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. Pan. Good morrow, Cousin Cressid: What do you talk of?-Good morrow, Alexander.-How do vou, 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 yé came to Ilium? Helen was not up, was she? Cres. No, but brown. Pan. 'Faith, to say truth, brown and not brown. 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?? Pan. But, to prove to you that Helen loves him; came, and puts me her white hand to his cloven chin, Cres. Hector was gone; but Helen was not up. Cres. So he says here. Pan. 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. Cres. Ay; if ever I saw him before, and knew him. Port. Well, I say, Troilus is Troilus. Cres. Then you say as I say; for I am sure, he is not lector. Pan. 2, nor Hector is not Troilus, in some degrees. Cres. 'Tis just to each of them; he is himself. were, Cres. So he is. Pan. 'Condition, I had gone barefoot to India. Pan. Himself? no, he's not himself.-'Would 'a were himself! Well, the gods are above; Time must friend, or end: Well, Troilus, well,-I would my heart were in her body!-No, Hector is not a better man than Troilus. Cres. Excuse me. Pan. He is elder. Cres. Pardon me, pardon me. Pan. The other's not come to't; you shall tell me another tale, when the other's come to't. Hector shall not have his wit this year. Cres. He shall not need it, if he have his own. Cres. 'Twould not become him, his own's better. Pan. You have no judgment, niece: Helen herself swore the other day, that Troilus, for a brown favour, (for so 'tis, I must confess,)-Not brown neither. Cres. Juno have mercy!-How came it cloven? Pan. Why, you know, 'tis dimpled: I think, his smiling becomes him better than any man 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. 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 hairs on your chin, and one of them is white. Cres. This is her question. Pan. That's true; make no question of that. 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 (1) Bow. (2) Thief. (3) A proverbial saying. such laughing and Helen so blushed, and Paris so chafed, and all the rest so laughed, that it passed.'not hear the people cry, Troilus ?-Helenus is a Cres. So let it now; for it has been a great while priest. going by. Cres. What sneaking fellow comes yonder? ̧ Troilus passes over. Pan. Well, cousin I told you a thing yesterday; think on't. Cres. So I do. Pan. I'll be sworn, 'tis true; he will weep you, an 'twere a man in April. Cres. And I'll spring up in his tears, an 'twere a nettle against May. [A Retreat sounded. Pan. Hark, they are coming from the field: Shall we stand up here, and see them as they pass toward Ilium? good niece, do; sweet niece Cressida. Cres. At your pleasure. Pan. Here, here, here's an excellent place; here we may see most bravely: I'll tell you them all by their names, as they pass by; but mark Troilus above the rest. Eneas passes over the stage. Cres. Speak not so loud. Pan. That's Eneas; Is not that a brave man? he's one of the flowers of Troy, I can tell you; But mark Troilus; you shall see anon. Cres. Who's that? Antenor passes over. Pan. That's Antenor; he has a shrewd wit, I can tell you; and he's a man good enough: he's one o'the soundest judgments in Troy, whosoever, and a proper man of person:-When comes Troilus?-I'll show you Troilus anon; if he see me, you shall see him nod at me. Cres. Will he give you the nod?3 Cres. If he do, the rich shall have more. Hector passes over. Troilus! there's a man, niece!-Hem! brave Troi Pan. Where? yonder? that's Deiphobus: "Tis lus! the prince of chivalry! Cres. Peace, for shame, peace! look well upon him, niece; look you, how his sword Pan. Mark him; note him ;-Q brave Troilus!is bloodied, and his helm more hack'd than Hector's; And how he looks, and how he goes!-0 Go thy way, Troilus, go thy way; had I a sister admirable youth! he ne'er saw three and twenty. were a Grace, or a daughter a goddess, he should take his choice. O 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. 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 date in the pie,-for then the man's date is out. Pan. That's Hector, that, that, look you, that; There's a fellow!-Go thy way, Hector;-There's a brave man, niece,-O brave Hector!-Look, how he looks! there's a countenance: Is't not a brave Pan. You are such a woman! one knows not at man? what ward you lie. Cres. O, a brave man! Cres. Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon Pan. Is 'a not? It does a man's heart good-my wit, to defend my wiles; upon my secrecy, to Look you what hacks are on his helmet: look you defend mine honesty; my mask, to defend my yonder, do you see? look you there! There's no beauty; and you to defend all these: and at all jesting: there's laying on; take't off who will, as these wards I lie, at a thousand watches. they say: there he hacks! Čres. Be those with swords? Paris passes over. 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. Cres. Who's that? Pan. Say one of your watches. Cres. Nay, I'll watch you for that; and that's one of the chiefest of them too: if I cannot ward telling how I took the blow; unless it swell past what I would not have hit, I can watch you for hiding, and then it is past watching. Enter Troilus' Boy. Boy. Sir, my lord would instantly speak with you. Boy. At your own house; there he unarms him. Pan. I'll be with you, niece, by and by. Pan. Ay, a token from Troilus. Cres. By the same token-you are a bawd- (5) Dates were an ingredient in ancient pastry 21 But more in Troilus thousand fold I see Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is : Agam. Princes, What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks? In all designs begun on earth below, Fails in the promis'd largeness: checks and disasters And, flies fled under shade, Why, then, the thing As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize, Should with a bond of air (strong as the axletree Agam. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be1t of less That matter needless, of importless burden, That after seven years' siege, yet Troy walls stand; We shall hear music, wit, and oracle. Sith every action that hath gone before, But the protractive trials of great Jove, And what hath mass, or matter, by itself Nest. With due observance of thy godlike seat," But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage (1) Twisted and rambling. (2) Since. (3) Joined by affinity. 4) The throne. (5) The daughter of Neptune. (6) The gad-fly that stings cattle. (7) Expectation. Ulyss. Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down, The specialty of rule hath been neglected: Observe degree, priority, and place, 10 Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, check, to good and bad: But when the In evil mixture to disorder wander, (8) Rights of authority. (12) Force up by the roots. (9) Masked. (14) Divided. Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores, And the rude son should strike his father dead: So doubly seconded with will and power, And, last, eat up himself. Great Agamemnon, And this neglection of degree it is, That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot, Ulyss. The great Achilles,-whom opinion crowns The sinew and the forehand of our host,- Lies mocking our designs: With him, Patroclus, Breaks scurril jests; And with ridiculous and awkward action He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon, That's done, as near as the extremest ends Excitements to the field, or speech for truce, 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 rein, in full as proud a place As broad Achilles: keeps his tent like him; Makes factious feasts; rails on our state of war, Bold as an oracle: and so is Thersites (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 cowardice; 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 measure Of their observant toil, the enemies' weight,— Why, this hath not a finger's dignity: They call this-bed-work, mappery, closet-war : So that the ram, that batters down the wall, For the great swing and rudeness of his poíze, They place before his hand that made the engine; Or those, that with the fineness of their souls By reason guide his execution. Nest. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse Makes many Thetis' sons. [Trumpet sounds. Agam. What trumpet? look, Menelaus. Enter Eneas. I ask, that I might waken reverence, How may How? Which is that god in office, guiding men? Ene. Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm❜d, Nothing so full of heart. But peace, Æneas, That breath fame follows; that praise, sole pure, transcends. Agam. Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself Æneas? Ene. Ay, Greek, that is my name. (3) Supreme. (4) The galleries of the theatre. (5) Beyond the truth. (6) Unadapted, Trumpet, blow loud, Ene. Send thy brass voice through all these lazy tents;And every Greek of mettle, let him know, What Troy means fairly, shall be spoke aloud. [Trumpet sounds. We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy A prince call'd Hector (Priam is his father,) Who in this dull and long-continued truce' Is rusty grown; he bade me take a trumpet, And to this purpose speak. Kings, princes, lords! If there be one, among the fair'st of Greece, That holds his honour higher than his ease; That seeks his praise more than he fears his peril; That knows his valour, and knows not his fear; That loves his mistress more than in confession (With truant vows to her own lips he loves,) And dare avow her beauty and her worth, In other arms than hers,-to him this challenge. Hector, in view of Trojans and of Greeks, Shall make it good, or do his best to do it, He hath a lady, wiser, fairer, truer, Than ever Greek did compass in his arms; And will to-morrow with his trumpet call, Mid-way between your tents and walls of Troy, To rouse a Grecian that is true in love: If any come, Hector shall honour him; If none, he'll say in Troy, when he retires, The Grecian dames are sup-burn'd, and not worth The splinter of a lance. Even so much. Agam. This shall be told our lovers, lord Eneas; If none of them have soul in such a kind, We left them all at home: But we are soldiers; And may that soldier a mere recreant prove, That means not, hath not, or is not in love! If then one is, or hath, or means to be, That one meets Hector; if none else, I am he. Nest. Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man When Hector's grandsire suck'd: he is old now; But, if there be not in our Grecian host One noble man, that hath one spark of fire To answer for his love, Tell him from me,I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver, And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn; And, meeting him, will tell him, That my lady' Was fairer than his grandame, and as chaste As may be in the world: His youth in flood, I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood. Ene. Now heavens forbid such scarcity of youth! Ulyss. Amen. Agam. Fair lord Eneas, let me touch your hand; To our pavilion shall I lead you, sir. Achilles shall have word of this intent; So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent: Yourself shall feast with us before you go, And find the welcome of a noble foe. [Exeunt all but Ulysses and Nestor. Ulyss. Nestor,- Whose grossness little characters sum up: Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose Ulyss. And wake him to the answer, think you? Yes, It is most meet; Whom may you else oppose, For here the Trojans taste our dear'st repute In this wild action: for the success, Of things to come at large. It is suppos'd, What heart receives from hence a conquering part, To steel a strong opinion to themselves? Ulyss. Give pardon to my speech;- Nest. I see them not with my old eyes; what are they? Ulyss. What glory our Achilles shares from Hector, Were he not proud, we all should share with him: And we were better parch in Afric sun, (5) Small points compared with the volumes, |