Speeches (Lines) for Troilus
in "Troilus and Cressida"
Total: 131

1

I,1,33

(stage directions). [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,
Let him to field; Troilus, alas! hath none.

2

I,1,39

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,
Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance,
Less valiant than the virgin in the night
And skilless as unpractised infancy.

3

I,1,48

Pandarus. Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part,
I'll not meddle nor make no further. He that will
have a cake out of the wheat must needs tarry the grinding.

Troilus. Have I not tarried?

4

I,1,51

Pandarus. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry
the bolting.

Troilus. Have I not tarried?

5

I,1,53

Pandarus. Ay, the bolting, but you must tarry the leavening.

Troilus. Still have I tarried.

6

I,1,58

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
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,—
So, traitor! 'When she comes!' When is she thence?

7

I,1,65

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,
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.

8

I,1,78

Pandarus. 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
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
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,
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,
Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given me
The knife that made it.

9

I,1,95

Pandarus. I speak no more than truth.

Troilus. Thou dost not speak so much.

10

I,1,99

Pandarus. Faith, I'll not meddle in't. Let her be as she is:
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!

11

I,1,103

Pandarus. I have had my labour for my travail; ill-thought on of
her and ill-thought on of you; gone between and
between, but small thanks for my labour.

Troilus. What, art thou angry, Pandarus? what, with me?

12

I,1,108

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
I? I care not an she were a black-a-moor; 'tis all one to me.

Troilus. Say I she is not fair?

13

I,1,113

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,
I'll meddle nor make no more i' the matter.

Troilus. Pandarus,—

14

I,1,115

Pandarus. Not I.

Troilus. Sweet Pandarus,—

15

I,1,119

(stage directions). [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;
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.
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,
Ourself the merchant, and this sailing Pandar
Our doubtful hope, our convoy and our bark.

16

I,1,137

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.
What news, AEneas, from the field to-day?

17

I,1,141

Aeneas. That Paris is returned home and hurt.

Troilus. By whom, AEneas?

18

I,1,143

Aeneas. Troilus, by Menelaus.

Troilus. Let Paris bleed; 'tis but a scar to scorn;
Paris is gored with Menelaus' horn.

19

I,1,147

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?

20

I,1,150

Aeneas. In all swift haste.

Troilus. Come, go we then together.

21

II,2,1015

Hector. Though no man lesser fears the Greeks than I
As far as toucheth my particular,
Yet, dread Priam,
There is no lady of more softer bowels,
More spongy to suck in the sense of fear,
More ready to cry out 'Who knows what follows?'
Than Hector is: the wound of peace is surety,
Surety secure; but modest doubt is call'd
The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches
To the bottom of the worst. Let Helen go:
Since the first sword was drawn about this question,
Every tithe soul, 'mongst many thousand dismes,
Hath been as dear as Helen; I mean, of ours:
If we have lost so many tenths of ours,
To guard a thing not ours nor worth to us,
Had it our name, the value of one ten,
What merit's in that reason which denies
The yielding of her up?

Troilus. Fie, fie, my brother!
Weigh you the worth and honour of a king
So great as our dread father in a scale
Of common ounces? will you with counters sum
The past proportion of his infinite?
And buckle in a waist most fathomless
With spans and inches so diminutive
As fears and reasons? fie, for godly shame!

22

II,2,1027

Helenus. No marvel, though you bite so sharp at reasons,
You are so empty of them. Should not our father
Bear the great sway of his affairs with reasons,
Because your speech hath none that tells him so?

Troilus. You are for dreams and slumbers, brother priest;
You fur your gloves with reason. Here are
your reasons:
You know an enemy intends you harm;
You know a sword employ'd is perilous,
And reason flies the object of all harm:
Who marvels then, when Helenus beholds
A Grecian and his sword, if he do set
The very wings of reason to his heels
And fly like chidden Mercury from Jove,
Or like a star disorb'd? Nay, if we talk of reason,
Let's shut our gates and sleep: manhood and honour
Should have hare-hearts, would they but fat
their thoughts
With this cramm'd reason: reason and respect
Make livers pale and lustihood deject.

23

II,2,1045

Hector. Brother, she is not worth what she doth cost
The holding.

Troilus. What is aught, but as 'tis valued?

24

II,2,1054

Hector. But value dwells not in particular will;
It holds his estimate and dignity
As well wherein 'tis precious of itself
As in the prizer: 'tis mad idolatry
To make the service greater than the god
And the will dotes that is attributive
To what infectiously itself affects,
Without some image of the affected merit.

Troilus. I take to-day a wife, and my election
Is led on in the conduct of my will;
My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears,
Two traded pilots 'twixt the dangerous shores
Of will and judgment: how may I avoid,
Although my will distaste what it elected,
The wife I chose? there can be no evasion
To blench from this and to stand firm by honour:
We turn not back the silks upon the merchant,
When we have soil'd them, nor the remainder viands
We do not throw in unrespective sieve,
Because we now are full. It was thought meet
Paris should do some vengeance on the Greeks:
Your breath of full consent bellied his sails;
The seas and winds, old wranglers, took a truce
And did him service: he touch'd the ports desired,
And for an old aunt whom the Greeks held captive,
He brought a Grecian queen, whose youth and freshness
Wrinkles Apollo's, and makes stale the morning.
Why keep we her? the Grecians keep our aunt:
Is she worth keeping? why, she is a pearl,
Whose price hath launch'd above a thousand ships,
And turn'd crown'd kings to merchants.
If you'll avouch 'twas wisdom Paris went—
As you must needs, for you all cried 'Go, go,'—
If you'll confess he brought home noble prize—
As you must needs, for you all clapp'd your hands
And cried 'Inestimable!'—why do you now
The issue of your proper wisdoms rate,
And do a deed that fortune never did,
Beggar the estimation which you prized
Richer than sea and land? O, theft most base,
That we have stol'n what we do fear to keep!
But, thieves, unworthy of a thing so stol'n,
That in their country did them that disgrace,
We fear to warrant in our native place!

25

II,2,1092

Priam. What noise? what shriek is this?

Troilus. 'Tis our mad sister, I do know her voice.

26

II,2,1115

Hector. Now, youthful Troilus, do not these high strains
Of divination in our sister work
Some touches of remorse? or is your blood
So madly hot that no discourse of reason,
Nor fear of bad success in a bad cause,
Can qualify the same?

Troilus. Why, brother Hector,
We may not think the justness of each act
Such and no other than event doth form it,
Nor once deject the courage of our minds,
Because Cassandra's mad: her brain-sick raptures
Cannot distaste the goodness of a quarrel
Which hath our several honours all engaged
To make it gracious. For my private part,
I am no more touch'd than all Priam's sons:
And Jove forbid there should be done amongst us
Such things as might offend the weakest spleen
To fight for and maintain!

27

II,2,1192

Hector. Paris and Troilus, you have both said well,
And on the cause and question now in hand
Have glozed, but superficially: not much
Unlike young men, whom Aristotle thought
Unfit to hear moral philosophy:
The reasons you allege do more conduce
To the hot passion of distemper'd blood
Than to make up a free determination
'Twixt right and wrong, for pleasure and revenge
Have ears more deaf than adders to the voice
Of any true decision. Nature craves
All dues be render'd to their owners: now,
What nearer debt in all humanity
Than wife is to the husband? If this law
Of nature be corrupted through affection,
And that great minds, of partial indulgence
To their benumbed wills, resist the same,
There is a law in each well-order'd nation
To curb those raging appetites that are
Most disobedient and refractory.
If Helen then be wife to Sparta's king,
As it is known she is, these moral laws
Of nature and of nations speak aloud
To have her back return'd: thus to persist
In doing wrong extenuates not wrong,
But makes it much more heavy. Hector's opinion
Is this in way of truth; yet ne'ertheless,
My spritely brethren, I propend to you
In resolution to keep Helen still,
For 'tis a cause that hath no mean dependance
Upon our joint and several dignities.

Troilus. Why, there you touch'd the life of our design:
Were it not glory that we more affected
Than the performance of our heaving spleens,
I would not wish a drop of Trojan blood
Spent more in her defence. But, worthy Hector,
She is a theme of honour and renown,
A spur to valiant and magnanimous deeds,
Whose present courage may beat down our foes,
And fame in time to come canonize us;
For, I presume, brave Hector would not lose
So rich advantage of a promised glory
As smiles upon the forehead of this action
For the wide world's revenue.

28

III,2,1654

Pandarus. O, here he comes.
[Enter TROILUS]
How now, how now!

Troilus. Sirrah, walk off.

29

III,2,1657

Pandarus. Have you seen my cousin?

Troilus. No, Pandarus: I stalk about her door,
Like a strange soul upon the Stygian banks
Staying for waftage. O, be thou my Charon,
And give me swift transportance to those fields
Where I may wallow in the lily-beds
Proposed for the deserver! O gentle Pandarus,
From Cupid's shoulder pluck his painted wings
And fly with me to Cressid!

30

III,2,1667

(stage directions). [Exit]

Troilus. I am giddy; expectation whirls me round.
The imaginary relish is so sweet
That it enchants my sense: what will it be,
When that the watery palate tastes indeed
Love's thrice repured nectar? death, I fear me,
Swooning destruction, or some joy too fine,
Too subtle-potent, tuned too sharp in sweetness,
For the capacity of my ruder powers:
I fear it much; and I do fear besides,
That I shall lose distinction in my joys;
As doth a battle, when they charge on heaps
The enemy flying.

31

III,2,1687

(stage directions). [Exit]

Troilus. Even such a passion doth embrace my bosom:
My heart beats thicker than a feverous pulse;
And all my powers do their bestowing lose,
Like vassalage at unawares encountering
The eye of majesty.

32

III,2,1707

Pandarus. Come, come, what need you blush? shame's a baby.
Here she is now: swear the oaths now to her that
you have sworn to me. What, are you gone again?
you must be watched ere you be made tame, must you?
Come your ways, come your ways; an you draw backward,
we'll put you i' the fills. Why do you not speak to
her? Come, draw this curtain, and let's see your
picture. Alas the day, how loath you are to offend
daylight! an 'twere dark, you'ld close sooner.
So, so; rub on, and kiss the mistress. How now!
a kiss in fee-farm! build there, carpenter; the air
is sweet. Nay, you shall fight your hearts out ere
I part you. The falcon as the tercel, for all the
ducks i' the river: go to, go to.

Troilus. You have bereft me of all words, lady.

33

III,2,1715

Cressida. Will you walk in, my lord?

Troilus. O Cressida, how often have I wished me thus!

34

III,2,1717

Cressida. Wished, my lord! The gods grant,—O my lord!

Troilus. What should they grant? what makes this pretty
abruption? What too curious dreg espies my sweet
lady in the fountain of our love?

35

III,2,1721

Cressida. More dregs than water, if my fears have eyes.

Troilus. Fears make devils of cherubims; they never see truly.

36

III,2,1725

Cressida. Blind fear, that seeing reason leads, finds safer
footing than blind reason stumbling without fear: to
fear the worst oft cures the worse.

Troilus. O, let my lady apprehend no fear: in all Cupid's
pageant there is presented no monster.

37

III,2,1728

Cressida. Nor nothing monstrous neither?

Troilus. Nothing, but our undertakings; when we vow to weep
seas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tigers; thinking
it harder for our mistress to devise imposition
enough than for us to undergo any difficulty imposed.
This is the monstruosity in love, lady, that the will
is infinite and the execution confined, that the
desire is boundless and the act a slave to limit.

38

III,2,1741

Cressida. They say all lovers swear more performance than they
are able and yet reserve an ability that they never
perform, vowing more than the perfection of ten and
discharging less than the tenth part of one. They
that have the voice of lions and the act of hares,
are they not monsters?

Troilus. Are there such? such are not we: praise us as we
are tasted, allow us as we prove; our head shall go
bare till merit crown it: no perfection in reversion
shall have a praise in present: we will not name
desert before his birth, and, being born, his addition
shall be humble. Few words to fair faith: Troilus
shall be such to Cressid as what envy can say worst
shall be a mock for his truth, and what truth can
speak truest not truer than Troilus.

39

III,2,1757

Pandarus. I thank you for that: if my lord get a boy of you,
you'll give him me. Be true to my lord: if he
flinch, chide me for it.

Troilus. You know now your hostages; your uncle's word and my
firm faith.

40

III,2,1766

Cressida. Boldness comes to me now, and brings me heart.
Prince Troilus, I have loved you night and day
For many weary months.

Troilus. Why was my Cressid then so hard to win?

41

III,2,1784

Cressida. Hard to seem won: but I was won, my lord,
With the first glance that ever—pardon me—
If I confess much, you will play the tyrant.
I love you now; but not, till now, so much
But I might master it: in faith, I lie;
My thoughts were like unbridled children, grown
Too headstrong for their mother. See, we fools!
Why have I blabb'd? who shall be true to us,
When we are so unsecret to ourselves?
But, though I loved you well, I woo'd you not;
And yet, good faith, I wish'd myself a man,
Or that we women had men's privilege
Of speaking first. Sweet, bid me hold my tongue,
For in this rapture I shall surely speak
The thing I shall repent. See, see, your silence,
Cunning in dumbness, from my weakness draws
My very soul of counsel! stop my mouth.

Troilus. And shall, albeit sweet music issues thence.

42

III,2,1790

Cressida. My lord, I do beseech you, pardon me;
'Twas not my purpose, thus to beg a kiss:
I am ashamed. O heavens! what have I done?
For this time will I take my leave, my lord.

Troilus. Your leave, sweet Cressid!

43

III,2,1793

Cressida. Pray you, content you.

Troilus. What offends you, lady?

44

III,2,1795

Cressida. Sir, mine own company.

Troilus. You cannot shun Yourself.

45

III,2,1801

Cressida. Let me go and try:
I have a kind of self resides with you;
But an unkind self, that itself will leave,
To be another's fool. I would be gone:
Where is my wit? I know not what I speak.

Troilus. Well know they what they speak that speak so wisely.

46

III,2,1807

Cressida. Perchance, my lord, I show more craft than love;
And fell so roundly to a large confession,
To angle for your thoughts: but you are wise,
Or else you love not, for to be wise and love
Exceeds man's might; that dwells with gods above.

Troilus. O that I thought it could be in a woman—
As, if it can, I will presume in you—
To feed for aye her ramp and flames of love;
To keep her constancy in plight and youth,
Outliving beauty's outward, with a mind
That doth renew swifter than blood decays!
Or that persuasion could but thus convince me,
That my integrity and truth to you
Might be affronted with the match and weight
Of such a winnow'd purity in love;
How were I then uplifted! but, alas!
I am as true as truth's simplicity
And simpler than the infancy of truth.

47

III,2,1821

Cressida. In that I'll war with you.

Troilus. O virtuous fight,
When right with right wars who shall be most right!
True swains in love shall in the world to come
Approve their truths by Troilus: when their rhymes,
Full of protest, of oath and big compare,
Want similes, truth tired with iteration,
As true as steel, as plantage to the moon,
As sun to day, as turtle to her mate,
As iron to adamant, as earth to the centre,
Yet, after all comparisons of truth,
As truth's authentic author to be cited,
'As true as Troilus' shall crown up the verse,
And sanctify the numbers.

48

III,2,1856

Pandarus. Go to, a bargain made: seal it, seal it; I'll be the
witness. Here I hold your hand, here my cousin's.
If ever you prove false one to another, since I have
taken such pains to bring you together, let all
pitiful goers-between be called to the world's end
after my name; call them all Pandars; let all
constant men be Troiluses, all false women Cressids,
and all brokers-between Pandars! say, amen.

Troilus. Amen.

49

IV,2,2286

(stage directions). [Enter TROILUS and CRESSIDA]

Troilus. Dear, trouble not yourself: the morn is cold.

50

IV,2,2289

Cressida. Then, sweet my lord, I'll call mine uncle down;
He shall unbolt the gates.

Troilus. Trouble him not;
To bed, to bed: sleep kill those pretty eyes,
And give as soft attachment to thy senses
As infants' empty of all thought!

51

IV,2,2294

Cressida. Good morrow, then.

Troilus. I prithee now, to bed.

52

IV,2,2296

Cressida. Are you a-weary of me?

Troilus. O Cressida! but that the busy day,
Waked by the lark, hath roused the ribald crows,
And dreaming night will hide our joys no longer,
I would not from thee.

53

IV,2,2301

Cressida. Night hath been too brief.

Troilus. Beshrew the witch! with venomous wights she stays
As tediously as hell, but flies the grasps of love
With wings more momentary-swift than thought.
You will catch cold, and curse me.

54

IV,2,2311

Pandarus. [Within] What, 's all the doors open here?

Troilus. It is your uncle.

55

IV,2,2331

Cressida. Did not I tell you? Would he were knock'd i' the head!
[Knocking within]
Who's that at door? good uncle, go and see.
My lord, come you again into my chamber:
You smile and mock me, as if I meant naughtily.

Troilus. Ha, ha!

56

IV,2,2355

(stage directions). [Re-enter TROILUS]

Troilus. How now! what's the matter?

57

IV,2,2364

Aeneas. My lord, I scarce have leisure to salute you,
My matter is so rash: there is at hand
Paris your brother, and Deiphobus,
The Grecian Diomed, and our Antenor
Deliver'd to us; and for him forthwith,
Ere the first sacrifice, within this hour,
We must give up to Diomedes' hand
The Lady Cressida.

Troilus. Is it so concluded?

58

IV,2,2367

Aeneas. By Priam and the general state of Troy:
They are at hand and ready to effect it.

Troilus. How my achievements mock me!
I will go meet them: and, my Lord AEneas,
We met by chance; you did not find me here.

59

IV,3,2416

Paris. It is great morning, and the hour prefix'd
Of her delivery to this valiant Greek
Comes fast upon. Good my brother Troilus,
Tell you the lady what she is to do,
And haste her to the purpose.

Troilus. Walk into her house;
I'll bring her to the Grecian presently:
And to his hand when I deliver her,
Think it an altar, and thy brother Troilus
A priest there offering to it his own heart.

60

IV,4,2452

Pandarus. What a pair of spectacles is here!
Let me embrace too. 'O heart,' as the goodly saying is,
'—O heart, heavy heart,
Why sigh'st thou without breaking?
where he answers again,
'Because thou canst not ease thy smart
By friendship nor by speaking.'
There was never a truer rhyme. Let us cast away
nothing, for we may live to have need of such a
verse: we see it, we see it. How now, lambs?

Troilus. Cressid, I love thee in so strain'd a purity,
That the bless'd gods, as angry with my fancy,
More bright in zeal than the devotion which
Cold lips blow to their deities, take thee from me.

61

IV,4,2459

Cressida. And is it true that I must go from Troy?

Troilus. A hateful truth.

62

IV,4,2461

Cressida. What, and from Troilus too?

Troilus. From Troy and Troilus.

63

IV,4,2463

Cressida. Is it possible?

Troilus. And suddenly; where injury of chance
Puts back leave-taking, justles roughly by
All time of pause, rudely beguiles our lips
Of all rejoindure, forcibly prevents
Our lock'd embrasures, strangles our dear vows
Even in the birth of our own labouring breath:
We two, that with so many thousand sighs
Did buy each other, must poorly sell ourselves
With the rude brevity and discharge of one.
Injurious time now with a robber's haste
Crams his rich thievery up, he knows not how:
As many farewells as be stars in heaven,
With distinct breath and consign'd kisses to them,
He fumbles up into a lose adieu,
And scants us with a single famish'd kiss,
Distasted with the salt of broken tears.

64

IV,4,2480

Aeneas. [Within] My lord, is the lady ready?

Troilus. Hark! you are call'd: some say the Genius so
Cries 'come' to him that instantly must die.
Bid them have patience; she shall come anon.

65

IV,4,2487

Cressida. I must then to the Grecians?

Troilus. No remedy.

66

IV,4,2490

Cressida. A woful Cressid 'mongst the merry Greeks!
When shall we see again?

Troilus. Hear me, my love: be thou but true of heart,—

67

IV,4,2492

Cressida. I true! how now! what wicked deem is this?

Troilus. Nay, we must use expostulation kindly,
For it is parting from us:
I speak not 'be thou true,' as fearing thee,
For I will throw my glove to Death himself,
That there's no maculation in thy heart:
But 'be thou true,' say I, to fashion in
My sequent protestation; be thou true,
And I will see thee.

68

IV,4,2502

Cressida. O, you shall be exposed, my lord, to dangers
As infinite as imminent! but I'll be true.

Troilus. And I'll grow friend with danger. Wear this sleeve.

69

IV,4,2504

Cressida. And you this glove. When shall I see you?

Troilus. I will corrupt the Grecian sentinels,
To give thee nightly visitation.
But yet be true.

70

IV,4,2508

Cressida. O heavens! 'be true' again!

Troilus. Hear while I speak it, love:
The Grecian youths are full of quality;
They're loving, well composed with gifts of nature,
Flowing and swelling o'er with arts and exercise:
How novelty may move, and parts with person,
Alas, a kind of godly jealousy—
Which, I beseech you, call a virtuous sin—
Makes me afeard.

71

IV,4,2517

Cressida. O heavens! you love me not.

Troilus. Die I a villain, then!
In this I do not call your faith in question
So mainly as my merit: I cannot sing,
Nor heel the high lavolt, nor sweeten talk,
Nor play at subtle games; fair virtues all,
To which the Grecians are most prompt and pregnant:
But I can tell that in each grace of these
There lurks a still and dumb-discoursive devil
That tempts most cunningly: but be not tempted.

72

IV,4,2527

Cressida. Do you think I will?

Troilus. No.
But something may be done that we will not:
And sometimes we are devils to ourselves,
When we will tempt the frailty of our powers,
Presuming on their changeful potency.

73

IV,4,2533

Aeneas. [Within] Nay, good my lord,—

Troilus. Come, kiss; and let us part.

74

IV,4,2535

Paris. [Within] Brother Troilus!

Troilus. Good brother, come you hither;
And bring AEneas and the Grecian with you.

75

IV,4,2538

Cressida. My lord, will you be true?

Troilus. Who, I? alas, it is my vice, my fault:
Whiles others fish with craft for great opinion,
I with great truth catch mere simplicity;
Whilst some with cunning gild their copper crowns,
With truth and plainness I do wear mine bare.
Fear not my truth: the moral of my wit
Is 'plain and true;' there's all the reach of it.
[Enter AENEAS, PARIS, ANTENOR, DEIPHOBUS,]
and DIOMEDES]
Welcome, Sir Diomed! here is the lady
Which for Antenor we deliver you:
At the port, lord, I'll give her to thy hand,
And by the way possess thee what she is.
Entreat her fair; and, by my soul, fair Greek,
If e'er thou stand at mercy of my sword,
Name Cressida and thy life shall be as safe
As Priam is in Ilion.

76

IV,4,2560

Diomedes. Fair Lady Cressid,
So please you, save the thanks this prince expects:
The lustre in your eye, heaven in your cheek,
Pleads your fair usage; and to Diomed
You shall be mistress, and command him wholly.

Troilus. Grecian, thou dost not use me courteously,
To shame the zeal of my petition to thee
In praising her: I tell thee, lord of Greece,
She is as far high-soaring o'er thy praises
As thou unworthy to be call'd her servant.
I charge thee use her well, even for my charge;
For, by the dreadful Pluto, if thou dost not,
Though the great bulk Achilles be thy guard,
I'll cut thy throat.

77

IV,4,2576

Diomedes. O, be not moved, Prince Troilus:
Let me be privileged by my place and message,
To be a speaker free; when I am hence
I'll answer to my lust: and know you, lord,
I'll nothing do on charge: to her own worth
She shall be prized; but that you say 'be't so,'
I'll speak it in my spirit and honour, 'no.'

Troilus. Come, to the port. I'll tell thee, Diomed,
This brave shall oft make thee to hide thy head.
Lady, give me your hand, and, as we walk,
To our own selves bend we our needful talk.

78

IV,5,2731

Nestor. Now, Ajax, hold thine own!

Troilus. Hector, thou sleep'st;
Awake thee!

79

IV,5,2910

(stage directions). [Exeunt all except TROILUS and ULYSSES]

Troilus. My Lord Ulysses, tell me, I beseech you,
In what place of the field doth Calchas keep?

80

IV,5,2917

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

Troilus. Shall sweet lord, be bound to you so much,
After we part from Agamemnon's tent,
To bring me thither?

81

IV,5,2924

Ulysses. You shall command me, sir.
As gentle tell me, of what honour was
This Cressida in Troy? Had she no lover there
That wails her absence?

Troilus. O, sir, to such as boasting show their scars
A mock is due. Will you walk on, my lord?
She was beloved, she loved; she is, and doth:
But still sweet love is food for fortune's tooth.

82

V,1,3028

Ulysses. [Aside to TROILUS] Follow his torch; he goes to
Calchas' tent:
I'll keep you company.

Troilus. Sweet sir, you honour me.

83

V,2,3054

(stage directions). [Enter CRESSIDA]

Troilus. Cressid comes forth to him.

84

V,2,3058

(stage directions). [Whispers]

Troilus. Yea, so familiar!

85

V,2,3066

Diomedes. Nay, but do, then;
And let your mind be coupled with your words.

Troilus. What should she remember?

86

V,2,3079

Diomedes. Good night.

Troilus. Hold, patience!

87

V,2,3083

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

Troilus. Thy better must.

88

V,2,3085

Cressida. Hark, one word in your ear.

Troilus. O plague and madness!

89

V,2,3090

Ulysses. You are moved, prince; let us depart, I pray you,
Lest your displeasure should enlarge itself
To wrathful terms: this place is dangerous;
The time right deadly; I beseech you, go.

Troilus. Behold, I pray you!

90

V,2,3093

Ulysses. Nay, good my lord, go off:
You flow to great distraction; come, my lord.

Troilus. I pray thee, stay.

91

V,2,3095

Ulysses. You have not patience; come.

Troilus. I pray you, stay; by hell and all hell's torments
I will not speak a word!

92

V,2,3099

Cressida. Nay, but you part in anger.

Troilus. Doth that grieve thee?
O wither'd truth!

93

V,2,3102

Ulysses. Why, how now, lord!

Troilus. By Jove,
I will be patient.

94

V,2,3109

Ulysses. You shake, my lord, at something: will you go?
You will break out.

Troilus. She strokes his cheek!

95

V,2,3111

Ulysses. Come, come.

Troilus. Nay, stay; by Jove, I will not speak a word:
There is between my will and all offences
A guard of patience: stay a little while.

96

V,2,3122

Ulysses. You have sworn patience.

Troilus. Fear me not, sweet lord;
I will not be myself, nor have cognition
Of what I feel: I am all patience.

97

V,2,3128

Cressida. Here, Diomed, keep this sleeve.

Troilus. O beauty! where is thy faith?

98

V,2,3130

Ulysses. My lord,—

Troilus. I will be patient; outwardly I will.

99

V,2,3148

Diomedes. I had your heart before, this follows it.

Troilus. I did swear patience.

100

V,2,3161

Diomedes. To-morrow will I wear it on my helm,
And grieve his spirit that dares not challenge it.

Troilus. Wert thou the devil, and worest it on thy horn,
It should be challenged.

101

V,2,3186

Ulysses. All's done, my lord.

Troilus. It is.

102

V,2,3188

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?
Sith yet there is a credence in my heart,
An esperance so obstinately strong,
That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears,
As if those organs had deceptious functions,
Created only to calumniate.
Was Cressid here?

103

V,2,3199

Ulysses. I cannot conjure, Trojan.

Troilus. She was not, sure.

104

V,2,3201

Ulysses. Most sure she was.

Troilus. Why, my negation hath no taste of madness.

105

V,2,3203

Ulysses. Nor mine, my lord: Cressid was here but now.

Troilus. Let it not be believed for womanhood!
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.

106

V,2,3209

Ulysses. What hath she done, prince, that can soil our mothers?

Troilus. Nothing at all, unless that this were she.

107

V,2,3211

Thersites. Will he 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;
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!
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 conduce a fight
Of this strange nature that a thing inseparate
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;
Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven:
Instance, O instance! strong as heaven itself;
The bonds of heaven are slipp'd, dissolved, and loosed;
And with another knot, five-finger-tied,
The fractions of her faith, orts of her love,
The fragments, scraps, the bits and greasy relics
Of her o'er-eaten faith, are bound to Diomed.

108

V,2,3237

Ulysses. May worthy Troilus be half attach'd
With that which here his passion doth express?

Troilus. Ay, Greek; and that shall be divulged well
In characters as red as Mars his heart
Inflamed 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;
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,
Shall dizzy with more clamour Neptune's ear
In his descent than shall my prompted sword
Falling on Diomed.

109

V,2,3252

Thersites. He'll tickle it for his concupy.

Troilus. O Cressid! O false Cressid! false, false, false!
Let all untruths stand by thy stained name,
And they'll seem glorious.

110

V,2,3261

Aeneas. I have been seeking you this hour, my lord:
Hector, by this, is arming him in Troy;
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!

111

V,2,3265

Ulysses. I'll bring you to the gates.

Troilus. Accept distracted thanks.

112

V,3,3318

Hector. No, faith, young Troilus; doff thy harness, youth;
I am to-day i' the 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,
I'll stand to-day for thee and me and Troy.

Troilus. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you,
Which better fits a lion than a man.

113

V,3,3321

Hector. What vice is that, good Troilus? chide me for it.

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

114

V,3,3325

Hector. O,'tis fair play.

Troilus. Fool's play, by heaven, Hector.

115

V,3,3327

Hector. How now! how now!

Troilus. For the love of all the gods,
Let's leave the hermit pity with our mothers,
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.

116

V,3,3333

Hector. Fie, savage, fie!

Troilus. Hector, then 'tis wars.

117

V,3,3335

Hector. Troilus, I would not have you fight to-day.

Troilus. Who should withhold me?
Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars
Beckoning with fiery truncheon my retire;
Not Priamus and Hecuba on knees,
Their eyes o'ergalled with recourse of tears;
Not you, my brother, with your true sword drawn,
Opposed to hinder me, should stop my way,
But by my ruin.

118

V,3,3369

(stage directions). [Exit ANDROMACHE]

Troilus. This foolish, dreaming, superstitious girl
Makes all these bodements.

119

V,3,3379

Cassandra. O, farewell, dear Hector!
Look, how thou diest! look, how thy eye turns pale!
Look, how thy wounds do bleed at many vents!
Hark, how Troy roars! how Hecuba cries out!
How poor Andromache shrills her dolours forth!
Behold, distraction, frenzy and amazement,
Like witless antics, one another meet,
And all cry, Hector! Hector's dead! O Hector!

Troilus. Away! away!

120

V,3,3388

(stage directions). [Exeunt severally PRIAM and HECTOR. Alarums]

Troilus. They are at it, hark! Proud Diomed, believe,
I come to lose my arm, or win my sleeve.

121

V,3,3392

Pandarus. Do you hear, my lord? do you hear?

Troilus. What now?

122

V,3,3394

Pandarus. Here's a letter come from yond poor girl.

Troilus. Let me read.

123

V,3,3402

Pandarus. A whoreson tisick, a whoreson rascally tisick so
troubles me, and the foolish fortune of this girl;
and what one thing, what another, that I shall
leave you one o' these days: and I have a rheum
in mine eyes too, and such an ache in my bones
that, unless a man were cursed, I cannot tell what
to think on't. What says she there?

Troilus. Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart:
The effect doth operate another way.
[Tearing the letter]
Go, wind, to wind, there turn and change together.
My love with words and errors still she feeds;
But edifies another with her deeds.

124

V,4,3429

(stage directions). [Enter DIOMEDES, TROILUS following]

Troilus. Fly not; for shouldst thou take the river Styx,
I would swim after.

125

V,6,3520

(stage directions). [Enter TROILUS]

Troilus. O traitor Diomed! turn thy false face, thou traitor,
And pay thy life thou owest me for my horse!

126

V,6,3525

Diomedes. He is my prize; I will not look upon.

Troilus. Come, both you cogging Greeks; have at you both!

127

V,6,3542

(stage directions). [Re-enter TROILUS]

Troilus. Ajax hath ta'en AEneas: shall it be?
No, by the flame of yonder glorious heaven,
He shall not carry him: I'll be ta'en too,
Or bring him off: fate, hear me what I say!
I reck not though I end my life to-day.

128

V,10,3635

(stage directions). [Enter TROILUS]

Troilus. Hector is slain.

129

V,10,3637

All. Hector! the gods forbid!

Troilus. He's dead; and at the murderer's horse's tail,
In beastly sort, dragg'd through the shameful field.
Frown on, you heavens, effect your rage with speed!
Sit, gods, upon your thrones, and smile at Troy!
I say, at once let your brief plagues be mercy,
And linger not our sure destructions on!

130

V,10,3644

Aeneas. My lord, you do discomfort all the host!

Troilus. You understand me not that tell me so:
I do not speak of flight, of fear, of death,
But dare all imminence that gods and men
Address their dangers in. Hector is gone:
Who shall tell Priam so, or Hecuba?
Let him that will a screech-owl aye be call'd,
Go in to Troy, and say there, Hector's dead:
There is a word will Priam turn to stone;
Make wells and Niobes of the maids and wives,
Cold statues of the youth, and, in a word,
Scare Troy out of itself. But, march away:
Hector is dead; there is no more to say.
Stay yet. You vile abominable tents,
Thus proudly pight upon our Phrygian plains,
Let Titan rise as early as he dare,
I'll through and through you! and, thou great-sized coward,
No space of earth shall sunder our two hates:
I'll haunt thee like a wicked conscience still,
That mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy's thoughts.
Strike a free march to Troy! with comfort go:
Hope of revenge shall hide our inward woe.
[Exeunt AENEAS and Trojans]
[As TROILUS is going out, enter, from the other]
side, PANDARUS]

131

V,10,3669

Pandarus. But hear you, hear you!

Troilus. Hence, broker-lackey! ignomy and shame
Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy name!