Internet Shakespeare Editions

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