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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 further. He, that will have a cake out of the wheat, must tarry the grinding.

Troi. Have I not tarry'd?

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

Troi, Have I not tarry'd?

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

Troi. Still have I tarry'd.

Pan. I speak no more than truth,
Troi. Thou dost not speak so much.

Pan. 'Faith, I'll nqt meddle in't. Let her be as she is: if she be fair, 'tis the better for her; an 5 she be not, she has the mends in her own hands*. Troi. Good Pandarus! How now, Pandarus ? Pan. I have had my labour for my travel; illthought on of her, and ill-thought on of you; gone between and between, but small thanks for 10my labour.

Troi. What, art thou angry, Pandarus? what, with me?

Pan. Because she is kin to me, therefore she's not so fair as Helen: an she were not kin to me, 15she would be as fair on Friday, as Helen is on Sunday. But what care I? I care not, an she were a black-a-moor; 'tis all one to me. Troi. Say I, she is not fair?

Pan. Ay, to the leavening: but here's yet in
the word hereafter the kneading, the making of
the cake, the heating of the oven, and the baking;
nay, you must stay the cooling too, or you may 20a
chance to burn your lips.

Troi. 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,-25
So, traitor!-when she comes!-When is she

thence?

Pan. Well, she look'd yester-night fairer than ever I saw her look; or any woman else.

Troi. I was about to tell thee,-When my heart, 30
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:

Pan. I do not care whether you do or no. She's 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 in the matter,

Troi. Pandarus,—
Pan. Not I,

Troi, Sweet Pandarus,

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

[Exit Pandarus. [Sound alarum. Troi. 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.

But sorrow, that is couch'd in seeming gladness, 35 cannot fight upon this argument;
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 40 term it, praise her,-But I would somebody had heard her talk yesterday, as I did. I will not dispraise your sister Cassandra's wit: but

Trai. O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus!

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 techy 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,

When I do tell thee, There my hopes lie drown'd, 45 Let it be call'd the wild and wandering flood;

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 50
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 55

me,

3

As true thou tell'st me, when I say,-I love her;
But, saying thus, instead of oil and balın,
Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given me
The knife that made it.

Fonder for more childish.

160

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 afjeld?
[sorts,
Troi. Because not there; This woman's answer
For womanish it is to be from thence.
What news, Eneas, from the field to-day?
Ene. That Paris is returned home, and hurt.
Troi. By whom, Æneas?

Ene. Troilus, by Menelaus.

Troi. 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!

2 To blench is to shrink, start, or fly off.. The meaning is; In comparison with Cressid's haud, the spirit of sense, the utmost degree, the most exquisite power of sensibility, which implies a soft hand, since the sense of touching resides chiefly in the fingers, is hard as the callous and insensible palm of the ploughman. Mr. Steevens thinks this phrase means, She may make the best of a bad bargain,

Ττοίς

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Enter Cressida, and Alexander her servant.
Cres. Who were those went by?
Serv. Queen Hecuba, and Helen.
Cres. And whither go they?
Serv. Up to the eastern tower,

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;

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

Cres. What was his cause of anger? [Greeks
Serv. The noise goes this: There is among the
A lord of Trojan blood, nephew to Hector;
They call him, Ajax.

Cres. Good; And what of him?

Serv. They say he is a very man per se, And stands alone.

Cres. So do all men; unless they are drunk, sick, or have no legs.

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Pan. True, he was so; I know the cause too; 10he'll lay about him to-day, I can tell them that: and there's Troilus will not come far behind him; let them take heed of Troilus; I can tell them that too,

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20

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Serv. This man, lady, hath robb'd many beasts of their particular additions; he is as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant: a man into whom nature hath so crowded humours, that his valour is crushed into folly', his folly 35 sauced with discretion: there is no man hath a virtue, that he hath not a glimpse of; nor any man an attaint, but he carries some stain of it: he is melancholy without cause, and merry against the hair: he hath the joints of every thing; but 40 every thing so out of joint, that he is a gouty Briareus, many hands and no use; or purblinded Argus, all eyes and no sight.

Cres. But how should this man, that makes me smile, make Hector angry?

Sere. They say, he yesterday cop'd Hector in the battle, and struck him down; the disdain and shame whereof bath ever since kept Hector fasting and waking.

Enter Pandarus,

Cres. Who comes here?

Serv. Madam, your uncle Pandarus,
Cres. Hector's a gallant man.
Serv. As may be in the world, lady.
Pan. What's that? what's that?
Cres. Good morrow, uncle Pandarus.

Pan. Good morrow, cousin Cressid: What do
you talk of?-Good morrow, Alexander. How
do
you, cousin? When were you at Ilium '?
Cres. This morning, uncle.

Pan. What were you talking of, when I came

45

Cres. What, is he angry too?

Pan, Who, Troilus? Troilus is the better man
of the two.

Cres. O, Jupiter! there's no comparison.
Pan. What, not between Troilus and Hector?
Do you know a man, if you see him?

[him.

Cres. Ay; if I ever saw him before, and knew
Pan, Well, I say, Troilus is Troilus,

Cres. Then you say as I say; for, I am sure, he is not Hector.

Pan. No, nor Hector is not Troilus, in some degrees.

Cres. 'Tis just to each of them; he is himself. Pan. Hin self! Alas, poor Troilus! I would, he were,

Cres. So he is.

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Cres. "Twould not become him, his own's betPan. You have no judgement, niece: Helen herself swore the other day, that Troilus, for a 50 brown favour, (for so 'tis, I must confess)-Not brown neither.

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! To be crushed into folly, is to be confused and mingled with folly, so as that they make one mass together. This is a phrase equivalent to another now in use,-against the grain, Ilium was the palace of Troy.

plexion,

plexion. I had as lieve, Helen's golden tongue
had commended Troilus for a copper nose.
Pan. I swear to you, I think Helen loves him
better than Paris.

Cres. Then she's a merry Greek, indeed.

Pan. Nay, I am sure she does. She came to him the other day into the compass'd window',and, you know, he has not past three or four hairs on his chin.

One and fifty hairs, quoth he, and one white. That white hair is my father, and all the rest are his sons. Jupiter! quoth she, which of these hairs is Paris, my husband? The forked one, quoth he; pluck it 5 out, and give it him. But, there was such laughing! and Helen so blush'd, and Paris so chaf'd, and all the rest so laugh'd, that it pass'd.

Cres. Indeed, a tapster's arithmetic may soon 10 bring his particulars therein to a total.

Pan. Why, he is very young: and yet will he, within three pound, lift as much as his brother Hector.

Cres. Is he so young a man, and so old a lifter? 15 Pan. But, to prove to you that Helen loves him;-she came, and puts me her white hand to his cloven chin,

Cres. Juno have mercy!-How came it cloven? Pan. Why, you know, 'tis dimpled: I think, 20| his smiling becomes him better than any man in all Phrygia.

Cres. O, he smiles valiantly.

Pan. Does he not?

Cres. O, yes; an 'twere a cloud in autumn. Pan. Why, go to then:-But, to prove to you that Helen loves Troilus,

Cres. Troilus will stand to the proof, if you'l prove it so.

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Pan. Troilus? why he esteems her no more 30 than I esteem an addle egg.

Cres. If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle head, you would eat chickens i' the shell.

Pan. I cannot choose but laugh, to think how she tickled his chin;-Indeed, he has a marvellous white hand, I must needs confess.

Cres. Without the rack.

Pan. And she takes upon her to spy a white hair on his chin.

.. Cres. Alas, poor chin! many a wart is richer.
Pun. But, there was such faughing;-Queen
Hecuba laugh'd, that her eyes ran o'er.
Cres. With mill-stones.

Pan. And Cassandra laugh'd.

Cres. But there was more temperate fire under the pot of her eyes;-Did her eyes run o'er too Pan. And Hector laugh'd.

Cres. At what was all this laughing?

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40

Cres. So let it now; for it has been a great while going by.

Pan. Well, cousin, I told you a thing yesterday; think on 't.

Cres. So I do.

Pan. I'll be sworn, 'tis true; he will weep you, an 'twere a man born in April. [Sound a retreat. Cres. And I'll spring up in his tears, an 'twere nettle against May.

a

Pan. Hark, they are coming from the field: Shall we stand up here, and see them, as they pass toward Ilium? good niece, do; sweet niece CresCres. At your pleasure.

[sida.

Pan. Here, here, here's an excellent place; here we may see most bravely: I'll tell you them all by their names, as they pass by; but mark Troilus above the rest.

Aneas passes over the stage.
Cres. Speak not so loud.

Pan. That's Eneas; Is not that a brave man! he's one of the flowers of Troy, I can tell you; But mark Troilus; you shall see anon.

Cres. Who's that?

Antenor passes over.

Pan. That's Antenor; he has a shrewd wit, I
can tell you; and he's a man good enough: he's
one o' the soundest judgement in Troy, whoso
ever; and a proper man of person:-
-When
comes Troilus-I'll shew you Troilus anon; if
The see me, you shall see him nod at me.
Cres. Will he give you the nod?
Pan. You shall see.

Cres. If he do, the rich shall have more 3.
Hector passes over.

Pan. That's Hector, that, that, look you, that!
There's a fellow-Go thy way, Hector;-
There's a brave man, niece!-O brave Hector !
45-Look, how he looks! there's a countenance:
Is 't not a brave man?

Cres. O, brave man!

Pan. Is 'a not? It does a man's heart goodLook you, what hacks are on his helmet! look

Pan. Marry, at the white hair that Helen spied 50 you yonder, do you see? look you there! There's

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Pan. Swords? any thing, he cares not: an the devil come to him, it's all one: By god's lid, it does one's heart good!-Yonder comes Paris, yonder comes Paris: look ye yonder, niece! Is 't not a gallant man too, is't not?-Why, this is Pan. That's true; make no question of that.60 brave now.-Who said, he came home hurt to

Pan. Quoth she, Here's but one and fifty hairs on your chin, and one of them is white, Cres. This is her question.

2 The word lifter means a thief.-We

3 The allusion here is to the word noddy,

The compass'd window is the same as the bow-window. still call a person who plunders shops, a shop-lifier. which, as now, did in our author's time, and long before, signify a silly fellow; and may, by its etymology, signify likewise full of nods.--Cressid means, that a noddy shall have more nods.

day?

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Pan. Helenus? no;-yes, he'll fight indifferent 10 well:- marvel, where Troilus is!-Hark; do you not hear the people cry, Troilus?-Helenus is a priest.

Cres. What sneaking fellow comes yonder?

Troilus passes over.

Pan. Where? yonder? that's Deiphobus: 'Tis Troilus! there's a man, niece!-Hem!-Brave Troilus! the prince of chivalry!

Cres. Peace, for shame, peace!

15

Pan. Mark him; note him:-O brave Troi-20 lus!-look well upon him, niece; look you, how his sword is bloody'd, and his helm more hack'd than Hector's! And how he looks, and how he goes!-O admirable youth! he ne'er saw three and twenty. Go thy way, Troilus, go thy way; 25 had I a sister were a grace, or a daughter a goddess, he should take his choice. Ŏ admirable man!-Paris? Paris is dirt to him; and, I warrant, Helen, to change, would give an eye to boot.

Enter Soldiers, &c.

Cres. Here come more.

what I would not have hit, I can watch you for telling how I took the blow; unless it swell past hiding, and then it is past watching.

Pan. You are such another!

Enter Troilus' Boy.

Boy. Sir, mylord would instantlyspeakwith you.
Pan. Where.

Boy. At your own house; there he unarms him.
Pan. Good boy, tell him I come [Exit Boy]:
I doubt he be hurt.-Fare ye well, good niece.
Cres. Adieu, uncle.

Pan. I'll be with you, niece, by-and-by.
Cres. To bring, uncle,-

Pan. Ay, a token from Troilus.

Cres. By the same token―you are a bawd.-
[Exit Pandarus.
Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full sacrifice,
He offers in another's enterprize:

But more in Troilus thousand fold I see
Than in the glass of Pandar's praise may be;
Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing;
Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing
That she' belov'd knows nought, that knows not
this,-

Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is:
That she was never yet, that ever knew
Love got so sweet, as when desire did sue:
Therefore this maxim out of love I teach,-
Atchievement is, command; ungain'd, beseech:
30 Then though my heart's content firm love doth
bear,

Pan. Asses, fools, dolts! chaff and bran, chaff and bran! porridge after meat! I could live and die i' the eyes of Troilus. Ne'er look, ne'er 35 look; the eagles are gone; crows and daws, crows and daws! I had rather be such a man as Troilus, than Agamemnon and all Greece.

Cres. There is among the Greeks, Achilles; a better man than Troilus.

Pan. Achilles? a dray-man, a porter, a very camel.

Cres. Well, well.

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40 Agam. Princes,

Pan. Well, well?-Why, have you any discretion? have you any eyes? Do you know what a 45 manis? Is not birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that season

a man?

Cres. Ay, a minc'd man: and then to be bak'd 50 with no date in the pye,-for then the man's date is out.

Pan. You are such a woman! one knows not at what ward you lie.

Cres. Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon 55 my wit, to defend my wiles; upon my secrecy, to defend mine honesty; my mask, to defend my beauty; and you, to defend all these: and at all these wards I lie, at a thousand watches.

Pan. Say one of your watches.

Cres. Nay, I'll watch you for that; and that's one of the chiefest of them too: if I cannot ward

What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks?
The ample proposition that hope makes
In all designs begun on earth below, [asters
Fails in the promis'd largeness; checks and dis-
Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd;
As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap,
Infect the sound pine, and divert his grain
Tortive and errant from his course of growth.
Nor, princes, is it matter new to us,
That we come short of our suppose so far,
That,after seven years' siege, yet Troy walls stand;
Sith every action that hath gone before,
Whereof we have record, trial did draw
Bias and thwart, not answering the aim,
And that unbodied figure of the thought
That gave't surmised shape. Whythen, youprinces,
Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works;
And think them shames, which are, indeed,
nought else

00 But the protractive trials of great Jove,
To find persistive constancy in men?
The fineness of which metal is not found

To account for the introduction of this quibble, it should be remembered that dates were an ingredient in ancient pastry of almost every kind.

2 i. e. that woman.

Content for capacity.

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In fortune's love for then, the bold and coward,
The wise and fool, the artist and unread,
The hard and soft, seem all affin'd and kin:
But, in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
And what hath mass, or matter, by itself
Lies, rich in virtue, and unmingled.

Nest. With due observance of thy godlike seat,
Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply
Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance
Lies the true proof of men: The sea being smooth,
How many shallow bauble boats dare sail
Upon her patient breast, making their way
With those of nobler bulk?

Ulyss. Troy, yet upon her basis, had been down,
And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a mas-
But for these instances.
[ter,

The specialty of rule hath been neglected;
5 And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand
Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions.
When that the general is not like the hive,
To whom the foragers shall all repair,
What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,
10 The unworthiest shews as fairly in the mask.
The heavens themselves, the planets, and this
center',

Observe degree, priority, and place,
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
15 Office, and custom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol,
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
Amidst the other; whose med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis, and, anon, behold [cut,
The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains
Bounding between the two moist elements,
Like Perseus' horse: Where's then the saucy boat, 20
Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now
Co-rival'd greatness? either to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so
Doth valour's shew, and valour's worth, divide
In storms of fortune: For,in her ray and brightness,
The herd hath more annoyance by the brize',
Than by the tyger: but when splitting winds
Make flexible the knees of knotted oaks,
And flies flee under shade, Why, then, the thing

of courage,

As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize,
And with an accent tun'd in self-same key,
Returns to chiding fortune.

25

And posts, like the commandment of a king,
Sans check, to good and bad: But, when the
planets,

In evil mixture, to disorder wander,
What plagues, and what portents? what mutiny?
What raging of the sea? shaking of earth? [rors,
Commotion in the winds? frights, changes, hor-
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate

The unity and married calm of states
Quite from their fixture? O,when degree is shak'd,
30 Which is the ladder to all high designs,

Ulyss. Agamemnon,-
[Greece,
Thou great commander, nerve and bone of 35
Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit,
In whom the tempers and the minds of all
Should be shut up,-hear what Ulysses speaks.
Besides the applause and approbation
The which,-most mighty for thy place and 40
sway,-
[To Agamemnon.

And thou most reverend for thy stretcht-out life,-
[To Nestor.

45

I give to both your speeches,-which were such,
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece
Should hold up high in brass; and such again,
As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver3,
Should with a bond of air (strong as the axle-tree
On which heaven rides) knit all the Greekish ears
To his experienc'd tongue,-Yet let it please both, 50
Thou great, and wise, to hear Ulysses speak.
Agam. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be 't of less
expect

That matter needless, of importless burden,
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,
When rank Thersites opes his mastiff jaws,
We shall hear music, wit, and oracle.

The enterprize is sick! How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities",
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, scepters, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark,what discord follows! each thing meets
In meer oppugnancy: The bounded waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores,
And make a sop of all this solid globe:
Strength should be lord of imbecility,

And the rude son should strike his father dead:
Force should be right; or, rather right and wrong
(Between whose endless jar justice resides)
Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite, an universal wolf,

So doubly seconded with will and power,
Must make perforce an universal prey,
And, last, eat up himself. Great Agamemnon,
This chaos, when degree is suffocate,
Follows the choaking.

55 And this neglection of degree it is,

That by a pace goes backward', with a purpose
It hath to climb: The general's disdain'd

'The brize is the gad or horse-fly. 2 It is said of the tiger, that in storms and high winds he rages and roars most furiously. 3 Hatch'd in silver, may mean, whose white hair and beard make him look like a figure engraved on silver. 4i. e. the particular rights of supreme authority. ' i, e. the earth; which, according to the Ptolemaic system, then in vogue, is the center of the solar system. i. e. corporations, companies, confraternities. That goes backward step by step.

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