(But few now living can behold that goodness) Shall still be doubled on her: truth shall nurse her, Her foes shake like a field of beaten corn, That were the servants to this chosen infant, Shall see this, and bless heaven. Thou speakest wonders.] And hang their heads with sorrow: Good grows And yet no day without a deed to crown it. with her: In her days, every man shall eat in safety As great in admiration as herself; So shall she leave her blessedness to one, 'Would I had known no more! but she must die, To the ground, and all the world shall mourn her Thou hast made me now a man; never, before (When heaven shall call her from this cloud of I have received much honor by your presence, darkness,) Who, from the sacred ashes of her honor, lords; Ye must all see the queen, and she must thank ye, EPILOGUE. 'Tis ten to one, this play can never please All the expected good we are like to hear All the best men are ours; for, 'tis ill hap, CALCHAS, a Trojan Priest, taking part with the THERSITES, a deformed and scurrilous Grecian. Greeks. PANDARUS, Uncle to Cressida. ALEXANDER, Servant to Cressida. MARGARELON, a bastard son of Priam. HELEN, Wife to Menelaus. ANDROMACHE, Wife to Hector. CASSANDRA, Daughter to Priam, a Prophetess. Servant to Troilus; Servant to Paris; Servant to CRESSIDA, Daughter to Calchas." Diomedes. ! Trojan and Greek Soldiers, and Attendants SCENE, Troy, and the Grecian Camp before it. PROLOGUE. In Troy there lies the scene. From isles of | Dardan, and Tymbria, Ilias, Chetas, Trojan, Greece The princes orgulous, their high blood chafed, And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorge And Antenorides, with massy staples, Now, expectation, tickling skittish spirits, ACT I. SCENE I.-Troy. Before Priam's Palace. Enter TROILUS, armed, and PANDARUS. Tro. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their strength, Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant; Pan. Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part, I'll not meddle nor make no further. He, Proud, disdainful. 2 Freight. = Servant. • Habit. Weaker. So, traitor! when she comes!-When is she thence? Pan. Well, she look'd yesternight fairer than ever I saw her look, or any woman else. Tro. I was about to tell thee, -When my heart. As wedged with a sigh, would rive9 in twain; Lest Hector of my father should perceive me, I have (as when the sun doth light a storm) Buried this sigh in wrinkle of a smile: But sorrow, that is couch'd in seeming gladness, Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness. Pan. An her hair were not somewhat darker than Helen's, (well, go to,) there were no more comparison between the women,-But, for my part, she is my kinswoman; I would not, as they term it, praise her,-But I would somebody had heard her talk yesterday, as I did. I will not dispraise your sister's Cassandra's wit; but Tro. O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus,- Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice; me, As true thou tell'st me, when I say,-I love her; Pan. I speak no more than truth. Pan. 'Faith, I'll not meddle in't. Let her be as she is: if she be fair, 'tis the better for her; an she be not, she has the mends in her own hands. Tro. Good Pandarus! how now, Pandarus? Pan. I have had my labor for my travel; illthought on of her, and ill-thought on of you: gone between and between,but small thanks for my labor. Tro. What, art thou angry, Pandarus? what, with me? Pan. Because she is kin to me, therefore, she's not so fair as Helen: an she were not kin to me, she would be as fair on Friday as Helen is on Sunday. But what care I? I care not, an she were a black-a-moor; 'tis all one to me. Tro. Say I, she is not fair! Pan. I do not care whether you do or no. She's a fool to stay behind her father; let her to the Greeks; and so I'll tell her the next time I see her: For my part, I'll meddle no make nor more in the matter. Pan. Pray you, speak no more to me; I will leave all as I found it, and there an end. [Exit PANDARUS. An Alarum. Tro. Peace, you ungracious clamors! peace, rude sounds! Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair, Alarum. Enter ENEAS. Ene. How now, prince Troilus? wherefore not a-field? Tro. Because not there: This woman's answer sorts,1 For womanish it is to be from thence. What news, Æneas, from the field to-day? • Split. 1 Suits. Tro. Come, go we then together. SCENE II-A street. Queen Hecuba, and Helen. A lord of Trojan blood, nephew to Hector; Cres. Cres. So do all men; unless they are drunk, sick, or have no legs. Alex. This man, lady, hath robbed many beasts of their particular additions;3 he is as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant: a man into whom nature hath so crowded humors, that his valor is crushed into folly, his folly sauced with discretion: there is no man hath a virtue that he hath not a glimpse of; nor any man an attaint but he carries some stain of it: he is melancholy without cause, and merry against the hair :5 He hath the joints of every thing; but every thing so out of joint, that he is a gouty Briareus, many hands and no use; or purblind Argus, all eyes and no sight. Cres. But how should this man, that makes ine smile, make Hector angry? Alex. They say, he yesterday coped Hector in the battle, and struck him down; the disdain and shame whereof hath ever since kept Hector fasting and waking. Enter PANDARUS. Cres. Who comes here? Alex. Madam, your uncle Pandarus. Alex. As may be in the world, lady. Cres. Good morrow, uncle Pandarus. Pan. Good morow, cousin Cressid: what do you talk of!-Good morrow, Alexander.- How do you, cousin? When were you at Ilium! Cres. This morning, uncle. Pan. What were you talking of when I came ? Was Hector armed, and gone, ere ye came to Ilium? Helen was not up, was she? Cres. Hector was gone; but Helen was not up. Cres. So he says, here. Pan. True, he was so; I know the cause too; he'll lay about him to-day, I can tell them that: and there is Troilus will not come far behind him; let them take heed of Troilus; I can tell them that too. Cres. What, is he angry, too? Pan. Who, Troilus? Troilus is the better man of the two. Cres. O, Jupiter! there's no comparison Pan. What, not between Troilus and Hector? Do you know a man, if you see him? Cres. Ay, if ever I saw him before, and knew him. Pan. Well, I say, Troilus is Troilus. Cres. Then you say as I say; for I am sure he is not Hector. Pan. No, nor Hector is not Troilus, in some degrees. Cres. 'Tis just to each of them; he is himself. Pan. Himself? Alas, poor Troilus! I would he Cres. No, but brown. Pan. 'Faith, to say truth, brown and not brown. Cres. Then Troilus should have too much if she praised him above, his complexion is higher than his; he having color enough, and the other higher, is too flaming a praise for a good complexion. I had as lief Helen's golden tongue had commended Troilus for a copper nose. Pan. I swear to you, I think Helen loves him better than Paris. Cres. Then she's a merry Greek, indeed. Pan. Nay, I am sure she does. She came to him the other day into a compass'd window,and, you know, he has not past three or four hairs on his chin. Cres. Indeed, a tapster's arithmetic may soon bring his particulars therein to a total. Pan. Why, he is very young; and yet will he, within three pound, lift as much as his brother Hector. Cres. Is he so young a man, and so old a lifter?? Pan. But, to prove to you that Helen loves him; -she came, and puts me her white hand to his cloven chin, Cres. Juno have mercy!-How came it cloven? Pan. Why, you know, 'tis dimpled: I think, his smiling becomes him better than any man in all Phrygia. Cres. O, he smiles valiantly. Pan. Does he not? Cres. O yes, an 'twere a cloud in autumn. Pan. Why, go to then :-But to prove to you that Helen loves Troilus, Cres. Troilus will stand to the proof, if you'll prove it so. Pan. Troilus? why he esteems her no more than I esteem an addle egg. Cres. If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle head, you would eat chickens i' the shell. Cres. With mill-stones.8 Pan. And Cassandra laughed. Cres. But there was a more temperate fire under the pot of her eyes;-Did her eyes run o'er too? Pan. And Hector laughed. Cres. At what was all this laughing? Pan. Merry, at the white hair that Helen spied on Troilus' chin. Cres. An't had been a green hair, I should have laughed too. Pan. They laughed not so much at the hair as at his pretty answer. Cres. What was his answer? Pan. Quoth she, Here's but one and fifty hairs on your chin, and one of them is white. Cres. This is her question. Pan. That's true; make no question of that. One and fifty hairs, quoth he, and one white: That white hair is my father, and all the rest are his sons. Jupiter! quoth she, which of these hairs is Paris my husband? The forked one, quoth he; pluck it out, and give it him. But there was such laughing! and Helen so blushed, and Paris so chafed, and all the rest so laughed, that it passed.9 Cres. So let it now; for it has been a great while going by. Pan. Well, cousin, I told you a thing yesterday; think on't. Cres. So I do. Pan. I'll be sworn, 'tis true; he will weep you an 'twere a man born in April. Cres. And I'll spring up in his tears, an 'twere a nettle against May. [A Retreat sounded. Pan. Hark, they are coming from the field: Shall we stand up here, and see them, as they pass toward Ilium? good niece, do; sweet niece Cressida. Cres. At your pleasure. Pan. Here, here, here's an excellent place; here we may see most bravely: I'll tell you them all by their names, as they pass by; but mark Troilus above the rest. ENEAS passes over the Stage. Cres. Speak not so loud. Pan. That's Eneas; Is not that a brave man? he's one of the flowers of Troy, I can tell you: But mark Troilus; you shall see anon. Cres. Who's that? Pan. Swords? any thing, he cares not: an the devil come to him, it's all one: By god's lid it does one's heart good:-Yonder comes Paris, yonder comes Paris: look ye yonder, niece; Is't not a gallant man, too, is't not?-Why, this is brave now. -Who said, he came hurt home to-day? he's not hurt: why this will do Helen's heart good now.— Ha! would I could see Troilus now!-you shall see Troilus anon. Cres. Who's that? HELENUS passes over. Pan. That's Helenus,-I marvel, where Troilus is: That's Helenus;-I think he went not forth to-day-That's Helenus. Cres. Can Helenus fight, uncle? Pan. Helenus? no;-yes, he'll fight indifferent well:- marvel, where Troilus is!-Hark; do you not hear the people cry, Troilus ?-Helenus is a priest. Cres. What sneaking fellow comes yonder? TROILUS passes over. Pan. Where? yonder? that's Deiphobus: 'Tis Troilus! there's a man, niece!-Hem!-Brave Troilus! the prince of chivalry! Cres. Peace, for shame, peace! Pan. Mark him; note him;-0 brave Troilus! -look well upon him, niece; look you, how his sword is bloodied, and his helm more hack'd than Hector's; And how he looks, and how he goes! -O admirable youth! he ne'er saw three and twenty. Go thy way, Troilus, go thy way; had I a sister were a grace, or a daughter a goddess, he should take his choice. O admirable man! Paris? -Paris is dirt to him; and, I warrant, Helen, to change, would give an eye to boot. Forces pass over the Stage. Cres. Here come more. Pan. Asses, fools, dolts! chaff and bran, chaff and bran; porridge after meat! I could live and die i' the eyes of Troilus. Ne'er look, ne'er look; the eagles are gone; crows and daws, crows and daws! I had rather be such a man as Troilus, than Agamemnon and all Greece. Cres. There is among the Greeks, Achilles; a better man than Troilus. Pan. Achilles? a drayman, a porter, a very camel. Cres. Well, well. Pan. Well, well?-Why, have you any discretion? have you any eyes? Do you know what a man is? Is not birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that season a man? Cres. Ay, a minced man; and then to be baked with no date2 in the pye,-for then the man's date is out. Pan. You are such a woman! one knows not at what wards you lie. Cres. Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon .my wit, to defend my wiles; upon my secrecy, to defend mine honesty; my mask, to defend my beauty; and you to defend all these: and at all these wards I lie, at a thousand watches. Pan. Say one of your watches. Cres. Nay, I'll watch you for that; and that's one of the chiefest of them too; if I cannot ward what I would not have hit, I can watch you for telling how I took the blow; unless it swell past hiding, and then it is past watching. Enter TROILUS' Boy. Boy. Sir, my lord would instantly speak with you, Pan. Where? Boy. At your own house; there he unarms him. Pan. Good boy, tell him I come: [Exit Boy.] I doubt he be hurt.-Fare ye well, good niece. Cres. Adieu, uncle. Pan. I'll be with you, niece, by-and-by. Pan. Ay, a token from Troilus. Cres. By the same token-you are a bawd.- Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is: Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear. [Exit. • Dates were an ingredient in ancient pastry of almost every kind. Guard. Agam. Princes, What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks? But the protractive trials of great Jove, Nest. With due observance of thy godlike seat, But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage Bounding between the two moist elements, ness, As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize, And, with an accent tuned the self-same key, Returns to chiding fortune. Ulyss. Agamemnon,Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece, Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit, In whom the tempers and the minds of all Should be shut up,-hear what Ulysses speaks. Besides the applause and approbation, The which, most mighty for thy place and sway,[TO AGAMEMNON. And thou most reverend for thy stretch'd-out life,[TO NESTOR. I give to both your speeches,-which were such, As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece Should hold up high in brass; and such again, As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver, Should with a bond of air, (strong as the axle-tree On which heaven rides,) knit all the Greekish ears To his experienced tongue,-yet let it please both, Thou great, and wise,-to hear Ulysses speak. Agam. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and best of less expects That matter needless, of importless burden, Twisted and rambling. Since. Joined by affinity. • Expectation. |