Like a strange soul upon the Stygian banks Propos'd for the deserver! O gentle Pandarus, Pan. Walk here i' the orchard, I'll bring her straight. Tro. I'm giddy; expectation whirls me round. That it enchants my sense: what will it be, Re-enter PANDARUS. [Exit. 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 as short as a new-ta'en sparrow. [Exit. Tro. Even such a passion doth embrace my bosom : And all my powers do their bestowing lose, Re-enter PANDARUS with 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 i̇' 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 'twere dark, you'd close sooner. So, so; rub on, and kiss the mistress. How now! a kiss in fee-farm! build there, carpenter; the air is sweet. Nay, you shall fight your hearts out ere I part you. The falcon as the tercel, for all the ducks i' the river: go to, go to. Tro. You have bereft me of all words, lady. Pan. Words pay no debts, give her deeds: but she'll bereave you o' the deeds too, if she call your activity in question. What, billing again? Here's-" In witness whereof the parties interchangeably"-Come in, come in: I'll go get a fire. Cres. Will you walk in, my lord? [Exit. Tro. O Cressida, how often have I wished me thus! Cres. Wished, my lord!-The gods grant-O my lord! Tro. What should they grant? what makes this pretty abruption? What too curious dreg espies my sweet lady in the fountain of our love? Cres. More dregs than water, if my fears have eyes. Tro. Fears make devils of cherubins; they never see truly. Cres. Blind fear, that seeing reason leads, finds safer footing than blind reason stumbling without fear: to fear the worst oft cures the worst. (75) Tro. O, let my lady apprehend no fear: in all Cupid's pageant there is presented no monster. Cres. Nor nothing monstrous neither? Tro. Nothing, but our undertakings; when we vow to weep seas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tigers; thinking it harder for our mistress to devise imposition enough than for us to undergo any difficulty imposed. This is the monstruosity in love, lady,-that the will is infinite, and the execution confined; that the desire is boundless, and the act a slave to limit. Cres. They say, all lovers swear more performance than they are able, and yet reserve an ability that they never perform; vowing more than the perfection of ten, and discharging less than the tenth part of one. They that have the voice of lions and the act of hares, are they not monsters? Tro. Are there such? such are not we: praise us as we are tasted, allow us as we prove; our head shall go bare till merit crown it: no perfection in reversion shall have a praise in present: we will not name desert before his birth; and, being born, his addition shall be humble. Few words to fair faith: Troilus shall be such to Cressid as what envy can say worst shall be a mock for his truth, and what truth can speak truest not truer than Troilus. Cres. Will you walk in, my lord? Re-enter PANDARUS. Pan. What, blushing still? have you not done talking yet? you. Cres. Well, uncle, what folly I commit, I dedicate to Pan. I thank you for that: if my lord get a boy of you, you'll give him me. Be true to my lord: if he flinch, chide me for it. Tro. You know now your hostages; your uncle's word and my firm faith. Pan. Nay, I'll give my word for her too: our kindred, though they be long ere they are wooed, they are constant being won: they are burs, I can tell you; they'll stick where they are thrown. Cres. Boldness comes to me now, and brings me heart :- Tro. Why was my Cressid, then, so hard to win? Of speaking first. Sweet, bid me hold my tongue; Tro. And shall, albeit sweet music issues thence. Cres. My lord, I do beseech you, pardon me; 'Twas not my purpose thus to beg a kiss: I am asham'd;-O heavens! what have I done? For this time will I take my leave, my lord. Tro. Your leave, sweet Cressid! [Kisses her. Pan. Leave! an you take leave till to-morrow morning, Cres. Pray you, content you. Tro. Cres. Sir, mine own company. Tro. Yourself. (78) Cres. Let me go and try : What offends you, lady? You cannot shun I have a kind of self resides with you; gone: Where is my wit? I know not what I speak. Tro. Well know they what they speak that speak so wisely. Cres. Perchance, my lord, I show'd(79) 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. To feed for aye her lamp and flames of love; Might be affronted with the match and weight Of such a winnow'd purity in love; O virtuous fight, Tro. the verse, Cres. Prophet may you be! When waterdrops have worn the stones of Troy, And mighty states charácterless are grated To dusty nothing; yet let memory, From false to false, among false maids in love, As fox to lamb, as 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 inconstant(80) men be Troiluses, all false women Cressids, and all brokers-between Pandars! say, amen. Tro. Amen. |