TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

TROILUS.

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 unpractis'd infancy.

But sorrow,

TROILUS.

Act 1, Sc. 1, l. 9.

that is couch'd in seeming gladness, Is like that mirth Fate turns to sudden sadness.

TROILUS.

Act 1, Sc. 1, l. 38.

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.

ALEXANDER.

Act 1, Sc. 1, l. 53.

This man, lady, hath robb'd many beasts of their particular additions: he is as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant; a man into whom nature hath so crowded humors that his valour is crushed into folly, his folly sauced with discretion: there is no man hath a virtue that he hath not a glimpse of, nor any man an attaint but he carries some stain of it. He is melancholy without cause, and merry against the hair: he hath the joints of every

thing; but every thing so out of joint, that he is a gouty Briareus, many hands and no use: or purblind Argus, all eyes and no sight.

CRESSIDA.

Act 1, Sc. 2, l. 19.

Women are angels, wooing:

Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing:

That she belov'd knows nought that knows not

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,
Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech:
Then though my heart's content firm love doth

When rank Thersites opes his mastic jaws,
We shall hear music, wit, and oracle.

NESTOR.

Act 1, Sc. 3, l. 73.

A slave whose gall coins slanders like a mint.

THERSITES.

Act 1, Sc. 3, l. 193.

Ay, do, do; thou sodden-witted lord! thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows;

an assinego may tutor thee: thou scurvy-valiant ass! thou art here but to thrash Trojans; and thou art bought and sold among those of any wit, like a barbarian slave. Act 2, Sc. 1, l. 41.

TROILUS.

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!

HECTOR.

Act 2, Sc. 2, 1. 26.

"Tis mad idolatry

To make the service greater than the god.

TROILUS.

Act 2, Sc. 2, 1. 56.

A Grecian queen, whose youth and freshness Wrinkles Apollo's, and makes stale the morning.

PARIS.

Act 2, Sc. 2, l. 78.

Well may we fight for her, whom, we know well, The world's large spaces cannot parallel.

ULYSSES.

Act 2, Sc. 2, l. 161.

The elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy; his legs are legs for necessity, not for flexure.

AGAMEMNON.

Act 2, Sc. 3, l. 103.

A stirring dwarf we do allowance give

Before a sleeping giant.

Act 2, Sc. 3, l. 125.

ULYSSES.

He is so plaguy proud, that the death tokens of it Cry No recovery."

TROILUS.

Act 3, Sc. 2, l. 163.

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

TROILUS.

Act 3, Sc. 2, 1. 8.

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;
Swounding 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.

TROILUS.

Act 3, Sc. 2, l. 18.

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.

TROILUS.

Act 3, Sc. 2, 1. 35.

Fears make devils of cherubins; they never
Act 3, Sc. 2, l. 63.

see truly.

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.

Act 3, Sc. 2, 1. 64.

This is the monstrosity 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. Act 3, Sc. 2, 1. 74.

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.

TROILUS.

Act 3, Sc. 2, l. 76.

Praise us as we are tasted; allow us as we prove; our head shall go bare till merit crown it.

TROILUS.

I am as true as truth's simplicity,

Act 3, Sc. 2, 1. 90.

And simpler than the infancy of truth.

Act 3, Sc. 2, l. 155.