Æneas, Antenor, Trojan commanders. Calchas, a Trojan priest, taking part with the Greeks. Pandarus, uncle to Cressida. Margarelon, a bastard son of Priam. Agamemnon, the Grecian general : Achilles, Ajax, Ulysses, Grecian commanders. Nestor, Diomedes, Patroclus, Thersites, a deformed and scurrilous Grecian. Alexander, servant to Cressida. Servant to Troilus. Servant to Paris. Servant to Diomedes. Helen, wife to Menelaus. Andromache, wife to Hector. Cassandra, daughter to Priam; a prophetess. Trojan and Greek Soldiers, and Attendants. SCENE, Troy, and the Grecian Camp before it. TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. PROLOGUE. IN Troy, there lies the scene. From isles of Greece The princes orgulous, their high blood chaf'd, With wanton Paris sleeps; And that's the quarrel. And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorge Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits, To tell you, fair beholders, that our play Leaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils, Like, or find fault; do as your pleasures are; ACT I. SCENE I-Troy. Before Priam's Palace. Enter Troilus. CALL here my varlet, I'll unarm again : Tro. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their 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. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the bolting... Tro. Have I not tarried? Pan. Ay, the bolting; but you must tarry the leavening. Tre. Still have I tarried. Pan. Ay, to the leavening: but here's yet in the word-hereafter, the kneading, the making of the cake, the heating of the oven, and the baking; nay, you must stay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips. Tro. Patience herself, what goddess ere she be, Doth lesser blench at sufferance than I do. At Priam's royal table do I sit; And when fair Cressid comes into my thoughts,- Tro. I was about to tell thee,-When my heart, Pan. An her hair were not somewhat darker than Helen's, (well, go to,) there were no more comparison between the women,-But, for my part, she is my kinswoman; I would not, as they term it, praise her,-But I would somebody had heard her talk yesterday, as I did. I will not dispraise your sister Cassandra's wit; but Tro. O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus,When I do tell thee, There my hopes lie drown'd, Reply not in how many fathoms deep They lie indrench'd. I tell thee, I am mad In Cressid's love: Thon answer'st, She is fair; Pour'st in the open ulcer of my heart Her eyes, her air, her cheek, her gait, her voice; In whose comparison all whites are ink, Writing their own reproach: To whose soft seizure The cygnet's down is harsh, and spirit of sense Hard as the palm of ploughman! This thou tell'st me, Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given me Pan. I speak no more than truth. Tro. Thou dost not speak so much. Pan. 'Faith, I'll not meddle in't. Let her be as 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 Pandarns! How now, Pandarus? Pan. I have had my labour for my travel: ill-thought 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 me? Pan. Because she is kin to me, therefore, she's not so fair as Helen: an she were not kia 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; 'is all one to me. Tro. Say 1, 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: for my part, I'll meddle nor make no more in the matter. Tro. Pandarus, Pan. Not I. Tro. Sweet Pandarus, Pan. Pray you, speak no more to me; I will leave all as I found it, and there an end. [Exit Pandarus. [An Alarum. Tro. Peace, you ungracious clamours! peace, rude sounds! Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair, When with your blood you daily paint her thus cannot fight upon this argument; |