Let him to field; Troilus, alas! hath none. Tro.The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their strength, Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant; But I am weaker than a woman's tear, Tamer than fleep, fonder than ignorance; Lefs valiant than the virgin in the night, Pan. Bacon and Friar Bungay, and Orlando Furiofo, 1594 and 1599, that he fold the laft of thefe pieces to two different theatres: "Mafter R. G. would it not make you blush, &c. if you fold not Orlando Furiofo to the Queen's players for twenty nobles, and when they were in the country, fold the fame play to the Lord Admiral's men for as much more? Was not this plain Coneycatching, M. G.?" Defence of Coneycatching, 1592. COLLINS. Notwithstanding what has been faid by a late editor, I have a copy of the first folio, including Troilus and Creffida. Indeed, as I have juft now obferved, it was at firft either unknown or forgotten. It does not however appear in the lift of the plays, and is thruft in between the biftories and the tragedies without any enumeration of the pages; except, I think, on one leaf only. It differs intirely from the copy in the fecond folio. FARMER. I have confulted eleven copies of the firft folio, and Troilus and Creffida is not wanting in any one of them. STEEVENS. 2 -my varlet,] This word anciently fignified a fervant or footman to a knight or warrior. So, Holinshed, speaking of the battle of Agincourt" diverfe were releeved by their varlets, and conveied out of the field." Again, in an ancient epitaph in the churchyard of faint Nicas at Arras : "Cy gift Hakin et fon varlet, "Tout di-armè et tout di-pret, "Avec fon efpé et falloche," &c. STEEVENS. 3 Will this geer ne'er be mended ?] There is fomewhat proverbial in this question, which I likewife meet with in the Interlude of K. Darius, 1565: "Wyll not yet this gere be amended, "Nor your finful acts corrected?" STEEVENS. 4 — fonder—] i, e. more weak, or foolish. See Vol. III. p. 66, n. 5. MALONE. 5 And skill-lefs, &c.] Mr. Dryden, in his alteration of this play, has taken this fpeech as it ftands, except that he has changed killlefs to artless, not for the better, becaufe skill-lefs refers to kill and fkilful. JOHNSON. VOL. VIII. L A very 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. Tro. Have I not tarry'd? Pan. Ay, the grinding; but you muft tarry the boulting. Tro. Have I not tarry'd? Pan. Ay, the boulting; but you must tarry the leavening. Tro. 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; nay, you must ftay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips. 7ro. Patience herself, what goddess e'er she be, Doth leffer blench at fufferance than I do. 6 At Priam's royal table do I fit; And when fair Crefid comes into my thoughts, So, traitor!-when she comes!-When is fhe thence?? Pan. Well, the look'd yefter-night fairer than ever I faw her look; or any woman else. Tro. I was about to tell thee,-When my heart, A very fond and kill-lefs Remarker on this note, afks," and does not artless refer to art and artful ?"-Where will he find art and artful in this paffage? The other words mentioned by Dr. Johnson have occurred before. MALONE. Dotb leffer blench-] To blench is to shrink, start, or fly off. So, in Hamlet: 7- when she comes !-When is fhe thence ?] Both the old copies read-then the comes, when he is thence. Mr. Rowe corrected the former ertor, and Mr. Pope the latter. MALONE. I have (as when the fun doth light a ftorm") Pan. An her hair were not fomewhat darker than Helen's, (well, go to,) there were no more comparison be tween the women,-But, for my part, he 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: butTro. 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 anfwer'ft, She is fair; Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice; In $-a form-] Old Copies-a fcorn. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. in wrinkle of a fimile:] So, in Twelfth Night: "He doth Smile his face into more lines than the new map with the augmentation of the Indies." MALONE. 9 Handleft in tby discourse, 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 band and bandleft is perfectly in our authour's manner. The beauty of a female hand seems to have made a strong impreffion on his mind. Antony cannot endure that the hand of Cleopatra should be touched: To let a fellow that will take rewards, Again, in Romeo and Juliet: they may feize "On the white wonder of dear Juliet's band." In the Winter's Tale Florizel with equal war, and not lefs poetically, defcants on the hand of his mistress: "I take thy hand; this hand "As foft as dove's down, and as white as it ; "That's bolted by the northern blafts twice o'er." L 2 This In whofe comparison all whites are ink, Writing their own reproach; to whose soft seizure Thou lay'ft in every gash that love hath given me Pan. I fpeak no more than truth. Tro. Thou doft not speak fo much. Pan. 'Faith, I'll not meddle in't. Let her be as the is: if he be fair, 'tis the better for her; an fhe be not, fhe has the mends in her own hands 2. Tro. Good Pandarus! How now, Pandarus? Pan. I have had my labour for my travel; ill-thought on of her, and ill-thought on of you: gone between and between, but fmall thanks for my labour. 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 Handleft in thy difcourfe;-O that her hand! In whofe comparifon, &c. and spirit of fenfe MALONE, Hard as the palm of ploughman!] In comparison with Creffida's band, fays he, the spirit of fenfe, the utmoft degree, the most exquifite power of fenfibility, which implies a foft hand, fince the fenfe of touching, as Scaliger fays in his Exercitations, refides chiefly in the fingers, is hard as the callous and infenfible palm of the ploughman. Warburton reads:- fpite of fenfe: Hanmer, to th' Spirit of fenfe. It is not proper to make a lover profefs to praise his mistress in fpite of fense; for though he often does it in spite of the sense of others, his own fenfes are fubdued to his defires. JOHNSON. 2 he has the mends in her own bands.] She may mend her complexion by the affiftance of cofmeticks. JOHNSON. I believe it rather means-She may make the best of a bad bargain. So, in Woman's a Weathercock, 1612: "I shall stay here and have my head broke, and then I have the mends in my own bands." Again, in S. Goffon's School of Abuse, 1579: "turne him with his back full of itripes, and bis hands loden with bis own amendes." Again, in the Wild Goofe Chafe, by B. and Fletcher : "The mends are in mine own bands, or the furgeon's." STEEVENS. Tro. Tro. What, art thou angry, Pandarus? what, with me? Pan. Because she is kin to me, therefore fhe's not fo fair as Helen: an fhe were not kin to me, fhe would be as fair on friday, as Helen is on funday. But what care I? I care not, an fhe were a black-a-moor; 'tis all one to me. Tro. Say I, fhe is not fair? Pan. I do not care whether you do or no. She's a fool, to ftay behind her father 3; let her to the Greeks; and fo I'll tell her, the next time I fee her: for my part, I'll meddle nor make no more in the matter. Tro. Pandarus, Pan. Not I. Tro. Sweet Pandarus, Pan. Pray you, fpeak no more to me; I will leave all as I found it, and there an end. [Exit PANDARUS. An Alarm. Tro. Peace, you ungracious clamours! peace, rude founds! Fools on both fides! Helen muft needs be fair, When with your blood you daily paint her thus. It is too ftarv'd a fubject for my fword. But Pandarus-O gods, how do you plague me! 3-to ftay behind her father ;] Calchas, according to Shakspeare's authority, The Deftruction of Troy, was "a great learned bishop of Troy," who was fent by Priam to confult the oracle of Delphi con cerning the event of the war which was threatened by Agamemnos. As foon as he had made his oblations and demaunds for them of Troy, Apollo" (fays the book) "aunswered unto him, faying; Calchas, Calchas, beware that thou returne not back again to Troy; but goe thou with Achylles, unto the Greekes, and depart never from them, for the Greekes fhall have victorie of the Troyans by the agreement of the Gods." lift. of the Deftruction of Troy, tranflated by Caxton, 5th edit. 4to. 1617. This prudent bishop followed the advice of the Oracle, and immediately joined the Greeks. MALONE. |