SCENE II. The same. Court before the House of Pandarus. Enter TROILUS and CRESSIDA. Tro. Dear, trouble not yourself; the morn is cold. Cres. Then, sweet my lord, I'll call mine uncle down; He shall unbolt the gates. Tro. Trouble him not; To bed, to bed: Sleep kill those pretty eyes, As infants' empty of all thought! Cres. Tro. 'Pr'ythee now, to bed. Good morrow then. Are you aweary of me? Tro. O Cressida! but that the busy day, Wak'd by the lark, hath rous'd the ribaid crows, And dreaming night will hide our joys no longer, I would not from thee. Cres. Night hath been too brief. Tro. Beshrew the witch! with venomous wights3 she stays, As tediously as hell; but flies the grasps of love, Cres. You men will never tarry. Pr'ythee, tarry ; O foolish Cressid!—I might have still held off, And then you would have tarry'd. Hark! there's one up. 1 Sleep kill-] So the old copies. The moderns have-Sleep seal. Johnson. Seal was one of the numerous innovations introduced by Mr. Pope. Malone. 2 - ribald crows,] See note on Antony and Cleopatra, Act III, sc. viii. Harris. 3 ·venomous wights —] i. e. venifici; those who practise nocturnal sorcery. Steevens. 4 As tediously-] The folio has: As hideously as hell. Johnson. Sir T. Hanmer, for the sake of metre, with great probability reads: Tedious as hell &c. Steevens. Pan. [within] What, are all the doors open here? Enter PANDARUS. Cres. A pestilence on him! now will he be mocking: I shall have such a life, Pan. How now, how now? how go maidenheads?— Here, you maid! where 's my cousin Cressid? Cres. Go hang yourself, you naughty mocking uncle!. You bring me to do,5 and then you flout me too. Pan. To do what? to do what?-let her say what: what have I brought you to do? Cres. Come, come; beshrew your heart! you 'Il ne'er be good, Nor suffer others. Pan. Ha, ha! Alas, poor wretch! a poor capocchia!". hast not slept to-night? would he not, a naughty man, let it sleep? a bugbear take him! [Knocking.. Cres. Did not I tell you?-'would he were knock'd o' the head! Who's that at door? good uncle, go and see.— 5- to do,] To do is here used in a wanton sense. So, in The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio says: "I would fain be doing." Again, in All's Well that Ends Well, Lafeu declares that he is "past doing." Collins. 6 —a poor capocchia!] Pandarus would say, I think, in English-Poor innocent! Poor fool! hast not slept to-night? These appellations are very well answered by the Italian word capocchio: for capocchio signifies the thick head of a club; and thence metaphorically, a head of not much brain, a sot, dullard, heavy gull. Theobald. The word in the old copy is chipochia, for which Mr. Theobald substituted capocchio, which he has rightly explained. Capochia may perhaps be used with propriety in the same sense, when applied to a female; but the word has also an entirely different meaning, not reconcilable to the context here, for which I choose to refer the reader to Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598. Malone. 7 as if-] Here, I believe, a common ellipsis has been destroyed by a playhouse interpolation: As, in ancient language, has frequently the power of as if. I would therefore omit the latter conjunction, which encumbers the line without enforcing the sense. Thus, in Spenser's Fairy Queen: "That with the noise it shook as it would fall." Steevens. Tro. Ha, ha! Cres. Come, you are deceiv'd, I think of no such thing. [Knocking. How earnestly they knock!-pray you, come in; I would not for half Troy have you seen here. [Exeunt TRO. and CRES. Pan. [going to the door] Who's there? what's the matter? will you beat down the door? How now? what's the matter? Enter ENEAS. Ene. Good morrow, lord, good morrow. Pan. Who's there? my lord Æneas? By my troth, I knew you not: what news with you so early? Ene. Is not prince Troilus here? Pan. Here! what should he do here? Ene. Come, he is here, my lord, do not deny him; It doth import him much, to speak with me. Pan. Is he here, say you? 'tis more than I know, I'll be sworn :-For my own part, I came in late: What should he do here? Ene. Who!--nay, then : Come, come, you'll do him wrong ere you are 'ware: Do not you know of him, yet go fetch him hither; As PANDARUS is going out, enter TROILUS. Ene. My lord, I scarce have leisure to salute you, My matter is so rash: There is at hand Paris your brother, and Deiphobus, 8 •yet go fetch &c.] Old copy, redundantly-but yet &c. Steevens. 9 matter is so rash:] My business is so hasty and so abrupt. So, in King Henry IV, Part II: 66 Johnson. aconitum, or rash gunpowder." Steevens. Again, in Romeo and Juliet: "It is too rash, too unadvis'd, too sudden; 1 Deliver'd to us; &c.] So the folio. The quarto thus: Ere the first sacrifice, within this hour, Tro. Is it so concluded? Ene. By Priam, and the general state of Troy: Tro. How my achievements mock me!2 [Exeunt TRO. and ÆNE. How my achievements mock me!] So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "And mock our eyes with air." Steevens. 3 We met by chance; you did not find me here.] So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "See where he is, who 's with him, what he does: the secrets of nature Malone. Have not more gift in taciturnity.] This is the reading of both the elder folios; but the first verse manifestly halts, and betrays its being defective. Mr. Pope substitutes: the secrets of neighbour Pandar. If this be a reading ex fide codicum (as he professes all his various readings to be) it is founded on the credit of such copies as it as not been my fortune to meet with. I have ventured te make out the verse thus: The secret's things of nature, &c. i. e. the arcana naturæ, the mystries of nature, of occult philosophy, or of religious ceremonies. Our poet has allusions of this sort in several other passages. Theobald. Mr. Pope's reading is in the old quarto. So great is the necessity of collation. Johnson. I suppose the editor of the folio meant-the secretest of nature, and that secrets was an error of the press. So, in Macbeth: "The secret'st man of blood " Malone I suppose our author to have written-secrecies. Wherever there is redundant metre, as in the reading of the quarto, corruption may always be suspected. Steevens. * In the field of conjecture, though over-ran, there is still room for speculation I cannot suppose Aneas in a very serious mood on the full discovery of Troilus' amour.-Suppose it were writ ten thus: the secrets of Love Have not more gift & Pan. Is 't possible? no sooner got, but lost? The devil take Antenor! the young prince will go mad. A plague upon Antenor! I would, they had broke 's neck! Enter CRESSIDA. Cres. How now? What is the matter? Who was here? Pan. Ah, ah! Cres. Why sigh you so profoundly? where 's my lord gone? Tell me, sweet uncle, what's the matter? Pan. 'Would I were as deep under the carth, as I am above! Cres. O the gods!-what's the matter? Pan. Pr'ythee, get thee in; 'Would thou had'st ne'er been born! I knew, thou would'st be his death :-O poor gentleman!-A plague upon Antenor! Cres. Good uncle, I beseech you on my knees, I beseech you, what's the matter? Pan. Thou must be gone, wench, thou must be gone; thou art changed for Antenor: thou must to thy father, and be gone from Troilus; 'twill be his death; 'twill be his bane; he cannot bear it. Cres. O you immortal gods!-I will not go. Cres. I will not, uncle: I have forgot my father; No kin, no love, no blood, no soul so near me, Make Cressid's name the very crown of falsehood, If ever she leave Troilus! Time, force, and death, But the strong base and building of my love Drawing all things to it.—I'll go in, and weep; Pan. Do, do. Cres. Tear my bright hair, and scratch my praised cheeks; I am astonished that Mr. Theobald, who appears by his note to have some acquaintance with secrets, could not have found a place for this little natural secret, among the secrets of nature. Am. Ed. 5 I know no touch of consanguinity;] So, in Macbeth: "He wants the natural touch." Touch of consanguinity is sense or feeling of relationship. Malone |