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.
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? Here, you maid! where’s my cousin Cressid?
Cressida
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.
Pandarus
Ha! ha! Alas, poor wretch! ah, poor capocchia! hast not slept to-night? would he not, a naughty man, let it sleep? a bugbear take him!
Cressida
Did not I tell you? Would he were knock’d i’ the head!
Knocking 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.
Knocking 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? How now! what’s the matter?
Enter Aeneas
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? ’tis more than I know, I’ll be sworn: for my own part, I came in late. What should he do here?
Aeneas
Who!— nay, then: come, come, you’ll do him wrong ere you’re 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.
Re-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
Deliver’d 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 secrets of nature
Have not more gift in taciturnity.
Exeunt Troilus and Aeneas
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!
Re-enter Cressida
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
Prithee, 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! 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 extremes 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
SCENE III. THE SAME. STREET BEFORE PANDARUS’ HOUSE.
Enter Paris, Troilus, Aeneas, Deiphobus, Antenor, and Diomedes
Paris
It is great morning, and the hour prefix’d
Of her delivery to this valiant Greek
Comes fast upon. 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 offering to it his own heart.
Exit
Paris
I know what ’tis to love;
And would, as I shall pity, I could help!
Please you walk in, my lords.
Exeunt
SCENE IV. THE SAME. PANDARUS’ HOUSE.
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.
Pandarus
Here, here, here he comes.
Enter Troilus
Ah, sweet ducks!
Cressida
O Troilus! Troilus!
Embracing him
Pandarus
What a pair of spectacles is here!
Let me embrace 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 strain’d a purity,
That the bless’d 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 it possible?
Troilus
And suddenly; where injury of chance
Puts back leave-taking, justles roughly by
All time of pause, rudely beguiles our lips
Of all rejoindure, forcibly prevents
Our lock’d 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 thievery up, he knows not how:
As many farewells as be stars in heaven,
With distinct breath and consign’d kisses to them,
He fumbles up into a lose adieu,
And scants us with a single famish’d kiss,
Distasted with the salt of broken tears.
Aeneas
[Within] My lord, is the lady ready?
Troilus
Hark! you are call’d: some say the Genius so
Cries ‘come’ to him that instantly must die.
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
Cressida
I must then to the Grecians?
Troilus
No remedy.
Cressida
A woful 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 while I speak it, love:
The Grecian youths are full of quality;
They’re 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
[Within] Brother Troilus!
Troilus
Good brother, come you hither;
And bring Aeneas and the Grecian with you.
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.
Fear not my truth: the moral of my wit
Is ‘plain and true;’ there’s all the reach of it.
Enter Aeneas, Paris, Antenor, Deiphobus, and Diomedes
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 Cressida and thy life shall be as safe
As Priam is in Ilion.
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 to 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 call’d 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
Trumpet within
Paris
Hark! Hector’s trumpe
t.
Aeneas
How have we spent this morning!
The prince must think me tardy and remiss,
That sore to ride before him to 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
SCENE V. THE GRECIAN CAMP. LISTS SET OUT.
Enter Ajax, armed; Agamemnon, Achilles, Patroclus, Menelaus, Ulysses, Nestor, 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 appalled air
May pierce the head of the great combatant
And hale him hither.
Ajax
Thou, trumpet, there’s my purse.
Now crack thy lungs, and split thy brazen pipe:
Blow, villain, till thy sphered bias cheek
Outswell the colic of puff’d Aquilon:
Come, stretch thy chest and let thy eyes spout blood;
Thou blow’st for Hector.
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, with Cressida
Agamemnon
Is this the Lady Cressid?
Diomedes
Even she.
Agamemnon
Most dearly welcome to the Greeks, sweet lady.
Nestor
Our general doth salute you with a kiss.
Ulysses
Yet is the kindness but particular;
’Twere better she were kiss’d in general.
Nestor
And very courtly counsel: I’ll begin.
So much for Nestor.
Achilles
I’ll take what winter from your lips, fair lady:
Achilles bids you welcome.
Menelaus
I had good argument for kissing once.
Patroclus
But that’s no argument for kissing now;
For this popp’d Paris in his hardiment,
And parted thus you and your argument.
Ulysses
O deadly gall, and theme of all our scorns!
For which we lose our heads to gild his horns.
Patroclus
The first was Menelaus’ kiss; this, mine:
Patroclus kisses you.
Menelaus
O, this is trim!
Patroclus
Paris and I kiss evermore for him.
Complete Plays, The Page 83
