While others fish with craft for great opinion, Welcome, sir Diomed! here is the lady, Dio. Fair lady Cressid, So please you, save the thanks this prince expects: I charge thee, use her well, even for my charge; Dio. O, be not mov'd, prince Troilus: Let me be privileg'd by my place, and message, To be a speaker free; when I am hence, I'll answer to my will: And know you, lord, I'll nothing do on charge; To her own worth She shall be priz'd; but that you say -be't so, I'll speak it in my spirit and honour, - no. Tro. Come, to the port. - I'll tell thee, Diomed, This brave shall oft make thee to hide thy head. Lady, give me your hand; and, as we walk, To our own selves bend we our needful talk. [Exeunt TROILUS, CRESSIDA, and DIOMED. [Trumpet heard. Par. Hark! Hector's trumpet. Ene. How have we spent this morning! The prince must think me tardy and remiss, That swore to ride before him to the field. Agam. Is not yon Diomed, with Calchas' daughter? Ulyss. 'Tis he, I ken the manner of his gait : He rises on the toe that spirit of his In aspiration lifts him from the earth. Enter DIOMED, with CRESSIDA. Dio. Nest. Our general doth salute you with a kiss. 'Twere better, she were kiss'd in general. Nest. And very courtly counsel: I'll begin. · So much for Nestor. Achil. I'll take that winter from your lips, fair lady: Achilles bids you welcome. Cres. I am your debtor. Dio. Lady, a word; - I'll bring you to your father. [DIOMED leads out CRESSIDA. Nest. A woman of quick sense. Ulyss. Fye, fye upon her! There's language in her eye, her cheek, her lip, Nay, her foot speaks; her wanton spirits look out At every joint and motive 9 of her body. O, these encounterers, so glib of tongue, That give a coasting welcome ere it comes, And wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts To every ticklish reader! set them down For sluttish spoils of opportunity, And daughters of the game. [Trumpet within. All. The Trojans' trumpet. Agam. Yonder comes the troop. Enter HECTOR, armed; ENEAS, TROILUS, and other Trojans, with Attendants. Ene. Hail, all the state of Greece! what shall be done To him that victory commands? Or do you purpose, Par. 'Tis Troilus' fault: Come, come to field with Shall to the edge of all extremity him. Half heart, half hand, half Hector comes to seek This blended knight, half Trojan, and half Greek. Re-enter DIOMED. Agam. Here is sir Diomed: - Go, gentle knight, Stand by our Ajax: as you and lord Æneas Consent upon the order of their fight, So be it; either to the uttermost, Or else a breath: the combatants being kin, Ulyss. They are oppos'd already. Ulyss. The youngest son of Priam, a true knight; For Hector, in his blaze of wrath, subscribes 3 Tro. Awake thee! Agam. His blows are well dispos'd :—there, Ajax! Hect. Why, then, will I no more: Thou art, great lord, my father's sister's son, A cousin-german to great Priam's seed; The obligation of our blood forbids A gory emulation 'twixt us twain: Were thy commixtion Greek and Trojan so, All Greek, and this all Troy; my mother's blood Hect. Not Neoptolemus so mirable Cries, This is he,) could promise to himself Hect. The issue is embracement: - Ajax, farewell. Ajar. If I might in entreaties find success, (As seld? I have the chance,) I would desire My famous cousin to our Grecian tents. Dio. 'Tis Agamemnon's wish: and great Achilles Doth long to see unarm'd the valiant Hector. Hect. Æneas, call my brother Troilus to me: Ajar. Great Agamemnon comes to meet us here. name; But for Achilles, my own searching eyes Agam. Worthy of arms, as welcome as to one That would be rid of such an enemy; But that's no welcome: Understand more clear, But in this extant moment, faith and troth, you. You brace of warlike brothers, welcome hither. Mock not, that I affect the untraded oath ; theme. Hect. O pardon; I offend. Nest. I have, thou gallant Trojan, seen thee oft, Labouring for destiny, make cruel way Through ranks of Greekish youth: and I have seen thee, As hot as Perseus, spur thy Phrygian steed, Hect. Let me embrace thee, good old chronicle, (On whose bright crest, Fame with her loud'st O yes That hast so long walk'd hand in hand with time 1 Breathing, exercise. 2 Unsuitable to his character. 3 Yields, gives way. Right. Achil. I am Achilles. Hect. Stand fair, I pray thee: let me look on thee. Achil. Behold thy fill. Hect. Nay, I have done already. Achil. Thou art too brief; I will the second time, As I would buy thec, view thee limb by limb. Hect. O, like a book of sport thou'lt read me o'er; Shall I destroy him? whether there, there, or there? man, To answer such a question: Stand again: Think'st thou to catch my life so pleasantly, - There in the full convive we: afterwards, Ulyss. At Menelaus' tent, most princely Troilus: Tro. Shall I, sweet lord, be bound to you so much, After we part from Agamemnon's tent, To bring me thither? Ulyss. You shall command me, sir. As gentle tell me, of what honour was This Cressida in Troy? Had she no lover there That wails her absence? Tro. O, sir, to such as boasting show their scars, A mock is due. Will you walk on, my lord? She was belov'd, she lov'd; she is, and doth : But, still, sweet love is food for fortune's tooth. [Exeunt. ACT V. Enter THERSITES. Patr. Well said, Adversity!7 and what need these tricks? Ther. Pr'ythee be silent, boy; I profit not by thy talk. Patr. Why, you ruinous butt; you indistinguishable cur. Ther. Why art thou exasperate, thou idle imma- Achil. My sweet Patroclus, I am thwarted quite A token from her daughter, my fair love; An oath that I have sworn. I will not break it: [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, 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 9; 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 ass. 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 lazar3, so I were not Menelaus. Hey-day! spirits and fires! Enter HECTOR, TROILUS, AJAX, AGAMEMNON, Agam. We go wrong, we go wrong. 'Chere, where we see the lights. And so good night. [Exit DIOMED; ULYSSES and TROILES following. Achil. Come, come, enter my tent. [Exeunt ACHILLES, HECTOR, AJAX, and NESTOR. Ther. That same Diomed's a false-hearted rogue, a most unjust knave; I will no more trust him when he leers, than 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 it is prodigious 1, there will come some change; the sun borrows of the moon, when Diomed keeps his word. I will rather leave to see Hector, than not to dog him: they say, he keeps a Trojan drab, and uses the traitor Calchas' tent: Ill after. [Erit. : · Before Calchas' Tent. Enter DIOMedes. Dio. What are you up here, ho? speak. Calchas, I think. Where's Cal. [Within.] She comes to you. Enter TROILUS and ULYSSES, at a distance; after Ulyss. Stand where the torch may not discover us. Tro. Cressid, come forth to him! How now, my charge? No, yonder 'tis ; Hect. I trouble you. Ajar. No, not a whit. Here comes himself to guide you. Dio. Will you remember? Cres. Remember? yes. Dio. Nay, but do then; |