Created only to calumniate.
Was Creffid here?

Ulyff. I cannot conjure, Trojan.
Troi. She was not, fure.

Ulyff. Moft fure, fhe was.

Troi. Why, my negation hath no taste of madness. Ulyff. Nor mine, my lord: Creffid was here but

now.

Troi. Let it not be believ'd for womanhood! Think we had mothers; do not give advantage To stubborn critics-apt, without a theme, For depravation-to fquare the general fex By Creffid's rule: rather think this not Creflid. Uly. What hath fhe done, prince, that can foil our mothers?

Troi. Nothing at all, unless that this were fhe.
Ther. Will he fwagger himself out on's own eyes?
Troi. This he? no, this is Diomed's Creffida:
If beauty have a foul, this is not fhe;

If fouls guide vows, if vows be fanctimony,
If fanctimony be the gods' delight,

? If there be rule in unity itself,

This

5 I cannot conjure, Trojan.] That is, I cannot raife fpirits in the form of Creffida. JOHNSON.

do not give advantage

To ftubborn criticks, apt, without a theme,

For depravation] Critick has here, I think, the fignification of Cynick. So, in Love's Labour Loft:

And critick Timon laugh at idle toys."

MALONE.

If there be rule in unity itself,] I do not well understand what is meant by rule in unity. By rule our author, in this place as in others, intends virtuous restraint, regularity of manners» command of paffions and appetites. In Macbeth:

He cannot buckle his diftemper'd caufe

Within the belt of rule.

But I know not how to apply the word in this fenfe to unity. Į

read:

Or,

If there be rule in purity itself,

If there be rule in verity itself.

Such

This is not fhe. O madness of discourse,
That caufe fets up with and against itself!
"Bi-fold authority! 'where reafon can revolt
Without perdition, and lofs affume all reafon
Without revolt; this is, and is not, Creffid!
Within my foul there doth commence a fight
Of this strange nature, that a thing infeparate
Divides far wider than the fky and earth;
And yet
the spacious breadth of this divifion
Admits no orifice for a point, as subtle
* As Arachne's broken woof, to enter.

Instance,

Such alterations would not offend the reader, who saw the state of the old editions, in which, for inftance, a few lines lower, the almighty fun is called the almighty fenne.Yet the words may at laft mean, If there be certainty in unity, if it be a rule that one is one. JOHNSON.

8

against itself!] The folio reads:
against thyself. MALONE.

9 Bi-fold authority!

The folio gives us :

By foul authority!

-] This is the reading of the quarto,

There is madness in that difquifition in which a man reasons at once for and against himself upon authority which he knows not to be valid. The quarto is right. JOHNSON,

where reafon can revolt

Without perdition, and lofs affume all reafon

1

Without revolt ;- -] The words lofs and perdition are ufed in their common fenfe, but they mean the lofs or perdition of reafon. JOHNSON.

As is Arachne's broken woof to enter.] The fyllable wanting in this verse the modern editors have hitherto fupplied. I hope the mistake was not originally the poet's own; yet one of the quartos reads with the folio, Ariachna's broken woof, and the other Ariathna's. It is not impoffible that Shakspeare might have written Ariadne's broken woof, having confounded the two names or the ftories, in his imagination; or alluding to the clue of thread, by the affiftance of which Thefeus escaped from the Cretan labyrinth. I do not remember that Ariadne's loom is mentioned by any of the Greek or Roman poets, though I find an allufion to it in Humour out of Breath, a comedy, 1607:

་་ -inftead of thefe poor weeds, in robes
"Richer than that which Ariadne wrought,
"Or Cytherea's airy-moving veft."

Inftance, O inftance! ftrong as Pluto's gates;
Creffid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven:
Instance, O instance! strong as heaven itself;
The bonds of heaven are flipp'd, diffolv'd, and loos'd;
And with another 3 knot, five-finger-tied,
The fractions of her faith, orts of her love,
The fragments, fcraps, the bits, and greafy reliques
Of her o'er-eaten faith, are bound to Diomed.

Ulyf

Again:

-thy treffes, Ariadne's twines,

"Wherewith my liberty thou haft furpriz'd."

Again, in Muleaffes the Turk, 1610:

Spanish Tragedy.

"Leads the defpairing wretch into a maze;
"But not an Ariadne in the world

"To lend a clew to lead us out of it,

"The very maze of horror."

Again, in Law Tricks, 1608:

come Ariadne's clew, will you unwind ?" Again, in John Florio's tranflation of Montaigne: "He was to me in this inextricable labyrinth like Ariadne's thread."

3

STEEVENS.

knot, five-finger-tied,] A knot tied by giving her
JOHNSON.

hand to Diomed.
So, in The Fatal Dowry, by Maffinger, 1632:

"Your fingers tie my heart-ftrings with this touch,
"In true knots, which' nought but death shall loose."

MALONE. -o'er-eaten faith,- -] Vows which he has already fwallowed once over. We still fay of a faithless man, that he has eaten bis words. JOHNSON.

The fractions of her faith, erts of her love,

The fragments, fcraps, the bits, and greazy reliques

Of her o'er-eaten faith, are bound to Diomed.

I believe our author had a lefs delicate idea in his mind." Her o'er-eaten faith" means, I think, her troth plighted to Troilus, of which fhe was furfeited, and, like one who has over-eaten himfelf, had thrown off. All the preceding words, the fragments, Scraps, &c. fhow that this was Shakspeare's meaning.-So, in Twelfth-Night:

"Give me excess of it [mufick]; that furfeiting "The appetite may ficken, and fo die." Again, more appofitely, in King Henry IV. P. II:

"The

Uly. May worthy Troilus be half attach'd
With that which here his paffion doth exprefs?
Troi. Ay, Greek; and that fhall be divulged well
In characters as red as Mars his heart

Inflam'd with Venus: never did young man fancy.
With fo eternal, and so fix'd a foul,

Hark, Greek ;-As much as I do Creffid love,
So much by weight hate I her Diomed :

That fleeve is mine, that he'll bear on his helm;
Were it a cafque compos'd by Vulcan's skill,
My fword fhould bite it: not the dreadful spout,
Which fhipmen do the hurricano call,
Conftring'd in mass by the almighty fun,
Shall dizzy with more clamour Neptune's ear
In his defcent, than fhall my prompted fword
Falling on Diomed.

Ther. He'll tickle it for his concupy.

Troil. O Creffid! O falfe Creffid! falfe, falfe, falfe! Let all untruths ftand by thy ftained name,

And they'll feem glorious.

Ulyff. O, contain yourself;

Your paffion draws ears hither.

Enter Æneas.

Ene. I have been seeking you this hour, my lord: Hector, by this, is arming him in Troy;

"The commonwealth is fick of their own choice;
"Their over-greedy love hath furfeited.
"O thou fond many! with what applaufe

"Did'st thou beat heaven with bleffing Bolinbroke,
"Before he was what thou would't have him be!
"And being now trimm'd up in thine own defires,
"Thou, beaftly feeder, art fo full of bim,

"That thon provok'ft thyfelt to caft him up."

MALONE. May worthy Troilus] Can Troilus really feel on this occafion half of what he utters? A question fuitable to the calm Ulyffes. JOHNSON.

2

Ajax,

Ajax, your guard, ftays to conduct you home.
Troi. Have with you, prince:-My courteous lord,
adieu :-

Farewel, revolted fair!—and, Diomed,

6

Stand faft, and wear a caftle on thy head!
Ulyff. I'll bring you to the gates.

Troi. Accept diftracted thanks.

[Exeunt Troilus, Æneas, and Ulyffes. Ther. 'Would, I could meet that rogue Diomed! I would croak like a raven; I would bode, I would bade. 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; ftill, wars and lechery; nothing elfe holds fashion: A burning devil take them!

SCENE

The palace of Troy.

III.

Enter Hector, and Andromache.

[Exit,

And.When was my lord fo much ungently temper'd, To stop his ears against admonishment? Unarm, unarm, and do not fight to-day.

Helt. You train me to offend you; get you in; By all the everlafting gods, I'll go.

and wear a caftle on thy head!] i, e. defend thy head with armour of more than common fecurity.

So in the most ancient and famous hiftory of the renowned Prince Arthur, &c. Edit. 1634. ch. 158: "Do thou thy beft, faid Sir Gawaine, therefore hie thee faft that thou wert gone, and wit thou well we shall foone come after, and breake the strongest caftle that thou haft upon thy head." Wear a caftle, therefore, feems to be a figurative expreffion, fignifying, Keep a caftle over your head; i. e. live within the walls of your caftle. In Urry's Chaucer, Sir Thopas is reprefented with a caffle by way of creft to his helmet. STEEVENS,

6

And,