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Troilus and Cressida (Folio 1, 1623)

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: W. L. Godshalk
Peer Reviewed
Enter Diomed.
Dio. What are you vp here ho? speake?
2975Chal. Who cals?
Dio. Diomed, Chalcas (I thinke) wher's you Daughter?
Chal. She comes to you.
Enter Troylus and Vlisses.
Vlis. Stand where the Torch may not discouer vs.
2980
Enter Cressid.
Troy. Cressid comes forth to him.
Dio. How now my charge?
Cres. Now my sweet gardian: harke a word with you.
Troy. Yea, so familiar?
2985Vlis. She will sing any man at first sight.
Ther. And any man may finde her, if he can take her
life: she's noted.
Dio. Will you remember?
Cal. Remember? yes.
2990Dio. Nay, but doe then; and let your minde be cou-
pled with your words.
Troy. What should she remember?
Vlis. List?
Cres. Sweete hony Greek, tempt me no more to folly.
2995Ther. Roguery.
Dio. Nay then.
Cres. Ile tell you what.
Dio. Fo, fo, eome tell a pin, you are a forsworne.-----
Cres. In faith I cannot: what would you haue me do?
3000Ther. A iugling tricke, to be secretly open.
Dio. What did you sweare you would bestow on me?
Cres. I prethee do not hold me to mine oath,
Bid me doe not any thing but that sweete Greeke.
Dio. Good night.
3005Troy. Hold, patience.
Ulis. How now Troian?
Cres. Diomed.
Dio. No, no, good night: Ile be your foole no more.
Troy. Thy better must.
3010Cres. Harke one word in your eare.
Troy. O plague and madnesse!
Vlis. You are moued Prince, let vs depart I pray you,
Lest your displeasure should enlarge it selfe
To wrathfull tearmes: this place is dangerous;
3015The time right deadly: I beseech you goe.
Troy. Behold, I pray you.
Vlis. Nay, good my Lord goe off:
You flow to great distraction: come my Lord?
Troy. I pray thee stay?
3020Vlis. You haue not patience, come.
Troy. I pray you stay? by hell and hell torments,
I will not speake a word.
Dio. And so good night.
Cres. Nay, but you part in anger.
3025Troy. Doth that grieue thee? O withered truth!
Ulis. Why, how now Lord?
Troy. By Ioue I will be patient.
Cres. Gardian? why Greeke?
Dio. Fo, fo, adew, you palter.
3030Cres. In faith I doe not: come hither once againe.
Vlis. You shake my Lord at something; will you goe?
you will breake out.
Troy. She stroakes his cheeke.
Vlis. Come, come.
3035Troy. Nay stay, by Ioue I will not speake a word.
There is betweene my will, and all offences,
A guard of patience; stay a little while.
Ther. How the diuell Luxury with his fat rumpe and
potato finger, tickles these together: frye lechery, frye.
3040Dio. But will you then?
Cres. In faith I will lo; neuer trust me else.
Dio. Giue me some token for the surety of it.
Cres. Ile fetch you one.
Exit.
Vlis. You haue sworne patience.
3045Troy. Feare me not sweete Lord.
I will not be my selfe, nor haue cognition
Of what I feele: I am all patience.
Enter Cressid.
Ther. Now the pledge, now, now, now.
Cres. Here Diomed, keepe this Sleeue.
3050Troy. O beautie! where is thy Faith?
Vlis. My Lord.
Troy. I will be patient, outwardly I will.
Cres. You looke vpon that Sleeue? behold it well:
He lou'd me: O false wench: giue't me againe.
3055Dio. Whose was't?
Cres. It is no matter now I haue't againe.
I will not meete with you to morrow night:
I prythee Diomed visite me no more.
Ther. Now she sharpens: well said Whetstone.
3060Dio. I shall haue it.
Cres. What, this?
Dio. I that.
Cres. O all you gods! O prettie, prettie pledge;
Thy Maister now lies thinking in his bed
3065Of thee and me, and sighes, and takes my Gloue,
And giues memoriall daintie kisses to it;
As I kisse thee.
Dio. Nay, doe not snatch it from me.
Cres. He that takes that, rakes my heart withall.
3070Dio. I had your heart before, this followes it.
Troy. I did sweare patience.
Cres. You shall not haue it Diomed; faith you shall not:
Ile giue you something else.
Dio. I will haue this: whose was it?
3075Cres. It is no matter.
Dio. Come tell me whose it was?
Cres. 'Twas one that lou'd me better then you will.
But now you haue it, take it.
Dio. Whose was it?
3080Cres. By all Dianas waiting women yond:
And by her selfe, I will not tell you whose.
Dio. To morrow will I weare it on my Helme,
And grieue his spirit that dares not challenge it.
Troy. Wert thou the diuell, and wor'st it on thy horne,
3085It should be challeng'd.
Cres. Well, well, 'tis done, 'tis past; and yet it is not:
I will not keepe my word.
Dio. Why then farewell,
Thou neuer shalt mocke Diomed againe.
3090Cres. You shall not goe: one cannot speake a word,
But it strait starts you.
Dio. I doe not like this fooling.
Ther. Nor I by Pluto: but that that likes not me, plea-
ses me best.
3095Dio. What shall I come? the houre.
Cres. I, come: O Ioue! doe, come: I shall be plagu'd.
Dio. Farewell till then.
Exit.
Cres. Good night: I prythee come:
Troylus farewell; one eye yet lookes on thee;
3100But with my heart, the other eye, doth see.
Ah poore our sexe; this fault in vs I finde:
The errour of our eye, directs our minde.
What errour leads, must erre: O then conclude,
Mindes swai'd by eyes, are full of turpitude.
Exit.
3105Ther. A proofe of strength she could not publish more;
Vnlesse she say, my minde is now turn'd whore.
Ulis. Al's done my Lord.
Troy. It is.
Vlis. Why stay we then?
3110Troy. To make a recordation to my soule
Of euery syllable that here was spoke:
But if I tell how these two did coact;
Shall I not lye, in publishing a truth?
Sith yet there is a credence in my heart:
3115An esperance so obstinately strong,
That doth inuert that test of eyes and eares;
As if those organs had deceptious functions,
Created onely to calumniate.
Was Cressed here?
3120Vlis. I cannot coniure Troian.
Troy. She was not sure.
Vlis. Most sure she was.
Troy. Why my negation hath no taste of madnesse?
Vlis. Nor mine my Lord: Cressid was here but now.
3125Troy. Let it not be beleeu'd for womanhood:
Thinke we had mothers; doe not giue aduantage
To stubborne Criticks, apt without a theame
For deprauation, to square the generall sex
By Cressids rule. Rather thinke this not Cressid.
3130Vlis. What hath she done Prince, that can soyle our
mothers?
Troy. Nothing at all, vnlesse that this were she.
Ther. Will he swagger himselfe out on's owne eyes?
Troy. This she? no, this is Diomids Cressida:
3135If beautie haue a soule, this is not she:
If soules guide vowes; if vowes are sanctimonie;
If sanctimonie be the gods delight:
If there be rule in vnitie it selfe,
This is not she: O madnesse of discourse!
3140That cause sets vp, with, and against thy selfe
By foule authoritie: where reason can reuolt
Without perdition, and losse assume all reason,
Without reuolt. This is, and is not Cressid:
Within my soule, there doth conduce a fight
3145Of this strange nature, that a thing inseperate,
Diuides more wider then the skie and earth:
And yet the spacious bredth of this diuision,
Admits no Orifex for a point as subtle,
As Ariachnes broken woofe to enter:
3150Instance, O instance! strong as Plutoes gates:
Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heauen;
Instance, O instance, strong as heauen it selfe:
The bonds of heauen are slipt, dissolu'd, and loos'd,
And with another knot fiue finger tied,
3155The fractions of her faith, orts of her loue:
The fragments, scraps, the bits, and greazie reliques,
Of her ore-eaten faith, are bound to Diomed
Vlis. May worthy Troylus be halfe attached
With that which here his passion doth expresse?
3160Troy. I Greeke: and that shall be divulged well
In Characters, as red as Mars his heart
Inflam'd with Uenus: neuer did yong man fancy
With so eternall, and so fixt a soule.
Harke Greek: as much I doe Cressida loue;
3165So much by weight, hate I her Diomed,
That Sleeue is mine, that heele beare in his Helme:
Were it a Caske compos'd by Vulcans skill,
My Sword should bite it: Not the dreadfull spout,
Which Shipmen doe the Hurricano call,
3170Constring'd in masse by the almighty Fenne,
Shall dizzie with more clamour Neptunes eare
In his discent; then shall my prompted sword,
Falling on Diomed.
Ther. Heele tickle it for his concupie.
3175Troy. O Cressid! O false Cressid! false, false, false:
Let all vntruths stand by thy stained name,
And theyle seeme glorious.
Vlis. O containe your selfe:
Your passion drawes eares hither.
3180
Enter Æneas.
Æne. I haue beene seeking you this houre my Lord:
Hector by this is arming him in Troy.
Aiax your Guard, staies to conduct you home.
Troy. Haue with you Prince: my curteous Lord adew:
3185Farewell reuolted faire: and Diomed,
Stand fast, and weare a Castle on thy head.
Vli. Ile bring you to the Gates.
Troy. Accept distracted thankes.
Exeunt Troylus, Æneas, and Ulisses.
3190Ther. Would I could meete that roague Diomed, I
would croke like a Rauen: I would bode, I would bode:
Patroclus will giue me any thing for the intelligence of
this whore: the Parrot will not doe more for an Almond,
then he for a commodious drab: Lechery, lechery, still
3195warres and lechery, nothing else holds fashion. A burning
diuell take them.