O
admirable man! Paris, Paris is dirt to him, and I warrant Helen, to
change, would give money to boot.' This is the language he addresses
to his niece; nor is she much behindhand in coming into the plot.
Her head is as light and fluttering as her heart. It is the
prettiest villain, she fetches her breath so short as a new-ta'en
sparrow.' Both characters are originals, and quite different from
what they are in Chaucer. In Chaucer, Cressida is represented as a
grave, sober, considerate personage (a widow--he cannot tell her
age, nor whether she has children or no) who has an alternate eye to
her character, her interest, and her pleasure: Shakespeare's
Cressida is a giddy girl, an unpractised jilt, who falls in love
with Troilus, as she afterwards deserts him, from mere levity and
thoughtlessness of temper. She may be wooed and won to anything and
from anything, at a moment's warning: the other knows very well what
she would be at, and sticks to it, and is more governed by
substantial reasons than by caprice or vanity. Pandarus again, in
Chaucer's story, is a friendly sort of go-between, tolerably busy,
officious, and forward in bringing matters to bear: but in
Shakespeare he has 'a stamp exclusive and professional': he wears
the badge of his trade; he is a regular knight of the game. The
difference of the manner in which the subject is treated arises
perhaps less from intention, than from the different genius of the
two poets.
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