skein of sley'd silk, thou green sarcenet flap for a sore eye, thou tassel of a prodigal's purse, thou ? Ah, how the poor world is pestered with such water-flies; diminutives of nature !

Patr. Out, gall !
Ther. Finch egg !

Achil. My sweet Patroclus, I am thwarted quite
From my great purpose in to-morrow's battle.
Here is a letter from queen Hecuba ;
A token from her daughter, my fair love;
Both taxing me, and gaging me to keep
An oath that I have sworn. I will not break it :
Fall, Greeks; fail, fame ; honour, or go, or stay ;
My major vow lies here, this I'll obey.
Come, come, Thersites, help to trim my tent ;
This night in banqueting must all be spent.
Away, Patroclus.

[Exeunt ACHILLES and PATROCLUS. Ther. With too much blood and too little brain, these two may run mad ; but if with too much brain and too little blood they do, I'll be a curer of madmen. Here's Agamemnon,-an honest fellow enough, and one that loves quails ; but he has not so much brain as ear-wax : And the goodly transformation of Jupiter there, his brother, the bull,—the primitive statue and oblique memorial of cuckolds; a thrifty shoeing-horn in a chain, hanging at his brother's leg, -to what form, but that he is, should wit larded with malice, and malice forced with wit, turn him to? To an ass were nothing ; he is both ass and ox: to an ox were nothing; he is both ox and

To be a dog, a mule, a cat, a fitchew, a toad, a lizard, an owl, a puttock, or a herring without a roe, I would not care : but to be Menelaus, I would conspire against destiny. Ask me not what I would be if I were not Thersites; for I care not to be the louse of a lazar, so I were not Menelaus.-Hey-day! spirits and fires !

ass.

Enter HECTOR, TROILUS, AJAX, AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES, NESTOR,

MENELAUS, and DIOMED, with lights.
Agam. We go wrong, we go wrong.
Ajax.

No, yonder 'tis ;
There, where we see the lights.
Hect.

I trouble you.
Ajax. No, not a whit.
Ulyss.

Here comes himself to guide you.

Enter ACHILLES.
Achil. Welcome, brave Hector ; welcome, princes all.
Agam. So now, fair prince of Troy, I bid good night.
Ajax commands the guard to tend on you.
Hect. Thanks, and good night, to the Greeks' general.
Men. Good night, my lord.
Hect.

Good night, sweet lord Menelaus. Ther. Sweet draught : Sweet, quoth’a! sweet sink, sweet Achil. Good night, and welcome, both at once, to those That go, or tarry.

Agam. Good night. [Exeunt AGAMEMNON and MENELAUS.

Achil. Old Nestor tarries ; and you too, Diomed, Keep Hector company an hour or two.

Dio. I cannot, lord ; I have important business,
The tide whereof is now.--Good night, great Hector.

Hect. Give me your hand.
Ulyss.

Follow his torch, he goes.
To Calchas' tent; I'll keep you company. [Aside to TROILUS.

Tro. Sweet sir, you honour me.
Hect.

And so good night.

[Exit DIOMED ; Ulyss. and Tro. following: Achil. Come, come, enter my tent.

[Exeunt ACHIL., HECTOR, AJAX, and NEST. Ther. That same Diomed 's a false-hearted rogue, a most unjust knave; I will no more trust him when he leers, ihan I will a serpent when he hisses : he will spend his mouth and promise, like Brabler the hound; but when he performs, astronomers foretell it that it is prodigious, there will come some change ; the sun borrows of the moon when Diomed keeps his word. I will rather leave to sce Hector than not to dog him : they say he keeps a Trojan drab, and uses the traitor Calchas' tent: I'll after.- Nothing but lechery! all incontinent varlets !

[Erit.

SCENE II.--The saine. Before Calchas' Tent.

Enter DIOMEDES.
Dio. What, are you up here, ho ? speak.
Cal. [Within.] Who calls ?
Dio. Diomed. --Calchas, I think. ---Where's your daughter ?
Cal. (Within.] She comes to you.

Enter TROILUS and ULYSSES, at a distance ; after them

THERSITES.
Ulyss. Stand where the torch may not discover us.

Entor CRESSIDA.
Tro. Cressid comes forth to him.
Dio.

How now, my charge ?
Cres. Now, my sweet guardian !-Hark! a word with you.

[Whispers. Tro. Yea, so familiar ! Ulyss. She will sing any man at first sight.

Ther. And any man may sing her, if he can take her cliff; she's noted.

Dio. Will you remember?
Cres.

Remember? yes.

Dio.

Nay, but do then;
And let your mind be coupled with your words.

Tro. What should she remember?
Ulyss. List !
Cres. Sweet honey Greek, tempt me no more to folly.
Ther. Roguery !
Dio. Nay, then,-
Cres.

I'll tell you what :
Dio. Pho! pho! come, tell a pin : You are a forsworn-
Cres. In faith, I cannot : What would you have me do?
Ther. A juggling trick, to be secretly open.
Dio. What did you swear you would bestow on me?
Cres. I prithee, do not hold me to mine oath ;
Bid me do anything but that, sweet Greek.

Dio. Good night.
Tro.

Hold, patience!
Ulyss.

How now, Trojan ?
Cres.

Diomed,
Dio. No, no, good night : I'll be your fool no more.
Tro. Thy better must.
Cres.

Hark! one word in your ear.
Tro. O plague and madness !

Ulyss. You are mov'd, prince ; let us depart, I pray you,
Lest your displeasure should enlarge itself
To wrathful terms; this place is dangerous :
The time right deadly ; I beseech you, go.

Tro. Behold, I pray you !
Ulyss.

Nay, good my lord, go off :
You ilow to great distraction, come, my lord.

Tro. I pray thee, stay.
Ulyss.

You have no patience ; come.
Tro. I pray you, stay ; by hell and all hell torments,
I will not speak a word.
Dio.

And so, good night.
Cres. Nay, but you part in anger.
Tro.

Doth that grieve thee?
O wither'd truth !
Ulyss.

Why, how now, lord ?
Tro.

By Jove,
I will be patient.
Cres.

Guardian !- why, Greek !
Dio. Pho, pho! adieu; you palter.
Cres. In faith, I do not ; come hither once again.

Ulyss. You shake, my lord, at something ; will you go?
You will break out.
Tro.

She strokes his cheek!
Ulyss.

Come, come.
Tro. Nay, stay ; by Jove, I will not speak a word :
There is between my will and all offences
A guard of patience :--stay a little while.

Ther. How the devil luxury, with his fat rump, and potato finger, tickles these together! Fry, lechery, fry!

Dio. But will you then ?
Cres. In faith, I will, la : never trust me else.
Dio. Give me some token for the surety of it.
Cres. I'll fetch you one.

{Exit. Ulyss. You have sworn patience. Tro.

Fear me not, sweet lord ; I will not be myself, nor have cognition Of what I feel ; I am all patience.

Ay, that.

Re-enter CRESSIDA.
Ther. Now the pledge : now, now, now !
Cres. Here, Diomed, keep this sleeve.
Tro. O beauty! where 's thy faith?
Ulyss.

My lord, -
Tro. I will be patient; outwardly I will.
Cres. You look upon that sleeve: Behold it well.—.
He lov'd me-0 false wench !Give 't me again.

Dio. Whose was 't ?
Cres.

It is no matter, now I have 't again.
I will not meet with you to-morrow night;
I prithee, Diomed, visit me no more.

Ther. Now she sharpens :-Well said, whetstone.
Dio. I shall have it.
Cres.

What, this?
Dio.
Cres. O all you gods !-O pretty pretty pledge !
Thy master now lies thinking in his bed
Of thee, and me; and sighs, and takes my glove,
And gives memorial dainty kisses to it,
As I kiss thee.-Nay, do not snatch it from me ;
He that takes that doth take my heart withal.

Dio. I had your heart before, this follows it.
Tro. I did swear patience.

Cres. You shall not have it, Diomed ; 'faith you shall not ; I'll give you something else.

Dio. I will have this: whose was it ?
Cres.

'Tis no matter.
Dio. Come, tell me whose it was.

Cres. 'Twas one's that loved me better than you will.
But, now you have it, take it.
Dio.

Whose was it ?
Cres. By all Diana's waiting-women, yond,
And by herself, I will not tell you whose.

Dio. To-morrow will I wear it on my helm ;
And grieve his spirit that dares not challenge it.

Tro. Wert thou the devil, and wor'st it on thy horn,
It should be challeng’d.

Cres. Well, well, 'tis done, 'tis past :-And yet it is not ;
I will not keep my word.
Dio.

Why then, farewell ;
Thou never shalt mock Diomed again.

Cres. You shall not go :-One cannot speak a word,
But it straight starts you.
Dio.

I do not like this fooling. Ther. Nor I, by Pluto : but that that likes not you pleases me best.

Dio. What, shall I come ? the hour ?
Cres.

Ay, come :

-O Jove ! Do come :- I shall be plagued. Dio.

Farewell till then. Cres. Good night. I prithee, come.- [Exit DIOMEDES. Troilus, farewell ! one eye yet looks on thee; But with my heart the other eye doth see. Ah ! poor our sex! this fault in us I find, The error of our eye directs our mind : What error leads must err ; 0 then conclude, Minds sway'd by eyes are full of turpitude. (Exit CRESSIDA.

Ther. A proof of strength she could not publish more,
L’nless she say, my mind is now turn’d whore.

Ulyss. All's done, my lord.
Tro.

It is.
Ulyss.

Why stay we then ?
Tro. To make a recordation to my soul
Of every syllable that here was spoke.
But, if I tell how these two did co-act,
Shall I not lie in publishing a truth?
Sith yet there is a credence in my heart,
An esperance so obstinately strong,
That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears,

if those organs had deceptious functions,
Created only to calumniate.
Was Cressid here?
Ulyss.

I cannot conjure, Trojan.
Tro. She was not, sure.
Ulyss.

Most sure she was.
Tro. Why, my negation hath no taste of madness.
Ulyss. Nor mine, my lord : Cressid was here but now.

Tro. Let it not be believ'd for womanhood !
Think, we had mothers ; do not give advantage
To stubborn critics, apt, without a theme,
For depravation, to square the general sex
By Cressid's rule : rather think this not Cressid.

Ulyss. What hath she done, prince, that can soil our mothers ?
Tro. Nothing at all, unless that this were she.
Ther. Will he swagger himself out on's own eyes ?
Tro. This she? no, this is Diomed's Cressida :
If beauty have a soul, this is not she ;
If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimony,
If sanctimony be the gods' delight,
If there be rule in unity itself!
This is not she. O madness of discourse,
That cause sets up with and against thyself !
Bi-fold authority! where reason can revolt