The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  CRESSIDA Good morrow, then.

  TROILUS I prithee now, to bed.

  CRESSIDA Are you aweary of me?

  TROILUS

  O Cressida! But that the busy day,

  Waked by the lark, hath roused the ribald crows,

  And dreaming night will hide our joys no longer,

  I would not from thee.

  CRESSIDA Night hath been too brief.

  TROILUS

  Beshrew the witch! With venomous wights she stays

  As hideously as hell, but flies the grasps of love

  With wings more momentary-swift than thought.

  You will catch cold and curse me.

  CRESSIDA

  Prithee, tarry. You men will never tarry.

  O foolish Cressid! I might have still held off,

  And then you would have tarried.—Hark, there’s one

  up.

  ⌈She veils herself⌉

  PANDARUS (within) What’s all the doors open here?

  TROILUS It is your uncle.

  CRESSIDA

  A pestilence on him! Now will he be mocking.

  I shall have such a life.

  ⌈Enter Pandarus⌉

  PANDARUS How now, how now, how go maidenheads? (To Cressida) Here, you, maid! Where’s my cousin Cressid?

  CRESSIDA ⌈unveiling⌉

  Go hang yourself. You naughty, mocking uncle!

  You bring me to do—and then you flout me too.

  PANDARUS To do what? To do what?—Let her say what.—What have I brought you to do?

  CRESSIDA

  Come, come, beshrew your heart. You’ll ne’er be

  good,

  Nor suffer others.

  PINDARUS Ha ha! Alas, poor wretch. Ah, poor capocchia, hast not slept tonight? Would he not—a naughty man—let it sleep? A bugbear take him.

  CRESSIDA (to Troilus)

  Did not I tell you? Would he were knocked i’th’ head.

  ⌈One knocks within⌉

  Who’s that at door?—Good uncle, go and see.—

  My lord, come you again into my chamber.

  You smile and mock me, as if I meant naughtily.

  TROILUS Ha ha!

  CRESSIDA

  Come, you are deceived, I think of no such thing.

  One knocks within

  How earnestly they knock! Pray you come in.

  I would not for half Troy have you seen here.

  Exeunt ⌈Troilus and Cressida⌉

  PANDARUS Who’s there? What’s the matter? Will you beat down the door?

  He opens the door. ⌈Enter Aeneas⌉

  How now, what’s the matter?

  AENEAS Good morrow, lord, good morrow.

  PANDARUS

  Who’s there? My Lord Aeneas? By my troth,

  I knew you not. What news with you so early?

  AENEAS

  Is not Prince Troilus here?

  PANDARUS Here? What should he do here?

  AENEAS

  Come, he is here, my lord. Do not deny him.

  It doth import him much to speak with me.

  PANDARUS Is he here, say you? It’s more than I know, I’ll be sworn. For my own part, I came in late. What should he do here?

  AENEAS

  Whoa! Nay, then. Come, come, you’ll do him wrong

  Ere you are ware. You’ll be so true to him

  To be false to him. Do not you know of him,

  But yet go fetch him hither. Go. ⌈Exit Pandarus⌉

  Enter Troilus

  TROILUS How now, what’s the matter?

  AENEAS

  My lord, I scarce have leisure to salute you,

  My matter is so rash. There is at hand

  Paris your brother and Deiphobus,

  The Grecian Diomed, and our Antenor

  Delivered to us—and for him forthwith,

  Ere the first sacrifice, within this hour,

  We must give up to Diomedes’ hand

  The Lady Cressida.

  TROILUS Is it so concluded?

  AENEAS

  By Priam and the general state of Troy.

  They are at hand, and ready to effect it.

  TROILUS How my achievements mock me.

  I will go meet them—and, my Lord Aeneas,

  We met by chance: you did not find me here.

  AENEAS

  Good, good, my lord: the secrecies of nature

  Have not more gift in taciturnity.

  Exeunt

  4.3 Enter Pandarus and Cressida

  PANDARUS Is’t possible? No sooner got but lost. The devil take Antenor! The young prince will go mad. A plague upon Antenor! I would they had broke’s neck.

  CRESSIDA How now? What’s the matter? Who was here?

  PANDARUS Ah, ah!

  CRESSIDA Why sigh you so profoundly? Where’s my lord?

  Gone? Tell me, sweet uncle, what’s the matter?

  PANDARUS Would I were as deep under the earth as I am above.

  CRESSIDA O the gods! What’s the matter?

  PANDARUS Pray thee, get thee in. Would thou hadst ne’er been born. I knew thou wouldst be his death. O poor gentleman! A plague upon Antenor!

  CRESSIDA Good uncle, I beseech you on my knees; I beseech you, what’s the matter?

  PANDARUS Thou must be gone, wench, thou must be gone. Thou art changed for Antenor. Thou must to thy father, and be gone from Troilus. ‘Twill be his death. ’Twill be his bane. He cannot bear it.

  CRESSIDA

  O you immortal gods! I will not go.

  PANDARUS Thou must.

  CRESSIDA

  I will not, uncle. I have forgot my father.

  I know no touch of consanguinity,

  No kin, no love, no blood, no soul, so near me

  As the sweet Troilus. O you gods divine,

  Make Cressid’s name the very crown of falsehood

  If ever she leave Troilus. Time, force, and death

  Do to this body what extremity you can,

  But the strong base and building of my love

  Is as the very centre of the earth,

  Drawing all things to it. I’ll go in and weep—

  PANDARUS Do, do.

  CRESSIDA

  Tear my bright hair, and scratch my praised cheeks,

  Crack my clear voice with sobs, and break my heart

  With sounding ‘Troilus’. I will not go from Troy.

  Exeunt

  4.4 Enter Paris, Troilus, Aeneas, Deiphobus, Antenor, and Diomedes

  PARIS

  It is great morning, and the hour prefixed

  Of her delivery to this valiant Greek

  Comes fast upon us. Good my brother Troilus,

  Tell you the lady what she is to do,

  And haste her to the purpose.

  TROILUS

  Walk into her house.

  I’ll bring her to the Grecian presently—

  And to his hand when I deliver her,

  Think it an altar, and thy brother Troilus

  A priest, there off’ring to it his own heart.

  PARIS I know what ’tis to love,

  And would, as I shall pity, I could help.—

  Please you walk in, my lords? ⌈Exeunt⌉

  4.5 Enter Pandarus and Cressida

  PANDARUS Be moderate, be moderate.

  CRESSIDA

  Why tell you me of moderation?

  The grief is fine, full, perfect that I taste,

  And violenteth in a sense as strong

  As that which causeth it. How can I moderate it?

  If I could temporize with my affection

  Or brew it to a weak and colder palate,

  The like allayment could I give my grief.

  My love admits no qualifying dross;

  No more my grief, in such a precious loss.

  Enter Troilus

  PANDARUS Here, here, here he comes. Ah, sweet ducks!

  CRESSIDA (embracing him) O Troilus, Troilus!

  PANDARUS What a pair of spectacles is here! Let m
e

  embrace you too. ‘O heart‘, as the goodly saying is,

  ‘O heart, heavy heart,

  Why sigh’st thou without breaking?’

  where he answers again

  ‘Because thou canst not ease thy smart

  By friendship nor by speaking.’

  There was never a truer rhyme. Let us cast away

  nothing, for we may live to have need of such a verse.

  We see it, we see it. How now, lambs?

  TROILUS

  Cressid, I love thee in so strained a purity

  That the blest gods, as angry with my fancy—

  More bright in zeal than the devotion which

  Cold lips blow to their deities—take thee from me.

  CRESSIDA Have the gods envy?

  PANDARUS Ay, ay, ay, ay, ’tis too plain a case.

  CRESSIDA

  And is it true that I must go from Troy?

  TROILUS

  A hateful truth.

  CRESSIDA What, and from Troilus too?

  TROILUS

  From Troy and Troilus.

  CRESSIDA Is’t possible?

  TROILUS

  And suddenty—where injury of chance

  Puts back leave-taking, jostles roughly by

  All time of pause, rudely beguiles our lips

  Of all rejoindure, forcibly prevents

  Our locked embrasures, strangles our dear vows

  Even in the birth of our own labouring breath.

  We two, that with so many thousand sighs

  Did buy each other, must poorly sell ourselves

  With the rude brevity and discharge of one.

  Injurious Time now with a robber’s haste

  Crams his rich thiev’ry up, he knows not how.

  As many farewells as be stars in heaven,

  With distinct breath and consigned kisses to them,

  He fumbles up into a loose adieu

  And scants us with a single famished kiss,

  Distasted with the salt of broken tears.

  Enter Aeneas

  AENEAS My lord, is the lady ready?

  TROILUS (to Cressida)

  Hark, you are called. Some say the genius so

  Cries ‘Come!’ to him that instantly must die.

  ⌈To Pandarus⌉ Bid them have patience. She shall come

  anon.

  PANDARUS Where are my tears? Rain, to lay this wind, or my heart will be blown up by the root.

  ⌈Exit with Aeneas⌉

  CRESSIDA

  I must then to the Grecians.

  TROILUS No remedy.

  CRESSIDA

  A woeful Cressid ’mongst the merry Greeks!

  When shall we see again?

  TROILUS

  Hear me, my love: be thou but true of heart—

  CRESSIDA

  I true? How now! What wicked deem is this?

  TROILUS

  Nay, we must use expostulation kindly,

  For it is parting from us.

  I speak not ‘Be thou true’ as fearing thee—

  For I will throw my glove to Death himself

  That there’s no maculation in thy heart—

  But ‘Be thou true’ say I, to fashion in

  My sequent protestation: ‘Be thou true,

  And I will see thee’.

  CRESSIDA

  O you shall be exposed, my lord, to dangers

  As infinite as imminent. But I’ll be true.

  TROILUS

  And I’ll grow friend with danger. Wear this sleeve.

  CRESSIDA

  And you this glove. When shall I see you?

  TROILUS

  I will corrupt the Grecian sentinels

  To give thee nightly visitation.

  But yet, be true.

  CRESSIDA O heavens! ’Be true’ again!

  TROILUS Hear why I speak it, love.

  The Grecian youths are full of quality,

  Their loving well composed, with gifts of nature

  flowing,

  And swelling o’er with arts and exercise.

  How novelty may move, and parts with person,

  Alas, a kind of godly jealousy—

  Which I beseech you call a virtuous sin—

  Makes me afeard.

  CRESSIDA O heavens, you love me not!

  TROILUS

  Die I a villain then!

  In this I do not call your faith in question

  So mainly as my merit. I cannot sing,

  Nor heel the high lavolt, nor sweeten talk,

  Nor play at subtle games—fair virtues all,

  To which the Grecians are most prompt and

  pregnant.

  But I can tell that in each grace of these

  There lurks a still and dumb-discoursive devil

  That tempts most cunningly. But be not tempted.

  CRESSIDA Do you think I will?

  TROILUS

  No, but something may be done that we will not,

  And sometimes we are devils to ourselves,

  When we will tempt the frailty of our powers,

  Presuming on their changeful potency.

  AENEAS (within)

  Nay, good my lord!

  TROILUS Come, kiss, and let us part.

  PARIS ⌈art the door⌉

  Brother Troilus?

  TROILUS

  Good brother, come you hither,

  And bring Aeneas and the Grecian with you.

  ⌈Exit Paris⌉

  CRESSIDA My lord, will you be true?

  TROILUS

  Who, I? Alas, it is my vice, my fault.

  Whiles others fish with craft for great opinion,

  I with great truth catch mere simplicity;

  Whilst some with cunning gild their copper crowns,

  With truth and plainness I do wear mine bare.

  Enter Paris, Aeneas, Antenor, Deiphobus, and Diomedes

  Fear not my truth. The moral of my wit

  Is ‘plain and true!’; there’s all the reach of it.—

  Welcome, Sir Diomed. Here is the lady

  Which for Antenor we deliver you.

  At the port, lord, I’ll give her to thy hand,

  And by the way possess thee what she is.

  Entreat her fair, and by my soul, fair Greek,

  If e’er thou stand at mercy of my sword,

  Name Cressid, and thy life shall be as safe

  As Priam is in Ilium.

  DIOMEDES

  Fair Lady Cressid,

  So please you, save the thanks this prince expects.

  The lustre in your eye, heaven in your cheek,

  Pleads your fair usage; and to Diomed

  You shall be mistress, and command him wholly.

  TROILUS

  Grecian, thou dost not use me courteously,

  To shame the zeal of my petition towards thee

  In praising her. I tell thee, lord of Greece,

  She is as far high-soaring o’er thy praises

  As thou unworthy to be called her servant.

  I charge thee use her well, even for my charge;

  For, by the dreadful Pluto, if thou dost not,

  Though the great bulk Achilles be thy guard

  I’ll cut thy throat.

  DIOMEDES

  O be not moved, Prince Troilus.

  Let me be privileged by my place and message

  To be a speaker free. When I am hence

  I’ll answer to my lust. And know you, lord,

  I’ll nothing do on charge. To her own worth

  She shall be prized; but that you say ‘Be’t so’,

  I’ll speak it in my spirit and honour ‘No!’

  TROILUS

  Come, to the port.—I’ll tell thee, Diomed,

  This brave shall oft make thee to hide thy head.—

  Lady, give me your hand, and as we walk

  To our own selves bend we our needful talk.

  Exeunt Troilus, Cressida, and Diomedes

  A trumpet soundsr />
  PARIS

  Hark, Hector’s trumpet.

  AENEAS

  How have we spent this morning?

  The Prince must think me tardy and remiss,

  That swore to ride before him in the field.

  PARIS

  ‘Tis Troilus’ fault. Come, come to field with him.

  DEIPHOBUS Let us make ready straight.

  AENEAS

  Yea, with a bridegroom’s fresh alacrity

  Let us address to tend on Hector’s heels.

  The glory of our Troy doth this day lie

  On his fair worth and single chivalry. Exeunt

  4.6 Enter Ajax armed, Achilles, Patroclus, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Ulysses, Nestor, a trumpeter, and others

  AGAMEMNON

  Here art thou in appointment fresh and fair,

  Anticipating time with starting courage.

  Give with thy trumpet a loud note to Troy,

  Thou dreadful Ajax, that the appallèd air

  May pierce the head of the great combatant

  And hale him hither.

  AJAX Thou trumpet, there’s my purse.

  He gives him money

  Now crack thy lungs and split thy brazen pipe.

  Blow, villain, till thy spherèd bias cheek

  Outswell the colic of puffed Aquilon.

  Come, stretch thy chest and let thy eyes spout blood;

  Thou blow’st for Hector.

  ⌈The trumpet sounds⌉

  ULYSSES No trumpet answers.

  ACHILLES ’Tis but early days.

  AGAMEMNON

  Is not yond Diomed with Calchas’ daughter?

  ULYSSES

  ’Tis he. I ken the manner of his gait.

  He rises on the toe: that spirit of his

  In aspiration lifts him from the earth.

  Enter Diomedes and Cressida

  AGAMEMNON (to Diomedes)

  Is this the Lady Cressid?

  DIOMEDES Even she.

  AGAMEMNON

  Most dearly welcome to the Greeks, sweet lady.

  He kisses her

  NESTOR (to Cressida)

  Our General doth salute you with a kiss.

  ULYSSES

  Yet is the kindness but particular;

  ’Twere better she were kissed in general.

  NESTOR

  And very courtly counsel. I’ll begin.

  He kisses her

  So much for Nestor.

  ACHILLES

  I’ll take that winter from your lips, fair lady.

  He kisses her