The History of Troilus and Cressida

  PATROCLUS. Who's there? Thersites! Good Thersites, come in and    rail.  THERSITES. If I could 'a rememb'red a gilt counterfeit, thou    wouldst not have slipp'd out of my contemplation; but it isno    matter; thyself upon thyself! The common curse of mankind,folly    and ignorance, be thine in great revenue! Heaven bless theefrom    a tutor, and discipline come not near thee! Let thy blood bethy    direction till thy death. Then if she that lays thee out says    thou art a fair corse, I'll be sworn and sworn upon't shenever    shrouded any but lazars. Amen. Where's Achilles?  PATROCLUS. What, art thou devout? Wast thou in prayer?  THERSITES. Ay, the heavens hear me!  PATROCLUS. Amen.

Enter ACHILLES

  ACHILLES. Who's there?  PATROCLUS. Thersites, my lord.  ACHILLES. Where, where? O, where? Art thou come? Why, mycheese, my    digestion, why hast thou not served thyself in to my table so    many meals? Come, what's Agamemnon?  THERSITES. Thy commander, Achilles. Then tell me, Patroclus,what's    Achilles?  PATROCLUS. Thy lord, Thersites. Then tell me, I pray thee,what's    Thersites?  THERSITES. Thy knower, Patroclus. Then tell me, Patroclus, whatart    thou?  PATROCLUS. Thou must tell that knowest.  ACHILLES. O, tell, tell,  THERSITES. I'll decline the whole question. Agamemnon commands    Achilles; Achilles is my lord; I am Patroclus' knower; and    Patroclus is a fool.  PATROCLUS. You rascal!  THERSITES. Peace, fool! I have not done.  ACHILLES. He is a privileg'd man. Proceed, Thersites.  THERSITES. Agamemnon is a fool; Achilles is a fool; Thersitesis a    fool; and, as aforesaid, Patroclus is a fool.  ACHILLES. Derive this; come.  THERSITES. Agamemnon is a fool to offer to command Achilles;    Achilles is a fool to be commanded of Agamemnon; Thersites isa    fool to serve such a fool; and this Patroclus is a foolpositive.  PATROCLUS. Why am I a fool?  THERSITES. Make that demand of the Creator. It suffices me thou    art. Look you, who comes here?  ACHILLES. Come, Patroclus, I'll speak with nobody. Come in withme,    Thersites.

Exit

  THERSITES. Here is such patchery, such juggling, and suchknavery.    All the argument is a whore and a cuckold-a good quarrel todraw    emulous factions and bleed to death upon. Now the dry serpigoon    the subject, and war and lechery confound all!

Exit

Enter AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES, NESTOR, DIOMEDES, AJAX, and CALCHAS  AGAMEMNON. Where is Achilles?  PATROCLUS. Within his tent; but ill-dispos'd, my lord.  AGAMEMNON. Let it be known to him that we are here.    He shent our messengers; and we lay by    Our appertainings, visiting of him.    Let him be told so; lest, perchance, he think    We dare not move the question of our place    Or know not what we are.  PATROCLUS. I shall say so to him.Exit  ULYSSES. We saw him at the opening of his tent.    He is not sick.  AJAX. Yes, lion-sick, sick of proud heart. You may call it    melancholy, if you will favour the man; but, by my head, 'tis    pride. But why, why? Let him show us a cause. A word, mylord.                                              [Takes AGAMEMNONaside]  NESTOR. What moves Ajax thus to bay at him?  ULYSSES. Achilles hath inveigled his fool from him.  NESTOR.Who, Thersites?  ULYSSES. He.  NESTOR. Then will Ajax lack matter, if he have lost hisargument  ULYSSES. No; you see he is his argument that has his argument-    Achilles.  NESTOR. All the better; their fraction is more our wish thantheir    faction. But it was a strong composure a fool could disunite!  ULYSSES. The amity that wisdom knits not, folly may easilyuntie.

Re-enter PATROCLUS

    Here comes Patroclus.  NESTOR. No Achilles with him.  ULYSSES. The elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy; hislegs    are legs for necessity, not for flexure.  PATROCLUS. Achilles bids me say he is much sorry    If any thing more than your sport and pleasure    Did move your greatness and this noble state    To call upon him; he hopes it is no other    But for your health and your digestion sake,    An after-dinner's breath.  AGAMEMNON. Hear you, Patroclus.    We are too well acquainted with these answers;    But his evasion, wing'd thus swift with scorn,    Cannot outfly our apprehensions.    Much attribute he hath, and much the reason    Why we ascribe it to him. Yet all his virtues,    Not virtuously on his own part beheld,    Do in our eyes begin to lose their gloss;    Yea, like fair fruit in an unwholesome dish,    Are like to rot untasted. Go and tell him    We come to speak with him; and you shall not sin    If you do say we think him over-proud    And under-honest, in self-assumption greater    Than in the note of judgment; and worthier than himself    Here tend the savage strangeness he puts on,    Disguise the holy strength of their command,    And underwrite in an observing kind    His humorous predominance; yea, watch    His pettish lunes, his ebbs, his flows, as if    The passage and whole carriage of this action    Rode on his tide. Go tell him this, and ad    That if he overhold his price so much    We'll none of him, but let him, like an engine    Not portable, lie under this report:    Bring action hither; this cannot go to war.    A stirring dwarf we do allowance give    Before a sleeping giant. Tell him so.  PATROCLUS. I shall, and bring his answer presently.

Exit

  AGAMEMNON. In second voice we'll not be satisfied;    We come to speak with him. Ulysses, enter you.ExitULYSSES  AJAX. What is he more than another?  AGAMEMNON. No more than what he thinks he is.  AJAX. Is he so much? Do you not think he thinks himself abetter    man than I am?  AGAMEMNON. No question.  AJAX. Will you subscribe his thought and say he is?  AGAMEMNON. No, noble Ajax; you are as strong, as valiant, aswise,    no less noble, much more gentle, and altogether moretractable.  AJAX. Why should a man be proud? How doth pride grow? I knownot    what pride is.  AGAMEMNON. Your mind is the clearer, Ajax, and your virtues the    fairer. He that is proud eats up himself. Pride is his ownglass,    his own trumpet, his own chronicle; and whatever praisesitself    but in the deed devours the deed in the praise.

Re-enter ULYSSES

  AJAX. I do hate a proud man as I do hate the engend'ring oftoads.  NESTOR. [Aside] And yet he loves himself: is't not strange?  ULYSSES. Achilles will not to the field to-morrow.  AGAMEMNON. What's his excuse?  ULYSSES. He doth rely on none;    But carries on the stream of his dispose,    Without observance or respect of any,    In will peculiar and in self-admission.  AGAMEMNON. Why will he not, upon our fair request,    Untent his person and share the air with us?  ULYSSES. Things small as nothing, for request's sake only,    He makes important; possess'd he is with greatness,    And speaks not to himself but with a pride    That quarrels at self-breath. Imagin'd worth    Holds in his blood such swol'n and hot discourse    That 'twixt his mental and his active parts    Kingdom'd Achilles in commotion rages,    And batters down himself. What should I say?    He is so plaguy proud that the death tokens of it    Cry 'No recovery.'  AGAMEMNON. Let Ajax go to him.    Dear lord, go you and greet him in his tent.    'Tis said he holds you well; and will be led    At your request a little from himself.  ULYSSES. O Agamemnon, let it not be so!    We'll consecrate the steps that Ajax makes    When they go from Achilles. Shall the proud lord    That bastes his arrogance with his own seam    And never suffers matter of the world    Enter his thoughts, save such as doth revolve    And ruminate himself-shall he be worshipp'd    Of that we hold an idol more than he?    No, this thrice-worthy and right valiant lord    Shall not so stale his palm, nobly acquir'd,    Nor, by my will, assubjugate his merit,    As amply titled as Achilles is,    By going to Achilles.    That were to enlard his fat-already pride,    And add more coals to Cancer when he burns    With entertaining great Hyperion.    This lord go to him! Jupiter forbid,    And say in thunder 'Achilles go to him.'  NESTOR. [Aside] O, this is well! He rubs the vein of him.  DIOMEDES. [Aside] And how his silence drinks up this applause!  AJAX. If I go to him, with my armed fist I'll pash him o'er the    face.  AGAMEMNON. O, no, you shall not go.  AJAX. An 'a be proud with me I'll pheeze his pride.    Let me go to him.  ULYSSES. Not for the worth that hangs upon our quarrel.  AJAX. A paltry, insolent fellow!  NESTOR. [Aside] How he describes himself!  AJAX. Can he not be sociable?  ULYSSES. [Aside] The raven chides blackness.  AJAX. I'll let his humours blood.  AGAMEMNON. [Aside] He will be the physician that should be the    patient.  AJAX. An all men were a my mind-  ULYSSES. [Aside] Wit would be out of fashion.  AJAX. 'A should not bear it so, 'a should eat's words first.    Shall pride carry it?  NESTOR. [Aside] An 'twould, you'd carry half.  ULYSSES. [Aside] 'A would have ten shares.  AJAX. I will knead him, I'll make him supple.  NESTOR. [Aside] He's not yet through warm. Force him withpraises;    pour in, pour in; his ambition is dry.  ULYSSES. [To AGAMEMNON] My lord, you feed too much on thisdislike.  NESTOR. Our noble general, do not do so.  DIOMEDES. You must prepare to fight without Achilles.  ULYSSES. Why 'tis this naming of him does him harm.    Here is a man-but 'tis before his face;    I will be silent.  NESTOR. Wherefore should you so?    He is not emulous, as Achilles is.  ULYSSES. Know the whole world, he is as valiant.  AJAX. A whoreson dog, that shall palter with us thus!    Would he were a Troyan!  NESTOR. What a vice were it in Ajax now-  ULYSSES. If he were proud.  DIOMEDES. Or covetous of praise.  ULYSSES. Ay, or surly borne.  DIOMEDES. Or strange, or self-affected.  ULYSSES. Thank the heavens, lord, thou art of sweet composure    Praise him that gat thee, she that gave thee suck;    Fam'd be thy tutor, and thy parts of nature    Thrice-fam'd beyond, beyond all erudition;    But he that disciplin'd thine arms to fight-    Let Mars divide eternity in twain    And give him half; and, for thy vigour,    Bull-bearing Milo his addition yield    To sinewy Ajax. I will not praise thy wisdom,    Which, like a bourn, a pale, a shore, confines    Thy spacious and dilated parts. Here's Nestor,    Instructed by the antiquary times-    He must, he is, he cannot but be wise;    But pardon, father Nestor, were your days    As green as Ajax' and your brain so temper'd,    You should not have the eminence of him,    But be as Ajax.  AJAX. Shall I call you father?  NESTOR. Ay, my good son.  DIOMEDES. Be rul'd by him, Lord Ajax.  ULYSSES. There is no tarrying here; the hart Achilles    Keeps thicket. Please it our great general    To call together all his state of war;    Fresh kings are come to Troy. To-morrow    We must with all our main of power stand fast;    And here's a lord-come knights from east to west    And cull their flower, Ajax shall cope the best.  AGAMEMNON. Go we to council. Let Achilles sleep.    Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks draw deep.

Exeunt

ACT III. SCENE 1. Troy. PRIAM'S palace

Music sounds within. Enter PANDARUS and a SERVANT

  PANDARUS. Friend, you-pray you, a word. Do you not follow theyoung    Lord Paris?  SERVANT. Ay, sir, when he goes before me.  PANDARUS. You depend upon him, I mean?  SERVANT. Sir, I do depend upon the lord.  PANDARUS. You depend upon a notable gentleman; I must needspraise    him.  SERVANT. The lord be praised!  PANDARUS. You know me, do you not?  SERVANT. Faith, sir, superficially.  PANDARUS. Friend, know me better: I am the Lord Pandarus.  SERVANT. I hope I shall know your honour better.  PANDARUS. I do desire it.  SERVANT. You are in the state of grace.  PANDARUS. Grace! Not so, friend; honour and lordship are mytitles.    What music is this?  SERVANT. I do but partly know, sir; it is music in parts.  PANDARUS. Know you the musicians?  SERVANT. Wholly, sir.  PANDARUS. Who play they to?  SERVANT. To the hearers, sir.  PANDARUS. At whose pleasure, friend?  SERVANT. At mine, sir, and theirs that love music.  PANDARUS. Command, I mean, friend.  SERVANT. Who shall I command, sir?  PANDARUS. Friend, we understand not one another: I am tocourtly,    and thou art too cunning. At whose request do these men play?  SERVANT. That's to't, indeed, sir. Marry, sir, at the requestof    Paris my lord, who is there in person; with him the mortalVenus,    the heart-blood of beauty, love's invisible soul-  PANDARUS. Who, my cousin, Cressida?  SERVANT. No, sir, Helen. Could not you find out that by her    attributes?  PANDARUS. It should seem, fellow, that thou hast not seen theLady    Cressida. I come to speak with Paris from the Prince Troilus;I    will make a complimental assault upon him, for my business    seethes.  SERVANT. Sodden business! There's a stew'd phrase indeed!

Enter PARIS and HELEN, attended

  PANDARUS. Fair be to you, my lord, and to all this faircompany!    Fair desires, in all fair measure, fairly guide them-especially    to you, fair queen! Fair thoughts be your fair pillow.  HELEN. Dear lord, you are full of fair words.  PANDARUS. You speak your fair pleasure, sweet queen. Fairprince,    here is good broken music.  PARIS. You have broke it, cousin; and by my life, you shallmake it    whole again; you shall piece it out with a piece of your    performance.  HELEN. He is full of harmony.  PANDARUS. Truly, lady, no.  HELEN. O, sir-  PANDARUS. Rude, in sooth; in good sooth, very rude.  PARIS. Well said, my lord. Well, you say so in fits.  PANDARUS. I have business to my lord, dear queen. My lord, willyou    vouchsafe me a word?  HELEN. Nay, this shall not hedge us out. We'll hear you sing,    certainly-  PANDARUS. Well sweet queen, you are pleasant with me. But,marry,    thus, my lord: my dear lord and most esteemed friend, your    brother Troilus-  HELEN. My Lord Pandarus, honey-sweet lord-  PANDARUS. Go to, sweet queen, go to-commends himself most    affectionately to you-  HELEN. You shall not bob us out of our melody. If you do, our    melancholy upon your head!  PANDARUS. Sweet queen, sweet queen; that's a sweet queen, i'faith.  HELEN. And to make a sweet lady sad is a sour offence.  PANDARUS. Nay, that shall not serve your turn; that shall itnot,    in truth, la. Nay, I care not for such words; no, no. – And,my    lord, he desires you that, if the King call for him atsupper,    you will make his excuse.  HELEN. My Lord Pandarus!  PANDARUS. What says my sweet queen, my very very sweet queen?  PARIS. What exploit's in hand? Where sups he to-night?  HELEN. Nay, but, my lord-  PANDARUS. What says my sweet queen? – My cousin will fall outwith    you.  HELEN. You must not know where he sups.  PARIS. I'll lay my life, with my disposer Cressida.  PANDARUS. No, no, no such matter; you are wide. Come, yourdisposer    is sick.  PARIS. Well, I'll make's excuse.  PANDARUS. Ay, good my lord. Why should you say Cressida?    No, your poor disposer's sick.  PARIS. I spy.  PANDARUS. You spy! What do you spy? – Come, give me aninstrument.    Now, sweet queen.  HELEN. Why, this is kindly done.  PANDARUS. My niece is horribly in love with a thing you have,sweet    queen.  HELEN. She shall have it, my lord, if it be not my Lord Paris.  PANDARUS. He! No, she'll none of him; they two are twain.  HELEN. Falling in, after falling out, may make them three.  PANDARUS. Come, come. I'll hear no more of this; I'll sing youa    song now.  HELEN. Ay, ay, prithee now. By my troth, sweet lord, thou hasta    fine forehead.  PANDARUS. Ay, you may, you may.  HELEN. Let thy song be love. This love will undo us all. OCupid,    Cupid, Cupid!  PANDARUS. Love! Ay, that it shall, i' faith.  PARIS. Ay, good now, love, love, nothing but love.  PANDARUS. In good troth, it begins so.[Sings]    Love, love, nothing but love, still love, still more!           For, oh, love's bow           Shoots buck and doe;           The shaft confounds           Not that it wounds,    But tickles still the sore.    These lovers cry, O ho, they die!       Yet that which seems the wound to kill    Doth turn O ho! to ha! ha! he!       So dying love lives still.    O ho! a while, but ha! ha! ha!    O ho! groans out for ha! ha! ha! – hey ho!  HELEN. In love, i' faith, to the very tip of the nose.  PARIS. He eats nothing but doves, love; and that breeds hotblood,    and hot blood begets hot thoughts, and hot thoughts beget hot    deeds, and hot deeds is love.  PANDARUS. Is this the generation of love: hot blood, hotthoughts,    and hot deeds? Why, they are vipers. Is love a generation of    vipers? Sweet lord, who's a-field today?  PARIS. Hector, Deiphobus, Helenus, Antenor, and all thegallantry    of Troy. I would fain have arm'd to-day, but my Nell wouldnot    have it so. How chance my brother Troilus went not?  HELEN. He hangs the lip at something. You know all, LordPandarus.  PANDARUS. Not I, honey-sweet queen. I long to hear how theyspend    to-day. You'll remember your brother's excuse?  PARIS. To a hair.  PANDARUS. Farewell, sweet queen.  HELEN. Commend me to your niece.  PANDARUS. I will, sweet queen. Exit. Sound aretreat  PARIS. They're come from the field. Let us to Priam's hall    To greet the warriors. Sweet Helen, I must woo you    To help unarm our Hector. His stubborn buckles,    With these your white enchanting fingers touch'd,    Shall more obey than to the edge of steel    Or force of Greekish sinews; you shall do more    Than all the island kings-disarm great Hector.  HELEN. 'Twill make us proud to be his servant, Paris;    Yea, what he shall receive of us in duty    Gives us more palm in beauty than we have,    Yea, overshines ourself.  PARIS. Sweet, above thought I love thee.

Exeunt

ACT III. SCENE 2. Troy. PANDARUS' orchard

Enter PANDARUS and TROILUS' BOY, meeting

  PANDARUS. How now! Where's thy master? At my cousin Cressida's?  BOY. No, sir; he stays for you to conduct him thither.

Enter TROILUS

  PANDARUS. O, here he comes. How now, how now!  TROILUS. Sirrah, walk off. ExitBoy  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 these fields    Where I may wallow in the lily beds    Propos'd for the deserver! O gentle Pandar,    From Cupid's shoulder pluck his painted wings,    And fly with me to Cressid!  PANDARUS. Walk here i' th' orchard, I'll bring her straight.      Exit  TROILUS. I am giddy; expectation whirls me round.    Th' imaginary relish is so sweet    That it enchants my sense; what will it be    When that the wat'ry palate tastes indeed    Love's thrice-repured nectar? Death, I fear me;    Swooning destruction; or some joy too fine,    Too subtle-potent, tun'd 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.

Re-enter PANDARUS

  PANDARUS. She's making her ready, she'll come straight; youmust be    witty now. She does so blush, and fetches her wind so short,as    if she were fray'd with a sprite. I'll fetch her. It is the    prettiest villain; she fetches her breath as short as anew-ta'en    sparrow.

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 encount'ring    The eye of majesty.

Re-enter PANDARUS With CRESSIDA

  PANDARUS. Come, come, what need you blush? Shame's a baby. – Hereshe    is now; swear the oaths now to her that you have sworn tome. -    What, are you gone again? You must be watch'd ere you be made    tame, must you? Come your ways, come your ways; an you draw    backward, we'll put you i' th' 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'd close sooner. So, so; rub on, and kiss themistress    How now, a kiss in fee-farm! Build there, carpenter; the airis    sweet. Nay, you shall fight your hearts out ere I part you.The    falcon as the tercel, for all the ducks i' th' river. Go to,go    to.  TROILUS. You have bereft me of all words, lady.  PANDARUS. Words pay no debts, give her deeds; but she'llbereave    you o' th' deeds too, if she call your activity in question.    What, billing again? Here's 'In witness whereof the parties    interchangeably.' Come in, come in; I'll go get a fire.

Exit

  CRESSIDA. Will you walk in, my lord?  TROILUS. O Cressid, how often have I wish'd me thus!  CRESSIDA. Wish'd, my lord! The gods grant-O my lord!  TROILUS. What should they grant? What makes this prettyabruption?    What too curious dreg espies my sweet lady in the fountain ofour    love?  CRESSIDA. More dregs than water, if my fears have eyes.  TROILUS. Fears make devils of cherubims; they never see truly.  CRESSIDA. Blind fear, that seeing reason leads, finds saferfooting    than blind reason stumbling without fear. To fear the worstoft    cures the worse.  TROILUS. O, let my lady apprehend no fear! In all Cupid'spageant    there is presented no monster.  CRESSIDA. Nor nothing monstrous neither?  TROILUS. Nothing, but our undertakings when we vow to weepseas,    live in fire, cat rocks, tame tigers; thinking it harder forour    mistress to devise imposition enough than for us to undergoany    difficulty imposed. This is the monstruosity in love, lady,that    the will is infinite, and the execution confin'd; that thedesire    is boundless, and the act a slave to limit.  CRESSIDA. They say all lovers swear more performance than theyare    able, and yet reserve an ability that they never perform;vowing    more than the perfection of ten, and discharging less thanthe    tenth part of one. They that have the voice of lions and theact    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 tillmerit    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 worstshall    be a mock for his truth; and what truth can speak truest not    truer than Troilus.  CRESSIDA. Will you walk in, my lord?

Re-enter PANDARUS

  PANDARUS. What, blushing still? Have you not done talking yet?  CRESSIDA. Well, uncle, what folly I commit, I dedicate to you.  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 forit.  TROILUS. You know now your hostages: your uncle's word and myfirm    faith.  PANDARUS. Nay, I'll give my word for her too: our kindred,though    they be long ere they are wooed, they are constant being won;    they are burs, I can tell you; they'll stick where they are    thrown.  CRESSIDA. Boldness comes to me now and brings me heart.    Prince Troilus, I have lov'd you night and day    For many weary months.  TROILUS. Why was my Cressid then so hard to win?  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 till now not 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 lov'd 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.  PANDARUS. Pretty, i' faith.  CRESSIDA. My lord, I do beseech you, pardon me;    'Twas not my purpose thus to beg a kiss.    I am asham'd. O heavens! what have I done?    For this time will I take my leave, my lord.  TROILUS. Your leave, sweet Cressid!  PANDARUS. Leave! An you take leave till to-morrow morning-  CRESSIDA. Pray you, content you.  TROILUS. What offends you, lady?  CRESSIDA. Sir, mine own company.  TROILUS. You cannot shun yourself.  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.  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 lamp 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 winnowed 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.  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 truth by Troilus, when their rhymes,    Full of protest, of oath, and big compare,    Want similes, truth tir'd 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 th' 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.  CRESSIDA. Prophet may you be!    If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth,    When time is old and hath forgot itself,    When waterdrops have worn the stones of Troy,    And blind oblivion swallow'd cities up,    And mighty states characterless are grated    To dusty nothing-yet let memory    From false to false, among false maids in love,    Upbraid my falsehood when th' have said 'As false    As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth,    As fox to lamb, or wolf to heifer's calf,    Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son'-    Yea, let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood,    'As false as Cressid.'  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 call'dto    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.  CRESSIDA. Amen.  PANDARUS. Amen. Whereupon I will show you a chamber    and a bed; which bed, because it shall not speak of your    pretty encounters, press it to death. Away!    And Cupid grant all tongue-tied maidens here,    Bed, chamber, pander, to provide this gear!

Exeunt