That caufe fets up with and against itself!
3 Bi-fold authority! 4 where reafon can revolt
Without perdition, and lofs affume all reason
Without revolt; this is, and is not Creffid!
Within my foul there doth commence a fight
Of this strange nature, that a thing infeparate
Divides far wider than the sky and earth;
And yet the fpacious breadth of this divifion
Admits no orifice for a point, as fubtle

5 As Arachne's broken woof to enter.

But. I know not how to apply the word in this fenfe to anity. I read,

If there be rule in purity itself,

Or, If there be rule in verity itfelf.

Such alterations would not offend the reader, who faw the ftate of the old editions, in which, for instance, a few lines lower, the almighty fun is called the almighty fenne.-Yet the words may at last mean, If there be certainty in unity, if it be a rule that one is one. JOHNSON.

3 Bi-fold authority!quarto. The folio gives us,

By foul authority!

-] This is the reading of the

There is madness in that difquifition in which a man reasons at once for and against himself upon authority which he knows not to be valid. The quarto is right. JOHNSON.

4

where reafon can revolt

Without perdition, and lofs affume all reafon

Without revolt ;- -] The words lofs and perdition are ufed in their common fenfe, but they mean the loss or perdition of reafon. JOHNSON.

5 As Arachne's broken woof to enter.] The fyllable wanting in this verfe the modern editors have hitherto fupplied. I hope the mistake was not originally the poet's own; but one of the quarto's reads with the folio, Ariachna's broken woof, and the other Ariathna's. It is not impoffible that Shakespeare might have written Ariadne's broken woof, having confounded the two names or the ftories, in his imagination; or alluding to the clue of thread, by the affiftance of which Thefeus efcaped from the Cretan labyrinth. I do not remember that Ariadne's loom is mentioned by any of the Greek or Roman poets, though I find an allufion to it in Humour out of Breath, a comedy, 1607. inftead of thefe poor weeds, in robes Richer than that which Ariadne wrought, "Or Cytherea's airy-moving vel." STEEVENS.

Inftance,

Instance, O inftance! ftrong as Pluto's gates!
Creffid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven
Inftance, O inftance! strong as heaven itself!
The bonds of heaven are flipp'd, diffolv'd, and loos'd:
And with another knot five-finger-tied,

The fractions of her faith, orts of her love,
The fragments, fcraps, the bits, and greafy reliques
Of her 7 o'er-eaten faith, are given to Diomed.

8

Ulyff. May worthy Troilus be half attach'd With that which here his paffion doth exprefs!

Troi. Ay, Greek, and that fhall be divulged well In characters as red as Mars his heart

Inflam'd with Venus. Never did young man fancy
With fo eternal, and fo fix'd a foul.

Hark, Greek; as much as I do Creffid love,
So much by weight hate I her Diomed.
That fleeve is mine that he'll bear in his helm;
Were it a cafk compos'd by Vulcan's skill,
My fword fhould bite it: not the dreadful spout,
Which fhip-men do the hurricano call,
Conftring'd in mass by the almighty fun,
Shall dizzy with more clamour Neptune's ear
In his defcent, than fhall my prompted fword
Falling on Diomed.

Ther. He'll tickle it for his concupy.

Troi. O Creffid! O falfe Creffid! falfe, falfe, falfe! Let all untruths ftand by thy ftained name,

And they'll feem glorious.

Ulyff. O, contain yourself;

Your paffion draws ears hither.

knot five-finger-tied,] A knot tied by giving her

hand to Diomed. JOHNSON.

7-o'er-eaten faith,] Vows which the has already fwallowed once over. We ftill fay of a faithlefs man, that he has eaten his words. JOHNSON.

8 May worthy Troilus-] Can Troilus really feel on this occafion half of what he utters? A queftion fuitable to the calm Ulyffes. JOHNSON.

Enter Eneas.

Ene. I have been seeking you this hour, my lord: Hector, by this, is arming him in Troy.

Ajax, your guard, ftays to conduct you home. Troi. Have with you, prince. My courteous lord, adieu.

Farewell, revolted fair! And, Diomed,

Stand fast, 9 and wear a castle on thy head!
Ulyff. I'll bring you to the gates.
Trci. Accept distracted thanks.

[Exeunt Troilus, Æneas, and Ulyffes. Ther. 'Would I could meet that rogue Diomed, I would croak like a raven; I would bode, I would bode, Patroclus would give me any thing for the intelligence of this whore: the parrot will do no more for an almond, than he for a commodious drab. Letchery, letchery; ftill wars and letchery; nothing elfe holds fashion: a burning devil take them!

SCENE III.

The palace of Troy.

Enter Hector and Andromache.

[Exit.

And. When was my lord fo much ungently temper'd To ftop his ears against admonishment?

Unarm, unarm, and do not fight to-day.

and wear a caftle on thy head!] i. e. defend thy head with armour of more than common proof. The fame thought occurs in Henry IV. page 1.

"We fteal as in a castle cock-fure."

Agair, in The little French Lawyer of Beaumont and Fletcher,

but use

"That noble courage I have feen, and we
"Shall fight as in a castle.".

STEEVENS.

Het.

Hect. You train me to offend you: get you in. By all the everlafting gods, I'll go!

And. My dreams will, fure, prove ominous to-day. Helt. No more, I fay.

Enter Caffandra.

Caf. Where is my brother Hector?

And. Here, fifter; arm'd, and bloody in intent. Confort with me in loud and dear petition; Purfue we him on knees; for I have dreamt Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of flaughter. Caf. O, it is true.

Helt. Ho! bid my trumpet found!

Caf. No notes of fally, for the heavens, fweet brother.

Het. Be gone, I fay: the gods have heard me fwear. Caf. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows; They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd Than fpotted livers in the facrifice,

And. O! be perfuaded: do not count it holy To hurt by being juft: it were as lawful

For us to count we give what's gain'd by thefts, And rob in the behalf of charity.

Caf. 3 It is the purpose that makes ftrong the vow; But vows to every purpose must not hold.

Unarm, fweet Hector,

'The hint for this dream of Andromache, is taken from Lidgate. STEEVENS,

For us to count] This is fo oddly confufed in the folio, that I transcribe it as a fpecimen of incorrectnefs:

do not count it holy,

To hurt by being juft; it were as lawful

For we would count give much to as violent thefts,
And rob in the behalf of charity. JOHNSON.

"The

3 It is the purpofe] The mad prophetefs fpeaks here with all the coolness and judgment of a skilful cafuift. "effence of a lawful vow, is a lawful purpofe, and the vow of "which the end is wrong muft not be regarded as cogent."

13

- JOHNSON."

Helt

1

Helt. Hold you still, I fay;

Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate :
Life every man holds dear; but the 4 dear man
Holds honour far more precious dear than life.

Enter Troilus.

How now, young man? mean'st thou to fight to

day?

And. Caffandra, call my father to perfuade.

[Exit Caffandra. Helt. No, 'faith, young Troilus; doff thy harness, youth;

I am to-day i' the vein of chivalry.

Let grow thy finews till their knots be ftrong,
And tempt not yet the brushes of the war.
Unarm thee, go; and doubt thou not, brave boy,
I'll ftand, to-day, for thee, and me, and Troy.

Troi. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you, 5 Which better fits a lion, than a man.

Hect. What vice is that, good Troilus? chide me for it.

Trai. When many times the captive Grecians fall, Even in the fan and wind of your fair fword, You bid them rise, and live,

Helt. O, 'tis fair play.

Troi. Fool's play, by heaven, Hector,

Het. How now? how now?

Troi. For love of all the gods,

Let's leave the hermit Pity with our mother:

4 dear man] Valuable man, The modern editions read, brave man.

The repetition of the word is in our author's manner. JOHNS. 5 Which better fits a lion,-] The traditions and stories of the darker ages abounded with examples of the lion's generofity. Upon the fuppofition that these acts of clemency were true, Troilus reafons not improperly, that to fpare against reafon, by mere inflinct of pity, became rather a generous beast than a wife man. JOHNSON.

And