pretty abruption? What too curious dreg efpies my fweet lady in the fountain of our love? CRES. More dregs than water, if my fears have eyes.3 TRO. Fears make devils of cherubins; they never fee truly. CRES. Blind fear, that feeing reafon leads, finds fafer footing than blind reafon ftumbling without fear: To fear the worst, oft cures the worst. TRO. O, let my lady apprehend no fear: in all Cupid's pageant there is prefented no monster.+ CRES. Nor nothing monstrous neither? 5 TRO. Nothing, but our undertakings; when we vow to weep feas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tigers; thinking it harder for our mistress to devife impofition enough, than for us to undergo any difficulty impofed. This is the monftruofity in love, lady,—that the will is infinite, and the execution confined; that the defire is boundless, and the act a flave to limit. CRES. They fay, all lovers fwear more performance than they are able, and yet referve an ability 3 if my fears have eyes.] The old copies have-tears. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE. 4 no fear: in all Cupid's pageant there is prefented no monster.] From this paffage, however, a Fear appears to have been a perfonage in other pageants; or perhaps in our ancient Moralities. To this circumftance Afpatia alludes in The Maid's Tragedy: " and then a Fear: "Do that Fear bravely, wench." See alfo Antony and Cleopatra, A&t II. fc. ii. STEEVENS. 5 -weep feas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tigers;] Here we have, not a Trojan prince talking to his miftrefs, but Orlando Furiofo vowing that he will endure every calamity that can be imagined; boafting that he will achieve more than ever knight performed. MALONE. that they never perform; vowing more than the perfection of ten, and difcharging less than the tenth part of one. They that have the voice of lions, and the act of hares, are they not monsters? TRO. Are there fuch? fuch are not we: Praise us as we are tafted, allow us as we prove; our head fhall go bare, till merit crown it: no perfection in reverfion fhall have a praise in prefent: we will not name defert, before his birth; and, being born, his addition fhall be humble. Few words to fair faith: Troilus fhall be fuch to Creffid, as what envy can fay worft, fhall be a mock for his truth; and what truth can speak trueft, not truer than Troilus. CRES. Will you walk in, my lord? Re-enter PANDARUS. PAN. What, blushing ftill? have you not done talking yet? CRES. Well, uncle, what folly I commit, I dedicate to you. PAN. I thank you for that; if my lord get a boy of you, you'll give him me: Be true to my lord: if he flinch, chide me for it. our head hall go bare, till merit crown it:] I cannot forbear to obferve, that the quarto reads thus: Our head shall go bare, till merit louer part no affection, in reverfion, &c. Had there been no other copy, how could this have been corrected? The true reading is in the folio. JOHNSON. 7—his addition shall be humble.] We will give him no high or pompous titles. JOHNSON. Addition is ftill the term used by conveyancers in defcribing the quality and condition of the parties to deeds, &c. REED. 8 - what envy can fay worst, shall be a mock for his truth;] i. e. fhall be only a mock for his truth. Even malice (for fuch is the meaning of the word envy) fhall not be able to impeach his truth, or attack him in any other way except by ridiculing him for his conftancy. Sce Vol. XI. p. 61, n. 9. MALONE. TRO. You know now your hoftages; your uncle's word, and my firm faith. PAN. Nay, I'll give my word for her too; our kindred, though they be long ere they are woo'd, they are conftant, being won: they are burs, I can tell you; they'll stick where they are thrown." CRES. Boldness comes to me now, and brings me heart: Prince Troilus, I have lov'd you night and day, For many weary months. TRO. Why was my Creffid then fo hard to win? CRES. Hard to feem won; but I was won, my lord, With the first glance that ever-Pardon me;— If I confefs much, you will play the tyrant. I love you now; but not, till now, fo much But I might mafter it :-in faith, I lie; My thoughts were like unbridled children, grown But, though I lov'd you well, I woo'd you not; Of speaking first. Sweet, bid me hold my tongue; TRO. And shall, albeit sweet mufick iffues thence. 9 - they'll flick where they are thrown.] This allufion has already occurred in Meafure for Measure: "Nay, friar, I am a kind of bur, I shall stick." STEEVENS. Cunning in dumbness,] The quarto and folio read-Coming in dumbness. The emendation was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE. PAN. Pretty, i'faith. CRES. My lord, I do befeech you, pardon me; 'Twas not my purpose, thus to beg a kifs: I am afham'd;-O heavens! what have I done?- PAN. Leave! an you take leave till to-morrow morning, CRES. Pray you, content you. TRO. What offends you, lady? You cannot shun CRES. Sir, mine own company. TRO. Yourself. CRES. Let me go and try:? I have a kind of felf refides with you; CRES. Perchance, my lord, I show more craft than 9 Let me go and try:] This verfe being imperfect, I suppose our author to have originally written: Let me go in, my lord, and try. STEEVENS. 2 I have a kind of felf refides with you;] So, in our author's 123d Sonnet: for I, being pent in thee, "Perforce am thine, and all that is in me." MALONE. A fimilar thought occurs in Antony and Cleopatra: 3 "That thou, refiding here, go'st yet with me," &c. I would be gone: STEEVENS. Where is my wit? I know not what I fpeak.] Thus the quartos. The folio reads: To be another's fool. Where is my avit? I would be gone. I speak I know not what. MALONE. And fell fo roundly to a large confeffion, 4 But you are wife ; Or else you love not; For to be wife, and love, Or else we love not; to be wife, and love, Creffida, in return to the praife given by Troilus to her wifdom, replies: "That lovers are never wife; that it is beyond the power of man to bring love and wifdom to an union." JOHNSON. I don't think that this paffage requires any amendment. Creffida's meaning is this: "Perchance I fell too roundly to confeffion, in order to angle for your thoughts; but you are not so easily taken in; you are too wife, or too indifferent; for to be wife and love, exceeds man's might." M. MASON. to be wife and love, Exceeds man's might;] This is from Spenfer, Shepherd's Calendar, March: "To be wife, and eke to love, "Is granted fcarce to Gods above." TYRWHITT. The thought originally belongs to Publius Syrus, among whose fentences we find this: "Amare et fapere vix Deo conceditur." Marfton, in The Dutch Courtezan, 1605, has the fame thought, and the line is printed as a quotation: "But you are "But raging luft my fate all strong doth move; "The gods themselves cannot be wife and love." Creffida's argument is certainly inconfequential: wife, or else you are not in love; for no one who is in love can be wife." I do not, however, believe there is any corruption, as our author fometimes entangles himself in inextricable difficulties of this kind. One of the commentators has endeavoured to extort fenfe from the words as they ftand, and thinks there is no difficulty. In thefe cafes the fureft way to prove the inaccuracy, is, to omit the word that embarraffes the fentence. Thus, if, for a moment, we read: But you are wife; Or else you love; for to be wife, and love, the inference is clear, by the omiffion of the word not: which is |