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 Pandarus.

Troi. Even such a passion doth embrace my
bosom:

My heart beats thicker than a feverous pulse;
And all my powers do their bestowing lose,
Like vassalage at unawares encount'ring

The

eye of majesty.

5

Cres. They say, all lovers swear more perform ance 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?

Troi. 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 per10fection 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.

Enter Pandarus, and 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 watch'd 15 ere you be made tame', must you? Come your ways, come your ways; an you draw backward, we'll put you i' the files.-Why do you not speak to her! Come, draw this curtain, and let's see your picture. Alas the day, how loth 20 you are to offend day-light! 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 faul-25 con as the tercel, for all the ducks i' the river': go to, go to.

Troi. You have bereft me of all words, lady. Pan. Words pay no debts, give her deeds: but she'll bereave you of 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. [Exit Pandarus.

Cres. Will you walk in, my lord? Troi. O Cressida, how often have I wish'd me thus?

Cres. Wish'd, my lord?-The gods grant !O my lord!

30

135

Troi. What should they grant? what makes this 40 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

eves.

Troi. Fears make devils of cherubims; they 45 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. Troi. O, let my lady apprehend no fear: in all 50 Cupid's pageant there is presented no monster. Cres. Nor nothing monstrous neither? Troi. Nothing, but our undertakings; when we vow to weep seas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tygers; thinking it harder for our mistress 55 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 confin'd; that the desire is boundless, and the act a slave to limit.

160

Cres. Will you walk in, my lord?

Re-enter Pandarus.

Pan. What, blushing still? have you not done, talking yet?

Cres. Well, uncle, what folly I commit, I dedicate to you.

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 finch, chide me for it.

Trei. 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 woo'd, they are constant, being won: they are burrs, I can tell you; they'll stick where they are

thrown.

Cres. Boldness comes to me now, and brings
me heart:-
Prince Troilus, I have lov'd you night and day,
For many weary months.

Troi. Why was my Cressid then so hard to win?
Cres. Hard to seem won; but I was won, my
lord,
-Pardon me:-

With the first glance that ever-
If I confess much, you will play the tyrant,
I love you now; but not, 'till now, so much
But I might master it :-in faith, I lie;
My thoughts were like unbridled children, grown
Too headstrong for their mother: See, we fools!
Why have I blabb'd? who shall be true to us,
When we are so unsecret to ourselves?
But though I lov'd you well, I woo'd you not;
And yet, good faith, I wish'd myself a man;
Or, that we women had men's privilege
Of speaking first. Sweet, bid me hold my tongue;
For, in this rapture, I shall surely speak
The thing I shall repent. See, see, your silence,
Cunning in dumbness, from my weakness draws
My very soul of counsel: Stop my mouth.

Troi. And shall, albeit sweet musick issues
Pan. Pretty, i' faith.
[thence.
Cres. My lord, I do beseech you, pardon me;

'Alluding to the manner of taming hawks. 2 Alluding to the custom of putting men suspected of cowardice in the middle places. 3 Pandarus means, that he'll match his nicce against her lover for any bett.-The tercel is the male hawk; by the faulcon we generally understand the female. We will give him no high or pompous titles.

I am

I am asham'd;-O heavens! what have I done?-
For this time will I take my leave, my lord.
Troi. Your leave, sweet Cressid?

Pan. Leave! an you take leave 'till to-morrow morning,

Cres. Pray you, content you.
Troi. What offends you, lady?
Cres. Sir, mine own company.
Troi. You cannot shun yourself.
Cres. Let me go and try:

:

I have a kind of self resides with you;
But an unkind self, that itself will leave,
To be another's fool. I would be gone:-
Where is my wit? I speak I know not what.
Troi. Well know they what they speak, that
speak so wisely.

Cres. Perchance, my lord, I shew 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; thatdwells with gods above.
Troi. O, that I thought it could be in a woman,
(As, if it can, I will presume in you)
To feed for aye her lamp and flames of love;
To keep her constancy in plight and youth,
Out-living beauties outward, with a mind
That doth renew swifter than blood decays!
Or that persuasion could but thus convince me,-
That my integrity and truth to you

Might be affronted with the match and weight
Of such a winnow'd purity in love;
How were I then uplifted! but, alas,
I am as true as truth's simplicity,
And simpler than the infancy of truth.
Cres. In that I'll war with you.
Troi. O virtuous fight,

[right!

From false to false, among false maids in love,
Upbraid my falsehood! when they have said-as
As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth,
As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf,

[false

5 Pard to the hind, or step-dame 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; 10 here, my cousin's. If ever you prove false to one 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 men be 15 Troilus's, all false women Cressids, and all brokers-between Pandars! say amen.

Troi. Amen,
Cres. Amen.

When right with right wars who shall be most
Truc swains in love shall, in the world to come,
Approve their truths by Troilus: when their 40
rhymes,

Full of protest, of oath, and big compare,
Want similies, truth tir'd with iteration,-
As true as steel', as plantage' to the moon,
As sun to day, as turtle to her mate,

As iron to adamant, as earth to the center,-
Yet after all comparisons of truth,
As truth's authentic author to be cited,
As true as Troilus shall crown up the verse,
And sanctify the numbers.

Cres. Prophet may you be!

If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth,
When time is old and hath forgot itself,

When water-drops have worn the stones of Troy,
And blind oblivion swallow'd cities up,
And mighty states characterless are grated
To dusty nothing; yet let memory,

Cal. Now, princes, for the service I have done

you,

The advantage of the time prompts me aloud
35 To call for recompence. Appear it to your mind,
That, through the sight I bear in things, to Jove
I have abandon'd Troy, left my possessions,
Incurr'd a traitor's name; expos'd myself,
From certain and possess'd conveniences,
To doubtful fortunes; sequestring from me all
That time, acquaintance, custom, and condition,
Made tame and most familiar to my nature;
And here, to do you service, am become
As new into the world, strange, unacquainted:
451 do beseech you, as in way of taste,
To give me now a little benefit,

50

Out of those many register'd in promise,
Which, you say, five to come in my behalf.
Agam. What would'st thou of us, Trojan? make

demand.

Cal. You have a Trojan prisoner, call'd Antenor,
Yesterday took; Troy holds him very dear.
Oft have you (often have you thanks therefore)
Desir'd my Cressid in right great exchange,
55 Whom Troy hath still deny'd: But this Antenor,
I know, is such a wrest in their affairs,
That their negociations all must slack,

I wish, "my integrity might be met and matched with such equality and force of pure unmingled love." This is an ancient proverbial simile. Formerly neither sowing, planting, nor grafting, were ever undertaken without a scrupulous attention to the increase or waning of the moon, as may be proved by the following quotation from Scott's Discoverie of Witchcraft: "The poore husbandman perceiveth that the increase of the moone maketh plants fruitfull: so as in the full moone they are in the best strength; decaieing in the wane; and in the conjunction to utterlic wither and vade." Wanting

Wanting his manage; and they will almost
Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam,
In change of him: let him be sent, great princes,
And he shall buy my daughter; and her presence
Shall quite strike off all service I have done,
In most accepted pain'.

Agam. Let Diomedes bear him,

And bring us Cressid hither; Calchas shall have
What he requests of us.-Good Diomed,
Furnish you fairly for this enterchange:
Withal, bring word-if Hector will to-morrow
Be answer'd in his challenge: Ajax is ready.
Diom. This shall I undertake; and 'tis a burthen
Which I am proud to bear.

[Exit Diomed, and Calchas.
Enter Achilles and Patroclus, before their tent.
Ulyss. Achillesstands i' the entrance of his tent:-
Please it our general to pass strangely by him,
As if he were forgot;-and, princes all,
Lay negligent and loose regard upon him;-
I will come last: 'Tis like he'll question me,
Why such unplausive eyes are bent, why turn'd
on him:

[out

Which when they fall, as being slippery standers,
The love that lean'd on them as slippery too,
10 Doth one pluck down another, and together
Die in the fall. But 'tis not so with me:
Fortune and I are friends; I do enjoy
At ample point all that I did possess,
Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find
Something in me not worth that rich beholding
As they have often given. Here is Ulysses;
I'll interrupt his reading.How now, Ulysses?
Ulyss. Now, great Thetis' son?

15

20

Achil. What are you reading?

Ulyss. A strange fellow here

Writes me, That man-how dearly ever parted,
How much in having, or without, or in,-
Cannot make boast to have that which he hath,
Nor feels not what he owes, but by reflection;
25 As when his virtues shining upon others
Heat them, and they retort that heat again
To the first giver.

30

If so, I have derision med'cinable,
To use between your strangeness and his pride,
Which his own will shall have desire to drink;
It may do good: pride hath no other glass
To shew itself, but pride; for supple knees
Feed arrogance, and are the proud man's fees.
Agam. We'll execute your purpose, and put on
A form of strangeness as we pass along ;-
So do each lord; and either greet him not,
Or else disdainfully, which shall shake him more
Than if not look'd on. I will lead the way.
Achil. What, comes the general to speak with 35
me?
[Troy.
You know my mind, I'll fight no more 'gainst
Agam. What says Achilles? would he aught
[neral?

with us?

Nest. Would you, my lord, aught with the ge-40
Achil. No.

Nest. Nothing, my lord?

Agam. The better.

Achil. Good day, good day.

Men. How do you? how do you?

Achil. What, does the cuckold scorn me?
Ajar. How now, Patroclus?

Achil. Good morrow, Ajax.

Ajax. Ha?

Achil. Good morrow.

Ajax. Ay, and good next day too.

[Exeunt.

Achil. What mean these fellows? know they not Achilles?

[bend,

Patr.They pass by strangely: They were us'd to
To send their smiles before them to Achilles;
To come as humbly, as they us'd to creep

To holy altars.

[tune,

Achil. What, am I poor of late? 'Tis certain, Greatness, once fallen out with for

Achil. This is not strange, Ulysses.
The beauty that is borne here in the face,
The bearer knows not, but commends itself
To others' eyes: nor doth the eye itself
(That most pure spirit of sense) behold itself,
Not going from itself; but eye to eye oppos'd
Salutes each other with each other's forin.
For speculation turns not to itself,

Till it hath travell'd, and is marry'd there
Where it may see itself: this is not strange at all
Ulyss. I do not strain at the position,
It is familiar; but at the author's drift:
Who, in his circumstance, expressly proves
That no man is the lord of any thing,
(Though in and of him there is much consisting
Till he communicate his parts to others:
Nor doth he of himself know them for aught
45 Till he behold them form'd in the applause
Where they are extended; which, like an arch,
reverberates

The voice again; or like a gate of steel
Fronting the sun, receives and renders back
50 His figure and his heat. I was much rapt in this;
And apprehended here immediately

Most abject in regard, and dear in use!
What things again most dear in the esteem,
And poor in worth! Now shall we see to-morrow
An act that very chance doth throw upon him,

Must fall out with men too: What the declin'd is, 60 Ajax renown'd. O heavens, what some men do,

1i.e. Her presence shall strike off, or recompence, the service I have done even in these labours which were most accepted, i. e. however excellently endowed, with however dear or precious parts enriched or adorned. i. e. in the detail or circumduction of his argument. Ajax, who has abilities which were never brought into view or use.

While

While some men leave to do!
How some men creep' in skittish fortune's hall,
While others play the ideots in her eyes!
How one man eats into another's pride,
While pride is feasting in his wantonness!
To see these Grecian lords!-why, even already
They clap the lubber Ajax on the shoulder;
As if his foot were on brave Hector's breast,
And great Troy shrinking.

Achil. I do believe it: for they pass'd by me,
As misers do by beggars; neither gave to me
Good word,nor look: What, are my deeds forgot?
Ulyss. Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back,
Wherein he puts alms for oblivion,

A great-siz'd monster of ingratitudes: [devour'd
Those scraps are good deeds past; which are
As fast as they are made, forgot as soon
As done: Perseverance, dear my lord,
Keeps honour bright: To have done, is to hang
Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail
In monumental mockery. Take the instant way;
For honour travels in a streight so narrow,
Where one but goes abreast: "keep then the path:
For emulation hath a thousand sons,
That one by one pursue; If you give way,
Or hedge aside from the direct forthright,
Like to an entred tide, they all rush by,
And leave you hindmost ;-

Or like a gallant horse fallen in first rank,
Lie there for pavement to the abject rear
O'errun and trampled on: Then what they do
in present,
[yours:

Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles.
There is a mystery (with whom relation
Durst never ineddle) in the soul of state;
Which hath an operation more divine,
Than breath, or pen, can give expressure to:
All the commerce that you have had with Troy,
20 As perfectly is ours, as yours, my lord;

30

And better would it fit Achilles much,

To throw down Hector, than Polyxena: But it must grieve young Pyrrhus now at home, When Fame shall in our islands sound her trump; 25 And all the Greekish girls shall tripping sing,"Great Hector's sister did Achilles win; "But our great Ajax bravely beat down him.” Farewell, my lord: I as your lover speak; The fool slides o'er the ice that you should break. [Exit. Patr. To this effect, Achilles,have I mov❜à you; A woman impudent and mannish grown Is not more loath'd than an effeminate man In time of action. I stand condemn'd for this: They think, my little stomach to the war, And your great love to me, restrains you thus: Sweet,rouse yourself; and the weak wantonCupid Shall from your neck unloose his amorous fold, And, like a dew-drop from the lion's mane, 40 Be shook to air.

35

Though less than yours in past, must o'er-top
For time is like a fashionable host,
That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand;
And with his arms out-stretch'd, as he would fly,
Grasps in the comer: Welcome ever smiles,
And farewell goes out sighing. O, let not virtue seek
Remuneration for the thing it was; for beauty, wit,
High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service,
Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all
To envious and calumniating time.
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,-
That all, with one consent, praise new-born gawds,
Tho' they are made and moulded of things past; 45
And shew to dust, that is a little gilt,
More laud than gilt o'er-dusted.

The present eye praises the present object:
Then marvel not, thou great and complete man,
That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax;
Since things in motion sooner catch the eye,
Than what not stirs. The cry went once on thee,
And still it might, and yet it may again,
If thou would'st not entomb thyself alive,
And case thy reputation in thy tent;
Whose glorious deeds, but in these fields of late,
Made emulous missions 'mongst the gods them-
And drave great Mars to faction.

[selves,

Those wounds heal ill, that men do give them-
Omission to do what is necessary

Seals a commission to a blank of danger';
And danger, like an ague, subtly taints
50 Even then when we sit idly in the sun.

Achil. Go call Thersites hither,sweet Patroclus:
I'll send the fool to Ajax, and desire him
To invite the Trojan lords after the combat,
To see us here unarm'd: I have a woman's long-
55 An appetite that I am sick withal,

To see great Hector in his weeds of peace;
To talk with him, and to behold his visage,
Even to my full of view.-A labour sav'd!

[ing,

To creep is to keep out of sight, from whatever motive.-The meaning is, Some men keep out of notice in the hall of fortune, while others, though they but play the ideot, are always in her eye, in the way of distinction. The meaning of mission, Dr. Johnson says, seems to be dispatches of the gods from heaven about mortal business, such as often happened at the siege of Troy. Polyxena; in the act of marrying whom, he was afterwards killed by Paris. i. e. There is a secret administration of affairs, which no history was ever able to discover. i. e. By neglecting our duty, we commission or enable that danger of dishonour, which could not reach us before, to lay hold upon us. Enter

Enter Thersites.

Ther. A wonder!
Achil. What?
[for himself.
Ther. Ajax goes up and down the field, asking
Achil. How so?

Ther. He must fight singly to-morrow with
Hector; and is so prophetically proud of an heroi-
cal cudgelling, that he raves in saying nothing.
Achil. How can that be?

5

Ther. Why, he stalks up and down like a pea-10 cock, a stride, and a stand: ruminates, like an hostess, that hath no arithmetic but her brain to set down her reckoning: bites his lip with a politic regard', as who should say-there were wit in this head, an 'twould out; and so there is; 15 but it lies as coldly in him as fire in a flint, which will not show without knocking. The man's undone for ever; for if Hector break not his neck i' the combat, he 'il break it himself in vain-glory. He knows not me: I said, Good-morrow, Ajax 20 and he replies, Thanks, Agamemnon. What think you of this man, that takes me for the general He's grown a very land-fish, languageless, a monster. A plague of opinion! a man may wear it on both sides, like a leather jerkin.

Achil. Thou must be my embassador to him, Thersites.

[memnon.

Patr. And to procure safe conduct from Aga-
Ther. Agamemnon?
Patr. Ay, my lord.
Ther. Ha!

Pair. What say you to't?

Ther. God be wi' you, with all my heart.
Putr. Your answer, sir.

Ther. If to-morrow be a fair day, by eleven
o'clock, it will go one way or other; howsoever,
he shall pay for me ere he has me.
Patr. Your answer, sir.

Ther. Fare you well, with all my heart. Achil. Why, but he is not in this tune, is he? Ther. No, but he's out o' tune thus. What musick will be in him when Hector has knock'd 25 out his brains, I know not: But, I am sure, none; unless the fidler Apollo get his sinews to make catlings on. [straight. Achil. Come, thou shalt bear a letter to him Ther. Let me bear another to his horse; for that's the more capable creature. [stirr'd; Achil. My mind is troubled, like a fountain And I myself see not the bottom of it.

Ther. Who, I? why, he'll answer no body; he professes not answering; speaking is for beggars; he wears his tongue in his arms. I will 30 put on his presence; let Patroclus make demands to me, you shall see the pageant of Ajax.

Achil. To him, Patroclus: Tell him,-I humbly desire the valiant Ajax to invite the most valorous Hector to come unarmed to my tent; and 35 to procure safe conduct for his person, of the magnanimous, and most illustrious, six-or-seven

[Exeunt Achilles, and Patroclus. Ther. 'Would the fountain of your mind were clear again, that I might water an ass at it! I had rather be a tick in a sheep, than such a valiant ignorance. [Exit.

SCENE I.

A Street in Troy.

ACT IV.

Enter at one door Æneas, and Servant, with a torch;

at another, Paris, Deiphobus, Antenor, and Diomed, &c. with torches.

Par.

SEE, ho! who is that there?

Deiph. It is the lord Æneas.

Ene. Is the prince there in person?——

Had I so good occasion to lie long,

[ness

50

As you, prince Paris, nought but heavenly busi-55
Should rob my bed-mate of my company.
Diom. That's my mind too.

lord Eneas.

-Good morrow,

Par. A valiant Greek, Æneas; take his hand: Witness the process of your speech, wherein You told-how Diomed, a whole week by days, Did haunt you in the field.

2

Ene, Health to you, valiant sir,
During all question of the gentle truce:
But when I meet you arm'd, as black defiance,
As heart can think, or courage execute.

Diom. The one and other Diomed embraces.
Our bloods are now in calm; and, so long, health:
But when contention and occasion meet,
By Jove, I'll play the hunter for thy life,
With all my force, pursuit, and policy.

Ene. And thou shalt hunt a lion, that will fly
With his face backward. In humane gentleness,
Welcome to Troy! now, by Anchises' life,
Welcome, indeed! By Venus' hand I swear,
No man alive can love, in such a sort,
60 The thing he means to kill, more excellently.
Diom. Wesympathize:Jove, let Æneas live,
If to my sword his fate be not the glory,

With a sly look. A catling signifies a small lute-string made of catg it. means intercourse, interchange of conversation.