Pan. Go to, sweet queen, go to:- - commends himself most affectionately to you. Helen. You shall not bob us out of our melody; If you do, our melancholy upon your head! Pan. Sweet queen, sweet queen; that's a sweet queen, i' faith. Helen. And to make a sweet lady sad, is a sour offence. Pan. Nay, that shall not serve your turn; that shall it not, in truth, la. Nay, I care not for such words: no, no.- And, my lord, he desires you, that, if the king call for him at supper, you will make his excuse. Helen. My lord Pandarus, Pan. What says my sweet queen, very sweet queen? my very Par. What exploit's in hand? where sups he tonight? Pan. Is this the generation of love? hot blood, hot thoughts, and hot deeds? - Why, they are vipers: Is love a generation of vipers? Sweet lord, who's afield to-day? Par Hector, Deiphobus, Helenus, Antenor, and all the gallantry of Troy: I would fain have armed to-night, but my Nell would not have it so. How chance my brother Troilus went not? Helen. He hangs the lip at something; - you know all, lord Pandarus. Pan. Not I, honey-sweet queen. - I long to hear how they sped to-day. — You'll remember your brother's excuse? Par. To a hair. Pan. Farewell, sweet queen. Helen. Commend me to your niece. Pan. I will, sweet queen. [Exit. [A retreat sounded. Par. They are come from field: let us to Priam's hall, To greet the warriors. Sweet Helen, I must woo you To help unarm our Hector: his stubborn buckles, With these your white enchanting fingers touch'd, Shall more obey, than to the edge of steel, Or force of Greekish sinews; you shall do more Than all the island kings, disarm great Hector. Helen. 'Twill make us proud to be his servant, Paris : Yea, what he shall receive of us in duty, Pan. You spy! what do you spy?-Come, give Give us more palm in beauty than we have; me an instrument. Now, sweet queen. Helen. Why, this is kindly done. Pan. My niece is horribly in love with a thing you have, sweet queen. Helen. She shall have it, my lord, if it be not my lord Paris. Pan. He! no, she'll none of him; they two are twain. Helen. Falling in, after falling out, may nake them three. Pan. Come, come, I'll hear no more of this; I'll sing you a song now. Helen. Ay, ay, pr'ythee now. By my troth, sweet lord, thou hast a fine forehead. Pan. Ay, you may, you may. Helen. Let thy song be love this love will undo us all. O, Cupid, Cupid, Cupid! Pan. Love! ay, that it shall, i' faith. Par. Ay, good now, love, love, nothing but love. Pan. In good troth, it begins so : Love, love, nothing but love, still more! For, oh, love's bow Shoots buck and doe: The shaft confounds, Not that it wounds, But tickles still the sore. These lovers cry So dying love lives still : Oh! oh! a while, but ha! ha! ha! Oh! oh! groans out for ha! ha! ha! Hey ho! Helen. In love, i' faith, to the very tip of the nose. Par. He eats nothing but doves, love; and that breeds hot blood, and hot blood begets hot thoughts, and hot thoughts beget hot deeds, and hot deeds is love. Yea, overshines ourself. straight. Pan. Walk here i'the orchard, I'll bring her [Exit PANDARUS. Tro. I am giddy; expectation whirls me round. The imaginary relish is so sweet That it enchants my sense; What will it be, I fear it much; and I do fear besides, Re-enter PANDARUS. Pan. She's making her ready, she'll come straight: Enter PANDARUS and CRessida. Pan. Come, come, what need you blush? shame s a baby. Here she is now: swear the oaths now to her, that you have sworn to me. What, are you gone again? you must be watched ere you be made tame, must you? Come your ways, come your ways; an you draw backward, we'll put you i'the fills. Why do you not speak to her? - Come, draw this curtain, and let's see your picture. Alas the day, how loath you are to offend daylight! an 'twere dark, you'd close sooner. So, so; rub on, and kiss the mistress. How now, a kiss in fee-farm! build there, carpenter; the air is sweet. Nay, you shall fight your hearts out, ere I part you. The falcon as the tercel, for all the ducks i'the river: go to, go to. Tro. You have bereft me of all words, lady. Pan. Words pay no debts, give her deeds: but she'll bereave you of the deeds too, if she call your activity in question. What, billing again? Here's In witness whereof the parties interchangeably — Come in, come in; I'll go get a fire. [Exit PANDARUS. Cres. Will you walk in, my lord? Tro. O Cressida, how often have I wished me thus? Cres. Wished, my lord? The gods grant!-O my lord! Tro. What should they grant? what makes this pretty abruption? What too curious dreg espies my sweet lady in the fountain of our love? Cres. More dregs than water, if my fears have eyes. Tro. Fears make devils cherubins; they never see truly. Cres. Blind fear, that seeing reason leads, finds safer footing than blind reason stumbling without fear: To fear the worst, oft cures the worst. : Tro. O, let my lady apprehend no fear in all Cupid's pageant there is presented no monster. Cres. Nor nothing monstrous neither? Tro. Nothing, but our undertakings; when we vow to weep seas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tigers; thinking it harder for our mistress to devise imposition 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 Well, uncle, Cres. talking yet? 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 heart: Prince Troilus, I have lov'd you night and day, Tro. Why was my Cressid then so hard to win? But, though I lov'd you well, I woo'd you not; Tro. And shall, albeit sweet musick issues thence. Cres. My lord, I do beseech you, pardon me : 'Twas not my purpose, thus to beg a kiss: I am asham'd; - O heavens! what have I done?For this time will I take my leave, my lord. Tro. Your leave, sweet Cressid? Pan. Leave an you take leave till to-morrow morning, Cres. Pray you, content you. What offends you, lady? Cres. Let me go and try : You cannot shun I have a kind of self resides with you: Cres. Perchance, my lord, I show more craft than love : And fell so roundly to a large confession, (As, if it can, I will presume in you,) To feed for aye her lamp and flames of love; Might be affronted with the match and weight O virtuous fight, Cres. Prophet may you be! As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth, Pan. Go to, a bargain made: seal it, seal it; I'll be the witness. Here I hold your hand: here, my cousin's. If ever you prove false one to another, since I have taken such pains to bring you together, let all pitiful goers-between be called to the world's end after my name, call them all - Pandars; let all constant men be Troiluses, all false women Cressids, and all brokers-between Pandars! say, amen. Tro. Amen. I have abandon'd Troy, left my possession, To give me now a little benefit, Out of those many register'd in promise, Agam. What would'st thou of us, Trojan? make demand. Cal. You have a Trojan prisoner, call'd Antenor, In change of him: let him be sent, great princes, Agam. [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, Achil. What, does the cuckold scorn me? | Heavens, what a man is there! a very horse, Ajax. How now, Patroclus? That has he knows not what. Nature, what things there are, Achil. Ajax. Achil. Good morrow. Ajax. Good morrow, Ajax. Ha? Ay, and good next day too. Achil. What mean these fellows? Know they not Patr. They pass by strangely: they were us'd to To send their smiles before them to Achilles; Achil. What, am I poor of late? Which when they fall, as being slippery standers, Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out How now, Ulysses? Ulyss. Now, great Thetis' son? Cannot make boast to have that which he hath, Achil. This is not strange, Ulysses. The beauty that is borne here in the face The bearer knows not, but commends itself To others' eyes: nor doth the eye itself (That most pure spirit of sense,) behold itself, Not going from itself; but eye to eye oppos'd Salutes each other with each other's form. For speculation turns not to itself, Till it hath travell'd, and is married there Where it may see itself: this is not strange at all. Ulyss. I do not strain at the position, It is familiar; but at the author's drift: Where they are extended; which, like an arch, reverberates The voice again; or like a gate of steel His figure and his heat. I was much rapt in this; Most abject in regard, and dear in use! While some men leave to do! Achil. I do believe it: for they pass'd by me, As misers do by beggars; neither gave to me Good word, nor look: What, are my deeds forgot? Ulyss. Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back, Wherein he puts alms for oblivion, A great-sized monster of ingratitudes : Those scraps are good deeds past: which are devour'd As fast as they are made, forgot as soon As done: Perséverance, dear my lord, In monumental mockery. Take the instant way; That one by one pursue: If you give way, 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, vigour of bone, desert in service, To envious and calumniating time. One touch of nature makes the whole world kin, The present eye praises the present object : And case thy reputation in thy tent; selves, And drave great Mars to faction Achil. I have strong reasons. Ulyss. Achil. How can that be? Of this my privacy But 'gainst your privacy The reasons are more potent and heroical: 'Tis known, Achilles, that you are in love With one of Priam's daughters. The providence that's in a watchful state, [Exit. In time of action. I stand condemn'd for this; Achil. Achil. I see, my reputation is at stake; My fame is shrewdly gor'd. Those wounds heal ill, that men do give themselves : Seals a commission to a blank of danger; Achil. Go call Thersites hither, sweet Patroclus: To see great Hector in his weeds of peace; Ther. A wonder! Achil. What? Ther. Why, he stalks up and down like a peacock, a stride, and a stand: ruminates, like an hostess, that hath no arithmetick but her brain to set down her reckoning: bites his lip with a politick 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, Good-morrow, Ajax; and he replies, Thanks, Agamemnon. What think you of this man, that takes me for the general? He is 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 embassador 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-timeshonoured captain-general of the Grecian army Agamemnon. Do this. Patr. Jove bless great Ajax. Patr. I come from the worthy Achilles, · Patr. Who most humbly desires you, to invite Hector to his tent! sick will be in him when Hector has knocked 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; Ther. Ajax goes up and down the field, asking And I myself see not the bottom of it. for himself. Achil. How so? Ther. He must fight singly to-morrow with Hector; and is so prophetically proud of an heroical udgelling, that he raves in saying nothing. [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 ig |