Thersites. Why, thou picture of what thou seemest, and idol of idiot-worshippers, here's a letter for thee. Patr. Why, thou box of envy, thou, what meanest thou to curse thus ? Ther. Do I curse thee? Both taxing me and 'gaging me to keep Pair. Why, no, you ruinous butt; you indis- Fall Greeks; fail fame; honour or go or stay; tinguishable cur, no. Ther. No! why art thou, then, exasperate, thou idle immaterial skein of sleave-silk,5 thou green sarcenet flap for a sore eye, thou tassel of a prodigal's purse, thou? Ah! how the poor world is pestered with such waterflies,-diminutives of nature! Patr. Out, gall! Ther. Finch-egg! Achil. My sweet Patroclus, I am thwarted quite 5. Sleave-silk. 'Raw silk,' 'unwrought silk.' 6. One that loves quails. "Quails" was a cant name for common women; and it has been supposed that in the present passage the word is used in this sense. We think, however, that the sentence may bear reference to the antique custom of My major vow lies here, this I'll obey.- [Exeunt ACHILLES and PATROCLUS. Ther. With too much blood and too little brain, these two may run mad; but, if with too much brain and too little blood they do, I'll be a curer of madmen. Here's Agamemnon,- an honest fellow enough, and one that loves quails; but he has not so much brain as ear-wax: and the goodly transformation of Jupiter there, his brother, matching quails against one another, as cocks are more modernly matched. Shakespeare elsewhere has alluded to this ancient practice (in "Antony and Cleopatra," Act ii., sc 3), and we think it probable that here "loves quails" inay be equivalent to is fond of quail-fighting,' 'is fond of gambling with quails.' the bull, the primitive statue, and oblique memorial of wittols; a thrifty shoeing-horn in a chain, hanging at his brother's leg,-to what form, but that he is, should wit larded with malice, and malice forced with wit, turn him to? To an ass, were notning; he is both ass and ox: to an ox, were nothing; he is both ox and ass. To be a dog, a mule, a cat, a fitchew, a toad, a lizard, an owl, a puttock, or a herring without a roe, I would not care; but to be Menelaus,-I would conspire against destiny. Ask me not what I would be, if I were not Thersites; for I care not, so I were not Menelaus.-Hey-day! spirits and fires! 10 Enter HECTOR, TROILUS, AJAX, AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES, NESTOR, MENELAUS, and DIOMEDES, with lights. Agam. We go wrong, we go wrong. There, where we see the lights. Hect. No, yonder 'tis ; I trouble you. Ajax. No, not a whit. Ulyss. Here comes himself to guide you. Re-enter ACHILLES. Achil. [Exit DIOMEDES; ULYSSES and TROILUS, following. Come, come, enter my tent. [Exeunt ACHILLES, HECTOR, Ajax, and NESTOR. Ther. That same Diomed's a false-hearted rogue, a most unjust knave; I will no more trust him when he leers, than I will a serpent when he hisses he will spend his mouth, and promise, like Brabbler 12 the hound; but when he performs, astronomers foretell it; it is prodigious, 13 there will come some change; the sun borrows of the moon, when Diomed keeps his word. I will rather leave to see Hector,14 than not to dog him: I'll after. [Exit. SCENE II.-The Grecian Camp. Before CAL CHAS' Tent. Enter DIOMEDES. Dio. What are you up here? ho! speak. Diomed.-Calchas, I think. Where's your daughter? Cal. [Within.] She comes to you. Enter TROILUS and ULYSSES, at a distance; after Tro. Cressid comes forth to him! Dio. How now, my charge! Cres. Now, my sweet guardian!-Hark, a word with you. Tro. Yea, so familiar! [Whispers. Ulyss. She will sing any man at first sight. ́ Tro. And any man may sing her, if he can take her cliff; 15 she's noted. Dio. Will you remember? Dio. Remember! yes. Nay, but do, then; And let your mind be coupled with your words. 13. Prodigious. Here used for auguring some prodigy, presaging some portent; 'portentous,' ominous.' 14. I will rather leave, &c. I will rather give up seeing Hector, than not follow Diomed. 15. Cliff. A mark employed in musical notation, indicating the particular portion of the gamut for which the stave upon which it is placed is intended, and also denoting what kind of voice is to sing this stave,-whether bass, tenor, alto, or treble. The word "cliff" being derived from the French, clef, key, permits an included sense in this sentence, expressing, 'if he knew what voice to use and what key to take her in.' Thy master now lies thinking in his bed Of thee and me; and sighs, and takes my glove, As I kiss thee.-Nay, do not snatch it from me; 17 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? 'Tis no matter. 19. do not like.' That that likes not you. "That which you See Note 8, Act iii., Henry V." 20. Ah! poor our sex! An exclamation of transposed construction somewhat similar to the one pointed out in Note 7, Act i. of this play. See also Note 3, Act i., "As You Like It." 21. Sith. Sithence; since. See Note 54, Act i., "Taming of the Shrew." 22. Esperance. The French word for hope;' it was adopted into English, and occasionally used by other writers beside Shakespeare. See Note 51, Act ii., First Part Henry IV." Tro. Let it not be believ'd for womanhood! Think, we had mothers; do not give advantage To stubborn critics,”—apt, without a theme, For depravation,-to square the general sex 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. Ther. Will he swagger himself out on 's own eyes? Tro. This she? no, this is Diomed's Cressida: This is not she. Oh, madness of discourse, 26 And with another knot, five-finger-tied,30 'lead together,'' assemble;' and a "fight" represents the elements of a fight, the contending forces, the tumultuous feelings, the battling emotions that surge and meet tumultuously within the speaker's soul, brought together by the strength of passion. 28. A thing inseparate, &c. A thing so inseparable as personal individuality, ― Cressida's identity with herself, -becomes in my mind more widely divided than are the sky and the earth.' This has been strangely interpreted by Malone; but we think that the consecution of the thought in the speaker's mind, although most characteristically expressed in agitated sentences, is visible throughout, and clearly shows that "a thing inseparate" refers to personal identity. Troilus is trying to persuade himself that the false woman he has just seen is not his Cressida, and yet he is conscious that she is no other than her own heartless self. 29. Arachne's broken woof. The name is spelt Ariachnes' in the Folio, probably for the sake of the metre. Arachne was a skilful needlewoman who dared to vie with Minerva herself; whereat the goddess was so incensed, that she transformed her human rival into a spider. "Woof" here, therefore, poetically implies a cobweb. 30. Another knot, five-finger-tied. Another bond, formed by a clasp of her hand.' Tro. O Cressid! oh, false Cressid! false, false, false ! Inflam'd with Venus: never did young man fancy 32 Let all untruths stand by thy stained name, With so eternal and so fix'd a soul. Hark, Greek :-as much as I do Cressid love, 31. May worthy Troilus be half attach'd with that which here, &c. 'Can Troilus really be even half as much overpowered by the emotions he so passionately expresses as he seems to be?' Shakespeare elsewhere uses "attached with " in the sense of seized by, laid hold of, possessed by, over And they'll seem glorious. Ulyss. Oh, contain yourself; Your passion draws ears hither. VOL III. 174 |