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Cressida. Will he give you the nod?1

Pandarus. You shall see.

Cressida. If he do, the rich shall have more.

HECTOR passes over.

Pandarus. That's Hector, that, that, look you, that: There's a fellow!-Go thy way, Hector;-There's a brave man, niece.-O brave, Hector!-Look, how he looks! there's a countenance: Is't not a brave man?

Cressida. O, a brave man!

Pandarus. Is 'a not? It does a man's heart good.Look you what hacks are on his helmet? look you yonder, do you see? look you there! There's no jesting: there's laying on; tak't off who will, as they say: there be hacks!

Cressida. Be those with swords?

PARIS passes over.

Pandarus. Swords? any thing, he cares not: an the devil come to him, it's all one:-) Yonder comes Paris, yonder comes Paris: look ye, yonder, niece; Is't not a gallant man, too, is't not?-Why, this is brave now.— Who said, he came hurt home to-day? he's not hurt: why this will do Helen's heart good now. Ha! would I could see Troilus now!-you shall see Troilus anon. Cressida. Who's that?

HELENUS passes over.

Pandarus. That's Helenus,-I marvel where Troilus is-That's Helenus;-I think he went not forth today-That's Helenus.

Cressida. Can Helenus fight, uncle?

Pandarus. Helenus? no;—yes, he'll fight indifferent well:-I marvel, where Troilus is!-Hark, do you not hear the people cry, Troilus?—Helenus is a priest. Cressida. What sneaking fellow comes yonder?

1 A term in the game at cards called noddy.

TROILUS passes over.

Pandarus. Where? yonder? that's Deiphobus: 'Tis Troilus! there's a man, niece!—Hem!-Brave Troilus! the prince of chivalry!

Cressida. Peace, for shame, peace!

Pandarus. Mark him; note him;-O brave Troilus! -look well upon him, niece; look you how his sword is bloodied, and his helm more hack'd than Hector's; And how he looks, and how he goes!-O admirable youth! he ne'er saw three and twenty. Go thy way, Troilus, go thy way; had I a sister were a grace, or a daughter a goddess, he should take his choice. O admirable man! Paris!-Paris is dirt to him; and, I warrant, Helen, to change, would give an eye to boot.

Forces pass over the Stage.

Cressida. Here come more.

Pandarus. Asses, fools, dolts! chaff and bran, chaff and bran; porridge after meat! I could live and die i' the eyes of Troilus. Ne'er look, ne'er look; the eagles are gone; crows and daws, crows and daws! I had rather be such a man as Troilus, than Agamemnon and all Greece.

Cressida. There is among the Greeks, Achilles; a better man than Troilus.

Pandarus. Achilles? a drayman, a porter, a very camel. Cressida. Well, well.

Pandarus. Well, well?-Why, have you any discretion? have you any eyes? Do you know what a man is? Is not birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that season a man?

Cressida. Ay, a minced man: and then to be baked with no date2 in the pye,-for then the man's date is out.

Enter TROILUS' BOY.

Boy. Sir, my lord would instantly speak with you. 2 Dates were an ingredient in ancient pastry of almost every kind.

Pandarus. Where?

Boy. At your own house; there he unarms him. Pandarus. Good boy, tell him I come: [Exit Boy.] I doubt he be hurt.-Fare ye well, good niece.

Cressida. Adieu, uncle.

Pandarus. I'll be with you, niece, by and by.
Cressida. To bring, uncle,-

Pandarus. Ay, a token from Troilus.

Cressida. By the same token-you are a pimp.

[Exit PANDARUS. Words, vows, griefs, tears, and love's full sacrifice, He offers in another's enterprize:

But more in Troilus thousand fold I see

Than in the glass of Pandar's praise may be:

Yet hold I off.

That she belov'd knows nought, that knows not this,-
Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is

That she was never yet that ever knew
Love got so sweet, as when desire did sue:
Therefore this maxim out of love I teach,-
Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech:
Then though my heart's content firm love doth bear,
Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear.

[Exit.

SCENE III.-The GRECIAN Camp. Before AGAMEM

NON'S Tent.

Trumpets. Enter AGAMEMNON, NESTOR, ULYSSES, MENELAUS, and Others.

Agamemnon. Princes,

What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks?
The ample proposition, that hope makes

In all designs begun on earth below,

Fails in the promis'd largeness; checks and disasters
Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd;

As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap,
Infect the sound pine, and divert his grain
Tortive and errant3 from his course of growth.

3 Twisted and rambling.

Nor, princes, is it matter new to us,
That we come short of our suppose so far,

That after seven years' siege, yet Troy walls stand ;
Sith1 every action that hath gone before,
Whereof we have record, trial did draw
Bias and thwart, not answering the aim,
And that unbodied figure of the thought

That gave surmised shape. Why then, you princes,
Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works;
And think them shames, which are, indeed, nought else
But the protractive trials of great Jove,

To find persistive constancy in men?

The fineness of which metal is not found

In fortune's love: for then, the bold and coward,
The wise and fool, the artist and unread,

The hard and soft, seem all affin'd and kin:
But, in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light away:
And what hath mass, or matter, by itself
Lies, rich in virtue, and unmingled.

Nestor. With due observance of thy godlike seat,
Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply

Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance,

Lies the true proof of men: The sea being smooth,
How many shallow bauble boats dare sail

Upon her patient breast, making their way

With those of nobler bulk.

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage

The gentle Thetis, and, anon, behold

The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut,
Bounding between the two moist elements,

Like Perseus' horse: Where's then the saucy boat,
Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now
Co-rival'd greatness? either to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so
Doth valour's show, and valour's worth, divide,
In storms of fortune: For, in her ray and brightness,
5 Joined by affinity.

4 Since.

The herd hath more annoyance by the brize,

Than by the tiger: but when the splitting wind
Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks,

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

As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize,

And, with an accent tun'd the self-same key

Returns to chiding fortune.

Ulysses.

Agamemnon,

Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece,
Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit,
In whom the tempers and the minds of all
Should be shut up,-hear what Ulysses speaks.
Besides the applause and approbation,

The which,—most mighty for thy place and sway,-
[To AGAMEMNON.
And thou most reverend for thy stretch'd-out life,—
[TO NESTOR.
I give to both your speeches,-which were such,
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece
Should hold up high in brass; and such again,
As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver,

Should with a bond of air (strong as the axle-tree
On which heaven rides,) knit all the Greekish ears
To his experienc'd tongue,-yet let it please both,-
Thou great, and wise, to hear Ulysses speak.
Agamemnon. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be't of less
expect?

That matter needless, of importless burden,
Divide thy lips: than we are confident,
When rank Thersites opes his mastiff jaws,

We shall hear musick, wit, and oracle.

Ulysses. Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down, And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master, But for these instances.

8

The specialty of rule hath been neglected:

And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand

6 The gad-fly that stings cattle.

8 Rights of authority.

VOL. V.

7

Expectation.

C

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