plexion. I had as lieve, Helen's golden tongue
had commended Troilus for a copper nose.
Pan. I swear to you, I think Helen loves him
better than Paris.

Cres. Then she's a merry Greek, indeed.

Pan. Nay, I am sure she does. She came to him the other day into the compass'd window', and, you know, he has not past three or four hairs on his chin.

5

Cres. Indeed, a tapster's arithmetic may soon 10 bring his particulars therein to a total.

Pan. Why, he is very young: and yet will he, within three pound, lift as much as his brother Hector,

Cres. Is he so young a man, and so old a lifter2? 15 Pan. But, to prove to you that Helen loves him;-she came, and puts me her white hand to his cloven chin,

Cres. Juno have mercy!-How came it cloven? Pan. Why, you know, 'tis dimpled: I think, 20 his smiling becomes him better than any man in all Phrygia.

Cres. O, he smiles valiantly.

Pan. Does he not?

Cres. O, yes; an 'twere a cloud in autumn. Pan. Why, go to then:-But, to prove to you that Helen loves Troilus,

Cres. Troilus will stand to the proof, if you'll prove it so.

25

Pan. Troilus? why he esteems her no more 30 than I esteem an addle egg.

Cres. If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle head, you would eat chickens i' the shell.

Pan. I cannot choose but laugh, to think how she tickled his chin;-Indeed, he has a marvellous white hand, I must needs confess.

Cres. Without the rack.

Pan. And she takes upon her to spy a white hair on his chin.

Cres. Alas, poor chin! many a wart is richer.
Pan. But, there was such laughing;-Queen
Hecuba laugh'd, that her eyes ran o'er.
Cres. With mill-stones.

Pan. And Cassandra laugh'd.

Cres. But there was more temperate fire under the pot of her eyes;-Did her eyes run o'er too? Pan. And Hector laugh'd.

Cres, At what was all this laughing?

35

40

One and fifty hairs, quoth he, and one white. That white hair is my father, and all the rest are his sons. Jupiter! quoth she, which of these hairs is Faris, my husband? The forked one, quoth he; pluck it out, and give it him. But, there was such laugh ing! and Helen so blush'd, and Paris so chaf'd, and all the rest so laugh'd, that it pass'd.

Cres. So let it now; for it has been a great while going by.

Pan. Well, cousin, I told you a thing yester day; think on 't.

Cres. So I do,

Pan. I'll be sworn, 'tis true; he will weep you, an 'twere a man born in April. [Sound a retreat, Cres. And I'll spring up in his tears, an 'twere a nettle against May.

Pan. Hark, they are coming from the field; Shall we stand up here, and see them, as they pass toward Ilium? good niece, do; sweet niece Cres Cres. At your pleasure.

[sida.

Pan. Here, here, here's an excellent pace; here we may see most bravely: I'll tell you them all by their names, as they pass by; but mark Troilus above the rest.

Æneas passes over the stage.
Cres. Speak not so loud.

Pan. That's Æneas; Is not that a brave man? he's one of the flowers of Troy, I can tell you; But mark Troilus; you shall see anon.

Cres. Who's that?

Antenor passes over.

Pan. That's Antenor; he has a shrewd wit, I can tell you; and he's a man good enough: he's one o' the soundest judgement in Troy, whoso ever; and a proper man of person:When comes Troilus-I'll shew you Troilus anon; if The see me, you shall see him nod at me. Cres. Will he give you the nod?

Pan. You shall see.

Cres. If he do, the rich shall have more'.
Hector passes over.

Pan. 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!
45-Look, how he looks! there's a countenance:
Is 't not a brave man?

Pan. Marry, at the white hair that Helen spied 50 on Troilus' chin.

Cres. An't had been a green hair, I should have laugh'd too.

Pan. They laugh'd not so much at the hair, as at his pretty answer.

Cres. What was his answer?

551

Pan. Swords? any thing, he cares not: an the devil come to him, it's all one: By god's lid, it does one's heart good!-Yonder comes Paris, yonder comes Paris: look ye yonder, niece! Is 't not a gallant man too, is't not?-Why, this is Pan. That's true; make no question of that./60lbrave now, Who said, he came home hurt to

Pan. Quoth she, Here's but one and fifty hairs on your chin, and one of them is white. Čres. This is her question.

'The compass'd window is the same as the bow-window, still call a person who plunders shops, a shop-lifter.

? The word lifter means a thief.-We The allusion here is to the word noddy, which, as now, did in our author's time, and long before, signify a silly fellow; and may, by its etymology, signify likewise full of nods,-Cressid means, that a poddy shall have more nods.

day?

Pan. Helenus? no;-yes, he'll fight indifferent 10 well:-I marvel, where Troilus is!-Hark; do you not hear the people cry, Troilus?-Helenus is a priest.

Cres. What sneaking fellow comes yonder?

Troilus passes over.

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

Cres. Peace, for shame, peace!

15

Pan. Mark him; note him:-O brave Troi-20 lus!-look well upon him, niece; look you, how his sword is bloody'd, 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; 25 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.

Enter Soldiers, &c.

Cres. Here come more.

what I would not have hit, I can watch you telling how I took the blow; unless it swell hiding, and then it is past watching.

Pan. You are such another!

Enter Troilus' Boy.

Boy. Sir, mylord would instantlyspeakwith
Pan. Where.

Boy. At your own house; there he unarms h
Pan. Good boy, tell him I come [Exit B
I doubt he be hurt.-Fare ye well, good nie
Cres. Adieu, uncle.

Pan. I'll be with you, niece, by-and-by.
Cres. To bring, uncle,-

Pan. Ay, a token from Troilus.
Cres. By the same token-you are a bawd.-
[Exit Panda
Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full sacrif
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. Women are angels, wooing
Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doi
That she' belov'd knows nought, that knows
this,

2

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,Atchievement is, command; ungain'd, besee 30 Then though my heart's content fr love d bear,

Pan. 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 35 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.

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

Pan. Achilles? a dray-man, a porter, a very camel.

Cres. Well, well.

Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear. [Exe

Trumpets.

40

Pan. Well, well?-Why, have you any discretion? have you any eyes? Do you know what a 45 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?

Cres. Ay, a minc'd man: and then to be bak'd 50 with no date in the pye,-for then the man's date is out.

Pan. You are such a woman! one knows not] at what ward you lie.

Cres. Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon 55 my wit, to defend my wiles; upon my secrecy, to defend mine honesty; my mask, to defend my beauty; and you, to defend all these: and at all these wards I lie, at a thousand watches.

Pan. Say one of your watches.

Cres. Nay, I'll watch you for that; and that's one of the chiefest of them too: if I cannot ward

SCENE III.

The Grecian Camp.
Enter Agamemnon, Nestor, Ulys
Menelaus, with others.

Agam. Princes,

[ast

What grief hath set the jaundice on your chee
The ample proposition that hope makes
In all designs begun on earth below,
Fails in the promis'd largeness; checks and
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 errant from his course of growth.
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 sta
Sith 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't surmised shape. Whythen, youpring
Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our work
And think them shames, which are, inde
nought else

60 But the protractive trials of great Jove,
To find persistive constancy in men?
The fineness of which metal is not found

To account for the introduction of this quikk.

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis, and, anon, behold [cut,
The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains
Bounding between the two moist elements,
Like Perseus' horse: Where's then the saucy boat, 20
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 shew, and valour's worth, divide
In storms of fortune: For,in herray and brightness,
The herd hath more annoyance by the brize1,
Than by the tyger: but when splitting winds
Make flexible the knees of knotted oaks,
And flies flee under shade, Why, then, the thing

Ulyss. Agamemnon,-
[Greece,
Thou great commander, nerve and bone of 35
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,inost mighty for thy place and 40
[To Agamemnon.

The brize is the gad or horse-fly. 2 It is said of the tiger, that in storms and high winds he rages and roars most furiously. 3 Hatch'd in silver, may mean, whose white hair and beard make him look like a figure engraved on silver. 4i. e. the particular rights of supreme authority. earth; which, according to the Ptolemaic system, then in vogue, is the center of the solar system. ⚫i. e. corporations, companies, confraternities.

By him one step below: he, by the next;
That next, by him beneath: so every step,
Exampled by the first pace that is sick
Of his superior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodless emulation':
And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,
Not her own sinews. To end a tale of length,
Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength.
Nest. Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover'd
The fever whereof all our power is sick.

Agam. The nature of the sickness found, Ulysses,
What is the remedy?

Ulyss. The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns
The sinew and the forehand of our host,-
Having his ear full of his airy fame,
Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent
Lies mocking our designs: With him, Patroclus,
Upon a lazy bed, the livelong day
Breaks scurril jests;

And with ridiculous and awkward action
(Which, slanderer, he imitation calls)

In such a rein', in full as proud a place
As broad Achilles; keeps his tent like him;
Makes factious feasts; rails on our state of war,
Bold as an oracle: and sets Thersites

5(A slave, whose gall coins slanders like a mint)
To match us in comparisons with dirt;
To weaken and discredit our exposure,
How ranksoever rounded in with danger.
Ulyss. They tax our policy, and call it cowardice;
10 Count wisdom as no member of the war;
Forestall pre-science, and esteem no act
But that of hand: the still and mental parts,-
That do contrive how many hands shall strike,
When fitness calls them on; and know, by mea

Of their observant toil, the enemies' weight,-
Why, this hath not a finger's dignity;

They call this-bed-work, mappery, closet war?
So that the ram, that batters down the wall,
20 For the great swing and rudeness of his poize,
They place before his hand that made the engine;
Or those, that with the fineness of their souls
By reason guide his execution.

Nest. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse
25 Makes many Thetis' sons. [Trumpet sounds.
Agam. What trumpet? look, Menelaus.
Men. From Troy.

He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon,
Thy topless deputation he puts on;
And, like a strutting player,-whose conceit
Lies in his ham-string, and doth think it rich
To hear the wooden dialogue and sound
"Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage,-
Such to-be-pitied and o'er-rested' seeming
He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks,
'Tis like a chime amending; with terms unsquar'd, 30
Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon drop'd,
Would seem hyperboles. At this fusty stuff,
The large Achilles, on his press'd bed lolling,
From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause;
Cries- Excellent!-'tis Agamemnon just.-
Now play me Nestor ;--hem, and stroke thy
"beard,

As he, being 'drest to some oration.'
That's done;-as near as the extremest ends
Of parallels; as like as Vulcan and his wife:
Yet good Achilles still cries, Excellent!

'Tis Nestor right! Now play him me, Patroclus,
Arming to answer in a night alarm.'
And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age
Must be the scene of mirth; to cough, and spit,
And with a palsy-fumbling on his gorget,
Shake in and out the rivet:-and at this sport,
Sir Valour dies; cries, 'O!-enough, Patroclus;
Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all
In pleasure of my spleen.' And in this fashion,
All our abilities, gts, natures, shapes,
Severals and generals of grace exact *,
Atchievements, plots, orders, preventions,
Excitements to the field, or speech for truce,
Success, or loss, what is, or is not, serves
As stuff for these two to make paradoxes.

Nest. And in the imitation of these twain
(Whom, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns
With an imperial voice) many are infect.
Ajax is grown self-will'd; and bears his head

Enter Æneas.

Agam. What would you 'fore our tent? [you?
Ane. Is this great Agamemnon's tent, I pray
Agam. Even this.

Ane. May one, that is a herald, and a prince,
Do a fair message to his kingly ears?

Agam. With surety stronger than Achilles' arm 35 'Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice Call Agamemnon head and general.

40

Ene. Fair leave, and large security. How may
A stranger to those most imperial looks
Know them from eyes of other mortals?
Agam. How?

ne. I ask, that I might waken reverence,
And bid the cheek be ready with a blush
Modest as morning when she coldly eyes
The youthful Phœbus:

45 Which is that god in office, guiding men?
Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon?
Agam. This Trojan scorns us; or the men of Troy
Are ceremonious courtiers.

Ane. Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm’d,
50 As bending angels; that's their fame in peace:
But when they would seem soldiers, they have
galls,
[accord,
Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, Jove's
Nothing so full of heart. But peace, Æneas,
55 Peace, Trojan; lay thy finger on thy lips!
The worthiness of praise distains his worth,
If that the prais'd himself bring the praise forth:
But what the repining enemy commends,
That breath fame blows; that praise, sole pure,
transcends.

60

An emulation not vigorous and active, but malignant and sluggish. 2 Topless means supreme, sovereign. Read o'er-wrested, i. e. cver-charged. All our good of grace exact, means our excelience irreprehens.ble. That is, holds up his head as haughtily.We still say of a girl, she bridles.

A rank weed is a high word.

Agam.

Agam. Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself Eneas?
Ane. Ay, Greek, that is my name.
Agam. What's your affair, I pray you?
Ane. Sir, pardon; 'tis for Agamemnon's ears.
Agam. He hears nought privately, that comes 5
from Troy.
[him:
Ene. Nor I from Troy come not to whisper
I bring a trumpet to awake his ear;
To set his sense on the attentive bent,
And then to speak.

Agam. Speak frankly as the wind;
It is not Agamemnon's sleeping hour;
That thou shalt know, Trojan, he is awake,
He tells thee so himself.

Ene. Trumpet, blow loud,

Send thy brass voice through all these lazy tents;
And every Greek of mettle, let him know,
What Troy means fairly, shall be spoke aloud.
[Trumpets sound.
We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy
A prince call'd Hector, Priam is his father;
Who in this dull and long-continu'd truce
Is rusty grown; he bade me take a trumpet,
And to this purpose speak. Kings, princes, lords!
If there be one, among the fair'st of Greece,
That holds his honour higher than his ease;
That seeks his praise more than he fears his peril;
That knows his valour, and knows not his fear;
That loves his mistress more than in confession',
(With truant vows to her own lips he loves)
And dare avow her beauty, and her worth,
In other arms than hers,-to him this challenge.
Hector, in view of Trojans and of Greeks,
Shall make it good, or do his best to do it.
He hath a lady, wiser, fairer, truer,
Than ever Greek did compass in his arms;
And will to-morrow with his trumpet call,
Mid-way between your tents and walls of Troy,
To rouse a Grecian that is true in love:
If any come, Hector shall honour him;
If none, he'll say in Troy, when he retires,
The Grecian dames are sun-burnt, and not worth
The splinter of a lance. Even so much.

Agam. This shall be told our lovers,lord Æneas;
If none of them have soul in such a kind,
We left them all at home: But we are soldiers;
And may that soldier a mere recreant prove,
That means not, hath not, or is not in love!
If then one is, or hath, or means to be,
That one meets Hector; if none else, I am he.

Nest. Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man
When Hector's grandsire suck'd: he is old now;
But, if there be not in our Grecian host
One noble man that hath one spark of fire,
To answer for his love, Tell him from me,-
I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver,
And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn;
And, meeting him, will tell him, That my lady
Was fairer than his grandame, and as chaste

As may be in the world: His youth in flood,
I'll pawn this truth with my three drops of blood.
Ane. Now heavens forbid such scarcityof youth!
Ulyss. Amen.

sir.

Agam. Fair lord Æneas, let me touch your hand;
To our pavilion shall I lead you,
Achilles shall have word of this intent;

So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent;
Yourself shall feast with us before you go,

10 And find the welcome of a noble foe. [Exeunt.
Manent Ulysses and Nestor.

Ulyss. Nestor,

Nest. What says Ulysses?

Ulyss. I have a young conception in my brain, 15 Be you my time to bring it to some shape. Nest. What is 't?

Ulyss. This 'tis :

Blunt wedges rive hard knots: The seeded pride
That hath to its maturity blown up

20 In rank Achilles, must or now be cropt,
Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil,
To over-bulk us all.

25

Nest. Well, and how?

Ulyss. This challenge that the gallant Hector However it is spread in general name, [sends, Relates in purpose only to Achilles. [stance, Nest. The purpose is perspicuous even as subWhose grossness little characters sum up ': And, in the publication, make no strain, 30 But that Achilles, were his brain as barren As banks of Libya,-though, Apollo knows, 'Tis dry enough,will with great speed of judgement,

Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose
35 Pointing on him.

Ulyss. And wake him to the answer, think you?
Nest. Yes, 'tis most meet: Whom may you

else oppose,

That can from Hector bring those honours off,
40 If not Achilles? Though 't be a sportful combat,
Yet in this trial much opinion dwells;

For here the Trojans taste our dear'st repute
With their fin'st palate: And trust to me, Ulysses,
Our inputation shall be oddly pois'd

45 In this wild action: for the success,
Although particular, shall give a scantling
Of good or bad unto the general;
And in such indexes, although small pricks
To their subsequent volumes, there is seen
50 The baby figure of the giant mass

Of things to come at large. It is suppos'd,
He, that meets Hector, issues from our choice:
And choice, being mutual act of all our souls,
Makes merit her election; and doth boil,
55 As 'twere from forth us all, a man distill'd
Out of our virtues; Who miscarrying,
What heart receives from hence a conquering
To steel a strong opinion to themselves? [part,
Which entertain'd, limbs are in his instruments,

'Substance is estate; the

Confession for profession. 2 An armour for the arm,-avantbras. value of which is ascertained by the use of small characters, i. e. numerals. * i. e. make no difficulty, no doubt, when this duel comes to be proclaimed, but that Achilles, dull as he is, will discover the drift of it. : Small points compared with the volumes.