; ungain'd, beseech : Then though my heart's content 3 firm love doth bear,

man! Paris?--Paris is dirt to him; and, I warrant, Helen, to change, would give an eye to

boot.

Enter Soldiers, &c.

Cre. Here come more.

Pan. Affes, fools, dolts! chaff and bran, chaff and bran! porridge after meat! I could live and Ne'er look, ne'er die i' the eyes of Troilus. look; the cagles are gone; crows and daws, crows and daws! I had rather be fuch a man as Troilus, than Agamemnon and all Greece.

Cre. There is among the Greeks, Achilles; a better man than Troilus.

Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear.

[Excunt.

Enter Agamemnon, Neftor, Ulyffea,
Menelaus, with others.

Agam. Princes,

Pan. Achilles? a dray-man, a porter, a very | What grief hath fet the jaundice on your cheeks?

is out.

Pan. You are fuch a woman! one knows not at what ward you lie.

Gre. Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon my wit, to defend my wiles; upon my fecrecy, to defend mine honefty; my maik, to defend my beauty; and you, to defend all thefe: and at all there wards I lie, at a thousand watches.

Pan. Say one of your watches.

Gr. Nay, I'll watch you for that; and that's one of the chiefeft of them too : if I cannot ward

The ample propofition, that hope makes
In all defigns begun on earth below,
Fails in the promis'd largenefs: checks and difaftery
Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd;
As knots, by the conflux of meeting fap,
Infect the found pine, and divert his grain
Tortive and errant from his courfe of growth.
Nor, princes, is it matter new to us,
That we come thort of our fuppofe fo far,
That, after feven years' fiege, yet Troy walls stand;
Sith every action that hath gone before,
Whereof we have record, trial did draw
Bias and thwart, not anfwering the aim,
And that unbodied figure of the thought
That gave 't furmiled thape. Why then, you princes,
Do you with cheeks abah'd behold our works;
And think them fhames, which are, indeed,

nought elfe

But the protractive trials of great Jove,
To find perfifive conftancy in men
The fineness of which metal is not found

To account for the introduction of this quibble, it fhould be remembered that dates were an kind 2 i. e. that woman. 3 Content for cabuity. ingredient in ancient pastry of almost every