a word from our sponsors
The First Web Folio Edition of Shakespeare's Works
| In Troy, there lies the scene. From isles of Greece | |||
| The princes orgulous, their high blood chafed, | |||
| Have to the port of Athens sent their ships, | |||
| Fraught with the ministers and instruments | |||
| Of cruel war: sixty and nine, that wore | 5 | ||
| Their crownets regal, from the 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. | 10 | ||
| 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 pavilions: Priam's six-gated city, | 15 | ||
| Dardan, and Tymbria, Helias, Chetas, Troien, | |||
| And Antenorides, with massy staples | |||
| And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts, | |||
| Sperr up the sons of Troy. | |||
| Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits, | 20 | ||
| On one and other side, 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 suited | |||
| In like conditions as our argument, | 25 | ||
| To tell you, fair beholders, that our play | |||
| Leaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils, | |||
| Beginning in the middle, starting thence away | |||
| To what may be digested in a play. | |||
| Like or find fault; do as your pleasures are: | 30 | ||
| Now good or bad, 'tis but the chance of war. | |||
This edition copyright © 2000 Dana Spradley, Publisher, shakespeare.com. Originally derived from the Complete Moby Shakespeare(tm), which is now in the public domain.
'The First Web Folio Edition' is a trademark of Dana Spradley, Publisher, shakespeare.com. All rights reserved.
If you're not reading this on shakespeare.com, you're in the wrong place.