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PROLOGUE.

I The Princes orgillous, their high blood chaf'd,
IN Troy, there lies the scene: from Isles of Greece

Have to the Port of Athens fent their ships,
Fraught with the minifters and inftruments
Of cruel war. Sixty and nine, that wore
Their Crownets regal, from th' Athenian bay
Put forth tow'rd Phrygia, and their vow is made
To ranfack Troy; within whofe ftrong 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 Gates i' th' City, (1)
(Dardan, and Thymbria, Ilia, Scæa, Troian,

And Antenorides,) with mafy staples

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Dardan, and Timbria, Helias, Chetas, Trojen,
And Antenoridan, with maffy Staples

And correfponfive and fulfilling bolts

Stirre up the Sons of Troy.] This has been a most miserably mangled Paffage, thro' all the Editions: corrupted at once into falfe Concord, and falfe Reafoning. Priam's fix-gated

City firre up the Sons of Troy ?———Here's a Verb plural govern'd of a Nominative fingular. But that is easily remedied. The next queftion to be ask'd, is, In what Sense a City having fix ftrong gates, and those well barr'd and bolted, can be faid to fir up its Inhabitants? unless they may be fuppos'd to derive fome Spirit from the Strength of their Fortifications. But this could not be the Poet's Thought. He must mean, I take it, that the Greeks had pitch'd their Tents upon the Plains before Troy; and that the Trojans were fecurely barricaded within the Walls and Gates of their City. This Senfe my Correction restores. To sperre, or spar, from the old Teutonic Word, (fperren) fignifies, to fhut up, defend by Bars, &c.

And

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And correfponfive and fulfilling bolts,
Sperre up the fons of Troy.-

Now expectation tickling skittish fpirits
On one and other fide, Trojan and Greek,
Sets all on hazard. And hither am I come
A Prologue arm'd, (but not in confidence
Of Author'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 firftlings of those broils,
'Ginning i' th' middle: ftarting thence away,
To what may be digefted in a Play.

Like, or find fault,

do, as your pleafures are

Now good, or bad, 'tis but the chance of war.

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Helen, Wife to Menelaus, in love with Paris.
Andromache, Wife to Hector.

Caffandra, Daughter to Priam, a Prophetess.

Creffida, Daughter to Calchas, in love with Troilus.

Alexander, Creffida's Man.

Boy, Page to Troilus.

Trojan and Greek Soldiers, with other Attendants.

SCENE, Troy; and the Grecian Camp, before it.

Troilus and Creffida.

A C T I.

SCENE, the Palace in Troy.

Enter Pandarus and Troilus.

TROILU S.

ALL here my varlet; I'll unarm again.
Why fhould I war without the walls of
Troy,

That find fuch cruel battle here within?
Each Trojan, that is mafter of his heart,
Let him to field; Troilus, alas! hath.

none.

Pan. Will this geer ne'er be mended?

Troi. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their ftrength,

Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant.
But I am weaker than a woman's tear,
Tamer than fleep, fonder than ignorance;
Lefs valiant than the virgin in the night,
And skill-lefs as unpractis'd infancy.

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.

Tro. Have I not tarried?

Pan. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the boulting.

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Troi.

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