A table brought in. Enter Titus, like a cook, plac-Do shameful execution on herself. ing the meat on the table, and Lavinia, with a veil Mar. But if my frosty figns and chaps of age, over ber face. Tit. Welcome, my gracious lord; welcome, dread queen; Welcome, ye warlike Goths; welcome, Lucius; And welcome, all: although the cheer be poor, 'Twill fill your stomachs; please you eat of it. Sat. Why art thou thus attir'd, Andronicus? Tit. Because I would be sure to have all well, To entertain your highness, and your emperess. Tam. We are beholden to you, good Andronicus. Tit. An if your highness knew my heart, you were. My lord the emperor, refolve me this; To lay his daughter with his own right hand, Tit. Your reafon, mighty lord? Tit. A reason mighty, strong, and effectual; Sat. What haft thou done, unnatural, and un- kind? Tit. Kill'd her, for whom my tears have made Sat. What, was the ravished? tell who did the Tit. Will't please you eat? will't please your thus? Tit. Not 1; 'twas Chiron, and Demetrius: pye; Whereof their mother daintily hath fed, 'Tis true, 'tis true; witness my knife's sharp point. Sat. Die, frantick wretch, for this accurfed deed. [He stabs Titus. Luc. Can the fon's eye behold his father bleed? There's meed for meed, death for a deadly deed. [Lucius ftabs Saturninus. Mar. You fad-fac'd men, people and fons of Grave witnesses of true experience, Luc. Then, noble auditory, be it known to you, For their fell faults our brothers were beheaded; Mar. Now is my turn to speak; Behold th Have we done aught amiss? Shew us wherein, Am. Come, come, thou reverend man of Rome, 'Would I were dead, so you did live again! And bring our emperor gently in thy hand, Go, go into old Titas' forrowful house; Luc. Thanks, gentle Romans; May I govern fo, Stand all aloof ;-but, uncle, draw you near, [Kiffes Titus. These forrowful drops upon thy blood-ftain'd face, The laft true duties of thy noble fon! Mar. Ay, tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss, Luc. Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn of us To melt in showers: Thy grandfire lov'd thee well: O Lord, I cannot speak to him for weeping; Rom. You fad Andronici, have done with woes; Luc. Set him breaft-deep in earth, and famish There let him ftand, and rave and cry for food : Aar. O, why should wrath be mute, and fury I am no baby, I, that, with base prayers, Luc. Some loving friends convey the emperor And give him burial in his father's grave; No funeral rites, nor man in mournful weeds, [Exeunt omnes. 1 From isles of L Greece N Troy, there lies the scene. Have to the port of Athens fent their ships With wanton Paris fleeps; And that's the quarrel. And the deep-drawing barks do there difgorge 0 And Antenoridas) with mally staples, To tell you, fair bebolders, that our play Like, or find fault; do as your pleasures are; Mr. Pope (after Dryden) informs us, that the story of Troilus and Cressida was originally the work of one Lollius, a Lombard; but Dryden goes yet further. He declares it to have been written in Latin verfe, and that Chaucer tranflated it. Lollius was a hiftoriographer of Urbino in Italy. Shakspeare received the greatest part of his materials for the structure of this play from the Troy Boke of Lydgate, printed in 1513. 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 obferves, he engrafted mauy new romantic inventions, which the taste of his age dictated, and which the connection between Grecian and Gothic fiction easily admitted; at the fame time comprehending in his plan the Theban and Argonautic ftories from Ovid, Statius, and Valerius Flaccus. 2 i. e, proud, disdainful. 3 To fulfill in this place means to fill till there be no room for more. 4 To Sperre, or spar, from the old Teutonic word Speren, fignifies to shut up, defend by bars, &c. 5 1. e. the avant, what went before. word anciently fignified a fervant or footman to a knight or warrior. This Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant; Pan. Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part, I'll not meddle 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. I fpeak no more than truth. Troi. Thou doft not speak so much. Pan. 'Faith, I'll not meddle in 't. Let her be as she is: if the be fair, 'tis the better for her; an she be not, she has the mends in her own hands 4. Troi. Good Pandarus! How now, Pandarus? Pan. I have had my labour for my travel; thought on of her, and ill-thought on of you: gone between and between, but small thanks for my labour. Troi. What, art thou angry, Pandarus? what, with me? Pan. Because she is kin to me, therefore the's Pan. Ay, the boulting; but you must tarry the not fo fair as Helen: an she were not kin to me, 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 2 at sufferance 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 the thence ? Pan. Well, the look'd yester-night 'fairer than ever I saw her look; or any woman else. Troi. I was about to tell thee,-When my heart, As wedged with a figh, 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 fmile: But forrow, that is couch'd in seeming gladness, Is like that mirth fate turns to fudden sadness. Pan. An her hair were not fomewhat 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 somebody had heard her talk yesterday, as I did, I will not difpraise your fifter Cassandra'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 Creffid's love: Thou answer'st, She is fair; Pour'ft in the open ulcer of my heart Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait; her voice Handleft in thy discourse:-O that her hand! In whose comparison all whites are ink, Writing their own reproach; to whose soft seizure The cygnet's down is harth, and spirit of fenfe 3 Hard as the palm of ploughman! This thou tell'st me, As true thou tell'st me, when I say, -I love her; the would be as fair on Friday, as Helen is ou Sunday. But what care 1? I care not, an fre were a black-a-mpor; 'tis all one to me. Troi. Say I, she is not fair ? Pan. I do not care whether you do or ne. She's a fool, to ftay behind her father; let her to the Greeks; and so I'll tell her, the next time I fes her: for my part, I'll meddle nor make no more in the matter. Troi. Pandarus,- Troi. Sweet Pandarus, Pan. Pray you, speak no more to me, I wi leave all as I found it, and there an end. [Exit Pandara. [Sound alarum. Troi. Peace, you ungracious clamours! peace, rude founds! Fools on both fides! Helen must needs be fair, Ane. How now, prince Troilus? wherefore Troi. Because not there; This woman's anfwer For womanish it is to be from thence. What news, Æneas, from the field to-day? Ane. That Paris is returned home, and hurt. Ane. Troilus, by Menelaus. Troi. Let Paris bleed: 'tis but a scar to foorm Paris is gor'd with Menelaus' horn. [Alar Ane. Hark! what good sport is out of towa to-day! Fonder for more childish. 2 To blench is to shrink, start, or fly off. 3 The meaning is, In comparison with Crefsid's hand, the spirit of sense, the utmost degree, the most exquifite power of fenfibility, which implies a foft hand, since the sense of touching refides chiefly in the fingers, is harជុំ as the callous and insensible palm of the ploughman. She may make the best of a bad bargain. 4 Mr. Steevens thinks this phrafe means ! 1 |