.4

Mock not, that I affect the untraded oath ;
Your quondam wife swears still by Venus' glove:
She's well, but bade me not commend her to you.
Men. Name her not now, sir; she's a deadly
theme.

› Hect. O, pardon; I offend.

Nest. I have, thou gallant Trojan, seen thee oft,
Labouring for destiny, make cruel way [thee
Through ranks of Greekish youth: and I have seen
As hot as Perseus, spur thy Phrygian steed,
Despising many forfeits and subduements,
When thou hast hung thy advanced sword i'theair,
Not letting it decline on the declin'd;
That I have said to some my standers-by,
Lo, Jupiter is yonder, dealing life!

And I have seen thee pause, and take thy breath,
When that a ring of Greeks have hemm'd thee in,
Like an Olympian wrestling: This have I seen;
But this thy countenance, still lock'd in still,
I never saw 'till now, I knew thy grandsire,
And once fought with him: he was a soldier good;
But, by great Mars, the captain of us all,
Never like thee ! let an old man embrace thee;
And, worthy warrior, welcome to our tents.
Ane. 'Tis the old Nestor.

Hect. Let me embrace thee, good old chronicle,
That hast so long walk'd hand in hand with time:--
Most reverend Nestor, I am glad to clasp thee.
Nest. I would, my arms could match thee in
contention,

As they contend with thee in courtesy.
Hect. I would they could.

Nest. Ha! by this white beard, I'd fight with
thee to-morrow.

10

[thee.

Achil. I am Achilles.
Hect. Stand fair, I pray thee: let me look on
Achil. Behold thy fill.

Hect. Nay, I have done already.

Achil. Thou art too brief; I willthe second time, As I would buy thee, view thee limb by limb. Hect. O, like a book of sport thou 'It read me o'er;

But there's more in me than thou understand'st. Why dost thou so oppress me with thine eye? Achil. Tell me, you heavens, in which part of his body [there? Shall I destroy him? whether there, there, or That I may give the local wound a name; 15 And make distinct the very breach whereout Hector's great spirit flew: Answer me, heavens! Hect. It would discredit the blest gods, proud

man,

To answer such a question: Stand again:
20 Think'st thou to catch my life so pleasantly,
As to prenominate in nice conjecture,
Where thou wilt hit me dead?

Achil. I tell thee, yea.

Hect. Wert thou an oracle to tell me so,

25 I'd not believe thee. Henceforth guard thee well;
For I'll not kill thee there, nor there, nor there;
But, by the forge that stithy'd Mars his elm,
I'll kill thee every where, yea, o'er and o'er.-
You wisest Grecians, pardon me this brag,
30 His insolence draws folly from my lips;
But I'll endeavour deeds to match these words,
Or may I never-

Well, welcome, welcome! I have seen the time-35
Ulyss. I wonder now how yonder city stands,
When we have here her base and pillar by us.
Hect. I know your favour, lord Ulysses, well.
Ah, sir, there's many a Greek and Trojan dead,
Since first I saw yourself and Diomed
In Ilion, on your Greekish embassy.

:

40

Ulyss. Sir, I foretold you then what would ensue
My prophecy is but half his journey yet;
For yonder walls that pertly front your town,
Yon towers, whose wanton tops do buss the clouds, 45
Must kiss their own feet.

Hect. I must not believe you:

There they stand yet; and modestly I think,
The fall of every Phrygian stone will cost

A drop of Grecian blood: The end crowns all;
And that old common arbitrator, time,
Will one day end it.

Ulyss. So to him we leave it.

Most gentle, and most valiant Hector, welcome:
After the general, I beseech you next
To feast with me, and see me at my tent.

Achil. I shall forestall thee, lord Ulysses, thou"-
Now, Hector, I have fed mine eyes on thee;.
I have with exact view perus'd thee, Hector,
And quoted joint by joint.
Hect. Is this Achilles?

Ajax. Do not chafe thee, cousin ;-
And you, Achilles, let these threats alone,
Till accident, or purpose, bring you to 't:
You may have every day enough of Hector,
If you have stomach; the general state, I fear,
Can scarce entreat you to be odd with him.

Hect. I pray you, let us see you in the field:
We have had pelting wars, since you refus'd
The Grecians' cause.

Achil. Dost thou entreat me, Hector?
To-morrow do I meet thee, fell as death;
To-night, all friends.

Hect. Thy hand upon that match. [tent;
Agam. First all your peers of Greece, go to my
There in the full convive 'we: afterwards,
As Hector's leisure and your bounties shall
Concur together, severally entreat him.——
50 Beat loud the tabourines 4, let the trumpets blow,
That this great soldier may his welcome know.
[Exeunt.

Manent Troilus, and Ulysses.
Troi. My lord Ulysses, tell me, I beseech you,
55 In what place of the field doth Calchas keep?

Ulyss. At Menelaus' tent, most princely Troilus:,
There Diomed doth feast with him to-night;
Who neither looks on heaven, nor on the earth,
But gives all gaze and bent of amorous view
60 On the fair Cressid.

[much, Troi. Shall I, sweet lord, be bound to you so

The repetition of thou! was anciently used by one who meant to insult another.

served.

To convive is to feast.

Tabourines are small drums.

3L2

2 i. e.

ob

After

After we part from Agamemnon's tent,
To bring them thither?

Ulyss. You shall command me, sir.
As gentle tell me, of what honour was

This Cressida in Troy? Had she no lover there, 5
That wails her absence?

Troi. O, sir, to such as boasting shew their scars
A mock is due. Will you walk on, my lord?
She was belov'd, she lov'd; she is, and doth:
But, still, sweet love is food for fortune's tooth.
[Exeunt

SCENE I.

Achilles' Tent.

ACT V.

Achil. Ho now, thou core of envy?
Thou crusty batch of nature, what's the news?

Ther. Why, thou picture of what thou seemest, and idol of ideot-worshippers, here's a letter for thee.

Achil. From whence, fragment?

Ther. Why, thou full dish of fool, from Troy.]
Patr. Who keeps the tent now?

Ther.The surgeon's box, or the patient's wound. Patr. Well said, adversity! and what need these tricks?

Ther. Pr'ythee be silent, boy; I profit not by thy talk: thou art thought to be Achilles' male varlet.

Ther. Finch egg!

Achil. My sweet Patroclus, I am thwarted quite
From my great purpose in to-morrow's battle.
Here is a letter from queen Hecuba;
A token from her daughter, my fair love;
20 Both taxing me, and gaging me to keep

An oath that I have sworn. I will not break it:
Fall, Greeks; fail, fame; honour, or go or stay;
My major vows lie here, this I'll obey.-
Come, come, Thersites, help to trim my tent;
25 This night in banqueting must all be spent.—
Away, Patroclus.
Exeunt.

Ther. With too much blood, and too little brain,
these two may run mad: but if with too much
brain and too little blood, they do, I'll be a curer
30 of madmen. Here's Agamemnon,-
-an honest
fellow enough, and one that loves quails 2; but
he hath not so much brain as ear-wax: And the
goodly transformation of Jupiter there, his brother,
the bull,--the primitive statue, and oblique' me-
35 morial of cuckolds; a thrifty shoeing-horn in a
chain, hanging at his brother'sleg,-to what form,
but that he is, should wit larded with malice, and
malice forced with wit, turn him? To an ass,
were nothing; he is both ass and ox: to an ox
were nothing; he is both ox and ass. To be a
dog, a mule, a cat, a fitchew, a toad, a lizard, an
owl, a puttock, or a herring without a roe, I
would not care: but to be a Menelaus,-I would
conspire against destiny. Ask me not what I
would be, if I were not Thersites; for I care not
to be the louse of a lazar, so I were not Menelaus.
-Hey day! spirits, and fires!

Pair. Male varlet, you rogue! what's that? Ther. Why, his masculine whore. Now the 40 rotten diseases of the south, the guts-griping, ruptures, catarrhs, loads o' gravel i' the back, lethargies, cold palsies, raw eyes, dirt-rotten livers, wheezing lungs, bladders fullofimposthume, sciaticas, lime-kilns i' the palm, incurable bone-ache, 45 and the rivell'd fee-simple of the tetter, take and take again such preposterous discoveries!

Patr. Why, thou damnable box of envy, thou, what meanest thou to curse thus?

1

4

Enter Hector, Troilus, Ajax, Agamemnon, Ulysses,
Nestor, and Diomed, with lights.
Agam. We go wrong, we go wrong.
Ajax. No, yonder 'tis;

There, where we see the light.

Hect. I trouble you.
Ajax. No, not a whit.

Ulyss. Here comes himself to guide you.
Enter Achilles.

Achil. Welcome, brave Hector; welcome,

(princes all.

2

1 Batch signifies all that is baked at one time, without heating the oven afresh. A batch of bread is a phrase still used in Staffordshire.-Thersites had already been called cobloaf. By loving quails, the poet may mean loving the company of harlots.-A quail is remarkably salacious. 3 The author of The Revisal observes, that "the memorial is called oblique, because it was only indirectly such, upon the common supposition that both bulls and cuckolds were furnished with horns." suged with wit.

1

* i. e. Agam.

I'll keep you company;

Troi. Sweet sir, you honour me.
Hect. And so, good night.

Achil. Come, come, enter my tent.

20

Exeunt severally. Ther. That same Diomed's a false-hearted rogue, a most unjust knave; I will no more trust him 25 when he leers, than I will a serpent when he hisses: he will spend his mouth, and promise like Brabler the hound; but when he performs, astronomers foretell it; it is prodigious, there will come some change; the sun borrows of the moon, 30 when Diomed keeps his word. I will rather leave to see Hector, than not to dog him: they say, he keeps a Trojan drab, and uses the traitor Calchas his tent: I'll after.-Nothing but lechery! all incontinent varlets!

Exit. 35

Enter Troilus, and Ulysses, at a distance; after

them Thersites.

Ulyss.Stand where the torch may not discover us.

Enter Cressida.

Troi. Cressid come forth to him!

40

Diom. Pho! pho! come, tell a pin: You are forsworn

Cres. In faith, I cannot: What would you have me do?

Ther. A juggling trick, to be-secretly open.
Diom. What did you swear you would bestow

on me?

Cres. I pr'ythee, do not hold me to mine oath;
Bid me do any thing but that, sweet Greek.
Diom. Good night.

Troi. Hold, patience!
Ulyss. How now, Trojan?
Cres. Diomed,-

Diom. No, no, good night: I'll be your fool

no more.

Troi. Thy better must,

[pray you,

Cres. Hark, one word in your ear.
Troi. O plague and madness!
Ulyss. You are mov'd, prince; let us depart, I'
Lest your displeasure should enlarge itself
To wrathful terms: this place is dangerous;
The time right deadly; I beseech you, go.

Troi. Behold, I pray you!

Ulyss. Now, good my lord, go off:
You flow to great distraction': come, my lord.
Troi. I pr'ythee, stay.

Ulyss. You have not patience; come. [torments,
Troi. I pray you, stay; by hell, and by hell's
I will not speak a word.

Diom. And so good night.

Cres. Nay Hut you part in anger.

Troi. Doth that grieve thee?

O wither'd truth!

Ulyss. Why, how now, lord?
Troi. By Jove, I will be patient.
Cres. Guardian!-why, Greek!

Diom. Pho, pho! adieu; you palter,

Cres. In faith, I do not; come hither once again. Ulyss, You shake, my lord, at something; will you go?

50 You will break out.

55

Ther. And any man

May sing her, if he can take her cliff; she's noted.
Diom. Will you remember?

If a hound gives his mouth, and is not upon the scent of the game, he is by sportsmen called a babler or brabler. Cliff is a mark in musick at the beginning of the lines of a song; and is the indication of the pitch, and bespeaks what kind of voice, as base, tenour, treble, it is proper for 3 The meaning is, The tide of your imagination will hurry you either to noble death from the hand of Diomed, or to the height of madness from the predominance of your own passions. 4 Mr. Collins explains this passage thus: "Luxuria was the appropriate term used by school-divines, to express the sin of incontinence, which accordingly is called luxury in all our old English writers.-But 3L 3

why

Diom. But will you then?

Cres. In faith, I will, la; never trust me else.
Diom. Give me some token for the surety of it.
Cres. I'll fetch you one.

Ulyss. You have sworn patience.
Troi. Fear me not, my lord;

I will not be myself, nor have cognition
Of what I feel; I am all patience.
Re-enter Cressida.

Ther. Now the pledge; now, now, now!
Cres. Here, Diomed, keep this sleeve '.
-Troi. O beauty!

Where is thy faith?

Ulyss. My lord,—

Troi. I will be patient; outwardly, I will.
Cres. You look upon that sleeve: Behold it
well.

He lov'd-me-O false wench!-Give't me again.
Diom. Whose was't?

Cres. It is no matter, now I have't again.
I will not meet with you to-morrow night:
I pr'ythee, Diomed, visit me no more.
Ther.Now she sharpens;-Well said, whetstone.
Diom. I shall have it.

Of thee, and me; and sighs, and takes my glove,
And gives memorial dainty kisses to it,
As I kiss thee.-Nay, do not snatch it from me;
He, that takes that, must take my heart withal.
Diom. I had your heart before, this follows it.
Troi. I did swear patience.

but now.

Troi. Let it not be believ'd for womanhood! Think, we had mothers; do not give advantage

Cres. You shall not have it, Diomed; faith 35 To stubborn critics-apt, without a theme,

you shall not;

I'll give you something else.

Diom. I will have this; Whose was it?

Cres. It is no matter.

Diom. Come, tell me whose it was.

[will. 40

Cres. 'Twas one's that lov'd me better than you

But, now you have it, take it.

Diom. Whose was it?

Cres. By all Diana's waiting women yonder 2, And by herself, I will not tell you whose.

Diom. To-morrow will I wear it on my helm;| And grieve his spirit, that dares not challenge it. Troi. Wer't thou the devil, and wor'st it on thy horn,

45

[is not: 50

It should be challeng'd.
Cres. Well, well, 'tis done, 'tis past;and yet it
I will not keep my
word.

Diom. Why then, farewell;
Thou never shalt mock Diomed again.

For depravation--to square the general sex
By Cressid's rule: rather think this is not Cressid.
Ulyss. What hath she done, prince, that can
soil our mothers?

Troi. Nothing at all, unless that this were she.
Ther, Will he swagger himself out on's own eyes?
Troi. This she? no, this is Diomed's Cressida:
If beauty have a soul, this is not she;
If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimony,
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!
Bi-fold 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 commence a fight
Of this strange nature, that a thing inseparate
Divides far wider than the sky and earth;
And yet the spacious breadth of this division
Admits no orifice for a point, as subtle
As Arachnè's broken woof, to enter.
Instance, O instance! strong as Pluto's gates:
Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven:
60 Instance, O instance! strong as Heaven itself,

Cres. You shall not go:-One cannot speak a 55 But it straight starts you.

Diom. I do not like this fooling.

[word,

Ther. Nor I,by Pluto: but that that likes not you,

why is luxury, or lasciviousness, said to have a potatoe finger?-This root, which was in our author's time but newly imported from America, was considered as a rare exotic, and esteemed a very strong provocative.'

It was anciently the custom to wear a lady's sleeve for a favour. 2 i. e. the stars which she points to. i. e, she could not publish a stronger proof. * That is, If there be certainty in anity, if it be a rule that one is one. The words loss and ferdition are used in their common tense, but they mean the loss or perdition of reason.

The

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,

Enter Cassandra.

Cas. Where is my brother Hector?

And. Here, sister; arm'd, and bloody in intent: Consort with me in loud and dear petition,

The fragments, scraps, the bits, and greasy reliques 5 Pursue we him on knees; for I have dreamt

Of her o'er-eaten' faith, are bound to Diomed.
Ulyss. May worthy Troilus be half attach'd
With that which here his passion doth express!

10

Troi. Ay, Greek; and that shall be divulged well
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; 15
Were it a casque compos'd by Vulcan's skill,
My sword should bite it: not the dreadful spout,
Which shipmen do the hurricano call,
Constring'd 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.

Ther. He'll tickle it for his concupy.
Troi.OCressid! OfalseCressid! 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.

120

Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night [ter.
Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of slaugh
Cas. O, it is true.

Hect. Ho! bid my trumpet sound!

Cas. No notes of sally, for the heavens, sweet
brother.
[swear.
Hect. Begone, I say: the gods have heard me
Cas. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows;
They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd
Than spotted livers in the sacrifice.

And. O be persuaded: Do not count it holy
To hurt by being just: it is as lawful
For us to count we give what's gain'd by thefts,
And rob in the behalf of charity.

Cas. It is the purpose, that makes strong the vow;
But vows to every purpose must not hold:
Unarm, sweet Hector.

Hect. Hold you still, I say;

Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate:
25 Life every man holds dear; but the dear man
Holds honour far more precious-dear than life.-
Enter Troilus.

Ene.I have been seeking you this hour, mylord; 30
Hector, by this, is arming him in Troy;
Ajax, your guard, stays to conduct you home.
Troi. 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.
Troi. Accept distracted thanks.

How now, young man? mean'st thou to fight to-
day?

And, Cassandra, call my father to persuade.
[Exit Cassandra.
Hect. No, 'faith, young Troilus; doff' thy har-
ness, youth;

I am to-day i' the vein of chivalry:
35 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,
I'll stand, to-day, for thee, and me, and Troy.
Troi. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you,
Which better fits a lion, than a man.

[Exeunt Troilus, Æneas, and Ulysses. Ther. Would, I could meet that rogue Diomed! 40 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 45 lechery: nothing else holds fashion; A burning devil take them! [Exit.

Hect. What vice is that, good Troilus? chide

me for it.

[fall,

Troi. When many times the captive Grecians Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword, You bid them rise, and live.

Hect. O, 'tis fair play.

Troi. Fool's play, by heaven, Hector!
Hect. How now? how now?

Troi. For the love of all the gods,

50 Let's leave the hermit pity with our mother;
And when we have our armours buckled on,
The venom'd vengeance ride upon our swords;
Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth.
Hect. Fie, savage, fie!

55

Troi. Hector, then 'tis wars.

[day,

Hect. Troilus, I would not have you fight to-
Troi. Who should withhold me?

Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars
Beckoning with fiery truncheon my retire;

A knot tied by giving her hand to Diomed. 2 Vows which she has already swallowed once over.-We still say of a faithless man, that he has eaten his words. It has been before observed in note, p. 843, that by a castle was meant a close helmet. 4i. e. the valuable man, i. e. put off.