TROILUS

AND

CRESSID A.

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PROLOGUE.

IN Troy, there lies the scene: from Iles of Greece
The Princes orgillous, their high blood chaf'd,
Have to the Port of Athens fent their fhips,
Fraugh with the minifters and inftruments
Of cruel war. Sixty and mine, that wore
Their crownets regal, from th' 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 plain,
The fresh, and yet unbruifed, Greeks do pitch

Their brave Pavillions. Priam's fix Gates' th' City,
Dardan, and Thymbria, Ilia, Scæa, Troian,
And Antenorides, with maffy staples
And correfponfive and fulfilling bolts,
Sperre up the fans of Troy.-

-Priam's fix-gated city
Durdan and Timbria, Helias,
Chetas, Trojan,
And Antenonidus, with may
faples

And correfperfive and fulfilling
balts

Stir up the fons of Troy.] This has been a moft miferably man. gled paffage, through all the edi-, tions; corrupted at once into falle concord and falfe reafoning.

Now

Priam's fix gated City firre up the fons of Troy?—Here's a verb plural governed of a Nominative fingular. But that is eafily remedied. The next question to be afk'd, is, in what fenfe a city having fix ftrong gates, and thofe well barr'd and bolted, can be faid to fir up its inhabitants? unless they may be supposed to derive fome fpirit from the frength of their fortifications,

But

Now expectation tickling skittish spirits
On one and other fide, Trojan and Greek,
Sets all on bazard.

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 conditions as our Argument;

To tell you, fair Beholders, that our Play
Leaps o'er the vaunt and firfilings of thofe broils,
'Ginning i' th' 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.

But this could not be the poet's
thought. He muft mean, I take
it, that the Greeks had pitched
their tents upon the plains before
Troy; and that the Trojans were
fecurely barricaded within the
walls and gates of their city.
This fenfe my correction reftores.
To fperre, or Spar, from the old
Teutonic word, (SPERREN)fig-

nifies, to fut up, defend by barrs, &c. THEOBALD.

+ A prologue arm'd,—] I come here to speak the prologue, and come in armour; not defying the audience, in confidence of either the authour's or actor's abilities, but merely in a character fuited to the fubject, in a drefs of war, before a warlike play.

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Dramatis

Helen, Wife to Menelaus.

Andromache, Wife to Hector.

Caffandra, Daughter to Priam, a Prophetess.
Creffida, Daughter to Calchas.

Alexander, Creffida's Servant.
Boy, Page to Troilus.

Trojan and Greek Soldiers, with other Attendants. SCENE, Troy; and the Grecian Camp, before it.

The Editions of this Play are, Quarto. 1609. G. Eld. for R. Boniand and H. Whalley.

2. Quarto. No date. G. Eld.

for R. Boniand and H. Whalley. I have the Folio and first Quarto. The Folio is the corrected and complete copy.

TROILUS and CRESSIDA.

ACT I SCENE I

C

The Palace in Troy.

Enter Pandarus and Troilus.

TROILUS.

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