Description of Creffida.

(7) There's language in her eye, her cheek, her lip, Nay her foot speaks; her wanton spirits look out At every joint, and motive of her body : Oh, these encounterers! fo glib of tongue, They give a coasting welcome ere it comes; And wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts To every ticklish reader; fet them down For fluttish spoils of opportunity, And daughters of the game.

The Character of Troilus.

The youngest son of Priam, a true knight;
Not yet mature, yet matchless; firm of word;
Speaking in deeds, and deedless in his tongue;
Not foon provok'd, nor being provok'd, foon calm'd.
His heart and hand both open, and both free;
For what he has, he gives; what thinks, he shews :
Yet gives he not 'till judgment guide his bounty;
Nor dignifies an impair thought with breath:
Manly as Hector, but more dangerous;
For Hector in his blaze of wrath subscribes

To tender objects: but he in heat of action

Is more vindicative than jealous love.

SCENE

(7) There's, &c.] Nothing can exceed this description of a wanton woman. Richard (in the beginning of Richard the third) speaking of Jane Shore, fays,

We say that Shore's wife hath a pretty foot,
A cherry lip, a paffing pleasant tongue..

But in Ifaiab there is a description of the wanton daughters of Zion, which is peculiarly beautiful. "Becaufe the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretch'd-forth necks, and wanton eyes walking, and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling. with their feet," &c. See chap. iii. ver. 16.

SCENE IX. Hector in Battle.

I have, thou gallant Trojan, seen thee oft, Labouring for destiny, make cruel way Thro' ranks of Greekish youth; and I have seen thee As hot as Perfeus, spur thy Phrygian steed, Bravely despising forfeits and fubduements, When thou has hung thy advanced sword in th' air, Not letting it decline on the declin'd : That I have faid unto my standers by, Lo, Jupiter is yonder, dealing life! And I have seen thee pause and take thy breath, When that a ring of Greeks hath hem'd thee in, Like an Olympian wrestling.

Achilles surveying Hector.

Tell me, ye heav'ns, in which part of his body
Shall I destroy him? whether there, or there;
That I may give the local wound a name,
And make distinct the very breach, where out
Hector's great fpirit flew. Answer me, heavens !

:

Honour more dear than Life.

(8) Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate; Life every man holds dear, but the brave man Holds honour far more precious dear than life.

Pity to be discarded in War.

For love of all the gods,

Let's leave the hermit pity with our mothers;
And when we have our armour buckled on,
'The venom'd vengeance ride upon our swords !

Rafo

(8) Mine honour, &c.] See the first paffage in Julius Cæfar, and the note.

Rash Vows.

The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows;
They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd
Than spotted livers in the sacrifice.

General Obfervation.

THIS play (fays Johnson) is more correctly written than mort
of Shakespear's compofitions, but it is not one of those in which
either the extent of his views, or elevation of his fancy is fully
displayed. As the story abounded with materials, he has exert-
ed little invention; but he has diverfified his characters with
great variety, and preferved them with great exactness. His
vicious characters sometimes disgust, but cannot corrupt, for
both Cressida and Pandarus are detested and contemned. The
comic characters seem to have been the favourites of the
writer; they are of the fuperficial kind, and exhibit more of
manners than nature; but they are copioufly filled and power-
fully impressed. Shakespear has in his story followed, for the
greater part, the old book of Caxton, which was then very popu-
'lar; but the character of Therfites, of which it makes no men-
tion, is a proof that this play was written after Chapman had
published his verkon of Homer.

INDEX.