The nobleft hateful love, that e'er I heard of.-
What business, lord, so early?

ENE. I was fent for to the king; but why, I know not.

PAR. His purpose meets you;' 'Twas to bring this Greek

To Calchas' houfe; and there to render him,
For the enfreed Antenor, the fair Creffid:
Let's have your company; or, if you please,
Hafte there before us: I conftantly do think,
(Or, rather, call my thought a certain knowledge,)
My brother Troilus lodges there to-night;
Roufe him, and give him note of our approach,
With the whole quality wherefore: I fear,
We fhall be much unwelcome.

That I affure you;

ENE.
Troilus had rather Troy were borne to Greece,
Than Creffid borne from Troy.

PAR.

The bitter difpofition of the time

There is no help;

[Exit.

Will have it fo. On, lord; we'll follow you.

ENE. Good morrow, all.

PAR. And tell me, noble Diomed; 'faith, tell

me true,

Even in the foul of found good-fellowship,-
Who, in your thoughts, merits fair Helen beft,
Myfelf, or Menelaus?

Both alike:

D10. He merits well to have her, that doth feek her (Not making any fcruple of her foilure,) With fuch a hell of pain, and world of charge; And you as well to keep her, that defend her

9 His purpofe meets you;] I bring you his meaning and his orders.

JOHNSON.

(Not palating the taste of her dishonour,)
With fuch a coftly lofs of wealth and friends:
He, like a puling cuckold, would drink up
The lees and dregs of a flat tamed piece;2
You, like a lecher, out of whorish loins
Are pleas'd to breed out your inheritors:
Both merits pois'd, each weighs nor lefs nor more;
But he as he, the heavier for a whore.'

PAR. You are too bitter to your countrywoman.
D10. She's bitter to her country: Hear me,
Paris,-

For every falfe drop in her bawdy veins

2

a flat tamed piece ;] i. e. a piece of wine out of which the fpirit is all flown. WARBURTON.

This word, with a fomewhat fimilar fenfe, occurs in Coriolanus : "His remedies are tame i'the present peace.”

3 Both merits pois'd, each weighs nor less nor more; But he as he, the heavier for a whore.] I read: But he as he, each heavier for a whore?

STEEVENS.

Heavy is taken both for weighty, and for fad or miserable. The quarto reads:

But he as he, the heavier for a whore.

I know not whether the thought is not that of a wager. It must then be read thus:

But he as he.

Which heavier, for a whore?

That is, for a whore ftaked down, which is the heavier?

JOHNSON.

I think all new pointing or alteration unneceffary. The fenfe appears to be this: the merits of either are funk in value, because the contest between them is only for a ftrumpet. STEEVENS.

The merits of each, whatever they may be, being weigh'd one against the other, are exactly equal; in each of the fcales, however, in which their merits are to be weighed, a harlot must be placed, fince each of them has been equally attached to one.—This is the reading of the quarto. The folio reads, MALONE.

which heavier for a whore.

A Grecian's life hath funk; for every fcruple
Of her contaminated carrion weight,

A Trojan hath been flain: fince the could speak,
She hath not given fo many good words breath,
As for her Greeks and Trojans fuffer'd death.
PAR. Fair Diomed, you do as chapmen do,
Difpraise the thing that you defire to buy:
But we in filence hold this virtue well,-
We'll not commend what we intend to fell.4
Here lies our way.

[Exeunt.

4 We'll not commend what we intend to fell.] I believe the meaning is only this: though you practice the buyer's art, we will not practise the feller's. We intend to fell Helen dear, yet will not commend her. JOHNSON.

Dr. Warburton would read-not fell. STEEVENS.
The fenfe, I think, requires we fhould read-condemn.

TYRWHITT.

When Dr. Johnfon fays, they meant to fell Helen dear, he evidently does not mean that they really intended to fell her at all, (as he has been understood,) but that the Greeks fhould pay very dear for her, if they had her. We'll not commend what we intend to make you pay very dear for, if you have her. So Ajax fays in a former fcene, "however, he fhall pay for me, ere he has me." Commend is, I think, the true reading, our author having introduced a fimilar fentiment in two other places. In Love's Labour's Loft, we have

To things of fale a feller's praife belongs." Again, in his 21ft Sonnet:

"I will not praife, that purpose not to fell.”

This paffage favours Dr. Warburton's emendation; but intend not fell founds very harsh. However, many very harsh combinations may be found in these plays, where rhymes are introduced.

Surely Dr. Warburton's reading is the true one.

We'll not commend what we intend not fell,

is evidently opposed to

"Difpraife the thing that you defire to buy:"

in the fame fpeech.

MALONE.

Of fuch elliptical phrafeology as is introduced by Dr. Warburton's emendation, our author's plays will afford numerous examples. STEEVENS.

SCENE II.

The fame. Court before the House of Pandarus.

Enter TROILUS and CRESSIDA.

TRO. Dear, trouble not yourself; the morn is cold.

CRES. Then, fweet my lord, I'll call mine uncle

down;

He fhall unbolt the gates.

TRO.

Trouble him not;.

To bed, to bed: Sleep kill thofe pretty eyes,
And give as soft attachment to thy fenfes,

As infants' empty of all thought!

CRES.

Good morrow then.

Are you aweary of me?

TRO. 'Pr'ythee now, to bed.

CRES.

TRO. O Creffida! but that the bufy day,

Wak'd by the lark, hath rous'd the ribald crows, And dreaming night will hide our joys" no longer, I would not from thee.

CRES.

Night hath been too brief. TRO. Befhrew the witch! with venomous wights she stays,

Sleep kill-] So the old copies. The moderns haveSleep feal. JOHNSON.

Seal was one of the numerous innovations introduced by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

6

hide our joys-] Thus the quarto. The folio has-hide our eyes. MALONE.

7-venomous wights-] i. e. venefici; thofe who practise nocturnal forcery. STEEVENS.

As tedioufly as hell; but flies the grafps of love, With wings more momentary-fwift than thought. You will catch cold, and curfe me.

CRES.

You men will never tarry.

Pr'ythee, tarry ;—

O foolish Creffid!-I might have ftill held off, And then you would have tarry'd. Hark! there's one up.

PAN. [Within.] What, are all the doors open

here?

TRO. It is your uncle.

Enter PANDARUS.9

CRES. A peftilence on him! now will he be mocking:

I fhall have fuch a life,

PAN. How now, how now? how go maidenheads? -Here, you maid! where's my coufin Creffid?

8 As tedioufly-] The folio has:

As hideously as hell. JOHNSON.

Sir T. Hanmer, for the fake of metre, with great probability, reads:

Tedious as hell &c.

STEEVENS.

9 Enter Pandarus.] The hint for the following fhort converfation between Pandarus and Creffida is taken from Chaucer's Troilus and Creffeide, Book III. v. 1561:

Pandare, a morowe which that commen was
"Unto his necè, gan her faire to grete,

" And faied all this night fo rained it alas!
"That all my drede is, that ye, necè fwete,
"Have little leifir had to flepe and mete,
"All night (quod he) hath rain fo do me wake,
"That fome of us I trowe their heddis ake.

"Creffeide answerde, nevir the bet for you,
"Foxe that ye ben, God yeve your hertè care,
"God help me fo, ye caufid all this fare," &c.