Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Cres. O! a brave man.

Pan. Is 'a not? It does a man's heart good-Look you what hacks are on his helmet! look you yonder, do you see? look you there. There's no jesting: there's laying on, take't off who will, as they say: there be hacks!

Cres. Be those with swords?

PARIS passes over.

Pan. Swords? any thing, he cares not; an the devil come to him, it's all one: by god's lid, it does one's heart good.-Yonder comes Paris; yonder comes Paris look ye yonder, niece: is't not a gallant man too, is't not?-Why, this is brave now.-Who said he came hurt home to-day? he's not hurt: why, this will do Helen's heart good now. Ha! would I could see Troilus now.-You shall see Troilus anon.

Cres. Who's that?

HELENUS passes over.

Pan. That's Helenus.-I marvel, where Troilus is. That's Helenus.-I think he went not forth to-day.That's Helenus.

Cres. Can Helenus fight, uncle?

Pan. Helenus? no;-yes, he'll fight indifferent well. -I marvel, where Troilus is.-Hark! do you not hear the people cry, Troilus ?-Helenus is a priest. Cres. What sneaking fellow comes yonder?

TROILUS passes over.

Pan. Where? yonder? that's Deiphobus.-Tis Troilus! there's a man, niece!-Hem!-Brave Troilus, the prince of chivalry!

Cres. Peace! for shame; peace!

Pan. Mark him; note him.-O brave Troilus!look well upon him, niece: look you how his sword is

bloodied, and his helm more hack'd than Hector's; and how he looks, and how he goes!-O admirable youth! he ne'er saw three and twenty. Go thy way, Troilus, go thy way: had I a sister were a grace, or a daughter a goddess, he should take his choice. O admirable man! Paris?-Paris is dirt to him; and, I warrant, Helen, to change, would give an eye to boots.

Soldiers pass over the Stage.

Cres. Here come more.

Pan. Asses, fools, dolts, chaff and bran, chaff and bran; porridge after meat. I could live and die i'the eyes of Troilus. Ne'er look, ne'er look: the eagles are gone; crows and daws, crows and daws. I had rather be such a man as Troilus, than Agamemnon and all Greece.

Cres. There is among the Greeks Achilles, a better man than Troilus.

Pan. Achilles? a drayman, a porter, a very camel. Cres. Well, well.

Pan. Well, well?-Why, have you any discretion? have you any eyes? Do you know what a man is? Is not birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that season a man?

Cres. Ay, a minced man: and then to be baked with no date in the pyes,-for then the man's date's

out.

Pan. You are such a woman! one knows not at what ward you lie.

3

would give an eye to boot.] The folio reads poorly "would give money to boot," but there is little doubt that it was a misprint of the quarto.

and such like,] The folio reads, " and so forth." Lower down, for "such a woman," the folio reads, " such another woman."

5 — no DATE in the pye,] Dates (says Steevens) were an ingredient in ancient pastry of almost every kind. We have had the same play upon the word in "All's Well that Ends Well," Vol. iii. p. 212.

Cres. Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon my wit, to defend my wiles; upon my secrecy, to defend mine honesty; my mask, to defend my beauty; and you, to defend all these: and at all these wards I lie, at a thousand watches.

Pan. Say one of your watches.

Cres. Nay, I'll watch you for that; and that's one of the chiefest of them too: if I cannot ward what I would not have hit, I can watch you for telling how I took the blow, unless it swell past hiding, and then it's past watching.

Pan. You are such another!

Enter TROILUS' Boy.

Boy. Sir, my lord would instantly speak with you.
Pan. Where?

Boy. At your own house; there he unarms him.
Pan. Good boy, tell him I come.

[Exit Boy.

I doubt he be hurt.-Fare ye well, good niece.

Cres. Adieu, uncle.

Pan. I'll be with you, niece, by and by.

Cres. To bring, uncle,

Pan. Ay, a token from Troilus.

Cres. By the same token, you are a bawd.—

[Exit PANDARus.

Words, vows, gifts, tears', and love's full sacrifice,
He offers in another's enterprize;

But more in Troilus thousand fold I see,
Than in the glass of Pandar's praise may be.
Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing:

Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing:
That she belov'd knows nought, that knows not this,-
Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is:

That she was never yet, that ever knew

6

there he unarms him.] These words are omitted in the folio.

7 Words, vows, GIFTS, tears,] Malone (Shakesp. by Boswell, viii. 250) reads griefs for "gifts," as it stands in all the old copies.

Love got so sweet as when desire did sue.
Therefore, this maxim out of love I teach,—
Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech:
Then, though my heart's content firm love doth bear,
Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear.

[Exit.

SCENE III.

The Grecian Camp. Before AGAMEMNON'S Tent.

Sennet. Enter AGAMEMNON, NESTOR, ULYSSES,
MENELAUS, and Others.

Agam. Princes,

What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks?
The ample proposition, that hope makes

In all designs begun on earth below,

Fails in the promis'd largeness: checks and disasters
Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd;

As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap,
Infect the sound pine, and divert his grain
Tortive and errant from his course of growth.
Nor, princes, is it matter new to us,

That we come short of our suppose so far,
That after seven years' siege yet Troy walls stand;
Sith every action that hath gone before,

› Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech:] Steevens justly terms this an obscure line, though a meaning may be extracted from it—that meaning being, that when women have once yielded, or have been achieved, they are commanded, but while they are ungained, they are besought. The Rev. Mr. Harness has suggested a very easy and plausible change, which gives the full sense of the author in very distinct terms :

"Achiev❜d men us command, ungain'd beseech."

To print "achievement is," for achiev'd men us, would be an easy error for a compositor to commit; but, nevertheless, we do not feel authorized in varying from the ancient text, which expresses the intention of the poet, though not as clearly, perhaps, as could be desired. "This maxim," as Cressida calls it, is unusually printed in Italic in the folios and quartos.

THEN, though—] "That though" in the folio editions: "Then though " in the quartos. The last is certainly to be preferred.

Whereof we have record, trial did draw
Bias and thwart, not answering the aim,
And that unbodied figure of the thought

That gav't surmised shape. Why then, you princes,
Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works,

And call them shames', which are, indeed, nought else

But the protractive trials of great Jove,

To find persistive constancy in men?

The fineness of which metal is not found

In fortune's love; for then, the bold and coward,

The wise and fool, the artist and unread,

The hard and soft, seem all affin'd' and kin:
But, in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan",
Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
And what hath mass, or matter, by itself
Lies rich in virtue, and unmingled.

Nest. With due observance of thy godlike seat *,
Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply

Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance

Lies the true proof of men: the sea being smooth,

How many shallow bauble boats dare sail

Upon her patient breast, making their way

With those of nobler bulk?

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage

The gentle Thetis, and, anon, behold,

The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut,

2

And call them shames,] So the quartos; the folio, " And think them shame." seem all AFFIN'D-] i. e. joined by affinity or relationship. The word occurs twice in "Othello," Act i. sc. 1, and Act ii. sc. 3.

3 with a BROAD and powerful fan,] This is the better reading of the quartos; but that of the folio, "loud and powerful fan," is not inconsistent with tempest" in the preceding line.

66

4 - thy godlike seat,] The quarto reads, "the godlike seat," and the folio, 66 thy godly seat," (not "goodly seat," as Theobald asserted,) and the true reading, "thy godlike seat," is, therefore, to be made up from both of them.

5 Upon her PATIENT breast,] The quartos read ancient for "patient" of the folio: if "patient" be a misprint, it certainly is an improvement with reference to the rest of the passage.

« AnteriorContinuar »