one For being a little bad : so may my husband. Pror. This is another prisoner that I saved, O Isabel, will you not lend a knee? Who should have died when Claudio lost his Duke. He dies for Claudio's death. head; Isab. Most bounteous sir, [Kneeling. As like almost to Claudio as himself, Look, if it please you, on this man condemn'd, [Unmuffles Claudio. As if my brother lived : I partly thiuk 450 Duke. [To Isabella] If he be like you A due sincerity governd his deeds, brother, for his sake Till he did look on me; since it is so, Is he pardou'd ; and, for your lovely sake, Let him not die. My brother had but justice, Give me your hand and say you will be mine. In that he did the thing for which he died : He is my brother too: but fitter time for that. For Angelo, By this Lord Angelo perceives he's safe ; Ilis act did not o'ertake his bad intent, Methinks I see a quickening in his eye. 500 And must be buried but as an intent Well, Angelo, your evil quits you well: That perish'd by the way : thoughts are no Look that you love your wife ; her worth subjects ; worth yours. Inrents but merely thoughts. I find an apt remission in myself ; Mari. Merely, my lord. And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon. Duke. Your suit's uinprofitable ; stand up, [To Lucio] You, sirrah, that knew me for a I say. 460 fool, a coward, I have bethought me of another fault. One all of luxury, an ass, a madman ; That you extol me thus ? It was commanded so. Lucio. 'Faith, my lord, I spoke it but acDuke. Had you a special warrant for the cording to the trick. If you will hang me for it, deed ? (message. you may ; but I had rather it would please you Pror. No, my good lord ; it was by private I might be whipt. Duke. For which I do discharge you of Duke. Whipt first, sir, and hanged after. your office : Proclaim it, provost, round about the city, Give up your keys. Is any woman wrong'd by this lewd fellow, Pror. Pardon me, noble lord : As I have heard him swear himself there's I thought it was a fault, but knew it not ; Yet did repent me, after more advice ; Whom he begot with child, let her appear, For testimony whereof, one in the prison, 470 And he shall marry her : the nuptial finishid, That should by private order else have died, Let him be whipt and hang'd. I have reserved alive. Lucio. I beseech your highness, do not Duke. What's he? marry me to a whore. Your highness said Pron. His name is Barnardine. even now, I made you a duke: good my lord, Duke. I would thou hadst done so by do not recompense me in making me acuckold. Claudio. Duke. Upon mine honor, thou shalt marry Go fetch him hither ; let me look upon him. her. [Exit Provost Thy slanders I forgive ; and therewithal Escal. I am sorry, one so learned and so Remit thy other forfeits. Take him to prison; wise And see our pleasure herein executed. As you, Lord Angelo, have still appeard, Lucio. Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressShould slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood, ing to death, whipping, and hanging. And lack of temper'd jndgment afterward. Duke. Slandering a prince deserves it. 50 Ang. I am sorry that such sorrow I procure: (Eseunt Officers zoith Lucio. And so deep sticks it in my penitent heart 480 She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you reThat I crave death more willingly than mercy ; store. 'Tis my deserving, and I do entreat it. Joy to you, Mariana ! Love her, Angelo : I have confess'd her and I know her virtue. Re-enter PROVOST, with BARNARDINE, Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much CLAUDIO muffled, and JULIET. goodness : Duke. Which is that Barnardine ? There's more behind that is more gratulate. Prov. This, my lord. Thanks, provost, for thy care and secrecy : Duke. There was a friar told me of this We shall employ thee in a worthier place. Forgive him, Angelo, that bronght you home Sirrah, thou art said to have a stubborn soul, The head of Ragozine for Claudio's : That apprehends no further than this world, The offence pardons itself. Dear Isabel, 540 And squarest thy life according. Thou’rt con- I have a motion much imports your good ; demn'd: Whereto if you'll a willing ear incline, But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all ; What's mine is yours and what is yours is And pray thee take this mercy to provide 489 ine. For better times to come. Friar, advise him ; So, bring us to our palace ; where we'll show I leave him to your hand. What muffled fel- What's yet behind, that's meet you all should low's that? know. (Exeunt man. TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. (WRITTEN ABOUT 1603 ?) INTRODUCTION. This play appeared in two quarto editions in the year 1609 ; on the title-page of the earlier of the two it is stated to have been acted at the Globe; the later contains a singular preface in which the play is spoken of as "never stal'd with the stage, never clapper-clawed with the palines of the vulgar,” and as having been published against the will of "the grand possessors. " Perbaps the play was printed at first for the use of the theatre, with the intention of being published after having been represented, and the printers, against the known wishes of the proprietors of Shakespeare's manuscript, anticipated the tirst representation and issued the quarto with the attractive announcement that it was an absolute novelty. The editors of the folio, after having decided that Troilus and Cressida should follow Romeo and Juliet among the tragedies, changed their minds, apparently uncertain how the play should be classed, and placed it between the Histories and Tragedies; this led to the cancelling of a leaf, and the filling up of a blank space left by the alteration, with the Prologue to Troilus and Cressida-a prologue which is believed by several critics not to have como from Shakespeare's hand. There is extreme uncertainty with respect to the date of the play, Dekker and Chettle were engaged in 1599 upon a play on this subject, and, from an entry in the Stationers' register, February 7, 1602–1603, it appears that a Troilus and Cressida had been acted by Shakespeare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Servants. Was this Shakespeare's play? We aro thrown back upon internal evidence to decide this question, and the internal evidence is itself of a conflicting kind, and has led to opposite conclusions. The massive worldly wisdom of Ulysses argues, it is supposed, in favor of a late date, and the general tone of the play has been compared with that of Timon of Athens. The fact that it does not contain a single weak ending, and only six light endings, is, however, almost decisive evidence against our placing it after either Timon or Dlacbeth ; and the other metrical characteristics are considered, by the most careful student of this class of evidence in the case of the present play (Hertzberg), to point to a date about 1005. Other authorities place it as late as 1608 or 1609; while a third theory (that of Verplanck and Grant White) attempts to solve the difficulties by supposing that it was first written in 1603, and revised and enlarged shortly before the publication of the quarto. Parts of the play-notably the last battle of Hector-appear not to be by Shakespeare. The interpretation of the play itself is as difficult as the ascertainment of the external facts of its history. With what intention, and in what spirit did Shakespeare write this strange comedy ? All the Greek heroes who fought against Troy are pitilessly exposed to ridicule ; Helen and Cressida are light, sensual, and heartless, for whose sake it seems infatuated folly to strike a blow ; Troilus is an enthusiastic young fool; and even Hector, though valiant and generous, spends his life in a cause which he knows to be unprofitable, if not eril. All this is seen and said by Thersites, whose mind is made up of the seum of the foulness of human life. But can Shakespeare's view of things have been the same as that of Thersites? The central theme, the young love and faith of Troilus given to one who was false and fickle, and his discovery of his error, lends its color to the whole play. It is the comedy of disillusion. And as Troilus passed through the illusion of his first love for woman, so by middle life the world itself often appears like one that has not kept her promises, and who is a poor deceiver. We come to see the seamy side of life; and from this mood of disillusion it is a deliverance to pass on even to a dark and tragic view of life, to which beauty and virtue reappear, even though human weakness or human vice may do them bitter wrong. Now such a mood of contemptuous depreciation of life may have come over Shakespeare, and spoilt him, at that time, for a writer of comedy. But for Isabella we should find the coming on of this mood in Measure for Measure; there is perhaps a touch of it in Hamlet. At this time Troilus and Cressida may have been written, and soon afterwards Shakespeare, rousing himself to a deeper inquest into things, inay bave passed on to his great series of tragedies. The materials for Troilus and Cressida were found by Shakespeare in Chaucer's Troilus and Creseide, Caxton's translation from the French, Remyles, or Destruction of Troy, and perhaps also Lydgate's Troye Boke. PRIAM, king of Troy. his sons. DRAMATIS PERSONÆ. MARGARELON, a bastard son of Priain. Trojan commanders. the Greeks. Servant to Paris. Servant to Diomedes. AGAMEMNON, the Grecian general. Grecian princes. HELEN, wife to Menelaus. before it. mures PROLOGUE. In Troy, there lies the scene. From isles of Greece The princes orgulous, their high blood chafed, Have to the port of Athens sent their ships, Fraught with the ministers and instruments Of cruel war : sixty and nine, that wore Their crownets regal, from the Athenian bay Put forth toward Phrygia ; and their vow is made To ransack Troy, within whose strong imThe ravish'd Helen, Menelaus' queen, With wanton Paris sleeps ; and that's the quarrel. 10 To Tenedos they come ; And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorge Their warlike fraughtage : now on Dardan plains The fresh and yet unbruised Greeks do pitch Their brave pavilions : Priam's six-gated city, Dardan, and Tymbria, Helias, Chetas, Troien, And Antenorides, with massy staples And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts, Sperr up the sons of Troy. Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits, 20 On one and other side, Trojan and Greek, Sets all on hazard : and hither am I come A prologue arm’d, but not in confidence Of author's pen or actor's voice, but suited In like conditions as our argument, To tell you, fair beholders, that our play Leaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils, Beginning in the middle, starting thence away To what may be digested in a play. 29 Like or find fault ; do as your pleasures are : Now good or bad, 'tis but the chance of war. Pan. Will this gear ne'er be mended ? their strength, Fierce to their skill and to their fierceness valiant ; But I am weaker than a woman's tear, Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance, 10 Less valiant than the virgin in the night And skilless as unpractised infancy. Pan. Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part, I'll not meddle nor make no fur. ther. He that will have a cake out of the wheat must needs tarry the grinding. Tro. Have I not tarried ? the bolting Tro. Have I not tarried ? Pan. Ay, the bolting, but you must tarry the leavening. 20 Tro. Still have I tarried. Pan. Ay, to the leavening ; but here's yet in the word 'hereafter the kneading, the making of the cake, the heating of the oven and the baking ; nay, you must stay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips. Tru. Patience herself, what goddess e'er she be, into my thoughts, 30 So, traitor! When she comes !' When is she thence ? Pan. Well, she looked yesternight fairer than ever I saw her look, or any woman else. Tro. I was about to tell thee :-when my heart, As wedged with a sigh, would rive in twain, Lest Hector or my father should perceive me, I have, as when the sun doth light a storm, Buried this sigh in wrinkle of a smile : But sorrow, that is couch'd in seeming gladness, Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sad 40 Pan. An her hair were not somewhat darker than Helen's-well, go to there were no more comparison between the women; but, for my part, she is my kidswoman ; I would not, as they term it, praise her : but I would somebody had heard her talk yester comes ness. ACT I. SCENE I. Troy. Before Priam's palace. Enter TROILUS armed, and PANDARUS. Tro. Call here my varlet ; I'll unarm again : Why should I ar without the walls of Troy, That find such cruel battle here within ? Vach Trojan that is master of his heart, wet him to field ; Troilus, alas ! hath none. her ; 6 day, as I did. I will not dispraise your sister I cannot come to Cressid but by Pandar ; Cassandra's wit, but And he's as tetchy to be woo'd to woo, Tro. O Pandarus ! I tell thee, Pandarus,- As she is stubborn-chaste against all suit. 100 When I do tell thee, there my hopes lie Tell me, Apollo, for thy Daphne's love, drown'd, What Cressid is, what Pandar, and what we ? Reply not in how many fathoms deep 50 Her bed is India ; there she lies, a pearl : They lie indrench’d. I tell thee I am mad Between our lium and where she resides, In Cressid's love : thou answer'st .she is Let it be call'd the wild and wandering flood, fair ;' Ourself the merchant, and this sailing Pandar Pour'st in the open ulcer of my heart Our doubtful hope, our convoy and our bark. Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her Alarum. Enter ÆNEAS. voice, Æne. How now, Handlest in thy discourse, O, that her hand, Prince Troilus ! where. fore not afield ? In whose comparison all whites are ink, Tro. Because not there : this woman's arv Writing their own reproach, to whose soft seizure swer sorts, For womanish it is to be from thence. 110 The cygnet's down is harsh and spirit of sense Hard as the palm of ploughman : this thou What news, Æneas, from the field to-day ? tell'st me, Æne. That Paris is returned home and hurt. As true thou tell'st me, when I say I love 60 Tro. By whom, Æneas ? Æne, But, saying thus, instead of oil and balm, Troilus, by Menelaus. Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given Tro. Let Paris bleed ; 'tis but a scar to scorn; me Paris is gored with Menelaus' horn. [ Alarum. The knife that made it. Pan. I speak no more than truth. Æne. Hark, what good sport is out of town to-day ! Tro. Thou dost not speak so much. Pan. Faith, I'll not meddle in't. Let her be Tro. Better at home, if 'would I might' as she is: if she be fair, 'tis the better for were'niay.' her ; an she be not, she has the mends in her But to the sport abroad : are you bound thither ? own hands. Tro. Good Pandarus, how now, Pandaris ! Æne. in all swift haste. Tro. Pan. I have had my labor for my travail Come, go we then together. ill-thought on of her and ill-thought on of [Exeunt. you ; gone between and between, but small SCENE II. The same. A street. thanks for my labor. Tro. What, art thou angry, Pandarus ? Enter CRESSIDA and · ALEXANDER. what, with me? Cres. Who were those went by ? Pan. Because she's kin to me, therefore Alex. Queen Hecuba and Helen. she's uot so fair as Helen : an she were not Cres. And whither go they ? kin to me, she would be as fair on Friday as Alex. Up to the eastern tower, Helen is on Sunday. But what care I ? I care Whose height commands as subject all the not an she were a black-a-moor ; 'tis all one vale, to me. 80 To see the battle. Hector, whose patience Tro. Say I she is not fair ? Is, as a virtue, fix'd, to-day was moved : Pan. I do not care whether you do or no. He chid Andromache and struck his armorer, She's a fool to stay behind her father ; let her And, like as there were husbandry in war, to the Greeks, and so I'll tell her the next Before the sun rose he was harness'd light, time I see her : for my part, l’al meddle nor And to the field goes he ; where every flower make no more i' the matter, Did, as a prophet, weep what it foresaw 10 Tro. Pandarus, In Hector's wrath. Pan. Not I. Cres. What was his cause of anger ? Tro, Sweet Pandarus, Alex. The noise goes, this : there is among Pan. Pray you, speak no more to me: I the Greeks will leave all as I found it, and there an end. A lord of Trojan blood, nephew to Hector ; [Erit Pandarus. An alarum. 91 They call him Ajax. Tro. Peace, you ungracious clamors ! peace, Cres. Good ; and what of him ? rude sounds! Alex. They say he is a very man per se, Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be And stands alone. fair, Cres. So do all men, unless they are drunk, When with your blood you daily paint her sick, or have no legs. thus. Alex. This man, lady, hath robbed many I cannot fight upon this argument ; beasts of their particular additions ; he is as It is too starved a su ject for my sword. valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear, slow But Pandarus, -0 gods, how do yon plague as the elephant: a man into whom nature me hath so crowded humors that his valor is Own. 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 everything so out of joint that he is a gouty Briareus, many hands and no use, or purblind Argus, all eyes and no sight. 31 Cres. But how should this man, that makes me smile, make llector angry? -1797. 'They say he yesterday coped Hector in the battle and struck him down, the disdain and shame whereof hath ever since kept Hector fasting and waking. Cres. Who comes here? Enter PANDARUS. 40 Alex. As may be in the world, lady. Pun. What's that? what's that? Cres. Good morrow, imele Pandarus. Pun. Good morrow, cousin Cressid : what do you talk of? Good morrow, Alexander. How do you, cousin ? When were you at llium ? Cres. This morning, uncle. Pan. What were you talking of when I came? Was Hector armed and gone ere ye came to Ilium ? Helen was not up, was she ? Cres. Hector was gone, but Ilelen was not up: Pan. Even so: Hector was stirring early. Cres. That were we talking of, and of his anger. Pan. Was he angry ? Pan. True, he was so : I know the cause too : he'll lay about him to-day, I can tell them that : and there's Troilus will not conie far behind him ; let them take heed of Troilus, I can tell them that too. 61 Cres. What, is lie angry too ? Pan. Who, Troilus ? Troilus is the better man of the two. Cres. O Jupiter ! there's no comparison. Paun. What, not between Troilus and Hector? Do you know a man if you see liim ? Cres. Ay, if I ever saw him before and knew liim. Pan. Well, I say Troilus is Troilus. 70 Cres. Then you say as I say ; for, I am sure, he is not Hector. Pan. No, nor Hector is not Troilus in some degrees. Cres. "Tis just to each of them ; he is himself. Pan. Ilimself ! Alas, poor Troilus ! I would he were. Cres. So he is. Pan. Condition, I had gone barefoot to India. 80 Cres. He is not Hector. Pan. Himself ! no, he's not himself : would a' were bimself! Well, the gods are above ; time must friend or end : well, Troilus, well : I would my heart were in her body. No, Hector is not a better man than Troilus. Cres. Excuse me. 89 Pan. Th other's not come to't ; you shall tell me another tale, when th' other's come to't. Hector shall not have his wit this year. Cres. He shall not need it, if he have his Cres. "Twould not become him ; his own's better. Pan. You have no judgment, niece : Helen herself swore th' other day, that Troilus, for a brown favor--for so 'tis, I must confess,not brown neither, Cres. No, but brown). Pun. 'Faith, to say truth, brown and not brown. Cres. To say the truth, true and not trne Pan. She praised his complexion above Paris. Cres. Why, Paris hath color enough. 109 Cres. Then Troilus should have too much : if she praised him above, his complexion is higher than his ; he having color enough, and the other higher, is too flaining a praise for a good complexion. I had as lief Helen's golden tongue had commended Troilus for a copper 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 th' other day into the compassed window,-and, you know, he lias not past three or four hairs on his chin, Cres. Indeed, a tapster's arithmetic may soon bring his particulars tiierein to a total. Pan. Why, he is very young : and yet will he, within three pound, list as much as his brother Hector. Cres. Is he so young a man and so old a lifter? 129 Pun. 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 his smiling becomes him better than any man in all Phrygia. Cres. O, he smiles valiantly. Pan. Why, go to, then : but to prove to you that Helen loves Troilus, - 141 Cres. Troilus will stand to the proof, it you'll prove it so. Pan. Troilus! why, he esteems her no more than I esteem an addle egg. nose. |