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  • Title: Troilus and Cressida (Quarto 1, 1609)
  • Editor: William Godshalk
  • ISBN: 1-55058-301-8

    Copyright Internet Shakespeare Editions. This text may be freely used for educational, non-proift purposes; for all other uses contact the Coordinating Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Editor: William Godshalk
    Peer Reviewed

    Troilus and Cressida (Quarto 1, 1609)

    The history
    looke, nere looke, the Eagles are gonne, crowes and dawes,
    crowes and dawes, I had rather bee such a man as Troylus,
    then Agamemnon and all Greece.
    Cres. There is amongst the Greekes Achilles a better
    405man then Troylus.
    Pan. Achilles, a dray-man, a porter, a very Cammell.
    Cres. Well, well:
    Pan. Well, well, why haue you any discretion, haue you
    any eyes, doe you know what a man is? is not birth, beauty,
    410good shape, discourse, man-hood, learning, gentlenesse, ver-
    tue youth, liberallity and such like, the spice & salt that sea-
    son a man.
    Cres. I a minst man, and then to bee bak't with no date in
    the pie, for then the mans date is out:
    415Pan. You are such a woman a man knowes not at what
    ward you lie:
    Cres: Vpon my backe to defend my bellie, vpon my wit
    to defend my wiles, vpon my secrecy to defend mine hones-
    ty, my maske to defend my beauty, and you to defend all
    420these: and at al these wards I lie, at a thousand watches.
    Pan. Say one of your watches.
    Cres. Nay Ile watch you for that; and thats one of the
    chiefest of them two: If I cannot ward what I would not
    425haue hit: I can watch you for telling how I tooke the blowe
    vnlesse it swell past hiding, and then its past watching:
    Pan: You are such another: Enter Boy:
    430Boy: Sir my Lord would instantlie speake with you.
    Pan: Where?
    Boy: At your owne house there he vnarmes him:
    Pan. Good boy tell him I come, I doubt he be hurt, fare ye
    well good Neice: Cres: Adiew vncle:
    Pan: I wilbe with you Neice by and by:
    Cres: To bring vncle: Pan: I a token from Troylus:
    Cres: By the same token you are a Bawde,
    440Words, vowes, guifts, teares and loues full sacrifize:
    He offers in anothers enterprize,
    But more in Troylus thousand fould I see,
    Then in the glasse of Pandars praise may bee:
    Yet