Serv. That's to 't, indeed, sir: Marry, sir, at the request of Paris my lord, who's there in person; with him, the mortal Venus, the heartblood 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 seen 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. Sodden business! there's a stewed phrase, indeed!

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,

fits.

Pan. Well said, my lord! well, you say so in

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.

Par. 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 to-night?

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 say Cressida ? 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, prithee 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 bow

Shoots buck and doe:
The shaft confounds,
Not that it wounds,

But tickles still the sore.

These lovers cry-Oh! oh! they die!

Yet that which seems the wound to kill,
Doth turn oh! oh! to ha! ha! he!
So dying love lives still :

Oh! oh! a while, but ha! ha! ha!
Oh! oh! groans out for ha! ha ha!

Hey ho!

a The words in brackets are not in the folio.

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 afield to-day?

Par. Hector, Deiphobus, Helenus, Antenor, and all the gallantry of Troy: I would fain have armed to-day, 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?

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. 'T will make us proud to be his servant,
Paris:

Yea, what he shall receive of us in duty
Gives us more palm in beauty than we have;
Yea, overshines ourself.

Par. Sweet, above thought I love thee.*
[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Troy. Pandarus' Orchard. Enter PANDARUS and a Servant, meeting. Pan. How now? where's thy master? at my cousin Cressida's ?

Serv. No, sir; he stays for you to conduct him thither.

Enter TROILUS.

Pan. O, here he comes.-How now, how now?

a The reading of the quarto is "Sweet, above thought I love her," and the speech is there correctly given to Paris. Thee is the reading of the folio, and the words incorrectly conclude the speech of Helen.

[Exit Servant.

Tro. Sirrah, walk off. Pan. Have you seen my cousin ? Tro. No, Pandarus: I stalk about her door, Like a strange soul upon the Stygian banks Staying for waftage. O, be thou my Charon, And give me swift transportance to those fields Where I may wallow in the lily beds

Propos'd for the deserver! O gentle Pandarus,
From Cupid's shoulder pluck his painted wings,
And fly with me to Cressid!

Pan. Walk here i' the orchard, I'll bring her
straight.
[Exit PANDARUS.
Tro. I am giddy; expectation whirls me
round.

The imaginary relish is so sweet
That it enchants my sense. What will it be,
When that the wat'ry palate tastes indeed
Love's thrice repured" nectar? death, I fear me;
Swooning destruction; or some joy too fine,
Too subtle-potent, and too sharp in sweetness,
For the capacity of my ruder powers:
I fear it much; and I do fear besides,
That I shall lose distinction in my joys;
As doth a battle, when they charge on heaps
The enemy flying.

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 so short as a new-ta'en sparrow. [Exit PANDARUS.

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.

Eater 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 loth you are to offend daylight! an 't were dark you'd close sooner. So, so; rub on, and kiss the mistress, How now, a kiss in fee-farm! build there,

a Thrice repured in the quarto of 1609-that is thrice repurified. The folio has thrice reputed.

Cres. Let me go and try :

You cannot shun

I have a kind of self resides with you: But an unkind self, that itself will leave, To be another's fool. Where is my wit? I would be gone :-I speak I know not what. Tro. Well know they what they speak that speak 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; Or else you love not: For to be wise, and love, Exceeds man's might; that dwells with gods above.

Tro. O, that I thought it could be in a woman, (As, if it can, I will presume in you,) To feed for aye her lamp and flames of love; To keep her constancy in plight and youth, Outliving beauty's outward, with a mind That doth renew swifter than blood decays! Or, that persuasion could but thus convince me, That my integrity and truth to you Might be affronted with the match and weight Of such a winnowed purity in love; How were I then uplifted! but, alas, I am as true as truth's simplicity, And simpler than the infancy of truth. Cres. In that I'll war with you. Tro. O virtuous fight, When right with right wars who shall be most right!

True swains in love shall, in the world to come, Approve their truths by Troilus: when their rhymes,

Full of protest, of oath, and big compare,
Want similes, truth tir'd with iteration,-
As true as steel, as plantage to the moon,
As sun to day, as turtle to her mate,
As iron to adamant, as earth to the centre,-
Yet, after all comparisons of truth,
As truth's authentic author to be cited,
As true as Troilus shall crown up the verse,
And sanctify the numbers.

Cres.

Prophet may you be! If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth, When time is old and hath forgot itself,

We follow the reading of the folio. The sentences are transposed in the quarto.

When waterdrops have worn the stones of Troy,
And blind oblivion swallow'd cities up,

And mighty states characterless are grated
To dusty nothing; yet let memory

From false to false, among false maids in love, Upbraid my falsehood! when they have said, as false

As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth,
As fox to lamb, or wolf to heifer's calf,
Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son;
Yea, let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood,
As false as Cressid.

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.