PROLOGUE*.

IN Troy, there lies the scene. From Ifles of Greece
The princes orgillous, their high blood chaf'd,
Have to the port of Athens fent their fhips
Fraught with the minifters and inftruments
Of cruel war: Sixty and nine, that wore
Their crownets regal, from the Athenian bay
Put forth toward Phrygia: and their vow is made,
To ranfack Troy; within whofe ftrong immures
The ravish'd Helen, Menelaus' queen,

With wanton Paris fleeps ; and that's the quarrel.
To Tenedos they come;

And the deep-drawing barks do there difgorge
Their warlike fraughtage: Now on Dardan plains
The fresh and yet unbruifed Greeks do pitch
Their brave pavilions: Priam's fix-gated city
(Dardan and Thymbria, Ilias," Chetas, Troyan,
And Antenoridas) with may ftaples,
And correfponfive and fulfilling bolts,
Sperrs up the fons of Troy.

Now expectation, tickling skittish fpirits,
On one and other fide, Trojan and Greek,
Sets all on hazard: And hither am I come,
A prologue arm'd,—but not in confidence
Of author's pen, or actor's voice; but fuited
In like condition as our argument,-

To tell you, fair beholders, that our play
Leaps o'er the vaunt and firftlings of those broils,
'Ginning in the middle; ftarting thence away
To what may be digefted in a play.

Like, or find fault; do as your pleasures are,
Now good, or bad, 'tis but the chance of war.

*This Prologue, chiefly hiftorical, makes a neceffary, though not powerful apology for taking up fo disjointed a fubject, as that of the following drama; there is a confiderable share of poetical merit in this preamble,

DRAMATIS PERSONE

AGAMEMNON.

MENELAUS

ACHILLES.

PATROCLUS.

THERSITES.

ULYSSES.

NESTOR.

AJAX.

DIOMEDEST

CALCHAS.

Servant to DIOMEDES

PRIAM:

HECTOR.

PARIS

TROILUS.

HELENUS.

DEIPHOBUS..

MARGARELON..

ANEAS.

PANDARUS, Uncle to Creffida.

Serv. to Creffida; Serv. to Troilus; Serv. to Paris.

HELEN..

ANDROMACHE.
CASSANDRA.

CRESSIDA.

Soldiers and divers Attendants, Greek and Trojan.“

Scene, Troy; and Plains adjoining.

TROILUS

AND

CRESSID A*.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Troy. Before Priam's Palace.

Enter Troilus m'd; Pandarus following.

CA

u.

TROILU s.

ALL here my varlet, I'll unarm again :
Why should I war without the walls of Troy,

That find fuch cruel battle here within ?

Each Trojan, that is master of his heart,

Let him to field; Troilus, alas, hath none.
Pan. Will this geer ne'er be mended?

Tro. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their ftrength,
Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant ;
But I am weaker than a woman's tear,

Tamer than fleep, fonder than ignorance;

From fo grand an affemblage of eminent characters, as we perceive in the drama of this play, fome tranfactions, fituations, and fentiments, particularly interesting, may reasonably be expected; investigation will gratify, or defeat our hopes.

Lefs

Lefs valiant than the virgin in the night,
And skill-lefs as unpractis'd infancy

Pan. Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part, I'll not meddle nor make no farther. He, that will have a cake out of the wheat, muft tarry the grinding. Tro. Have I not tarry'd?

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

"Tro. Have I not tarry'd ?

"Pan. Ay, the boulting; but you must tarry the leav'ning.

"Tro. Still have I tarry'd.

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

"Tro. Patience herself, what goddess e'er fhe be, Doth leffer blench at fafferance than I do, "At Priam's royal table do I fit;

"And when fair Creffid comes into my thoughts,

So, traitor!-when he comes, -When is the thence ? "Pan. Well, fhe look'd yefter-night fairer than ever "I faw her look; or any woman elfe.

"Tro. I was about to tell thee,-When my heart, "As wedged with a figh, would rive in twain ; "Left Hector or my father fhould perceive me, "I have (as when the fun doth light a ftorm) "Bury'd this figh in wrinkle of a fmile:

"But forrow, that is couch'd in feeming gladnefs, "Is like that mirth fate turns to fudden fadness t.

66.

"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, he is my "kinfwoman; I would not, as they term it, praise her, "—But I would, fomebody had heard her talk. yester

Troilus here finely describes himself,, in a far gone ftate of amorous imbecillity.

†There is infinite beauty and ftrength of expreffion in this paffage.

"day,

"day, as I did. I will not difpraife your fifter Caffan"dra's wit: but

Tro. 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 anfwer'ft, She is fair;
Pour'ft in the open ulcer of my heart

Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait; her voice
Handl'ft in thy difcourfe :-O that her hand!
In whofe comparison all whites are ink,

Writing their own reproach; to whofe foft feizure
• The cygnet's down is harth, in spirit of fenfe

Hard as the palm of ploughman !-This thou tell'st me,
As true thou tell'ft me, when I fay, I love her :
But, faying thus, inftead of oil and balm,

Thou lay ft in ev'ry gash that love hath given me
The knife that made it.

Pan. I fpeak no more than truth.

Tro. Thou doft not speak fo much.

Pan. 'Faith, I'll not meddle in't. Let her be as fhe is: if the be fair, 'tis the better for her; an fhe be not, he has the mends in her own hands.

Tro. Good Pandarus! Why, how now, Pandarus ? Pan. I have had my labour for my travel; ill-thought on of her, and ill-thought on of you: gone between and between; but fmall thanks for my labour.

Fro, What, art thou angry, Pandarus? what, with me? Pan. Because fhe's kin to me, therefore she's not fo fair as Helen: an fhe were not kin to me, fhe would be as fair o'Friday as Helen is on Sunday. But what care I? I care not, an he were a black-a-moor ; 'tis all one to me.

Tro. Say I, the is not tair? Pan. I do not care whether you do or no. She's a fool to stay behind her father; let her to the Greeks;

Such far-fancied allufions as this are peculiar to Shakespeare? as he introduces and expreffes them, though strongly tinged with hyperbole, they must highly delight every intelligent reader.

and