Em. Come, come, thou reverend man of Rome, Mar. Lucius, all hail: Rome's royal emperor ! 5 Luc. Thanks, gentle Romans; May I govern fo, To heal Rome's harms, and wipe away her woe! But, gentle people, give me aim a while,For nature puts me to a heavy task ;Stand all aloof;-but, uncle, draw you near, To fhed obfequious tears upon this trunk:O, take this warm kifs on thy pale cold lips, [Kifles Titus. These forrowful drops upon thy blood-stain'd face, The last true duties of thy noble fon! Mar. Ay, tear for tear, and loving kiss for kifs, Thy brother Marcus tenders on thy lips: O, were the fum of thefe that I should pay Countless and infinite, yet would I pay them! 'Would I were dead, fo you did live again!O Lord, I cannot fpeak to him for weeping; My tears will choak me, if I ope my mouth. Enter Romans, with Aaron. Rom. You fad Andronici, have done with woes; Give fentence on this execrable wretch, That hath been breeder of thefe dire events. Luc. Set him breaft-deep in earth, and famish him; 10 There let him stand, and rave and cry for food: If any one relieves or pities him, 15 For the offence he dies. This is our dcom: Aar. O, why fhould wrath be mute, and fury I am no baby, I, that, with base prayers, I fhould repent the evils I have done; I do repent it from my very foul. Luc. Some loving friends convey the emperor hence, And give him burial in his father's grave: Luc. Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn 25 My father, and Lavinia, shall forthwith of us Tomelt in showers: Thy grandfire lov'd thee well: Shed yet some small drops from thy tender fpring, Be closed in our houfhold's monument. As for that heinous tyger, Tamora, No funeral rites, nor man in mournful weeds, 30 But throw her forth to beafts, and birds of prey: [Excunt omnes. PROL IN Troy, there lies the scene. From ifles of Greece And the deep-drawing barks do there difgorge And Antenoridas) with massy ftaples, Now expectation, tickling fkittifb fpirits, 10To tell you, fair beholders, that our play ACT I. ALL here my varlet 6, I'll unarm again: 25 of Troy, That find fuch cruel battle here within? 1 Mr. Pope (after Dryden) informs us, that the ftory of Troilus and Creffida was originally the work of one Lollius, a Lombard; but Dryden goes yet further. He declares it to have been written in Latin verfe, and that Chaucer tranflated it. Lollius was a hiftoriographer of Urbino in Italy. Shakspeare received the greatest part of his materials for the structure of this play from the Troy Boke of Lydgate, printed in 1513. Lydgate was not much more than a tranflator of Guido of Columpna, who was of Meffina in Sicily, and wrote his Hiftory of Troy in Latin, after Dictys Cretenfis, and Dares Phrygius, in 1287. On thefe, as Mr. Warton obferves, he engrafted many new romantic inventions, which the taste of his age dictated, and which the connection between Grecian and Gothic fiction eafily admitted; at the fame time comprehending in his plan the Theban and Argonautic ftories from Ovid, Statius, and Valerius Flaccus. 2 i. e. proud, disdainful. 3 To fulfill in this place means to fill till there be no room for more. To sperre, or fpar, from the old Teutonic word fperen, fignifies to shut up, defend by bars, &c. 5 i. e. the avant, what went before. word anciently fignified a fervant or footman to a knight or warrior. 6 This Fierce Fierce to their skill, and to their fiercenefs 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, muft tarry the grinding. Trei. Have I not tarry'd? Pan. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the boulting. Troy. Have I not tarry'd? Pan. Ay, the boulting; but you must tarry the leavening. Troi. Still have I tarry'd. 5 Pan. I speak no more than truth. Troi. Thou dost not speak so much. Pan. 'Faith, I'll not meddle in 't. Let her be as fhe is: if the be fair, 'tis the better for her; an he be not, the has the mends in her own hands+. Troi. Good Pandarus! How now, Pandarus? Pan. I have had my labour for my travel; illthought on of her, and ill-thought on of you: gone between and between, but small thanks for 10 my labour. Troi. What, art thou angry, Pandarus? what, with me? Pan. Becaufe fhe is kin to me, therefore she's not fo fair as Helen: an fhe were not kin to me, 15 he would be as fair on Friday, as Helen is on Sunday. But what care I? I care not, an fhe were a black-a-moor; 'tis all one to me. 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 stay the cooling too, or you may 20 chance to burn your lips. Trai. Patience herself, what goddess e'er she be, Doth leffer blench 2 at fufferance than I do. At Priam's royal table do I fit; And when fair Creffid comes into my thoughts,-25 thence ? When is the Pan. Well, the look'd yefter-night fairer than ever I faw her look; or any woman elfe. Trei. I was about to tell thee, -When my heart, 30 Fools on both fides! Helen muft needs be fair, When with your blood you daily paint her thus. 35I cannot fight upon this argument; 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, fhe is my kinswoman; I would not, as they 40 term it, praife her,-But I would fomebody had heard her talk yesterday, as I did. I will not difpraise your fifter Caffandra's wit: but It is too ftarv'd a subject for my fword. But Pandarus-O gods, how do you plague me! I cannot come to Creffid, but by Pandar; And he's as techy to be woo'd to woo, As he is ftubborn-chaste against all suit. Tell me, Apollo, for thy Daphne's love, What Creffid is, what Pandar, and what we? Her bed is India; there fhe lies, a pearl: Between our Ilium, and where the refides, 45 Let it be call'd the wild and wandering flood; Ourfelf, the merchant; and this failing Pandar, Our doubtful hope, our convoy, and our bark. [Alarum.] Enter Aneas. Troi. O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus!- me, As true thou tell'ft me, when I fay,-I love her; Fonder for more childish. 50 60 Ene. How now, prince Troilus? wherefore not afield? [forts, Troi. Because not there; This woman's anfwer For womanifh it is to be from thence. What news, Æneas, from the field to-day? Ene. That Paris is returned home, and hurt. Troi. By whom, Æneas? Ene. Troilus, by Menelaus. Trai. Let Paris bleed: 'tis but a fear to scorn; Paris is gor'd with Menelaus' horn. [Alarum. Ene. Hark! what good sport is out of town to-day! 2 To blench is to fhrink, ftart, or fly off. 3 The meaning is, In comparison with Creffid's band, the spirit of fenfe, the utmost degree, the most exquifite power of fenfibility, which implies a foft hand, fince the fenfe of touching refides chiefly in the fingers, is hard as the callous and infenfible palm of the ploughman. 4 Mr. Steevens thinks this phrafe means, She may make the best of a bad bargain. Trei Cre. That were we talking of, and of his anger. Pan. Was he angry? Enter Creffida, and Alexander ber fervant. Cre. Who were thofe went by? Serv. Queen Hecuba, and Helen. Cre. And whither go they? Sere. Up to the eastern tower, Whofe height commands as fubject all the vale, To fee the battle. Hector, whose patience Is, as a virtue, fix'd, to-day was mov'd : He chid Andromache, and ftruck his armourer ; And, like as there were husbandry in war, Before the fun rofe, he was harness'd light, And to the field goes he; where every flower Did, as a prophet, weep what it forefaw In Hector's wrath. Cre. So he fays here. Pan. True, he was fo; I know the cause too; 10he'll lay about him to-day, I can tell them that: and there's Troilus will not come far behind him; let them take heed of Troilus; I can tell them that too. 25 30 Serv. This man, lady, hath robb'd many beasts of their particular additions; he is as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear, flow as the elephant: a man into whom nature hath so crowded humours, that his valour is crushed into folly, his folly 35 fauced with difcretion: there is no man hath a virtue, that he hath not a glimpse of; nor any man| an attaint, but he carries fome ftain of it: he is melancholy without caufe, and merry against the hair he hath the joints of every thing; but every thing fo out of joint, that he is a gouty Briareus, many hands and no ufe; or purblinded Argus, all eyes and no fight. Cre. But how fhould this man, that makes me fmile, make Hector angry? Serv. They fay, he yesterday cop'd Hector in the battle, and ftruck him down; the difdain and fhame whereof hath ever fince kept Hector fafting and waking. Enter Pandarus. Cre. Who comes here? Serv. Madam, your uncle Pandarus. Cre. Hector's a gallant man. 140 1451 50 Cre. What, is he angry too? Pan. Who, Troilus? Troilus is the better man of the two. Cre. O, Jupiter! there's no comparison. Pan. What, not between Troilus and Hector? Do you know a man, if you see him? Cre. Ay; if I ever faw him before, and knew him. Pan. Well, I fay, Troilus is Troilus. Cre. Then you fay as I fay; for, I am fure, he is not Hector. Serv. As may be in the world, lady. Pan. Good morrow, coufin Creffid: What do you talk of?-Good morrow, Alexander.-How do you, coufin? When were you at Ilium3 ? Cre. This morning, uncle. Pan. What were you talking of, when I came ? Pan. So he has. Cre. Then Troilus fhould have too much: if the prais'd him above, his complexion is higher than 6ohis; he having colour enough, and the other higher, is too flaming a praise for a good com 1 To be crushed into felly, is to be confused and mingled with folly, fo as that they make one mafs together. This is a phrafe equivalent to another now in ufe-against the grain. 3 Ilium was the palace of Troy. plexion. |