TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
Act I.
Prol. "To Tenedos they come."
This should be a single line, and is a sort of proof that the Prologue is by Shakespeare (see Introd. p. [82]). N.B.—In the beginning of the Address prefixed to this play I read 'that brain' for "your brain." See Introd. p. [68].
Sc. 1.
"I have—as when the sun doth light a storm."
Rowe's correction of scorn of the 4tos and folio.
Sc. 2.
"What were you talking of when I came up?"
"In his right condition, I had gone barefoot to India."
"Hector shall not have his wit this year."
Rowe's correction again, 'wit,' for will.
"So, traitor!—when she comes!—when is she thence?"
This is Rowe's correction of "So, traitor, then she comes, when she is thence?"
"And a proper man of his person."
"Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full sacrifice."
For 'gifts' the Var. edit. has griefs.
"Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing."
For 'lies' Mason read, and perhaps with reason, flies. We might, but less probably, conjecture dies.
"Achievement is command; ungain'd beseech."
Nothing can be more correct than this; yet some approve of Mr. Harness's correction, Achieved men. 'Ungain'd' sc. men, are those who have not gained, achieved. In Corneille's Polyeucte (i. 3), Pauline makes the very same remark.
"Then though my heart's content firm love doth bear."
For 'Then' of the 4tos the folio reads 'That,' another instance of the confusion of these words. (See note on Prol.) The folio also reads 'contents.'
Sc. 3.
"Princes * * * * * *"
The remainder of the line has evidently been omitted or effaced; for speeches never begin thus abruptly. We might read and leaders of the Grecian host.
"With those of nobler bulk * * *"
We might add, and greater strength.
"And flies fled under shade," etc.
Here 'flies' is either a verb or a noun; if the former, we have the grotesque image of the wind running and hiding itself after doing mischief; if the latter, as in the folio, alluding to 'the brize,' we have a bathos unworthy of any poet. Something, then, must have been lost between 'flies' and 'fled.' I read thus:—
"And flies along the sky, while bird and beast are
Fled under shade;"
and I fancy I have made a near approach to what the poet wrote. As he was reading Chaucer at that time, he may have had in his mind:—
"Ne how the beestes and the briddes alle
Fledden for feare when the wood was falle."
Knt's. Tale.
If nothing is lost, we should read 'have fled.'
"Retires to chiding Fortune."
For 'Retires' Pope, whom I have followed, read Returns, Hanmer Replies, Dyce Retorts. Yet the text may be right, and 'Retires' be the French retire, shoots again, returns the shot.
"Speak, Prince of Ithaca, and be it of less expect."
This is not sense. I read 'we it less.' The superfluous insertion of of was not infrequent (see on Meas. for Meas. iv. 4). Here, however, it was manifestly introduced to make some kind of sense. See Introd. p. [67].
"But for these instances * * *"
We might add, which now I'll show you.
"And look! how many Grecian tents [do] stand hollow
Upon this plain so many hollow factions.
When that the general is not as the hive."
'Do' was evidently introduced to eke out the verse. We should perhaps read 'general's' sc. tent.
"Degrees being vizarded,
The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask."
As what? A line seems to be lost.
"In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
Amidst the others."
Mr. Singer read ether for 'others.'
"The enterprise is sick."
Hanmer read Then for 'the.' See Introd. p. [65].
"This chaos, when degree is suffocate,
Follows the choking."
I have added in my Edition of the common weal; but we might also read as his consequence, which I think better.
"Breaks scurril jests * * * *"
I would add on thee and all of us.
"To weaken us and discredit our exposure."
"To overbulk us all.—Well, and how then?"
"And in the publication make no strain."
Perhaps we should read doubt for 'strain.'
"And think, perchance, they'll sell; if they do not."
"What glory our Achilles shares from Hector,
Were he not proud, we all should share with him."
We should read wins or gains for 'shares.' See Introd. p. [64]. It is remarkable that for the 'share' of the second line the folio reads wear, thus correcting the error of the 4tos.
Act II.
Sc. 1.
"When Achilles' brach bids me."
'Brach' is Rowe's correction; the originals have brooch, which—as being an ornament hung round the neck—may be right. See Win. Tale, i. 2.
Sc. 2.
"Wrinkles Apollo's, and makes stale the Morning's."
So the folio reads, followed by Singer and Dyce; the 4tos read pale for 'stale'—a reading I incline to prefer.
"As you must needs; for you all cried—Go, Go."
"The issue of your proper wisdoms rate."
Perhaps some word, such as thus or low, has been lost after 'rate,' or we should read 'underrate.'
"I have a roisting challenge sent amongst."
As I have not met with the verb 'roist' anywhere else, I suspect that the poet may have written roistering, and the transcriber or printer have omitted a syllable, as in Meas. for Meas. iv. 2.
"Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled eld."
'Eld' is an excellent correction of Ritson's; the 4tos read elders; the folio old.
Sc. 3.
"Which short-arm'd Ignorance itself."
"Their massy irons out, and cutting the web."
The metre requires this natural addition.
"He sent back our messengers, and we lay by
Our appertainments, visiting of him."
The 4tos read 'He sate'; Theobald, who is generally followed, reads 'He shent; but this verb is never active in Shakespeare. Collier reads 'We sent.'
"His pettish lunes, his ebbs and flows, as if."
Here 'lunes' is Hanmer's emendation of lines. See Mer. Wives, iv. 2.
"As amply titled as Achilles is
By going to Achilles."
We might perhaps add in his tent. See preceding speech.
"I would he were a Trojan—What a vice."
"And give him half, and for thy vigour let."
"Fresh kings are come to Troy; to-morrow morn."
Act III.
Sc. 2.
"Love's thrice-repured nectar."
Mr. Collier found this excellent reading in one of the 4tos, 1609. The reading of all the others and of the folio is reputed. Nothing is more common than the confusion of r and t.
"Lady, you have bereft me of all words."
The original editions put 'Lady' at the end of the line.
"But you are not wise,
Or else you love not; for to be wise and love
Exceeds man's might. That dwells with gods above."
As far as I am aware, not a single critic has discerned the absolute necessity for the negative in this place. "The gods themselves cannot be wise and love" (Marston, Dutch Courtezan, ii. 1). Both dramatists were probably indebted to Spenser:—
"To be wise and eke to love
Is granted scarce to gods above."
Shep. Cal. March;
and he to Publius Syrus "Amare et sapere vix deo conceditur."
"With a bed; which bed," etc.
Sense and metre demand this addition of Hanmer's.
Sc. 3.
"That through the sight I bear in things to Jove."
For 'to Jove' most critics follow Mason in reading to come. Collier hints at above. But the text is right; to occurs constantly in the sense of at, chez, apud: ex. gr. "Being a great favourite to Queen Elizabeth" (Ashmole, Hist. of Berkshire, i. 249). "My heart to her, but as guestwise sojourned" (M. N. D. iii. 2). "Lord Angelo having affairs to heaven" (Meas. for Meas. iii. 1).
"But let determin'd things to Destiny
Hold unbewail'd their way."
Ant. and Cleop. iii. 6.
It is to be observed that the word in the originals is love, not 'Jove,' and the very same error occurs in i. 3.
"In most accepted pain."
For 'pain,' which makes little or no sense, Warburton, who is generally followed, read pay. I prefer payment, as effacement may have left only a part of the m.
"But this Antenor
I know is such a wrest in their affairs."
I might incline to read trust for 'wrest.' "Their tribune and their trust" (Tit. Andron. i. 2). See also Ps. xl. 4, lxxi. 5. A wrest was what we now term a tuning-key. "This small instrument, the tongue being left in tune by the wrest of awe." King James's Edict, etc., quoted by Singer.
"Good morrow, Ajax.—Ay, and good next day too."
"For speculation turns not to itself
Till it hath travell'd and is married there
Where it may see itself."
I see no reason for adopting, as some do, mirror'd of Collier's and Singer's folios. There was, I believe, no such verb at that time. I prefer arrived, which could easily have become married in a printer's mind.
"Where they are extended; who, like an arch, reverberate."
Rowe read which and 'reverberates,' of which the first is needless, the second may be right.
"By an act that very chance doth throw upon him."
"As done. Perseverance, dear my lord it is."
"Where one but goes abreast. Keep then the path."
This line would gain both in perspicuity and melody if we were to read 'but one.'
"And leave you hindmost."
As this line is short, and as further on there is a line with two superfluous feet, it is evident that there has been a misarrangement. I have, therefore, in my Edition, rearranged this and the following lines. I have there read, "Fallen in the first rank;" but it might be better, though less forcible, to read:—
"Fallen in first rank, lies there for pavement to."
"And give to dust that is a little gilt
More laud than gilt o'erdusted e'er is given."
"Made emulous missions 'mongst the gods themselves."
I incline to read emulations.
"Whilst emulation in the army crept."—ii. 2.
"When, for so slight and frivolous a cause,
Such factious emulations shall arise."
1 Hen. VI. iv. 1.
Here one word appears, as elsewhere, to have become two in the printer's hands. (See Introd. p. [67].) But as the poet was probably familiar with Chapman's Iliads, the allusion may be to the various missions of Apollo, Minerva, Hermes, and Iris.
"Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles laid."
Act IV.
Sc. 1.
"During all question of the gentle truce."
If 'question' be genuine here it must mean intercourse, conversation, a sense of which I have met with no example.
"We'll not commend what we intend to sell."
In Son. xxi. we have, "I will not praise that purpose not to sell." Hence some would add a negative here; but it is not necessary. He means that they would sell Helen dearly.
Sc. 2.
"As infants empty of all thought."
Editors read 'infants' in the genitive. In either case I think to has been omitted before it.
"Beshrew the witch! with venomous wights she stays
As tediously as hell."
No sense has been, or, I think, can be made of 'venomous wights.' I think 'venomous' must be an error.
"Good, good, my lord; the secrets of Nature have not
More gift in taciturnity than I."
Sc. 4.
"To shame the seal of my petition to thee
In praising her."
We should read zeal, as is usually done.
Sc. 5.
"No trumpet answers.—'Tis but early day."
"That give a coasting welcome ere it comes."
There can be little doubt, I think, that 'coasting' is a noun; and I regard it as the same as 'costing by aphæresis from accosting.
"I shall forestall thee, Lord Ulysses, thou."—
Tyrwhitt's conjecture, though for 'thou,' is a happy one, and should perhaps be admitted.
"Can scarce entreat you to be odd with him."
Perhaps 'odd,' which is so unusual, should be at odds.
Act V.
Sc. 1.
"Why, thou picture of what thou seemest, and thou idol."
"Thou art thought to be Achilles' male varlet."
As he elsewhere, it might appear, calls him brach, Hanmer's reading harlot would seem to have been the poet's word. But on the other hand, in the Honest Whore, varlet is used as synonymous with punk, of a woman in man's clothes. "'Tis a male varlet sure, my lord, for a woman's tailor never measured him."
"They say he keeps a Trojan drab, and uses the traitor Calchas' tent. I'll after him."
The word him, requisite for the metre, had been lost.
Sc. 2.
"A juggling trick, to be open secretly."
The 4tos and folio read 'secretly open.'
"And yet the spacious breadth of this division
Admits no orifice for a point as subtle
As Ariachne's broken woof to enter."
This is a curious instance of a copyist's or printer's transposition. (Introd. p. [61].) It is downright nonsense; but read
"As subtle as Arachne's broken woof,
Admits no orifice for a point to enter,"
and what excellent sense emerges! 'Subtle' (or, as we should now write, subtile), used also by Chapman (Odyss. x. 296) of Circe's web, is subtilis, 'fine-spun'; and the 'broken woof' is the web torn by Minerva; 'admits' is allows of, i.e. contains; for 'orifice' the originals have orifex. As Shakespeare was a great reader of Golding's Ovid, Ariachne could never have been his word. A perfect parallel to the embarrassed structure of this passage is offered by
"That have sod their infants in—and after eat them—
The brine they wept at killing 'em; then if."
Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 3.
Which should be:
"That have sod their infants in the brine they wept
At killing 'em, and after eat them; then if."
(See on Cymb. i. 7.) The meaning of this very obscure passage is, that there could not be now even the slightest doubt of Cressida's infidelity, incredible as it might seem. 'Instance' in the following lines is, proof.
Sc. 3.
"It is as lawful
For we would count give much to as violent thefts."
This is pure nonsense. The first 'as' cannot be right, and it probably gave origin to the second. I read with confidence,
"It is unlawful
For we would give much count to violent thefts."
In my Edition I read 'so to,' but it is needless. 'Count' is account, importance, value.
"Thieves for their robbery have authority
When judges steal themselves."
Meas. for Meas. ii. 2.