in Caxton and Chaucer; but he appears in Shakspeare born for any thing rather than "a woman's slave." He, in fact, subdues the wanton Cressida, by convincing her that the practice on him of the arts and coquetries of her sex will be the surest way to lose him" Thou never shall mock Diomede again;"" I do not like this fooling."

*

The story of Troilus and his faithless mistress was of itself too slight to form the entire subject of a play, and the poet endeavoured to supply the deficiency by the introduction of the principal actors in the Trojan war previous to the death of Hector; with which event his drama closes. The facts, of the historical portion of the play are confusedly intermixed : the writer was evidently conversant with his subject, but shrunk from the trouble of reducing the events represented into a systematic and regular arrangement. Caxton's work afforded abundant information relative to the origin and progress of the Trojan war; but Shakspeare derived from the first book of Homer his knowledge of an event which, next to the story of Troilus and Cressida itself, is made the leading feature of the drama- the retiring of Achilles from the field of battle.

* Act V. sc. 2.

"The great Achilles, — whom opinion crowns
The sinew and the forehand of our host,
Having his ear full of his airy fame,

Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent
Lies mocking our designs.'

"Possessed he is with greatness;

And speaks not to himself, but with a pride
That quarrels at self-breath: imagin'd worth
Holds in his blood such swoln and hot discourse,
That 'twixt his mental and his active parts,
Kingdom'd Achilles in commotion rages,
And batters down himself." +

It is, indeed, a sad perversion of historic fact to convert the just wrath of the highminded Achilles into a wayward and splenetic ebullition of vanity and pride; but Shakspeare seized on the incident of Achilles' withdrawing himself from combat, and bent it to an object that he had immediately in view, -the playing off Achilles and Ajax on each other. To effect his purpose the dramatist took scarcely fewer liberties with the character of Ajax than with that of Achilles. Caxton gives the following description of Ajax :-"Of great stature, great and large in the shoulders, great arms, and alway was well cloathed, and richly. And was of no + Act II. sc. 3.

* Act I. sc. 3. VOL. II.

E

great enterprise, and spake lightly." But by no licence of interpretation can this passage be said to convey the most distant hint, except the words "spake lightly," of the highly-coloured, but well discriminated character given of Ajax by the poet :

"This man 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 crowded 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 thing so out of joint, that he is a gouty Briareus, many hands and no use; or purblind Argus, all eyes and no sight.'

All the circumstances which fix the contest with Hector on Ajax; the mortification of Achilles' vanity by the insidious exaltation of Ajax; and Achilles' consequent resolve again to take up arms, are inventions of Shakspeare, executed with inimitable dexterity and wit.

The second book of Homer gives a very distinct description of Thersites as a deformed

**Act I. sc. 2.

and factious cynic. The dramatist, either in compliance with the taste of the public or his own judgment, has degraded Thersites into a common stage buffoon.

The deference of Shakspeare to authority is no where so exact in this play as to induce him, on any material point, to copy the language of his originals. In assigning speeches to the different dramatis personæ, he kept in view the general impression of the characteristic features of the Greek and Trojan leaders, which his reading had necessarily supplied him with; and several of the orations would not have disgraced the lips of those to whom they are ascribed. If it be not at all times easy, in the drama, to recognize those whose names are linked with the never-dying history of Troy, let it not be forgotten, that Shakspeare drew from a source so polluted as to designate the heroes of antiquity by the modern appellations of dukes, earls, barons, knights, and squires, and which speaks familiarly of a bishop and of burgesses of Troy. It should be a matter of small wonder, therefore, if, under the names of Hector, Æneas, and Troilus, the courtly knight of chivalry is recognized. Such errors, and the neglect of this play, more, perhaps, than any other production of Shakspeare, to

address itself to the common feelings of mankind, are the faults with which it is particularly chargeable. Its exterior is little attractive, and it is not every reader of Shakspeare who sets down to its perusal with impartial and patient attention: and yet the characters are strongly marked and skilfully contrasted; and the dialogue abounds in much fine writing and profound remarks. With what admirable terseness it is said

"The amity, that wisdom knits not, folly may easily untie !

The succeeding just reflection on due appreciation requires no apology for its citation :—

"Hector.-Brother, she is not worth what she doth cost,— The holding.

Troilus.

Hector.

What is aught, but as 'tis valued?
But value dwells not in particular will;

It holds his estimate and dignity

As well wherein 'tis precious of itself

As in the prizer: 'tis mad idolatry,

To make the service greater than the god;
And the will dotes, that is attributive

To what infectiously itself affects,

Without some image of the affected merit."+

Other passages of equal merit in this neglected play are Ulysses' argument on the necessity of a scale of rànk in society‡; his as*Act II. sc. 3. + Act II. sc. 2. "Troy, yet upon its basis, had been down," &c.- Act I.

sc. 3.