CRESSIDA It is no matter, now I have’t again.
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I will not meet with you tomorrow night.
I prithee, Diomed, visit me no more.
THERSITES [aside] Now she sharpens. Well said,
whetstone!
DIOMEDES I shall have it.
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CRESSIDA What, this?
DIOMEDES Ay, that.
CRESSIDA O all you gods! – O pretty, pretty pledge!
Thy master now lies thinking on his bed
Of thee and me, and sighs, and takes my glove,
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And gives memorial dainty kisses to it –
As I kiss thee.
[He grabs the sleeve; she tries to get it back.]
DIOMEDES Nay, do not snatch it from me.
CRESSIDA
He that takes that doth take my heart withal.
DIOMEDES I had your heart before. This follows it.
TROILUS [aside] I did swear patience.
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CRESSIDA
You shall not have it, Diomed, faith, you shall not.
I’ll give you something else.
DIOMEDES I will have this. Whose was it?
CRESSIDA It is no matter.
DIOMEDES Come, tell me whose it was.
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CRESSIDA
’Twas one’s that loved me better than you will.
But now you have it, take it.
DIOMEDES Whose was it?
CRESSIDA By all Diana’s waiting-women yond,
And by herself, I will not tell you whose.
DIOMEDES Tomorrow will I wear it on my helm
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And grieve his spirit that dares not challenge it.
TROILUS [aside]
Wert thou the devil, and wor’st it on thy horn,
It should be challenged.
CRESSIDA
Well, well, ’tis done, ’tis past. And yet it is not;
I will not keep my word.
DIOMEDES Why then, farewell.
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Thou never shalt mock Diomed again.
[Starts to leave.]
CRESSIDA You shall not go. One cannot speak a word
But it straight starts you.
DIOMEDES I do not like this fooling.
TROILUS [aside]
Nor I, by Pluto; but that that likes not you
Pleases me best.
DIOMEDES What, shall I come? The hour?
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CRESSIDA
Ay, come. – O Jove! – Do, come. – I shall be plagued.
DIOMEDES Farewell till then. Exit.
CRESSIDA Good night. I prithee, come. –
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 I find:
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The error of our eye directs our mind.
What error leads must err. O, then conclude:
Minds swayed by eyes are full of turpitude. Exit.
THERSITES [aside]
A proof of strength she could not publish more,
Unless she said, ‘My mind is now turned whore’.
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ULYSSES All’s done, my lord.
TROILUS It is.
ULYSSES Why stay we, then?
TROILUS 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?
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Sith yet there is a credence in my heart,
An esperance so obstinately strong,
That doth invert th’attest of eyes and ears,
As if those organs had deceptious functions,
Created only to calumniate.
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Was Cressid here?
ULYSSES I cannot conjure, Trojan.
TROILUS She was not, sure.
ULYSSES Most sure she was.
TROILUS Why, my negation hath no taste of madness.
ULYSSES
Nor mine, my lord. Cressid was here but now.
TROILUS Let it not be believed, for womanhood!
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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.
ULYSSES
What hath she done, Prince, that can soil our mothers?
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TROILUS Nothing at all, unless that this were she.
THERSITES [aside] Will ’a swagger himself out on’s own
eyes?
TROILUS This she? No, this is Diomed’s Cressida.
If beauty have a soul, this is not she;
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If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimonies,
If sanctimony be the gods’ delight,
If there be rule in unity itself,
This is not she. O, madness of discourse,
That cause sets up with and against itself!
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Bifold 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 conduce a fight
Of this strange nature, that a thing inseparate
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Divides more wider than the sky and earth,
And yet the spacious breadth of this division
Admits no orifex for a point as subtle
As Ariachne’s broken woof to enter.
Instance, O instance, strong as Pluto’s gates,
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Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven;
Instance, O instance, strong as heaven itself,
The bonds of heaven are slipped, dissolved and loosed,
And with another knot, five-finger-tied,
The fractions of her faith, orts of her love,
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The fragments, scraps, the bits and greasy relics
Of her o’ereaten faith, are bound to Diomed.
ULYSSES May worthy Troilus be half attached
With that which here his passion doth express?
TROILUS Ay, Greek, and that shall be divulged well
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In characters as red as Mars his heart
Inflamed with Venus. Never did young man fancy
With so eternal and so fixed a soul.
Hark, Greek: as much as I do Cressid love,
So much by weight hate I her Diomed.
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That sleeve is mine that he’ll bear in his helm.
Were it a casque composed by Vulcan’s skill,
My sword should bite it. Not the dreadful spout
Which shipmen do the hurricano call,
Constringed in mass by the almighty sun,
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Shall dizzy with more clamour Neptune’s ear
In his descent than shall my prompted sword
Falling on Diomed.
THERSITES [aside] He’ll tickle it for his concupy.
TROILUS O Cressid! O false Cressid! False, false, false!
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Let all untruths stand by thy stained name,
And they’ll seem glorious.
ULYSSES O, contain yourself.
Your passion draws ears hither.
Enter AENEAS.
AENEAS [to Troilus]
I have been seeking you this hour, my lord.
HECTOR, by this, is arming him in Troy.
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Ajax, your guard, stays to conduct you home.
TROILUS
Have with you, Prince. – My courteous lord, adieu. –
Farewell, revolted fair! – And, Diomed,
Stand fast, and wear a castle on thy head!
ULYSSES I’ll bring you to the gates.
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TROILUS Accept distrac
ted thanks.
Exeunt Troilus, Aeneas and Ulysses.
THERSITES Would I could meet that rogue Diomed! I
would croak like a raven; I would bode, I would
bode. Patroclus will give me anything for the
intelligence of this whore. The parrot will not do
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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.
5.3 Enter HECTOR, armed and ANDROMACHE.
ANDROMACHE
When was my lord so much ungently tempered
To stop his ears against admonishment?
Unarm, unarm, and do not fight today.
HECTOR You train me to offend you. Get you in.
By all the everlasting gods, I’ll go!
5
ANDROMACHE
My dreams will sure prove ominous to the day.
HECTOR No more, I say.
Enter CASSANDRA.
CASSANDRA Where is my brother Hector?
ANDROMACHE
Here, sister, armed, and bloody in intent.
Consort with me in loud and dear petition;
Pursue we him on knees. For I have dreamt
10
Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night
Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of slaughter.
CASSANDRA O, ’tis true.
HECTOR[Calls out.] Ho! Bid my trumpet sound!
CASSANDRA
No notes of sally, for the heavens, sweet brother.
HECTOR Begone, I say. The gods have heard me swear.
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CASSANDRA
The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows.
They are polluted off ’rings, more abhorred
Than spotted livers in the sacrifice.
ANDROMACHE [to Hector]
O, be persuaded! Do not count it holy
To hurt by being just. It is as lawful,
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For we would give much, to use violent thefts,
And rob in the behalf of charity.
CASSANDRA
It is the purpose that makes strong the vow,
But vows to every purpose must not hold.
Unarm, sweet Hector.
HECTOR Hold you still, I say.
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Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate.
Life every man holds dear, but the dear man
Holds honour far more precious-dear than life.
Enter TROILUS armed.
How now, young man, mean’st thou to fight today?
ANDROMACHE Cassandra, call my father to persuade.
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Exit Cassandra.
HECTOR
No, faith, young Troilus, doff thy harness, youth.
I am today i’th’ vein of chivalry.
Let grow thy sinews till their knots be strong,
And tempt not yet the brushes of the war.
Unarm thee, go, and doubt thou not, brave boy,
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I’ll stand today for thee and me and Troy.
TROILUS Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you,
Which better fits a lion than a man.
HECTOR
What vice is that? Good Troilus, chide me for it.
TROILUS When many times the captive Grecian falls,
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Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword,
You bid them rise and live.
HECTOR O, ’tis fair play.
TROILUS Fool’s play, by heaven, Hector.
HECTOR How now, how now?
TROILUS For th’ love of all the gods,
Let’s leave the hermit Pity with our mothers,
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And when we have our armours buckled on,
The venomed vengeance ride upon our swords,
Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth.
HECTOR Fie, savage, fie!
TROILUS Hector, then ’tis wars.
HECTOR Troilus, I would not have you fight today.
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TROILUS Who should withhold me?
Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars
Beck’ning with fiery truncheon my retire;
Not Priamus and Hecuba on knees,
Their eyes o’ergalled with recourse of tears;
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Nor you, my brother, with your true sword drawn
Opposed to hinder me, should stop my way,
But by my ruin.
Enter PRIAM and CASSANDRA.
CASSANDRA Lay hold upon him, Priam, hold him fast;
He is thy crutch. Now if thou loose thy stay,
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The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 520