PAN. Nor his qualities ;

CRES. No matter.

PAN. Nor his beauty.

CRES. 'Twould not become him, his own's better.

PAN. You have no judgement, niece: Helen herself swore the other day, that Troilus, for a brown favour, (for fo 'tis, I muft confefs,)-Not brown neither.

CRES. No, but brown.

PAN. 'Faith, to fay truth, brown and not brown.
CRES. To fay the truth, true and not true.
PAN. She prais'd his complexion above Paris.
CRES. Why, Paris hath colour enough.

PAN. So he has.

CRES. Then, Troilus fhould have too much: if fhe prais'd him above, his complexion is higher than his; he having colour enough, and the other higher, is too flaming a praife for a good complexion. I had as lief, Helen's golden tongue had commended Troilus for a copper nofe.

PAN. I fwear to you, I think, Helen loves him better than Paris.

CRES. Then fhe's a merry Greek,* indeed.

PAN. Nay, I am fure fhe does. She came to him the other day into the compass'd window,'—

a merry Greek,] Græcari among the Romans fignified to play the reveller. STEEVENS.

The expreffion occurs in many old English books. See Act IV. fc. iv:

"A woeful Creffid 'mongst the merry Greeks."

MALONE.

compafs'd window,] The compass'd window is the fame as

the bow-window. JOHNSON.

and, you know, he has not past three or four hairs on his chin.

CRES. Indeed, a tapfter's arithmetick may foon bring his particulars therein to a total.

PAN.Why, he is very young: and yet will he, within three pound, lift as much as his brother Hector. CRES. Is he fo young a man, and fo old a lifter?" PAN. But, to prove to you that Helen loves him;-fhe came, and puts me her white hand to his cloven chin,

CRES. Juno have mercy!-How came it cloven?

PAN. Why, you know, 'tis dimpled: I think, his fmiling becomes him better than any man in all Phrygia.

CRES. O, he fmiles valiantly.

PAN. Does he not?

CRES. O yes, an 'twere a cloud in autumn.

PAN. Why, go to then :-But to prove to you that Helen loves Troilus,

A compas'd window is a circular bow window. In The Taming of a Shrew the fame epithet is applied to the cape of a woman's gown: a fmall compafs'd cape." STEEVENS.

A coved cieling is yet in fome places called a compass'd cieling.
MALONE.

6 -fo old a lifter?] The word lifter is used for a thief, by Greene, in his Art of Coneycatching, printed 1591: on this the humour of the paffage may be fuppofed to turn. We ftill call a perfon who plunders fhops, a shop-lifter. Ben Jonson uses the expreffion in Cynthia's Revels:

One other peculiar virtue you poffefs is, lifting." Again, in The Roaring Girl, 1611: "cheaters, lifters, nips, foifts, puggards, courbers."

Again, in Holland's Leaguer, 1633: "Broker or pandar, cheater or lifter." STEEVENS.

Hliftus, in the Gothick language, fignifies a thief. See Archaolog. Vol. V. p. 311. BLACKSTONE.

CRES. Troilus will stand to the proof, if you'll prove it fo.

PAN. Troilus? why, he esteems her no more than I efteem an addle egg.

CRES. If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle head, you would eat chickens i'the fhell.

PAN. I cannot choose but laugh, to think how fhe tickled his chin;-Indeed, she has a marvellous white hand, I muft needs confefs.

CRES. Without the rack.

PAN. And she takes upon her to spy a white hair on his chin.

CRES. Alas, poor chin! many a wart is richer. PAN. But, there was fuch laughing;-Queen Hecuba laugh'd, that her eyes ran o'er.

CRES. With mill-ftones."

PAN. And Caffandra laugh'd.

CRES. But there was a more temperate fire under the pot of her eyes;-Did her eyes run o'er too? PAN. And Hector laugh'd.

CRES. At what was all this laughing?

PAN. Marry, at the white hair that Helen spied on Troilus' chin.

CRES. An't had been a green hair, I fhould have laugh'd too.

PAN. They laugh'd not fo much at the hair, as at his pretty anfwer.

GRES. What was his anfwer?

eyes ran o'er.

Cref. With mill-ftones.] So, in King Richard III:

"Your eyes drop mill-ftones, when fools' eyes drop tears."

A

PAN. Quoth fhe, Here's but one and fifty hairs on your chin, and one of them is white.

CRES. This is her question.

8

PAN. That's true; make no question of that. One and fifty hairs, quoth he, and one white: That white hair is my father, and all the rest are his fons. Jupiter! quoth fhe, which of thefe hairs is Paris, my bulband? The forked one, quoth he; pluck it out, and give it him. But, there was fuch laughing! and Helen fo blush'd, and Paris fo chafed, and all the reft fo laugh'd, that it pafs'd.'

CRES. So let it now; for it has been a great while going by.

PAN. Well, coufin, I told you a thing yefterday; think on't.

CRES. So I do.

PAN. I'll be fworn, 'tis true; he will weep you, an 'twere a man born in April."

CRES. And I'll fpring up in his tears, an 'twere a nettle against May. [A Retreat founded. PAN. Hark, they are coming from the field: Shall we stand up here, and fee them, as they pass

8 One and fifty hairs,] [Old copies-Two and fifty.] I have ventured to fubítitute-One and fifty, I think with fome certainty. How else can the number make out Priam and his fifty fons?

9

THEOBALD.

that it pafs'd.] i. e. that it went beyond bounds. So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor: Why this paffes, mafter Ford." Creffida plays on the word, as ufed by Pandarus, by employing it herself in its common acceptation, STEEVENS.

2

an 'twere a man born in April.] i. e. as if 'twere, &c. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream: "I will roar you an 'twere any nightingale."

The foregoing thought occurs alfo in Antony and Cleopatra :
"The April's in her eyes: it is love's fpring,
"And these the fhowers to bring it on."

STEEVENS.

toward Ilium? good niece, do; fweet niece Creffida.

CRES. At your pleasure.

PAN. Here, here, here's an excellent place; here we may see most bravely: I'll tell you them all by their names, as they pafs by; but mark Troilus above the rest.

ENEAS paffes over the ftage.

CRES. Speak not fo loud.

PAN. That's Æneas; Is not that a brave man? he's one of the flowers of Troy, I can tell you; But mark Troilus; you fhall fee anon.

CRES. Who's that?

ANTENOR paffes over.

PAN. That's Antenor; he has a fhrewd wit, I can tell you; and he's a man good enough: he's one o'the foundest judgements in Troy, whofoever,

3 That's Antenor; he has a fhrewd wit,]

"Anthenor was

Copious in words, and one that much time spent
To jeft, when as he was in companie,
"So driely, that no man could it espie;
"And therewith held his countenaunce fo well,
"That every man received great content
"To heare him fpeake, and pretty jefts to tell,
"When he was pleafant, and in merriment:

"For tho' that he most commonly was fad,
"Yet in his fpeech fome jeft he always had."

Lydgate, p. 105. Such, in the hands of a rude English poet, is the grave Antenor, to whose wisdom it was thought neceffary that the art of Ulyffes fhould be opposed:

Et moveo Priamum, Priamoque Antenora junctum.