AIRY AIR
(Troilus and Cressida, III, 3, 225)
And like a dewdrop from a lion's mane
Be shook to airy air.
(First Folio)
And like a dewdrop from a lion's mane
Be shook to air.
(Modern editions)
This alteration of the First Folio text is wrong for a multitude of reasons.
First. A play is intended to be acted. Certain lines are therefore especially fitted for gesture. In this scene Achilles is sulking in his tent, and Patroclus, thinking his strange inactivity could only be due to love-sickness, comes in to remonstrate with him. With vivid and compelling imagery he compares Achilles to the lion that shakes this trifle from him. The argument would naturally be enforced by gesture, for actors have got to act; and for this purpose we have the quick abruptive shook followed by the flowing airy air. The gesture begins on "shook" by jerking the fist forcefully out from the left shoulder, and then the limp hand, rotating lightly on the wrist, describes two curves to depict the flowing air. We see the dewdrop thrown forth to evaporate—so light a trifle is love. The words airy air are what the careless hand follows as it swings
