ence: let Patroclus make his 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 unarm'd to my tent; and to procure safe conduct for his person of the magnanimous, and most illustrious, six-or-seven-times-honour'd, CaptainGeneral of the Grecian army, Agamemnon, &c. - Do this.

Patr. Jove bless great Ajax.

Ther. Humph!

Patr. I come from the worthy Achilles,

Who most humbly desires you to invite Hector

Patr. And to procure safe conduct from Agamemnon.

Ther. Agamemnon ?

Patr. Ay, my lord.

Ther. Ha!

Patr. What say you to 't?

Ther. God b' wi' you, with all my heart.

Patr. Your answer, sir.

Ther. If to-morrow be a fair day, by eleven o'clock it will go one way or other: howsoever, he shall pay for me ere he has me.

Patr. Your answer, sir.

Ther. Fare you well, with all my heart.

Achil. Why, but he is not in this tune, is he?

280

290

Ther. No, but he's out o' tune thus. What music 300 will be in him when Hector has knock'd out his brains, I know not; but, I am sure, none, unless the fiddler Apollo get his sinews to make catlings on.

808 catlings on, catgut of. (R)

Achil. Come, thou shalt bear a letter to him straight.

Ther. Let me carry another to his horse, for that's the more capable creature.

Achil. My mind is troubled, like a fountain stirr'd; And I myself see not the bottom of it.

[Exeunt ACHILLES and PATROclus. Ther. Would the fountain of your mind were clear 310 again, that I might water an ass at it. I had rather be a tick in a sheep than such a valiant ignorance.

[Exit.

ACT FOUR.

SCENE I.Troy. A Street.

Enter, at one side, ENEAS, and Servant with a torch; at the other, PARIS, DEIPHOBUS, ANTENOR, DIOMEDES, and Others, with torches.

PARIS. See, ho! who is that there?

Deiphobus. It is the Lord Æneas.

Ene. Is the Prince there in person? -
Had I so good occasion to lie long,

As you, Prince Paris, nothing but heavenly business
Should rob my bed-mate of my company.

Dio. That's my mind too. - Good morrow, Lord

Eneas.

Par. A valiant Greek, Æneas; take his hand,

Witness the process of your speech, wherein
You told how Diomed, a whole week by days,
Did haunt you in the field

Ene. Health to you, valiant sir,

10

During all question of the gentle truce;
But when I meet you arm'd, as black defiance,
As heart can think, or courage execute.

Dio. The one and other Diomed embraces.
Our bloods are now in calm, and so long health;
But when contention and occasion meet,

By Jove, I'll play the hunter for thy life,
With all my force, pursuit, and policy.

Ene. And thou shalt hunt a lion, that will fly
With his face backward. In humane gentleness,
Welcome to Troy now, by Anchises' life,
Welcome, indeed. By Venus' hand I swear,
No man alive can love, in such a sort,
The thing he means to kill, more excellently.
Dio. We sympathise. — Jove, let Æneas live,
If to my sword his fate be not the glory,
A thousand complete courses of the sun!
But, in mine emulous honour, let him die,

With every joint a wound, and that to-morrow!
Ene. We know each other well.

Dio. We do; and long to know each other worse.
Par. This is the most despiteful gentle greeting,
The noblest hateful love, that e'er I heard of. —
What business, lord, so early?

Æne. I was sent for to the King; but why, I know

not.

13 question, &c. Usually explained as conversation allowed by the truce; suspiciously like our idiomatic "while there is any question of a truce." (R)

23-4 Anchises . . . Venus, the parents of Eneas. (R)

29 complete, Cf. III, iii, 180. (R)

34 despiteful. Thus the quarto

VOL. X.-17

The folio has despightful'st.
a comparison of this line with the
next, which is manifestly meant
to correspond to it in construc-
tion, leads one to regard this read-
ing as a mere accidental variation,
although the use of the double
superlative is not uncommon with
Shakespeare.

Par. His purpose meets you. T was to bring this

Greek

To Calchas' house; and there to render him,
For the enfreed Antenor, the fair Cressid.
Let's have your company; or, if you please,
Haste there before us. I constantly do think,
(Or, rather, call my thought a certain knowledge,)
My brother Troilus lodges there to-night :
Rouse him, and give him note of our approach,
With the whole quality wherefore: I fear
We shall be much unwelcome.

Ene.

Troilus had rather Troy were borne to Greece,

Than Cressid borne from Troy.

Par.

40

That I assure you :

There is no help;

50

[Exit with Servant.

The bitter disposition of the time

Will have it so. On, lord; we'll follow you.

Ene. Good morrow, all.

Par. And tell me, noble Diomed; faith, tell me

true,

Even in the soul of sound good-fellowship,

Who, in your thoughts, merits fair Helen best,
Myself, or Menelaus?

Both alike:

Dio.
He merits well to have her, that doth seek her,
Not making any scruple of her soilure,
With such a hell of pain and world of charge;
And you as well to keep her, that defend her,
Not palating the taste of her dishonour,
With such a costly loss of wealth and friends:
He, like a puling cuckold, would drink up
The lees and dregs of a flat tamed piece;

42 constantly, firmly. (R)
45 quality, explanation. (R)

60

61 palating, perceiving. (R)
$4 flat tamed piece, i. e. vessel

You, like a lecher, out of whorish loins

Are pleas'd to breed out your inheritors:
Both merits pois'd, each weighs nor less nor more;
But he as he, each heavier for a whore.

Par. You are too bitter to your countrywoman.
She's bitter to her country. Hear me, 70
Paris:

Dio.

For every false drop in her bawdy veins

A Grecian's life hath sunk; for every scruple
Of her contaminated carrion weight

A Trojan hath been slain. Since she could speak,
She hath not given so many good words breath
As for her Greeks and Trojans suffer'd death.
Par. Fair Diomed, you do as chapmen do,
Dispraise the thing that you desire to buy ;
But we in silence hold this virtue well,—
We'll but commend what we intend to sell.
Here lies our way.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. The Same. Court of PANDARUS' House.

Enter TROILUS and CRESSIDA.

Tro. Dear, trouble not yourself: the morn is cold. Cres. Then, sweet my lord, I'll call mine uncle down;

He shall unbolt the gates.

Tro.

of vapid wine. The French still call a puncheon pièce, while we [vulgarly] call such a woman as Helen a piece. (w)

68 each. Dyce's emendation. The folio has which [recent editors, the after the quarto].

77 Chapmen, traffickers. (R)

Trouble him not;

80

80 We'll but. [Jackson's conjecture.] The folio has Weele not. [Some recent editors read We'll not.] Paris says, We will be at the pains of commending only what we intend to sell, implying an intention not to part with Helen. Cf. Sonnet XXI., 13-14.