Cres.

Ay, come.-O Jove!

Farewell till then.

Do come ;-I shall be plagued.
Dio.
Cres. Good night. I pr'ythee, come.-

[Exit DIOMEDes.

Troilus, farewell! one eye yet looks on thee;
But with my heart the other eye doth see.
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, swayed by eyes, are full of turpitude.

[Exit CRESSIDA. Ther. A proof of strength, she could not publish

more,1

Unless she said, my mind is now turned whore.

Ulyss. All's done, my lord.

Tro.
Ulyss.

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.

Most sure she was.

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

now.

Tro. Let it not be believed for womanhood!2 Think, we had mothers; do not give advantage To stubborn critics-apt, without a theme,

1 She could not publish a stronger proof.

2 For the sake of womanhood.

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? Tro. This she? No, this is Diomed's Cressida.

If beauty have a soul, this is not she;

If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimonies,
If sanctimony be the gods' delight,

If there be rule in unity itself,'

This was not she. O madness of discourse,
That cause sets up with and against itself!
Bi-fold authority !2 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
Of this strange nature, that a thing inseparate3
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 slipped, dissolved, and loosed;
And with another knot, five-finger-tied."
The fractions of her faith, orts of her love,
The fragments, scraps, the bits and greasy relics
Of her o'er-eaten faith, are bound to Diomed.

1 If it be true that one individual cannot be two distinct persons. 2 The folio reads "By foul authority," &c. There is a madness in that disquisition, in which a man reasons at once for and against himself upon authority which he knows not to be valid. The words loss and perdition, in the subsequent line, are used in their common sense; they mean the loss or perdition of reason.

but

3 i. e. the plighted faith of lovers. Troilus considers it inseparable, or at least that ought never to be broken, though he has unfortunately found that it sometimes is.

4 One quarto copy reads Ariachna's; the other Ariathna's; the folio Ariachne's. Arachne was the name applied to the spider.

5 A knot tied by giving her hand to Diomed.

6 Her troth plighted to Troilus, of which she was surfeited.

Ulyss. May worthy Troilus be half attached With that which here his passion doth express 21 Tro. Ay, Greek; and that shall be divulged well In characters as red as Mars his heart

Inflamed with Venus; never did young man fancy?
With so eternal and so fixed a soul.

Hark, Greek.--As much as I do Cressid love,
So much by weight hate I her Diomed.

That sleeve is mine, that he'll bear on his helm ;
Were it a casque composed by Vulcan's skill,
My sword should bite it; not the dreadful spout,
Which shipmen do the hurricano call,
Constringed in mass by the almighty sun,
Shall dizzy with more clamor Neptune's ear
In his descent, than shall my prompted sword
Falling on Diomed.

Ther. He'll tickle it for his concupy.

3

Tro. O Cressid! O false Cressid! false, false, false! Let all untruths stand by thy stained name,

And they'll seem glorious.

Ulyss.

O, contain yourself;

Your passion draws ears hither.

Enter ENEAS.

Ene. I have been seeking you this hour, my lord. Hector, by this, is arming him in Troy ;

Ajax, your guard, stays to conduct you home.

Tro. Have with you, prince.-My courteous lord, adieu;

Farewell, revolted fair!-and, Diomed,

Stand fast, and wear a castle on thy head!1

Ulyss. I'll bring you to the gates.

Tro. Accept distracted thanks.

[Exeunt TROILUS, ENEAS, and ULYSSES.

1 "Can Troilus really feel, on this occasion, half of what he utters? 2 Love.

3 A cant word, formed from concupiscence.

4 i. e. defend thy head with armor of more than common security. It appears that a kind of close helmet was called a castle. See Titus Andronicus, Act iii. Sc. 1.

Ther. 'Would I could meet that rogue Diomed! I would croak like a raven; I would bode, I would bode. Patroclus will 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. burning devil take them!

A

[Exit.

SCENE III. Troy. Before Priam's Palace.

Enter HECTOR and ANDRomache.

And. When was my lord so much ungently tempered, 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.

Cas.

Enter CASSANDRA.

Where is my brother Hector?

And. Here, sister; armed and bloody in intent.
Consort with me in loud and dear petition,1

Pursue we him on knees; for I have dreamed
Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night

Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of slaughter.
Cas. O, it is true.

Hect.

Ho! bid my trumpet sound! Cas. No notes of sally, for the heavens, sweet

brother.

2

Hect. Begone, I say; the gods have heard me swear. Cas. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows; They are polluted offerings, more abhorred

Than spotted livers in the sacrifice.

And. O! be persuaded. Do not count it holy

1 i. e. earnest, anxious petition.

2 Foolish.

To hurt by being just; it is as lawful,

For we would give much, to use violent thefts,1
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;

2

Mine honor keeps the weather of my fate.
Life every man holds dear; but the dear man3
Holds honor far more precious-dear than life.—

Enter TROILUS.

How now, young man ? mean'st thou to fight to-day? 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.

Tro. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you,
Which better fits a lion than a man.1

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

Tro. When many times the captive Grecians fall, Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword,

You bid them rise and live.5

Hect. O, 'tis fair play.

Tro.

Fool's play, by Heaven, Hector.

Hect. How now? how now?

1 i. e. to use violent thefts, because we would give much.

2 To keep the weather is to keep the wind or advantage. Estre au dessus du vent, is the French proverbial phrase.

3 The man of worth.

4 The traditions and stories of the darker ages abounded with examples of the lion's generosity.

5 Shakspeare seems not to have studied the Homeric character of Hector, whose disposition was by no means inclined to clemency.

VOL. V.

44