TROILUS

AND

CRESSIDA.

VOL. VII.

A

THE

PROLOGUE

N Troy, there lies the fcene: from Iles of Greece
The Princes orgillous, their high blood chaf'd,
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 toward 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 Pavillions. Priam's fix Gates 'th' City, (1)
(Dardan, and Thymbria, Ilia, Scæa, Troian,
And Antenorides,) with massy staples

And.

(1)

Priam's fix-gated City

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 moft miferably mangled Paffage, thro' all the Editions: corrupted at once into false Concord, and falfe Reasoning. Priam's fix-gated City stirre up the Sons of Troy ? Here's a Verb plural govern'd of a Nominative fingular. But that is eafily remedied. The next Question to be asked, is, In what Senfe a City having fix ftrong Gates, and thofe 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 Sense my Correction restores.

A 2

Priam's

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 bazard. And bither am I come
A Prologue arm'd, (but not in confidence

Priam's Six Gates i'th' City,

Sperre up the Sons of Troy.

Why they might be call'd Priam's Six Gates, will be seen in the Sequel of this Note. To sperre, or fpar, (from the old Teutonic Word, (perren) fignifies, to fhut up, defend by Barrs, &c. And in this very Sense has CHAUCER ufed the Term in the 5th Book of his Troilus and Crefeide. For when he faw her Doorés fperred all,

Well nigh for Sorrow' adown he 'gan to fall.

But now for the Six Gates, the very Names of which our Editors
have barbarously demolish'd; and which Mr. Pope, tho the Translator
of Homer, had not the Skill to reedify, till I chalk'd out the Materials
for him. We find them enumerated by La Cerda, (from Dares Phrygius,
as he informs us ;) in his Note upon this Paffage of Virgil:
-Hic Juno Scaas fæviffima portas

Prima tenet.

Æneid. ii. v. 612. Trojanæ urbis portas fex enumerat Dares; Antenoridem, Dardanien, lliam, Sceam, Catumbriam, Trojanam. This Lift is again given us by Tiraquellus in a Note upon Alexander ab Alexandro, (lib. iv. cap. 23.) and from these two copied by Sir Edward Sherburne in his Commentary upon the Troades of Seneca tranflated by him. But even in these three Paffages we have to deal with Error: Catumbria is a very odd Word; and, I am well fatisfied, a depraved one. I'll endeavour to account for the Blunder, and give the true Reading. We are to remember, there was near old Troy a Plain call'd Thymbra; a River, that run thro' it, call'd Thymbrius; and a Temple to Apollo Thymbræus. The Gate, that we are speaking of, was probably defcrib'd in the Greek Author (fuppos'd to be Dares Phrygius, and now long fince loft) to be Hala Ovμbelov: the Gate that fac'd, or was in the Neighbourhood of, the aforefaid Plain and River. And from thence, as I fufpect, by the Negligence or Ignorance of the Tranflator, the two Greek Words were join'd, and corrupted into Catumbria. The correcter Editions of Dares Phrygius (I mean the Latin Verfion, which goes under that Name ;) neither read as Cerda, Tiraquellus or Sir Edward Sherburne have given us this Paffage; but thus:llio portas fecit (feil. Priamus) quarum Nomina hæc funt, Antenorida, Dardania, Ilie, Scae, Thymbrææ, Trojana. This exactly fquares with my Emendation, as well as áffigns the Caufe why our Poet might call the Six Gates Priam's, who was the Builder of them.

Of