Ther. Hold thy whore, Grecian!-now for thy whore, Trojan!-now the sleeve, now the sleeve! [Exeunt TROILUS and DIOMEDES, fighting. Enter HECTOR. Is arming, weeping, eursing, vowing vengeance: Hect. What art thou, Greek? art thou for Hec- Crying on Hector. Ajax hath lost a friend, tor's match? Art thou of blood, and honour ?! Ther. No, no:-I am a rascal; a scurvy railing knave; a very filthy rogue. Hect. I do believe thee:-Live. [Exit. Ther. God-a-mercy, that thou wilt believe me; But a plague break thy neck, for frighting me! What's become of the wenching rogues? I think, they have swallowed one another: I would laugh at that miracle. Yet, in a sort, lechery eats itself. I'll seek them. [Exit. SCENE V. The same. Enter DIOMEDES and a Servant. Dio. Go, go, my servant, take thou Troilus' horse ;2 Present the fair steed to my lady Cressid: I go, my lord. [Exit Servant. Enter AGAMEMNON. Agam. Renew, renew! The fierce Polydamas Hath beat down Menon: bastard Margarelon Hath Doreus prisoner: And stands colossus-wise, waving his beam, Enter NESTOR. Nest. Go, bear Patroclus' body to Achilles; And bid the snail-pac'd Ajax arm for shame.There is a thousand Hectors in the field: Now here he fights on Galathe his horse, And there lacks work; anon, he's there afoot, And there they fly, or die, like scaled sculls Before the belching whale; then is he yonder, And there the strawy Greeks, ripe for his edge, Fall down before him, like the mower's swath: Here, there, and every where, he leaves and takes; Dexterity so obeying appetite, That what he will, he does; and does so much, That proof is call'd impossibility. Enter ULYSSES. And foams at mouth, and he is arm'd, and at it, Ere that correction :-Troilus, I say! what, Troilus! Enter TROILUS. Tro. O, traitor Diomed!-turn thy false face, thou traitor, And pay thy life thou owest me for my horse! Ajax. I'll fight with him alone: stand, Diomed. Enter HECTOR. Hect. Yea, Troilus! O, well fought, my young est brother! Enter ACHILLES. Achil. Now do I see thee; Ha!-Have at theo, Hect. Pause, if thou wilt. Achil. I do disdain thy courtesy, proud Trojan. Ulyss. O, courage, courage, princes! great My rest and negligence befriend thee now, 1 This is an idea taken from the ancient books of ro mantic chivalry, and even from the usage of the poet's age; as is the following one in the speech of Diomedes : And am her knight by proof.' It appears from Segar's Honour, Military and Civil, folio, 1602, that a person of superior birth might not be challenged by an inferior, or if challenged might refuse combat. We learn from Melvil's Memoirs, p. 165, ed. 1735, 'the laird of Grange offered to fight Bothwell, who answered that he was neither earl nor lord, but a baron; and so was not his equal. The like answer made he to Tullibardine. Then my Lord Lindsay offered to fight him, which he could not well refuse; but his heart failed him, and he grew cold on the business.' These punctilios are well ridiculed in Albumazar, Act iv. Sc. 7. 2 This circumstance is taken from Lydgate, as is the introduction of a bastard son of Priam under the name of Margarelon. The latter is also in the Old History o the Destruction of Troy. 3 i. e. his lance, like a weaver's beam; as Goliath's spear is described.'" 4 Bruised, crushed 5 A mervayllous beaste that was called Sagittayre, that behynde the myddes was an horse, and to fore a man: this beste was heery like an horse, and shotte well with a bowe: this beste made the Grekes sore aferde, and slewe many of them with his bowe.'-Destruction of Troy, by Caxton. A more circumstantial account of this Sagittary is to be found in Lydgate. 6 i. e. dispersed shoals. A scull of fishes: examen vel agmen piscium' (Baret,) was also in more ancient times written a scoole.' 7 This remark seems to be made by Nestor, in conse. quence of the return of Ajax to the field, he having lately refused to cooperate or draw together with the Greeks, though at present he is roused from his sullen fit by the loss of a friend. 8 i. e. murderer of boys. So in King Henry IV. Part ii. Act ii. Scene 1: A man-queller and a woman-queller.' 9 That is, as we should now say, I will not be a looker-on. 10 The poet had heard of Græcia mendar. Diomedes had defrauded him of his mistress, and he bestows the epithet on both, unius ob culpam. Cicero bears witness to this character of the ancient Greeks:'Testimoniorum religionem et fidem nunquam ista natio coluit.' And again-Græcorum ingenia ad fallendum parata sunt.' But thou anon shalt hear of me again; [Exit. Tro. Ajax hath ta'en Æneas; Shall it be? Enter One in sumptuous Armour. [Exit. Hect. Stand, stand, thou Greek; thou art a goodly mark: 4 No? wilt thou not?-I like thy armour well;2 Why then, fly on, I'll hunt thee for thy hide. [Exeunt. SCENE VII. The same. Enter ACHILLES, with Myrmidons. Achil. Come here about me, you my myrmidons; Mark what I say.-Attend me where I wheel: Strike not a stroke, but keep yourselves in breath; And when I have the bloody Hector found, Empale him with your weapons round about; In fellest manner execute your arms. Follow me, sirs, and my proceedings eye! It is decreed-Hector the great must die. [Exeunt. SCENE VIII. The same. Enter MENELAUS, and PARIS, fighting; then THERSITES. Ther. The cuckold, and the cuckold-maker are at it: Now, bull! now, dog! 'Loo, Paris, 'loo! now my double-henned sparrow! 'loo, Paris, loo! The bull has the game :-'ware horns, ho! [Exeunt PARIS and MENELAUS. Enter MARGARELON. Mar. Turn, slave, and fight. Mar. A bastard son of Priam's. Ther. I am a bastard too; I love bastards: I am a bastard begot, bastard instructed, bastard in mind, bastard in valour, in every thing illegitimate. One bear will not bite another, and wherefore should one bastard? Take heed, the quarrel's most ominous to us: if the son of a whore fight for a whore, he tempts judgment: Farewell, bastard. Mar. The devil take thee, coward! [Exeunt. SCENE IX. Another part of the Field. Enter HECTOR. Enter ACHILLES and Myrmidons. The count he woos your daughter, 2 This circumstance is also taken from Lydgate's poem, who furnished Shakspeare with the hint for the following line: 'I am unarm'd; forego this vantage, Greek.' How ugly night comes breathing at his heels: Even with the vail and dark'ning of the sun, To close the day up, Hector's life is done. Hect. I am unarm'd: forego this vantage, Greek. Achil. Strike, fellows, strike; this is the man I seek." [HECTOR falls. So, Ilion, fall thou next! now, Troy, sink down! Here lies thy heart, thy sinews, and thy bone.On, Myrmidons; and cry you all amain, Achilles hath the mighty Hector slain. [A Retreat sounded. Hark! a retreat upon our Grecian part. Myr. The Trojan trumpets sound the like, my lord. Achil. The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth, And, stickler like, the armies separates. My half-supp'd sword, that frankly would have fed, [Exeunt. SCENE XI. Another part of the Field. Enter Ene. Stand, ho! yet are we masters of the field. Never go home; here starve we out the night. Enter TROILUS. Tro. Hector is slain. All. Hector?--The gods forbid! Tro. He's dead; and at the murderer's horse's tail, In beastly sort, dragg'd through the shameful field.Frown on, you heavens, effect your rage with speed! Sit, gods, upon your thrones, and smile at Troy! I say, at once let your brief plagues be mercy, And linger not our sure destructions on! ne. My lord, you do discomfort all the host. Tro. You understand me not, that tell me so; I do not speak of flight, of fear, of death; But dare all imminence, that gods and men, Address their dangers in. Hector is gone! Who shall tell Priam so, or Hecuba? Let him, that will a screech-owl aye be call'd, Go in to Troy, and say there--Hector's dead: There is a word will Priam turn to stone; Cold statues of the youth; and, in a word, Make wells and Niobes of the maids and wives, 6 The rail of the sun,' is the sinking, setting, or railing of the sun. 7 Heywood, in his Rape of Lucrece, 1639, gives the same account of Achilles overpowering Hector by numbers. In Lydgate and the old story book the same account is given of the death of Troilus. Lydgate, following Guido of Colonna, who in the grossest manner has vio the Grecian poet as the original offender. 3 To frush is to break or bruise. So in the Destruc-lated all the characters drawn by Homer, reprehends tion of Troy Saying these words, Hercules caught by the head poor Lychas-and threw him against a rocke so fiercely that he to-frushed and all to-burst his bones, 8 Sticklers were persons who attended upon combatants in trials of skill, to part them when they had fought. enough, and, doubtless, to see fair play. They were probably so called from the stick or wand which they carried in their hands. The name is still giver e arbitrators at wresting matches in the west coEI 9 Haniner and Warburton read:--smite at Troy;" which, it must be confessed, is more in corres with the rest of Troilus's wish. Scare Troy out of itself. But, march, away: Thus proudly pight' upon our Phrygian plains, Good traders in the flesh, set this in your painted As many as be here of pander's hall, I'll through and through you!-And thou, great-Though not for me, yet for your aching bones. siz'd coward! No space of earth shall sunder our two hates; AS TROILUS Pan. But hear you, Brethren, and sisters, of the hold-door trade, [Exit. THIS play is more correctly written than most of which either the extent of his views or elevation of his Shakspeare's compositions, but it is not one of those in fancy is fully displayed. As the story abounded with [Exit TROILUS.materials, he has exerted little invention; but he has Pan. A goodly med'cine for my aching bones!-diversified his characters with great variety, and preO, world! world! world! thus is the poor agent served them with great exactness. His vicious characdespised! O traitors and bawds, how earnestly are ters disgust, but cannot corrupt, for both Cressida and you set a' work, and how ill requited! Why should Pandarus are detested and condemned. The comic our endeavour be so loved, and the performance so ter: they are of the superficial kind, and exhibit more loathed? what verse for it? what instance for it?of manners than nature; but they are copiously filled Let me see: Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing, 1 Pitched, fixed. 2 Broker anciently signified a bawd of either sex. So in King John : This bawd, this broker, this all-changing word,' &c. 3 Ignominy. 4 Canvass hangings for rooms, painted with emblems and mottoes. 5 See King King Henry VI. Part I. Act. i. Sc. 3. 6 See Measure for Measure, Act i, Sc. 2. * It should, however, be remembered that Thersites had been long in possession of the stage in an Interlude bearing his name. The first seven books of Chapman's Homer were published in 1596, and again in 1598, twelve books not long afterward, and the whole 24 books at latest in 1611. characters seem to have been the favourites of the wri and powerfully impressed. Shakspeare has in his story followed, for the greater part, the old book of Cax ton, which was then very popular; but the character of Thersites, of which it makes no mention, is a proof that this play was written after Chapman had published his version of Homer.* JOHNSON. The classical reader may be surprised that Shakspeare, having had the means of being acquainted with the great father of poetry through the medium of Chapman's translation, should not have availed himself of such an original instead of the Troy Booke; but it should be recollected that it was his object as a writer for the stage to coincide with the feelings and prejudices of his au dience, who, believing themselves to have drawn their descent from Troy, would by no means have been pleased to be told that Achilles was a braver man than Hector. They were ready to think well of the Trojans as their ancestors, but not very anxious about knowing their history with much correctness; and Shakspeare might have applied to worse sources of information than Jeven Lydgate.-Boswell. TIMON OF ATHENS. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. Obbu, Timon's butler. Padio, Gelasimus' page. Two sergeants. A sailor. Callimela, Philargurus' daughter. Blutte, her prattling nurse.-Scene, Athens.' THE story of the Misanthrope is told in almost every a covetous churlish old man. Hermogenes, a fiddler collection of the time, and particularly in two books, Abyssus, a usurer. Lollio, a country clowne, Philar with which Shakspeare was intimately acquainted-gurus' sonne. Stilpo, and Speusippus, two lying phi The Palace of Pleasure, and the Translation of Plu-losophers. Grunnio, a lean servant of Philargurus. tarch, by Sir Thomas North. The latter furnished the poet with the following hint to work upon :-'Antonius forcook the city and companie of his friendes, saying that he would lead Timon's life, because he had the like wrong offered him that was offered unto Timon; and for the unthankfulness of those he had done good unto, and whom he tooke to be his friends, he was angry with all men, and would trust no man,' To this manuscript play Shakspeare was probably indebted for some parts of his plot. Here he found the faithful steward, the banquet scene, and the story of Timon's being possessed of great sums of gold, which he had dug up in the wood; a circumstance which it is not likely he had from Lucian, there being then no translation of the dialogue that relates to that subject. Malone imagines that Shakspeare wrote his Timon of Athens in the year 1610. Mr. Strut, the engraver, was in possession of a MS. play on this subject, apparently written, or transcribed, about the year 1600. There is a scene in it resembling Shakspeare's banquet, given by Timon to his flatterers. Instead of warm water he sets before them stones paint- "Of all the works of Shakspeare, Timon of Athens ed like artichokes, and afterwards beats them out of the possesses most the character of a satire:-a laughing room. He then retires to the woods, attended by his satire in the picture of the parasites and flatterers, and faithful steward, who (like Kent in King Lear) has dis- a Juvenalian in the bitterness and the imprecations of guised himself to continue his services to his master. Timon against the ingratitude of a false world. The Timon, in the last act, is followed by his fickle mistress, story is treated in a very simple manner, and is defi. &c. after he was reported to have discovered a hidden uitely divided into large masses:-in the first act, the joy treasure by digging. The piece itself (though it ap- ous life of Timon, his noble and hospitable extravapears to be the work of an academic) is a wretched one. gance, and the throng of every description of suitors to The persona dramatis are as follows:-Timon; La-him; in the second and third acts, bis embarrassment, ches, his faithful servant. Eutrapelus, a dissolute and the trial which he is thereby reduced to make of his young man. Gelasimus, a cittie heyre. Pseudocheus, supposed friends, who all desert him in the hour of a lying traveller Demeas, an orator. Philargurus, | need-in the fourth and fifth acts, Timon's flight to the woods, his misanthropical melancholy, and his death. I ness, as well as his anchoretical seclusion. This is par The only thing which may be called an episode, is the banishment of Alcibiades, and his return by force of arms. However, they are both examples of ingratitude, -the one of a state towards its defender, and the other of private friends to their benefactor. As the merits of the general towards his fellow-citizens suppose more strength of character than those of the generous prodi-lowing of his free choice, and Timon cannot bear the gal. their respective behaviours are no less different: Timon frets himself to death; Alcibiades regains his lost dignity by violence. If the poet very properly sides with Timon against the common practice of the world, he is, on the other hand, by no means disposed to spare Timon. Timon was a fool in his generosity; he is a madman in his discontent; he is every where wanting in the wisdom which enables man in all things to observe the due measure. Although the truth of his ex-persed, immediately flock to him again when they learn travagant feelings is proved by his death, and though when he digs up a treasure, he spurns at the wealth which seems to solicit him, we yet see distinctly enough that the vanity of wishing to be singular, in both parts of the plays, had some share in his liberal self-forgetful. ticularly evident in the incomparaolene where the cynic Apemantus visits Timon inne wilderness. They have a sort of competition with each other in their trade of misanthropy: the cynic reproaches the impoverished Timon with having been merely driven by necessity to take to the way of living which he had been long fol thought of being merely an imitator of the cynic. As in this subject the effect could only be produced by an ae cumulation of similar features, in the variety of the shades an amazing degree of understanding has been displayed by Shakspeare. What a powerfully diversi fied concert of flatteries and empty testimonies of devotedness! It is highly amusing to see the suitors, whom the ruined circumstances of their patron had dis that he had been revisited by fortune. In the speeches of Timon, after he is undeceived, all the hostile figures of language are exhausted,—it is a dictionary of eloquent imprecations.'t friends. Shakspeare seems to have entered enurely It appears to me that Schlegel and Professor Rich-into the feelings of bitterness, which such conduct was ardson have taken a more unfavourable view of the likely to awaken in a good and susceptible nature, and character of Timon, than our great poet intended to has expressed it with vehemence and force. The vir convey. Timon had not only been a benefactor to his tues of Timon too may be inferred from the absence of private unworthy friends, but he had rendered the state any thing which could imply dissoluteness or intempe. service, which ought not to have been forgotten. He rance in his conduct as Richardson observes, He is himself expresses his consciousness of this when he convivial, but his enjoyment of the banquet is in the sends one of his servants to request a thousand talents pleasure of his guests; Phrynia and Timandra are at the hands of the senators :not in the train of Timon, but of Alcibiades. He is not so desirous of being distinguished for magnificence, as of being eminent for courteous and beneficent actions he solicits distinction, but it is by doing good." Johnson has remarked that the attachment of his ser. vants in his declining fortunes, could be produced by nothing but real virtue and disinterested kindness. I cannot, therefore, think that Shakspeare meant to stig. matize the generosity of Timon as that of a fool, or that he meant his misanthropy to convey to us any notion of the vanity of wishing to be singular.' ↑ Schlegel. Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have Deserv'd this hearing.' And Alcibiades afterwards confirms this : I have heard, and griev'd Poet. I have not seen you long; how goes the He_passes.' world? Jew. I have a jewel here. Poet. When we for recompense have prais'd the vile, 3 Breath'd is exercised, inured by constant practice, so trained as not to be wearied. To breathe a horse is to exercise him for the course: continuate for continued course. He passes, i. e. exceeds or goes beyond common bounds. 4 Touch the estimate, that is, come up to the price. 5 We must here suppose the Poet busy in reciting part of his own work; and that these three lines are the introduction of the poem addressed to Timon. It stains the glory in that happy verse Which aptly sings the good. Mer. 'Tis a good form. [Looking at the Jewel. Jew. And rich: here is a water, look you. Pain. You are rapt, sir, in some work, some dedication To the great lord. Poet. Upon the heels of my presentment, sir, Let's see your piece. "Tis a good piece. grace Pain. Poet. So 'tis: this comes off well and excellent. Pain. Indifferent. Poet. Admirable: How this Speaks his own standing! what a mental power This eye shoots forth! how big imagination Moves in this lip! to the dumbness of the gesture One might interpret. Pain. It is a pretty mocking of the life. Here is a touch; Is't good? Poet. I'll say of it, [Enter certain Senators, and pass over.] Pain. How this lord's follow'd! Poet. The Senators of Athens :-Happy men! Poet. You see this confluence, this great flood of visitors.R I have, in this rough work, shap'd out a man, Pain. How shall I understand you? 1 The old copies read : Our poesie is a gowne which uses.' It is not certain whether this word is chafes or chases in the folio. I think the former is the true read ing. The poetaster means that the vein of a poet flows spontaneously, like the current of a river, and flies from each bound that chafes it in its course, as scorning all impediment, and requiring no excitement. In Julius Caesar we have Timon. The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores.' 3 i. e. as soon as my book has been presented to 4 This comes off well, apparently means this is cleverly done, or this piece is well executed. The phrase is used in Measure for Measure ironically. 5 How the graceful attitude of this figure proclaims that it stands firin on its centre, or gives evidence in favour of its own fixture. Grace is introduced as bearing witness to propriety. 6 One might venture to supply words to such intelligible action. Such significant gesture ascertains the sentiments that should accompany it. So in Cymbeline, Act ii. Sc. 4: ( never saw I pictures So likely to report themselves.' 7 1. e. the contest of art with nature. This was a very common mode of expressing the excellence of a painter. Shakspeare has it again more clearly expressed in his Venus and Adonis :- 'His art with nature's workmanship at strife. 9 Mane salutantum totis vomit ædibus undam.' 9 So in Measure for Measure we have, 'This under generation; and in King Richard III. the lower world. Subdues and properties13 to his love and tendance All sorts of hearts; yea, from the glass-fac'd flatterer1 4 To Apemantus, that few things loves better mount Is rank'd with all deserts, all kind of natures, 10 My design does not stop at any particular character. 11 An allusion to the Roman practice of writing with a style on tablets, covered with wax: a custom which also prevailed in England until about the close of the fourteenth century. 12 i. e. open, explain. 13 i. e. subjects and appropriates. › 14 One who shows by reflection the looks of his The poet was mistaken in the character of patron. Apemantus; but seeing that he paid frequent visits to Timon, he naturally concluded that he was equally courteous with his other guests. 15 i. e. to improve or promote their conditions. 16 i. e. extensively imagined, largely conceived. 17 i. e. in our art, in painting. Condition was used for profession, quality; façon de faire. 19 Whisperings of officious servility, the incense of the worshipping parasite to the patron as a god. Gray has excellently expressed in his Elegy these sacrificial offerings to the great from the poetic tribe :To heap the shrine of luxury and pride With incense kindled at the Muses' flame.' 19 To drink the air, like the haustos a therios of Virgil is merely a poctic phrase for draw the air, or breathe. To drink the free air,' therefore, through another,' is to breathe freely at his will only, so as to depend on him for the privilege of life not even to breathe freely without his permission. 20 i. e. inferior spectators. 21 To period is perhaps a verb of Shakspeare's coinage |
