Instance, O instance! strong as Pluto's gates ;' The bonds of heaven are slipp'd, dissolv'd, and loos'd; The fractions of her faith, orts of her love, Tro. Ay, Greek; and that shall be divulged well Inflam'd with Venus: never did young man fancy Hark, Greek ;-As much as I do Cressid love, That sleeve is mine, that he'll bear on his helm ; Ther. He'll tickle it for his concupy. Tro. O Cressid! O false Cressid! false, false, false ! Let all untruths stand by thy stained name, And they'll seem glorious. Ulyss. O, contain yourself; Your passion draws ears hither. Enter ENEAS. Ene. I have been seeking you this hour, my lord; Hector, by this, is arming him in Troy; Ajax, your guard, stays to conduct you home. Tro, Have with you, prince:-My courteous lord, adieu: -Farewell, revolted fair!-and, Diomed, Stand fast, and wear a castle on thy head! Tro. Accept distracted thanks. [Exeunt TROLIUS, ENEAS, and ULYSSES. Ther. 'Would, I could meet that rogue Diomed! I would croak like a raven; I would bode, I would bode. [2] A knot tied by giving her hand to Diomed. JOHNSON. [3] Vows which she has already swallowed once over. We still say of a faithless man, that he has "eaten his words." JOHNSON. Patroclus will give me any thing for the intelligence of this whore the parrot will do no more for an almond, than he for a commodious drab. Lechery, lechery: still, wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion: A burning devil take them! [Exit SCENE III. ' Troy. Before PRIAM's Palace. Enter HECTOR and ANDRO MACHE. And. When was my lord so much ungently temper'd, To stop his ears against admonishment? Unarm, unarm, and do not fight to-day. Hect. You train me to offend you; get you in : By all the everlasting gods, I'll go. And. My dreams will, sure, prove ominous to the day. Hect. No more, I say. Enter CASSANDRA. Cas. Where is my brother Hector? And. Here, sister; arm'd, and bloody in intent: Consort with me in loud and dear petition, Pursue we him on knees; for I have dream'd Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of slaughter. Hect. Ho! bid my trumpet sound! Cas. No notes of sally, for the heavens, sweet brother. Hect. Begone, I say; the gods have heard me swear. Cas. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows; They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd Than spotted livers in the sacrifice. And. O! be persuaded: Do not count it holy To hurt by being just it is as lawful, For we would give much, to use violent thefts,* And rob in the behalf of charity. Cas. It is the purpose, that makes strong the vow ; But vows to every purpose, must not hold; Unarm, sweet Hector. Hect. Hold you still, I say; Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate: TYRWHITT i. e. To use violent thefts, because we would give much. [5] The mad prophetess speaks here with all the coolness of a skilful casuis "The essence of a lawful vow is a lawful purpose, and the vow of which the end is wrong must not be regarded as cogent." [6] Dear-valuable. JOHNSON. JOHNSON. Holds honour far more precious-dear than life. Enter TROIlus. How now, young man? mean'st thou to fight to-day? [Exit. CASSANDRA. Hect. No, 'faith, young Troilus; doff thy harness, youth, I am to-day i'the vein of chivalry: Let grow thy sinews till their knots be strong, Unarm thee, go; and doubt thou not, brave boy, Tro. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you, Hect. What vice is that, good Troilus? chide me for it. Tro. When many times the captive Grecians fall, Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword, You bid them rise, and live. Hect. O, 'tis fair play. Tro. Fool's play, by heaven, Hector. Hect. How now? how now ? Tro. For the love of all the gods, Let's leave this hermit pity with our mother; Tro. Hector, then 'tis wars Hect. Troilus, I would not have you fight to-day. Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars Their eyes o'ergalled with recourse of tears ; But by my ruin. [7] The traditions and stories of the darker ages abounded with examples of the lion's generosity. Upon the supposition that these acts of clemency were true, Troilus reasons not improperly, that to spare against reason, by mere instinct of pity, beJOHNSON. came rather a generous beast than a wise man. [8] Shakespeare seems not to have studied the Homeric character of Hector, whose disposition was by no means inclined to clemency, as we may learn from Ap dromache's speech in the 24th Iliad: For thy stern father never spar'd a foe." "Thy father boy, bore never into fight Pope. A milky mind," Cowper. STEEVENS. WARBURTON VOL. V. 43 [9] Tears that continue to course one another down the fece. Re-enter CASSANDRA, with PRIAM. Cas. Lay hold upon him, Priam, hold him fast: Pri. Come, Hector, come, go back: Thy wife hath dream'd; thy mother hath had visions; Cassandra doth foresee; and I myself Am like a prophet suddenly enrapt, To tell thee that this day is ominous : Hect. Æneas is a-field; And I do stand engag'd to many Greeks, Pri. But thou shalt not go. Hect. I must not break my faith. You know me dutiful; therefore, dear sir, And. Do not, dear father. Hect. Andromache, I am offended with you : Upon the love you bear me, get you in. [Exit ANDRO. Tro. This foolish, dreaming, superstitious girl Makes all these bodements. Cas. O farewell, dear Hector. Look, how thou diest! look, how thy eye turns pale! Cas. Farewell.-Yet, soft :-Hector, I take my leave: [Exit Hect. You are amaz'd, my liege, at her exclaim: Go in, and cheer the town: we'll forth, and fight; Do deeds worth praise, and tell you them at night. Pri. Farewell: the gods with safety stand about thee! [Exeunt severally PRI. and HECT. Alarums Tro. They are at it; hark! Proud Diomed, believe, I come to lose my arm, or win my sleeve.' As TROILUS is going out, enter, from the other side Pan. Do you hear, my lord? do you hear? Pan. Here's a letter from yon' poor girl. Tro. Let me read. Pan. A whoreson ptisick, a whoreson rascally ptisick so troubles me, and the foolish fortune of this girl; and what one thing, what another, that I shall leave you one o'these days: And I have a rheum in mine eyes too; and such an ache in my bones, that, unless a man were cursed, I cannot tell what to think on't.--What says she there? (Tro. Words, words, mere words, no matter from the [Tearing the letter. heart; The effect doth operate another way.— SCENE IV. [Exeunt severally. Between Troy and the Grecian Camp. Alarums: Excur sions. Enter THERSITES. Ther. Now they are clapper-clawing one another; I'll go look on. That dissembling abominable varlet, Diomed, has got that same scurvy, doting, foolish young knave's sleeve of Troy there, in his helm: I would fain see them meet; that that same young Trojan ass, that loves the whore there, might send that Greekish whoremasterly [1] In the folios, and one of the quartos, this scene is continued by the following dialogue between Pandarus and Troilus, which the poet certainly meant to have been inserted at the end of the play, where the three concluding lines of it are repeated in the copies already mentioned. There can be no doubt but that the players shuffled the parts backward and forward, ad libitum ; for the poet would hardly have given us an unnecessary repetition of the same words, nor have dismissed Pandarus twice in the same manuer. STEEVENS. The three lines alluded to, which are found in the folio at the end of this scene, as well as near the conclusion of the play, are these ⚫ "Pand. Why but hear you----- Tro. Hence, broker lacquey! ignomy and shame But in the original copy in quarto there is no repetition (except of the words--But hear you); no absurdity or impropriety. In that copy the following dialogue between Troilus and Pandarus is found in its present place, precisely as it is here given; but the three lines above quoted do not constitute any part of the scene MALONE. |