ページの画像
PDF
ePub

And altogether more tractable.
Ajax. Why should a man be proud?
How doth pride grow? I know not what pride is.
Agam. Your mind's the clearer, Ajax, and your
virtues

I'll pash him o'er the face.

Agam. O, no, you shall not go.

Ajax. An he be proud with me, I'll pheeze ' his pride:

5 Let me go to him.

The fairer. He that's proud, eats up himself:
Pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his
Own chronicle: and whate'er praises itself
But in the deed, devours the deed i' the praise.
Ajax. I do hate a proud man, as I hate the en-10
gendering of toads.

Nest. [Aside.] And yet he loves himself; Is it not strange?

Re-enter Ulysses.

[quarrel.

[Aside,

Ulyss. Not for the worth that hangs upon our
Ajax. A paltry insolent fellow,-
Nest. How he describes himself!
Ajax. Can he not be sociable?
Ulyss. The raven chides blackness. [Aside.
Ajax. I'll let his humours blood.
Agam. He will be the physician, that should
be the patient.

Ajax. An all men were o' my mind,

-

[Aside.

Ulyss. Achilles will not to the field to-morrow. 15 Ulyss. Wit would be out of fashion. [Aside.

Agam. What's his excuse?

Ulyss. 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.

Agam. Why will he not, upon our fair request, Untent his person, and share the air with us? Ulyss. Things small as nothing, for request's sake only,

20

Ajax. He should not bear it so,
He should eat swords first: Shall pride carry it?
Nest. An 'twould, you'd carry half. [Aside.
Ulyss. He would have ten shares. Aside.
Ajax. I will knead him, I'll make him supple:-
Nest. He's not yet thorough warm: force him*
with praises:
[Aside.

Pour in, pour in; his ambition is dry.
Ulys.Mylord, you feed too much on this dislike.
[To Agamemnon.
Nest. Our noble general, do not do so.
Dio. You must prepare to fight without Achilles.
Ulyss. Why, 'tis this nammg of him does him
30 Here is a man-

He makes important: Possest he is with greatness; 25
And speaks not to himself, but with a pride
That quarrels at self breath: imagin'd worth
Holds in his blood such swoln 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.

Agam. 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.

harm.

I will be silent.

-But 'tis before his face;

Nest. Wherefore should you so?
He is not emulous, as Achilles is.

Ulyss. Know the whole world, he is as valiant.

35 Ajax. A whoreson dog, that shall palter thus

Ulyss. O Agamemnon, let it not be so !
We'll consecrate the steps that Ajax makes,
When they go from Achilles: Shall the proud lord, 40|
That bastes his arrogance with his own seam2;
And never suffers matter of the world
Enter his thoughts,-save such as do 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
Must 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 hini! Jupiter forbid;
And say in thunder-Achilles, go to him.
Nest. O, this is well: he rubs the vein of him.

1

[Aside. Dio. And how his silence drinks up this applause! Aside.

Ajax. If I go to him, with my armed fist

with us!

Would, he were a Trojan !

Nest. What a vice were it in Ajax now-
Ulyss. If he were proud?
Diom. Or covetous of praise?
Ulyss. Ay, or surly borne?

Diom. Or strange, or self-affected?
Ulyss. Thank the heavens, lord, thou art of
sweet composure;

45 Praise him that got thee, she that gave thee suck:
Fam'd be thy tutor: and thy parts of nature
Thrice-fam'd, beyond all erudition:
But he that disciplin'd thy arms to fight,
Let Mars divide eternity in twain,

50 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,→
55 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,
160 But be as Ajax.

Alluding to the decisive spots appearing on those infected by the plague.

To pheeze is to comb or curry. i. e. stuff him with praises (from farcir, Fr.). boundary, and sometimes a rivulet dividing one place from another.

[blocks in formation]

Ajax. Shall I call you father?

Nest. Ay, my good son.

Diom. Be rul'd by him, lord Ajax.

Ulyss. There is no tarrying here; the hartAchilles 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 towest, And cull their flower, Ajax shall cope the best. Agam. Go we to council. Let Achilles sleep. 5 Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks draw" deep. [Exeunt.

ACT

III.

SCENE L

TROY.
The Palace.

Enter Pandarus, and a Servant. [Musick within. 201
Pan. FRIEND! you! pray you, a word:
Do not you follow the young lord

Paris?

Serv. Ay, sir, when he goes before me. Pan. You do depend upon him, I mean? Serv. Sir, I do depend upon the lord. Pan. You do depend upon a noble gentleman; I must needs praise him.

Sero. The lord be praised!

Pan. You know me, do you not?
Serv. 'Faith, sir, superficially.

Pan. Friend, know me better; I am the lord Pandarus.

Serv. I hope I shall know your honour better.
Pan. I do desire it.

Serv. You are in the state of grace?

Pan. Grace! not so, friend; honour and lordship are my titles:-What musick is this?

Serv. I do but partly know, sir; it is musick in parts.

Pan. Know you the musicians?

Serv. Wholly, sir.

Pan. Who play they to?

Serv. To the hearers, sir.

Pan. At whose pleasure, friend?

Serv. At mine, sir, and theirs that love musick.
Pan. Command, I mean, friend?
Serv. Who shall I command, sir?

[complimental assault upon him, for my business seeths.

Serv. Sodden business! there's a stew'd phrase, indeed!

Enter Paris, and Helen, attended.

Pan. Fair be to you, my lord, and to all this fair company! fair desires, in all fair measure, fairly guide them!-especially to you, fair queen! 25 fair thoughts be your fair pillow!

Helen. Dear lord, you are full of fair words. Pan. You speak your fair pleasure,sweet queen:→ Fair prince, here is good broken musick.

Pur. You have broke it, cousin: and, by my 30life, you shall make it whole again; you shall piece it out with a piece of your performance:→→ Nell, he is full of harmony.

35

Pan. Truly, lady, no.

Helen. O, sir,

Pan. Rude, in sooth; in good sooth, very rude. Par. Well said, my lord! well, you say so in fits. Pan. I have business to my lord, dear queen:~ My lord, will you vouchsafe me a word?

Helen. Nay, this shall not hedge us out; we'll 40 hear you sing, certainly.

45

Pan. Friend, we understand not one another; I am too courtly, and thou art too cunning: At 50 whose request do these men play?

Serv. 'That's to 't, indeed, sir: Marry, sir, at the request of Paris my lord, who is there in person; with him, the mortal Venus, the heart-blood of beauty, love's invisible soul',

Pan. Who, my cousin Cressida?

Serv. No, sir, Helen; Could you not find out that by her attributes?

Pan. 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, Pan. 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! Pan. Sweet queen, sweet queen; that's a sweet queen, i' faith. Helen. And to make a sweet lady sad, is a sour offence.

Pan. Nay, that shall not serve your turn; that 55 shall it not, 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 at supper, you will make his excuse.

Pan. It should seem, fellow, that thou hast not seen the lady Cressida. I come to speak with 60 Paris from the Prince Troilus: I will make a

Helen. My lord Pandarus,

Pan. What says my sweet queen; my very very sweet queen?

i. e. the soul of loce invisible every where else.

3K4

?i. e. now and then, by fits.

Pan

Par. What exploit's in hand? where sups he How chance my brother Troilus went not? to-night?

Helen. Nay but, my lord,—

Pan. Wht says my sweet queen? My cousin will fall out with you.

Helen. You must not know where he sups. Par. I'll lay my life, with my disposer Cressida. Pan. No, no, no such matter, you are wide; come, your disposer is sick.

Par. Well, I'll make excuse.

Pan. Ay, good my lord. Why should you say-Cressida? no, your poor disposer's sick. Par. I spy'.

Pan. You spy! what do you spy?-Come, give me an instrument.-Now, sweet queen.

Helen. Why, this is kindly done.

Pan. 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.

Pan. He! no, she'll none of him; they two

are twain.

Helen. Falling in, after falling out, may make them three'.

5

10

Helen. He hangs the lip at something;-you know all, lord Pandarus.

Pan. Not I, honey-sweet queen.--I long to hear how they sped to-day.-You'll remember your brother's excuse?

Pur, To a hair.

Pan. Farewell, sweet queen.

Helen. Commend me to your niece.

Pan. I will, sweet queen. [Exit. Sound a retreat, Par.They are come from field: let us to Priam's

hall,

[you
To greet the warriors. Sweet Helen, I must woo
To help unarm our Hector: his stubborn buckles,`
15 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:

201

Pan, Come, come, I'll hear no more of this; 25 I'll sing you a song now.

Helen. Ay, ay, pr'ythee now. By my troth, sweet lord, thou hast a fine forehead.

Pan. Ay, you may, you may.

Helen. Let thy song be love: this love will 30
undo us all. Oh, Cupid, Cupid, Cupid!
Pan. Love, ay, that it shall i' faith.
Par. Ay, good now, love, love, nothing but
Pan. In good troth, it begins so:

[love.

"Love, love, nothing but 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-Oh! oh! they die! "Yet that which seems the wound to kill, "Doth turn oh! oh! to ha! ha! he!

"So dying love lives still: "Oh! oh! a while, but ha! ha! ha! "Oh! oh! groans out for ha! ha! ha!

"Hey ho!" Helen. In love, i' faith, to the very tip of the

nose.

Par. He eats nothing but doves, love; and that breeds hot blood, and hot blood begets hot thoughts, and hot thoughts beget hot deeds, and hot deeds is love.

Pan. Is this the generation of love? hot blood, hot thoughts, and hot deeds? Why, they are vi pers: Is love a generation of vipers? Sweet lord, who's a-field to-day?

35

[blocks in formation]

Pan. O, here he comes.-How now, how now?
Troi. Sirrah, walk off.

Pan. Have you seen my cousin?

Troi. No, Pandarus: I stalk about her door, Like a strange soul upon the Stygian banks Staying for waftage. O, be thou my Charon, 40 And give me swift transportance to those fields, Where I may wallow in the lily beds

Propos'd for the deserver! O gentle Pandarus, From Cupid's shoulder pluck his painted wings, And fly with me to Cressid!

45 Pan. Walk here i' the orchard, I will bring her straight. [Exit Pandarus. Troi. I am giddy; expectation whirls me round, Th' imaginary relish is so sweet,

That it enchants my sense; What will it be, 50 When the watry palate tastes indeed

55

Par. Hector, Deiphobus, Helenus, Antenor, and all the gallantry of Troy: I would fain have 60 arm'd to-day, but my Nell would not have it so:

Love's thrice-reputed 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.

Pan. She's making her ready, she'll come straight; you must be witty now. She does so

This is the usual exclamation at a childish game called Hie, spy, hie. 2i. e. says Mr. Tollet, the reconciliation and wanton dalliance of two lovers after a quarrel, may produce a child, and so make three of two.

blush,

[ocr errors]

blush, and fetches her wind so short, as if she were]
frayed with a sprite: I'll fetch her. It is the
prettiest villain:-she fetches her breath as short
as a new-ta'en sparrow.
[Exit Pandarus.

Troi. 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.

Enter Pandarus, and Cressida.

5

Cres. 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?

Troi. 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 per10 fection 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.

Pan. 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 watch'd 15 ere you be made tame', must you? Come your ways, come your ways; an you draw backward, we'll put you i' the files.-Why do you not speak to her!-Come, draw this curtain, and let's see your picture. Álas the day, how loth you are to offend day-light! an 'twere dark, you'd 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 faul-25 con as the tercel, for all the ducks i' the river': go to, go to.

20

Troi. You have bereft me of all words, lady. Pan. Words pay no debts, give her deeds: but she'll bereave you of the deeds too, if she call 30 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 Pandarus.

Cres. Will you walk in, my lord? Troi. O Cressida, how often have I wish'd me thus?

Cres. Wish'd, my lord? The gods grant!O my lord!

Cres. Will you walk in, my lord?
Re-enter Pandarus.

Pan. What, blushing still? have you not done talking yet?

Cres. Well, uncle, what folly I commit, I dedicate to you.

Pan. 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.

Trei. You know now your hostages; your un-' cle's word, and my firm faith.

Pan. Nay, I'll give my word for her too; our kindred, though they be long ere they are woo'd, they are constant, being won: they are burrs, I can tell you; they'll stick where they are

thrown.

Cres. Boldness comes to me now, and brings
me heart:

35
Prince Troilus, I have lov'd you night and day,`
For many weary months.

Troi. What should they grant? what makes this 40| pretty abruption? What too curious dreg espies my sweet lady in the fountain of our love?

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

Troi. Fears make devils of cherubims; they 45 never see truly.

Cres. Blind fear, that seeing reason leads, finds safer footing than blind reason stumbling without fear: To fear the worst, oft cures the worst. Troi. O, let my lady apprehend no fear: in all 50 Cupid's pageant there is presented no monster. Cres. Nor nothing monstrous neither?

Troi. Nothing, but our undertakings; when we vow to weep seas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tygers; thinking it harder for our mistress 55 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 confin'd; that the desire is boundless, and the act a slave to limit.

Troi. Why was my Cressid then so hard to win?
Cres. Hard to seem won; but I was won, my
lord,
-Pardon me:-

With the first glance that ever

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 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 nie 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.

Troi. And shall, albeit sweet musick issues
Pan. Pretty, i'faith.
[thence.
Cres. My lord, I do beseech you, pardon me;
60'Twas not my purpose, thus to beg a kiss:

2

'Alluding to the manner of taming hawks. Alluding to the custom of putting men suspected of cowardice in the middle places. 3 Pandarus means, that he'll match his niece against her lover for any bett.-The tercel is the male hawk; by the faulcon we generally understand the female. We will give him no high or pompous titles.

I am asham'd;-O heavens! what have I done?-
For this time will I take my leave, my lord.
Troi. Your leave, sweet Cressid?

Pan. Leave! an you take leave 'till to-morrow morning,

Cres. Pray you, content you.
Troi. What offends you, lady?
Cres. Sir, mine own company.
Troi. You cannot shun yourself.
Cres. 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 speak I know not what.
Troi. Well know they what they speak, that
speak so wisely.

Cres. Perchance, my lord, I shew 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; thatdwells with gods above.
Troi. 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,
Out-living beauties 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.
Cres. In that I'll war with you.
Troi. O virtuous fight,

From false to false, among false maids in love,
Upbraid my falsehood! when they have said-as
As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth,
As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf,

[false

5 Pard to the hind, or step-dame to her son;
Yea, let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood,
As false as Cressid.

Pan. Go to, a bargain made: seal it, seal it: I'll be the witness.Here I hold your hand; 10 here, my cousin's. If ever you prove false to one 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 inconstant men be 15 Troilus's, all false women Cressids, and all brokers-between Pandars! say amen.

Troi. Amen,

Cres. Amen.

Pan. Amen. Whereupon I will shew you a 20 bed-chamber; which bed, because it shall not speak of your pretty encounters, press it to death:

25

away,

And Cupid grant all tongue-ty'd maidens here,
Bed, chamber, Pandar to provide this geer!
[Exeunt.

[blocks in formation]

30 Enter Agamemnon, Ulysses, Diomed, Nestor, Ajax, Menelaus, and Calchas.

[right! When right with right wars who shall be most True swains in love shall, in the world to come, Approve their truths by Troilus: when their 40 rhymes,

Full of protest, of oath, and big compare,
Want símilies, 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 the center,-
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.

Cres. Prophet may you be!

If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth,
When time is old and hath forgot itself,

When water-drops 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,

Cal. Now, princes, for the service I have done

you,

The advantage of the time prompts me aloud
35 To call for recompence. Appear it to your mind,
That, through the sight I bear in things, to Jove
I have abandon'd Troy, left my possessions,
Incurr'd a traitor's name; expos'd myself,
From certain and possess'd conveniences,
To doubtful fortunes; sequestring from me all
That time, acquaintance, custom, and condition,
Made tame and most familiar to my nature;
And here, to do you service, am become
As new into the world, strange, unacquainted:
451 do beseech you, as in way of taste,
(To give me now a little benefit,

50

Out of those many register'd in promise,
Which, you say, live to come in my behalf.
Agam. What would'st thou of us, Trojan? make

demand.

Cal. You have a Trojan prisoner, call'd Antenor,
Yesterday took; Troy holds him very dear.
Oft have you (often have you thanks therefore
Desir'd my
Cressid in right great exchange,
55 Whom Troy hath still deny'd: But this Antenor
I know, is such a wrest in their affairs,
That their negociations all must slack,

I wish, "my integrity might be met and matched with such equality and force of pure unmingled love." This is an ancient proverbial simile. 'Formerly neither sowing, planting, nor grafting, were ever undertaken without a scrupulous attention to the increase or waning of the moon, as may be proved by the following quotation from Scott's Discoverie of Witchcraft: "The poore husbandman perceiveth that the increase of the moone maketh plants fruitfull: so as in the full moone they are in the best strength; decaicing in the wane; and in the conjunction to utterlic wither and vade."

Wanting

« 前へ次へ »