TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Troy. Before PRIAM'S Palace.

Enter TROILUS armed, and PANDARUS.

Tro. Call here my varlet'; I'll unarm again :
Why should I war without the walls of Troy,
That find such cruel battle here within?
Each Trojan, that is master of his heart,
Let him to field; Troilus, alas! hath none.
Pan. Will this gear ne'er be mended??

Tro. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their strength,

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 farther. He, that will have a cake out of the wheat, must tarry the grinding3.

1 my VARLET;] This word (as Steevens remarks) anciently signified a servant or footman to a knight or warrior. So, Holinshed, speaking of the battle of Agincourt: - diverse were releeved by their carlets, and conveied

out of the field."

-

2 Will this GEAR ne'er be mended?]

affair. See Vol. ii. p. 479, Vol. v. p. 154.

3

"Gear" is often used for matter or

must tarry the grinding.] So the quartos ; for, as they sometimes vary, we shall usually speak of them in the plural. The folio, 1623, inserts needs"must needs tarry the grinding." On the next page the folio reads "heating of the oven," while the quarto omits the preposition.

Tro. Have I not tarried?

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

Tro. Have I not tarried?

Pan. Ay, the bolting; but you must tarry the leavening.

Tro. Still have I tarried.

Pan. Ay, to the leavening: but here's yet in the word hereafter, the kneading, the making of the cake, the heating the oven, and the baking: nay, you must stay the cooling too, or you may chance burn your lips. Tro. Patience herself, what goddess e'er she be, Doth lesser blench at sufferance than I do.

At Priam's royal table do I sit;

And when fair Cressid comes into my thoughts,

So, traitor!-when she comes !-When is she thence"? Pan. Well, she looked yesternight fairer than ever I saw her look, or any woman else.

Tro. I was about to tell thee,-when my heart,
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.

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 term it, praise her', -but I would somebody had heard her talk yesterday,

Doth lesser BLENCH-] i. e. less start off or fly from. We have had the word already in the same sense in Vol. ii. p. 86, and Vol. iii. p. 446. It also occurs later in this play, and in "Hamlet," A. ii. sc. 2.

5 So, traitor !-WHEN she comes !-When Is SHE thence ?] This is Rowe's amendment of the line: the old copies, quarto and folio, read, "So, traitor, then she comes, when she is thence."

6

the sun doth light a STORM,] Another judicious correction by Rowe, as the old copies all read scorn for "storm."

7 - praise HER,] The folio has "praise it;" the quartos, "praise her."

as I did I will not dispraise your sister Cassandra's wit, but

Tro. O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus,

When I do tell thee, there my hopes lie drown'd,

Reply not in how many fathoms deep

They lie indrench'd. I tell thee, I am mad
In Cressid's love: thou answer'st, she is fair;
Pour'st in the open ulcer of my heart

Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice;
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

Hard as the palm of ploughman! This thou tell'st me,
As true thou tell'st me, when I say-I love her;
But, saying thus, instead of oil and balms,

Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given me
The knife that made it.

Pan. I speak no more than truth.

Tro. 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 she be not, she has the 'mends in her own hands.

Tro. Good Pandarus. How now, Pandarus!

Pan. I have had my labour for my travail; ill-thought on of her, and ill-thought on of you: gone between and between, but small thanks for my labour.

Tro. What! art thou angry, Pandarus? what with me? Pan. Because she's kin to me, therefore, she's not so fair as Helen: an she were not kin to me, she would be as fair on Friday, as Helen is on Sunday. But what care I? I care not, an she were a black-amoor; 'tis all one to me.

8 instead of oil and balm,] After this line, the Rev. Mr. Barry advises the insertion of a preceding line-" Pour'st in the open ulcer of my heart;" but we cannot be warranted in taking any such liberty with the text.

9 -an she were NOT kin to me,] The quarto omits the negative. Two lines lower the quarto has " but what I?" for "but what care I?" of the folio.

Tro. Say I, she is not fair?

Pan. I do not care whether you do or no. She's a fool to stay behind her father: let her to the Greeks; and so I'll tell her the next time I see her.

For my

part, I'll meddle nor make no more i' the matter.

Tro. Pandarus,

Pan. Not I.

Tro. Sweet Pandarus,

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

[Exit PANDARUS. An Alarum.

Tro. Peace, you ungracious clamours! peace, rude

sounds!

Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair,
When with your blood you daily paint her thus.
I 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 tetchy to be woo'd to woo,
As she is stubborn-chaste against all suit.
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,
Let it be call'd the wild and wandering flood;
Ourself the merchant, and this sailing Pandar,
Our doubtful hope, our convoy, and our bark.

Alarum. Enter ÆNEAS.

Ene. How now, prince Troilus? wherefore not afield?

Tro. Because not there: this woman's answer sorts', For womanish it is to be from thence.

1

this woman's answer sorts,] i. e. befits or agrees—one of the usual senses of the word in Shakespeare's time.

What news, Æneas, from the field to-day?

Ene. That Paris is returned home, and hurt.
Tro. By whom, Æneas?

Ene.

Troilus, by Menelaus. Tro. Let Paris bleed: 'tis but a scar to scorn; Paris is gor❜d with Menelaus' horn.

[Alarum. Ene. Hark, what good sport is out of town to-day! Tro. Better at home, if "would I might," were

"may."

But to the sport abroad :—are you bound thither?
Ene. In all swift haste.

Tro.

Come; go we, then, together.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The Same. A Street.

Enter CRESSIDA and ALEXANDER.

Cres. Who were those went by?
Alex.

Queen Hecuba, and Helen.

Cres. And whither go they?
Alex.
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:

Up to the eastern tower,

He chid Andromache, and struck his armourer;
And, like as there were husbandry in war,
Before the sun rose, he was harness'd light2,
And to the field goes he; where every flower
Did, as a prophet, weep what it foresaw

2

he was harness'd LIGHT,] Some corruption may be suspected here; for first the connection and meaning are not very intelligible, and next the word "light" in the folio and quartos is spelt lyte; an unusual orthography, "light" being then generally printed as at present. Lite or lyte formerly meant little, and it is so used by Chaucer and our elder poets. The common explanation of the passage has been, that Hector was lightly armed.

VOL. VI.

C