and a proper man of perfon:-When comes Troilus? I'll fhow you Troilus anon; if he fee me, you shall see him nod at me. CRES. Will he give you the nod? PAN. You fhall fee. CRES. If he do, the rich shall have more." HECTOR paffes over. PAN. That's Hector, that, that, look you, that; There's a fellow !-Go thy way, Hector;-There's a brave man, niece.-O brave Hector!-Look, how he looks! there's a countenance: Is't not a brave man? CRES. O, a brave man! PAN. Is 'a not? It does a man's heart goodLook you what hacks are on his helmet? look you yonder, do you fee? look you there! There's no jefting: there's laying on; take't off who will, as they fay: there be hacks! CRES. Be thofe with fwords? PARIS paffes over. PAN. Swords? any thing, he cares not: an the devil come to him, it's all one: By god's lid, it does one's heart good:-Yonder comes Paris, yon 4 the rich shall have more.] The allufion is to the word noddy, which, as now, did in our author's time, and long before, fignify a filly fellow, and may, by its etymology, fignify likewife full of nods. Creffid means, that a noddy hall have more nods. Of fuch remarks as thefe is a comment to confift? JOHNSON. To give the nod, was, I believe, a term in the game at cards called Noddy. This game is perpetually alluded to in the old comedies. See Vol. III. p. 176, n. 7. STEEVENS, der comes Paris: look ye yonder, niece; Is't not a gallant man too, is't not?-Why, this is brave now.-Who faid, he came hurt home to-day? he's not hurt: why, this will do Helen's heart good now. Ha! 'would I could fee Troilus now!-you fhall fee Troilus anon. CRES. Who's that? HELENUS paffes over, PAN. That's Helenus,—I marvel, where Troilus is:-That's Helenus ;-I think he went not forth, to-day-That's Helenus. CRES. Can Helenus fight, uncle? PAN. Helenus? no;-yes, he'll fight indifferent well:-I marvel, where Troilus is!-Hark; do you not hear the people cry, Troilus?-Helenus is a prieft. CRES. What fneaking fellow comes yonder? TROILUS paffes over. PAN. Where? yonder? that's Deiphobus: 'Tis Troilus! there's a man, niece!-Hem!-Brave Troilus! the prince of chivalry!· CRE. Peace, for fhame, peace! PAN. Mark him; note him ;-O brave Troilus! -look well upon him, niece; look you, how his fword is bloody'd,' and his helm more hack'd than show his fword is bloody'd,] So, Lydgate defcribing Troilus, in a couplet that reminds us of Dryden, or Pope: "He was fo ferfe they might him not withstand, "When that he helde his blody fworde in hand." I always quote from the original poem, edit. 1555. MALONE. Hector's; And how he looks, and how he goes!— O admirable youth! he ne'er faw three and twenty. Go thy way Troilus, go thy way; had I a fifter were a grace, or a daughter a goddess, he fhould take his choice. O admirable man! Paris?-Paris is dirt to him; and, I warrant, Helen, to change, would give an eye to boot." Forces pafs over the stage. CRES. Here come more. PAN. Affes, fools, dolts! chaff and bran, chaff and bran! porridge after meat! I could live and die i'the eyes of Troilus. Ne'er look, ne'er look; the eagles are gone; crows and daws, crows and daws! I had rather be fuch a man as Troilus, than Agamemnon and all Greece. CRES. There is among the Greeks, Achilles; a better man than Troilus. PAN. Achilles? a drayman, a porter, a very camel. CRES. Well, well. PAN. Well, well?-Why, have you any difcretion? have you any eyes? Do you know what a man is? Is not birth, beauty, good fhape, difcourfe, manhood, learning, gentlenefs, virtue, youth, liberality, and fuch like, the spice and falt that season a man? 6 CRES. Ay, a minced man: and then to be baked his helm more hack'd than Hector's;] So, in Chaucer's Troilus and Creffeide, Book III. 640: "His helme to herwin was in twenty places," &c. STEEVENS. 7 an eye to boot.] So, the quarto. The folio, with less force, Give money to boot. JOHNSON. with no date in the pye,-for then the man's date is out. PAN. You are fuch a woman! one knows not at what ward you lie." CRES. Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon my wit, to defend my wiles; upon my fecrecy, to defend mine honefty; my mask, to defend my beauty; and you, to defend all thefe: and at all these wards I lie, at a thousand watches. PAN. Say one of your watches. CRES. Nay, I'll watch you for that; and that's one of the chiefeft of them too: if I cannot ward what I would not have hit, I can watch you for telling how I took the blow; unless it fwell past hiding, and then it is past watching. PAN. You are fuch another! 8 Enter TROILUS' Boy. Bor. Sir, my lord would inftantly speak with you. 66 no date in the pye,] To account for the introduction of this quibble, it fhould be remembered that dates were an ingredient in ancient pastry of almoft every kind. So, in Romeo and Juliet: They call for dates and quinces in the pastry." Again, in All's well that ends well, Act I: " - your date is better in your pye and porridge, than in your cheek." STEEVENS. 9 at what ward you lie.] A metaphor from the art of defence. So, Falftaff, in King Henry IV. Part I: "Thou know'st my old ward; here I lay;" &c. STEEVENS. 2 -upon my wit, to defend my wiles;] So read both the copies: yet perhaps the author wrote: Upon my wit to defend my will. The terms wit and will were, in the language of that time, put often in oppofition. JOHNSON. So, in The Rape of Lucrece: "What wit fets down, is blotted straight with will.” Yet I think the old copy right. MALONE. PAN. Where? Bor. At your own houfe; there he unarms him.” PAN. I'll be with you, niece, by and by. PAN. Ay, a token from Troilus. CRES. 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 thousand fold I fee Than in the glass of Pandar's praise may be ; Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is: Love got fo fweet, as when defire did fue: * At your own boufe; there he unarms him.] These necessary words are added from the quarto edition. POPE. The words added are only-there he unarms him, JOHNSON. 3 -joy's foul lies in the doing:] So read both the old editions, for which the later editions have poorly given: the foul's joy lies in doing. It is the reading of the fecond folio. That fhe-] Means, that woman. JOHNSON. JOHNSON. 5 Achievement is command; ungain'd, befeech:] The meaning of this obfcure line feems to be-" Men, after poffeffion, become our commanders; before it, they are our fuppliants." STEEVENS. |