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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 looked 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: [ness, But sorrow, that is couch'd in seeming gladIs 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

Tro. O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus, When I do tell thee, There my hopes lie drown'd,

Reply not in how many fathoms 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 [voice;
Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her
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 ploughinen! 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
The knife that made it.
[me

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, 'tis the better for her; an she be not, she has the mends in her own hands.

Tro. Good Pandarus! How now, Pandarus? Pun. I have had my labour for my travel; 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 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 nor make no more in the matter.

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Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair,
When with your blood you daily paint her
I cannot fight upon this argument; [thus.
It is too starv'd a subject for my sword.
But Pandarus-O gods, how do you plagu

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 wandering flood;
Ourself, the merchant; and this sailing Pan-
dar,
Our doubtful hope, our convoy, and our bark.
Alurum. Enter ÆNEAS.

Ene. 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, Eneas, 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: 'tis but a scar ta

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to-day!

-Are you bound thi

Tro. Better at home, if would I might, were may.[ther? But to the sport abroad;-. Ene. In all swift haste. Tro. Come, go we then together. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.-The same.-A Street.

Enter CRESSIDA and ALEXANDER.

Cres. Who were those went by ? Alex. 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: He chid Andromache, and struck his ar

mourer;

And, like as there were husbandry in war,
Before the sun rose, he was harness'd light,
And to the field goes he; where every flower
Did, as a prophet, weep what it foresaw
In Hector's wrath.

Cres. What was his cause of anger?

Alex. The noise goes, this: There is among the Greeks

A lord of Trojan blood, nephew to Hector;
They call him, Ajax.

Cres. Good; And what of him?

Alex. They say he is a very man per se,† And stands alone.

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; he is as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant: a man into whom nature hath so crouded humours, that his valour is crusheds 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

*Suits. By himself. Characters. Mingica.

without cause, and merry against the hair:* 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 me 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.
Cres. Hector's a gallant man.
Alex. As may be in the world, lady.
Pun. What's that? what's that?

Cres. Good morrow, uncle Pandarus.
Pun. Good morrow, 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. Pun. E'en so; Hector was stirring early. Cres. That were we talking of, and of his

anger.

Pan. Was he angry? Cres. So he says here.

Pun. 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 were,

Cres. So he is.

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a brown favour, (for so 'tis, I must confess,)Not brown neither.

Cres. No, but brown.

Pan. 'Faith, to say truth, brown and not brown.

Cres. To say the truth, true and not true.
Pun. She prais'd his complexion above Paris.
Cres. Why, Paris hath colour enough.
Pan. So he has.

Cres. Then, Troilus should have too much: if she praised him above, his complexion is higher than his; he having colour 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 compassed* 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 ?+

Pun. 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 mas 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.

Pan. I cannot choose but laugh, to think how she tickled his chin;-Indeed, she has a marvellous white hand, I must needs confess. Cres. Without the rack.

Pan. And she takes upon her to spy a white hair on his chin.

Cres. Alas, poor chin! many a wart is richer. Pan. But, there was such laughing;-Queen Hecuba laughed, that her eyes ran o'er. Cres. With mill-stones.

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. Marry, 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 haus on your chin, and one of them is white. Cres. This is her question.

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Pan. That's true; make no question of that. I 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.*

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.

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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.

Went beyond bounds.
+ As if 'twerc.
A term in the game at cards called Noddy.

Cres. Who's that?

HELENUS passes over.

Pun. 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:-I 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 ;-O 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.

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 datet in the pye,-for then the man's date is out.

Pan. You are such a woman! one knows not at what ward 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 thou

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Pan. Where?

Boy. At your own house; there he unarms him.

Pun. 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.
Cres. To bring, uncle,-

Pan. Ay, a token from Troilus.
Cres. By the same token you are a bawd.-
[Exit PANDARUS.
Words, vows, griefs, tears, and love's full sa-
He offers in another's enterprize: [crifice,
But more in Troilus thousand fold I see
Than in the glass of Pandar's praise may be;
Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing:
Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the do-
ing:

That she belov'd knows nought, that knows not this,

Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is: That she was never yet, that ever knew

Love got so sweet, as when desire did sue: Therefore this maxim out of love I teach,Achievement is command; ungain'd beseech: Then though my heart's content firm love doth bear,

Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear. Exit.

SCENE III.-The Grecian Camp.-Before
Agamemnon's Tent.

Trumpets. Enter AGAMEMNON, Nestor,
ULYSSES, MENELAUS, and others.

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stand;

Sith every action that hath gone before,
Whereof we have record, trial did draw
Bias and thwart, not answering the aim,
And that unbodied figure of the thought
That gav't surmised shape. Why then, you
princes,

Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works; And think them shames, which are, indeed, nought else

But the protractive trials of great Jove.
To find persistive constancy in men?
The fineness of which metal is not found

In fortune's love: for then, the bold and coward,

The wise and fool, the artist and unread,
The hard and soft, seem all affin'd‡ and kin:
But, in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
And what hath mass, or matter, by itself
Lies, rich in virtue, and unmingled.
Nest. With due observance of thy godlike

seat,

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Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance Lies the true proof of men: The sea being smooth,

How many shallow bauble boats dare sail
Upon her patient breast, making their way
With those of nobler bulk.

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis,* and, anon, behold
The strong ribb'd bark through liquid moun
tains cut,

Bounding between the two moist elements, Like Perseus' horse: Where's then the saucy boat,

Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now
Co-rival'd greatness? either to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so
Doth valour's show, and valour's worth, divide,
In storms of fortune: For, in her ray and
brightness,

The herd hath more annoyance by the brize,t
Than by the tiger: but when the splitting wind
Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks,
And flies fled under shade, Why, then, the

thing of courage,

[thize, As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympa And with an accent turn'd in self-same key, Returns to chiding fortune.

Ulyss. Agamemnon,

[Greece, Thou great commander, nerve and bone of 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 I give to both your speeches,—which were life,[TO NESTOR.

such,

As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece Should hold up high in brass; and such again, As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver, [tree Should with a bond of air (strong as the axleOn which heaven rides,) knit all the Greekish [both,To his experienc'd tongue, yet let it please Thou great, and wise, to hear Ulysses speak.

ears

Agam. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be't of
less expect

That matter needless, of importless burden,
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,
When rank Thersites opes his mastiff jaws,
We shall hear music, wit, and oracle.
Ulyss. Troy, yet upon his basis had been
down,
[master,
But for these instances.
And the great Hector's sword had fack'd a

The speciality of rules hath been neglected:
And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand
Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow fac-
tions.

When that the general is not like the hive,
To whom the foragers shall all repair,
What honey is expected? Degree being viz-
arded,||

The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask.
The heavens themselves, the planets, and this

centre,

Observe degree, priority, and place,
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
Office, and custom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol,
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
The daughter of Neptune.
+ The gad fly that stings cattle.
Rights of authority. || Masked.

↑ Expectation. Constancy.

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Amidst the other; whose med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,
And posts, like the commandment of a king,
Sans check, to good and bad: But when the
planets,

In evil mixture, to disorder wander, [tiny?
What plagues, and what portents? what mu-
What raging of the sea? shaking of earth?
Commotion in the winds? frights, changes,
horrors,

Divert and crack, rend and deracinatet
The unity and married calm of states

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Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrested+ seeming He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks, "Tis like a chime a mending; with terms unsquar'd,t [dropp'd, Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon Would seem hyperboles. At this fusty stuff, The large Achilles, on his press'd bed lolling,

Quite from their fixture? O, when degree is From his deep chest laughs out a loud ap

shak'd,

Which is the ladder of all high designs,

The enterprize is sick! How could communities,

Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commérce from dividables shores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows! each thing

meets

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Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite, a universal wolf,

So doubly seconded with will and power,
Must make perforce a universal prey,
And, last, eat up himself. Great Agamem-
This chaos, when degree is suffocate,
Follows the choking.

[non,

And this neglection of degree it is,
That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose
It hath to climb. The general's disdain'd
By him one step below; he, by the next;
That next, by him beneath: so every step,
Exampled by the first pace that is sick
Of his superior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodless emulation:
And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,
Not her own sinews. To end a tale of length,
Troy in our weakness stands, not in her
strength.

Nest. Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover'd

The fever whereof all our power¶ is sick.
Agam. The nature of the sickness found,
What is the remedy?
[Ulysses,
Ulyss. The great Achilles,-whom opinion

crowns

The sinew and the forehand of our host,-
Having his ear full of his airy fame,
Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent
Lies mocking our designs: With him, Patro-
Upon a lazy bed the livelong day
Breaks scurril jests;

[clus,

And with ridiculous and awkward action
(Which, slanderer, he imitation calls,) [non,
He pageants** us. Sometime, great Agamem-
Thy toplesstt deputation he puts on;

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plause;

Cries-Excellent!-'tis Agamemnon just.--
Now play me Nestor;-hem, and stroke thy
As he, being dress'd to some oration. [beard,
That's done ;-as near as the extremest ends
Of parallels; as like as Vulcan and his wife.
Yet good Achilles still cries, Excellent!
'Tis Nestor right! Now play him me, Patroclus,
Arming to answer in a night alarm.

And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age
Must be the scene of mirth; to cough, and spit,
And with a palsy-fumbling on his gorget,
Shake in and out the rivet :-and at this sport,
Sir Valour dies; cries, O!-enough, Patro-
clus;-

Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all
In pleasure of my spleen. And in this fashion,
All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,
Severals and generals of grace exact,
Achievements, plots, orders, preventions,
Excitements to the field, or speech for truce,
Success, or loss, what is, or is not, serves
As stuff for these two to make paradoxes.

Nest. And in the imitation of these twain
(Whom, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns
With an imperial voice,) many are infect.
Ajax is grown self-will'd; and bears his head
In such a reign, in full as proud a place
As broad Achilles: keeps his tent like him;
Makes factious feasts; rails on our state of
Bold as an oracle: and sets Thersites [war,
(A slave, whose gall coins slanders like a mint,)
To match us in comparisons with dirt;
To weaken and discredit our exposure,
How rank soever rounded in with danger.
Ulyss. They tax our policy, and call it cow.
ardice;

Count wisdom as no member of the war;
Forestall prescience, and esteem no act
But that of hand: the still and mental parts,--
That do contrive how many hands shall strike,
When fitness calls them on; and know, by

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Agum. What would you 'fore our tent

*The galleries of the theatre. + Beyond the truth.

+ Unadapted.

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