Antenor, Trojan Commanders. Calchas, a Trojan Priest, taking part with the Greeks. Pandarus, Uncle to Creffida. Margarelon, a bastard Son of Priam. Agamemnon, the Grecian General: Menelaus, his Brother. Achilles, Ajax, Ulyffes, Neftor, Diomedes, Patroclus, Grecian Commanders. Thersites, a deformed and fcurrilous Grecian. Alexander, Servant to Creffida. Servant to Troilus; Servant to Paris; Servant to Diomedes. Helen, Wife to Menelaus. Andromache, Wife to Hector. Caffandra, Daughter to Priam; a Prophetess. Trojan and Greek Soldiers, and Attendants. SCENE, Troy, and the Grecian Camp before it. TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. ACT I. SCENE I. Troy. Before Priam's Palace. Enter TROILUS armed, and PANDARUS. TRO. Call here my varlet, I'll unarım again: 1 PAN. Will this geer ne'er be mended?* - my varlet,] This word anciently signified a servant or footman to a knight or warrior. So, Holinshed, speaking of the battle of Agincourt : "-diverse were releeved by their varlets, and conveied out of the field." Again, in an ancient epitaph in the church-yard of Saint Nicas at Arras : "Cy gift Hakin et son varlet, "Tout dis-armè et tout di-pret, "Avec son espé et salloche," &C. STEEVENS. Concerning the word varlet, see Recherches historiques fur les cartes à jouer. Lyon, 1757, p. 61. M. C. TUTET. 2 Will this geer ne'er be mended?] There is somewhat pro verbial in this question, which I likewise meet with in the interlude of King Darius, 1565: "Wyll not yet this geere be amended, "Nor your finful acts corrected?" STEEVENS. TRO. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their strength,3 Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness 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, must tarry the grinding. TRO. Have I not tarried? PAN. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the bolting. TRO. Have I not tarried? PAN. Ay, the bolting; but you must tarry the leavening. TRO. Still have I tarried. 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 chance to burn your lips. TRO. Patience herself, what goddess e'er she be, Doth leffer blench at fufferance than I do. 3-skilful to their strength, &c.] i. e. in addition to their strength. The fame phraseology occurs in Macbeth. See Vol. X. p. 16, n. 2. STEEVENS. 4-fonder-] i. e. more weak, or foolish. See Vol. VII. p. 328, n. 8. MALONE. * And skill-lefs &c.] Mr. Dryden, in his alteration of this play, has taken this speech as it stands, except that he has changed skill-less to artless, not for the better, because skill-lefs refers to skill and skilful. JOHNSON. Doth leffer blench-] To blench is to shrink, start, or fly off. So, in Hamlet : At Priam's royal table do I fit; And when fair Creffid comes into my thoughts, So, traitor!-when she comes! thence?" When is the PAN. Well, she looked yesternight fairer than ever I faw her look, or any woman else. TRO. I was about to tell thee, - When my heart, As wedged with a figh, would rive in twain; Left Hector or my father should perceive me, I have (as when the fun doth light a ftorm,)8 Bury'd this figh in wrinkle of a fimile:9 But forrow, that is couch'd in feeming gladness, Is like that mirth fate turns to fudden sadness. 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, she is my kinswoman; 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 Cassandra's wit; but "-if he but blench, "I know my course-." Again, in The Pilgrim, by Beaumont and Fletcher : 7 men that will not totter, "Nor blench much at a bullet." STEEVENS. - when she comes! When is the thence?] Both the old copies read then she comes, when she is thence. Mr. Rowe corrected the former error, and Mr. Pope the latter. 8 Rowe. MALONE. a storm,)] Old copies-a scorn. Corrected by Mr. MALONE. See King Lear, Act III. sc. i. STEEVENS. 9 in wrinkle of a smile :) So, in Twelfth Night: "He doth Smile his face into more lines than the new map with the augmentation of the Indies." MALONE. Again, in The Merchant of Venice : "With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come." 1 TRO. 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 answer'st, She is fair; Pour'st in the open ulcer of my heart Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice; Handlest in thy discourse, O, that her hand, I * Handleft in thy discourse, O, that her hand, &c.] Handleft is here ufed metaphorically, with an allusion, at the same time, to its literal meaning, and the jingle between hand and handlest is perfectly in our author'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, "My playfellow, your hand, -this kingly feal, "And plighter of high hearts." Again, in Romeo and Juliet : they may feize "On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand." In The Winter's Tale, Florizel, with equal warmth, and not less 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 blasts twice o'er." This passage has, I think, been wrong pointed in the late editions: Pour'st in the open ulcer of my heart Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait; her voice We have the fame play of words in Titus Andronicus: If the derivation of the verb to handle were always present to those who employed it, I know not well how Chapman could vindicate the following passage in his version of the 23d Iliad, |