Of regular juftice in your city's bounds,
But fhall be remedy'd, to your publick laws
At heaviest answer.

Both. 'Tis moft nobly spoken.
Alc. Defcend, and keep your words.

The Senators defcend, and open the gates.
Enter a Soldier.

Sol. My noble general, Timon is dead;
Entomb'd upon the very hem o' the sea :
And, on his grave-ftone, this infculpture; which
With wax I brought away, whofe foft impreffion
Interprets for my poor ignorance.

Alc. [reads.] Here lies a wretched corfe, of wretched foul bereft:

Seek not my name: A plague confume you wicked caitiffs

left"!

Here lie I Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate: Pafs by, and curfe thy fill; but pass, and ftay not here thy gait.

These well exprefs in thee thy latter fpirits:

Though thou abhor'dft in us our human griefs,

Scorn'dft our brain's flow, and thofe our droplets which
From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit

Taught thee to make vaft Neptune weep for aye
On thy low grave, on faults forgiven.

Is noble Timon; of whofe memory

Dead

Hereafter more. -Bring me into your city,
And I will use the olive with my fword:

Make war breed peace; make peace stint war; make each
Prefcribe to other, as each other's leach 9.-

Let our drums strike 1.

[Exeunt.

7 This epitaph is formed out of two diftinct epitaphs which Shak fpeare found in Plutarch. The first couplet is faid by Plutarch to have been compofed by Timon himself as his epitaph; the fecond to have been written by the poet Callimachus.

8 Our brain's flow is our tears.

leach.] i. e. phyfician.

The play of Timon is a domeftick tragedy, and therefore ftrongly faftens on the attention of the reader. In the plan there is not much

art,

art, but the incidents are natural, and the characters various and exact. The catastrophe affords a very powerful warning against that oftentatious liberality, which scatters bounty, but confers no benefits, and buys flattery, but not friendship.

In this tragedy, are many paffages perplexed, obfcure, and probably corrupt, which I have endeavoured to rectify, or explain, with due diligence; but having only one copy, cannot promise myself that my endeavours fhall be much applauded. JOHNSON.

This play was altered by Shadwell, and brough upon the ftage in 1678. In the modeft title-page he calls it Timon of Athens, or the Manbater, as it is acted at the Duke's Theatre, made into a play.

STEEVENS.

TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

PREFACE to the quarto edition of this play, 1609.

A never writer, to an ever reader. Newes.

Eternall reader, you have heere a new play, never ftal'd with the ftage, never clapper-claw'd with the palmes of the vulger, and yet paffing full of the palme comicall; for it is a birth of your [r. that] braine, that never under-tooke any thing commicall, vainely and were but the vaine names of commedies changde for the titles of commodities, or of playes for pleas; you fhould fee all thofe grand cenfors, that now ftile them fuch vanities, flock to them for the maine grace of their gravities: efpecially this authours commedies, that are fo fram'd to the life, that they ferve for the most common commen. taries of all the actions of our lives, fhewing fuch a dexteritie and power of witte, that the most difpleafed with playes, are pleasd with his commedies. And all fuch dull and heavy-witted worldlings, as were never capable of the witte of a commedie, comming by report of them to his reprefentations, have found that witte there, that they never found in them-felves, and have parted better-wittied then they came feeling an edge of witte fet upon them, more then ever they dreamd they had braine to grind it on. So much and fuch favored falt of witte is in his commedies, that they feeme (for their height of pleasure) to be borne in that fea that brought forth Venus. Amongst all there is none more witty than this: and had I time I would comment upon it, though I know it needs not, (for fo much as will make you think your tefterne well beftowd) but for fo much worth, as even poore I know to be ftuft in it. It deferves fuch a labour, as well as the best commedy in Terence or Plautus. And beleeve this, that when hee is gone, and his commedies out of fale, you will scramble for them, and fet up a new English inquifition. Take this for a warning, and at the perill of your pleafures lofie, and judgements, refufe not, nor like this the leffe, for not being fullied with the fmoaky breath of the multitude; but thanke fortune for the fcape it hath made amongst you: fince by the grand poffeffors wills I believe you should have prayd for them [r. it] rather then beene prayd. And fo I leave all fuch to bee prayd for (for the states of their wits healths) that will not praise it. Vale.

IN

IN Troy, there lies the scene. From ifles of Greece
The princes orgillous, their high blood chaf'd,
Have to the port of Athens fent their fhips
Fraught with the minifters and inftruments
Of cruel war: Sixty and nine, that wore
Their crownets regal, from the Athenian bay
Put forth toward Phrygia: and their vow is made,
To ranfack Troy; within whose strong immures
The ravish'd. Helen, Menelaus' queen,

With wanton Paris fleeps; And that's the quarrel,
To Tenedos they come;

And the deep-drawing barks do there difgorge
Their warlike fraughtage: Now on Dardan plains
The fresh and yet unbruifed Greeks do pitch
Their brave pavilions: Priam's fix-gated city,
Dardan, and Tymbria, Ilias, Chetas, Trojan,
And Antenorides, with maffy ftaples,
And correfponfive and fulfilling bolts 2,
Sperr up the fons of Troy.

Now expectation, tickling fkittish fpirits,
On one and other fide, Trojan and Greek,
Sets all on hazard:-And hither am I come
A prologue arm'd4,-but not in confidence
Of authour's pen, or actor's voice; but fuited
In like conditions as our argument,―
To tell you, fair beholders, that our play
Leaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils,
'Ginning in the middle; ftarting thence away
To what may be digefted in a play.

Like, or find fault; do as your pleasures are;
Now good, or bad, 'tis but the chance of war.

Orgillous, i. e. proud, difdainful.

2 To fulfill in this place means to fill till there be no room for more. To be fulfilled with grace and benediction, is ftill the language of our liturgy.

3 I come here to fpeak the prologue, and come in armour; not defying the audience, in confidence of either the authour's or actor's abilities, but merely in a character fuited to the fubject, in a diefs of war, before a warlike play.

4 The van guard, called in our author's time the vaunt-guard.