Re-enter Cressida. THER. Now the pledge; now, now, now! -keep this SLEEVE.] The custom of wearing a lady's sleeve for a favour, is mentioned in Hall's Chronicle, fol. 12: "One ware on his head-piece his lady's sleeve, and another bare on his helme the glove of his deareling." Again, in the second canto of The Barons' Wars, by Drayton : "A lady's sleeve high-spirited Hastings wore." Again, in the Morte Arthur, p. 3, ch. 119: “When Queen Genever wist that Sir Launcelot beare the red sleeve of the faire maide of Astolat, she was nigh out of her minde for anger." Holinshed, p. 884, says, King Henry VIII. "had on his head a ladies sleeve full of diamonds." The circumstance, however, was adopted by Shakspeare from Chaucer. T. and C. 1. 5. 1040 : "She made him were a pencell of her sleeve." A pencell is a small pennon or streamer. STEEVENS. In an old play, (in six acts,) called Histriomastix, 1610, this incident seems to be burlesqued. Troilus and Cressida are introduced by way of interlude; and Cressida breaks out: 66 "O Knight, with valour in thy face, "Here take my skreene, wear it for grace; "Therewith to make thine enemies lame." A little old book, The Hundred Hystoryes of Troye, tells us, "Bryseyde whom master Chaucer called Cresseyde, was a damosell of great beaute; and yet was more quaynte, mutable, and full of vagaunt condysions." FARMer. This sleeve was given by Troilus to Cressida at their parting, and she gave him a glove in return. M. MASON. What Mr. Steevens has observed on the subject of ladies' sleeves is certainly true; but the sleeve given in the present instance was the sleeve of Troilus. It may be supposed to be an ornamented cuff, such perhaps as was worn by some of our young nobility at a tilt, in Shakspeare's age. On second consideration, I believe, the sleeve of Troilus, which is here given to Diomedes, was such a one as was formerly worn at tournaments. See Spenser's View of Ireland, p. 43, edit. 1633: "Also the deepe smocke sleive, which the Irish women use, they say, was old Spanish, and is used yet in Barbary; and yet that should seeme rather to be an old English fashion, for in armory the fashion of the manche which is given in armes by many, being indeed nothing else but a sleive, is fashioned much like to that sleive." MALONE. 1 TRO. O beauty! where's thy faith? ULYSS. My lord, TRO. I will be patient; outwardly I will. CRES. You look upon that sleeve; Behold it well.He loved me-O false wench!-Give't me again. DIO. Who was't? 5 CRES. It is no matter, now I have't again. I will not meet with you to-morrow night : I pr'ythee, Diomed, visit me no more. THER. Now she sharpens ;-Well said, whetstone. DIO. I shall have it". CRES. DIO. What, this? Ay, that. CRES. O, all you gods!-O pretty pretty pledge! Thy master now lies thinking in his bed Of thee, and me; and sighs, and takes my glove, And gives memorial dainty kisses to it, As I kiss thee 7.-Nay, do not snatch it from me; He, that takes that, must take my heart withal. DIO. I had your heart before, this follows it. TRO. I did swear patience. CRES. You shall not have it, Diomed; 'faith you shall not; I'll give you something else. Dro. I will have this; Whose was it? CRES. Dro. Come, tell me whose it was. "Tis no matter, 5 No matter, now, &c.] Old copies, redundantly, --It is nc matter, &c. STEEVENS. 6 I shall have it.] Some word or words, necessary to the metre, are here apparently omitted. STEEVENS. 7 As I kiss thee, &c.] In old editions: "As I kiss thee. "Dio. Nay, do not snatch it from me. "Cres. He, that takes that, must take my heart withal." Dr. Thirlby thinks this should be all placed to Cressida. She had the sleeve, and was kissing it rapturously; and Diomedes snatches it back from her. THEOBALD. CRES. 'Twas one's that loved me better than you will. But, now you have it, take it. DIO. Whose was it? CRES. By all Diana's waiting-women yonder", And by herself, I will not tell you whose. Dio. To-morrow will I wear it on my helm; And grieve his spirit, that dares not challenge it. TRO. Wert thou the devil, and wor'st it on thy horn, It should be challeng'd. CRES. Well, well, 'tis done, 'tis past ;-And yet it is not; I will not keep my word. DIO. Why then, farewell; Thou never shalt mock Diomed again. CRES. You shall not go :-One cannot speak a word, But it straight starts you. DIO. I do not like this fooling. THER. Nor I, by Pluto: but that that likes not you, pleases me best. DIO. What, shall I come? the hour? By all Diana's waiting-women yonder,] i. e. the stars which she points to. WARBURTON. So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece : "The silver-shining queen he would disdain ; "Her twinkling hand-maids too, by him defil'd, "Through Night's black bosom should not peep again." MALONE. Milton, in his Elegy I. v. 77, has imitated Shakspeare: cœlo scintillant astra sereno Endymioneæ turba ministra deæ. STEEVENS. 9 Ther. Nor I, by Pluto, &c.] Sir Thomas Hanmer gives this speech to Troilus. It does not very much resemble the language of Thersites. If indeed it belongs to the former character, it should assume a metrical form, though it is here given as it stands in the folio, and the quarto 1609, "imprinted by G. Eld, for R. Bonian and H. Walley." STEEVENS. CRES. Ay, come :-O Jove!— Do come :-I shall be plagu'd. Farewell till then. DIO. [Erit DIOMEDes. Troilus, farewell! one eye yet looks on thee; [Exit CRESSIDA. THER. A proof of strength she could not publish more " Unless she said, My mind is now turn'd whore. ULYSS. All's done, my lord. TRO. ULYSS. It is. Why stay we then? TRO. To make a recordation to my soul Troilus, farewell!] The characters of Cressida and Pandarus are more immediately formed from Chaucer than from Lydgate; for though the latter mentions them both characteristically, he does not sufficiently dwell on either to have furnished Shakspeare with many circumstances to be found in this tragedy. Lydgate, speaking of Cressida, says only: "She gave her heart and love to Diomede, "As if she never had him known or seen, "Wherein I cannot guess what she did mean." STEEVENS. But with my heart, &c.] I think it should be read thus: "But my heart with the other eye doth see." JOHNSON. Perhaps, rather: "But with the other eye my heart doth see." TYRWHITT. There is surely no need of change; one eye, says Cressida, looks on Troilus: but the other follows Diomed, where my heart is fixed. MALONE. 3 A proof of strength she could not publish more,] She could not publish a stronger proof. JOHNSON. Of every syllable that here was spoke. That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears*; Was Cressid here? ULYSS. I cannot conjure, Trojan 3. TRO. She was not sure. Most sure she was 6. TRO. Why, my negation hath no taste of madness. ULYSS. Nor mine, my lord: Cressid was here but now. TRO. Let it not be believ'd for womanhood! Think, we had mothers; do not give advantage To stubborn criticks-apt, without a theme, For depravation,-to square the general sex By Cressid's rule: rather think this not Cressid. ULYSS. What hath she done, prince, that can soil our mothers? * Quarto, court. 4 That doth invert THE ATTEST of eyes and ears;] i. e. that turns the very testimony of seeing and hearing against themselves. THEOBALD. 5 I cannot conjure, Trojan.] That is, I cannot raise spirits in the form of Cressida. JOHNSON. 6 Most sure she was.] The present deficiency in the measure induces me to suppose our author wrote: "It is most sure she was." STEEVENS. FOR WOmanhood!] i. e. for the sake of womanhood. 8 - do not give advantage To stubborn CRITICKS-apt, without a theme, STEEVENS. For depravation,] Critick has here, I think, the significa tion of Cynick. So, in Love's Labour's Lost: And critick Timon laugh at idle toys." MALONE. |