THE

PROLOGUE

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

Have to the Port of Athens fent their ships,
Fraught with the ministers and instruments
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 ransack Troy; within whose strong Immures,
The ravish'd Helen, Menelaus' Queen,
With wanton Paris sleeps; and That's the Quarrel.
To Tenedos they come-

And the deep-drawing Barks do there disgorge
Their warlike fraughtage. Now on Dardan Plains,
The fresh, and yet unbruised, Greeks do pitch
Their brave Pavillions. Priam's fix Gates i'th' City, (1)
(Dardan, and Thymbria, Ilia, Scæa, Troian,

And Antenorides,) with massy staples

(1) Priam's fix-gated City

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

And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts

And

Stirre up the Sons of Troy.] This has been a most miferably mangled Passage, thro' all the Editions: corrupted at once into false Concord, and false 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 easily remedied. The next Question to be asked, is, In what Sense a City having fix strong Gates, and those well barr'd and bolted, can be said to ftir up its Inhabitants? unless they may be suppos'd to derive some 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 corresponsive and fulfilling bolts,
Sperre up the fons of Troy.
Now expectation tickling skittish spirits
On one and other fide, Trojan and Greek,
Sets all on bazard. And hither 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 spar, (from the old Teutonic Word, sperren) fignifies, to shut up, defend by Barrs, &c. And in this very Sense has CHAUCER used the Term in the 5th Book of his Troilus and Creseide.

For when he saw her Doorés sperred all,

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

But now for the Six Gates, the very Names of which our Editors have barbaroufly demolish'd; and which Mr. Pope, tho the Tranflator 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 Passage of Virgil:

-Hic Juno Sceas sævissima portas

Prima tenet.

Æneid. ii. v. 612. Trojanæ urbis portas sex enumerat Dares; Antenoridem, Dardanien, Iliam, Sceam, Catumbriam, Trojanam. This List 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 translated by him. But even in these three Passages 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 describ'd in the Greek Author (fuppos'd to be Dares Phrygius, and now long since loft) to be καλα Θύμβριον : the Gate that fac'd, or was in the Neighbourhood of, the aforesaid Plain and River. And from thence, as I suspect, by the Negligence or Ignorance of the Translator, 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 Passage; but thus: ilio portas fecit (fcil. Priamus) quarum Nomina bæc funt, Antenorida, Dardania, Ilia, Scaa, Thymbrææ, Trojana. This exactly squares with my Emendation, as well as afsigns the Caufe why our Poet might call the Six Gates Priam's, who was the Builder of them dodanial oils пол

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

Cassandra, Daughter to Priam, a Prophetess.

Cressida, Daughter to Calchas, in love with Troilus.

Alexander, Cressida's Man.
Boy, Page to Troilus.

Trojan and Greek Soldiers, with other Attendants. SCENE, Troy; and the Grecian Camp, before it.