Calchas, a Trojan Prieft, taking part with the Greeks. Pandarus, Uncle to Creffida. Margarelon, a baftard Son of Priam. Agamemnon, the Grecian General : Therfites, a deformed and fcurrilous Grecian. Servant to Troilus; Servant to Paris; Servant to Helen, Wife to Menelaus. Andromache, Wife to Hector. Caffandra, Daughter to Priam; a Prophetess. Trojan and Greek Soldiers, and Attendants. SCENE, Troy, and the Grecian Camp before it. TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. ACT I. SCENE I. Troy. Before Priam's Palace. Enter TROILUS armed, and PANDARUS. TRO. Call here my varlet,' I'll unarm again: 1 my varlet,] This word anciently fignified a servant or footman to a knight or warrior. So, Holinfhed, speaking of the battle of Agincourt: " diverse were releeved by their varlets, and conveied out of the field." Again, in an ancient epitaph in the church-yard of Saint Nicas at Arras : 66 Cy gift Hakin et fon varlet, "Tout dis-armè et tout di-pret, "Avec son espé et falloche," &c. STEEVENS. Concerning the word varlet, fee Recherches hiftoriques fur les cartes à jouer. Lyon, 1757, p. 61. M. C. TUTET. 2 Will this geer ne'er be mended ?] There is fomewhat proverbial in this question, which I likewife meet with in the inter lude of King Darius, 1565: 66 Wyll not yet this geere be amended, "Nor your finful acts corrected?" STEEVENS. TRO. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their ftrength,3 Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant; 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, must tarry the grinding. TRO. Have I not tarried? PAN. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the bolting. . TRO. Have I not tarried? PAN. Ay, the bolting; but you must tarry the leavening. TRO. Still have I tarried. 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; nay, you must ftay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips. TRO. Patience herfelf, what goddefs e'er the be, Doth leffer blench" at fufferance than I do. 3 skilful to their strength, &c.] i. e. in addition to their ftrength. The fame phrafeology occurs in Macbeth. See Vol. X. p. 16, n. 2. STEEVENS. 4 -fonder-] i. e. more weak, or foolish. See Vol. VII. p. 328, n. 8. MALONE. And fkill-lefs &c.] Mr. Dryden, in his alteration of this play, has taken this speech as it ftands, except that he has changed skill-lefs to artless, not for the better, becaufe skill-lefs refers to skill and skilful. JOHNSON. 6 Doth leffer blench-] To blench is to fhrink, start, or fly off. So, in Hamlet: At Priam's royal table do I fit; And when fair Creffid comes into my thoughts,So, traitor!-when the comes!When is the thence ?7 PAN. Well, the looked yefternight fairer than ever I saw her look, or any woman else. TRO. I was about to tell thee,-When my heart, But forrow, that is couch'd in feeming gladness, PAN. An her hair were not fomewhat 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 dispraise your fifter Caffandra's wit; but 66 if he but blench, "I know my course. Again, in The Pilgrim, by Beaumont and Fletcher : 7 men that will not totter, "Nor blench much at a bullet." STEEVENS. Both - when he comes!When is he thence?] the old copies read-then he comes, when he is thence. Mr. Rowe corrected the former error, and Mr. Pope the latter. MALONE. 8-a ftorm,)] Old copies-a fcorn. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. See King Lear, A&t III. fc. i. STEEVENS. 9 in wrinkle of a smile :] So, in Twelfth-Night: "He doth Smile his face into more lines than the new map with the augmentation of the Indies." MALONE. Again, in The Merchant of Venice: "With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come." STEEVENS. TRO. O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus, When I do tell thee, There my hopes lie drown'd, They lie indrench'd. I tell thee, I am mad Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice; 1 Handleft in thy difcourfe, O, that her hand, &c.] Handleft is here ufed metaphorically, with an allufion, at the fame time, to its literal meaning; and the jingle between hand and handleft is perfectly in our author's manner. The beauty of a female hand feems to have made a strong impreffion on his mind. Antony cannot endure that the hand of Cleopatra fhould be touched: 66 To let a fellow that will take rewards, "And fay, God quit you, be familiar with My playfellow, your hand, this kingly feal, "And plighter of high hearts." Again, in Romeo and Juliet: they may seize "On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand." In The Winter's Tale, Florizel, with equal warmth, and not lefs poetically, defcants on the hand of his mistress: 66 -I take thy hand; this hand "As foft as dove's down, and as white as it; "Or Ethiopian's tooth; or the fann'd fnow "That's bolted by the northern blasts twice o'er." This paffage has, I think, been wrong pointed in the late editions: Pour'ft in the open ulcer of my heart Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait; her voice In whofe comparison, &c. We have the fame play of words in Titus Andronicus: "O handle not the theme, to talk of hands, "Left we remember ftill, that we have none!" We may be certain therefore that thofe lines were part of the additions which our poet made to that play. MALONE. If the derivation of the verb to handle were always present to those who employed it, I know not well how Chapman could vindicate the following paffage in his version of the 23d Iliad, |