To tell you, (fair beholders) that our Play
Leaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils,
'Ginning i'th' middle: farting thence away,,(2)
To what may be digefted in a Play.

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

(2) Beginning in the middle, farting thence away,] Thus all the editions, before Mr. Pope's. He, in the purity of his ear, has cafhier'd the laft word, because the verfe was longer than its fellows. I have chose to retain it; (because, I am perfuaded, the Poet intended a rhyme) and reduce the line to measure by an apocope fo frequent in his writings.

Helen, Wife to Menelaus, in love with Paris.
Andromache, Wife to Hector.

Caffandra, Daughter to Priam, a Prophetess.
Creffida, Daughter to Calchas, in love with Troilus.

Alexander, Crefida's Man.

Boy, Page to Troilus.

Trojan and Greek Soldiers, with other A.tendants.

SCENE, Troy; and the Grecian Camp, before it.

TROILUS and CRESSIDA.

ACTI.

SCENE, the Palace in Troy.

Enter Pandarus and Troilus.

TROILUS.

ALL here my varlet; I'll unarm again. (3)
Why fhould I war without the walls of Troy,
That find fuch cruel battle here within?
Each Trojan, that is mafter of his heart,
Let him to field; Troilus, alas! hath none.

Pan. Will this geer ne'er be mended?

Troi. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their ftrength,
Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant.
But I am weaker than a woman's tear,

Tamer than fleep, fonder than ignorance;
Lefs valiant than the virgin in the night,
And skill-lefs as unpractis'd infancy.

Pan.

That find fuch cruel battle here within? I won't venture to affirm, that this paffage is founded on Anacreon, but there is a mighty confonance both of thought and expreffion in both poets; particularly, in the close of the fentence.

Μάτην δ ̓ ἔχω βοείην

Τὶ γὰρ βαλώμεθ ̓ ἔξω,
Μάχης ἔσω μ' ἐχέσης ;

P6

'Tis

Pan. Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part, I'll not meddle nor make any farther. He, that will have a cake out of the wheat, muft needs tarry the grinding.

Troi. Have I not tarried?

Pan. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the boulting.

Troi. Have I not tarried?

Par. Ay, the boulting; but you must tarry the leav'ning.

Troi. Still have I tarried.

Pan. Ay, to the leav'ning: 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 ftay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips.

Troi. Patience herfelf, what Goddess e'er the be, Doth leffer blench at fufferance, than I do.

At Priam's royal táble do I fit;

'Tis in vain that I have a fhield: for wherefore fhould I wear that out-
ward defence, when the battle rages all within me? I hope, my rea-
ders will forgive me, if I take notice on this occafion that the
learned Tanaquil Faber quite mistook Anacreon's sense in this line,
Τὶ γὰρ βαλαμεθ ̓ ἔξω ;- -He has render'd it; Quid enim extrà, aut
joràs, tela mittamus, cùm intùs pugha fit? This is abfolutely foreign
from the Poet's meaning. Madam Dacier seems to have underfood
it in her French verfion, but is repugnant to herself, when she gives
it us in Latin.. •C'eft donc en vain que j'ay un bouclier, car à quoi
fet de le défendre au dehors, lorsque l'ennemi eft au dedans ?-
furpriz'd, after so just a tranflation as to the meaning, that she could
fubjoin this remark. Les interpretes Latins n'ont pas bien entendu ce
vers qu'ils traduifert, Nàm cur petamur extrà; & il falloit traduire
tout au contraire, nam cur petamus extrà. Petere boftem, is, to attack
an enemy; which is not Anacreon's meaning. But Monf. De la Foffe
has genteely animadverted upon this Lady's error. Anacreon ne
fongeoit qu'au le défendre, & non pas à offenfer. Ainfi petamus, qui
eft une action offenfive, n'eftoit pas si jufte que petamur.

In my opinion, the paffage fhould be thus render'd;
Fruftra gero Clypeum ;

Quid enim [ilium] extrinfecùs objiciam,

Cum Pugna intùs emninò ardeat ?

-I am

The tranflators do not feem to have remember'd, that Cáλλquai (aa its compounds, αμφιβάλλομαι, ἐπιβάλλομαι, περιβάλλομαι) may fometimes fignify actively, induo, injicio, impono. Authorities are so ob¬ vious, that it is unneceffary to alledge any.

And

And when fair Creffid comes into my thoughts,
So, traitor!-when he comes? when is the thence?
Pan. Well, the look'd yesternight fairer than ever I.
faw her look, or any woman elfe.

Troi. I was about to tell thee, when my heart,
As wedged with a figh, would rive in twain,
Left Hector or my father should perceive me;
I have (as when the fun doth light a storm),
Buried this figh in wrinkle of a smile:

But forrow, that is couch'd in feeming gladness,.
Is like that mirth fate turns to fudden sadness.

Pan. And her hair were not fomewhat darker than Helen's-well, go to, there were no more comparison between the women. But, for my part, fhe is my kinfwoman; I would not (as they term it) praise her-but I would, fomebody had heard her talk yesterday, as I did: I will not difpraise your fifter Caffandra's wit, but

Troi. O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus

(4) When I do tell thee, there my hopes lie drown'd,
Reply not in how many fathoms deep

They lie indrench'd. I tell thee, I am mad
In Creffid's love. Thou anfwer'ft, fhe is fair;
Pour'ft in the open ulcer of my heart

Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice;
Handleft in thy discourse- -O that! her hand!
(In whofe comparison, all whites are ink
Writing their own reproach) to whose soft seizure

(4) When I do tell thee, there my hopes lie drown'd, Reply not in bow many fathoms deep

They lie intrench d.] This is only the reading of the modern editors: I have reftor'd that of the old books. For befides that, intrench'd in fatboms, is a phrase which we have very great reason to fufpect; what confonance, or agreement, in fenfe is there betwixt drown'd and intrench'd? The firft carries the idea of destruction, the latter of fe curity. Indrench'd corresponds exactly with drown'd; and fignifies, immers'd in the deep, or, as our Poet in another place calls it, ensteep'd.

So in his Venus and Adonis ;

O, where am I, (quoth fhe) in earth, or heav'n?

Or in the ocean drench'd?

And in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, we again find the terms coupled. And drench'd me in the fea, where I am drown'd.

The