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True fwains in love fhall in the world to come Approve their truths by Troilus: when their rhymes, Full of protest, of oath, and big compare, Want fimilies: truth, tir'd with iteration, As true as steel, as plantage to the moon,

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1 True fwains in love fhall in the world to come
Approve their truths by Troilus: when their rhymes,
Full of proteft, of oath, and big compare,
Want fimilies: truth, tir'd with iteration,-

-] The metre, as well as the fense, of the last verse will be improved, I think, by reading,

Want fimilies of truth, tir'd with iteration,
So, a little lower in the fame speech,
Yet after all comparisons of truth.

jeures, &c. printed at Oxford, 1766.

Obfervations and Con

plantage to the moon,] I formerly made a filly conjecture, that the true reading was,

planets to their moons.

But I did not reflect that it was wrote before Galileo had dif covered the Satellites of Jupiter; fo that plantage to the moon is right, and alludes to the common opinion of the influence the moon has over what is planted or fown, which was therefore done in the increase.

"Rite Latonæ puerum canentes,
"Rite crefcentem face noctilucam,

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Profperam frugum".

Hor. lib. 4. od. 6. WARBURTON. Plantage is not, I believe, a general term, but the herb which we now call plantain, in Latin, plantago, which was, I fuppofe, imagined to be under the peculiar influence of the moon.

JOHNSON.

It is to be confidered, that Shakespeare might think he had a right to form or new create a word as well as others had done before him. The termination of words in age was very common in the time of our poet. In Holland's tranflation of Pliny, tom. ii. p. 12. we meet with the word gardenage for the herbs of the garden; and page 96. he fays, "Here an end of "gardens and gardenage." Shakespeare ufes guardage for guardianship. Holland ufes guardenage in the fame fenfe; and hofpitage is a word we meet with in Spenfer. TOLLET.

Shakespeare fpeaks of plantain by its common appellation in Romeo and Juliet: and from a book entitled, The profitable Art of Gardening, &c. by Tho. Hill, Londoner, the third edition, printed in 1579, I learn, that neither fowing, planting, nor graffing, were ever undertaken without a fcrupulous attention

to

As fun to day, as turtle to her mate,
As iron to adamant, as earth to the center-
Yet after all comparisons of truth,

3 As truth's authentic author to be cited
As true as Troilus, fhall crown up the verse,
And fanctify the numbers.

Cre. Prophet may you be!

If I be falfe, or fwerve a hair from truth,
When time is old and hath forgot itself,
When water-drops have worn the ftones of Troy,
And blind oblivion fwallow'd cities up,
And mighty ftates characterlefs are grated
To dufty nothing; yet let memory

From falfe to falfe, among falfe maids in love,
Upbraid my falfhood! when they have faid-as falfe
As air, as water, wind, or fandy earth,
As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf,
Pard to the hind, or ftep-dame to her fon;

Yea, let them fay, to ftick the heart of falfhood,
As falfe as Creffid.-

Pan. Go to, a bargain made. Seal it, feal it; I'll be the witnefs. Here I hold your hand; here, my coufin's. If ever you prove falfe to one another, fince I have taken fuch pains to bring you together, let all pitiful goers-between be called to the world's end after my name; call them all Pandars. Let all 4 inconftant men be Troilus's, all falfe women Creffid's, and all brokers-between Pandars! Say, Amen.

to the encrcafe or waning of the moon. Dryden does not appear to have understood the paffage, and has therefore altered

it thus:

"As true as flowing tides are to the moon." STEEV. 3 As TRUTH'S AUTHENTIC AUTHOR to be cited] Troilus fhall crown the verse, as a man to be cited as the authentic author of truth; as one whofe proteftations were true to a proverb.

4

JOHNSON.

inconftant men-] So HANMER. In the copies it is conftant. JOHNSON.

Troi. Amen!

Cre. Amen!

Pan. Amen! Whereupon I will fhew you a bedchamber; which bed, because it shall not speak of your pretty encounters, prefs it to death. Away. And Cupid grant all tongue-ty'd maidens here, Bed, chamber, Pandar to provide this geer!

SCENE

The Grecian camp.

IV.

[Exeunt.

Enter Agamemnon, Ulyffes, Diomed, Neflor, Ajax, Menelaus, and Calchas.

Cal. Now, princes, for the fervice I have done you, "The advantage of the time prompts me aloud To call for recompence. 5 Appear it to your mind

Appear it to you,

That, through the fight I bear in things to come,

That,

I have abandon'd Troy.- ] This reafoning perplexes Mr. Theobald; "He forefaw his country was undone; he rau "over to the Greeks; and this he makes a merit of (fays the

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editor). I own (continues he) the motives of his oratory "feem to me fomewhat perverfe and unnatural. Nor do I "know how to reconcile it, unlefs our poet purpofely intended "to make Chalcas act the part of a true pricf, and fo from "motives of felf-intereft infinuate the merit of fervice." The editor did not know how to reconcile this. Nor I neither. For I do not know what he means by "the motives of his "oratory," or, "from motives of felf-intereft to infinuate "merit." But if he would infinuate, that it was the poet's defign to make his priest felf-intereded, and to reprefent to the Greeks that what he did for his own prefervation was done for their fervice, he is mistaken. Shakespeare thought of nothing fo filly, as it would be to draw his prieft a knave, in order to make him talk like a fool. Though that be the fate which generally attends their abafers. But Shakefpeare was no fuch; and confequently wanted not this cover for dulnefs. The perverfeness is all the editor's own, who

interprets,

through the fight I have in things to come,

I have abandon'd Troy

Το

That, through the fight I bear in things, to Jove I have abandon'd Troy, left my poffeffion,

Incurr'd

To fignify, by my power of prefcience finding my country "must be ruined, I have therefore abandoned it to feek refuge "with you;" whereas the true fenfe is," Be it known unto you, that on account of a gift or faculty I have of feeing things to come, which faculty I fuppofe would be esteemed by you as acceptable and ufeful, I have abandoned Troy my native country." That he could not mean what the editor fuppofes, appears from thefe confiderations, First, If he had reprefented himself as running from a falling city, he could never have faid,

66

I have

-expos'd myfelf,

From certain and poffefs'd conveniencies,
To doubtful fortunes ;-

Secondly, The abfolute knowledge of the fall of Troy was a
fecret hid from the inferior gods themselves; as appears from
the poetical hiftory of that war. It depended on many con-
tingences whofe exiftence they did not forefee. All that they
knew was, that if fuch and fuch things happened Troy would
fall. And this fecret they communicated to Caffandra only,
but along with it, the fate not to be believed. Several others
knew each a feveral part of the fecret; one, that Troy could
not be taken unless Achilles went to the war; another, that it
could not fall while it had the palladium; and so on. But the
fecret, that it was abfolutely to fall, was known to none..
The fenfe here given will admit of no difpute amongst those
who know how acceptable a feer was amongst the Greeks. So
that this Calchas, like a true priest, if it muit needs be fo, went
where he could exercife his profeffion with most advantage. For
it being much lefs common amongst the Greeks than the
Afiatics, there would be a greater demand for it. WARB.

I am afraid, that after all the learned commentator's efforts to clear the argument of Calchas, it will ftill appear liable to objection; nor do I discover more to be urged in his defence, than that though his fkill in divination determined him to leave Troy, yet that he joined himself to Agamemnon and his army by unconstrained good-will; and though he came as a fugitive efcaping from deftru&ion, yet his fervices after his reception, being voluntary and important, deferved reward. This argument is not regularly and diftin&tly deduced, but this is, I think, the beft explication that it will yet admit. JOHNSON. through the fight I bear in things, to Jove] This paffage in all the modern editions is filently depraved, and printed thas:

6

through the fight I bear in things to come.

The

Incurr'd a traitor's name; expos'd myself,
From certain and poffeft conveniencies,
To doubtful fortunes; fequeftring from me all
That time, acquaintance, cuftom, and condition,
Made tame and most familiar to my nature;
And here, to do you fervice, am become
As new into the world, ftrange, unacquainted.
I do befeech you, as in way of taste,

To give me now a little benefit,

Out of thofe many regiftred in promife,
Which, you fay, live to come in my behalf.

Aga. What wouldft thou of us, Trojan? make

demand.

Cal. You have a Trojan prifoner, call'd Antenor, Yesterday took: Troy holds him very dear. Oft have you (often have you thanks therefore) Defir'd my Creflid in right great exchange, Whom Troy hath ftill deny'd: but this Antenor, I know, is fuch a wreft in their affairs, That their negotiations all must flack, Wanting his manage; and they will almost Give us a prince o' the blood, a fon of Priam, In change of him. Let him be fent, great princes, And he fhall buy my daughter; and her prefence Shall quite ftrike off all fervice I have done, 7 In most accepted pain.

Aga. Let Diomedes bear him,

And bring us Creffid hither; Calchas fhall have

The word is fo printed that nothing but the fenfe can determine whether it be love or Jove. I believe that the editors read it as love, and therefore made the alteration to obtain fome. meaning. JOHNSON.

In most accepted pain.] Sir T. HANMER, and Dr. WARBURTON after him, read,

In most accepted pay.

They do not feem to understand the conftruction of the paffage. Her prefence, says Calchas, fall frike off, or recompence the Jervice I have done, even in thefe labours which were most accepted. JOHNSON.

What

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