Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

And gives memorial dainty kisses to it,

As I kiss thee.-Nay, do not snatch it from me; He, that takes that, must take my heart withal. Dio. I had your heart before, this follows it. TRO. I did swear patience.

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?

CRES.

DIO. Come, tell me whose it was.

'Tis no matter.

you

CRES. 'Twas one's that loved me better than

will.

But, now you have it, take it.

DIO.

Whose was it?

CRES. By all Diana's waiting-women yonder, And by herself, I will not tell you whose.

* As I kiss thee. &c.] In old editions:

As I kiss thee.

Dio. Nay, do not snatch it from me.

Cres. He, that takes that, must take my heart withal. Dr. Thirlby thinks this should be all placed to Cressida. She had the sleeve, and was kissing it rapturously; and Diomedes snatches it back from her. THEOBALD.

8

By all Diana's waiting-women yonder,] i. e. the stars, which she points to. WARBURTON.

So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece:

"The silver-shining queen he would distain;

"Her twinkling hand-maids too, by him defil'd,

[ocr errors]

Through night's black bosom should not peep again."

MALONE.

Milton, in his Elegy I. v. 77, has imitated Shakspeare: cœlo scintillant astra sereno

66

"Endymionea turba ministra dea." STEEVENS.

DIO. To-morrow will I wear it on my helm; And grieve his spirit, that dares not challenge it. TRO. Wert thou the devil, and wor'st it on thy horn,

It should be challeng'd.

CRES. Well, well, 'tis done, 'tis past ;-And yet it is not;

I will not keep my word.

DIO.

Why then, farewell; Thou never shalt mock Diomed again.

CRES. You shall not go:-One cannot speak a

word,

But it straight starts you.

DIO.

I do not like this fooling.

THER. Nor I, by Pluto : but that that likes not

you, pleases me best.

D10. What, shall I come? the hour?

CRES.

Do come :-I shall be plagu❜d.

DIO.

Ay, come:-O Jove!

[ocr errors]

Farewell till then.

CRES. Good night. I pr'ythee, come.

[Exit DIOMEDEs. Troilus, farewell!' one eye yet looks on thee; But with my heart the other eye doth see.2

9 Ther. Nor I, by Pluto: &c.] Sir Thomas Hanmer gives this speech to Troilus. It does not very much resemble the language of Thersites. If indeed it belongs to the former character, it should assume a metrical form, though it is here given as it stands in the folio, and the quarto 1609, "imprinted by G. Eld, for R. Bonian and H. Walley." STEEVENS.

1 Troilus, farewell!] The characters of Cressida and Pandarus are more immediately formed from Chaucer than from Lydgate; for though the latter mentions them both characteristically, he does not sufficiently dwell on either to have furnished

Ah! poor our sex! this fault in us I find,
The error of our eye directs our mind:
What error leads, must err; O then conclude,
Minds, sway'd by eyes, are full of turpitude.
[Exit CRESSIDA.

THER. A proof of strength she could not publish

more,

3

Unless she said, My mind is now turn'd whore.
ULYSS. All's done, my lord.

TRO.

ULYSS.

It is.

Why stay we then? TRO. To make a recordation to my soul Of every syllable that here was spoke. But, if I tell how these two did co-act, Shall I not lie in publishing a truth? Sith yet there is a credence in my heart, An esperance so obstinately strong, That doth invert the attest of eyes

and ears;

Shakspeare with many circumstances to be found in this tragedy. Lydgate, speaking of Cressida, says only:

"She gave her heart and love to Diomede,

"To shew what trust there is in woman kind;
"For she of her new love no sooner sped,
"But Troilus was cleane out of her mind,

"As if she never had him known or seen,
"Wherein I cannot guess what she did mean."
STEEVENS.

* But with my heart &c.] I think it should be read thus: But my heart with the other eye doth see. JOHNSON. Perhaps, rather:

But with the other eye my heart doth see. TYRWhitt. The present reading is right. She means to say-“ one eye yet looks on thee, Troilus, but the other corresponds with my heart, and looks after Diomedes." M. MASON.

A proof of strength she could not publish more,] She could not publish a stronger proof. JOHNSON.

* That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears ;] i. e. that

« AnteriorContinuar »