Tro. Cres. Let me go and try: You cannot shun Tro. Nothing, but our undertakings: when we Cres. Sir, mine own company. vow to weep seas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tigers: thinking it harder for our mistress to devise im-Yourself. position enough, than for us to undergo any difficulty imposed. This is the monstruosity in love, lady, that the will is infinite, and the execution confined; that the desire is boundless, and the act a slave to limit. Cres. They say, all lovers swear more performance than they are able, and yet reserve an ability that they never perform; vowing more than the perfection of ten, and discharging less than the tenth part of one. They that have the voice of lions, and the act of hares, are they not monsters? Tro. Are there such? such are not we: Praise us as we are tasted, allow us as we prove; our head shall go bare, till merit crown it: no perfection in reversion shall have a praise in present: we will not name desert before his birth; and, being born, his addition shall be humble. Few words to fair faith Troilus shall be such to Cressid, as what envy can say worst, shall be a mock for his truth; and what truth can speak truest, not truer than Troilus? Cres. Will you walk in, my lord? Re-enter PANDARUS. Pan. What, blushing still? have you not done talking yet? Cres. Well, uncle, what folly I commit, I dedicate to you. Pan. I thank you for that; if my lord get a boy of you, you'll give him me: Be true to my lord: if he flinch, chide me for it. Tro. You know now your hostages; your uncle's word, and my firm faith. Pan. Nay, I'll give my word for her too; our kindred, though they be long ere they are wooed, they are constant, being won: they are burs, I can tell you; they'll stick where they are thrown. Cres. Boldness comes to me now, and brings me Prince Troilus, I have lov'd you night and day Tro. Why was my Cressid then so hard to win? My thoughts were like unbridled children, grown Of speaking first. Sweet, bid me hold my tongue; Tro. And shall, albeit sweet music issues thence. Cres. My lord, I do beseech you, pardon me; Pan. Leave! an you take leave till to-morrow morning, Cres. Pray you, content you. What offends you, lady? • Titles. I have a kind of self resides with you; Cres. Perchance, my lord, I show more craft And fell so roundly to a large confession, O virtuous fight, When right with right wars, who shall be most right! True swains in love, shall, in the world to come, As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth, Pan. Go to, a bargain made: seal it, seal it; Pan. Amen. Whereupon I will show you a 1 Ever. speak of your pretty encounters, press it to death: away. And Cupid grant all tongue-tied maidens here, Bed, chamber, Pandar, to provide this gear! [Exeunt. SCENE III.-The Grecian Camp. Enter AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES, DIOMEDES, NESTOR, AJAX, MENELAUS, and CALCHAS. Cal. Now, princes, for the service I have done you, Out of those many register'd in promise, demand. Cal. You have a Trojan prisoner call'd Antenor, Yesterday took; Troy holds him very dear, Oft have you (often have you thanks therefore) Desired my Cressid in right great exchange, Whom Troy hath still denied: But this Antenor, I know, is such a wrest in their affairs, That their negotiations all must slack, Wanting his manage; and they will almost Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam, In change of him: let him be sent, great princes, And he shall buy my daughter: and her presence Shall quite strike off all service I have done, In most accepted pain. Agam. Let Diomedes bear him, And bring us Cressid hither; Calchas shall have What he requests of us.-Good Diomed, Furnish you fairly for this interchange: Withal, bring word-if Hector will to-morrow Be answer'd in his challenge: Ajax is ready. Dio. This shall I undertake; and 'tis a burden Which I am proud to bear. 2 [Exeunt DIOMEDES and CALCHAS. Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS, before their Tent. Ulyss. Achilles stands i' the entrance of his tent:Please it our general to pass strangely by him, As if he were forgot; and princes all, Lay negligent and loose regard upon him: I will come last: 'Tis like, he'll question me, Why such unplausive eyes are bent, why turn'd on him: If so, I have derision med'cinable, To use between your strangeness and his pride, You know my mind, I'll fight no more 'gainst Troy. 2 Like a stranger. To send their smiles before them to Achilles: Achil. What, am I poor of late? Hath any honor; but honor for those honors Which when they fall, as being slippery standers, Fortune and I are friends; I do enjoy Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out Something not worth in me such rich beholding Now, great Thetis' son? Achil. It is familiar; but at the author's drift: If thou wouldst not entomb thyself alive, Till he behold them form'd in the applause verberates The voice again; or like a gate of steel His figure and his heat. I was much rapt in this; The unknown Ajax. Heavens, what a man is there! a very horse; That has he knows not what. Nature, what things there are, Most abject in regard, and dear in use! How some men creep in skittish fortune's hall, Arhil. I do believe it: for they pass'd by me, A great-sized monster of ingratitudes: Whose glorious deeds, but in these fields of late, Ulyss. Is that a wonder? Ha! known! The providence that's in a watchful state, Those scraps are good deeds past: which are de- But our great Ajax bravely beat down him. vour'd As fast as they are made, forgot as soon In monumental mockery. Take the instant way; That one by one pursue: if you give way, Or, like a gallant horse fallen in first rank, present, Though less than yours in past, must o'ertop yours: That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand; Remuneration for the thing it was; High birth, vigor of bone, desert in service, One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.— The present eye praises the present object: Farewell, my lord: I as your lover speak; [Exit: Patr. To this effect, Achilles, have I mov'd you: Shall Ajax fight with Hector? Patr. Ay; and, perhaps, receive much honor by him. Achil. I sce, my reputation is at stake; Patr. Seals a commission to a blank of danger; Achil. Go call Thersites hither, sweet Patroclus: Ther. A wonder! Ther. Ajax goes up and down the field, asking for himself. Achil. How so? The descent of the deities to combat on either side. • Polyxena. • Friend. Ther. He must fight singly to-morrow with Hector; and is so prophetically proud of an heroical cudgelling, that he raves in saying nothing. Achil. How can that be? Ther. Why, he stalks up and down like a peacock, a stride, and a stand: ruminates, like an hostess, that hath no arithmetic but her brain to set down her reckoning: bites his lip with a politic regard, as who should say-there were wit in this head, an 'twould out; and so there is; but it lies as coldly in him as fire in a flint, which will not show without knocking. The man's undone for ever; for if Hector break not his neck i' the combat, he'll break it himself in vain glory. He knows not me: I said, Goodmorrow, Ajax; and he replies, Thanks, Agamemnon. What think you of this man, that takes me for the general? He has grown a very land-fish, languageless, a monster. A plague of opinion! a man may wear it on both sides, like a leather jerkin. Achil. Thou must be my ambassador to him, Thersites. Ther. Who, I why, he'll answer nobody; he professes not answering; speaking is for beggars; he wears his tongue in his arms. I will put on his presence; let Patroclus make demands to me, you shall see the pageant of Ajax. Achil. To him, Patroclus: Tell him,-I humbly desire the valiant Ajax, to invite the most valorous Hector to come unarmed to my tent; and to procure safe conduct for his person, of the magnanimous, and most illustrious, six-or-seven-times honored captaingeneral of the Grecian army, Agamemnon. Do this. Patr. Jove bless great Ajax! Ther. Humph! Patr. What say you to't? Ther. God be wi' you, with all my heart. Ther. If to-morrow be a fair day, by eleven o'clock it will go one way or other; howsoever, he shall pay for me ere he has me. Patr. Your answer, sir. Ther. Fare you well, with all my heart. Achil. Why, but he is not in this tune, is he? Ther. No, but he's out o' tune thus. What music will be in him when Hector has knock'd out his brains, I know not: But, I am sure, none; unless the fiddler Apollo get his sinews to make catlings' on. Achil. Come, thou shalt bear a letter to him straight. Ther. Let me bear another to his horse; for that's the more capable' creature. Achil. My mind is troubled, like a fountain stirr'd; And I myself see not the bottom of it. [Exeunt ACHILLES and PATROCLUS. Ther. 'Would the fountain of your mind were clear again, that I might water an ass at it! I had rather be a tick in a sheep, than such a valiant ignorance. [Exit. ACT IV. SCENE I.-Troy. A Street. Enter, at one side, ENEAS and Servant, with a Torch; at the other, PARIS, DEIPHOBUS, ANTENOR, DIOMEDEs, and others, with Torches. Par. See, ho! who's that there? Dei. "Tis the lord Encas. Dio. That's my mind too.-Good morrow, lord Par. A valiant Greek, Eneas; take his hand : Witness the process of your speech, wherein You told-how Diomed, a whole week by days, Did haunt you in the field. Ene. Health to you, valiant sir, During all question of the gentle truce: But when I meet you arm'd, as black defiance, As heart can think, or courage execute. Dio. The one and other Diomed embraces. Our bloods are now in calm; and, so long, health: But when contention and occasion meet, By Jove, I'll play the hunter for thy life, With all my force, pursuit, and policy. Ene. And thou shalt hunt a lion that will fly With his face backward.-In humane gentleness, Welcome to Troy! now, by Anchises' life, Welcome, indeed! By Venus' hand I swear, No man alive can love, in such a sort, The thing he means to kill, more excellently. Dio. We sympathize:-Jove, let Æneas live, • Conversation. If to my sword his fate be not the glory, Dio. We do; and long to know each other worse. Par. This is the most despiteful gentle greeting, The noblest hateful love, that e'er I heard of.What business, lord, so early? Ene. I was sent for to the king; but why, I To Calchas' house; and there to render him, There is no help; He merits well to have her, that doth seek her You, like a lecher, out of whorish loins Pan. To do what? to do what?-let her say what; what have I brought you to do? Cres. Come, come; beshrew your heart! you'll ne'er be good, Nor suffer others. Pan. Ha, ha! Alas, poor wretch! a poor ca pocchia!-hast not slept to-night? would he not, a naughty man, let it sleep? a bugbear take him! [Knocking. Cres. Did I not tell you?-'would he were knock'd o' the head! Who's that at door? good uncle, go and seeMy lord, come you again into my chamber: Both merits pois'd, each weighs nor less nor more; You smile, and mock me, as if I meant naughtily. But he as he, the heavier for a whore. Par. You are too bitter to your countrywoman. Dio. She's bitter to her country: Hear me, Paris, For every false drop in her bawdy veins A Grecian's life hath sunk; for every scruple A Trojan hath been slain: since she could speak, Par. Fair Diomed, you do as chapmen do, Dispraise the thing that you desire to buy: But we in silence hold this virtue well,We'll not commend what we intend to sell. Here lies our way. [Exeunt. Enter PANDARUS. Tro. Ha, ha! thing. Cres. Come, you are deceiv'd, I think of no such [Knocking. How earnestly they knock! pray you, come in; I would not for half Troy have you seen here. [Exeunt TROILUS and CRESSIDA. Pan. [Going to the door.] Who's there? what's the matter? will you beat down the door? How now what's the matter? Enter ENEAS. Ene. Good morrow, lord, good morrow. Pan. Who's there? my lord Æneas? By my troth, I knew you not: what news with you so early? Ene. Is not prince Troilus here? Pan. Here! what should he do here? Ene. Come, he is here, my lord, do not deny him; It doth import him much to speak with me. Pan. Is he here, say you? 'tis more than I know, I'll be sworn:-For my own part, I came in late: What should he do here? Ene. Who!-nay, then : Come, come, you'll do him wrong ere you are 'ware: As PANDARUS is going out, enter TROILUS. We must give up to Diomedes' hand Tro. Tro. How my achievements mock me! I will go meet them: and, my lord Eneas, We met by chance; you did not find me here. Ene. Good, good, my lord; the secrets of nature Have not more gift in taciturnity. [Exeunt TROILUS and ENEAS. Pan. Is't possible? no sooner got, but lost? The devil take Antenor! the young prince will go mad. Cres. A pestilence on him! now will he be A plague upon Antenor, I would they had broke's mocking; I shall have such a life, Pan. How now, how now! how go maidenheads? -Here, you maid! where's my cousin Cressid? Cres. Go hang yourself, you naughty mocking uncle! You bring me to do,' and then you flout me too. • Noisy. To do is here used in a wanton sense. neck! |