Troilus and Cressida Page 5

  CRESSIDA Well, well.

  PANDARUS ‘Well, well’? Why, have you any discretion234? Have

  you any eyes? Do you know what a man is? Is not birth235,

  beauty, good shape, discourse236, manhood, learning, gentleness,

  virtue, youth, liberality237, and so forth, the spice and salt that

  seasons a man?

  CRESSIDA Ay, a minced239 man, and then to be baked with no

  date in the pie, for then the man’s date’s out240.

  PANDARUS You are such another woman!241 One knows not at

  what ward you lie.

  CRESSIDA Upon my back, to defend my belly243; upon my wit, to

  defend my wiles244; upon my secrecy, to defend mine honesty;

  my mask245, to defend my beauty, and you, to defend all these:

  and at all these wards246 I lie at, at a thousand watches.

  PANDARUS Say one of your watches247.

  CRESSIDA Nay, I’ll watch248 you for that, and that’s one of the

  chiefest of them249 too: if I cannot ward what I would not have

  hit250, I can watch you for telling how I took the blow, unless it

  swell251 past hiding, and then it’s past watching.

  Enter [Troilus’] Boy

  PANDARUS You are such another!252

  BOY Sir, my lord would instantly speak with you.

  PANDARUS Where?

  BOY At your own house.

  PANDARUS Good boy, tell him I come.

  [Exit Boy]

  I doubt257 he be hurt. Fare ye well, good niece.

  CRESSIDA Adieu, uncle.

  PANDARUS I’ll be with you, niece, by and by259.

  CRESSIDA To bring260, uncle?

  PANDARUS Ay, a token261 from Troilus.

  CRESSIDA By the same token262, you are a bawd.

  Exit Pandarus

  Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love’s full sacrifice,

  He offers in another’s enterprise264,

  But more in Troilus thousand-fold I see

  Than in the glass266 of Pandar’s praise may be;

  Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing267:

  Things won are done268, joy’s soul lies in the doing.

  That she269 beloved knows nought that knows not this:

  Men prize the thing ungained more than it is270:

  That she was never yet that ever knew

  Love got so sweet as when desire did sue271.

  Therefore this maxim out of273 love I teach:

  ‘Achievement is command; ungained, beseech.’274

  That275 though my heart’s contents firm love doth bear,

  Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear.

  Exit [with Alexander]

  [Act 1 Scene 3]

  running scene 3

  Location: the Greek camp, not far from Troy

  Sennet. Enter Agamemnon, Nestor, Ulysses, Diomedes, Menelaus, with others

  AGAMEMNON Princes,

  What grief2 hath set the jaundice on your cheeks?

  The ample proposition3 that hope makes

  In all designs begun on earth below

  Fails in the promised largeness5: checks and disasters

  Grow in the veins6 of actions highest reared,

  As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap7,

  Infect the sound pine8 and diverts his grain

  Tortive and errant9 from his course of growth.

  Nor, princes, is it matter new to us

  That we come short of our suppose11 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 thwart13, not answering the aim

  And that unbodied figure of the thought

  That gave’t surmisèd shape15. Why then, you princes,

  Do you with cheeks abashed behold our works18

  And think them shame, which are indeed nought else

  But the protractive20 trials of great Jove

  To find persistive21 constancy in men,

  The fineness of which metal22 is not found

  In fortune’s love23? For then the bold and coward,

  The wise and fool, the artist24 and unread,

  The hard and soft seem all affined25 and kin.

  But in the wind and tempest of her26 frown,

  Distinction27 with a loud and powerful fan,

  Puffing at all, winnows28 the light away;

  And what hath mass or matter29 by itself

  Lies rich in virtue30 and unminglèd.

  NESTOR With due observance of31 thy godly seat,

  Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply32

  Thy latest words. In the reproof33 of chance

  Lies the true proof34 of men: the sea being smooth,

  How many shallow bauble35 boats dare sail

  Upon her patient breast, making their way

  With those of nobler bulk!

  But let the ruffian Boreas38 once enrage

  The gentle Thetis39, and anon behold

  The strong-ribbed bark40 through liquid mountains cut,

  Bounding between the two moist elements41,

  Like Perseus’ horse42: where’s then the saucy boat

  Whose weak untimbered43 sides but even now

  Co-rivalled greatness? Either to harbour fled,

  Or made a toast45 for Neptune. Even so

  Doth valour’s show46 and valour’s worth divide

  In storms of fortune; for in her47 ray and brightness

  The herd hath more annoyance by the breeze48

  Than by the tiger, but when the splitting wind

  Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks,

  And flies fled under shade51, why, then the thing of courage,

  As roused with rage with rage doth sympathize52,

  And with an accent tuned in selfsame key

  Retires54 to chiding fortune.

  ULYSSES Agamemnon,

  Thou great commander, nerve56 and bone of Greece,

  Heart of our numbers57, soul and only spirit,

  In whom the tempers58 and the minds of all

  Should be shut up59, hear what Ulysses speaks:

  Besides the applause and approbation

  The which61— most mighty for thy place and sway,—

  To Agamemnon

  And thou most reverend62 for thy stretched-out life,—

  To Nestor

  I give to both your speeches, which were such

  As Agamemnon and64 the hand of Greece

  Should hold up high in brass65, and such again

  As venerable Nestor, hatched in silver66,

  Should with a bond of air67, strong as the axle-tree

  In which the heavens ride, knit68 all the Greeks’ ears

  To his experienced tongue: yet let it please both,

  Thou great, and wise70, to hear Ulysses speak.

  AGAMEMNON Speak, prince of Ithaca71, and be’t of less expect

  That matter needless, of importless burden72,

  Divide thy lips than we are confident,

  When rank74 Thersites opes his mastic jaws,

  We shall hear music, wit and oracle.

  ULYSSES Troy, yet upon his basis76, had been down,

  And the great Hector’s sword had lacked a master,

  But for these instances78.

  The specialty of rule79 hath been neglected;

  And look how80 many Grecian tents do stand

  Hollow81 upon this plain, so many hollow factions.

  When that the general82 is not like the hive

  To whom the foragers shall all repair83,

  What honey is expected? Degree84 being vizarded,

  Th’unworthiest shows as fairly85 in the mask.

  The heavens themselves, the planets and this centre86

  Observe degree, priority and place,

  Insisture88, course, proportion, season, form,

  Office89 and custom, in all line of order:

  And therefore is the glorious planet Sol90

  In noble eminence enthroned and sphered91

  Amidst the other92, whose med’cinable eye

  Corrects the ill93 aspects of planets evil,

  And posts94, like the commandment of a king,

  Sans check95, to good and bad. But when the planets

  In evil mixture96 to disorder wander,

  What plagues and what portents, what mutiny,

  What raging of the sea, shaking of earth,

  Commotion in the winds, frights, changes, horrors,

  Divert and crack, rend and deracinate100

  The unity and married101 calm of states

  Quite102 from their fixure? O, when degree is shaked,

  Which is the ladder to all high designs103,

  The enterprise is sick! How could communities,

  Degrees in schools105 and brotherhoods in cities,

  Peaceful commerce from dividable shores106,

  The primogenitive107 and due of birth,

  Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,

  But109 by degree, stand in authentic place?

  Take but degree away, untune that string,

  And, hark, what discord follows. Each thing meets

  In mere oppugnancy112. The bounded waters

  Should113 lift their bosoms higher than the shores

  And make a sop of all this solid globe114:

  Strength should be lord of imbecility115,

  And the rude116 son should strike his father dead:

  Force should be right, or rather, right and wrong,

  Between whose endless jar118 justice resides,

  Should lose their names119, and so should justice too.

  Then everything includes120 itself in power,

  Power into will121, will into appetite,

  And appetite, an universal wolf,

  So doubly seconded123 with will and power,

  Must make perforce an universal prey124,

  And last eat up himself. Great Agamemnon,

  This chaos, when degree is suffocate126,

  Follows the choking127.

  And this neglection of degree is it

  That by a pace129 goes backward, in a purpose

  It hath to climb. The general’s disdained

  By him one step below, he by the next,

  That next by him beneath, so every step

  Exampled133 by the first pace that is sick

  Of his superior, grows to an envious fever

  Of pale and bloodless emulation135:

  And ’tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot136,

  Not her own sinews. To end a tale of length,

  Troy in our weakness lives, not in her strength.

  NESTOR Most wisely hath Ulysses here discovered139

  The fever whereof all our power140 is sick.

  AGAMEMNON The nature of the sickness found, Ulysses,

  What is the remedy?

  ULYSSES The great Achilles, whom opinion143 crowns

  The sinew and the forehand144 of our host,

  Having his ear full of his airy145 fame,

  Grows dainty of146 his worth, and in his tent

  Lies mocking our designs: with him Patroclus

  Upon a lazy bed148 the livelong day

  Breaks149 scurril jests,

  And with ridiculous150 and awkward action —

  Which, slanderer, he imitation calls —

  He pageants152 us. Sometime, great Agamemnon,

  Thy topless deputation153 he puts on,

  And, like a strutting player, whose conceit154

  Lies in his hamstring155, and doth think it rich

  To hear the wooden156 dialogue and sound

  ’Twixt his stretched footing and the scaffoldage,

  Such to-be-pitied and o’er-wrested seeming158

  He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks,

  ’Tis like a chime a-mending160, with terms unsquared,

  Which from the tongue of roaring Typhon161 dropped

  Would seems hyperboles. At this fusty162 stuff

  The large163 Achilles, on his pressed bed lolling,

  From his deep164 chest laughs out a loud applause,

  Cries ‘Excellent! ’Tis Agamemnon just165.

  Now play me166 Nestor: hum and stroke thy beard,

  As he being dressed to167 some oration.’

  That’s done, as near as the extremest ends

  Of parallels168, as like as Vulcan and his wife169,

  Yet god170 Achilles still cries, ‘Excellent!

  ’Tis Nestor right. Now play him me171, Patroclus,

  Arming to answer in172 a night alarm.’

  And then, forsooth173, the faint defects of age

  Must be the scene of mirth: to cough and spit,

  And, with a palsy-fumbling175 on his gorget,

  Shake in and out the rivet176: and at this sport

  Sir Valour177 dies; cries ‘O, enough, Patroclus,

  Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all

  In pleasure of my spleen179.’ And in this fashion,

  All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,

  Severals and generals of grace exact181,

  Achievements, plots, orders, preventions182,

  Excitements183 to the field, or speech for truce,

  Success or loss, what is or is not, serves

  As stuff for these two to make paradoxes185.

  NESTOR And in the imitation of these twain186 —

  Who, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns

  With an imperial voice188 — many are infect.

  Ajax is grown self-willed, and bears his head

  In such a rein189, in full as proud a place190

  As broad191 Achilles, and keeps his tent like him;

  Makes factious192 feasts, rails on our state of war,

  Bold as an oracle, and sets Thersites,

  A slave194 whose gall coins slanders like a mint,

  To match us in comparisons with dirt,

  To weaken and discredit our exposure196,

  How rank soever rounded in with danger197.

  ULYSSES They tax our policy198, and call it cowardice,

  Count wisdom as no member of the war,

  Forestall prescience200, and esteem no act

  But that of hand201: the still and mental parts,

  That do contrive202 how many hands shall strike

  When fitness203 calls them on, and know by measure

  Of their observant toil the enemies’ weight —

  Why, this hath not a finger’s dignity205.

  They call this bed-work206, mapp’ry, closet-war,

  So that the ram207 that batters down the wall,

  For208 the great swing and rudeness of his poise,

  They place before his hand that made the engine209,

  Or those that with the fineness of their souls210

  By reason guide his execution211.

  NESTOR Let this be granted, and Achilles’ horse

  Makes many Thetis’ sons212.

  Tucket

  AGAMEMNON What trumpet? Look, Menelaus.

  MENELAUS From Troy.

  Enter Aeneas

  AGAMEMNON What would you ’fore216 our tent?

  AENEAS Is this great Agamemnon’s tent, I pray you?

  AGAMEMNON Even this.

  AENEAS May one that is a herald and a prince

  Do a fair220 message to his kingly ears?

  AGAMEMNON With surety221 stronger than Achilles’ arm

  ’Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice

  Call Agamemnon head and general.

  AENEAS Fair leave224 and large security. How may

  A stranger to those most imperial looks

  Know them from eyes of other mortals?

  AGAMEMNON How?

  AENEAS Ay,

  I ask that I might waken reverence229,

  And on the cheek be ready with a blush

  Modest as morning when she coldly231 eyes

  The youthful Phoebus232.

  Which is that god in office, guiding men?

  Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon?

  AGAMEMNON This Trojan scorns us, or the men of Troy

  Are ceremonious courtiers.

  AENEAS Courtiers as free237, as debonair, unarmed,

  As bending238 angels: that’s their fame in peace.

  But when they would seem soldiers, they have galls239,

  Good arms, strong joints, true swords, and,

  Jove’s accord241,

  Nothing so full of heart242. But peace, Aeneas,

  Peace, Trojan, lay thy finger on thy lips.

  The worthiness of praise distains his worth244,

  If that the praised himself bring the praise forth245.

  But what the repining246 enemy commends,

  That breath fame blows247, that praise, sole pure, transcends.

  AGAMEMNON Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself Aeneas?

  AENEAS Ay, Greek, that is my name.

  AGAMEMNON What’s your affair I pray you?

  AENEAS Sir, pardon, ’tis for Agamemnon’s ears.

  AGAMEMNON He hears nought privately that comes from Troy.

  AENEAS Nor I from Troy come not to whisper him:

  I bring a trumpet254 to awake his ear,

  To set his sense on the attentive bent255,

  And then to speak.

  AGAMEMNON Speak frankly257 as the wind:

  It is not Agamemnon’s sleeping hour,

  That thou shalt know. Trojan, he is awake,

  He tells thee so himself.

  AENEAS Trumpet, blow loud,

  Send thy brass voice through all these lazy tents,

  And every Greek of mettle263, let him know

  What Troy means fairly shall be spoke aloud.

  The trumpets sound

  We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy

  A prince called Hector — Priam is his father —

  Who in this dull267 and long-continued truce

  Is rusty grown. He bade me take a trumpet,

  And to this purpose speak: kings, princes, lords,

  If there be one amongst the fair’st270 of Greece

  That holds his honour higher than his ease271,

  That seeks his praise more than he fears his peril,

  That knows his valour, and knows not his fear,

  That loves274 his mistress more than in confession,

  With truant vows to her own lips he loves,

  And dare avow her beauty and her worth

  In other arms than hers277 — to him this challenge.

  Hector, in view of Trojans and of Greeks,

  Shall make it good, or do his best to do it.

  He hath a lady, wiser, fairer, truer,

  Than ever Greek did compass281 in his arms,

  And will282 tomorrow with his trumpet call

  Midway between your tents and walls of Troy,