That fleeve is mine, that he'll bear on his helm; Shall dizzy with more clamour Neptune's ear THER. He'll tickle it for his concupy." TRO. O Creffid! O falfe Creffid! false, false, falfe! Let all untruths ftand by thy ftained name, And they'll feem glorious. ULYSS. O, contain yourself, Your paffion draws ears hither. Enter ENEAS. ENE. I have been feeking you this hour, my lord: Hector, by this, is arming him in Troy; Ajax, your guard, ftays to conduct you home. "My fword fhould bite it:] So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor: I have a fword, and it fhall bite," &c. In King Lear we have alfo "biting faulchion." STEEVENS. the dreadful spout, Which shipmen do the hurricano call,] A particular account of "a fpout," is given in Captain John Smith's Sea Grammar, quarto, 1627: "A Spout is, as it were a fmall river falling entirely from the clouds, like one of our water-fpouts, which make the fea, where it falleth, to rebound in flashes exceeding high;" i. e. in the Language of Shakspeare, to dizzy the ear of Neptune. So alfo, Drayton: "And down the fhower impetuoufly doth fall "Like that which men the hurricano call.” STEEVENS. -concupy.] A cant word, formed by our author from concupifcence. STEEVENS. TRO. Have with you, prince :-My courteous lord adieu : Farewell, revolted fair!—and, Diomed, [Exeunt TROILUS, ENEAS, and ULYSSES. THER. 'Would, I could meet that rogue Diomed! I would croak like a raven; I would bode, I would bode. Patroclus will give me any thing for the intelligence of this whore: the parrot will not do more for an almond, than he for a commodious drab. Lechery, lechery; ftill, wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion: A burning devil take them! 4 [Exit. 2 and wear a caftle on thy head!] i. e. defend thy head with armour of more than common fecurity. So, in The most ancient and famous Hiftory of the renowned Prince Arthur, &c. edit. 1634, ch. clviii: "Do thou thy beft, faid Sir Gawaine, therefore hie thee faft that thou wert gone, and wit thou well we shall foone come after, and breake the strongest caftle that thou haft upon thy head."-Wear a caftle, therefore, feems to be a figurative expreffion, fignifying, Keep a caftle over your head; i. e. live within the walls of your castle. In Urry's Chaucer, Sir Thopas is represented with a caftle by way of creft to his helmet. STEEVENS. 3 I'll bring you &c.] Perhaps this, and the following short fpeech, originally stood thus: Ulyff. I'll bring you to the gates, my lord. Tro. Distracted thanks. STEEVENS. Accept 4A burning devil take them!] Alluding to the venereal disease, formerly called the brenning or burning. M. MASON. So, in Ifaiah, iii. 24: "and burning inftead of beauty." STEEVENS. SCENE III. Troy. Before Priam's Palace. Enter HECTOR and ANDROMACHE. AND. When was my lord fo much ungently temper'd, To stop his ears against admonishment? HECT. You train me to offend you; get you in: By all the everlafting gods, I'll go. AND. My dreams will, fure, prove ominous to the day." HECT. No more, I say. My dreams will, fure, prove ominous to the day.] The hint for this dream of Andromache, might be either taken from Lydgate, or the following paffage in Chaucer's Nonnes Preftes Tale, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 15147: "Lo hire Andromacha, Hectores wif, "That day that Hector fhulde lese his lif, "She warned him, but it might not availle; "And was yflain anon of Achilles." STEEVENS. My dreams of last night will prove ominous to the day; forebode ill to it, and fhew that it will be a fatal day to Troy. So, in the feventh scene of this act: Again, in King Richard III: 66 O thou bloody prifon, "Fatal and ominous to noble peers!" Mr. Pope, and all the fubfequent editors, read-will prove ominous to-day. MALONE. Do we gain any thing more than rough verfification by restoring the article-the? The meaning of Andromache (without it) is -My dreams will to-day be fatally verified. STEEVENS. CAS. Enter CASSANDRA. Where is my brother Hector? AND. Here, fifter; arm'd, and bloody in intent: Confort with me in loud and dear petition," Pursue we him on knees; for I have dreamt Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of flaugh ter. CAS. O, it is true. HECT. Ho! bid my trumpet found! CAS. No notes of fally, for the heavens, sweet brother. HECT. Begone, I fay: the gods have heard me fwear. CAS. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows; They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd Than fpotted livers in the facrifice. AND. O! be perfuaded: Do not count it holy To hurt by being juft: it is as lawful, For we would give much, to use violent thefts,' And rob in the behalf of charity. 6 - dear petition,] Dear, on this occafion, feems to mean important, confequential. So, in King Lear: 66 fome dear caufe "Will in concealment wrap me up awhile." STEEVENS. 7 peevish—] i. e. foolish. So, in King Henry VI. P. II : I will not fo prefume, "To fend fuch peevish tokens to a king." STEEVENS. For we would give &c.] This is fo oddly confused in the folio, that I tranfcribe it as a fpecimen of incorrectness: 66 do not count it holy, "To hurt by being juft; it is as lawful "For we would count give much to as violent thefts, CAS. It is the purpose,' that makes strong the VOW; But vows, to every purpose, must not hold : HECT. I believe we should read: For we would give much, to use violent thefts, i. c. to use violent thefts, because we would give much. The word count had crept in from the last line but one. TYRWHITT. I have adopted the emendation propofed by Mr. Tyrwhitt. Mr. Rowe cut the knot, instead of untying it, by reading: For us to count we give what's gain'd by theft, and all the subsequent editors have copied him. The last three lines are not in the quarto, the compofitor's eye having probably passed over them; in confequence of which the next fpeech of Caflandra is in that copy given to Andromache, and joined with the first line of this. In the first part of Andromache's speech fhe alludes to a doctrine which Shakspeare has often enforced. "Do not think you are acting virtuously by adhering to an oath, if you have worn to do amifs." So, in King John: "The truth is then most done, not doing it." MALONE. 9 It is the purpofe,] The mad prophetefs fpeaks here with all the coolness and judgement of a skilful cafuift. "The effence of a lawful vow, is a lawful purpofe, and the vow of which the end is wrong muft not be regarded as cogent." JOHNSON. 2 Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate:] If this be not a nautical phrafe, which I cannot well explain or apply, perhaps we fhould read: Mine honour keeps the weather off my fate: i. e. I am fecured by the cause I am engaged in; mine honour will avert the ftorms of fate, will protect my life amidst the dangers of the field. A fomewhat fimilar phrafe occurs in The Tempest: "In the lime grove that weather-fends our cell.” 3 STEEVENS. dear man-] Valuable man. The modern editions read -brave man. The repetition of the word is in our author's man ner. JOHNSON. |