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 believ'd 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 is not she. O madness of discourse,
That cause sets up with and against itself?!
Bi-fold 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 conduce a fight

6 That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears;] So the quartos: the folio, "That doth invert that test," &c., the compositor having printed from his ear. In the next line the folio is right in reading "had" for were of the quartos.

7

and against ITSELF!] So the quartos: the folio thyself. In the next line the quarto is also, probably, right in reading "Bi-fold authority" instead of "By foul authority," as it stands in the folio.

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 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, dissolv'd, and loos'd;
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 given to Diomed9.

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

Inflam'd 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 compos'd by Vulcan's skill,
My sword should bite it. Not the dreadful spout,
Which shipmen do the hurricano call,

Constring'd 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.

8

- FIVE-finger-tied,] The quarto misreads "find finger-tied.”

9 - are GIVEN to Diomed.] The folio," are bound to Diomed."

1

by the almighty SUN,] The folio has here a strange misprint, where it reads fen for "sun" of the quartos.

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. [Coming forward.] Would, I could meet that rogue Diomed. I would croak like a raven; I would bode, I would bode. Patroclus will give me any thing 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 tem

per'd,

To stop his ears against admonishment?

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

Hect. You train me to offend you; get you

By all the everlasting gods, I'll go2.

in:

2 By ALL the everlasting gods, I'll go.] The folio, to the injury of the metre, omits "all." In the preceding line the folio has "get you gone" for "get you

And. My dreams will, sure, prove ominous to the

day.

Hect. No more, I say.

Cas.

Enter CASSANDRA.

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. Cas. O! 'tis true.

Hect.

Ho! bid my trumpet sound! Cas. No notes of sally, for the heavens, sweet bro

ther.

Hect. Begone, I say: the gods have heard me swear. Cas. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows 3: 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 us to give much count to violent thefts*,

in" of the quarto. "Get you gone" is to be avoided, because "go" occurs immediately after; and in one of Hector's subsequent speeches to Andromache he says to her, "get you in."

3 hot and PEEVISH Vows:] i. e. foolish, inconsiderate vows. 150; Vol. iii. p. 348; Vol. iv. p. 286; and Vol. v. p. 95. 333.

See Vol. ii. p.

For us to give much count to violent thefts,] This line is so corrupt in the folio, 1623, where first it is found, as to afford no sense,

"For we would count give much to as violent thefts." The words and their arrangement are the same in the second and third folios, while the fourth only alters "would" to "will." Tyrwhitt read,

"For we would give much to use violent thefts,"

which is objectionable, not merely because it wanders from the text, but because it inserts a phrase, " to use violent thefts," which is awkward, and unlike Shakespeare. The reading I have adopted is that suggested by Mr. Amyot, who observes upon it, "Here, I think, with little more than transposition, ('us' being substituted for we, and would omitted,) the meaning, as far as we can collect it, is not departed from, nor perverted, as in Rowe's strange interpolation,

'For us to count we give what's gain'd by thefts.'

The original is one of the few passages, which, as it seems to me, must be left to the reader's sagacity, and of the difficulties attending which we cannot arrive at any satisfactory solution."

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 fates:
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 mothers,
And when we have our armours buckled on,
The venom'd vengeance ride upon our swords;

5 Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate:] i. e. "My honour maintains its advantage over my fate." "To keep the weather" is a sea phrase, and means to keep to windward, in a commanding position.