With that which here his passion doth express? TRO. Ay, Greek; and that shall be divulged well In characters as red as Mars his heart 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 ; 3 Constring'd in mass by the almighty sun†, 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. Your passion draws ears hither. * First folio, in. O, contain yourself; + First folio, fenne. 2 My sword should BITE it:] So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: I have a sword, and it shall bite," &c. 66 In King Lear we have also "biting faulchion." STEEVENS. the dreadful spout, 3 Which shipmen do the HURRICANO call,] A particular account of "a spout," is given in Captain John Smith's Sea Grammar, quarto, 1627: "A spout is, as it were a small river falling entirely from the clouds, like one of our water-spouts, which make the sea, where it falleth, to rebound in flashes exceeding high;" i. e. in the language of Shakspeare, to "dizzy the ear of Neptune." So also, Drayton : "And down the shower impetuously doth fall "Like that which men the hurricano call." STEEVENS. concupy.] A cant word, formed by our author from concupiscence. STEEVENS. - 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. Farewell, revolted fair!—and, Diomed, 6 TRO. Accept distracted thanks. [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; still, wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion: A burning devil take them 7! [Exit. and wear a CASTLE on thy head!] i. e. defend thy head with armour of more than common security. So, in The Most Ancient and Famous History of The Renowned Prince Arthur, &c. edit. 1634, ch. clviii. : “Do thou thy best, said Sir Gawaine, therefore hie thee fast that thou wert gone, and wit thou well we shall soone come after, and breake the strongest castle that thou hast upon thy head."-Wear a castle, therefore, seems to be a figurative expression, signifying, Keep a castle over your head; i. e. live within the walls of your castle. In Urry's Chaucer, Sir Thopas is represented with a castle by way of crest to his helmet. See, however, Titus Andronicus, Act III. Sc. I. STEEVENS. 6 I'll bring you, &c.] Perhaps this, and the following short speech, originally stood thus: Ulyss. I'll bring you to the gates, my lord. "Tro. "Distracted thanks. STEEVENS. Accept -A BURNING devil take them !] Alluding to the venereal disease, formerly called the brenning or burning. M. MASON. So, in Isaiah, iii. 24 : and burning instead of beauty." STEEVENS. 66 SCENE III. Troy. Before PRIAM's Palace. Enter HECTOR and ANDROMACHE. AND. When was my lord so much ungently temper'd, To stop his ears against admonishment? 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. 8 My DREAMS will, sure, prove ominous to the day.] The hint for this dream of Andromache might be either taken from Lydgate, or the following passage in Chaucer's Nonnes Prestes Tale, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 15,147: "Lo hire Andromacha, Hectores wif, "That day that Hector shulde lese his lif, "And was yslain anon of Achilles." STEEVENS. My dreams of last night will prove ominous to the day;' forebode ill to it, and show that it will be a fatal day to Troy. the seventh scene of this Act: 66 the quarrel's most ominous to us." Again, in King Richard III.: 6.6 O thou bloody prison, So, in Mr. Pope, and all the subsequent editors, read-will prove ominous to-day. MALONE. Do we gain any thing more than rough versification by restoring the article-the? The meaning of Andromache (without it) is My dreams will to-day be fatally verified. STEEVEns. 66 We gain the author's text instead of a capricious alteration, and thus perform the first duty of an editor. MALONE. CAS. Enter CASSANDRA. Where is my brother Hector? AND. Here, sister; arm'd, and bloody in intent: Consort with me in loud and dear petition 9, 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 slaugh ter. CAS. O, 'tis true. 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 peevish1 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 thefts2, 9 - DEAR petition,] Dear, on this occasion, seems to mean important, consequential. So, in King Lear: I 66 -some dear cause "Will in concealment wrap me up awhile." STEEVENS. - peevish] i. e. foolish. So, in King Henry VI. Part II. : I will not so presume, 66 "To send such peevish tokens to a king." STEEVENS. 2 For we would give, &c.] This is so oddly confused in the folio, that I transcribe it as a specimen of incorrectness : 66 do not count it holy, "To hurt by being just; it is as lawful "For we would count give much to as violent thefts, I believe we should read: "For we would give much, to use violent thefts," i. e. 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 proposed by Mr. Tyrwhitt. Mr. Rowe cut the knot, instead of untying it, by reading: 3 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; 4 Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate *: Life every man holds dear; but the dear man 5 Holds honour far more precious-dear than life.Enter TROILUS. How now, young man? mean'st thou to fight today? "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 compositor's eye having probably passed over them; in consequence of which the next speech of Cassandra is in that copy given to Andromache, and joined with the first line of this. In the first part of Andromache's speech she alludes to a doctrine which Shakspeare has often enforced. "Do not you think you are acting virtuously by adhering to an oath, if you have sworn to do amiss." So, in King John: "The truth is then most done, not doing it." MALONE. 3 It is the purpose,] The mad prophetess speaks here with all the coolness and judgment of a skilful casuist. "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." JOHNSON. Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate:] If this be not a nautical phrase, which I cannot well explain or apply, perhaps we should read: "Mine honour keeps the weather OFF my fate:" i. e. I am secured by the cause I am engaged in; mine honour will avert the storms of fate, will protect my life amidst the dangers of the field.-A somewhat similar phrase occurs in The Tempest: "In the lime grove that weather-fends our cell." STEEVENS. To keep the weather, I apprehend, is the same as to take the wind, to have the superiority. BOSWELL. 5 DEAR man Valuable man. The modern editions read -brave man. The repetition of the word is in our author's man ner. JOHNSON. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not." STEEVENS. Brave was substituted for dear by Mr. Pope. MALONE. |