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, 1 True fwains in love fhall in the world to come -] 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, 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, 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, 3 As truth's authentic author to be cited Cre. Prophet may you be! If I be falfe, or fwerve a hair from truth, From falfe to falfe, among falfe maids in love, Yea, let them fay, to ftick the heart of falfhood, 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 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, Secondly, The abfolute knowledge of the fall of Troy was a 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, To give me now a little benefit, Out of thofe many regiftred in promife, 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 |