TPTT The History of Troilus and Cressida: ACT III
Introduction
PROLOGUE
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
SCENE I. Troy. Priam's palace.
SCENE II. The same. Pandarus' orchard.
SCENE III. The Grecian camp. Before Achilles' tent.
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
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SCENE III. The Grecian camp. Before Achilles' tent.
Enter AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES, DIOMEDES, NESTOR, AJAX, MENELAUS, and CALCHAS
CALCHAS
      Now, princes, for the service I have done you,
      The advantage of the time prompts me aloud
      To call for recompense. Appear it to your mind
      That, through the sight I bear in things to love,
5     I have abandon'd Troy, left my possession,
      Incurr'd a traitor's name; exposed myself,
      From certain and possess'd conveniences,
      To doubtful fortunes; sequestering from me all
      That time, acquaintance, custom and condition
10    Made tame and most familiar to my nature,
      And here, to do you service, am become
      As new into the world, strange, unacquainted:
      I do beseech you, as in way of taste,
      To give me now a little benefit,
15    Out of those many register'd in promise,
      Which, you say, live to come in my behalf.
AGAMEMNON
      What wouldst thou of us, Trojan? make demand.
CALCHAS
      You have a Trojan prisoner, call'd Antenor,
      Yesterday took: Troy holds him very dear.
20    Oft have you--often have you thanks therefore--
      Desired my Cressid in right great exchange,
      Whom Troy hath still denied: but this Antenor,
      I know, is such a wrest in their affairs
      That their negotiations all must slack,
25    Wanting his manage; and they will almost
      Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam,
      In change of him: let him be sent, great princes,
      And he shall buy my daughter; and her presence
      Shall quite strike off all service I have done,
30    In most accepted pain.
AGAMEMNON
      Let Diomedes bear him,
      And bring us Cressid hither: Calchas shall have
      What he requests of us. Good Diomed,
      Furnish you fairly for this interchange:
35    Withal bring word if Hector will to-morrow
      Be answer'd in his challenge: Ajax is ready.
DIOMEDES
      This shall I undertake; and 'tis a burden
      Which I am proud to bear.
Exeunt DIOMEDES and CALCHAS
Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS, before their tent
ULYSSES
      Achilles stands i' the entrance of his tent:
40    Please it our general to pass strangely by him,
      As if he were forgot; and, princes all,
      Lay negligent and loose regard upon him:
      I will come last. 'Tis like he'll question me
      Why such unplausive eyes are bent on him:
45    If so, I have derision medicinable,
      To use between your strangeness and his pride,
      Which his own will shall have desire to drink:
      It may be good: pride hath no other glass
      To show itself but pride, for supple knees
50    Feed arrogance and are the proud man's fees.
AGAMEMNON
      We'll execute your purpose, and put on
      A form of strangeness as we pass along:
      So do each lord, and either greet him not,
      Or else disdainfully, which shall shake him more
55    Than if not look'd on. I will lead the way.
ACHILLES
      What, comes the general to speak with me?
      You know my mind, I'll fight no more 'gainst Troy.
AGAMEMNON
      What says Achilles? would he aught with us?
NESTOR
      Would you, my lord, aught with the general?
ACHILLES
60    No.
NESTOR
      Nothing, my lord.
AGAMEMNON
      The better.
Exeunt AGAMEMNON and NESTOR
ACHILLES
      Good day, good day.
MENELAUS
      How do you? how do you?
Exit
ACHILLES
65    What, does the cuckold scorn me?
AJAX
      How now, Patroclus!
ACHILLES
      Good morrow, Ajax.
AJAX
      Ha?
ACHILLES
      Good morrow.
AJAX
70    Ay, and good next day too.
Exit
ACHILLES
      What mean these fellows? Know they not Achilles?
PATROCLUS
      They pass by strangely: they were used to bend
      To send their smiles before them to Achilles;
      To come as humbly as they used to creep
75    To holy altars.
ACHILLES
      What, am I poor of late?
      'Tis certain, greatness, once fall'n out with fortune,
      Must fall out with men too: what the declined is
      He shall as soon read in the eyes of others
80    As feel in his own fall; for men, like butterflies,
      Show not their mealy wings but to the summer,
      And not a man, for being simply man,
      Hath any honour, but honour for those honours
      That are without him, as place, riches, favour,
85    Prizes of accident as oft as merit:
      Which when they fall, as being slippery standers,
      The love that lean'd on them as slippery too,
      Do one pluck down another and together
      Die in the fall. But 'tis not so with me:
90    Fortune and I are friends: I do enjoy
      At ample point all that I did possess,
      Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out
      Something not worth in me such rich beholding
      As they have often given. Here is Ulysses;
95    I'll interrupt his reading.
      How now Ulysses!
ULYSSES
      Now, great Thetis' son!
ACHILLES
      What are you reading?
ULYSSES
      A strange fellow here
100   Writes me: 'That man, how dearly ever parted,
      How much in having, or without or in,
      Cannot make boast to have that which he hath,
      Nor feels not what he owes, but by reflection;
      As when his virtues shining upon others
105   Heat them and they retort that heat again
      To the first giver.'
ACHILLES
      This is not strange, Ulysses.
      The beauty that is borne here in the face
      The bearer knows not, but commends itself
110   To others' eyes; nor doth the eye itself,
      That most pure spirit of sense, behold itself,
      Not going from itself; but eye to eye opposed
      Salutes each other with each other's form;
      For speculation turns not to itself,
115   Till it hath travell'd and is mirror'd there
      Where it may see itself. This is not strange at all.
ULYSSES
      I do not strain at the position,--
      It is familiar,--but at the author's drift;
      Who, in his circumstance, expressly proves
120   That no man is the lord of any thing,
      Though in and of him there be much consisting,
      Till he communicate his parts to others:
      Nor doth he of himself know them for aught
      Till he behold them form'd in the applause
125   Where they're extended; who, like an arch,
      reverberates
      The voice again, or, like a gate of steel
      Fronting the sun, receives and renders back
      His figure and his heat. I was much wrapt in this;
130   And apprehended here immediately
      The unknown Ajax.
      Heavens, what a man is there! a very horse,
      That has he knows not what. Nature, what things there are
      Most abject in regard and dear in use!
135   What things again most dear in the esteem
      And poor in worth! Now shall we see to-morrow--
      An act that very chance doth throw upon him--
      Ajax renown'd. O heavens, what some men do,
      While some men leave to do!
140   How some men creep in skittish fortune's hall,
      Whiles others play the idiots in her eyes!
      How one man eats into another's pride,
      While pride is fasting in his wantonness!
      To see these Grecian lords!--why, even already
145   They clap the lubber Ajax on the shoulder,
      As if his foot were on brave Hector's breast
      And great Troy shrieking.
ACHILLES
      I do believe it; for they pass'd by me
      As misers do by beggars, neither gave to me
150   Good word nor look: what, are my deeds forgot?
ULYSSES
      Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back,
      Wherein he puts alms for oblivion,
      A great-sized monster of ingratitudes:
      Those scraps are good deeds past; which are devour'd
155   As fast as they are made, forgot as soon
      As done: perseverance, dear my lord,
      Keeps honour bright: to have done is to hang
      Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail
      In monumental mockery. Take the instant way;
160   For honour travels in a strait so narrow,
      Where one but goes abreast: keep then the path;
      For emulation hath a thousand sons
      That one by one pursue: if you give way,
      Or hedge aside from the direct forthright,
165   Like to an enter'd tide, they all rush by
      And leave you hindmost;
      Or like a gallant horse fall'n in first rank,
      Lie there for pavement to the abject rear,
      O'er-run and trampled on: then what they do in present,
170   Though less than yours in past, must o'ertop yours;
      For time is like a fashionable host
      That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand,
      And with his arms outstretch'd, as he would fly,
      Grasps in the comer: welcome ever smiles,
175   And farewell goes out sighing. O, let not
      virtue seek
      Remuneration for the thing it was;
      For beauty, wit,
      High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service,
180   Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all
      To envious and calumniating time.
      One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,
      That all with one consent praise new-born gawds,
      Though they are made and moulded of things past,
185   And give to dust that is a little gilt
      More laud than gilt o'er-dusted.
      The present eye praises the present object.
      Then marvel not, thou great and complete man,
      That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax;
190   Since things in motion sooner catch the eye
      Than what not stirs. The cry went once on thee,
      And still it might, and yet it may again,
      If thou wouldst not entomb thyself alive
      And case thy reputation in thy tent;
195   Whose glorious deeds, but in these fields of late,
      Made emulous missions 'mongst the gods themselves
      And drave great Mars to faction.
ACHILLES
      Of this my privacy
      I have strong reasons.
ULYSSES
200   But 'gainst your privacy
      The reasons are more potent and heroical:
      'Tis known, Achilles, that you are in love
      With one of Priam's daughters.
ACHILLES
      Ha! known!
ULYSSES
205   Is that a wonder?
      The providence that's in a watchful state
      Knows almost every grain of Plutus' gold,
      Finds bottom in the uncomprehensive deeps,
      Keeps place with thought and almost, like the gods,
210   Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles.
      There is a mystery--with whom relation
      Durst never meddle--in the soul of state;
      Which hath an operation more divine
      Than breath or pen can give expressure to:
215   All the commerce that you have had with Troy
      As perfectly is ours as yours, my lord;
      And better would it fit Achilles much
      To throw down Hector than Polyxena:
      But it must grieve young Pyrrhus now at home,
220   When fame shall in our islands sound her trump,
      And all the Greekish girls shall tripping sing,
      'Great Hector's sister did Achilles win,
      But our great Ajax bravely beat down him.'
      Farewell, my lord: I as your lover speak;
225   The fool slides o'er the ice that you should break.
Exit
PATROCLUS
      To this effect, Achilles, have I moved you:
      A woman impudent and mannish grown
      Is not more loathed than an effeminate man
      In time of action. I stand condemn'd for this;
230   They think my little stomach to the war
      And your great love to me restrains you thus:
      Sweet, rouse yourself; and the weak wanton Cupid
      Shall from your neck unloose his amorous fold,
      And, like a dew-drop from the lion's mane,
235   Be shook to air.
ACHILLES
      Shall Ajax fight with Hector?
PATROCLUS
      Ay, and perhaps receive much honour by him.
ACHILLES
      I see my reputation is at stake
      My fame is shrewdly gored.
PATROCLUS
240   O, then, beware;
      Those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves:
      Omission to do what is necessary
      Seals a commission to a blank of danger;
      And danger, like an ague, subtly taints
245   Even then when we sit idly in the sun.
ACHILLES
      Go call Thersites hither, sweet Patroclus:
      I'll send the fool to Ajax and desire him
      To invite the Trojan lords after the combat
      To see us here unarm'd: I have a woman's longing,
250   An appetite that I am sick withal,
      To see great Hector in his weeds of peace,
      To talk with him and to behold his visage,
      Even to my full of view.

Enter THERSITES

      A labour saved!
THERSITES
255   A wonder!
ACHILLES
      What?
THERSITES
      Ajax goes up and down the field, asking for himself.
ACHILLES
      How so?
THERSITES
      He must fight singly to-morrow with Hector, and is so
260   prophetically proud of an heroical cudgelling that he
      raves in saying nothing.
ACHILLES
      How can that be?
THERSITES
      Why, he stalks up and down like a peacock,--a stride
      and a stand: ruminates like an hostess that hath no
265   arithmetic but her brain to set down her reckoning:
      bites his lip with a politic regard, as who should
      say 'There were wit in this head, an 'twould out;'
      and so there is, but it lies as coldly in him as fire
      in a flint, which will not show without knocking.
270   The man's undone forever; for if Hector break not his
      neck i' the combat, he'll break 't himself in
      vain-glory. He knows not me: I said 'Good morrow,
      Ajax;' and he replies 'Thanks, Agamemnon.' What think
      you of this man that takes me for the general? He's
275   grown a very land-fish, language-less, a monster.
      A plague of opinion! a man may wear it on both
      sides, like a leather jerkin.
ACHILLES
      Thou must be my ambassador to him, Thersites.
THERSITES
      Who, I? why, he'll answer nobody; he professes not
280   answering: speaking is for beggars; he wears his
      tongue in's arms. I will put on his presence: let
      Patroclus make demands to me, you shall see the
      pageant of Ajax.
ACHILLES
      To him, Patroclus; tell him I humbly desire the
285   valiant Ajax to invite the most valorous Hector
      to come unarmed to my tent, and to procure
      safe-conduct for his person of the magnanimous
      and most illustrious six-or-seven-times-honoured
      captain-general of the Grecian army, Agamemnon,
290   et cetera. Do this.
PATROCLUS
      Jove bless great Ajax!
THERSITES
      Hum!
PATROCLUS
      I come from the worthy Achilles,--
THERSITES
      Ha!
PATROCLUS
295   Who most humbly desires you to invite Hector to his tent,--
THERSITES
      Hum!
PATROCLUS
      And to procure safe-conduct from Agamemnon.
THERSITES
      Agamemnon!
PATROCLUS
      Ay, my lord.
THERSITES
300   Ha!
PATROCLUS
      What say you to't?
THERSITES
      God b' wi' you, with all my heart.
PATROCLUS
      Your answer, sir.
THERSITES
      If to-morrow be a fair day, by eleven o'clock it will
305   go one way or other: howsoever, he shall pay for me
      ere he has me.
PATROCLUS
      Your answer, sir.
THERSITES
      Fare you well, with all my heart.
ACHILLES
      Why, but he is not in this tune, is he?
THERSITES
310   No, but he's out o' tune thus. What music will be in
      him when Hector has knocked out his brains, I know
      not; but, I am sure, none, unless the fiddler Apollo
      get his sinews to make catlings on.
ACHILLES
      Come, thou shalt bear a letter to him straight.
THERSITES
315   Let me bear another to his horse; for that's the more
      capable creature.
ACHILLES
      My mind is troubled, like a fountain stirr'd;
      And I myself see not the bottom of it.
Exeunt ACHILLES and PATROCLUS
THERSITES
      Would the fountain of your mind were clear again,
320   that I might water an ass at it! I had rather be a
      tick in a sheep than such a valiant ignorance.
Exit
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