To be another's fool. I would be gone: Where is my wit? I know not what I speak. Tro. Well know they what they speak, that speak so wisely. Cres. 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; To feed for aye* her lamp and flames of love;. That doth renew swifter than blood decays! O virtuous fight, Might be affronted with the match and weight As truth's authentick author to be cited, As true as Troilus shall crown up the verse, * Ever. + Met with and equalled. Comparison. § Conclude it. Cres. Prophet may you be! If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth, When water drops have worn the stones of Troy, 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 they have said-as false As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth, Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son; Yea, let then 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; 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 inconstant men be Troiluses, all false women Cressids, and all brokers-between Pandars! say, amen. Tro. Amen. Cres. Amen. Pan. 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, [Exeunt. SCENE III. The Grecian camp. Enter Agamemnon, Ulysses, Diomedes, Nestor, Ajax, Menelaus, and Calchas. Cal. Now, princes, for the service I have done you, The advantage of the time prompts me aloud To give me now a little benefit, 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, Whom Troy hath still denied: But this Antenor, I know, is such a wrest* in their affairs, That their negotiations all must slack, Wanting his manage; and they will almost Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam, An instrument for tuning harps, &c. In change of him: let him be sent, great princes, In most accepted pain. Agam. Let Diomedes bear him, And bring us Cressid hither; Calchas shall have Dio. This shall I undertake; and 'tis a burden [Exeunt Diomedes and Calchas. Enter Achilles and Patroclus, before their tent. Ulyss. Achilles stands i'the entrance of his tent:Please it our general to pass strangely* by him, As if he were forgot; and, princes all, Lay negligent and loose regard upon him: I will come last: 'Tis like, he'll question me, Why such unplausive eyes are bent, why turn'd on him: If so, I have derision med'cinable, To use between your strangeness and his pride, Achil. What, comes the general to speak with me? You know my mind, I'll fight no more 'gainst Troy. Agam. What says Achilles? would he aught with us? * Shyly. Nest. Would you, my lord, aught with the gene ral? Achil. Nest. Nothing, my lord. Agam. The better. No. Achil. [Exeunt Agamemnon and Nestor. Good day, good day. Men. How do you? how do you? [Exit Menelaus. Patr. They pass by strangely: they were us'd to bend, To send their smiles before them to Achilles; To come as humbly, as they us'd to creep To holy altars. Achil. What, am I poor of late? 'Tis certain, greatness, once fallen out with fortune, Hath any honour; but honour for those honours Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out |