that brought forth Venus. Amongst all there is none more witty then this; and bad I time I would comment upon it, though I know it needs not, (for so much as will make you thinke your testern well bestowd,) but for so much worth, as euen poore I know to be ftuft in it. It deferves fuch a labour, as well as the best commedy in Terence or Plautus: and beleeue this, that when bee is gone, and his commedies out of fale, you will fcramble for them, and set up a new English inquisition. Take this for a warning, and at the perill of your pleasures loffe, and iudgments, refufe not, nor like this the leffe for not being fullied, with the Smoaky breath of the multitude; but thanke fortune for the 'Scape it bath made amongst you. Since by the grand possessors' wills, I believe, you should have prayd for them, rather then beene prayd. And fo I leaue all fuch to bee prayd for (for the ftates of their wits healths) that will not praise it.

VOL. IX. B

- Vale.

CALCHAS, a Trojan Priest, taking part with the Greeks.

PANDARUS, Uncle to Cressida.

AGAMEMNON, the Grecian General.

MENELAUS, his Brother.

THERSITES, a deformed and scurrilous Grecian.

ALEXANDER, Servant to Cressida; Servant to Troilus; Servant to Paris; Servant to Diomedes.

HELEN, Wife to Menelaus.

ANDROMACHE, Wife to Hector.

CASSANDRA, Daughter to Priam; a Prophetess.
CRESSIDA, Daughter to Calchas.

Trojan and Greek Soldiers, and Attendants.

SCENE: Troy, and a Grecian Camp before it.

-THE PROLOGUE.

IN Troy, there lies the scene. From isles of Greece

The princes orgulous, their high blood chaf'd, Have to the port of Athens sent their ships, Fraught with the ministers and instruments Of cruel war sixty and nine, that wore Their crownets regal, from th' Athenian bay Put forth toward Phrygia; and their vow is made To ransack Troy, within whose strong immures The ravish'd Helen, Menelaus' queen,

With wanton Paris sleeps; and that's the quarrel.
To Tenedos they come;

And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorge
Their warlike fraughtage: now on Dardan plains
The fresh and yet unbruised Greeks do pitch
Their brave pavilions: Priam's six-gated city,
Dardan, and Tymbria, Helias, Chetas, Trojan,
-And Antenorides, with massy staples
-And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts,
Sperr up the sons of Troy.

Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits
On one and other side, Trojan and Greek,
Sets all on hazard. - And hither am I come
A prologue arm'd, — but not in confidence
Of author's pen, or actor's voice, but suited
In like conditions as our argument

To tell you, fair beholders, that our play
Leaps o'er the vant and firstlings of those broils,
Beginning in the middle; starting thence away
To what may be digested in a play.

Like, or find fault; do as your pleasures are;
Now good, or bad, 'tis but the chance of war.

CALL

Why shall I war without the walls of Troy,

That find such cruel battle here within?

Each Trojan that is master of his heart,

Let him to field: Troilus, alas! hath none.

Pandarus. Will this gear ne'er be mended?

Tro. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their strength,

Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant;
But I am weaker than a woman's tear,
Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance,
Less valiant than the virgin in the night,
And skill-less as unpractis'd infancy.

Pan. Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part, I'll not meddle nor make no farther. He that will have a cake out of the wheat must tarry the grinding.

Tro. Have I not tarried?