PANDARUS Prithee, get thee in: would thou hadst ne’er been
born! I knew thou wouldst be his death. O, poor
gentleman! A plague upon Antenor!
CRESSIDA Good uncle, I beseech you, on my knees! beseech you,
what’s the matter?
PANDARUS Thou must be gone, wench, thou must be gone; thou
art changed for Antenor: thou must to thy father,
and be gone from Troilus: ’twill be his death;
’twill be his bane; he cannot bear it.
CRESSIDA O you immortal gods! I will not go.
PANDARUS Thou must.
CRESSIDA I will not, uncle: I have forgot my father;
I know no touch of consanguinity;
No kin no love, no blood, no soul so near me
As the sweet Troilus. O you gods divine!
Make Cressid’s name the very crown of falsehood,
If ever she leave Troilus! Time, force, and death,
Do to this body what extremes you can;
But the strong base and building of my love
Is as the very centre of the earth,
Drawing all things to it. I’ll go in and weep,–
PANDARUS Do, do.
CRESSIDA Tear my bright hair and scratch my praised cheeks,
Crack my clear voice with sobs and break my heart
With sounding Troilus. I will not go from Troy.
Exeunt
Scene 3
The same. Street before Pandarus’ house.
Enter PARIS, TROILUS, AENEAS, DEIPHOBUS, ANTENOR, and DIOMEDES
PARIS It is great morning, and the hour prefix’d
Of her delivery to this valiant Greek
Comes fast upon. Good my brother Troilus,
Tell you the lady what she is to do,
And haste her to the purpose.
TROILUS Walk into her house;
I’ll bring her to the Grecian presently:
And to his hand when I deliver her,
Think it an altar, and thy brother Troilus
A priest there offering to it his own heart.
Exit
PARIS I know what ’tis to love;
And would, as I shall pity, I could help!
Please you walk in, my lords.
Exeunt
Scene 4
The same. Pandarus’ house.
Enter PANDARUS and CRESSIDA
PANDARUS Be moderate, be moderate.
CRESSIDA Why tell you me of moderation?
The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste,
And violenteth in a sense as strong
As that which causeth it: how can I moderate it?
If I could temporize with my affection,
Or brew it to a weak and colder palate,
The like allayment could I give my grief.
My love admits no qualifying dross;
No more my grief, in such a precious loss.
PANDARUS Here, here, here he comes.
Enter TROILUS
Ah, sweet ducks!
CRESSIDA O Troilus! Troilus!
Embracing him
PANDARUS What a pair of spectacles is here!
Let me embrace too. ‘O heart,’ as the goodly saying is,
‘–O heart, heavy heart,
Why sigh’st thou without breaking?
where he answers again,
‘Because thou canst not ease thy smart
By friendship nor by speaking.’
There was never a truer rhyme. Let us cast away
nothing, for we may live to have need of such a
verse: we see it, we see it. How now, lambs?
TROILUS Cressid, I love thee in so strain’d a purity,
That the bless’d gods, as angry with my fancy,
More bright in zeal than the devotion which
Cold lips blow to their deities, take thee from me.
CRESSIDA Have the gods envy?
PANDARUS Ay, ay, ay, ay; ’tis too plain a case.
CRESSIDA And is it true that I must go from Troy?
TROILUS A hateful truth.
CRESSIDA What, and from Troilus too?
TROILUS From Troy and Troilus.
CRESSIDA Is it possible?
TROILUS And suddenly; where injury of chance
Puts back leave-taking, justles roughly by
All time of pause, rudely beguiles our lips
Of all rejoindure, forcibly prevents
Our lock’d embrasures, strangles our dear vows
Even in the birth of our own labouring breath:
We two, that with so many thousand sighs
Did buy each other, must poorly sell ourselves
With the rude brevity and discharge of one.
Injurious time now with a robber’s haste
Crams his rich thievery up, he knows not how:
As many farewells as be stars in heaven,
With distinct breath and consign’d kisses to them,
He fumbles up into a lose adieu,
And scants us with a single famish’d kiss,
Distasted with the salt of broken tears.
AENEAS [Within]
My lord, is the lady ready?
TROILUS Hark! you are call’d: some say the Genius so
Cries ‘come’ to him that instantly must die.
Bid them have patience; she shall come anon.
PANDARUS Where are my tears? rain, to lay this wind, or
my heart will be blown up by the root.
Exit
CRESSIDA I must then to the Grecians?
TROILUS No remedy.
CRESSIDA A woful Cressid ‘mongst the merry Greeks!
When shall we see again?
TROILUS Hear me, my love: be thou but true of heart,–
CRESSIDA I true! how now! what wicked deem is this?
TROILUS Nay, we must use expostulation kindly,
For it is parting from us:
I speak not ‘be thou true,’ as fearing thee,
For I will throw my glove to Death himself,
That there’s no maculation in thy heart:
But ‘be thou true,’ say I, to fashion in
My sequent protestation; be thou true,
And I will see thee.
CRESSIDA O, you shall be exposed, my lord, to dangers
As infinite as imminent! but I’ll be true.
TROILUS And I’ll grow friend with danger. Wear this sleeve.
CRESSIDA And you this glove. When shall I see you?
TROILUS I will corrupt the Grecian sentinels,
To give thee nightly visitation.
But yet be true.
CRESSIDA O heavens! ‘be true’ again!
TROILUS Hear while I speak it, love:
The Grecian youths are full of quality;
They’re loving, well composed with gifts of nature,
Flowing and swelling o’er with arts and exercise:
How novelty may move, and parts with person,
Alas, a kind of godly jealousy–
Which, I beseech you, call a virtuous sin–
Makes me afeard.
CRESSIDA O heavens! you love me not.
TROILUS Die I a villain, then!
In this I do not call your faith in question
So mainly as my merit: I cannot sing,
Nor heel the high lavolt, nor sweeten talk,
Nor play at subtle games; fair virtues all,
To which the Grecians are most prompt and pregnant:
But I can tell that in each grace of these
There lurks a still and dumb-discoursive devil
That tempts most cunningly: but be not tempted.
CRESSIDA Do you think I will?
TROILUS No.
But something may be done that we will not:
And sometimes we are devils to ourselves,
When we will tempt the frailty of our powers,
Presuming on their changeful potency.
AENEAS [Within]
Nay, good my lord,–
TROILUS Come, kiss; and let us part.
PARIS [Within]
Brother Troilus!
TROILUS Good brother, come you hither;
And bring AEneas and the Grecian with you.
CRESSIDA My lord, will you be true?
TROILUS Who, I? alas, it is my vice, my fault:
Whiles others fish with craft for great opinion,
I with great truth catch mere simplicity;
Whilst some with cunning gild their copper crowns,
With truth and plainness I do wear mine bare.
Fear not my truth: the moral of my wit
Is ‘plain and true;’ there’s all the reach of it.
Enter AENEAS, PARIS, ANTENOR, DEIPHOBUS, and DIOMEDES
Welcome, Sir Diomed! here is the lady
Which for Antenor we deliver you:
At the port, lord, I’ll give her to thy hand,
And by the way possess thee what she is.
Entreat her fair; and, by my soul, fair Greek,
If e’er thou stand at mercy of my sword,
Name Cressida and thy life shall be as safe
As Priam is in Ilion.
DIOMEDES Fair Lady Cressid,
So please you, save the thanks this prince expects:
The lustre in your eye, heaven in your cheek,
Pleads your fair usage; and to Diomed
You shall be mistress, and command him wholly.
TROILUS Grecian, thou dost not use me courteously,
To shame the zeal of my petition to thee
In praising her: I tell thee, lord of Greece,
She is as far high-soaring o’er thy praises
As thou unworthy to be call’d her servant.
I charge thee use her well, even for my charge;
For, by the dreadful Pluto, if thou dost not,
Though the great bulk Achilles be thy guard,
I’ll cut thy throat.
DIOMEDES O, be not moved, Prince Troilus:
Let me be privileged by my place and message,
To be a speaker free; when I am hence
I’ll answer to my lust: and know you, lord,
I’ll nothing do on charge: to her own worth
She shall be prized; but that you say ‘be’t so,’
I’ll speak it in my spirit and honour, ‘no.’
TROILUS 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 DIOMEDES
Trumpet within
PARIS Hark! Hector’s trumpet.
AENEAS How have we spent this morning!
The prince must think me tardy and remiss,
That sore to ride before him to the field.