Hard as the palm of ploughmen! This thou tell’st nie, Pan. I speak no more than truth. Pan. 'Faith, I'll not meddle in't. Let her be as she is: if she be fair, 'tis better for her ; an she be not, she has the mends in her own hands.. Tro. Good Pandarus ! how now, Pandarus ? Pan. I have had my labour for my travail ; illthought on of her, and ill-thought on of you: gone between and between, but small thanks for my labour. Tro. What, art thou angry, Pandarus ? what, with me? Pan. Because she is kin to me, therefore she's not so fair as Helen: an she were not kin to me, she would be as fair on Friday, as Helen is on Sunday. But what care I? I care not, an she were a blacka-moor ; 'tis all one to me. Tro. Say I, she is not fair ? Pan. I do not care whether you do or no. She's a fool to stay behind her father ; let her to the Greeks; and so I'll tell her the next time I see her : for my part, I'll meddle nor make no more in the matter. Tro. Pandarus,- Pan. Pray you, speak no more to me; I will leave all as I found it, and there an end. [Exit Pandarus. An alarum. Tro. Peace, you ungracious clamours ! peace, rude sounds! Fools on both sides ! Helen must needs be fair, When with your blood you daily paint her thus. I cannot fight upon this argument; It is too starv'd a subject for my sword. Our self, the me the wild where sa pearls, Alarum. Enter Æneas. Æne. How now, prince Troilus? wherefore not afield ? Tro. Because not there; This woman's answer sorts*, Æne. That Paris is returned home, and hurt. Troilus, by Menelaus. Tro. Let Paris bleed: 'tis but a scar to scorn ; Paris is gor'd with Menelaus' horn. [Aiarum. Æne. Hark! what good sport is out of town to day! Tro. Better at home, if would I might, were may.But, to the sport abroad;—Are you bound thither? Æne. In all swift haste. [Exeunt. * Suite. Enter Cressida and Alexander. Queen Hecuba, and Helen. Up to the eastern tower, Whose height commands as subject all the vale, To see the battle. Hector, whose patience Is, as a virtue, fix'd, to day was mov’d: He chid Andromache, and struck his armourer; And, like as there were husbandry in war, Before the sun rose, he was harness'd light, And to the field goes he; where every flower Did, as a prophet, weep what it foresaw In Hector's wrath. Cres. What was his cause of anger? Greeks Good; and what of him? Cres. So do all men; unless they are drunk, sick, or have no legs. Alex. This man, lady, hath robbed many beasts of their particular additionst; he is as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant : a man into whom nature hath so crowded humours, that his valour is crushedt into folly, his folly sauced with discretion : there is no man bath 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 hairg : * By himself. + Characters. Mingled. Grain. 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. Cres. But how should this man, that makes me smile, make Hector angry? Alex. 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. Enter Pandarus. Pan. Good morrow, cousin Cressid : What do you talk of?-Good morrow, Alexander.-How do you, cousin? When were you at Ilium? 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 Helen was not up. Pan. True, he was so: I know the cause too ; he'll lay about him to-day, I can tell them that: and there is Troilus will not come far behind him ; let them take heed of Troilus ; I can tell them that too. Cres. What, is he angry too?. Pan. Who, Troilus ? Troilus is the better man of the two. Cres. 0, Jupiter ! there's no comparison.' Pan. What, not between Troilus and Hector ? Do you know a man if you see him ? Cres. Ay; if ever I saw him before, and knew him. Pan. Well, I say, Troilus is Troilus. 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. Himself? Alas, poor Troilus ! I would, he were,- Cres. So he is. Pan. Himself? no, he's not himself.—'Would ’a were himself! 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. Pan. The other's not come to't; you shall tell me another tale, when the other's come to't. Hector shall not have his wit this year. Cres. He shall not need it, if he have his own. Pan. You have no judgment, niece : Helen herself swore the other day, that Troilus, for a brown favour, (for so 'tis, I must confess,) – Not brown neither. Cres. No, but brown. |