Cressida.

I Neagle Se

O pretty pretty pledge! nay do not snatch & from me:

Me that takes that, must take my heart withal.

Cres. I'll fetch you one.

Ulyss. You have sworn patience.

Tro.

[Exit.

Fear me not, my lord;

I will not be myself, nor have cognition

Of what I feel; I am all patience.

Re-enter CRESSIDA.

8

Ther. Now the pledge; now, now, now!
Cres. Here, Diomed, keep this sleeve.
Tro. O beauty! where's thy faith?
Ulyss.

My lord,
Tro. I will be patient; outwardly I will.

Cres. You look upon that sleeve; Behold it well.— He loved me-O false wench!-Give't me again. Dio. Who was't?

Cres.

No matter, now I have't again.

I will not meet with you to-morrow night:

I pr'ythee, Diomed, visit me no more.

Ther. Now she sharpens;-Well said, whetstone. Dio. I shall have it.

Cres.

Dio.

What, this?

'Ay, that.

Cres. O, all you gods!-O pretty pretty pledge! Thy master now lies thinking in his bed

Of thee, and me; and sighs, and takes my glove,
And gives memorial dainty kisses to it,

As I kiss thee.-Nay, do not snatch it from me;
He, that takes that, must take my heart withal.
Dio. I had your heart before, this follows it.
Tro. I did swear patience.

8

Cres. You shall not have it, Diomed; 'faith you

shall not;

keep this sleeve.] The custom of wearing a lady's sleeve for a favour, is of ancient date, but the sleeve given in the present instance was the sleeve of Troilus. It may be supposed to be an ornamented cuff, such, perhaps, as was worn by some of our young nobility at a tilt, in Shakspeare's age.

I'll give you something else.

Dio. I will have this; Whose was it?
Cres.

Dio. Come, tell me whose it was.

'Tis no matter.

Cres. 'Twas one's that loved me better than you

will.

But, now you have it, take it.

Dio.

Whose was it? Cres. By all Diana's waiting-women yonder, And by herself, I will not tell you whose.

Dio. To-morrow will I wear it on my helm; And grieve his spirit, that dares not challenge it. Tro. Wert thou the devil, and wor'st it on thy horn,

It should be challeng'd.

Cres. Well, well, 'tis done, 'tis past;-And yet it is not;

I will not keep my word.

Dio.

Why then, farewell;

Thou never shalt mock Diomed again.

Cres. You shall not go:-One cannot speak a

word,

But it straight starts you.

Dio.

I do not like this fooling.

Ther. Nor I, by Pluto: but that that likes not

you, pleases me best.

Dio. What, shall I come? the hour?

Cres.

Do come:-I shall be plagu❜d.

Dio.

Ay, come:-O Jove!

Farewell till then.

[Exit DIOMEDEs.

Cres. Good night. I pr'ythee, come.

Troilus, farewell! one eye yet looks on thee;
But with my heart the other eye doth see.

9 By all Diana's waiting-women yonder,] i. e. the stars which she points to.

Ah! poor our sex! this fault in us I find,
The error of our eye directs our mind:
What error leads, must err; O then conclude,
Minds, sway'd by eyes, are full of turpitude.
Exit CRESSIDA.
Ther. A proof of strength she could not publish

more,

Unless she said, My mind is now turn'd whore.
Ulyss. All's done, my lord.

Tro.
Ulyss

It is.

Why stay we then? Tro. To make a recordation to my soul Of every syllable that here was spoke. But, if I tell how these two did co-act, Shall I not lie in publishing a truth? Sith yet there is a credence in my heart, An esperance so obstinately strong, That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears; As if those organs had deceptious functions, Created only to calumniate.

Was Cressid here?

Ulyss.

I cannot conjure, Trojan.1

Tro. She was not sure.

Ulyss.

Most sure she was.

Tro. Why, my negation hath no taste of madness. Ulyss. Nor mine, my lord: Cressid was here but

now.

Tro. Let it not be believ'd for womanhood!2
Think, we had mothers; do not give advantage
To stubborn criticks'-apt, without a theme,
For depravation,-to square the general sex
By Cressid's rule: rather think this not Cressid.

I cannot conjure, Trojan.] That is, I cannot raise spirits in the form of Cressida.

2

for womanhood!] i. e. for the sake of womanhood. To stubborn criticks-] Critick has here, probably, the signification of Cynick.

Ulyss. What hath she done, prince, that can soil our mothers?

Tro. Nothing at all, unless that this were she.
Ther. Will he swagger himself out on's own eyes?
Tro. This she? no, this is Diomed's Cressida:
If beauty have a soul, this is not she;

If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimony,
If sanctimony be the gods' delight,
If there be rule in unity itself,*

This was not she. O madness of discourse,
That cause sets up with and against itself!
Bi-fold authority! where reason can revolt
Without perdition, and loss assume all reason
Without revolt;' this is, and is not, Cressid!
Within my soul there doth commence a fight
Of this strange nature, that a thing inseparate
Divides more wider than the sky and earth;
And yet the spacious breadth of this division
Admits no orifice for a point, as subtle
As is Arachne's broken woof, to enter.
Instance, O instance! strong as Pluto's gates;
Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven:
Instance, O instance! strong as heaven itself;
The bonds of heaven are slipp'd, dissolv'd, and
loos'd;

And with another knot, five-finger-tied,"

The fractions of her faith, orts of her love,

If there be rule in unity itself,] If it be true that one individual cannot be two distinct persons.

5 ·where reason can revolt

Without perdition, and loss assume all reason

Without revolt;] The words loss and perdition are used in their common sense, but they mean the loss or perdition of reason.

6

— a thing inseparate-] i. e. the plighted troth of lovers. Troilus considers it inseparable, or at least that it ought never to be broken.

7 — knot, five-finger-tied,] A knot tied by giving her hand to Diomed.