Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

ACT I. SCENE I.

TROY.

Priam's palace.

Enter Pandarus and Troilus.

Troi. Call here my varlet, I'll unarm again: Why should I war without the walls of Troy, That find fuch cruel battle here within ?

Each

* The story was originally written by Lollius, an old Lombard author, and fince by Chaucer. POPE.

Mr. Pope (after Dryden) informs us, that the story of Troilus and Creffida was originally the work of one Lollius, a Lombard ; (of whom Gascoigne speaks in Dan Bartholmewe bis first Triumph : "Since Lollius and Chaucer both, make doubt upon that glose") but Dryden goes yet further He declares it to have been written in Latin verse, and that Chaucer translated it. Lollius was a historiographer of Urbino in Italy. Shakspeare received the greatest part of his materials for the structure of this play from the Troye Boke of Lydgate. Lydgate was not much more than a tranflator of Guido of Columpna, who was of Messina in Sicily, and wrote his History of Troy in Latin, after Dictys Cretenfis, and Dares Phrygius, in 1287. On these, as Mr. Warton observes, he engrafted many new romantic inventions, which the taste of his age dictated, and which the connection between Grecian and Gothic fiction easily admitted; at the same time comprehending in his plan the Theban and Argonautic stories from Ovid, Statius, and Valerius Flaccus. Guido's work was published at Cologne in 1477, again 1480: at Strasburgh 1486, and ibidem 1489. It appears to have been translated by Raoul le Feure, at Cologne, into French, from whom Caxton rendered it into English in 1471, under the title of his Recuyel, &c. fo that there must have been yet some earlier edition of Guido's performance than I have hitherto seen or heard of, unless his first translator had recourse to a manufcript.

Guido of Columpna is referred to as an authority by our own chronicler Grafton. Chaucer had made the loves of Troilus and Creffida

B 4

Each Trojan, that is master of his heart,
Let him to field; Troilus, alas! hath none.

Pan.

Creffida famous, which very probably might have been Shakspeare's inducement to try their fortune on the stage.-Lydgate's Troye Boke was printed by Pynson, 1513. In the books of the Stationers' Company, anno 1581, is entered "A proper ballad, dialogue-wife, between Troilus and Creffida." Again, Feb. 7, 1602: "The booke of Troilus and Cressida, as it is acted by my Lo. Chamberlain's men." The first of these entries is in the name of Edward White, the second in that of M. Roberts. Again, Jan. 28, 1608, entered by Rich. Bonian and Hen. Whalley, "A booke called the history of Troilus and Cressida." STEEVENS.

Troilus and Creffida.] Before this play of Troilus and Creffida, printed in 1609, is a bookseller's preface, shewing that first impreffion to have been before the play had been acted, and that it was published without Shakspeare's knowledge, from a copy that had fallen into the bookseller's hands. Mr. Dryden thinks this one of the first of our author's plays: but, on the contrary, it may be judged, from the fore-mentioned preface, that it was one of his last; and the great number of observations, both moral and politic, with which this piece is crowded more than any other of his, seems to confirm my opinion. POPE.

We may learn from this preface, that the original proprietors of Shakspeare's plays thought it their interest to keep them unprinted. The author of it adds, at the conclufion, these words:

Thank fortune for the 'scape it hath made among you, fince, by the grand possessors wills, I believe you should rather have prayed for them, than have been prayed," &c. By the grand poffeffors, I suppose, were meant Heming and Condell. It appears that the rival playhouses at that time made frequent depredations on one another's copies. In the Induction to the Malecontent, written by Webster, and augmented by Marston, 1606, is the following passage:

" I wonder you would play it, another company having inte rest in it."

"Why not Malevole in folio with us, as Jeronimo in decimo sexto with them? They taught us a name for our play; we call it One for another."

Again, T. Heywood, in his preface to the English Traveller, 1633: "Others of them are still retained in the hands of fome actors, who think it against their peculiar profit to have them come in print." STEEVENS.

• It appears, however, that frauds were practised by writers as well as actors. It stands on record against Robert Green, the au

thon

Pan. Will this geer ne'er be mended ??
Troi. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their

strength,

Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant; But I am weaker than a woman's tear,

thor of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, and Orlando Furioso, 1594 and 1599, that he fold the last of these pieces to two different theatres: "Master R. G. would it not make you blush, &c. if you fold not Orlando Furioso to the Queen's players for twenty nobles, and when they were in the country, fold the fame play to the Lord Admiral's men for as much more? Was not this plain Coneycatching M. G.?" Defence of Coneycatching, 1592.

This note was not merely inferted to expose the craft of authorship, but to show the price which was anciently paid for the copy of a play, and to afcertain the name of the writer of Orlando Furioso, which was not hitherto known. Greene appears to have been the first poet in England who fold the same piece to different people. Voltaire is much belied, if he has not followed his example. COLLINS.

Notwithstanding what has been said by a late editor, I have a copy of the first folio, including Troilus and Creffida. Indeed, as I have just now observed, it was at first either unknown or forgotIt does not however appear in the list of the plays, and is thruft in between the histories and the tragedies without any enumeration of the pages, except, I think, on one leaf only. It differs intirely from the copy in the second folio. FARMER.

ten.

I have confulted eleven copies

of

the first folio, and Troilus and

Creffida is not wanting in any one of them. STEEVENS.

2

- my varlet,] 'This word anciently fignified a fervant or footman to a knight or warrior. So, Holinshed, speaking of the battle of Agincourt: "-diverse were releeved by their varlets, and conveied out of the field." Again, in an ancient

epitaph in the church-yard of faint Nicas at Arras:

[ocr errors]

Cy gift Hakin et fon varlet,

Tout di-arme et tout di-pret,

"Avec son espé et falloche, &c." STEEVENS.

Concerning the word varlet, fee Recherches historiques fur les

cartes a jouer. Lyon 1757, p. 6г. М. С. Т.

3 Will this geer ne'er be mended?] There is fomewhat proverbial in this question, which I likewife meet with in the Interlude of K. Darius, 1565:

[ocr errors]

Wyll not yet this gere be amended,

" Nor your finful acts corrected?" STEEVENS.

Tamer

Tamer than fleep, 4 fonder than ignorance;
Less valiant than the virgin in the night,
And skill-less as unpractis'd infancy.

Pan. Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part, I'll not meddie nor make no further. He, that will have a cake out of the wheat, must tarry the grinding.

Troi. Have I not tarry'd?

Pan. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the boulting.

Troi. Have I not tarry'd?

Pan. Ay, the boulting; but you must tarry the leavening.

Troi. Still have I tarry'd.

Pan. Ay, to the leavening: but here's yet in the word-hereafter, the kneading, the making of the cake, the heating of the oven, and the baking; nay, you must stay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips.

Troi. Patience herself, what goddess e'er she be, Doth leffer blench at fufferance than I do. At Priam's royal table do I fit;

And when fair Cressid comes into my thoughts,So, traitor! - when she comes! - When is she

thence?

Pan. Well, she look'd yester-night fairer than ever I saw her look; or any woman else.

* -fonder than ignorance ;) Fonder, for more childish.

WARBURTON.

And skill-less, &c.] Mr. Dryden, in his alteration of this play, has taken this speech as it stands, except that he has changed skill-less to artless, not for the better, because skill-less refers to phill and skilful. JOHNSON.

off.

-must tarry the grinding.] Folio: must needes tarry, &c.

MALONE.

Doth leffer blench) To blench is to shrink, start, or fly
See Vol. IV. p. 321. STEEVENS.

* when she comes! - When is foe thence?]
Then she comes when she is thence.

Folio:
MALONE.

Troi. I was about to tell thee,-When my heart,
As wedged with a sigh, would rive in twain;
Left Hector or my father should perceive me,
I have (as when the fun doth light a storm)
Bury'd this sigh in wrinkle of a smile :
But forrow, that is couch'd in feeming gladness,
Is like that mirth fate turns to fudden sadness.

Pan. An her hair were not somewhat darker than Helen's, (well, go to) there were no more comparison between the women,-But, for my part, she is my kinswoman; I would not, as they term it, praise her,-But I would fomebody had heard her talk yefterday, as I did. I will not dispraise your sister Cafsandra's wit: but

Troi. O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus,When I do tell thee, There my hopes lie drown'd, Reply not in how many fathoms deep They lie indrench'd. I tell thee, I am mad In Cressid's love: Thou answer'st, She is fair; Pour'st in the open ulcer of my heart Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait; her voice Handleft in thy discourse: - that her hand! In whose comparison, all whites are ink,

Writing

• Pour'ft in the open ulcer of my heart
Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait; her voice,
Handleft in thy discourse :- that her hand!
In whose comparison, &c.]

There is no reason why Troilus should dwell on Pandarus's handling in his discourse the voice of his mistress, more than her eyes, her hair, &c. as he is made to do by this punctuation, to fay nothing of the harshness of the phrase to handle a voice.

The passage, in my apprehenfion, ought to be pointed thus :

Thou answer'st, she is fair;
Pour'st in the open ulcer of my heart

Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice;
Handlest, in thy discourse, o that her hand,
In whose comparison all whites are ink, &c.

Handleft is here used metaphorically, with an allusion at the fame time to its literal meaning; and the jingle between hand and handleft is perfectly in our author's manner.

5

The

« AnteriorContinuar »