I
N Troy, there lies the scene : from Isles of Greece

The Princes orgillous, their bigb blood cbafod,
Have to tbe port of Athens fent their ships,
Fraught with the ministers and instruments
Of cruel war. Sixty and nine that wore
Their crownets régal, from th' Athenian bay
Put forth toward Phrygia, and their vow is made
To ransack Troy; witbin whose strong immures,
Tbe ravik'd Helen, Menelaus' Queen,
Witb wanton Paris sleeps, and that's the quarrel.
To Tenedos they come-
And tbe deep-drawing barks do tbere disgorge
Their warlike fraughtage. Now on Dardan plains,
Tbe frefs and yet unbruised Greeks do pitch
Tbeir brave pavilions. Priam's ''fix gates i'th' city,
Dardan and Thymbria, Ilia, Scæa, Trojan,
And Antenorides, with masly staples
And corresponsive and full-filling bolts,
? Sperr' up tbe fons of Troy.
Now Expectation tickling skitti Spirits
On one and other fide, Trojan and Greek,
Sets all on bazard. Hilber am I come
A Prologue arm’d, but not in confidence
Of Author's per, or Actor's voice; but suited
In like conditions as our argument ;
To tell you (fair bebolders) that our play
Leaps o'er tbe vaunt and firstlings of those broils,
'Ginning i'th' middle : starting thence away
To what may be digested in a Play.
Like, or find fault, do as your pleasures are,
Now good, or bad, 'ris but the chance of war.

DRA i fix-gated city, ... old edit. Theob. emend.

Stis ... old edit, Theob. emend.

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PRIAM,
Hector,
Troilus,
Paris,
Deiphobus,

TROJANS.
Helenus,
Æneas,
Pandarus,
Antenor,
A bastard son of Priam,
Agamemnon,
Achilles,
Ajax,
Menelaus,
Ulyfles,

GREEK S.
Neftor,
Diomedes,
Patroclus,
Therfites,
Calchas,
Helen, Wife to Menelaus, in Love with Paris.
Andromache, Wife to Hector.
Cassandra, Daughter to Priam, a Prophetess.
Cressida, Daughter to Calchas, in Love with Troilus.
Alexander, Servant to Crellida.
Boy, Page to Troilus.
Trojan and Greek Soldiers, with other Aliendants.

SCENE Troy and the Grecian Camp.
The Story originally written by Lollius an old Lombard

Author, and since by Chaucer. Pope. It is also found in an old English Story-book of the three

destructions of Troy, from which many of ibe circumstances in this Play are borrow'd, they being to be found no where else.

Theobald.

TRO ILUS

Priam's Palace within the Walls of Troy, but fupposed to bave a situation a little distant from

the rest of the City.

Enter Pandarus and Troilus.

TROILUS.

ALL here my varlet, I'll unarm again.

Why should I war without the walls of Troy, с That find such cruel battle here within ?

Each Trojan that is master of his heart,
Let him to field, Troilus alas ! hath none.

Pan. Will this geer ne'er be mended ?
Troi. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their strength,
Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant.
But I am weaker than a woman's tear,

Tamer (a) Before this Play of Troilas and Cressida printed in 1609 is a Bookfeller's preface, fhewing that forf impression to have been before rbe Play bad been acted, and that it was published without Shakespear's knowledge from a copy that had fallen into the Bookseller's hands. Mr. Dryden thinks this one of the first of our Author's Plays : But on the contrary, it may be judg' from the foremention'd Preface ibat it was one of his last; and the great number of observations, both moral and politick, (with which ihis piece is crowded more than any other of his) seems to confirm that opinion. Pope.

A 4