Tro. O plague and madness!

Ulyss. You are moved, prince; let us depart, I pray you, Lest your displeasure should enlarge itself

To wrathful terms: this place is dangerous;

The time right deadly;

I beseech you, go.

Tro. Behold, I pray you!

Ulyss. Now, good my lord, go off:

You flow to great distraction; come, my lord.

Tro. I pr'ythee, stay.

Ulyss. You have not patience; come.

Tro. I pray you, stay; by hell, and all hell's torments,

I will not speak a word.

Dio. And so, good night.

Cres. Nay, but you part in anger.

Tro. Doth that grieve thee?

O wither'd truth!

Ulyss. Why, how now, lord?
Tro. By Jove,

I will be patient.

Cres. Guardian!-why, Greek!

Dio. Pho, pho! adieu; you palter.

Cres. In faith, I do not; come hither once again.

Ulyss. You shake, my lord, at something; will you go?

You will break out.

Tro. She strokes his cheek!

Ulyss. Come, come.

Tro. Nay, stay; by Jove, I will not speak a word;

There is between my will and all offences

A guard of patience:-stay a little while.

Ther. How the devil luxury, with his fat rump, and potato finger, tickles these together! Fry, lechery, fry!

Dio. But will you then?

Cres. In faith, I will, la; never trust me else.

Dio. Give me some token for the surety of it.
Cres. I'll fetch you one.

Ulyss. You have sworn patience.

Tro. Fear me not, my lord;

I will not be myself, nor have cognition'

Of what I feel; I am all patience.

*

Re-enter CRESSIDA.

Ther. Now the pledge; now, now, now!

Cres. Here, Diomed, keep this sleeve.
Tro. O beauty! where's thy faith?

Ulyss. My lord,

Tro. I will be patient; outwardly I will.

Cres. You look upon that sleeve; Behold it well.-
He loved me-O false wench!-Giv't me again.
Dio. Who was't?

Cres. No matter, now I hav't again.

I will not meet with you to-morrow night:

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

* Knowledge.

[Exit.

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

Cres. What, this?

Dio. 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.
Tro. 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. 'Tis no matter.

Dio. Come, tell me whose it was.

Cres. 'Twas one's that loved me better than you will. But, now you have it, take it.

Dio. Who's was it?

Cres. By all Diana's waiting-women yonder,*

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.

Tro. Wert thou the devil, and wor'st 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. Why then, farewell;

Thou never shalt mock Diomed again.

Cres. You shall not go :-One cannot speak a word,

But it straight starts you.

Dio. 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 !

Do come:-I shall be plagued.
Dio. Farewell till then.

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

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

[Exit DIOMEDES.

[Exit CRESSIDA.

Ther. A proof of strength she could not publish more,

Unless she said, my mind is now turn'd whore.

Ulyss. All's done, my lord.

Tro. It is.

Ulyss. Why stay we then?

Tro. To make a recordation + 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 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.

Was Cressid here?

Ulyss. I cannot conjure, § Trojan.

Tro. She was not, sure.

Ulyss. Most sure she was.

Tro. Why, my negation || hath no taste of madness.

Ulyss. Nor mine, my lord: Cressid was here but now.
Tro. Let it not be believed for ¶ womanhood!

Think, we had mothers; do not give advantage
To stubborn critics **-apt, without a theme,
For depravation,-to square the general sex

By Cressid's rule: rather think this not Cressid.

Ulyss. What hath she done, prince, that can soil our mothers?

Tro. Nothing at all, unless that this were she.

Ther. Will he swagger himself out on's own eyes?

Tro. This she? no, this is Diomed's Cressida:

If beauty have a soul, this is not she;

If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimony
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
Divides more wider than the sky and earth;
And yet the spacious breadth of this division
Admits no orifice for a point, as subtle
As is Arachne'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;
The bonds of heaven are slipp'd, dissolved, and loosed;
And with another knot, five-finger tied, §§
The fractions of her faith, orts of her love,

The fragments, scraps, the bits, and greasy reliques
Of her o'er-eaten faith, are bound to Diomed.
Ulyss. May worthy Troilus be half attach'd ||||
With that which here his passion doth express?
Tro. Ay, Greek; and that shall be divulged well
In characters as red as Mars his heart

* Belief. Denial.

+ Hope.
+ Testimony.
(For the sake of.)

Raise up forms. ** Cynics.

++ If it be true that one individual cannot be two persons.

§§ By giving it with her five fingers to Diomed.

Inflamed with Venus: never did young man fancy *
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 in mass by the almighty sun,
Shall dizzy with more clamour Neptune's ear
In his descent, than shall my prompted sword
Falling on Diomed.

Ther. He'll tickle it for his concupy.

Tro. O Cressid! O false Cressid! false, false, false ! Let all untruths stand by thy stained name,

And they'll seem glorious.

Ulyss. O, contain yourself;

Your passion draws ears hither.

Enter ENEAS.

Ene. I have been seeking you this hour, my lord:

Hector, by this, is arming him in Troy;

Ajax, your guard, stays to conduct you home.

Tro. Have with you, prince:-My courteous lord, adieu : Farewell, revolted fair!-and Diomed,

Stand fast, and wear a castle on thy head!

Ulyss. I'll bring you to the gates.

Tro. Accept distracted thanks.

[Exeunt TROILUS, ENEAS, and ULYSSES. Ther. 'Would, I could meet that rogue Diomed! I would croak like a raven; I would bode, I would bode. Patroclus will give me anything for the intelligence of this whore: the parrot will not do more for an almond, than he for a commodious drab. Lechery, lechery; still, wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion: A burning devil take them! [Exit.

SCENE III.-Troy. Before PRIAM's Palace.

Enter HECTOR and ANDROMACHE.

And. When was my lord so much ungently temper'd, To stop his ears against admonishment ?

Unarm, unarm, and do not fight to-day.

Hect. You train me to offend you; get you in:

By all the everlasting gods, I'll go.

And. My dreams will, sure, prove ominous to-day.
Hect. No more, I say.

Enter CASSANDRA.

Cas. Where is my brother Hector?

And. Here, sister; arm'd, and bloody in intent:
Consort with me in loud and dear § petition,
Pursue we him on knees; for I have dream'd
Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night

Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of slaughter.

* Love.

† Compressed.

Concupiscence.

§ Earnest.

Cas. O, it is true.

Hect. Ho! bid my trumpet sound!

Cas. No notes of sally, for the heavens, sweet brother. Hect. Begone, I say: the gods have heard me swear. Cas. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish* vows! They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd

Than spotted livers in the sacrifice.

And. O! be persuaded: Do not count it holy

To hurt by being just: it is as lawful,

For we would give much, to use violent thefts,
And rob in the behalf of charity.

Cas. It is the purpose that makes strong the vow;
But vows, to every purpose, must not hold:
Unarm, sweet Hector.

Hect. Hold you still, I say;

Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate:

Life every man holds dear; but the dear + man
Holds honour far more precious dear than life.—

Enter TROILUS.

How now, young man? mean'st thou to fight to-day?
And. Cassandra, call my father to persuade. [Exit CASSANDRA.
Hect. No, 'faith, young Troilus; doff thy harness, youth,
I am to-day i' the vein of chivalry:

Let grow thy sinews till their knots be strong,

And tempt not yet the brushes of the war.

Unarm thee, go; and doubt thou not, brave boy,
I'll stand, to-day, for thee, and me, and Troy.

Tro. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you,

Which better fits a lion than a man.

Hect. What vice is that, good Troilus? chide me for it.
Tro. When many times the captive Grecians fall,
Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword,

You bid them rise, and live.

Hect. O, 'tis fair play.

Tro. Fool's play, by heaven, Hector.

Hect. How now, how now?

Tro. For the love of all the gods,

Let's leave the hermit pity with our mother;

And when we have our armours buckled on,

The venom'd vengeance ride upon our swords;

Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth.‡
Hect. Fie, savage, fie!

Tro. Hector, then 'tis wars.

Hect. Troilus, I would not have you fight to-day.
Tro. Who should withhold me?

Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars
Beckoning with fiery truncheon my retire;
Not Priamus and Hecuba on knees,

Their eyes o'ergalled with recourse of tears;
Nor you, my brother, with your true sword drawn,
Opposed to hinder me, should stop my way,
But by my ruin.

* Foolish.

† Valuable.

+ Mercy.