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Ene. Health to you, valiant fir,
During all queftion of the gentle truce:
But when I meet you arm'd, as black defiance,
As heart can think, or courage execute.

Dio. The one and other Diomed embraces.
Our bloods are now in calm; and, fo long, health:
But when contention and occafion meet,

By Jove, I'll play the hunter for thy life,

With all my force, purfuit, and policy.

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Ene. And thou fhalt hunt a lion, that will fly With his face backward. In humane gentleness, Welcome to Troy! now, by Anchifes' life, Welcome, indeed! 9 By Venus' hand I swear, No man alive can love, in fuch a fort,

The thing he means to kill, more excellently.

1 During all queftion of the gentle truce:] I once thought to read:

During all quiet of the gentle truce.

But I think question means intercourfe, interchange of converfation. JOHNSON.

And thou shalt hunt a lion, that will fly

With his face back in humane gentleness.] Thus Mr. Pope in his great fagacity pointed this pafilage in his first edition, not de viating from the error of the old copies. What conception he had to himself of a lion flying in humane gentleness, I will not pretend to affirm: I fuppofe he had the idea of as gently as a lamb, or, as what our vulgar call an Effex lion, a calf. If any other lion fly with his face turned backward, it is fighting all the way as he retreats and in this manner it is Æneas profeffes that he fhall fly when he's hunted. But where then are the symptoms of humane gentleness? My correction of the pointing restores good fenfe, and a proper behaviour in Æneas. As foon as ever he has returned Diomedes' brave, he ftops fhort, and corrects himself for expreffing fo much fury in a time of truce; from the fierce foldier becomes the courtier at once; and, remembering his enemy to be a guest and an ambaffador, welcomes him as fuch to the Trojan camp. THEOBALD.

By Venus' hand I fwear,] This oath was used to infinuate his refentment for Diomedes' wounding his mother in the hand. WARBURTON.

I believe Shakspeare had no fuch allufion in his thoughts. He would hardly have made Æneas civil and uncivil in the fame breath. STEEVENS.

Dio. We fympathize :-Jove, let Æneas live, If to my fword his fate be not the glory, A thoufand complete courfes of the fun! But, in mine emulous honour, let him die, With every joint a wound; and that to-morrow! Ene. We know each other well.

Dio. We do; and long to know each other worse. Par. This is the most defpiteful gentle greeting, The nobleft hateful love, that e'er I heard of.What bufinefs, lord, fo early?

Ene. I was fent for to the king; but why, I

know not.

Par. His purpose meets you; 'Twas to bring this Greek

To Calchas' houfe; and there to render him
For the enfreed Antenor, the fair Crefsid:
Let's have your company; or, if you please,
Hafte there before us: I conftantly do think,
(Or, rather, call my thought a certain knowledge)
My brother Troilus lodges there to-night;
Roufe him, and give him note of our approach,
With the whole quality wherefore: I fear,
We fhall be much unwelcome.

Ene. That I affure you;

Troilus had rather Troy were borne to Greece,

Than Creffid borne from Troy.

Par. There is no help;

The better difpofition of the time

Will have it fo. On, lord; we'll follow you.

Ene. Good morrow, all.

[Exit.

Par. And tell me, noble Diomed; 'faith, tell me

true,

Even in the foul of found good-fellowship,-
Who, in your thoughts, merits fair Helen beft,
Myfelf, or Menelaus?

His purpofe meets you;] I bring you his meaning and his orders. JoHNSON.

Dio.

Dio. Both alike:

He merits well to have her, that doth seek her
(Not making any fcruple of her foylure)
With fuch a hell of pain, and world of charge;
And you as well to keep her, that defend her
(Not palating the tafte of her dishonour)
With fuch a coftly lofs of wealth and friends:
He, like a puling cuckold, would drink up
The lees and dregs of a flat piece;

You, like a lecher, out of whorish loins
Are pleas'd to breed out your inheritors:

3 Both merits pois'd, each weighs nor lefs nor more; But he as he, the heavier for a whore.

Par. You are too bitter to your country-woman. Dio. She's bitter to her country: Hear me, Paris,For every falfe drop in her bawdy veins

A Grecian's life hath funk; for every fcruple
Of her contaminated carrion weight,

A Trojan hath been flain: fince the could fpeak,
She hath not given fo many good words breath,
As for her Greeks and Trojans fuffer'd death.
Par. Fair Diomed, you do as chapmen do,

a flat tamed piece;] i. e. a piece of wine out of which the fpirit is all flown. WARBURTON.

3 Both merits pois'd, each weighs no less nor more;
But he as he, which heavier for a whore.] I read:

But he as he, each heavier for a whore.

Heavy is taken both for weighty, and for fad or miferable. The quarto reads:

But he as he, the heavier for a whore.

I know not whether the thought is not that of a wager. İt mukt

then be read thus:

But he as he. Which heavier for a whore ? That is, for a whore staked down, which is the heavier.

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JOHNSON.

I think all new pointing or alteration unneceffary. The fenfe appears to be this: the merits of either are funk in value, because the contest between them is only for a ftrumpet. STEEVENS.

Difpraise

Difpraise the thing that you defire to buy:
But we in filence hold this virtue well,--
s We'll not commend what we intend to fell.
Here lies our way.

SCENE II.

Pandarus' boufe.

Enter Troilus, and Creffida.

[Exeunt.

Troi. Dear, trouble not yourself; the morn is cold. Cre. Then, fweet my lord, I'll call my uncle down; He fhall unbolt the gates.

Troi. Trouble him not;

6

To bed, to bed: Sleep kill thofe pretty eyes,
And give as soft attachment to thy fenfes,
As infants' empty of all thought!

Cre. Good morrow then.

Troi. I pr'ythee now, to bed.

Cre. Are you aweary of me?

Troi. O Creffida! but that the busy day, Wak'd by the lark, has rouz'd the ribald crows, ? And dreaming night will hide our joys no longer, I would not from thee.

Cre. Night hath been too brief.

:

5 We'll not commend what we intend to fell.] I believe the meaning is only this though you practise the buyer's art, we will not practise the feller's. We intend to fell Helen dear, yet will not commend her. JOHNSON.

Dr. Warburton would read, not fell. STEEVENS.
The fenfe, I think, requires we should read condemn.

TYRWHITT.

-Sleep kill-
-] So the old copies. The moderns have :
-Sleep feal- JOHNSON.

And dreaming night will hide our joys.] The folio reads:

-hide our eyes.

MALONE.

Troi. Befhrew the witch! with venomous wights fhe ftays,

As tediously as hell; but flies the grafps of love, With wings more momentary-fwift than thought. You will catch cold, and curfe me.

Cre. Pr'ythee, tarry;—you men will never tarry. O foolish Creffida !-I might have still held off, And then you would have tarry'd. Hark! there's one up.

Pan. [within] What's all the doors open here? Troi. It is your uncle.

Enter Pandarus'.

Cre. A peftilence on him! now will he be mocking: I fhall have fuch a life,

Pan. How now, how now? how go maidenheads?-Here, you maid! where's my coufin Cref

fid?

Cre. Go hang yourself, you naughty mocking uncle!

As tediously-] The folio has:

As hideously as hell. JOHNSON.

• With wings more momentary-fwift than thought.] The second folio reads:

With wings more momentary, swifter than thought.

MALONE.

Enter Pandarus.] The hint for the following fhort converfation between Pandarus and Creffida is taken from Chaucer's Troilus and Creffeide, book 3. v. 1561.

"Pandare, a morowe which that commin was
"Unto his necè gan her faire to grete,

"And faied all this night fo rained it alas!
"That all my drede is, that ye, necè fwete,
"Have little leifir had to flepe and mete,
"All night (quod he) hath rain fo do me wake,
"That some of us I trowe ther heddis ake.

"Creffeide answerde, nevir the bet for you,
"Foxe that ye ben, God yeve your hertè care
"God helpe me so, ye caufid all this fare, &c."

STEEVENS.

You

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