TROILUS AND

AND CRESSIDA.

EDITED BY

J. PAYNE COLLIER.

CALCHAS, a Trojan Priest, taking part with the Greeks.

PANDARUS, Uncle to Cressida.

MARGARELON, a Bastard Son of Priam.

AGAMEMNON, the Grecian General.

MENELAUS, his Brother.

THERSITES, a deformed and scurrilous Grecian.

ALEXANDER, Servant to Cressida.

Servant to Troilus; Servant to Paris; Servant to Diomedes.

HELEN, Wife to Menelaus.

ANDROMACHE, Wife to Hector.

CASSANDRA, Daughter of Priam; a Prophetess.

CRESSIDA, Daughter of Calchas.

Trojan and Greek Soldiers, and Attendants.

SCENE: Troy, and the Grecian Camp before it.

The History of Troilus and Cressida was twice printed in 4to. in 1609, with some important differences: it is inserted in the folio 1623 without pagination; and without a list of the characters in any early impression: the list was first added by Rowe in 1709.

TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

PROLOGUE.

From isles of Greece

IN Troy, there lies the scene.
The princes orgulous, their high blood chaf'd,
Have to the port of Athens sent their ships,
Fraught with the ministers and instruments
Of cruel war: sixty and nine, that wore
Their crownets regal, from th' Athenian bay
Put forth toward Phrygia; and their vow is made
To ransack Troy, within whose strong immures
The ravish'd Helen, Menelaus' queen,

With wanton Paris sleeps; and that's the quarrel.
To Tenedos they come,

And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorge
Their warlike fraughtage: now on Dardan plains
The fresh and yet unbruised Greeks do pitch
Their brave pavilions: Priam's six-gated city,
Dardan, and Tymbria, Ilias, Chetas, Trojan,
And Antenorides, with massy staples

And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts,
Sperr up the sons of Troy.2

2 SPERR up the sons of Troy.] All the folios read, "Stir up the sons of Troy"; spelt stirre in the folio 1623. Stirre was clearly a misprint for sperre, and many authorities may be quoted for the use of sperre in the sense of spar, or bar up.

Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits
On one and other side, Trojan and Greek,
Sets all on hazard :—and hither am I come
A prologue arm'd,3—but not in confidence
Of author's pen, or actor's voice, but suited
In like conditions as our argument,-

To tell you, fair beholders, that our play
Leaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils,
Beginning in the middle; starting thence away
To what may be digested in a play.

Like, or find fault; do as your pleasures are ;
Now good, or bad, 'tis but the chance of war.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Troy. Before Priam's Palace.

Enter TROILUS armed, and PANDARUS. Tro. Call here my varlet; I'll unarm again :

A prologue ARM'D,] It was usual for the prologue-speaker in our old theatres to be dressed in black; there were, however, many exceptions to this rule, and the instance before us is one.

4 Leaps over the VAUNT,] i. e., The commencement: from the Fr.

avant.

-my VARLET;] This word anciently signified a servant, or footman, to a knight or warrior: Fr. valet.

Why should I war without the walls of Troy,
That find such cruel battle here within?
Each Trojan, that is master of his heart,
Let him to field; Troilus, alas! hath none.
Pan. Will this gear ne'er be mended ?6

Tro. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their strength, Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant;

But I am weaker than a woman's tear,
Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance;
Less valiant than the virgin in the night,
And skill-less as unpractis'd infancy.

Pan. Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part, I'll not meddle nor make no farther. He that will have a cake out of the wheat must needs tarry the grinding.

Tro. Have I not tarried?

Pan. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the bolting. Tro. Have I not tarried?

Pan. Ay, the bolting; but you must tarry the leavening. Tro. Still have I tarried.

Pan. Ay, to the leavening: but here's yet in the word hereafter, the kneading, the making of the cake, the heating of the oven, and the baking: nay, you must stay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips.

Tro. Patience herself, what goddess e'er she be, Doth lesser blench" at sufferance than I do.

At Priam's royal table do I sit;

• Will this GEAR ne'er be mended?] Gear is often used for matter or affair: see Merchant of Venice, act i, sc. 1, p. 7, etc.

' Doth lesser BLENCH-] i.e., Less start off or fly from. We have had the word already in the same sense in Measure for Measure, act iv, sc. 5, p. 88.