'Heare Troians, and ye well arm'd Greeks, what my strong mind (diffusde Through all my spirits) commands me speake; Saturnius hath not usde His promist favour for our truce, but (studying both our ils) This shall posteritie report, and my fame never die." (4) SCENE III.-Blockish Ajar.] From the subjoined description of the Ajaxes as portrayed by Lydgate, it would appear that Shakespeare, for dramatic effect, had purposely confounded Ajax Telamonius with Ajax Oileus :— "Oileus Ayax was right corpulent, There was also dyscrete and vertuous, "The auncient Historie and onely trewe and syncere Cronicle et the warres betwixt the Grecians and the Troyans," &c. fol. 1555. Book II. chap. 15. ACT II. (1) SCENE I.-THERSITES.] Hideous in person, impious and gross in speech, cowardly and vindictive by disposition, this remarkable character, by sheer intellectual vigour, seems to tower high above all the mere corporeal grace and strength by which he is surrounded; and the portrait is essentially Shakespeare's own creation, for the Thersites of Homer, on which we may suppose it founded, is nothing better than a vulgar, waspish railer, without a spark of wit or of intelligence to redeem his moral and physical obliquity: "All sate, and audience gave; Thersites onely would speake all. A most disorderd store Of words, he foolishly powrd out; of which his mind held more Than it could manage, any thing, with which he could procure Laughter, he never could containe. He should have yet been sure To touch no kings. T'oppose their states, becomes not jesters parts. But he, the filthiest fellow was, of all that had deserts In Troyes brave siege: he was squint-eyd, and lame of either foote: So crooke backt, that he had no breast; sharp-headed, where did shoote (Here and there sperst) thjn mossie haire. He most of all envide Ulysses and acides, whom still his splene would chide; Nor could the sacred king himselfe, avoide his saucie vaine, Against whom, since he knew the Greekes, did vehement hates sustaine (Being angrie for Achilles wrong) he cride out; railing thus: Atrides! why complainst thou now? what wouldst thou more of us? Thy tents are full of brasse, and dames; the choice of all are thine: With whom, we must present thee first, when any townes resigne To our invasion. Wantst thou then (besides all this) more gold From Troyes knights, to redeeme their sonnes? whom, to be dearely sold, I, or some other Greeke, must take? or wouldst thou yet againe, Force from some other Lord his prise; to sooth the lusts that raigne In thy encroching appetite? it fits no Prince to be A Prince of ill, and governe us; or leade our progenie ACT III. (1) SCENE II.-So, so; rub on, and kiss the mistress.] The small bowl aimed at in the game of Bowling, it has before been mentioned, was occasionally termed the Mistree. See note ("), p. 722, Vol. II. Perhaps the best illustration of this popular amusement and its technical phraseology, as practised in our author's day, is that given in Quarles" Emblems" (Emb. 10, b. 1.): "Here's your right ground; wag gently o'er this black : On this bowl's side; blow wind, 'tis fairly thrown: Were both too short to serve their loose delight: One rubs his itchless elbow, shrugs and laughs, The other bends his beetle brows and chafes: Sometimes they whoop, sometimes their Stygian cries Come, reader, come; I'll light thine eye the way To cheer the lads, and crown the conqu'ror's brow. Who breathes that bowls not? What bold tongue can say Without a blush, he has not bowl'd to-day? It is the trade of man, and ev'ry sinner Has play'd his rubbers: every soul's a winner. The vulgar proverb's crost, he hardly can Be a good bowler and an honest man. Good God! turn thou my Brazil thoughts anew; (2) SCENE II.-To feed for aye her lamp and flames of lore.] Here, as in other passages where Troilus exhibits a presentiment of his lady's inconstancy, we can trace the influence of the "Troylus and Cryseyde: "— "But natheles, myn owene ladi bright! That I youre humble servaunt and your knyght Yit schulde I the better endure al my peyne." (3) SCENE II.-As false as Cressid.] The protestations of the fickle beauty in the old poem are not less confident; compare the following: "To that Cryseyde answerid right anoone, And with a sigh sche seide, 'O herte dere! And her declaration subsequently:- "And this, on every god celestial I swere it yow, and ek on ech goddesse, (4) SCENE III.-Which, you say, live to come in my behalf.] This appeal of Calchas to the Greeks recals the corresponding circumstance in Chaucer : "Then seyd he thus, Lo! lordis myn, I was A Troyan, as it is knowe, out of drede; "And in what forme, and yn what maner wise "Save of a doghter that I left, alas! I may her have, for that is douteles: O, help and grace! among all this pres, Thurgh yow seth I am brought in wrecchidnes! "Tellyng his tale alwèy, this olde gray, Y "Pandare, on morwe whiche that comen was "And nigh he come and seid, How stant it now? (2) SCENE IV. To our own selves bend we our needful talk.] The parting of the lovers, if not more natural, is managed with more pathos and delicacy in the elder poet: "Cryseyde, when she redy was to ride, Ful sorwfully she sighte, and seyde, Allas!' What wonder is, though that hyre soore smerte, "This Troylus, in gise of curteysie, With hauke on hond, and with an huge route "And right with that was Antenor ycome "And therwithal he moot his leve take, "With that his courser turned he about, As he that konthe moore than the crede In swiche a craft, and by the reyne hire hente, And Troylus to Troye homwarde wente." (3) SCENE V.-HECTOR and AJAX fight.] In Chapman's Homer, the combat is described with uncommon pomp and spirit: "This said, in bright armes shone The good strong Ajax: who, when all his waire attire was on, Marcht like the hugely figur'd Mars, when angry Jupiter, With strength, on people proud of strength, sends him forth to inferre Wreakfull contention; and comes on, with presence full of feare; joynts Of all the Troians; Hectors selfe felt thoughts, with horrid points, Did frame it for exceeding proofe, and wrought it wondrous well. All thy bold challenge can import: begin then, words are vaine. I triumph in the crueltie of fixed combat fight, shield, Neere to the upper skirt of brasse, which was the eighth it held. Sixe folds th' untamed dart strooke through, and in the seventh tough hide The point was checkt; then Ajax threw his angry lance did glide Quite through his bright orbicular targe, his curace, shirt of maile; drous great. Againe Priamides did wound, in midst, his shield of brasse, Full on the bosse; and round about the brasse did ring with it. streight. Then had they layd on wounds with swords, in use of closer fight; Doth love you both; both souldiers are, all witnesse with good right: But now night lays her mace on earth; tis good t'obey the night." ACT V. (1) SCENE II.-Here, Diomed, keep this sleeve.] Steevens cites several passages from our old writers to show that it was customary for warriors to wear a lady's sleeve for a favour; the sleeve which Cressida bestows on Diomed, however, was that she had received from Troilus at their parting. Malone supposes it to have been such a one as was formerly used at tournaments:-" Also the deepe smocke sleive, which the Irish women use, they say, was old Spanish, and is used yet in Barbary; and yet that should seeme rather to be an old English fashion, for in armory the fashion of the manche, which is given in armes by many, being indeed nothing else but a sleive, is fashioned much like to that sleive."-SPENSER'S View of Ireland, p. 43, edit. 1633. (2) SCENE II.-Rather think this not Cressid.] The grief of Troylus for his "light o' love" is beautifully told by the elder poet : "Than spak he thus:-O, lady myn Cryseyde, Wher is youre love, wher is youre trouth?' he seyde, "Who shal nowe trowe on any other mo? "Was there non other broche yow liste lete You yaf, as for a remembra unce of me? "Thorwgh which I se, that clene out of youre minde Ye han me caste, and ne kan nor may For al this world withinne myn herte fynde, (3) SCENE IX. And hangs his shield behind him.] The circumstance of Hector being overpowered by Achilles and bis followers when unarmed, the author is believed to have taken from Lydgate's poem : "And in this while a grekishe kinge he mette, The which in sothe on his cote armure Of whose arraye when Hector taketh hede, And fyrst I fynde how he hath hym slawe, CRITICAL OPINIONS ON TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. "THE "Troilus and Cressida' of Shakspeare can scarcely be classed with his dramas of Greek and Roman history; but it forms an intermediate link between the fictitious Greek and Roman histories, which we may call legendary dramas, and the proper ancient histories. There is no one of Shakspeare's plays harder to characterise. The name and the remembrances connected with it prepare us for the representation of attachment no less faithful than fervent on the side of the youth, and of sudden and shameless inconstancy on the part of the lady. And this is, indeed, as the gold thread on which the scenes are strung, though often kept out of sight and out of mind by gems of greater value than itself. But as Shakspeare calls forth nothing from the mausoleum of history, or the catacombs of tradition, without giving or eliciting some permanent and general interest, and brings forward no subject which he does not moralize or intellectualize,‚—so here he has drawn in Cressida the portrait of a vehement passion, that, having its true origin and proper cause in warmth of temperament, fastens on, rather than fixes to, some one object by liking and temporary preference. 'There's language in her eye, her cheek, her lip, "This Shakspeare has contrasted with the profound affection represented in Troilus, and alone worthy the name of love ;-affection, passionate indeed, swoln with the confluence of youthful instincts and youthful fancy, and growing in the radiance of hope newly risen, in short enlarged by the collective sympathies of nature;—but still having a depth of calmer element in a will stronger than desire, more entire than choice, and which gives permanence to its own act by converting it into faith and duty. Hence, with excellent judgment, and with an excellence higher than mere judgment can give, at the close of the play, when Cressida has sunk into infamy below retrieval and beneath hope, the same will, which had been the substance and the basis of his love, while the restless pleasures and passionate longings, like sea-waves, had tossed but on its surface, this same moral energy is represented as snatching him aloof from all neighbourhood with her dishonour, from all lingering fondness and languishing regrets, whilst it rushes with him into other and nobler duties, and deepens the channel which his heroic brother's death had left empty for its collected flood. Yet another secondary and subordinate purpose Shakspeare has inwoven with his delineation of these two characters,-that of opposing the inferior civilization, but purer morals, of the Trojans, to the refinements, deep policy, but duplicity and sensual corruptions, of the Greeks. "To all this, however, so little comparative projection is given,-nay, the masterly group of Agamemnon, Nestor, and Ulysses, and, still more in advance, that of Achilles, Ajax, and Thersites, so manifestly occupy the foreground, that the subservience and vassalage of strength and animal courage to intellect and policy seems to be the lesson most often in our poet's view, and which he has taken little pains to connect with the former more interesting moral impersonated in the titular hero and heroine of the drama. But I am half inclined to believe, that Shakspeare's main object, or shall I rather say, his ruling impulse, was to translate the poetic heroes of paganism into the not less rude, but more intellectually vigorous, and more featurely, warriors of Christian chivalry,-and to substantiate the distinct and graceful profiles or outlines of the Homeric epic into the flesh and blood of the romantic drama,—in short, to give a grand history-piece in the robust style of Albert Durer. "The character of Thersites, in particular, well deserves a more careful examination, as the Caliban of demagogic life ;-the admirable portrait of intellectual power deserted by all grace, all moral principle, all not momentary impulse ;-just wise enough to detect the weak head, and fool enough to provoke the armed fist of his betters ;-one whom malcontent Achilles can inveigle from malcontent Ajax, under the one condition, that he shall be called on to do nothing but abuse and slander, and that he shall be allowed to abuse as much and as purulently as he likes, that is, as he can ;-in short, a mule,—quarrelsome by the original discord of his nature,- -a slave by tenure of his own baseness,-made to bray and be brayed at, to despise and be despicable."-COLERIDGE. |