The Tragedy of

Troilus and Cressida

ACT ON E.

SCENE I.—Troy. Before PRIAM's Palace.

Enter TROILUS armed, and PAndarus.

T

varlet; I'll unarm again :

PROILUS. Call here my
Why shall I war without the walls of Troy,

That find such cruel battle here within ?

Each Trojan that is master of his heart,

Let him to field: Troilus, alas! hath none.

Pandarus. Will this gear ne'er be mended?

Tro. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their strength,

Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant ;

But I am weaker than a woman's tear,

Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance,
Less valiant than the virgin in the night,

And skilless as unpractis'd infancy.

Pan. Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part, I'll not meddle nor make no farther. He that will have a cake out of the wheat must tarry the grinding.

Tro. Have I not tarried?

Pan. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the bolting.

1 varlet, servant, page. 6 gear, business. (R)

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to, in proportion or addition to. (R)

10 fonder, more foolish. (R)

Tro. Have I not tarried?

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Pan. Ay, the bolting; but you must tarry the leav'ning.

Tro. Still have I tarried.

Pan. Ay, to the leav'ning: but here's yet in the word hereafter, the kneading, the making of the cake, the heating of the oven, and the baking: nay, you must stay the cooling too, or you may chance burn your lips.

Tro. Patience herself, what goddess e'er she be, Doth lesser blench at sufferance than I do.

At Priam's royal table do I sit;

And when fair Cressid comes into my thoughts, -
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 rive in twain,
Lest Hector or 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 Cassandra's wit, but

30 sufferance, suffering. (R) 33 when. The original has then. is she. The original has she is. Rowe's corrections.

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89 storm. The old copies, scorne. Rowe's correction. (w)

46 her. Thus the quartos. The folio, with manifest error, it. (w)

Tro. O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus,-
When I do tell thee, there my hopes lie drown'd,
Reply not in how many fadoms deep

They lie indrench'd. I tell thee, I am mad
In Cressid's love: thou answer'st, she is fair;
Pour'st in the open ulcer of my heart

Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice;
Handlest in thy discourse, O, that her hand,
In whose comparison all whites are ink,

Writing their own reproach: to whose soft seizure
The cygnet's down is harsh, and spirit of sense

Hard as the palm of ploughman! This thou tell'st

me,

As true thou tell'st me, when I say I love her;
But, saying thus, instead of oil and balm,

Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given me
The knife that made it.

Pan. I speak no more than truth.

Tro. Thou dost not speak so much.

Pan. Faith, I'll not meddle in 't. Let her be as she is if she be fair, 't is 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 labour for my travail; illthought on of her, and ill-thought on of you: gone between and between, but small thanks for my labour.

Tro. What! art thou angry, Pandarus? what with me?

Pan. Because she's kin to me, therefore she's not

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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; 't is 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 nor make no more ï' th' matter.

Pan. Pray you, speak no more to me: I will leave all as I found it; and there an end.

Tro. Peace, you sounds!

Fools on both sides!

[Exit PANDARUS. An alarum. ungracious clamours! peace, rude

Helen must needs be fair,

When with your blood you daily paint her thus.
I cannot fight upon this argument;

It is too starv'd a subject for my sword.

But Pandarus-O gods, how do you plague me!
I cannot come to Cressid, but by Pandar;
And he's as tetchy to be woo'd to woo,
As she is stubborn-chaste against all suit.
Tell me, Apollo, for thy Daphne's love,
What Cressid is, what Pandar, and what we?
Her bed is India; there she lies, a pearl:
Between our Ilium and where she resides,
Let it be call'd the wild and wand'ring flood;
Ourself the merchant, and this sailing Pandar
Our doubtful hope, our convoy, and our bark.

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108 Ilium, i. e. Priam's palace. Troy is always the town. The distinction is mediæval. (n)

Alarum. Enter ENEAS.

Eneas. How now, Prince Troilus? wherefore not

afield?

Tro. Because not there: this woman's answer sorts,

For womanish it is to be from thence.

What news, Æneas, from the field to-day?

Ene. That Paris is returned home, and hurt.
Tro. By whom, Æneas?

Ene.

Troilus, by Menelaus.

Tro. Let Paris bleed: 't is but a scar to scorn; Paris is gor'd with Menelaus' horn.

[Alarum. Ene. Hark, what good sport is out of town to-day! Tro. Better at home, if "would I might" were

But to the sport abroad: - are you bound thither?
Ene. In all swift haste.

Tro.

Come; go we, then, together.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. The Same. A Street.

110

Enter CRESSIDA and ALEXANDER.

Cressida. Who were those went by?
Alexander.

Queen Hecuba and Helen.

Cres. And whither go they?

Alex.

Up to the eastern tower,

Whose height commands as subject all the vale,
To see the battle. Hector, whose patience

Is as a virtue fix'd, to-day was mov'd:

108 sorts, is fitting. (R)

118 to. Deighton asks whether this is the sign of the infinitive,

or whether it means "in return for." (R)