The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 6 of 9]

by William Shakespeare

NOTES.

Note I.

The Folios have 'The Tragedy of Troylus and Cressida' as title of the play. In the first three the prologue precedes the title. In the fourth the order is reversed. In the third and fourth 'Troylus' is spelt 'Troilus,' both here and in the body of the play. Some copies of the Quarto have 'The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid,' others 'The Historie of Troylus and Cresseida,' as first title, while the running title in all is, 'The History of Troylus and Cresseida.' The play is not divided into Acts and Scenes either in the Quarto or the Folios, excepting that the latter have Actus Primus, Scæna Prima, at the beginning.

In the spelling of 'Trojan' we have conformed to modern usage. In the Quarto it is uniformly 'Troyan' and usually 'Troian' in the first Folio.

Note II.

I. 3. 238. The reading of the Quarto given in the note at the foot of the page is that of Capell's copy, in which the final 's' of 'swords' has failed to take the ink. In the Duke of Devonshire's copy the 's' is visible but imperfect.

Note III.

I. 3. 357-365. The Quarto reads as follows:

'Giue pardon to my speech? therefore tis meete,
Achilles meete not Hector, let vs like Marchants
First shew foule wares, and thinke perchance theile sell;
If not; the luster of the better shall exceed,
By shewing the worse first: do not consent,
That euer Hector and Achilles meet,
For both our honour and our shame in this, are dog'd with two strange followers.'

Capell adopts the Quarto reading, putting 'If not' in a line by itself.

Note IV.

II. 2. 22. This misprint of Theobald's was repeated in every edition, except those of Hanmer and Capell, down to that of Harness, 1825, inclusive. Mr Knight made the necessary correction. We have left unnoticed many similar instances.

Note V.

II. 3. 74. Mr Dyce suggests that the reading 'sate' of the Quarto was a mistake for 'rates.'

Note VI.

II. 3. 130-133. Both the Quarto and the Folios put a full stop at report, a colon at war, and a full stop or colon at giant: a punctuation which was followed substantially by Rowe and Pope. Theobald first put a comma at report and inverted commas before Bring, forgetting, however, to mark the end of the quotation. Hanmer printed the line Bring ... war in italics, and Johnson put the whole passage Bring ... giant in inverted commas. Subsequent editors have followed him in marking the quotation thus. We have done the like, though with some doubt as to whether Hanmer's view be not preferable.

Note VII.

II. 3. 187, sqq. Rowe, in this passage, followed the Folios. Pope, too, left the preposterously long line '(As amply titled, as Achilles is,) by going to Achilles:' but in the following, altered 'fat already, pride' to 'pride, already fat.' Theobald followed Pope.

Hanmer reads:

'As amply titled as Achilles' is,
By going to Achilles: for that were
But to inlard his pride, already fat.'

Johnson first adopted the reading and arrangement given in the text, followed by Capell, except that the latter gave, like Hanmer, Achilles' (with an apostrophe) in the first line.

Note VIII.

III. 2. 21. Capell's copy of the Quarto has distinctly 'repured,' though Capell, usually so accurate in his collation, omitted to notice that it differed from the Folio. The same is the reading of the copy in the Duke of Devonshire's Library, and of two copies in the British Museum, one of which formerly belonged to Steevens.

Steevens's reprint has 'reputed'—an error which seems to have been the source of the statement that some copies of the Quarto have that reading.

Note IX.

III. 3. 120. In Capell's copy of the Quarto there are traces of what appeared to us at first to be an imperfect letter at the end of the word 'reuerb'rate.' On referring, however, to the Duke of Devonshire's copy, and to the two in the British Museum, we are inclined to believe that the apparently imperfect letter is in reality a lead.

Note X.

III. 3. 123-128. The Quarto has,

'I was much rap't in this,
And apprehended here immediately,
Th' vnknowne Aiax, heauens what a man is there?
A very horse, that has he knowes not what
Nature what things there are.
Most obiect in regard, and deere in vse,' &c.

The first Folio gives,

'I was much rapt in this,
And apprehended here immediately:
The vnknowne Aiax;
Heauens what a man is there? a very Horse,
That has he knowes not what. Nature, what things there are.
Most abiect in regard, and deare in vse.'

The later Folios omitted the stop between 'what' and 'Nature,' which misled Rowe, who in his first edition read:

'That as he knows not Nature, what things are' &c.

Pope read,

'I was much rapt in this,
And apprehended here immediately
The unknown Ajax——
Heav'ns! what a man is there? a very horse,
He knows not his own nature: what things are
Most abject in regard, and dear in use?'

Hanmer reconstructed the whole passage, thus:

'I was much rapt
In this I read, and apprehended here
Immediately the unknown Ajax: heavens!
What a man's there? a very horse, that has
He knows not what: in nature what things there are
Most abject in regard, and dear in use.'

Note XI.

IV. 4. 74-77. The Quarto here reads:

'Here why I speake it loue,
The Grecian youths are full of quality,
And swelling ore with arts and exercise:'

The first Folio has:

'Heare why I speake it; Loue:
The Grecian youths are full of qualitie,
Their louing well compos'd, with guift of nature,
Flawing and swelling ore with Arts and exercise:'

The second Folio has the same except that it substitutes 'Flowing' for 'Flawing.' The third and fourth have substantially the same reading as the second.

Rowe edited it thus:

'Hear while I speak it, Love:
The Grecian Youths are full of subtle Qualities,
They're loving, well compos'd, with gift of Nature,
Flowing and swelling o'er with Arts and Exercise;'

Pope followed Rowe, with a difference of punctuation:

' ... with gift of Nature
Flowing,' &c.

Theobald followed Pope, except that he restored 'why' for 'while' in the first line, and Warburton Theobald, reading 'gifts' for 'gift.'

Johnson followed Warburton, except that in place of 'qualities' he restored 'quality.'

Hanmer has:

'Hear why I speak it, love: the Grecian youths
Are full of subtle qualities, they're loving,
They're well compos'd, with gifts of nature flowing,
And swelling o'er with arts and exercise.'

Capell thus:

'Hear why I speak it, love: The Grecian youths
Are well compos'd, with gifts of nature flowing,
And swelling o'er with arts and exercise:'

Malone reads:

'Hear why I speak it, love;
The Grecian youths are full of quality;
They're loving, well compos'd, with gifts of nature flowing,
And swelling o'er with arts and exercise;'

Mr Knight and Mr Collier give the reading of the second and following Folios, only striking out the comma after 'compos'd.'

Mr Grant White:

'They're loving, well compos'd with gifts of nature,
Flowing and swelling o'er with arts and exercise.'

The reading which we have adopted in the text is that of Mr Staunton. The word 'Flowing' was in all probability a marginal correction for 'swelling,' which the printer of the Folio by mistake added to the line.

Note XII.

IV. 5. 96. The Quarto reads:

'Vlis. The yongest sonne of Priam, a true knight.'

The first Folio has:

'Vlis. The youngest Sonne of Priam;
A true Knight; they call him Troylus.'

The second Folio amended the metre of the second line by reading,

'And a true Knight; they call him Troylus;'

which was followed in the later Folios and Rowe. Pope restored the reading of the Quarto, which is probably the true one, as the words 'they call him Troilus' occur lower down in the speech, at line 108. If they are retained at all, we should read,

'Ulys. They call him Troilus:
The youngest son of Priam, a true knight;'

but most likely they are the insertion of a hasty corrector.

Note XIII.

IV. 5. 103. Although we have not been able to find any other instance of 'impair' as an adjective, we have retained it; for editors should be careful not to obliterate ἅπαξ λεγόμενα, and etymologically 'impair' may have the sense of 'unsuitable, unequal to the theme.' Johnson's conjecture of 'impure,' though plausible, is not entirely satisfactory, as it is Troilus's ripeness of judgement and not his modesty which is the subject of praise.

Note XIV.

V. 2. 12. The short speeches throughout this scene are printed as verse first by Steevens (1793). This arrangement has been generally adopted by later editors. From the manner in which the short lines are arranged in the earlier editions it is impossible to say whether they were intended to be read as verse or not. An alteration made by Pope in line 40 for the sake of the metre shows that he read some of the lines at least as verse.

Note XV.

V. 3. III. The Folio here inserts the following lines:

'Pand. Why, but heare you?

Troy. Hence brother lackie; ignomie and shame
Pursue thy life, and liue aye with thy name.'

As they occur again, with a slight variation in the first line, in the last scene, we have followed the Quarto in omitting them. This is an indication that the play has been tampered with by another hand than Shakespeare's.

Note XVI.

V. 7. 6. Mr Collier quotes the Duke of Devonshire's copy of the Quarto as authority for the reading 'aims,' 'the letter i being a little indistinct.' This is a mistake. The indistinct letter is, beyond all question, an imperfect r. Capell's copy and the two copies in the British Museum all have 'armes.' In the same note Mr Collier quotes the Folio as reading 'arm,' not 'arme,' and attributes Capell's correction to Steevens.

Note XVII.

V. 10. 31. Here Capell inserts the passage 'Pan. Do you hear ... deeds,' V. 3. 97-111, and after Troilus's speech, 'What now?' gives the stage direction 'Exeunt Æneas, and Trojans.'

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