ANTENOR, Trojan Commanders. PERSONS REPRESENTED. NESTOR, PATROCLUS, Grecian Commanders. THERSITES, a deformed and scurrilous Grecian. Servant to Troilus; Servant to Paris; Servant to Diomedes. CALCHAS, a Trojan Priest, taking part with the Greeks. HELEN, Wife to Menelaus. PANDARUS, Uncle to Cressida. AGAMEMNON, the Grecian General. MENELAUS, his Brother. ACHILLES, AJAX, ULYSSES, } Grecian Commanders. ANDROMACHE, Wife to Hector. CASSANDRA, Daughter to Priam, a Prophetess. Trojan and Greek Soldiers, and Attendants. SCENE, Troy, and the Grecian Camp before it. PROLOGUE. In Troy there lies the scene. From isles of Greece | And Antenorides, with massy staples, The princes orgulous, their high blood chaf'd, Have to the port of Athens sent their ships, And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorge And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts, Now, expectation, tickling skittish spirits, Like, or find fault; do as your pleasures are; Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant; Pan. Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part, I'll not meddle nor make no further. He, that will have a cake out of the wheat, must tarry the grinding Tro. Have I not tarried? 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: Pan. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the For my part, I'll meddle nor make no more in the bolting. burn your lips. matter. Tro. Patience herself, what goddess e'er she be, When with your blood you daily paint her thus. Doth lesser blench 8 at sufferance than I do. Reply not in how many fathoms deep They lie indrench'd. I tell thee, I am mad Let her be as Pan. I speak no more than truth. Tro. Thou dost not speak so much. Pan. 'Faith, I'll not meddle in't. 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? Pan. 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 I cannot fight upon this argument; It is too starv'd a subject for my sword. A lord of Trojan blood, nephew to Hector; They call him Ajax. Cres. Good; and what of him? 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 3; he is as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant: a man into whom nature hath so crowded humours, that his valour is crushed 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 without cause, and merry against the hair 5: 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. How Pan. Good morrow, cousin Cressid: what do you talk of? Good morrow, Alexander. 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. 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. Do Cres. O, Jupiter! there's no comparison. Pan. What, not between Troilus and Hector? you know a man, if you see him? 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 6 window, and, you know, he has not past three or four hairs on his chin. Cres. Indeed, a tapster's arithmetick 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? 7 Pan. 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 man in all Phrygia. Cres. O, he smiles valiantly. Cres. O yes, an 'twere a cloud in autumn. Cres. Ay, if ever I saw him before, and knew him. that Helen loves Troilus, Pan. Well, I say, Troilus is Troilus. Cres. Troilus will stand to the proof, if you'll 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. Queen Cres. Alas, poor chin! many a wart is richer. Pan. But, there was such laughing; Hecuba laughed, that her eyes ran o'er. Cres. With mill-stones.8 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. Ju 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. piter! 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.9 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. Pan. That's Helenus, I marvel, where Troilus That's Helenus ; - I think he went not forth is: — 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? Pan. Where? yonder? that's Deiphobus: 'Tis Troilus! there's a man, niece! - Hem! - Brave Troilus! the prince of chivalry! O brave Troilus! Cres. Peace, for shame, peace! Pan. Mark him; note him; 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. 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! II had rather be such a man as Troilus, than Agamemnon and all Greece. ANTENOR passes over. Pan. That's Antenor; he has a shrewd wit, 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? Cres. If he do, the rich shall have more. 8 A proverbial saying. 9 Went beyond bounds. A term in the game at cards called noddy. 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? Nest. With due observance of thy godlike seat, But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut, Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece, most mighty for thy place and [To AGAMEMNON. Trumpets. Enter AGAMEMNON, NESTOR, ULYSSES, And thou most reverend for thy stretch'd-out life, MENELAUS, and others. Agam. Princes, What grief hath set the jaundice on your checks? Fails in the promis'd largeness; checks and disasters [TO NESTOR. Thou great, and wise, -to hear Ulysses speak. Agam. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be't of less expect 7 That, after seven years' siege, yet Troy walls stand; That matter needless, of importless burden, Sith every action that hath gone before, But the protractive trials of great Jove, In fortune's love: for them, the bold and coward, 2 Dates were an ingredient in ancient pastry of almost every 4 Since. 5 Joined by affinity. Divide thy lips: than we are confident, Ulyss. Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down, The specialty of rule hath been neglected : The gad-fly that stings cattle. 8 Rights of authority. 7 Expectation. 9 Masked. 1 Constancy. |