Dio, Come, tell me whose it was.

If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimony,

Cres. 'Twas one's that loved me better than you If sanctimony be the gods' delight,
If there be rule in unity itself,
This was not she.

will.

But, now you have it, take it.

Dio.
Whose was it?
Cres. By all Diana's waiting-women yonder,1
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.

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 Iny 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

Cres. Well, well, 'tis done, 'tis past ;-And yet Admits no orifice for a point, as subtle

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.

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, The fragments, scraps, the bits, and greasy reliques Of her o'er-eaten faith, are bound to Diomed. Dio. What, shall I come? the hour? Ulyss. May worthy Troilus be half attach'd Cres. Ay, come :-O Jove! With that which here his passion doth express? Do come :-I shall be plagu'd. Tro Ay, Greek; and that shall be divulged well, Dio. Farewell till then. In characters as red as Mars his heart Inflam'd with Venus: never did young man fancy With so eternal and so fix'd a soul. Hark, Greek-As much as I do Cressid love, So much by weight hate I her Diomed: That sleeve is mine, that he'll bear on his helm; Were it a casquell compos'd by Vulcan's skill, My sword should bite it: not the dreadful spout, Which shipmen do the hurricano call, Constring'd12 in mass by the almighty sun, Shall dizzy with more clamour Neptune's ear In his descent, than shall my prompted sword Falling on Diomed.

Cres. Good night. I pr'ythee, come. —
[Exit Diomedes.
Troilus, farewell! one eye yet looks on thee;
But with my heart the other eye doth see.
Ah! poor our sex! this fault in us 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. Let it not be believ'd for womanhood!
Think, we had mothers; do not give advantage
To stubborn critics-apt, without a theme,
For depravation,-to square the general sex
By Cressid's rule: rather think this not Cressid.
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;

(1) The stars. (2) Remembrance. (3) Since.
(4) Belief.
(5) Hope. (6) Testimony.
(7) Denial. (8) For the sake of. (9) Cynics.

Ther. He'll tickle it for his concupy 13

Tro. O Cressid! O false Cressid! false, false,
false !

Let all untruths stand by thy stained name,
And they'll seem glorious.

Ulyss.

O, contain yourself; Your passion draws ears hither.

Enter Æneas.

Ene. I have been seeking you this hour, my lord:
Hector, by this, is arming him in Troy;
Ajax, your guard, stays to conduct you home.
Tro. Have with you, prince:-My courteous lord,
adieu :

Farewell, revolted fair!—and, Diomed,
Stand fast, and wear a castle on thy head!
Ulyss. I'll bring you to the gates.

Tro. Accept distracted thanks.

[Exeunt Troilus, Eneas, and Ulysses. Ther. 'Would, I could meet that rogue Diomed! I would croak like a raven; I would bode, I would bode. Patroclus will give me any thing for the intelligence of this whore: the parrot will not do more for an almond, than he for a commodious drab. Lechery, lechery; still, wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion: A burning devil take them! [Exit.

Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of To tell thee-that this day is ominous :

Go, wind, to wind, there turn and change to-[[ Appals our numbers; haste we, Diomed,
To reinforcement, or we perish all.
Enter Nestor.

gether.

My love with words and errors still she feeds;
But edifies another with her deeds. [Exe. severally.
SCENE IV-Between Troy and the Grecian
camp. Alarums: Excursions. Enter Thersites.
Ther. Now they are clapper-clawing one another;
I'll go look on. That dissembling abominable var-And there lacks work; anon, he's there afoot,
let, Diomed, has got that same scurvy doting fool-
ish young knave's sleeve of Troy there, in his helm:
I would fain see thein meet; that that same young
Trojan ass, that loves the whore there, might send
that Greekish whoremaster villain, with the sleeve,
back to the dissembling luxurious drab, on a sleeve-
less errand. O'the other side, The policy of those
crafty swearing rascals,—that stale old mouse-eaten
dry cheese, Nestor; and that same dog-fox, Ulys-
ses, is not proved worth a blackberry:-They set
me up, in policy, that mongrel cur, Ajax, against
that dog of as bad a kind, Achilles: and now is
the cur Ajax prouder than the cur Achilles, and
will not arm to-day whereupon the Grecians be-
gin to proclaim barbarism, and policy grows into
an ill opinion. Soft! here come sleeve, and t'other.
Enter Diomedes, Troilus following.

Nest. Go, bear Patroclus' body to Achilles;
And bid the snail-pac'd Ajax arm for shame.---
There is a thousand Hectors in the field:
Now here he fights on Galathe his horse,

And there they fly, or die, like scaled sculls3
Before the belching whale; then is he yonder,
And there the strawy Greeks, ripe for his edge,
Fall down before him, like the mower's swath:
Here, there, and every where, he leaves, and takes
Dexterity so obeying appetite,
That what he will, he does; and does so much,
That proof is call'd impossibility.

Dio.

Thou dost miscall retire : I do not fly; but advantageous care Withdrew me from the odds of multitude: Have at thee!

Ther. Hold thy whore, Grecian -now for thy whore, Trojan!-now the sleeve, now the sleeve! [Exeunt Troilus and Diomedes, fighting. Enter Hector.

Heet. What art thou, Greek? art thou for Hector's match?

Art thou of blood, and honour?

Ther. No, no:-I am a rascal; a scurvy railing knave; a very filthy rogue.

Hect. I do believe thee;-live.
[Exit.
Ther. God-a-mercy, that thou wilt believe me;
But a plague break thy neck, for frighting me!
What's become of the wenching rogues? I think,
they have swallowed one another: I would laugh
at that miracle. Yet, in a sort, lechery eats itself.
I'll seek them.
[Exit.
SCENE V-The same. Enter Diomedes and a
Servant.

Dio. Go, go, my servant, take thou Troilus' horse;
Present the fair steed to my lady Cressid:
Fellow, commend my service to her beauty;
Tell her, I have chastis'd the amorous Trojan,
And am her knight by proof.
Serv.

I go, my lord.
[Exit Servant.

Enter Agamemnon.
Agam. Renew, renew! The fierce Polydamus
Hath beat down Menon: bastard Margarelon
Hath Doreus prisoner;

And stands colossus-wise, waving his beam,
Upon the pashed2 corses of the kings
Epistrophus and Cedius: Polixenes is slain;
Amphimachus, and Thoas, deadly hurt;
Patroclus ta'en, or slain; and Palamedes
Sore hurt and bruised: the dreadful Sagittary

(1) Lance.
(3) Shoal of fish.

Enter Ulysses.

Ulyss. O, courage, courage, princes! great
Achilles

Is arming, weeping, cursing, vowing vengeance:
Patroclus' wounds have rous'd his drowsy blood,
Together with his mangled Myrmidons,
That noseless, handless, hack'd and chipp'd, come
to him,

Crying on Hector. Ajax hath lost a friend,
And foams at mouth, and he is arm'd, and at it,
Roaring for Troilus; who hath done to-day
Mad and fantastic execution;

Engaging and redeeming of himself,
With such a careless force, and forceless care,
As if that luck, in very spite of cunning,
Bade him win all.

Enter Ajax

Ajax. Troilus! thou coward Troilus! [Exit.
Dio.
Ay, there, there.
Nest. So, so, we draw together.

Enter Achilles.

Achil.
Where is this Hector?
Come, come, thou boy-queller,4 show thy face;
Know what it is to meet Achilles angry.
Hector! where's Hector? I will none but Hector.
[Exeunt.
SCENE VI.—Another part of the field. Enter
Ajax.

Ajax. Troilus, thou coward Troilus, show thy
head!

Enter Diomedes.

Dio. Troilus, I say! where's Troilus?
Ajax.
What would'st thou

Dio. I would correct him.
Ajax. Were I the general, thou should'st have
my office,

Ere that correction:-Troilus, I say! what, Troilus!
Enter Troilus.

Tro. O traitor Diomed!-turn thy false face, thou
traitor,
And pay thy life thou ow'st me for my horse!

Dio. Ha! art thou there?

Ajax. I'll fight with him alone: stand, Diomed.
Dio. He is my prize, I will not look upon. 5
Tro. Come both, you cogging Greeks; have at
you both.
[Exeunt, fighting.

Enter Hector.

Hect. Yea, Troilus? O, well fought, my youngest brother.

(2) Bruised, crushed.
(4) Killer.

SCENE VIII.-The same. Enter Menelaus SCENE XI-Another part of the field. Enter and Paris, fighting: then Thersites. Ther. The cuckold and the cuckold-maker are at it: Now, bull! now, dog! 'Loo, Paris, 'loo! now my double-henned sparrow! 'Loo, Paris, 'loo! The bull has the game :-'ware horns, ho! [Exeunt Paris and Menelaus. Enter Margarelon.

Let Titan rise as early as he dare,

As many as be here of panders' hall,

I'll through and through you!—And thou, great-Your eyes, half out, weep out at Pandar's fall:

siz'd coward!

No space of earth shall sunder our two hates;
I'll haunt thee like a wicked conscience still,
That mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy thoughts.
Strike a free march to Troy !-with comfort go:
Hope of revenge shall hide our inward wo.
[Exeunt Eneas and Trojans.
As Troilus is going out, enter from the other side,
Pandarus.

Or, if you cannot weep, yet give some groans,
Though not for me, yet for your aching bones.
Brethren, and sisters, of the hold-door trade,
Some two months hence my will shall here be made:
It should be now, but that my fear is this,-
Some galled goose of Winchester would hiss:
Till then I'll sweat, and seek about for eases ;
And, at that time, bequeath you my diseases.

Pan. But hear you, hear you!
Tro. Hence, broker lackey! ignomy1 and shame
Pursue thy life, and live aye2 with thy name!
[Exit Troilus.
Pan. A goodly med'cine for my aching bones!-in
O world! world! world! thus is the poor agent
despised! O traitors and bawds, how earnestly are
you set a' work, and how ill requited! Why should
our endeavour be so loved, and the performance so
loathed? what verse for it? what instance for it?-
Let me see:-

Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing,
Till he hath lost his honey, and his sting:
And being once subdued in armed tail,
Sweet honey and sweet notes together fail.-
Good traders in the flesh, set this in your painted
cloths.3

(1) Ignominy.

(2) Ever.

[Exit.

This play is more correctly written than most of which either the extent of his views or elevation Shakspeare's compositions, but it is not one of those of his fancy is fully displayed. As the story abounded with materials, he has exerted little invention; but he has diversified his characters with great variety, and preserved them with great exactness. His vicious characters disgust, but cannot corrupt, for both Cressida and Pandarus are detested and contemned. The comic characters seem to have been the favourites of the writer: they are of the superficial kind, and exhibit more of manners, than nature; but they are copiously filled, and powerfully impressed. Shakspeare has in his story followed, for the greater part, the old book of Caxton, which was then very popular; but the character of Thersites, of which it makes no mention, is a proot lished his version of Homer.

(3) Canvass hangings for rooms, painted with that this play was written after Chapman had pubemblems and mottoes.

JOHNSON