Troi. I will be patient; outwardly I will.

Cres. You look upon that sleeve; behold it well.

He loved me-O false wench!-Give 't me again. Dio. Whose was 't?

Cres.

It is no matter, now I have 't again.

I will not meet with you to-morrow night:

I pr'ythee, Diomed, visit me no more.

Ther. Now she sharpens. Well said, whetstone! Dio. I shall have it.

Cres.

Dio.

What, this?

Ay, that.

Cres. O, all you gods!-O pretty, pretty pledge! Thy master now lies thinking in his bed

Of thee and me; and sighs, and takes my glove,
And gives memorial dainty kisses to it,
As I kiss thee. Nay, do not snatch it from me:
He, that takes that, must take my heart withal.
Dio. I had your heart before; this follows it.
Troi. I did swear patience.

Cres. You shall not have it, Diomed; faith, you shall not:

I'll give you something else.

Dio. I will have this: whose was it?

Cres.

Dio. Come, tell me whose it was.

"Tis no matter.

Cres. 'Twas one's that loved me better than you

will:

But, now you have it, take t.

Dio.

Whose was it?

Cres. By all Diana's waiting-women yonder,1 And by herself, I will not tell you whose.

Dio. To-morrow will I wear it on my helm; And grieve his spirit, that dares not challenge it. Troi. Wert thou the devil, and worest it on thy horn,

It should be challenged.

Cres. Well, well, 'tis done, 'tis past;—and yet it is not:

I will not keep my word.

Dio.

Thou never shalt mock Diomed again.

Cres. You shall not go. word,

But it straight starts you.

Dio.

Why then, farewell:

One cannot speak &

I do not like this fooling.

Ther. Nor I, by Pluto: but that that likes not

you, pleases me best.

Dio. What, shall I come? the hour?

Cres.

Ay, come.-O Jove!—

Farewell till then.

Do come. I shall be plagued.

Dio.

Cres. Good night. I pr'ythee, come.

[Exit Diomedes.

Troilus, farewell! one eye yet looks on thee;
But with my heart the other eye doth see.
Ah! poor our sex! this fault in us I find;
The error of our eye directs our mind:

1 i. e. the stars.

What error leads, must err: O, then conclude,
Minds, sway'd by eyes, are full of turpitude.

[Exit Cressida.

Ther. A proof of strength she could not publish

Troi. To make a recordation1 to my soul
Of every syllable that here was spoke.
But, if I tell how these two did co-act,
Shall I not lie in publishing a truth?
Sith 2 yet there is a credence in my heart,
An esperance so obstinately strong,

That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears;
As if those organs had deceptious functions,
Created only to calumniate.

Troi. Why, my negation hath no taste of mad

ness.

Ulys. Nor mine, my lord: Cressid was here but

now.

Troi. Let it not be believed for 3 womanhood!

1 Remembrance.

2 Since.

3 For the sake of.

Think, we had mothers; do not give advantage
To stubborn critics,1 apt, without a theme,
For depravation, to square the general sex
By Cressid's rule: rather think this not Cressid.
Ulys. What hath she done, prince, that can soil
our mothers?

Troi. Nothing at all, unless that this were she. Ther. Will he swagger himself out on's own eyes?

Troi. This she? no, this is Diomed's Cressida : If beauty have a soul, this is not she;

If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimonies,
If sanctimony be the gods' delight,

If there be rule in unity itself;

This was not she. O madness of discourse,
That cause sets up with and against itself!
Bifold authority! where reason can revolt
Without perdition, and loss assume all reason
Without revolt; this is, and is not, Cressid!
Within my soul there doth commence a fight
Of this strange nature, that a thing inseparate 2
Divides more wider than the sky and earth;
And yet the spacious breadth of this division
Admits no orifice for a point as subtile
As Ariachne's broken woof, to enter.
Instance, O instance! strong as Pluto's gates;
Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven.
Instance, O instance! strong as heaven itself;

1 Cynics.

2 i e. the plighted troth of lovers.

The bonds of heaven are slipp'd, dissolved, and

loosed;

And with another knot, five-finger-tied,1

The fractions of her faith, orts of her love,

The fragments, scraps, the bits, and greasy reliques Of her o'ereaten faith, are bound to Diomed.

Ulys. May worthy Troilus be half attach'd With that which here his passion doth express ? 2

Troi. Ay, Greek; and that shall be divulged well In characters as red as Mars his heart

Inflamed with Venus: never did young man fancy 3
With so eternal and so fix'd a soul.

Hark, Greek:-
:-as much as I do Cressid love,
So much by weight hate I her Diomed.

That sleeve is mine, that he 'll bear on his helm:
Were it a casque composed by Vulcan's skill,
My sword should bite it. Not the dreadful spout,
Which shipmen do the hurricano call,

Constringed 5 in mass by the almighty sun,
Shall dizzy with more clamor Neptune's ear
In his descent, than shall my prompted sword
Falling on Diomed.

Ther. He'll tickle it for his concupy.6

Troi. O Cressid! O false Cressid! false, false,

false !

Let all untruths stand by thy stained name,

1 i. e. a knot tied by giving her hand to Diomed.

3 Love.

• Helmet.

5 Compressed

2 Can Troilus really feel, on this occasion, half of what be utters? 6 A cant word formed from concupiscence.