To tell you, (fair beholders) that our Play Like, or find fault,do, as your pleasures are; (2) Beginning in the middle, farting thence away,] Thus all the editions, before Mr. Pope's. He, in the purity of his ear, has cafhier'd the laft word, because the verfe was longer than its fellows. I have chose to retain it; (because, I am perfuaded, the Poet intended a rhyme) and reduce the line to measure by an apocope fo frequent in his writings. Helen, Wife to Menelaus, in love with Paris. Caffandra, Daughter to Priam, a Prophetess. Alexander, Crefida's Man. Boy, Page to Troilus. Trojan and Greek Soldiers, with other A.tendants. SCENE, Troy; and the Grecian Camp, before it. TROILUS and CRESSIDA. ACTI. SCENE, the Palace in Troy. Enter Pandarus and Troilus. TROILUS. ALL here my varlet; I'll unarm again. (3) Pan. Will this geer ne'er be mended? Troi. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their ftrength, Tamer than fleep, fonder than ignorance; Pan. That find fuch cruel battle here within? I won't venture to affirm, that this paffage is founded on Anacreon, but there is a mighty confonance both of thought and expreffion in both poets; particularly, in the close of the fentence. Μάτην δ ̓ ἔχω βοείην Τὶ γὰρ βαλώμεθ ̓ ἔξω, P6 'Tis Pan. Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part, I'll not meddle nor make any farther. He, that will have a cake out of the wheat, muft needs tarry the grinding. Troi. Have I not tarried? Pan. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the boulting. Troi. Have I not tarried? Par. Ay, the boulting; but you must tarry the leav'ning. Troi. Still have I tarried. Pan. Ay, to the leav'ning: but here's yet in the word hereafter, the kneading, the making of the cake, the heating of the oven, and the baking nay, you must ftay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips. Troi. Patience herfelf, what Goddess e'er the be, Doth leffer blench at fufferance, than I do. At Priam's royal táble do I fit; 'Tis in vain that I have a fhield: for wherefore fhould I wear that out- In my opinion, the paffage fhould be thus render'd; Quid enim [ilium] extrinfecùs objiciam, Cum Pugna intùs emninò ardeat ? -I am The tranflators do not feem to have remember'd, that Cáλλquai (aa its compounds, αμφιβάλλομαι, ἐπιβάλλομαι, περιβάλλομαι) may fometimes fignify actively, induo, injicio, impono. Authorities are so ob¬ vious, that it is unneceffary to alledge any. And And when fair Creffid comes into my thoughts, Troi. I was about to tell thee, when my heart, But forrow, that is couch'd in feeming gladness,. Pan. And her hair were not fomewhat darker than Helen's-well, go to, there were no more comparison between the women. But, for my part, fhe is my kinfwoman; I would not (as they term it) praise her-but I would, fomebody had heard her talk yesterday, as I did: I will not difpraise your fifter Caffandra's wit, but Troi. O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus (4) When I do tell thee, there my hopes lie drown'd, They lie indrench'd. I tell thee, I am mad Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice; (4) When I do tell thee, there my hopes lie drown'd, Reply not in bow many fathoms deep They lie intrench d.] This is only the reading of the modern editors: I have reftor'd that of the old books. For befides that, intrench'd in fatboms, is a phrase which we have very great reason to fufpect; what confonance, or agreement, in fenfe is there betwixt drown'd and intrench'd? The firft carries the idea of destruction, the latter of fe curity. Indrench'd corresponds exactly with drown'd; and fignifies, immers'd in the deep, or, as our Poet in another place calls it, ensteep'd. So in his Venus and Adonis ; O, where am I, (quoth fhe) in earth, or heav'n? Or in the ocean drench'd? And in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, we again find the terms coupled. And drench'd me in the fea, where I am drown'd. The |