TPTT The History of Troilus and Cressida: ACT I
Introduction
PROLOGUE
ACT I
SCENE I. Troy. Before Priam's palace.
SCENE II. The Same. A street.
SCENE III. The Grecian camp. Before Agamemnon's tent.
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
Feedback
  Search:   
for:

Amazon Honor System Click Here to Pay Learn More
SCENE I. Troy. Before Priam's palace.
Enter TROILUS armed, and PANDARUS
TROILUS
      Call here my varlet; I'll unarm again:
      Why should I war without the walls of Troy,
      That find such cruel battle here within?
      Each Trojan that is master of his heart,
5     Let him to field; Troilus, alas! hath none.
PANDARUS
      Will this gear ne'er be mended?
TROILUS
      The Greeks are strong and skilful to their strength,
      Fierce to their skill and to their fierceness valiant;
      But I am weaker than a woman's tear,
10    Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance,
      Less valiant than the virgin in the night
      And skilless as unpractised infancy.
PANDARUS
      Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part,
      I'll not meddle nor make no further. He that will
15    have a cake out of the wheat must needs tarry the grinding.
TROILUS
      Have I not tarried?
PANDARUS
      Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry
      the bolting.
TROILUS
      Have I not tarried?
PANDARUS
20    Ay, the bolting, but you must tarry the leavening.
TROILUS
      Still have I tarried.
PANDARUS
      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
25    stay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips.
TROILUS
      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,--
30    So, traitor! 'When she comes!' When is she thence?
PANDARUS
      Well, she looked yesternight fairer than ever I saw
      her look, or any woman else.
TROILUS
      I was about to tell thee:--when my heart,
      As wedged with a sigh, would rive in twain,
35    Lest Hector or my father should perceive me,
      I have, as when the sun doth light a storm,
      Buried this sigh in wrinkle of a smile:
      But sorrow, that is couch'd in seeming gladness,
      Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness.
PANDARUS
40    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 term it, praise her: but I would
      somebody had heard her talk yesterday, as I did. I
45    will not dispraise your sister Cassandra's wit, but--
TROILUS
      O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus,--
      When I do tell thee, there my hopes lie drown'd,
      Reply not in how many fathoms deep
      They lie indrench'd. I tell thee I am mad
50    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,
      Handlest in thy discourse, O, that her hand,
      In whose comparison all whites are ink,
55    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 me,
      As true thou tell'st me, when I say I love her;
      But, saying thus, instead of oil and balm,
60    Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given me
      The knife that made it.
PANDARUS
      I speak no more than truth.
TROILUS
      Thou dost not speak so much.
PANDARUS
      Faith, I'll not meddle in't. Let her be as she is:
65    if she be fair, 'tis the better for her; an she be
      not, she has the mends in her own hands.
TROILUS
      Good Pandarus, how now, Pandarus!
PANDARUS
      I have had my labour for my travail; ill-thought on of
      her and ill-thought on of you; gone between and
70    between, but small thanks for my labour.
TROILUS
      What, art thou angry, Pandarus? what, with me?
PANDARUS
      Because she's kin to me, therefore she's not so fair
      as Helen: an she were not kin to me, she would be as
      fair on Friday as Helen is on Sunday. But what care
75    I? I care not an she were a black-a-moor; 'tis all one to me.
TROILUS
      Say I she is not fair?
PANDARUS
      I do not care whether you do or no. She's a 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,
80    I'll meddle nor make no more i' the matter.
TROILUS
      Pandarus,--
PANDARUS
      Not I.
TROILUS
      Sweet Pandarus,--
PANDARUS
      Pray you, speak no more to me: I will leave all as I
85    found it, and there an end.
Exit PANDARUS. An alarum
TROILUS
      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.
      I cannot fight upon this argument;
90    It is too starved 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 tetchy to be woo'd to woo.
      As she is stubborn-chaste against all suit.
95    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,
      Let it be call'd the wild and wandering flood,
100   Ourself the merchant, and this sailing Pandar
      Our doubtful hope, our convoy and our bark.
Alarum. Enter AENEAS
AENEAS
      How now, Prince Troilus! wherefore not afield?
TROILUS
      Because not there: this woman's answer sorts,
      For womanish it is to be from thence.
105   What news, AEneas, from the field to-day?
AENEAS
      That Paris is returned home and hurt.
TROILUS
      By whom, AEneas?
AENEAS
      Troilus, by Menelaus.
TROILUS
      Let Paris bleed; 'tis but a scar to scorn;
110   Paris is gored with Menelaus' horn.
Alarum
AENEAS
      Hark, what good sport is out of town to-day!
TROILUS
      Better at home, if 'would I might' were 'may.'
      But to the sport abroad: are you bound thither?
AENEAS
      In all swift haste.
TROILUS
115   Come, go we then together.
Exeunt
Return to top of page ... or ... Go to next scene