Did, as a prophet, weep3 what it foresaw light?" Was any thing like it? But, to get out of this perplexity, he tells us, that " a very slight alteration makes all these constructions unnecessary," and so changes it to harness-dight. Yet indeed the very slightest alteration will, at any time, let the poet's sense though the critick's fingers and the Oxford editor very contentedly takes up what is left behind, and reads harnessdight too, in order, as Mr. Theobald well expresses it, "to make all construction unnecessary." WARBURTON, How does it appear that Hector was to fight on foot rather today than any other day? It is to be remembered, that the ancient heroes never fought on horseback; nor does their manner of fighting in chariots seem to require less activity than on foot. JOHNSON. It is true that the heroes of Homer never fought on horseback; yet such of them as make a second appearance in the Æneid, like their antagonists the Rutulians, had cavalry among their troops. Little can be inferred from the manner in which Ascanius and the young nobility of Troy are introduced at the conclusion of the funereal games; as Virgil very probably, at the expence of an anachronism, meant to pay a compliment to the military exercises instituted by Julius Cæsar, and improved by Augustus. It appears from different passages in this play, that Hector fights on horseback; and it should be remembered that Shakspeare was indebted for most of his materials to a book which enumerates Esdras and Pythagoras among the bastard children of King Priamus. Our author, however, might have been led into his mistake by the manner in which Chapman has translated several parts of the Iliad, where the heroes mount their chariots or descend from them. Thus, book vi. speaking of Glaucus and Diomed: 66 from horse then both descend." STEEVENS. If Dr. Warburton had looked into The Destruction of Troy, already quoted, he would have found, in every page, that the leaders on each side were alternately tumbled from their horses by the prowess of their adversaries. MALONE. I am afraid that the charge, whatever it may amount to, of neglecting the information to be found in the old Destruction of Troy, must fall rather upon Johnson than Warburton., BOSWELL. 3 where every FLOWER Did, as a prophet, WEEP] So, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, vol. v. p. 257: "And when she weeps, weeps every little flower, CRES. What was his cause of anger? ALEX. The noise goes, this: There is among the Greeks A lord of Trojan blood, nephew to Hector; They call him, Ajax. Good; And what of him? ALEX. They say he is a very man per se1, And stands alone. CRES. So do all men; unless they are drunk, sick, or have no legs. ALEX. This man, lady, hath robbed many beasts of their particular additions; he is as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant: a man into whom nature hath so crouded humours, that his valour is crushed into folly, his folly sauced with discretion: there is no man hath a virtue that he hath not a glimpse of; nor any man an attaint, but he carries some stain of it: he is melancholy without cause, and merry against the hair: He hath the joints of every thing; but every 4 per se,] So, in Chaucer's Testament of Cresseide: 66 Of faire Cresseide the floure and a per se "Of Troi and Greece." Again, in the old comedy of Wily Beguiled: "In faith, my sweet honeycomb, I'll love thee a per se a." Again in Blurt Master Constable, 1602: "That is the a per se of all, the creame of all." STEEVENS. 5 their particular additions;] Their peculiar and characteristic qualities or denominations. The term in this sense is originally forensick. MALONE. So, in Macbeth: 6 66 whereby he doth receive "Particular addition, from the bill "That writes them all alike." STEEVENS. that his valour is CRUSHED INTO FOLLY,] To be crushed into folly, is to be confused and mingled with folly, so as that they make one mass together. JOHNSON. So, in Cymbeline : "Crush him together, rather than unfold thing so out of joint, that he is a gouty Briareus, many hands and no use; or purblind Argus, all eyes and no sight. CRES. But how should this man, that makes me smile, make Hector angry? ALEX. They say, he yesterday coped Hector in the battle, and struck him down; the disdain and shame whereof hath ever since kept Hector fasting and waking. Enter PANDarus. CRES. Who comes here? ALEX. Madam, your uncle Pandarus. ALEX. As may be in the world, lady. CRES. Good morrow, uncle Pandarus. PAN. Good morrow, cousin Cressid: What do you talk of ?-Good morrow, Alexander.-How do you, cousin? When were you at Ilium?? 7-against the hair :] in use-against the grain. Is a phrase equivalent to another now 8 Good morning, cousin Cressid: What do you talk of? Good morrow, ALEXANDER.-How do you, cousin ?] Good morrow, Alexander, is added, in all the editions, (says Mr. Pope,) very absurdedly, Paris not being on the stage. Wonderful acuteness! But, with submission, this gentleman's note is much more absurd; for it falls out very unluckily for his remark, that though Paris is, for the generality, in Homer called Alexander; yet, in this play, by any one of the characters introduced, he is called nothing but Paris. The truth of the fact is this: Pandarus is of a busy, impertinent, insinuating character; and it is natural for him, so soon as he has given his cousin the good-morrow, to pay his civilities too to her attendant. This is purely év 0, as the grammarians call it; and gives us an admirable touch of Pandarus's character. And why might not Alexander be the name of Cressida's man ? Paris had no patent, I suppose, for engrossing it to himself. But the late editor, perhaps, because we have had Alexander the Great, Pope Alexander, and Alexander Pope, CRES. This morning, uncle. PAN. What were you talking of, when I came ? Was Hector armed, and gone, ere ye came to Ilium? Helen was not up, was she? CRES. Hector was gone; but Helen was not up. PAN. E'en so: Hector was stirring early. CRES. That were we talking of, and of his anger. PAN. Was he angry ? CRES. So he says here. PAN. True, he was so; I know the cause too; he'll lay about him to-day, I can tell them that: and there is Troilus will not come far behind him; let them take heed of Troilus; I can tell them that too. CRES. What, is he angry too? PAN. Who, Troilus? Troilus is the better man of the two. CRES. O, Jupiter! there's no comparison. PAN. What, not between Troilus and Hector? Do you know a man if you see him? CRES. Ay; if ever I saw him before, and knew him. PAN. Well, I say, Troilus is Troilus. CRES. Then you say as I say: for, I am sure, he is not Hector. PAN. No, nor Hector is not Troilus, in some degrees. CRES. 'Tis just to each of them; he is himself. would not have so eminent a name prostituted to a common varlet. THEOBALD. This note is not preserved on account of any intelligence it brings, but as a curious specimen of Mr. Theobald's mode of animadversion on the remarks of Mr. Pope. STEEVENS. 9 at ILIUM?] Ilium, or Ilion, (for it is spelt both ways,) was, according to Lydgate, and the author of The Destruction of Troy, the name of Priam's palace, which is said by these writers to have been built upon a high rock. See a note in Act IV. Sc. V. on the words " Yon towers," &c. MALONE. VOL. VIII. 66 R PAN. Himself? Alas, poor Troilus! I would, he were, CRES. So he is. PAN. India. 'Condition, I had gone bare-foot to CRES. He is not Hector. PAN. Himself? no, he's not himself.-'Would 'a were himself! Well, the gods are above1; Time must friend, or end: Well, Troilus, well, I would, my heart were in her body!-No, Hector is not a better man than Troilus. CRES. Excuse me. CRES. Pardon me, pardon me. PAN. The other's not come to't; you shall tell me another tale, when the other's come to't. Hector shall not have his wit 2 this year. CRES. He shall not need it, if he have his own. CRES. No matter. PAN. Nor his beauty. CRES. "Twould not become him, his own's better. PAN. You have no judgment, niece: Helen herself swore the other day, that Troilus, for a brown favour, (for so 'tis, I must confess,)-Not brown neither. CRES. No, but brown. PAN. 'Faith, to say truth, brown and not brown. CRES. Then, Troilus should have too much: if Well, the gods are above;] So, in Othello: above all." MALONE. "Heaven's 2-his WIT] Both the old copies have-will. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. |