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THER. He'll tickle it for his concupy.

TRO. OCressid! Ofalse Cressid! false, false, false! Let all untruths stand by thy stained name,

And they'll seem glorious.

ULYSS.

O, contain yourself;

Your passion draws ears hither.

Enter ENEas.

ENE. I have been seeking you this hour, my
lord:

Hector, by this, is arming him in Troy;
Ajax, your guard, stays to conduct you home.
TRO. Have with you, prince:-My courteous
lord, adieu:-

Farewell, revolted fair!—and, Diomed,
Stand fast, and wear a castle on thy head!5
ULYSS. I'll bring you to the gates.

concupy.] A cant word, formed by our author from concupiscence. STEEVENS.

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and wear a castle on thy head!] i. e. defend thy head with armour of more than common security.

So, in The most ancient and famous History of the renowned Prince Arthur, &c. edit. 1634, ch. clviii: "Do thou thy best, said Sir Gawaine, therefore hie thee fast that thou wert gone, and wit thou well we shall soone come after, and breake the strongest castle that thou hast upon thy head."—Wear a castl, therefore, seems to be a figurative expression, signifying, Keep a castle over your head; i. e. live within the walls of your castle. In Urry's Chaucer, Sir Thopas is represented with a castle by way of crest to his helmet. See, however, Titus Andronicus, Act III. sc. i. STEEVENS.

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I'll bring you &c.] Perhaps this, and the following short speech, originally stood thus:

Ulyss. I'll bring you to the gates, my lord.

Tro.

Distracted thanks. STEEVENS.

Accept

TRO. Accept distracted thanks.

[Exeunt TROILUS, ENEAS, and ULYSSES. THER. 'Would, I could meet that rogue Diomed! I would croak like a raven; I would bode, I would bode. Patroclus will give me any thing for the intelligence of this whore: the parrot will not do more for an almond, than he for a commodious drab. Lechery, lechery; still, wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion: A burning devil take them!" [Exit.

SCENE III.

Troy. Before Priam's Palace.

Enter HECTOR and ANDROMACHE.

AND. When was my lord so much ungently temper'd,

To stop his ears against admonishment?
Unarm, unarm, and do not fight to-day.

HECT. You train me to offend you; get you in: By all the everlasting gods, I'll go.

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AND. My dreams will, sure, prove ominous to the day.8

HECT. No more, I say.

A burning devil take them!] Alluding to the venereal disease, formerly called the brenning or burning.

M. MASON.

So, in Isaiah, iii. 24: "and burning instead of beauty."

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STEEVENS.

My dreams will, sure, prove ominous to the day.] The hint for this dream of Andromache might be either taken from Lydgate, or the following passage in Chaucer's Nonnes Prestes Tale, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 15, 147:

CAS.

Enter CASSANDRA.

Where is my brother Hector? AND. Here, sister; arm'd, and bloody in intent : Consort with me in loud and dear petition,9 Pursue we him on knees; for I have dream'd Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of slaugh

ter.

CAS. O, it is true.

HECT.

Ho! bid my trumpet sound!

CAS. No notes of sally, for the heavens, sweet brother.

"Lo hire Andromacha, Hectores wif,
"That day that Hector shulde lese his lif,
"She dremed on the same night beforne,
"How that the lif of Hector shuld be lorne,
"If thilke day he went into battaile :

"She warned him, but it might not availle;
"He went forth for to fighten natheles,

"And was yslain anon of Achilles." STEEVENS.

My dreams of last night will prove ominous to the day; forebode ill to it, and show that it will be a fatal day to Troy.. So, in the seventh scene of this Act:

66 the quarrel's most ominous to us.”

Again, in King Richard III:

66

O thou bloody prison,

“Fatal and ominous to noble peers!"

Mr. Pope, and all the subsequent editors, read-will ominous to-day. MALONE.

Do we gain any thing more than rough versification by restoring the article-the? The meaning of Andromache (without it) is My dreams will to-day be fatally verified. STEEVENS. dear petition,] Dear, on this occasion, seems to mean important, consequential. So, in King Lear:

9

66

some dear cause

"Will in concealment wrap me up awhile." STEEVENS.

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HECT. Begone, I say: the gods have heard me

swear.

CAS. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish1 vows ; They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd Than spotted livers in the sacrifice.

AND. O! be persuaded: Do not count it holy To hurt by being just: it is as lawful,

For we would give much, to use violent thefts, And rob in the behalf of charity.

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peevish-] i. e. foolish. So, in King Henry VI.

I will not so presume,

"To send such peevish tokens to a king." STEEvens. For we would give &c.] This is so oddly confused in the folio, that I transcribe it as a specimen of incorrectness: do not count it holy,

66

"To hurt by being just; it is as lawful

"For we would count give much to as violent thefts,
"And rob in the behalf of charity." JOHNSON.

I believe we should read:

For we would give much, to use violent thefts,

i.e. to use violent thefts, because we would give much. The word count had crept in from the last line but one.

TYRWHITT.

I have adopted the emendation proposed by Mr. Tyrwhitt. Mr. Rowe cut the knot, instead of untying it, by reading:

For us to count we give what's gain'd by theft, and all the subsequent editors have copied him. The last three lines are not in the quarto, the compositor's eye having probably passed over them; in consequence of which the next speech of Cassandra is in that copy given to Andromache, and joined with the first line of this.

In the first part of Andromache's speech she alludes to a doctrine which Shakspeare has often enforced. "Do not you think you are acting virtuously by adhering to an oath, if you have sworn to do amiss." So, in King John:

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"The truth is then most done, not doing it." MALOne.

CAS. It is the purpose, that makes strong the vow; But vows, to every purpose, must not hold: Unarm, sweet Hector.

HECT. Hold you still, I say; Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate :4 Life every man holds dear; but the dear man Holds honour far more precious-dear than life.—

Enter TROILUS.

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How now, young man? mean'st thou to fight today?

AND. Cassandra, call my father to persuade. [Exit CASSANdra. HECT. No, 'faith, young Troilus; doff thy harness, youth,

3 It is the purpose,] The mad prophetess speaks here with all the coolness and judgment of a skilful casuist. "The essence of a lawful vow, is a lawful purpose, and the vow of which the end is wrong must not be regarded as cogent." JOHNSON.

Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate:] If this be not a nautical phrase, which I cannot well explain or apply, perhaps we should read:

Mine honour keeps the weather off my fate:

i. e. I am secured by the cause I am engaged in; mine honour will avert the storms of fate, will protect my life amidst the dangers of the field.—A somewhat similar phrase occurs in The Tempest:

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"In the lime grove that weather-fends our cell."

STEEVENS.

Valuable man. The modern editions The repetition of the word is in our author's

dear man -] read-brave man. manner. JOHNSON.

So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not."

Brave was substituted for dear by Mr.

STEEVENS.

Pope. MALONE.

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