Enter TROILUS. How now, young man? mean'ft thou to fight today? AND. Caffandra, call my father to persuade. [Exit CASSANDra. HECT. NO, 'faith, young Troilus; doff thy har nefs, youth, I am to-day i'the vein of chivalry: Let grow thy finews till their knots be strong, TRO. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you, Which better fits a lion, than a man. HECT. What vice is that, good Troilus? chide me for it. TRO. When many times the captive Grecians fall, Even in the fan and wind of your fair fword, So, in Romeo and Juliet: "This is dear mercy, and thou feeft it not." STEEVENS. Brave was fubftituted for dear by Mr. Pope. MALONE. 4 Which better fits a lion,] The traditions and ftories of the darker ages abounded with examples of the lion's generofity. Upon the fuppofition that thefe acts of clemency were true, Troilus reafons not improperly, that to fpare against reason, by mere inftinct of pity, became rather a generous beaft than a wife man. JOHNSON. Hence Spenfer's Una, attended by a lion. Faery Queen, I. iii. 7. See alfo Sir Perceval's lion in Morte Arthur, B. XIV. c. vi. T. WARTON. 5 When many times the captive Grecians fall,You bid them rife, and live.] Shakspeare feems not to have ftudied the Homeric character of Hector, whofe difpofition was by HECT. O, 'tis fair play. TRO. Fool's play, by heaven, Hector. HECT. HOW now? how now? TRO. Let's leave the hermit pity with our mother; And when we have our armours buckled on, The venom'd vengeance ride upon our fwords; Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth. HECT. Fie, favage, fie! For the love of all the gods, TRO. Hector, then 'tis wars. HECT. Troilus, I would not have you fight to day. TRO. Who fhould withhold me? Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars Their eyes o'ergalled with recourfe of tears; no means inclined to clemency, as we may learn from Andromache's fpeech in the 24th Iliad: Οὐ γάρ μέιλικος ἔσκε πατὴρ τεὸς ἐν δαΐ λυγρῆ. "Thy father, boy, bore never into fight Cowper. Pope. STEEVENS. 6 Hector, then 'tis wars.] I fuppofe, for the fake of metre, we ought to read: Why, Hector, then 'tis wars. Shakspeare frequently ufes this adverb emphatically, as in A Midfummer Night's Dream: "Ninus' tomb, man: Why, you must not fpeak that yet." STEEVENS. 7 with fiery truncheon-] We have here but a modern Mars. Antiquity acknowledges no fuch enfign of command as a truncheon. The fpirit of the paffage however is such as might atone for a greater impropriety. STEEVENS. 8 — with recourfe of tears;] i. e. tears that continue to course one another down the face. WARBURTON. Nor you, my brother, with your true sword drawn, Re-enter CASSANDRA, with PRIAM. CAS. Lay hold upon him, Priam, hold him fast: He is thy crutch; now if thou lose thy stay, Thou on him leaning, and all Troy on thee, Fall all together. PRI. Come, Hector, come, go back: Thy wife hath dreamt; thy mother hath had vi fions; Caffandra doth forefee; and I myself HECT. Æneas is a-field; And I do ftand engag'd to many Greeks, PRI. But thou shalt not go. HECT. I muft not break my faith. 9 You know me dutiful; therefore, dear fir, CAS. O Priam, yield not to him. AND. Do not, dear father. So, in As you like it: 66 the big round tears "Cours'd one another down his innocent nose STEEVENS. 9-shame refpe&;] i. e. difgrace the refpect I owe you, by acting in oppofition to your commands. STEEVENS. HECT. Andromache, I am offended with you: Upon the love you bear me, get you in. [Exit ANDROMACHE. TRO. This foolish, dreaming, fuperftitious girl Makes all these bodements. CAS. O farewell, dear Hector.' Look, how thou dieft! look, how thy eye turns pale! Look, how thy wounds do bleed at many vents! And all cry-Hector! Hector's dead! O Hector! CAS. Farewell.-Yet, foft:-Hector, I take my leave: Thou doft thyself and all our Troy deceive. [Exit. HECT. You are amaz'd, my liege, at her exclaim: Go in, and cheer the town: we'll forth, and fight; Do deeds worth praise, and tell you them at night. PRI. Farewell: The gods with safety stand about thee! [Exeunt feverally PRIAM and HECTOR. Alarums. 2 O farewell, dear Hedor.] The interpofition and clamorous forrow of Caffandra were copied by our author from Lydgate. STEEVENS. 3fhrills ber dolours-] So, in Heywood's Silver Age, 1613: "Through all th' abyfs I have 4 Behold, deftruction, frenzy, &c.] brill'd thy daughter's lofs, STEEVENS. So the quarto. The editor of the folio, for deftruction fubftituted diftraction. The original reading appears to me far preferable. MALONE. TRO. They are at it; hark! Proud Diomed, be lieve, I come to lose my arm, or win my sleeve.' As TROILUS is going out, enter, from the other fide, PAN. Do you hear, my lord? do you hear? PAN. Here's a letter from yon' poor girl. In the folios and one of the quartos, this scene is continued by the following dialogue between Pandarus and Troilus, which the poet certainly meant to have been inferted at the end of the play, where the three concluding lines of it are repeated in the copies already mentioned. There can be no doubt but that the players fhuffled the parts backward and forward, ad libitum; for the poet would hardly have given us an unneceffary repetition of the fame words, nor have difmiffed Pandarus twice in the fame manner. The conclufion of the piece will fully juftify the liberty which any future commentator may take in omitting the scene here and placing it at the end, where at prefent only the few lines already mentioned are to be found. STEEVENS. I do not conceive that any editor has a right to make the tranfpofition propofed, though it has been done by Mr. Capell. The three lines alluded to by Mr. Steevens, which are found in the folio at the end of this fcene, as well as near the conclufion of the play, (with a very flight variation,) are thefe: "Pand. Why but hear you. "Tro. Hence, broker lacquey! Ignomy and fhame "Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy name!" But in the original copy in quarto there is no repetition (except of the words-But hear you); no abfurdity or impropriety. In that copy the following dialogue between Troilus and Pandarus is found in its prefent place, precifely as it is here given; but the three lines above quoted do not contitute any part of the scene. For the repetition of thofe three lines, the players, or the editor of the folio, alone are answerable. It never could have been intended by the poet. I have therefore followed the original copy. |