With entertaining great Hyperion.80 Nest. [Aside.] Oh, this is well; he rubs the vein of him. Dio. [Aside.] And how his silence drinks up this applause! Ajax. If I go to him, with my armed fist I'll pash 81 him o'er the face. Agam. Oh, no, you shall not go. Ajax. An 'a be proud with me, I'll pheese 82 his pride : Let me go to him. Ulyss. Not for the worth that hangs upon our quarrel.83 Ajax. A paltry, insolent fellow ! Nest. [Aside.] How he describes himself! Ulyss. [Aside.] The raven chides blackness. Agam. [Aside.] He will be the physician that should be the patient. Ajax. An all men were o' my mind,Ulyss. [Aside.] Wit would be out of fashion. Ajax. 'A should not bear it so, 'a should eat swords first: shall pride carry it? Nest. [Aside.] An 'twould, you'd carry half. Ulyss. [Aside.] 'A would have ten shares. Ajax. I will knead him, I'll make him supple. Nest. [Aside.] He's not yet through warm: force 85 him with praises: pour in, pour in; his ambition is dry. 84 Ulyss. [To AGAM.] My lord, you feed too much on this dislike. Nest. Our noble general, do not do so. 80. Hyperion. A poetical name for the sun. 81. Pash. An old expressive word for 'strike crushingly,' 'knock smashingly,' 'hit bruisingly.' 82. Pheese. 'Tease,' 'torment,' 'worry.' See Note 2, Induction, "Taming of the Shrew.' 83. The worth that hangs upon our quarrel. 'The amount of value staked in this our war.' 84. He's not yet through warm. The Folio makes these the concluding words of Ajax's preceding speech. Capell altered "through to thorough;' but not only was the one word frequently used for the other formerly (see Note 16, Act ii., "Winter's Tale"), but 'warm through' is still an expression in use. 85. Force. 'Stuff,' 'cram;' we have still the expression 'force-meat' for 'stuffing.' French, farcir, to stuff. See Note 38, Act iv., "Henry V." 86. Emulous. Enviously desirous of distinction,' 'factiously eager to surpass others,' 'full of arrogant rivalry.' See Note 56 of this Act. 87. Strange. Haughtily distant,' 'holding himself aloof.' See Note 70 of this Act. 88. Composure. Composition,' 'compounded qualities.' 89. Bull-bearing Milo his addition yield. Milo was a celebrated athlete of Crotona, in Italy; whose epithet here alludes to his having been said to carry on his shoulders a bull of four years old for more than forty yards, to have then killed it with a single blow of his fist, and finally to have eaten it in one day. Shakespeare is accused by Malone of "here, as usual, paying no Dio. You must prepare to fight without Achilles. Ulyss. Why, 'tis this naming of him does him harm. Here is a man-but 'tis before his face; I will be silent. Nest Wherefore should you so? He is not emulous,86 as Achilles is. Ulyss. Know the whole world, he is as valiant. Ajax. A dog, that shall palter thus with us! Would he were a Trojan ! Nest. What a vice were it in Ajax now, Ulyss. If he were proud, Dio. Or covetous of praise, Ulyss. Ay, or surly borne,— Dio. Or strange,87 or self-affected! Ulyss. Thank the heavens, lord, thou art of sweet composure; 89 Praise him that got thee, her that gave thee suck: Thrice-fam'd, beyond all erudition: He must, he is, he cannot but be wise ;— regard to chronology," because Milo lived long after the era of the Trojan war; but we have frequently shown how the poet used incidents for the sake of their value in apt illustration, rather than with strict regard to their relative date. See Note 50 of the present Act. "Addition" is here used for 'title,' 'reputation for a certain quality.' See Note 20, Act i. 90. Shall I call you father? In Shakespeare's time adoptive titles of relationship from predilection or sympathetic pursuit were not uncommon. Ben Jonson had many admirers who styled themselves his sons; Cotton dedicated his book on angling to his father Walton; and Ashmole, in his Diary, records thus:-" April 3, Mr. William Backhouse, of Swallowfield, Berks, caused me to call him father thenceforward." Shakespeare alludes to the custom of an interchange of name and adopted kinship between girlish schoolfellows in "Measure for Measure," Act i., sc. 5; and it is not improbable that some such kind of affectionate compact subsisted between himself and the members of a certain family named Greene, who resided near him in Stratford-upon-Avon, particulars of which "adoptious" cousinship the space of the present note will not allow, but which will be found in our life of the Poet. 91. Ay, my good son. The Quarto and some modern editors assign this speech to Nestor; but we follow the Folio in giving it to Ulysses, whereby Ajax's proposal, "Shall I call you father?" and Diomedes' words, "Be rul'd by him," are made to apply to the astute Ithacan, who has won Ajax by his flattery, and has counselled him throughout the scene, while Nestor has said comparatively nothing. Dio. Keeps thicket. Please it our great general To call together all his state of war; We must with all our main of power stand fast : And here's a lord,-come knights from east to west, And cull their flower, Ajax shall cope the best. Agam. Go we to council. Let Achilles sleep: Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks draw deep. [Exeunt. ACT III. SCENE I.-TROY. A Room in PRIAM's Palace. Enter a Servant and PANDARUS. Pan. Friend, you,-pray you, a word: do not you follow the young Lord Paris? Serv. Ay, sir, when he goes before me. Pan. You depend upon him, I mean? Serv. Sir, I do depend upon the lord. Pan. You depend upon a noble gentleman; I must needs praise him. Serv. The lord be praised! Pan. You know me, do you not? Pan. Friend, know me better; I am the Lord Pandarus. Serv. I hope I shall know your honour better.1 Pan. I do desire it. Serv. You are in the state of grace. Pan. Grace! not so, friend; honour and lordship are my titles.2-[Music within.] What music is this? Pan. Command, I mean, friend. Pan. Friend, we understand not one another: I am too courtly, and thou art too cunning. At whose request do these men play? Serv. That's to 't, indeed, sir: marry, sir, at the request of Paris my lord, who's there in person; with him, the mortal Venus, the heart-blood of beauty, love's invisible soul,3— Pan. Who, my cousin Cressida ? Serv. No, sir, Helen: could you not find out that by her attributes ? Pan. It should seem, fellow, that thou hast not seen the Lady Cressida. I come to speak with Paris from the Prince Troilus: I will make a complimental assault upon him, for my business seethes.* Serv. Sodden business! there's a stewed phrase indeed! Enter PARIS and HELEN, attended. Pan. Fair be to you, my lord, and to all this Serv. I do but partly know, sir: it is music in fair company! fair desires, in all fair measure, parts. Pan. Know you the musicians? Serv. Wholly, sir. Pan. Who play they to? Serv. To the hearers, sir. Pan. At whose pleasure, friend? Serv. At mine, sir, and theirs that love music. 1. Know your honour better. Said with a play upon the expression, as if replying in the sense of " 'know your honour more fully,' but meaning 'know your honour a better man than you are now.' Pandarus takes the servant's words in the former sense, rejoining, "I do desire it;" and then the servant, choosing to understand him as saying he desires to become a better man, answers that in that case he is "in the state of grace." 2. Grace! not so, friend; honour, &c. Pandarus, mystified by the servant's banter, exclaims at the word "grace," supposing it is used mistakenly, and given to him as the proper form of address to a duke; whereas, he tells him, "honour and lordship" are his due "titles." See Note 30, Act ii., "Measure for Measure." 3. Love's invisible soul. Hanmer changed "invisible" to 'visible' here; but the original phrase means 'love's celestial essence as made manifest in her,' 'the ethereal spirit of love as impersonated in her.' Just one of those hyperbolical terms (similar to the previous fantastic expression, "the heart-blood of beauty") which are playfully satirised in the passages referred fairly guide them!-especially to you, fair queen! fair thoughts be your fair pillow! Helen. Dear lord, you are full of fair words. Pan. You speak your fair pleasure, sweet queen.-Fair prince, here is good broken music.5 Par. You have broke it, cousin :6 and, by my life, you shall make it whole again; you shall piece to in Note roo, Act v., "Love's Labour's Lost," and Note 25, Act i., "All's Well." 4. My business seethes. My business is in boiling-hot haste,' 'The business I come upon is bubbling and galloping with eagerness to be done.' The waggish servant, whose freedom is warranted by Pandarus's gossiping familiarity with him, sneers at the flabby insipidity of the "phrase" by the epithets "sodden" and "stewed." 5. Broken music. An old technical term for music played upon stringed instruments; for an explanation of which, see Note 41, Act i., "As You Like It." 6. You have broke it, cousin. It has been previously explained, in several of our notes upon this subject, that "cousin" was a term used with much latitude, to express various degrees of relationship (as in this very scene Pandarus speaks of his niece as my cousin Cressida "), and that it was even used by persons between whom there existed merely adopted kinship; here, therefore, "cousin," as applied by Paris to Pandarus, may signify either of these modes of address. There was a Pandarus, son to Lycaon, who was a son of Priam by his former wife it out with a piece of your performance.-Nell, he is full of harmony. Pan. Truly, lady, no. Helen. Oh, sir, Pan. Rude, in sooth; in good sooth, very rude. Par. Well said, my lord! well, you say so in fits.7 Pan. I have business to my lord, dear queen.My lord, will you vouchsafe me a word? Helen. Nay, this shall not hedge us out: we'll hear you sing, certainly. Pan. Well, sweet queen, you are pleasant with me. But, marry, thus, my lord,-My dear lord, and most esteemed friend, your brother Troilus,Helen. My Lord Pandarus; honey-sweet lord,Pan. Go to, sweet queen, go to:-commends himself most affectionately to you,— Helen. You shall not bob us out of our melody: if you do, our melancholy upon your head! Pan. Sweet queen, sweet queen; that's a sweet queen, i' faith. Helen. And to make a sweet lady sad is a sour offence. Pan. Nay, that shall not serve your turn; that shall it not, in truth, la. Nay, I care not for such words; no, no.3— And, my lord, he desires you, that if the king call for him at supper, you will make his excuse. Helen. My Lord Pandarus, Pan. What says my sweet queen,-my very very sweet queen ? Par. What exploit's in hand? where sups he Heigh-ho! to-night? Helen. Nay, but, my lord,— Pan. What says my sweet queen? My cousin will fall out with you. You must not know where he sups.9 Par. I'll lay my life, with my disposer 10 Cressida. Pan. No, no, no such matter; you are wide: come, your disposer is sick. Par. Well, I'll make excuse. Laothoe; and it is possible that Shakespeare may have blended the identity of this Pandarus with that of the Pandarus who figures in Chaucer as Troilus's devoted friend; or, it may be that Paris uses the term "cousin" as a token of the easy familiarity which subsisted between himself and his brother's associate. Pandarus is made by the dramatist to pop in and out of his friend's home, loiter about chatting with servants, trifle away quarters of hours with the ladies of the house, carry messages to and fro, tattle the news, potter, play the busy-body, meddle and make in every one's affairs, in the true style of hanger-on to the family,-one who is allied to it by "cousinship," signifying kindred connection or intimate acquaintance. 7. You say so in fits. A "fit" was the term for a part or division of a song or tune, and was used for a strain of music. Paris employs the expression "in fits" with a play upon the word, in reference to the sense here explained, and in the sense of by fits and starts,' 'capriciously.' 8. Nay, I care not for such words; no, no. Rowe made the first portion of this speech part of Helen's preceding one; but inasmuch as Pandarus is evidently trying to escape from Helen's Helen. In love, i' faith, to the very tip of the nose. 'Par. He eats nothing but doves, love; and that breeds hot blood, and hot blood begets hot thoughts, and hot thoughts beget hot deeds, and hot deeds is love. Pan. Is this the generation of love? hot blood, hot thoughts, and hot deeds? Why, they are vipers: is love a generation of vipers ?-Sweet lord, who's a-field to-day? playful persecution, they may be rightly assigned in the old text, which we here follow. 9. You must not know where he sups. The old copies assign these words to Helen; whereas they obviously belong to Pandarus. Hanmer made the correction. 10. My disposer. My disposer to mirth,' 'my incliner to merry talk,' 'my inciter to gaiety.' See Note 26, Act ii, "Love's Labour's Lost," and Note 42, Act ii., "Twelfth Night." It appears to us that this epithet, put by the dramatist into Paris's mouth as applied to Cressida, serves to aid in depicting her with the consistency of frivolous character by which he has marked her. Our here being let to perceive by a single significant word that she has been a light talker with Paris, a gay flutterer and chatterer with him who caused Helen's abduction, is perfectly in accordance with her manner throughout the play, and especially at the time of her introduction to the assembled generals of the Grecian camp, in Act iv., sc. 5. 11. Ay, you may, you may. An idiomatic expression formerly in common use, signifying 'Ay, you may go on,' 'you are privileged to say what you please.' SCENE II.-TROY. PANDARUS' Orchard. Enter PANDARUS and TROILUS' Boy, meeting. Pan. How now! where's thy master? at my cousin Cressida's ? Boy. No, sir; he stays for you to conduct him thither. Pan. Oh, here he comes. Enter TROILUS. How now, how now! Tro. Sirrah, walk off. Pan. Have you seen my cousin ? Tro. No, Pandarus: I stalk about her door, Pan. Walk here i' the orchard, I'll bring her That it enchants my sense: what will it be, Re-enter PANDARUS. Pan. She's making her ready, she'll come straight: you must be witty 15 now. She does so blush, and fetches her wind so short, as if she were frayed with a sprite: I'll fetch her. It is the prettiest villain: she fetches her breath as short as a new-ta'en sparrow. [Exit. Tro. Even such a passion doth embrace my bosom: My heart beats thicker 16 than a fev'rous pulse; Re-enter PANDARUS with CRESSIDA. 12. The Stygian banks. The banks of Styx, a river of the Shades below, across which "Charon" (see Note 88, Act i., "Richard III.") ferried the souls of the dead to torment, or to the Elysian" fields," according to the several destinies of the condemned or "the deserver." 13. Thrice-repurèd. The Folio and some of the Quarto copies print 'reputed' for "repured " here. "Thrice-repured," as an epithet expressive of 'quintessentially pure,' most refined,' is far more likely to be Shakespeare's word here than the comparatively feeble one of thrice reputed;' which latter gives merely the idea of largely renowned, instead of representing the principle constantly maintained by our grand poet, that love is the purest of essences as well as the most purifying and ennobling. Indeed, it is noteworthy, both as serving to illustrate this principle of his, and as aiding to determine the reading in the present passage, how very frequently in his works we find the word "pure" and the word "love" in combination. 15. You must be witty. Here employed to express what is now meant by 'you must have your wits about you.' Shakespeare uses the words "wit" and "witty" with varied signification. See Note 16, Act iv, "Richard III." 16. Thicker. 'Faster,' 'more quickly,' 'more rapidly.' See Note 52, Act ii., "Second Part Henry IV." 17. Bestowing. Here used for 'governance,' 'due conduct,' proper management,' 'fit control.' See Note 47, Act ii, "Second Part Henry IV." 18. Watched. A term used in falconry for taming a hawk by keeping it from sleeping. See Note 19, Act v., "Merry Wives." |