CRES. What was his cause of anger? ALEX. The noise goes, this: There is among the Greeks A lord of Trojan blood, nephew to Hector; CRES. Good; And what of him? ALEX. They say he is a very man per se, And stands alone. CRES. So do all men; unless they are drunk, sick, or have no legs. ALEX. This man, lady, hath robbed many beasts of their particular additions;5 he is as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant: a man into whom nature hath so crouded humours, that his valour is crushed into folly, his folly sauced with discretion: there is no man hath a 6 per se,] So, in Chaucer's Testament of Cresseide: "Of faire Cresseide the floure and a per se "Of Troie and Greece." Again, in the old comedy of Wily Beguiled: "In faith, my sweet honeycomb, I'll love thee a per se a." 5 Again, in Blurt Master Constable, 1602: "That is the a per se of all, the creame of all." STEEVENS. their particular additions;] Their peculiar and characteristick qualities or denominations. The term in this sense is originally forensick. MALONE. So, in Macbeth: 6 66 whereby he doth receive "Particular addition, from the bill "That writes them all alike." STEEVENS. -that his valour is crushed into folly,] To be crushed into folly, is to be confused and mingled with folly, so as that they make one mass together. JOHNSON. So, in Cymbeline: "Crush him together, rather than unfold virtue that he hath not a glimpse of; nor any man an attaint, but he carries some stain of it: he is melancholy without cause, and merry against the hair: He hath the joints of every thing; but every thing so out of joint, that he is a gouty Briareus, many hands and no use; or purblind Argus, all eyes and no sight. CRES. But how should this man, that makes me smile, make Hector angry? ALEX. They say, he yesterday coped Hector in the battle, and struck him down; the disdain and shame whereof hath ever since kept Hector fasting and waking. Enter PANDarus. CRES. Who comes here? ALEX. Madam, your uncle Pandarus. CRES. Hector's a gallant man. ALEX. As may be in the world, lady. CRES. Good morrow, uncle Pandarus. PAN. Good morrow, cousin Cressid: What do you talk of?-Good morrow, Alexander.-How you, cousin? When were you at Ilium ?9 do 7 against the hair :] Is a phrase equivalent to another now in use against the grain. The French say-à contrepoil. See Vol. XI. p. 374, n. 7. STEEvens. See Vol. V. p. 103, n. 3. MALone. 8 Good morrow, cousin Cressid: What do you talk of ?-Good morrow, Alexander.-How do you, cousin?] Good morrow, Alexander, is added, in all the editions, (says Mr. Pope,) very absurdly, Paris not being on the stage. Wonderful acuteness! CRES. This morning, uncle. PAN. What were you talking of, when I came? Was Hector armed, and gone, ere ye came to Ilium? Helen was not up, was she? CRES. Hector was gone; but Helen was not up. PAN. E'en so; Hector was stirring early. CRES. That were we talking of, and of his anger. PAN. Was he angry? PAN. True, he was so; I know the cause too; he'll lay about him to-day, I can tell them that: and there is Troilus will not come far behind him; let them take heed of Troilus; I can tell them that too. But, with submission, this gentleman's note is much more absurd; for it falls out very unluckily for his remark, that though Paris is, for the generality, in Homer called Alexander; yet, in this play, by any one of the characters introduced, he is called nothing but Paris. The truth of the fact is this: Pandarus is of a busy, impertinent, insinuating character; and it is natural for him, so soon as he has given his cousin the good-morrow, to pay his civilities too to her attendant. This is purely 9, as the grammarians call it; and gives us an admirable touch of Pandarus's character. And why might not Alexander be the name of Cressida's man? Paris had no patent, I suppose, for engrossing it to himself. But the late editor, perhaps, because we have had Alexander the Great, Pope Alexander, and Alexander Pope, would not have so eminent a name prostituted to a common varlet. THEOBALD. This note is not preserved on account of any intelligence it brings, but as a curious specimen of Mr. Theobald's mode of animadversion on the remarks of Mr. Pope. STEEvens. 9 at Ilium?] Ilium, or Ilion, (for it is spelt both ways,) was, according to Lydgate, and the author of The Destruction of Troy, the name of Priam's palace, which is said by these writers to have been built upon a high rock. See a note in Act IV. sc. v. on the words Yon towers," &c. MALONE. CRES. What, is he angry too? PAN. Who, Troilus? Troilus is the better man of the two. CRES. O, Jupiter! there's no comparison. PAN. What, not between Troilus and Hector? Do you know a man if you see him? CRES. Ay; if ever I saw him before, and knew him. : PAN. Well, I say, Troilus is Troilus. CRES. Then you say as I say; for, I am sure, he is not Hector. PAN. No, nor Hector is not Troilus, in some degrees. CRES. 'Tis just to each of them; he is himself. PAN. Himself? Alas, poor Troilus! I would, he were, CRES. So he is. PAN. India. 'Condition, I had gone bare-foot to CRES. He is not Hector. PAN. Himself? no, he's not himself.-'Would 'a were himself! Well, the gods are above;1 Time must friend, or end: Well, Troilus, well,-I would, my heart were in her body!-No, Hector is not a better man than Troilus. 1 CRES. Excuse me. PAN. He is elder. CRES. Pardon me, pardon me. PAN. The other's not come to❜t; you shall tell Well, the gods are above;] So, in Othello: "Heaven's above all." MALONE. me another tale, when the other's come to't. Hector shall not have his wit2 this year. CRES, He shall not need it, if he have his own. PAN. Nor his qualities ; CRES. No matter. PAN. Nor his beauty. CRES. 'Twould not become him, his own's better. PAN. You have no judgment, niece: Helen herself swore the other day, that Troilus, for a brown favour, (for so 'tis, I must confess,)-Not brown neither. CRES. No, but brown. PAN. 'Faith, to say truth, brown and not brown. CRES. Then, Troilus should have too much: if she praised him above, his complexion is higher than his; he having colour enough, and the other higher, is too flaming a praise for a good complexion. I had as lief, Helen's golden tongue had commended Troilus for a copper nose. PAN. I swear to you, I think, Helen loves him, better than Paris. CRES. Then she's a merry Greek,3 indeed, his wit-] Both the old copies have-will. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. — a merry Greek,] Græcari, among the Romans, signified to play the reveller. STEEVENS, The expression occurs in many old English books. See Act IV. sc. iv: "A woeful Cressid 'mongst the merry Greeks.” MALONE. |