PROLOGUE.

INTroy, there lies the fcene from Ifles of Greece
The Princes orgillous, their high blood chaf'd,
Have to the Port of Athens fent their fhips,
Fraught with the minifters and inftruments
Of cruel war. Sixty and nine, that wore
Their crownets regal, from th' Athenian bay
Put forth toward Phrygia, and their vow is made
To ranfack Troy; within whofe ftrong Immures,
The ravish'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 Pavillions. Priam's fix Gates? i' th' City,
Dardan, and Thymbria, Ilia, Scæa, Troian,

And Antenorides, with may ftaples

And correfponfive and fulfilling bolts

Sperre up the fons of Troy.

-Priam's fix-gated city

Dardan and Timbria, Helias, Chetas, Trojan,
And Antenonidus, with may ftaples

And correfponfive and fulfilling bolts

Now

Stir up the fons of Troy. This has been a moft miferably mangled paffage, through all the editions; corrupted at once into falfe concord and falfe reafoning. Priam's fix-gated City Stirre up the fons of Troy Here's a verb plural governed of a Nominative fingular. But that is eafily remedied. The next quettion to be afk'd, is, in what fenfe a city having fix ftrong gates, and thofe well barr'd and bolted, can be faid to ftir up its inhabitants? unless they may be fuppofed to derive fome fp. irit from the frength of their fortifications. But this could t be the poet's thought. He muft mean, I take it, that the Greeks

Now expectation tickling skittish Spirits
On one and other fide, Trojan and Greek,
Sets all on bazard. And haber 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 firftlings of thofe broils,
'Ginning i' th' middle: ftarting thence away,
To what may be digefted in a Play.

Like, or find fault,-do, as your pleasures are;
Now good, or bad, 'tis but the chance of war.

Greeks had pitched their tents upon the plains before Troy; and that the Trojans were fecurely barricaded within the walls and gates of their city. This fenfe my correction restores. To Sperre, or Spar, from the old Teutonic word, (SPERREN) fignifies, to but up, defend by barrs, &c. THEO.

† A prologue arm'd-] I come here to fpeak the prologue, and come in armour; not defying the audience, in confidence of either the authour's or actor's abilities, but merely in a character fuited to the subject, in a drefs of war, before a warlike play.

Dramatis

Helen, Wife to Menelaus.

Andromache, Wife to Hector.

Caffandra, Daughter to Priam, a Prophetess.
Creffida, Daughter to Calchas.

Alexander, Creffida's Servant.
Boy, Page to Troilus.

Trojan, and Greek Soldiers, with other Attendants.

SCENE, Troy; and the Grecian Camp, before it.

The editions of this play are, 1. Quarto. 1609. G. Eld. for R. Boniand and H. Whalley.

2. Quarto. No date. G. Eld. for R. Boniand and H. Whalley.

I have the Folio and first Quarto. The Folio is the corrected and complete copy.

ACT I. SCENE I.

The Palace in Troy.

Enter Pandarus and Troilus.

TROILUS.

ALL here my varlet. I'll unarm again.
Why the uld I war without the walls of Troy,

That find fuch cruel battle here within?
Each Trojan, that is mafter of his heart,
Let him to field; Troilus, alas! hath none.
Pan. Will this geer ne'er be mended?

(1) The story was originally written by Lollius, an old Lombard authour, and fince by Chaucer.

POPE.

It is alfo found in an old story-book of the three deftructions of Troy, from which many of the circumstances of this play are borrowed, they being to be found no where elfe. THEO.

Troilus and Creffida.] Before this play of Troilus and Creffida, printed in 1609, is a bookfeller's preface, thewing that first impreffion to have been before the play had been acted, and that it was published without Shakespeare's knowledge, from a copy that had fallen into the bookfeller's hands. Mr. Dryden thinks this one of the firft of our author's plays: but on the contrary, it may be judged from the fore-mentioned preface that it was one of his laft; and the great number of obfervations both moral and politic, (with which this piece is crowded more than any other of his) feems to confirm my opinion.

Troi. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their ftrength,

Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant.
But I am weaker than a woman's tear,
Tamer than fleep, (2) fonder than ignorance;
Lefs valiant than the virgin in the night,
(3) And skill-lefs as unpractis'd infancy.

Pan. Well, I have told you enough of this. For my part, I'll not meddle or make any further. He, that will have a cake out of the wheat, muft needs tarry the grinding.

Troi. Have I not tarried?

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

Troi. Have I not tarried?

Pan. Ay, the boulting; but you must tarry the leav'ning.

Troi. Still have I tarried.

Pan. Ay, to the leav'ning; 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 muft ftay the cooling too, or you, may chance to burn your lips.

Troi. Patience herfelf, what Goddess ere the be, Doth leffer blench at fufferance than I do.

At Priam's royal table do I fit,

And when fair Creffid c comes into my thoughts,

So traitor!when he comes! When is the thence? Pan. Well, fhe look'd yefternight fairer than ever

I faw her look, or any woman elfe.

my

Troi. I was about to tell thee, when 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,
Buried the figh in wrinkle of a smile;

(2) —fonder than ignorance ;] Fonder, for more childish. WARBURTON. (3) And fkill-lefs, &c.] Mr. Dryden, in his alteration of this play, has taken this fpeech as it ftands, except that he has changed fkill-lefs to artless, not for the better, becaufe fkill-lefs refers to kill and skilful.

But