Ulyss. Not for the worth that hangs upon our quar- || Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks draw deep. rel. Ajax. A paltry, insolent fellow, Nest. Himself! Ajax. Can he not be sociable? Ulyss w [Excurd. How he describes [Aside. ACT III. The raven Chides blackness. [Aside. SCENE I-Troy. A Room in Priam's Palace. Es ter Pandarus and a Servant. Pandarus. FRIEND! you! pray you, a word: Do not you follow the young lord Paris? Serv. Ay, sir, when he goes before me. Pan. You do depend upon him, 1 mean. Serv. Sir, I do depend upon the lord. Pan. You do depend upon a noble gentleman; 1 must needs praise him. Serv. The lord be praised! Pan. You know me, do you not? Serv. 'Faith, sir, superficially. Pan. Friend, know me better; I am the lord Pandarus. Serv. I hope, I shall know your honour better. Serv. You are in the state of grace. [Music within. Pan. Grace! not so, friend; honour and lordship are my titles:-What music is this? Serv. I do but partly know, sir; it is music in parts. Pan. Know you the musicians? Serv. Wholly, sir. Pan. Who play they to? Serv. To the hearers, sir. Pan. At whose pleasure, friend? Serv. At mine, sir, and theirs that love music. Pan. Command, I mean, friend. Serv. Who shall I command, sir? Pan. Friend, we understand not one another; I am too courtly, and thou art too cunning: At whose re quest do these men play? Serv. That's to't, indeed, sir: Marry, sir, at the request of Paris my lord, who is there in person; with him, the mortal Venus, the heart-blood of beauty, love's invisible soul,- Pan. Who, my cousin Cressida? Serv. No, sir. Helen; Could you not find out that by her attributes? Pan. It should seem, fellow, that thou hast not scen the lady Cressida. I come to speak with Paris from the prince Troilus: I will make a complimental assault upon him, for my business seeths. Serv. Sudden business! there's a stewed phrase, ins deed! Enter Paris and Helen, attended. Pan. Fair be to you, my lord, and to all this fair company! fair desires, in all fair measure, fairly guide them!-especially to you, fair queen! fair thoughts be your fair pillow! Helen. Dear lord, you are full of fair words. Pan. You speak your fair pleasure, sweet queen.Fair prince, here is good broken music. Par. You have broke it, cousin; and, by my life, you shall make it whole again; you shall piece it out with a piece of your performance :-Nell, he is full of harmony. Pan. Truly, lady, no. Helen. O, sir, Pan. Rude in sooth; in good sooth, very rude. Par. Well said, my lord! well, you say so in fits. Pan. I have business to my lord, dear queen :-My lord, will you vouchsafe me a word? Helen. Nay, this shall not hedge us out; we'll hear you sing, certainly. Pan. Well, sweet queen, you are pleasant with me. -But (marry) thus, my lord,-My dear lord, and most esteemed friend, your brother Troilus Helen. My lord Pandarus; honey-sweet lord,Pan. Go to, sweet queen, go to:-commends himself most affectionately to you. Helen. You shall not bob us out of our melody; If you do, our melancholy upon your head! Pan. Sweet queen, sweet queen; that's a sweet queen, i'faith. Helen. And to make a sweet lady sad, is a sour offence. Pan. Nay, that shall not serve your turn; that shall it not, in truth, la. Nay, I care not for such words; no, no.-And, my lord, he desires you, that, if the king call for him at supper, you will make his excuse. Helen. My lord Pandarus, Pan. What says my sweet queen,-my very very sweet queen? Par. What exploit's in hand? Where sups he tonight? Helen. Nay, but my lord Pan. What says my sweet queen?-My cousin will fall out with you.-You must not know where he sups. Par. I'll lay my life, with my disposer Cressida. Pan. No, no, no such matter, you are wide; come, your disposer is sick, Par. Well, I'll make excuse. Pan. Ay, good my lord. Why should you sayCressida ? no, your poor disposer's sick. Par. I spy. Pan. You spy! what do you spy?-Come, give me an instrument-Now, sweet queen. Helen. Why, this is kindly done. Pan. My niece is horribly in love with a thing you have, sweet queen. Helen. She shall have it, my lord, if it be not my lord Paris. Pan. He! no, she'll none of him; they two are twain. Helen. Falling in, after falling out, may make them three. Pan. Come, come, I'll hear no more of this: I'll sing you a song now. Helen. Ay, ay, pr'ythee now. By my troth, sweet lord, thou hast a fine forehead. Pan. Ay, you may, you may. Helen. Let thy song be love: this love will undo us all. O, Cupid, Cupid, Cupid! Pan. Love! ay, that it shall, i'faith. Par. Ay, good now, love, love, nothing but love. Pan. In good troth, it begins so: Love, love, nothing but love, still more! For, oh, love's boro Shoots buck and doe: The shaft confounds, But tickles still the sore. These lovers cry-Oh! oh! they die! Yet that which seems the wound to kill, So dying love lives still: Hey ho! Helen. In love, i'faith, to the very tip of the nose. Par. He eats nothing but doves, love; and that breeds hot blood, and hot blood begets hot thoughts, and hot thoughts beget hot deeds, and hot deeds is love. Pan. Is this the generation of love? hot blood, hot thoughts, and hot deeds?-Why, they are vipers: Is love a generation of vipers? Sweet lord, who's a-field to-day? Par. Hector, Deiphobus, Helenus, Antenor, and all the gallantry of Troy: I would fain have armed tonight, but my Nell would not have it so. How chance my brother Troilus went not? Helen. He hangs the lip at something ;—you know all, lord Pandarus. Pan. Not I, honey-sweet queen.-I long to hear how they sped to-day. You'll remember your brother's excuse? Par. To a hair. Pan. Farewell, sweet queen. Helen. Commend me to your niece. Pan. I will, sweet queen. [Exit. A retreat sounded. Par. They are come from field: let us to Priam's hall, To greet the warriors. Sweet Helen, I must woo you To help unarm our Hector: his stubborn buckles, With these your white enchanting fingers touch'd, Shall more obey, than to the edge of steel, Or force of Greekish sinews; you shall do more Than all the island kings, disarm great Hector. Helen. 'Twill make us proud to be his servant, Paris; Yea, what he shall receive of us in duty, Par. Sweet, above thought I love thee. [Exeunt. Pan. Walk here i'the orchard, I'll bring her I fear it much; and I do fear besides, As doth a battle, when they charge on heaps Re-enter Pandarus. Pan. She's making her ready, she'll come straight : you must be witty now. She does so blush, and fetches her wind so short. as if she were frayed with a sprite : I'll fetch her. It is the prettiest villain :-she fetches her breath as short as a new-ta'en sparrow. [Exit. Tro. Even such a passion doth embrace my bosom: My heart beats thicker than a feverous pulse; And all my powers do their bestowing lose, Like vassalage at unawares encount'ring The eye of majesty. Enter Pandarus and Cressida. Pan. Come, come, what need you blush? shame's a baby.-Here she is now: swear the oaths now to her, that you have sworn to me.-What, are you gone again? you must be watched ere you be made tame, must you? Come your ways, come your ways; an you draw backward, we'll put you i'the fills. Why do you not speak to her?-Come, draw this curtain, and let's see your picture. Alas the day, how loath you are to offend daylight! an 'twere dark, you'd close sooner. So, so; rub on, and kiss the mistress. How now, a kiss in fee-farm! build there, carpenter; the air is sweet. Nay, you shall fight your hearts out, ere I part you. The falcon as the tercel, for all the ducks 'the river: go to, go to. Tro. You have bereft me of all words, lady. Pan. Words pay no debts, give her deeds; but she'll bereave you of the deeds too, if she call your activity in question. What, billing again? Here's-In witness whereof the parties interchangeably-Come in, come in; I'll go get a fire. Cres. Will you walk in, my lord? [Exit. Tro. O Cressida, how often have I wished me thus ? Cres. Wished, my lord?-The gods grant!-O my Jord! Tro. What should they grant? what makes this pretty abruption? what too curious dreg espies my sweet lady in the fountain of our love? Cres. More dregs than water, if my fears have eyes. Tro. Fears make devils cherubins; they never see truly. Cres. Blind fear, that seeing reason leads, finds safer footing than blind reason stumbling without fear: To fear the worst, oft cures the worst. Cres. They say, all lovers swear more performance than they are able, and yet reserve an ability that they never perform; vowing more than the perfection of ten, and discharging less than the tenth part of one. They that have the voice of lions, and the act of hares, are they not monsters? Tro. Are there such? such are not we: Praise us as we are tasted, allow us as we prove; our head shall go bare, till merit crown it: no perfection in reversion shall have a praise in present: we will not name desert, before his birth; and, being born, his addition shall be humble. Few words to fair faith: Troilus shall be such to Cressid, as what envy can say worst, shall be a mock for his truth; and what truth can speak truest, not truer than Troilus. Cres. Will you walk in, my lord? Re-enter Pandarus. Pan. What, blushing still? have you not done talking yet? Cres. Well, uncle, what folly I commit, I dedicate to you. Pan. I thank you for that; if my lord get a boy of you, you'll give him me: Be true to my lord: if he flinch, chide me for it. Tro. You know now your hostages; your uncle's word, and my firm faith. Pan. Nay, I'll give my word for her too; our kindred, though they be long ere they are wooed, they are constant, being won: they are burs, I can tell you; they'll stick where they are thrown. Cres. Boldness comes to me now, and brings me heart: -Prince Troilus, I have lov'd you night and day Tro. Why was my Cressid then so hard to win? - Tro. And shall, albeit sweet music issues thence. Cres. My lord, I do beseech you, pardon me ; I am asham'd;-O heavens! what have I done?- Pan. Leave! an you take leave till to-morrow morn Tre. O, let my lady apprehend no fear: in all Cu-ingpid's pageant there is presented no monster. Cres. Nor nothing monstrous neither? Tro. Nothing, but our undertakings; when we vow to weep seas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tigers; thinking it harder for our mistress to devise imposition enough, than for us to undergo any difficulty imposed. This is the monstruosity in love, lady,—that the will is infinite, and the execution confined; that the desire is boundless, and the act a slave to limit. Cres. Pray you, content you. What offends you, lady? Cres. Let me go and try: You cannot shun I have a kind of self resides with you; Where is my wit? I know not what I speak. The advantage of the time prompts me aloud Tro. Well know they what they speak, that speak To call for recompense. Appear it to your mind, so wisely. Cres. Perchance, my lord, I show more craft than love; And fell so roundly to a large confession, To angle for your thoughts: But you are wise; To feed for aye her lamp and flames of love; Might be affronted with the match and weight O virtuous fight, As true as steel, as plantage to the moon, As iron to adamant, as earth to the centre,- Cres. To dusty nothing; yet let memory, From false to false, among false maids in love, That, through the sight I bear in things, to Jove Out of those many register'd in promise, Aga. What wouldst thou of us, Trojan? make de Cal. You have a Trojan prisoner, call'd Antenor, Aga. Let Diomedes bear him, Enter Achilles and Patroclus, before their Tent. Upbraid my falsehood! when they have said-as false Lay negligent and loose regard upon him: As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth, As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf, Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son; Yea, let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood, Pan. Go to, a bargain made: seal it, seal it; I'll be the witness.-Here I hold your hand; here, my cousin's. If ever you prove false one to another, since I have taken such pains to bring you together, let all pitiful goers-between be called to the world's end after my name, call them all-Pandars; let all constant men be Troiluses, all false women Cressids, and all brokers between Pandars! say, Amen. Tro. Amen. Cres. Amen. Pan. Amen. Whereupon I will show you a cham ber and a bed, which bed, because it shall not speak of your pretty encounters, press it to death: away. And Cupid grant all tongue tied maidens here, Bed, chamber, Pandar to provide this geer! [Exeunt. SCENE III-The Grecian Camp. Enter Agamemnon, Ulysses, Diomedes, Nestor, Ajax, Menelaus, and Calchas. Cal. Now, prinees, for the service I have done you, I will come last: 'Tis like, he'll question me, Why such unplausive eyes are bent, why turn'd on him: If so, I have derision med'cinable, To use between your strangeness and his pride, Aga. We'll execute your purpose, and put on Achil. What, comes the general to speak with me? Achil No. The better. 'Tis certain, greatness, once fallen out with fortune, Hath any honour; but honour for those honours Which when they fall, as being slippery standers, Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out A strange fellow here Achil. What are you reading? Achil. Till it hath travell'd, and is married there It is familiar; but at the author's drift: (Though in and of him there be much consisting,) The voice again; or like a gate of steel His figure and his heat. I was much rapt in this; Heavens, what a man is there! a very horse; That has he knows not what. Nature, what things there are, Most abject in regard, and dear in use! What things again most dear in the esteem, And poor in worth! Now shall we see to-morrow, How some men creep in skittish fortune's hall, Achil. I do believe it: for they pass'd by me, A great sized monster of ingratitudes: As done: Perseverance, dear my lord, In monumental mockery. Take the instant way: That one by one pursue: If you give way, Or, like a gallant horse fallen in first rank, present. Though less than yours in past, must o'ertop yours: For time is like a fashionable host, That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand; And with his arms out-stretch'd, as he would fly, Grasps-in the comer: Welcome ever stailes, And farewell goes out sighing. O, let not virtue seek Remuneration for the thing it was; For beauty, wit, High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service, To envious and calumniating time. One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,That all, with one consent, praise new-born gawds, Though they are made and moulded of things past; And give to dust, that is a little gilt, More land than gilt o'er-dusted. The present eye praises the present object: I have strong reasons, Ulyss. Of this my privacy But 'gainst your privacy The reasons are more potent and heroical: |