TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

PROLOGUE.

Priam's six-gated city.

In this, as well as in Dr. Farmer's subsequent note, it might have been better to have quoted Caxton's translation of the Recuyles or destruction of Troy, instead of Lydgate. In the edition of 1607 of the former work, which, in all probability, is that used by the author of the play, the gates of Troy are thus named; Dardan, Timbria, Helias, Chetas, Chetas, Troyen, Antenorides.

These are nearer to the text than those in the other quotation from Lydgate, whose work the author does not seem to have consulted. Should the curious reader be desirous of seeing the manner in which Troy was formerly represented, he may be gratified by an inspection of it in its full glory, the gates inscribed with their names, and

fortified with portcullises, in the edition of Jaques Milot's Mystere de la destruction de Troye, Lyon, 1544, folio; or in Raoul le Fevre's Recueil des hystoires Troyennes, Lyon, 1510, folio. This was also a favourite subject in old tapestry, a very fine and ancient specimen of which remained a long time in the painted chamber that separates the two houses of parliament, till it was removed during the repairs of Saint Stephen's chapel for the accommodation of the Irish members. A copy of it was fortunately taken by that ingenious artist Mr. John Carter, draughtsman to the Society of Antiquaries.

TRO. Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given me The knife that made it.

When poets speak of the wounds inflicted by love, they generally make the instrument to be an arrow; how a knife came here to be introduced is not easy to account for. Is it possible that our author has transposed the old saying that a knife cuts love?

The strong ribb'd bark through liquid mountains
cut,

Bounding between the two moist elements,
Like Perseus' horse.

un

Mr. Steevens, admitting the curiosity of his colleague's note on this passage, is unwilling to allow that its design to prove the horse of Perseus a ship, and not an animal, has been accomplished. The learned editor observes, that "Shakspeare would not have contented himself with merely comparing one ship to another;" and that " allegorized Pegasus might be fairly stiled Perseus' horse, because the heroism of Perseus had given him existence." That one thing is compared to another which resembles it, can surely be no solid objection to the justice of a comparison; and though the birth of the unallegorized Pegasus was doubtless the result of Perseus's bravery in conquering Medusa, it was incumbent on the objector to have demonstrated how this horse of Perseus had "bounded between two moist elements," to have made good the poet's com parison. There can be no doubt that the author of the simile has alluded to the fact concerning

the ship Pegasus adduced by Mr. Malone; and every thing leads to the supposition that he used the authority of Caxton's Troy book, though, as will be seen presently, that was not the most ancient of the kind.

It is undoubtedly a well justified poetical licence to compare a ship to a horse, on account of its speed. In the translation of an old Celtic ballad called The maid's tragedy, the monarch who pursues the flying damsel is sometimes said to traverse the waves on an enchanted steed; "which," say the Edinburgh reviewers, "probably arises from some equivocal expression in the original, as the Scalds term a ship the rider, and sometimes the horse of the ocean." Edinb. review, 1805, p. 439.

Mr. Malone has stated in the beginning of his valuable note, that "we no where hear of Perseus's horse;" and that "Pegasus was the property not of Perseus but of Bellerophon." This is not quite accurate. It is certain that Ovid has not mounted Perseus on any horse in his combat with the monster which was to devour Andro. meda; and therefore it is matter of wonder that the mythological dictionary of Chompré, and particularly that most excellent one by Lempriere, should positively affirm that he has, This error

has been likewise adopted by other writers. But though classic authority be wanting that Perseus made use of a horse, Boccaccio in his Genealogia Deorum, lib. xii. c. 25, has quoted Lactantius as saying, that when Perseus undertook his expedition against Gorgon, at the instance of king Polydectus, he was accompanied by the winged horse Pegasus, but not that he used him in delivering Andromeda. Boccaccio adds that others were of opinion that he had a ship called Pegasus. The liberties which the old French translators of Ovid's Metamorphoses have taken, and their interpolations, are unaccountable. Some have caused Perseus at the instant of his birth to bestride Pegasus, and travel away to Helicon. In the cuts to many of the early editions of Ovid, the designers have not only placed him on Pegasus in the adventure with Andromeda, but even in his attack upon Atlas. These facts may serve to account for the multiplied errors of artists, who, neglecting to consult proper authorities, have trusted to the erroneous examples of their predecessors. Achilles Tatius, in his third book of The loves of Clitophon and Leucippe, has described a picture of Perseus delivering Andromeda, in which he is made to descend by means of wings to his feet; and another on the same subject is spoken of by Lu