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Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant;}
But I am weaker than a woman's tear,
Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance;
Less valiant than the virgin in the night,
And skill-less as unpractis'd infancy.

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.

Troi. Have I not tarry'd?

Pan. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the boulting.

Troi, Have I not tarry'd?

Pan. Ay, the boulting; but you must tarry the

Jeavening.

Troi. Still have I tarry'd. 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;

Pan. I speak no more than truth,
Troi. 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 5 she be not, she has the mends in her own hands. Troi. Good Pandarus! How now, Pandarus ? Pan. I have had my labour for my travel; illthought on of her, and ill-thought on of you; gone between and between, but small thanks for 10 my labour.

Troi. 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 kin to me, 15 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; 'tis all one to me.

Troi. Say I, she is not fair?

nay, you must stay the cooling too, or you may 20 a fool, to stay behind her father; let her to the

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Pan. I do not care whether you do or no. She's

chance to burn your lips.

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,

Troi. Pandarus,

Troi, Sweet Pandarus,

Pan. Pray you, speak no more to me; I will leave all as I found it, and there an end.

[Exit Pandarus. [Sound alarum.

Troi. Peace, you ungracious clamours! peace, rude sounds!

thence?

Pan. Well, she look'd yester-night fairer than ever I saw her look; or any woman else.

Troi. I was about to tell thee, - When my heart, 30
As wedged with a sigh, would rive in twain;
Lest Hector or my father should perceive me,
I have (as when the sun doth light a storm)
Bury'd this sigh in wrinkle of a smile:
But sorrow, that is couch'd in seeming gladness,
Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness.

Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair, When with your blood you daily paint her thus. 351 cannot fight upon this argument;

It is too starv'd a subject for my sword.
But Pandarus-O gods, how do you plague me!
I cannot come to Cressid, but by Pandar;
And he's as techy to be woo'd to woo,

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 40 As she is stubborn-chaste against all suit.

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

Troi. O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus!

Tell me, Apollo, for thy Daphne's love,
What Cressid is, what Pandar, and what we?
Her bed is India; there she lies, a pearl:
Between our Ilium, and where she resides,

When I do tell thee, There my hopes lie drown'd, 45 Let it be call'd the wild and wandering flood;

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Handlest in thy discourse:-O that her hand!
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

Troi. Because not there; This woman's answer

3

For womanish it is to be from thence.
What news, Æneas, from the field to-day?
Ane. That Paris is returned home, and hurt.

me,

Ane. Troilus, by Menelaus.

Troi. Let Paris bleed: 'tis but a scar to scorn;

Hard as the palm of ploughman! This thou tell'st 55 Troi. By whom, Æneas?

As true thou tell'st me, when I say, -I love her;
But, saying thus, instead of oil and balın,
Thou lay'st in every every gash that love hath given me
The knife that made it.

60

Paris is gor'd with Menelaus' horn, [Alarum. Æne, Hark! what good sport is out of town to-day!

Fonder for more childish. 2 To blench is to shrink, start, or fly off. The meaning is; In comparison with Cressid's haud, the spirit of sense, the utmost degree, the most exquisite power of sensibility, which implies a soft hand, since the sense of touching resides chiefly in the fingers, is hard as the callous and insensible palm of the ploughinan. Mr. Steevens thinks this phrase means, She may make the best of a bad bargain,

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Enter Cressida, and Alexander her servant.
Cres. Who were those went by?
Serv. Queen Hecuba, and Helen.
Cres. And whither go they?

Serv. Up to the eastern tower,
Whose height commands as subject all the vale,
To see the battle. Hector, whose patience
Is, as a virtue, fix'd, to-day was mov'd;
He chid Andromache, and struck his armourer;
And, like as there were husbandry in war,
Before the sun rose, he was harness'd light,
And to the field goes he; where every flower
Did, as a prophet, weep what it foresaw
In Hector's wrath.

Cres. What was his cause of anger? [Greeks
Serv. The noise goes this: There is among the
A lord of Trojan blood, nephew to Hector;
They call him, Ajax.

Cres. Good; And what of him ?

Serv. They say he is a very man per se, And stands alone.

Cres. So do all men; unless they are drunk, sick, or have no legs.

Serv. This man, lady, hath robb'd many beasts of their particular additions; he is as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant: a man into whom nature hath so crowded humours,

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Helen was not up, was she?

Cres. Hector was gone; but Helen was not up,
Pan. E'en so; Hector was stirring early.
Cres. That were we talking of, and of his anger.
Pan. Was he angry?

Cres. So he says here.

Pan. True, he was so; I know the cause too; 10 he'll lay about him to-day, I can tell them that: and there's Troilus will not come far behind him; let them take heed of Troilus; I can tell them that too,

Cres. What, is he angry too?

15 Pan, Who, Troilus? Troilus is the better man

of the two.

Cres. O, Jupiter! there's no comparison. Pan. What, not between Troilus and Hector? Do you know a man, if you see him? [him. 20 Cres. Ay; if I ever saw him before, and knew Pan, Well, I say, Troilus is Troilus,

Cres. Then you say as I say; for, I am sure, he is not Hector.

Pan. No, nor Hector is not Troilus, in some

25 degrees.

Cres. 'Tis just to each of them; he is himself. Pan. Hin self! Alas, poor Troilus! I would, he were,

Cres. So he is.

30 Pan. 'Condition, I had gone barefoot to India, Cres. He is not Hector,

that his valour is crushed into folly, his folly 35 would, my heart were in her body!-No, Hec

Pan, Himself? no, he's not himself. -'Would 'a were himself! Well, the gods are above; Time must friend or end: Well, Troilus, well, I

sauced with discretion: there is no man hath a

tor is not a better man than Troilus.

virtue, that he hath not a glimpse of; nor any

Cres. Excuse me,

man an attaint, but he carries some stain of it: he

Pan. He is elder,

is melancholy without cause, and merry against

Cres. Pardon me, pardon me.

the hair: he hath the joints of every thing; but 40 Pan. The other's not come to 't; you shall tell

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Enter Pandarus.

Cres. Who comes here?

Serv. Madam, your uncle Pandarus,
Cres. Hector's a gallant man.

Serv. As may be in the world, lady.
Pan. What's that? what's that?

Cres. Good morrow, uncle Pandarus.
Pan. Good morrow, cousin Cressid: What do
you talk of?-Good morrow, Alexander.-How
do you, cousin? When were you at Ilium 3?
Cres. This morning, uncle.

Pan. What were you talking of, when I came ?l

[ter.

's bet

Cres. "Twould not become him, his own Pan. You have no judgement, niece: Helen herself swore the other day, that Troilus, for a 50 brown favour, (for so 'tis, I must confess) -Not brown neither.

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To be crushed into folly, is to be confused and mingled with folly, so as that they make one mass together. * This is a phrase equivalent to another now in use, against the grain, Ilium was the palace of Troy.

plexion, plexion. I had as lieve, Helen's golden tongue had commended Troilus for a copper nose.

Pan. I swear to you, I think Helen loves him better than Paris.

Cres. Then she's a merry Greek, indeed.

Pan. Nay, I am sure she does. She came to him the other day into the compass'd window',and, you know, he has not past three or four hairs on his chin.

One and fifty hairs, quoth he, and one white. That white hair is my father, and all the rest are his sons. Jupiter! quoth she, which of these hairs is Paris, my husband? The forked one, quoth he; pluck it 5 out, and give it him. But, there was such laughing! and Helen so blush'd, and Paris so chal'd, and all the rest so laugh'd, that it pass'd.

Cres. So let it now; for it has been a great while going by.

Cres. Indeed, a tapster's arithmetic may soon 10 Pan. Well, cousin, I told you a thing yester bring his particulars therein to a total.

Pan. Why, he is very young: and yet will he, within three pound, lift as much as his brother

Hector.

day; think on 't.

Cres. So I do.

Pan. I'll be sworn, 'tis true; he will weep you, an 'twere a man born in April. [Sound a retreat.

Cres. Is he so young a man, and so old a lifter2? 15 Cres. And I'll spring up in his tears, an 'twere Pan. But, to prove to you that Helen loves him;-she came, and puts me her white hand to

his cloven chin,

٦

a nettle against May.

Pan. Hark, they are coming from the field: Shall we stand up here, and see them, as they pass toward Ilium? good niece, do; sweet niece Cres

Cres. Juno have mercy!-How came it cloven?
Pan. Why, you know, 'tis dimpled: I think, 20 Cres. At your pleasure.

his smiling becomes him better than any man in
all Phrygia.

Cres. O, he smiles valiantly.

Pan. Does he not?

Cres. O, yes; an 'twere a cloud in autumn. Pan. Why, go to then:-But, to prove to you that Helen loves Troilus,

Cres. Troilus will stand to the proof, if you'll prove it so.

25

[sida.

Pan. Here, here, here's an excellent place; here we may see most bravely: I'll tell you them all by their names, as they pass by; but mark Troilus above the rest.

Aneas passes over the stage.

Cres. Speak not so loud.

Pan. That's Æneas; Is not that a brave man? he's one of the flowers of Troy, I can tell you; But mark Troilus; you shall see anon.

Pan. Troilus? why he esteems her no more 30 Cres. Who's that?

than I esteem an addle egg.

Cres. If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle head, you would eat chickens i' the shell.

Antenor passes over.

Pan. That's Antenor; he has a shrewd wit, I can tell you; and he's a man good enough: he's one o' the soundest judgement in Troy, whosoWhen comes Troilus?-I'll shew you Troilus anon; if he see me, you shall see him nod at me. Cres. Will he give you the nod?

Pan. I cannot choose but laugh, to think how 35 ever; and a proper man of person: she tickled his chin;-Indeed, he has a marvellous white hand, I must needs confess.

Cres. Without the rack.

Pan. And she takes upon her to spy a white hair on his chin.

Cres. Alas, poor chin! many a wart is richer.
Pun. But, there was such laughing; -Queen

Hecuba laugh'd, that her eyes ran o'er.
Cres. With mill-stones.

Pan. And Cassandra laugh'd.

Cres. But there was more temperate fire under the pot of her eyes;-Did her eyes run o'er too? Pan. And Hector laugh'd.

Cres. At what was all this laughing?

Pan. You shall see.

40 Cres. If he do, the rich shall have more '. Hector passes over.

Pan. That's Hector, that, that, look you, that! There's a fellow! Go thy way, Hector;There's a brave man, niece!-O brave Hector 1 45-Look, how he looks! there's a countenance: Is 't not a brave man?

Cres. O, brave man!

Pan. Is 'a not? It does a man's heart goodLook you, what hacks are on his helmet! look

Pan. Marry, at the white hair that Helen spied 50 you yonder, do you see? look you there! There's on Troilus' chin.

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Pan. Quoth she, Here's but onc and fifty hairs dors one's heart good! - Yonder comes Paris, on your chin, and one of them is white.

Pan. That's true; make no question of that. 60 brave now. --Who said, he came home hurt to

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The compass'd window is the same as the borv-window. 2 The word lifter means a thief.-We person who plunders shops, a shop-lifter. 3 The allusion here is to the word noddy, which, as now, did in our author's time, and long before, signify a silly fellow; and may, by its etymology, signify likewise full of nods. - Cressid means, that a noddy shall have more nods.

day

day? he's not hurt: why, this will do Helen's heart good now. Ha! 'would I could see Troilus now!-you shall see Troilus anon.

Cres. Who's that!

Helenus passes over.

Pan. That's Helenus, -I marvel, where Troilus is:-That's Helenus; -I think he went not forth to-day; That's Helenus.

Cres. Can Helenus fight, uncle?

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Boy. At your own house; there he unarms him.
Pan. Good boy, tell him I come [Exit Boy]:

Pan. Helenus? no;-yes, he'll fight indifferent 10 I doubt he be hurt.-Fare ye well, good niece.

well:-I marvel, where Troilus is!-Hark; do you not hear the people cry, Troilus?-Helenus

is a priest.

Cres. What sneaking fellow comes yonder?
Troilus passes over.

Pan. Where? yonder? that's Deïphobus: 'Tis
Troilus! there's a man, niece! - Hem!-Brave
Troilus! the prince of chivalry!

Cres. Peace, for shame, peace!

Cres. Adieu, uncle.

Pan. I'll be with you, niece, by-and-by.
Cres. To bring, uncle,-

Pan. Ay, a token from Troilus.

15 Cres. By the same token-you are a bawd.-
[Exit Pandarus.
Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full sacrifice,
He offers in another's enterprize:
But more in Troilus thousand fold I see
Than in the glass of Pandar's praise may be;
Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing;
Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing:
That she belov'd knows nought, that knows not
this,-

Pan. Mark him; note him:-O brave Troi-20 lus!-look well upon him, niece; look you, how his sword is bloody'd, and his helm more hack'd than Hector's! And how he looks, and how he goes! O admirable youth! he ne'er saw three and twenty. Go thy way, Troilus, go thy way; 25 Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is:

had I a sister were a grace, or a daughter a goddess, he should take his choice. O admirable man!-Paris? Paris is dirt to him; and, I warrant, Helen, to change, would give an eye to

boot.

Enter Soldiers, &c.

Cres. Here come more.

That she was never yet, that ever knew Love got so sweet, as when desire did sue: Therefore this maxim out of love I teach, Atchievement is, command; ungain'd, beseech: 30 Then though my heart's content firm love doth bear, Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear. [Exeunt.

Pan. Asses, fools, dolts! chaff and bran, chaff and bran! porridge after meat! I could live and die i' the eyes of Troilus. Ne'er look, ne'er 35 look; the eagles are gone; crows and daws, crows and daws! I had rather be such a man as Troilus, than Agamemnon and all Greece.

Cres. There is among the Greeks, Achilles; a better man than Troilus.

Pan. Achilles? a dray-man, a porter, a very camel.

Cres. Well, well.

SCENE III.

The Grecian Camp.

Trumpets. Enter Agamemnon, Nestor, Ulysses,
Menelaus, with others.
40 Agam. Princes,

What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks?
The ample proposition that hope makes
In all designs begun on earth below,
[asters
Fails in the promis'd largeness; checks and dis-

Pan. Well, well?-Why, have you any discre-
tion? have you any eyes? Do you know what a 45 Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd;

manis? Is not birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, libe

rality, and such like, the spice and salt that season man?

As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap,
Infect the sound pine, and divert his grain
Tortive and errant from his course of growth.
Nor, princes, is it matter new to us,

Cres. Ay, a minc'd man: and then to be bak'd 50 That we come short of our suppose so far, with no date in the pye, -for then the man's date is out.

Pan. You are such a woman! one knows not at what ward you lie.

That, after seven years' siege, yet Troy walls stand;
Sith every action that hath gone before,
Whereof we have record, trial did draw
Bias and thwart, not answering the aim,

Cres. Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon 55 And that unbodied figure of the thought

my wit, to defend my wiles; upon my secrecy, to defend mine honesty; my mask, to defend my beauty; and you, to defend all these and at all these wards I lie, at a thousand watches.

That gave't surmised shape. Whythen, youprinces,

Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works;
And think them shames, which are, indeed,

nought else

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00 But the protractive trials of great Jove,
To find persistive constancy in men?
The fineness of which metal is not found

To account for the introduction of this quibble, it should be remembered that dates were an ingredient in ancient pastry of almost every kind. i. e, that woman. Content for capacity.

In

In fortune's love: for then, the bold and coward,
The wise and fool, the artist and unread,
The hard and soft, seem all affin'd and kin:
But, in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
And what hath mass, or matter, by itself
Lies, rich in virtue, and unmingled.

Nest. With due observance of thy godlike seat,

Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply
Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance
Lies the true proof of men: The sea being smooth,
How many shallow bauble boats dare sail
Upon her patient breast, making their way
With those of nobler bulk?

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Bounding between the two moist elements,

Observe degree, priority, and place,
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
15 Office, and custom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol,
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
Amidst the other; whose med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,

Like Perseus' horse: Where's then the saucy boat, 20 And posts, like the commandment of a king,

Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now

Sans check, to good and bad: But, when the

Co-rival'd greatness? either to harbour fled,

planets,

Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so

In evil mixture, to disorder wander,

Doth valour's shew, and valour's worth, divide

What plagues, and what portents? what mutiny?

In storms of fortune: For, in herray and brightness, 25 What raging of the sea? shaking of earth? [rors,

The herd hath more annoyance by the brize',

Than by the tyger: but when splitting winds

Commotion in the winds? frights, changes, hor-
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate

Make flexible the knees of knotted oaks,

The unity and married calm of states

And flies flee under shade, Why, then, the thing

Quite from their fixture? O, when degree is shak'd,

of courage2,

30 Which is the ladder to all high designs,

The enterprize is sick! How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities',
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,

[Greece,

The primogenitive and due of birth,

But by degree, stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets
In meer oppugnancy: The bounded waters

As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize,
And with an accent tun'd in self-same key,
Returns to chiding fortune.

Ulyss. Agamemnon,

Thou great commander, nerve and bone of 35 Prerogative of age, crowns, scepters, laurels,

Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit,

In whom the tempers and the minds of all

Should be shut up,-hear what Ulysses speaks.
Besides the applause and approbation

The which,-most mighty for thy place and 40 Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores,

sway,-
[To Agamemnon.
And thou most reverend for thy stretcht-outlife, -
[To Nestor.

I give to both your speeches, which were such,
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece
Should hold up high in brass; and such again,
As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver',
Should with a bond of air (strong as the axle-tree
On which heaven rides) knit all the Greekish ears

And make a sop of all this solid globe:
Strength should be lord of imbecility,

wrong

And the rude son should strike his father dead:
Force should be right; or, rather right and wr
45 (Between whose endless jar justice resides)
Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite, an universal wolf,

To his experienc'd tongue, - Yet let it please both, 50 So doubly seconded with will and power,

Thou great, and wise, -to hear Ulysses speak.

Agam. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be't of less

expect

That matter needless, of importless burden,
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,
When rank Thersites opes his mastiff jaws,
We shall hear music, wit, and oracle.

Must make perforce an universal prey,
And, last, eat up himself. Great Agamemnon,
This chaos, when degree is suffocate,

Follows the choaking.

55 And this neglection of degree it is,

That by a pace goes backward', with a purpose
It hath to climb: The general's disdain'd

The brize is the gad or horse-fly. It is said of the tiger, that in storms and high winds he rages and roars most furiously. 3 Hatch'd in silver, may mean, whose white hair and beard make him look like a figure engraved on silver. 4 i. e. the particular rights of supreme authority. 'i. e. the earth; which, according to the Ptolemaïc system, then in vogue, is the center of the solar system. • i. e. corporations, companies, confraternities. That goes backward step by step.

By

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