I will not meet with you to-morrow night: I pr'ythee, Diomed, visit me no more. Ther. Now she sharpens;-Well said, whetstone. Cres. Dio. What, this? Ay, that. Of thee, and me; and sighs, and takes my glove, As I kiss thee.8-Nay, do not snatch it from me; Cres. You shall not have it, Diomed; 'faith you shall not; I'll give you something else. Dio. I will have this; Whose was it? Cres. Dio. Come, tell me whose it was. "Tis no matter. Cres. 'Twas one's that loved me better than you will. But, now you have it, take it. Dio. Whose was it? Cres. By all Diana's waiting-women yonder, And by herself, I will not tell you whose. I shall have it.] Some word or words, necessary to the metre, are here apparently omitted. Steevens. 8 As I kiss thee. &c.] In old editions: As I kiss thee Dio. Nay do not snatch it from me. Cres. He, that takes that, must take my heart withal. Dr. Thirlby thinks this should be all placed to Cressida. She had the sleeve, and was kissing it rapturously; and Diomedès snatches it back from her. Theobald. 9 By all Diana's waiting-women yonder,] i. e. the stars which she points to. Warburton. So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece: “The silver-shining queen he would distain; "Her twinkling hand-maids too, by him defil'd, Through night's black bosom should not peep again." Milton, in his Elegy I, v. 77, has imitated Shakspeare : "Endymionee turba ministra deæ." Steevens. VOL. XII. Malone.. Dio. To-morrow will I wear it on my helm; And grieve his spirit, that dares not challenge it. Tro. Wert thou the devil, and wor'st it on thy horn, It should be challeng❜d. Cres. Well, well, 'tis done, 'tis past ;-And yet it is not; I will not keep my word. Dio. Cres. You shall not go:-One cannot speak a word, But it straight starts you. Dio. I do not like this fooling. Ther. Nor I, by Pluto:1 but that that likes not you, pleases me best. Dio. What, shall I come? the hour? Cres. Do come :-I shall be plagu'd. Ay, come:-O Jove!— Farewel till then. Dio. Cres. Good night. I pr'ythee, come.― - [Exit Dio. Troilus, farewel!2 one eye yet looks on thee; But with my heart the other eye doth see.3 1 Ther. Nor I, by Pluto: &c.] Sir Thomas Hanmer gives this speech to Troilus It does not very much resemble the language of Thersites. If indeed it belongs to the former character, it should assume a metrical form, though it is here given as it stands in the folio, and the quarto 1609, "imprinted by G. Eld, for R. Bonian and H. Whalley." Steevens. 2 Troilus, farewel!] The characters of Cressida and Pandarus are more immediately formed from Chaucer than from Lydgate; for though the latter mentions them both characteristically, he does not sufficiently dwell on either to have furnished Shakspeare with many circumstances to be found in this tragedy. Lydgate, speaking of Cressida, says only: "She gave her heart and love to Diomede, "To shew what trust there is in woman kind; "But Troilus was cleane out of her mind, "As if she never had him known or seen, "Wherein I cannot guess what she did mean." Steevens. 3 But with my heart &c.] I think it should be read thus: But my heart with the other eye doth see. Johnson. Perhaps, rather: But with the other eye my heart doth see. Tyrwhitt. The present reading is right. She means to say-" one eye yet looks on thee, Troilus, but the other corresponds with my heart, and looks after Diomedes." M. Mason. Ah! poor our sex! this fault in us I find, What error leads, must err; O then conclude, Minds, sway'd by eyes, are full of turpitude. [Exit CRES. Ther. A proof of strength she could not publish more,4 Unless she said, My mind is now turn'd whore. Ulyss. All's done, my lord. Why stay we then? Tro. To make a recordation to my soul That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears;5 Was Cressid here? Ulyss. I cannot conjure, Trojan. Tro. She was not, sure. Ulyss. Most sure she was." Tro. Why, my negation hath no taste of madness. Think, we had mothers; do not give advantage 4 A proof of strength she could not publish more,] She could not publish a stronger proof. Johnson. 5 That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears;] i. e. that turns the very testimony of seeing and hearing against themselves. Theobald 6 I cannot conjure, Trojan !] That is, I cannot raise spirits in the form of Cressida. Johnson. 7 Most sure she was.] The present deficiency in the measure induces me to suppose our author wrote: 8 It is most sure she was. Steevens. for womanhood!] i. e. for the sake of womanhood. do not give advantage To stubborn criticks-apt, without a theme,` Steevens. By Cressid's rule: rather think this not Cressid. Ulyss. What hath she done, prince, that can soil our mothers? Tro. Nothing at all, unless that this were she. If beauty have a soul, this is not she; If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimony, If there be rule in unity itself,1 This was not she. O madness of discourse, For depravation,] Critick has here, I think, the signification of Cynick. So, in Love's Labour's Lost: "And critick Timon laugh at idle toys." Malone. If there be rule in unity itself,] may mean-If there be certainty in unity, if there be a rule that one is one. Johnson. If it be true that one individual cannot be two distinct persons. M. Mason. The rule alluded to is a very simple one; that one cannot be two. This woman therefore, says Troilus, this false one, cannot be that Cressida that formerly plighted her faith to me. Malone. 2 against itself!] Thus the quarto. The folio readsagainst thyself. In the preceding line also I have followed the quarto. The folio reads-This is not she. Malone. 3 Bi-fold authority!] This is the reading of the quarto. The folio gives us: By foul authority! There is madness in that disquisition 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. This is one of the passages in which the editor of the folio changed words that he found in the quartos, merely because he did not understand them. Malone. 4 Where reason can revolt Without perdition, and loss assume all reason Without revolt;] The words loss and perdition are used in their common sense, but they mean the loss or perdition of reason. Johnson. 5 Within my soul there doth commence a fight -] So, in Hamlet: "Sir, in my heart, there was a kind of fighting." Malone. Divides more wider than the sky and earth; As is Arachne's broken woof, to enter.8 6 a thing inseparate-] i. e. the plighted troth of lovers. Troilus considers it inseparable, or at least that it ought never to be broken, though he has unfortunately found that it sometimes is. Malone. 7 —— more wider -] Thus the old copies. The modern editions, following Mr. Pope, read-far wider; though we have a similar phraseology with the present in almost every one of these plays. Malone. So, in Coriolanus: "He bears himself more proudlier." See note on this passage. Steevens. 8 As is Arachne's broken woof, to enter ] Is,-the syllable wanting in this verse, the modern editors have supplied. I hope the mistake was not originally the poet's own; yet one of the quartos read with the folio, Ariachna's broken woof, and the other Ariathna's. It is not impossible that Shakspeare might have written Ariadne's broken woof, having confounded the two names, or the stories, in his imagination; or alluding to the clue of thread, by the assistance of which Theseus escaped from the Cretan laby. rinth. I do not remember that Ariadne's loom is mentioned by any of the Greek or Roman poets, though I find an allusion to it in Humour out of Breath, a comedy, 1607: 66 instead of these poor weeds, in robes Again, in The Spanish Tragedy: 66 thy tresses, Ariadne's twines, "Wherewith my liberty thou hast surpriz'd." Again, in Muleasses the Turk, 1610: "Leads the despairing wretch into a maze; "To lend a clew to lead us out of it, "The very maze of horror." Shakspeare, however, might have written-Arachnea; great liberties being taken in spelling proper names, and especially by ancient English writers. Thus we have both Alcmene and Alcumene, Alcmena and Alcumena. Steevens. My quarto, which is printed for R. Bonian, 1609, reads—Ariachna's broken woof; the other, which is said to be undated, reads, as Mr. Steevens says-Ariathna's. The folio-Ariachne's. Mr. Steevens hopes the mistake was not originally the author's, but I think it extremely probable that he pronounced the word as a word of four syllables. Malone. |