A lord of Trojan blood, nephew to Hector;
They call him, Ajax.

Cre. Good; And what of him?

Serv. They say he is a very man per fe, And ftands alone.

Cre. So do all men; unless they are drunk, fick, or have no legs.

Serv. This man, lady, hath robb'd many beasts of their particular additions; he is as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear, flow as the elephant: a man into whom nature hath fo crowded humours, that his valour is crushed into folly, his folly fauced with discretion there is no man hath a virtue, that he hath not a glimpse of; nor any man an attaint, but he carries fome ftain of it: he is melancholy without caufe, and merry against the hair: He hath the joints of every thing; but every thing fo out of joint, that he is a gouty Briareus, many hands and no ufe; or purblinded Argus, all eyes and no fight.

Cre. But how fhould this man, that makes me fmile, make Hector angry.

Serv. They fay, he yesterday cop'd Hector in the battle, and ftruck him down; the difdain and shame whereof hath ever fince kept Hector fafting and waking.

5 per fe,] So in Chaucer's Teftament of Creffeide: "Of faire Creffeide the floure and a per fe

"Of Troie and Greece."

Again, in the old comedy of Wily beguiled:

"In faith, my fweet honeycomb, I'll love thee a per fe a." Again, in Blurt Mafter Conftable, 1602:

"That is the 4 per fe of all, the creame of all."

STEEVENS. that his valour is crushed into folly,-] To be crushed into felly, is to be confused and mingled with folly, fo as that they make one mafs together. JOHNSON.

1-against the hair :] is a phrafe equivalent to another now in ufeagainst the grain. The French fay-à contrepoil. See Vol. V. p. 408.

VOL. IX.

C

Enter

Enter Pandarus.

Cre. Who comes here?

Serv. Madam, your uncle Pandarus.
Cre. Hector's a gallant man.

Serv. As may be in the world, lady.
Pan. What's that? what's that?

Cre. Good morrow, uncle Pandarus.

8

Pan. Good morrow, coufin Creffid: What do you talk of?-Good morrow, Alexander.-How do you, coufin? When were you at Ilium?

Cre. This morning, uncle.

9

Pan. What were you talking of, when I came ? Was Hector arm'd, and gone, ere ye came to Ilium? Helen was not up, was fhe?

Cre. Hector was gone; but Helen was not up. Pan. E'en fo; Hector was ftirring early.

Cre. That we were talking of, and of his anger. Pan. Was he angry?

Cre. So he fays here.

Good morrow, coufin Creffid: What do you talk of ?-Good morrow, Alexander. How do you, coufin ?-] Good morrow, Alexander, is added in all the editions, fays Mr. Pope, very abfurdly, Paris not being on the ftage.-Wonderful acutenefs! But, with fubmiffion, this gentleman's note is much more abfurd; 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 bafy, impertinent, infinuating character: and it is natural for him, fo foon as has given his coufin the good-morrow, to pay his civilities too to her attendant. This is purely i 0, as the grammarians call it; and gives us an admirable touch of Pandarus's character. And why might not Alexander be the name of Creffida's man? Paris had no patent, I fuppofe, for engroffing it to himself. But the late editor, perhaps, because we have had Alexander the Great, Pope Alexander, and Alexander Pope, would not have fo eminent a name prostituted to a common varlet. THEOBALD.

9 Ilium ?] Was the palace of Troy. JOHNSON.

Pan.

Pan. True, he was fo; I know the caufe too; he'll lay about him to-day, I can tell them that: and there's Troilus will not come far behind him; let them take heed of Troilus; I can tell them that too.

Cre. What, is he angry too?

Pan. Who, Troilus? Troilus is the better man of the two.

Cre. O, Jupiter ! there's no comparison.

Pan. What, not between Troilus and Hector? Do you know a man, if you fee him?

Cre. Ay; if I ever faw him before, and knew him. Pan. Well, I fay, Troilus is Troilus.

Cre. Then you fay as I fay; for, I am fure, he is not Hector.

Pan. No, nor Hector is not Troilus, in fome degrees.

Cre. 'Tis juft to each of them; he is himself. Pan. Himfelf? Alas, poor Troilus! I would, he were,

Cre. So he is.

Pan.

'Condition, I had gone bare-foot to India. Cre. He is not Hector.

Pan. Himfelf? no, he's not himfelf.-'Would 'a were himself! Well, the gods are above; Time muft friend, or end: Well, Troilus, well,-I would, my heart were in her body !-No, Hector is not a better man than Troilus.

Cre. Excufe me.
Pan. He is elder.

Cre. Pardon me, pardon me.

Pan. The other's not come to't; you fhall tell me another tale, when the other's come to't, Hector fhall not have his wit this year.

Cre. He fhall not need it, if he have his own,
Pan. Nor his qualities.

Cre. No matter.

Pan. Nor his beauty.

Cre. "Twould not become him, his own's better.

Pan. You have no judgment, niece: Helen herfelf fwore the other day, that Troilus, for a brown favour, (for fo 'tis, I must confefs)Not brown neither.

Cre. No, but brown.

Pan. 'Faith, to fay truth, brown and not brown.
Cre. To fay the truth, true and not true.
Pan. She prais'd his complexion above Paris.
Cre. Why, Paris hath colour enough.

Pan. So he has.

Cre. Then, Troilus fhould have too much: if the prais'd 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 lieve, Helen's golden tongue had commended Troilus for a copper nose.

Pan. I fwear to you, I think, Helen loves him better than Paris.

Cre. Then fhe's a merry Greek, indeed.

Pan. Nay, I am fure fhe does. She came to him the other day into the compafs'd window,--and, you know, he has not past three or four hairs on his chin.

Cre. Indeed, a tapfter's arithmetic may foon bring his particulars therein to a total.

Pan. Why, he is very young: and yet will he, within three pound, lift as much as his brother Hector. Cre. Is he fo young a man, and fo old a lifter?

Pan.

-a merry Greek] Græcari among the Romans fignified to play the reveller. STEEVENS.

2

—compass'd window,-] The compass'd window is the fame as the bow-window. JOHNSON.

3-fo old a lifter? The word lifter is ufed for a thief by Green, in his Art of Coney-catching, printed 1591: on this the humour of the paffage may be fuppofed to turn. We ftill call a perfon who plunders fhops, a fhop-lifter. Jonfon ufes the expreffion in Cynthia's Revels:

"One other peculiar virtue you poffefs is, lifting.'

Pan. But, to prove to you that Helen loves him;fhe came, and puts me her white hand to his cloven chin,

Cre. Juno have mercy!-How came it cloven?

Pan. Why, you know, 'tis dimpled: I think, his fmiling becomes him better than any man in all Phrygia.

Cre. O, he fmiles valiantly.

Pan. Does he not?

Cre. O, yes; an 'twere a cloud in autumn.

Pan. Why, go to then :--But, to prove to you that Helen loves Troilus,

Cre. Troilus will ftand to the proof, if you'll prove it fo.

Pan. Troilus? why, he esteems her no more than I efteem an addle egg.

Cre. If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle head, you would eat chickens i' the fhell.

Pan. I cannot chufe but laugh, to think how she tickled his chin;-Indeed, fhe has a marvellous white hand, I muft needs confefs.

Cre. Without the rack.

Pan. And she takes upon her to spy a white hair on his chin.

Cre. Alas, poor chin! many a wart is richer.
Pan. But, there was fuch laughing

Hecuba laugh'd, that her eyes ran o'er.

Cre. With mill-ftones.

Pan. And Caffandra laugh'd.

-Queen

Cre. But there was more temperate fire under the pot of her eyes;-Did her eyes run o'er too?

Pan. And Hector laugh'd.

Again, in the Roaring Girl, 1611:

"cheaters, lifters, nips, foifts, puggards, courbers." Again, in Holland's Leaguer, 1633:

Broker or pandar, cheater or lifter." STEEVENS. Hliftus, in the Gothic, language, fignifies a thief. See Archeolog. Vol. V. p. 311. BLACKSTONE.