The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

I'll keep you company.
Tro. Sweet sir, you honour me.
Hect.

And so, good-night. 96 [Exit DIOMEDES; ULYSSES and TROILUS following.

Achil. Come, come, enter my tent.

[Exeunt ACHILLES, HECTOR, AJAX, and NESTOR. Ther. That same Diomed's a false-hearted rogue, a most unjust knave; I will no more trust him when he leers than I will a serpent when he hisses. He will spend his mouth, and promise, like Brabbler the hound; but when he performs, astronomers foretell it: it is prodigious, there will come some change: the sun borrows of the moon when Diomed keeps his word. I will rather leave to see Hector, than not to dog him: they say he keeps a Trojan drab, and uses the traitor Calchas' tent. I'll after. Nothing but lechery! all incontinent varlets.

[Exit.

I pray you,

Lest your displeasure should enlarge itself
To wrathful terms. This place is dangerous; 36

SCENE II.-The Same. Before CALCHAS' Tent. The time right deadly. I beseech you, go.

Tro. Behold, I pray you!

Tro. Cressid comes forth to him.

Dio.
How now, my charge!
Cres. Now, my sweet guardian! Hark! a
word with you.

Tro. Yea, so familiar!

[Whispers.

Dio. Foh, foh! adieu; you palter. Cres. In faith, I do not: come hither once again.

Ulyss. You shake, my lord, at something: will you go?

You will break out.

Tro. Ulyss.

She strokes his cheek! Come, come.

Tro. Nay, stay; by Jove, I will not speak a word:

There is between my will and all offences
A guard of patience: stay a little while.

Ther. How the devil Luxury, with his fat rump and potato finger, tickles these together! Fry, lechery, fry!

Dio. But will you, then?

Cres. In faith, I will, la; never trust me else.

[Exit.

Dio. Give me some token for the surety of it. Thou never shalt mock Diomed again.
Cres. I'll fetch you one.
Cres. You shall not go: one cannot speak a
Ulyss. You have sworn patience.
word,
Tro.

Fear me not, sweet lord; 60 But it straight starts you.
Dio.

I will not be myself, nor have cognition
Of what I feel: I am all patience.

Cres. Well, well, 'tis done, 'tis past: and yet

it is not:

I will not keep my word.
Dio.

I do not like this fooling.

Ther. Nor I, by Pluto: but that that likes

Farewell till then.

Do come:-I shall be plagu'd.
Dio.

Cres. Good-night: I prithee, come.—

[Exit DIOMEDES.
Troilus, farewell! one eye yet looks on thee, 104
But with my heart the other eye doth see.
Ꭵ
Ah! poor our sex; this fault in us I find,
The error of our eye directs our mind.
What error leads must err. O! then conclude
Minds sway'd by eyes are full of turpitude._ 109
[Exit.

Ther. A proof of strength she could not pub-
lish more,

Unless she said, 'My mind is now turn'd whore.'
Ulyss. All's done, my lord.
Tro.

Ulyss.

113

116

It is.
Why stay we, then?
Tro. To make a recordation to my soul
Of every syllable that here was spoke.
But if I tell how these two did co-act,
Shall I not lie in publishing a truth?
Sith yet there is a credence in my heart,
An esperance so obstinately strong,
That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears,
As if those organs had deceptious functions,
Created only to calumniate.
Was Cressid here?
Ulyss.

I cannot conjure, Trojan.
Tro. She was not, sure.
Ulyss.

121

Most sure she was.

124

Tro. Why, my negation hath no taste of
madness.
Ulyss. Nor mine, my lord: Cressid was here
but now.

Tro. Let it not be believ'd for womanhood!
Think we had mothers; do not give advantage
To stubborn critics, apt, without a theme, 128
For depravation, to square the general sex
By Cressid's rule: rather think this not Cressid.
Ulyss. What hath she done, prince, that can
soil our mothers?

Tro. Nothing at all, unless that this were she.
Ther. Will he swagger himself out on's own
eyes?

133

Tro. This she? no, this is Diomed's Cressida.
If beauty have a soul, this is not she;
Why then, farewell; If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimony, 136

If sanctimony be the gods' delight,
If there be rule in unity itself,

This is not she. O madness of discourse,
That cause sets up with and against itself; 140
Bi-fold authority! where reason can revolt
Without perdition, and loss assume all reason
Without revolt: this is, and is not, Cressid.
Within my soul there doth conduce a fight 144
Of this strange nature that a thing inseparate
Divides more wider than the sky and earth;
And yet the spacious breadth of this division
Admits no orifice for a point as subtle
As Ariachne's broken woof to enter.
Instance, O instance! strong as Pluto's gates;
Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven:
Instance, O instance! strong as heaven itself;
The bonds of heaven are slipp'd, dissolv'd, and
loos'd;

148

153

Ther. He'll tickle it for his concupy. Tro. O Cressid! O false Cressid! false, false, false!

Farewell, revolted fair! and Diomed,
Stand fast, and wear a castle on thy head! 184
Ulyss. I'll bring you to the gates.
Tro. Accept distracted thanks.

[Exeunt TROILUS, ENEAS, and ULYSSES. Ther. Would I could meet that rogue Diomed! I would croak like a raven; I would bode, I would bode. Patroclus would give me any thing for the intelligence of this whore: the parrot will not do more for an almond than he for a commodious drab. Lechery, lechery; still, wars and lechery: nothing else holds fashion. A burning devil take them! [Exit.

SCENE III.-Troy. Before PRIAM's Palace. Enter HECTOR and ANDROMACHE.

And. When was my lord so much ungently
temper'd,

To stop his ears against admonishment?
Unarm, unarm, and do not fight to-day.

Hect. You train me to offend you; get
you in:

By all the everlasting gods, I'll go. And. My dreams will, sure, prove ominous to the day.

Hect. No more, I say.

Let all untruths stand by thy stained name, 176 They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd And they'll seem glorious.

Ulyss.

Than spotted livers in the sacrifice.

O! contain yourself;

Your passion draws ears hither.

Enter ANEAS.

And. O be persuaded: do not count it holy

To hurt by being just: it is as lawful,
For we would give much, to use violent thefts,

Ene. I have been seeking you this hour, my And rob in the behalf of charity.

Cas. It is the purpose that makes strong the
VOW;

But vows to every purpose must not hold.
Unarm, sweet Hector.
Hect.

Hold you still, I say;

Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate: Life every man holds dear; but the dear man Holds honour far more precious-dear than life. Enter TROILUS.

How now, young man! mean'st thou to fight to-day? 29 And. Cassandra, call my father to persuade. [Exit CASSANDRA. Hect. No, faith, young Troilus; doff thy harness, youth;

I am to-day i' the vein of chivalry:
Let grow thy sinews till their knots be strong,
And tempt not yet the brushes of the war.
Unarm thee, go, and doubt thou not, brave boy,
I'll stand to-day for thee and me and Troy. 36
Tro. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in
you,

Which better fits a lion than a man.

Hect. What vice is that, good Troilus? chide me for it.

Tro. When many times the captive Grecian falls,

Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword,
You bid them rise, and live.
Hect. O! 'tis fair play.
Tro.

Fool's play, by heaven, Hector. Hect. How now! how now! Tro. For the love of all the gods, 44 Let's leave the hermit pity with our mothers, And when we have our armours buckled on, The venom'd vengeance ride upon our swords, Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth. 48 Hect. Fie, savage, fie! Tro.

Hector, then 'tis wars. Hect. Troilus, I would not have you fight to-day.

Cassandra doth foresee; and I myself Am like a prophet suddenly enrapt, To tell thee that this day is ominous: Therefore, come back.

Æneas is a-field;

Hect. And I do stand engag'd to many Greeks, Even in the faith of valour, to appear This morning to them.

Pri.

€4

Ay, but thou shalt not go. Hect. I must not break my faith. You know me dutiful; therefore, dear sir, Let me not shame respect, but give me leave To take that course by your consent and voice, Which you do here forbid me, royal Priam. Cas. O Priam! yield not to him. And. Do not, dear father. 76 Hect. Andromache, I am offended with you: Upon the love you bear me, get you in.

[Exit ANDROMACHE. Tro. This foolish, dreaming, superstitious girl

Makes all these bodements.
Cas.
O farewell! dear Hector. 80
Look! how thou diest; look! how thy eye turns
pale;

Look! how thy wounds do bleed at many vents:
Hark! how Troy roars: how Hecuba cries out!
How poor Andromache shrills her dolours forth!
Behold, distraction, frenzy, and amazement, 85
Like witless anticks, one another meet,
And all cry Hector! Hector's dead! O Hector!
Tro. Away! Away!

Cas. Farewell. Yet, soft! Hector, I take my leave:

Thou dost thyself and all our Troy deceive.

[Exit.

Hect. You are amaz'd, my liege, at her exclaim.

Go in and cheer the town: we'll forth and fight; 52 Do deeds worth praise and tell you them st night.

Tro. Who should withhold me?
Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars
Beckoning with fiery truncheon my retire;
Not Priamus and Hecuba on knees,
Their eyes o'ergalled with recourse of tears;
Nor you, my brother, with your true sword
drawn,

Oppos'd to hinder me, should stop my way,
But by my ruin.

- Pri. Farewell: the gods with safety stand about thee!

[Exeunt severally PRIAM and HECTOR. Alarums. Tro. They are at it, hark! Proud Diomed, believe,

I come to lose my arm, or win my sleeve. As TROILUS is going out, enter, from the other side, PANDARUS.

Pan. Do you hear, my lord? do you hear? Tro. What now?

Pan. Here's a letter come from yond poor girl. Tro. Let me read.

100

Pan. A whoreson tisick, a whoreson rascally

tisick so troubles me, and the foolish fortune of this girl; and what one thing, what another, that I shall leave you one o' these days: and I have a rheum in mine eyes too, and such an ache in my bones that, unless a man were cursed, I cannot tell what to think on't. What says she there? 108 Tro. Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart;

The effect doth operate another way.

[Tearing the letter. Go, wind to wind, there turn and change together.

My love with words and errors still she feeds,
But edifies another with her deeds.

113

[Exeunt severally.

SCENE IV. Between Troy and the Grecian
Camp.

Alarums. Excursions. Enter THERSITES. Ther. Now they are clapper-clawing one another; I'll go look on. That dissembling abominable varlet, Diomed, has got that same scurvy doting foolish young knave's sleeve of Troy there in his helm: I would fain see them meet; that that same young Trojan ass, that loves the whore there, might send that Greekish whoremasterly villain, with the sleeve, back to the dissembling luxurious drab, on a sleeveless errand. O' the other side, the policy of those crafty swearing rascals, that stale old mouse-eaten dry cheese, Nestor, and that same dog-fox, Ulysses, is not proved worth a blackberry: they set me up, in policy, that mongrel cur, Ajax, against that dog of as bad a kind, Achilles; and now is the cur Ajax prouder than the cur Achilles, and will not arm to-day; whereupon the Grecians begin to proclaim barbarism, and policy grows into an ill opinion. Soft! here comes sleeve, and t' other. 20

Enter DIOMEDES, TROILUS following. Tro. Fly not; for shouldst thou take the river Styx,

I would swim after.

Dio.

Thou dost miscall retire: I do not fly; but advantageous care Withdrew me from the odds of multitude. Have at thee!

Nest. Go, bear Patroclus' body to Achilles;
And bid the snail-pac'd Ajax arm for shame.
There is a thousand Hectors in the field:
Now here he fights on Galathe his horse,
And there lacks work; anon he's there afoot,
And there they fly or die, like scaled sculls
Before the belching whale; then is he yonder,
And there the strawy Greeks, ripe for his edge,
Fall down before him, like the mower's swath:
Here, there, and everywhere, he leaves and
takes,

Dexterity so obeying appetite

24 That what he will he does; and does so much That proof is called impossibility.

Ther. Hold thy whore, Grecian! now for thy whore, Trojan! now the sleeve, now the sleeve!

[Exeunt TROILUS and DIOMEDES, fighting.

Enter HECTOR.

Enter ULYSSES.

Ulyss. O! courage, courage, princes; great
Achilles

Is arming, weeping, cursing, vowing vengeance:
Patroclus' wounds have rous'd his drowsy blood,
Together with his mangled Myrmidons,

Hect. What art thou, Greek? art thou for Hector's match? 28

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