Par. You are too bitter to your countrywoman. Dio. She's bitter to her country: Hear me, Paris,For every false drop in her bawdy veins A Grecian's life hath sunk; for every scruple Of her contaminated carrion weight, A Trojan hath been slain: since she could speak, [Exeunt. 9 We'll not commend what we intend to sell.] I believe the meaning is only this: though you practice the buyer's art, we will not practise the seller's. We intend to sell Helen dear, yet will not commend her. Johnson. Dr. Warburton would read-not sell. Steevens. The sense, I think, requires we should read-condemn. Tyrwhitt. When Dr. Johnson says, they meant to sell Helen dear, he evidently does not mean that they really intended to sell her at all, (as he has been understood) but that the Greeks should pay very dear for her, if they had her. We'll not commend what we intend to make you pay very dear for, if you have her. So Ajax says, in a former scene: "however, he shall pay for me, ere he has me." Commend is, I think, the true reading, our author having introduced a similar sentiment in two other places. In Love's Labour's Lost, we have "To things of sale a seller's praise belongs." Again, in his 21st Sonnet: "I will not praise, that purpose not to sell." This passage favours Dr. Warburton's emendation; but intend not sell sounds very harsh. However, many very harsh combinations may be found in these plays, where rhymes are introduced. Surely Dr. Warburton's reading is the true one. We'll not commend what we intend not sell, is evidently opposed to "Dispraise the thing that you desire to buy:” in the same speech. Malone. Of such elliptical phraseology as is introduced by Dr. War burton's emendation, our author's plays will afford numerous ex amples. Steevens. SCENE II. The same. Court before the House of Pandarus. Enter TROILUS and CRESSIDA. Tro. Dear, trouble not yourself; the morn is cold. Cres. Then, sweet my lord, I'll call mine uncle down; He shall unbolt the gates. Tro. Trouble him not; To bed, to bed: Sleep kill' those pretty eyes, As infants' empty of all thought! Cres. Good morrow then. Are you aweary of me? Tro. O Cressida! but that the busy day, Cres. Night hath been too brief. Tro. Beshrew the witch! with venomous wights3 she stays, As tediously as hell; but flies the grasps of love, Cres. You men will never tarry. Pr'ythee, tarry ; O foolish Cressid—I might have still held off, 1 Sleep kill-] So the old copies. The moderns have-Sleep seal. Johnson. Seal was one of the numerous innovations introduced by Mr. Pope. Malone. 2 SC. viii. ribald crows,] See note on Antony and Cleopatra, Act III, Harris. 3 — venomous wights —] i. e. venifici; those who practise nocturnal sorcery. Steevens. 4 As tediously-] The folio has: As hideously as hell. Johnson. Sir T. Hanmer, for the sake of metre, with great probability, reads: Tedious as hell &o. Pan. [within] What, are all the doors open here? Enter PANDARUS. Cres. A pestilence on him! now will he be mocking: I shall have such a life,. Pan. How now, how now? how go maidenheads?— Here, you maid! where's my cousin Cressid? Cres. Go hang yourself, you naughty mocking uncle! You bring me to do, and then you flout me too. Pan. To do what? to do what?-let her say what: what have I brought you to do? Cres. Come, come; beshrew your heart! you'll neʼer be good, Nor suffer others. Pan. Ha, ha! Alas, poor wretch! a poor capocchia!". hast not slept to-night? would he not, a naughty man, let it sleep? a bugbear take him! [Knocking. Cres. Did not I tell you?-'would he were knock'd o' the head! Who's that at door? good uncle, go and see.— My lord, come you again into my chamber: 5 to do,] To do is here used in a wanton sense. So, in The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio says: "I would fain be doing." Again, in All's Well that Ends Well, Lafeu declares that he is "past doing." Collins. 6 a poor capocchia!] Pandarus would say, I think, in English-Poor innocent! Poor fool! hust not slept to-night? These appellations are very well answered by the Italian word capocchio: for capocchio signifies the thick head of a club; and thence metaphorically, a head of not much brain, a sot, dullard, heavy gull. Theobald. The word in the old copy is chipochia, for which Mr. Theobald substituted capocchio, which he has rightly explained. Capochia may perhaps be used with propriety in the same sense, when applied to a female; but the word has also an entirely different meaning, not reconcilable to the context here, for which I choose to refer the reader to Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598, Malone. 7 as if-] Here, I believe, a common ellipsis has been destroyed by a playhouse interpolation: As, in ancient language, has frequently the power of as if. I would therefore omit the latter conjunction, which encumbers the line without enforcing the sense. Thus, in Spenser's Fairy Queen: "That with the noise it shook as it would fall." Steevens. Tro. Ha, ha! Cres. Come, you are deceiv'd, I think of no such thing.— [Knocking. How earnestly they knock!—pray you, come in; [Exeunt TRO. and CRES, Pan. [going to the door] Who's there? what's the matter? will you beat down the door? How now? what's the matter? Enter ENEAS. Ene. Good morrow, lord, good morrow. Pan. Who's there? my lord Æneas? By my troth, I knew you not: what news with you so early? Ene. Is not prince Troilus here? Pan. Here! what should he do here? Ene. Come, he is here, my lord, do not deny him; It doth import him much, to speak with me. Pan. Is he here, say you? 'tis more than I know, I'll be sworn :-For my own part, I came in late : What should he do here? Ene. Who!-nay, then :— Come, come, you'll do him wrong ere you are 'ware: You'll be so true to him, to be false to him: Do not you know of him, yet go fetch him hither; Go. A8 PANDARUS is going out, enter TROILUS. Tro. How now? what's the matter? Ene. My lord, I scarce have leisure to salute you, My matter is so rash:9 There is at hand Paris your brother, and Deiphobus, The Grecian Diomed, and our Antenor 8 9 yet go fetch &c.] Old copy, redundantly—but yet &c. Steevens ·matter is so rash :] My business is so hasty and so abrupt. So, in King Henry IV, Part II: 66 Johnson. aconitum, or rash gunpowder." Steevens. Again, in Romeo and Juliet: "It is too rash, too unadvis'd, too sudden; "Too like the lightning," &c. Malone. Deliver'd to us; &c.] So the folio. The quarto thus Delivered to him, and forthwith. Johnson. Ere the first sacrifice, within this hour, Tro. Is it so concluded? Ene. By Priam, and the general state of Troy: Tro. How my achievements mock me!* [Exeunt TRO. and ÆNE. 2 How my achievements mock me!] So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "And mock our eyes with air" Steevens. 3 We met by chance; you did not find me here.] So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "See where he is, who 's with him, what he does: "I did not send you." Malone. the secrets of nature Have not more gift in taciturnity.] This is the reading of both the elder folios; but the first verse manifestly halts, and betrays its being defective. Mr Popc substitutes: the secrets of neighbour Pandar. If this be a reading ex fide codicum (as he professes all his various readings to be) it is founded on the credit of such copies as it has not been my fortune to meet with. I have ventured to make out the verse thus: The secret's things of nature, &c. i. e. the arcana natura, the mystries of nature, of occult philosophy, or of religious ceremonies. Our poet has allusions of this sort in several other passages. Theobald. Mr. Pope's reading is in the old quarto. So great is the necessity of collation. Johnson. I suppose the editor of the folio meant-the secretest of nature, and that secrets was an error of the press. So, in Macbeth: I suppose our author to have written-secrecies. "In nature's infinite book of secrecy Wherever there is redundant metre, as in the reading of the quarto, corruption may always be suspected. Steevens. * In the field of conjecture, though over-ran, there is still room for speculation. I cannot suppose Æneas in a very serious mood on the full discovery of Troilus' amour.-Suppose it were writ ten thus: the secrets of Lore Have not more gift &c. |