Enter Troilus. Pan. O, here he comes.-How now, how now? Troi. Sirrah, walk off. Pan. Have you feen my cousin? Troi. No, Pandarus: Iftalk about her door, Propos'd for the deferver! O gentle Pandarus, Pan. Walk here i'the orchard, I will bring her straight. [Exit Pandarus. Troi. I am giddy; expectation whirls me round. The imaginary relish is fo fweet That it enchants my fenfe; What will it be, I fear it much, and I do fear befides, Re-enter Pandarus. Pan. She's making her ready, fhe'll come ftraight: you must be witty now. She does fo blush, and fetches her wind fo fhort, as if fhe were fray'd with a 5 and too sharp in fweetness,] So the folio and all modern editions; but the quarto more accurately: -tun'd too fharp in fweetness. JOHNSON., fprite: fprite: I'll fetch her. It is the prettiest villain:-she fetches her breath as fhort as a new-ta'en fparrow. [Exit Pandarus. Troi. Even fuch a paffion doth embrace my bofom: My heart beats thicker than a feverous pulse; And all my powers do their bestowing lofe, Like vaffalage at unawares encount'ring The eye of majesty ‘. Enter Pandarus and Creffida. Pan. Come, come, what need you blush? fhame's a baby.-Here she is now: fwear the oaths now to her, that you have fworn to me.-What, are you gone again? you must be watch'd ere you be made tame, muft you? Come your ways, come your ways; an you draw backward, we'll put you i'the files. Why do you not speak to her?-Come, draw this curtain, and let's fee your picture. Alas the day, how loath you are to offend day-light! an 'twere dark, you'd close fooner. 9 So, fo; rub on, and Like vassalage at unawares encount'ring kifs The eye of majesty.] Rowe feems to have imitated this paffage in his Ambitious Stepmother, A&t I: "Well may th' ignoble herd "Start, if with heedlefs fteps they unawares "Tread on the lion's walk: a prince's genius STEEVENS. —you must be watch'd ere you be made tame,-] Alluding to the manner of taming hawks. So, in the Taming of a Shrew: -to watch her as we watch these kites. STEEVENS. we'll put you i'the files.] Alluding to the custom of putting men fufpected of cowardice in the middle places. HANMER. 9 So, fo; rub on, and kifs the mistress.] The allufion is to bowling. What we now call the jack, feems in Shakspeare's time to have been termed the mistress. A bowl that kiffes the jack, or mistress, is in the most advantageous fituation. Rub on G 2 is kifs the mistress. How now, a kifs in fee-farm! build there, carpenter; the air is fweet. Nay, you fhall fight your hearts out, ere I part you. 1 The faulcon as the tercel, for all the ducks i'the river: go to, go to. Troi. You have bereft me of all words, lady. Pan. Words pay no debts, give her deeds: but fhe'll bereave you of the deeds too, if fhe call your activity in question. What, billing again? here's is a term at the fame game. So, in No Wit like a Woman's, a comedy, by Middleton, 1657: So, a fair riddance; "There's three rubs gone; I've a clear way to the miftrefs." Again, in Vittoria Corrombona, a tragedy, by Webster, 1612: Flam. "I hope you do not think Cam. "That noblemen bowl booty; 'faith his cheek "Hath a moft excellent bias; it would fain jump with my mistress." Again, in Decker's Satiromaftix, 1602: Mini. Since he hath hit the mistress fo often in the foregame, we'll even play out the rubbers. "Sir Vaugh. Play out your rubbers in God's name; by Jefu I'll never bowl in your alley." MALONE. I -The faulcon as the tercel, for all the ducks i' th' river:] Pandarus means, that he'll match his niece against her lover for any bett. The tercel is the male hawk; by the faulcon we generally understand the female. THEOBALD. I think we fhould rather read: at the tercel, TYRWHITT. In Chaucer's Troilus and Creffeide, 1. iv. 410. is the following ftanza, from which Shakspeare may have caught a glimpse of meaning, though he has not very clearly expreffed it. Pandarus is the speaker: "What? God forbid, alway that eche plefaunce "In o thing were, and in non othir wight; "If one can finge, anothir can wel daunce, Again, in Fenton's Tragicall Difcourfes, bl. 1. 4to. 1567: -how is that poffible to make a froward kite a forward bake to the ryver." P. 159. b. STEEVENS. In witness whereof the parties interchangeably-Come in, come in; I'll go get a fire. [Exit Pandarus. Cre. Will you walk in, my lord? Troi. O Creffida, how often have I wifh'd me thus? Cre. Wish'd, my lord?-The gods grant!-0 my lord! Troi. What fhould they grant? what makes this pretty abruption? What too curious dreg espies my fweet lady in the fountain of our love? Cre. More dregs than water, if my fears have eyes. Troi. Fears make devils of cherubims; they never fee truly. Cre. Blind fear, that feeing reafon leads, finds fafer footing than blind reafon ftumbling without fear: To fear the worst, oft cures the worst. Tro. O, let my lady apprehend no fear: in all Cupid's pageant there is prefented no monster. Cre. Nor nothing monstrous neither? Troi. Nothing, but our undertakings; when we yow to weep feas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tygers; thinking it harder for our mistress to devife impofition enough, than for us to undergo any difficulty impofed. This is the monftruofity in love, lady,that the will is infinite, and the execution confin'd; that the defire is boundless, and the act a flave to limit. Cre. They fay, all loyers fwear more performance than they are able, and yet reserve an ability that they never perform; vowing more than the perfection of ten, and discharging less than the tenth part of one. They that have the voice of lions, and the act of hares, are they not monsters ? Troi. Are there fuch? fuch are not we: Praise us as we are tafted, allow us as we prove; our head fhall go bare, 'till merit crown it: no perfection in rever fion our head fhall go bare, 'till merit crown it :-] I cannot forbear to obferve, that the quarto reads thus; Our head shall ga G3 Батва fion fhall have a praise in prefent: we will not name defert, before his birth; and, being born, 3 his addition fhall be humble. Few words to fair faith: Troilus fhall be fuch to Creffid, as what envy can fay worft, fhall be a mock for his truth; and what truth can speak trueft, not truer than Troilus. Cre. Will you walk in my lord? Re-enter Pandarus. Pan. What, blushing ftill? have you not done talking yet? Cre. Well, uncle, what folly I commit, I dedicate to you. Pan. I thank you for that; if my lord get a boy of you, you'll give him me: Be true to my lord; if he flinch, chide me for it. Troi. You know now your hostages; your uncle's word, and my firm faith. Pan. Nay, I'll give my word for her too; our kindred, though they be long ere they are woo'd, they are conftant, being won: they are burrs, I can tell you; they'll ftick where they are thrown. Cre. Boldness comes to me now, and brings me Prince Troilus, I have lov'd you night and day, Troi. Why was my Creffid then fo hard to win? bare, 'till merit louer part no affection, in reverfion, &c. Had there been no other copy, how could this have been corrected? The true reading is in the folio. JOHNSON. 3 -his addition fhall be humble.-] We will give him no high or pompous titles. JOHNSON. Addition is ftill the term ufed by conveyancers in defcribing the quality and condition of the parties to deeds, &c. EDITOR. + they'll fick where they are thrown.] This allufion has already occurr'd in Meafure for Measure: Nay, friar, I am a kind of burr, I shall stick. STEEVENS. Cre |