Cres. O Troilus! Troilus! [Embracing him. Pan. What a pair of spectacles is here! Let me embrace too: O heart,—as the goodly saying

is,

O heart, O heavy heart,

Why sigh'st thou without breaking?

where he answers again,

Because thou canst not ease thy smart,

By friendship, nor by speaking.

There never was a truer rhyme. Let us cast away
nothing, for we may live to have need of such a
verse; we see it, we see it.-How now, lambs?
Tro. Cressid, I love thee in so strain'd a purity,
That the blest gods-as angry with my fancy,
More bright in zeal than the devotion which
Cold lips blow to their deities,—take thee from me.
Cres. Have the gods envy?

Pan. Ay, ay, ay, ay; 'tis too plain a case.
Cres. And is it true, that I must go from Troy?
Tro. A hateful truth.

Cres.

What, and from Troilus too?

Tro. From Troy, and Troilus.
Cres.

Is it possible?

Tro. And suddenly; where injury of chance
Puts back leave-taking, justles roughly by
All time of pause, rudely beguiles our lips
Of all rejoindure, forcibly prevents

Our lock'd embrasures, strangles our dear vows
Even in the birth of our own labouring breath:
We two, that with so many thousand sighs
Did buy each other, must poorly sell ourselves
With the rude brevity and discharge of one.
Injurious time now, with a robber's haste,
Crams his rich thievery up, he knows not how:
As many farewells as be stars in heaven,

With distinct breath and consign'd kisses to them,
He fumbles up into a loose adieu ;

And scants us with a single famish'd kiss,
Distasted with the salt of broken tears.

Æne. [Within.] My lord! is the lady ready?
Tro. Hark! you are call'd: Some say, the Ge-

nius so

Cries, Come! to him that instantly must die 3.-
Bid them have patience; she shall come anon.
Pan. Where are my tears? rain, to lay this wind,
or my heart will be blown up by the root!

[Exit PANDARUS.

Cres. I must then to the Greeks?

Tro. No remedy. Cres. A woful Cressid 'mongst the merry Greeks 5! When shall we see again?

Tro. Hear me, my love: Be thou but true of heart,

2 Consigned means sealed, from consigno, Lat. Thus in King Henry V. It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to consign to.' See Act iii. Sc. 2, note 7, p. 384, ante.

3 An obscure poet (Flatman) has borrowed this thought:

My soul just now about to take her flight,

Into the regions of eternal night,

Methinks I hear some gentle spirit say,
Be not fearful, come away!'

After whom, Pope :-

Hark! they whisper, angels say,

Sister spirit, come away.'

:

Again, in Eloisa to Abelard :

Come, sister, come (it said, or seem'd to say)!
Thy place is here, sad sister, come away!'

4 So in Macbeth:

That tears will drown this wind.'

And in the Rape of Lucrece:

This windy tempest, 'till it blow up rain,

Holds back his sorrow's tide, to make it more;

At last it rains, and busy winds give o'er.'

5 See vol. i. p. 370, note 1. The expression has before occurred in Act i. Sc. 2, p. 326, of this play.

Cres. I true! how now? what wicked deem is this? Tro. Nay, we must use expostulation kindly, For it is parting from us:

I speak not, be thou true, as fearing thee;
For I will throw my glove to death himself”,
That there's no maculation in thy heart :
But be thou true, say I, to fashion in
My sequent protestation; be thou true,
And I will see thee.

Cres. O, you shall be expos'd, my lord, to dangers As infinite as imminent! but, I'll be true.

Tro. And I'll grow friend with danger. Wear this sleeve.

Cres. And you

this glove. When shall I see you? Tro. I will corrupt the Grecian sentinels, To give thee nightly visitation.

But yet, be true.

Cres.

O heavens!-be true again?

Tro. Hear why I speak it, love;

The Grecian youths are full of quality 9 ;

They're loving, well compos'd, with gifts of nature flowing,

And swelling o'er with arts and exercise;
How novelty may move, and parts with person,

6 Deem (a word now obsolete) signifies opinion, surmise. 7 That is, I will challenge death himself in defence of thy fidelity.

8 In Histriomastix, or the Player Whipt, a Comedy, 1610, a circumstance of a similar kind is ridiculed, in a mock interlude wherein Troilus and Cressida are the speakers. I cannot but think that it is the elder drama by Decker and Chettle, that is the object of this satirical allusion, and not Shakspeare's play, which was probably not written when Histriomastix appeared, for Queen Elizabeth is complimented under the character of Astrea in the last act of that piece, and is spoken of as then living.

9 i. e. highly accomplished: quality, like condition, is applied to manners as well as dispositions. Thus Chapman in his version of the fourteenth Iliad: :

Besides all this, he was well-qualitied.

Alas, a kind of godly jealousy (Which I beseech you, call Makes me afeard.

Cres.

a virtuous sin)

O heavens! you love me not.

Tro. Die I a villain then!

In this I do not call your faith in question,
So mainly as my merit: I cannot sing,
Nor heel the high lavolt 10, nor sweeten talk,
Nor play at subtle games; fair virtues all,
To which the Grecians are most prompt and pregnant:
But I can tell, that in each grace of these
There lurks a still and dumb-discoursive devil,
That tempts most cunningly: but be not tempted.
Cres. Do you think I will?

Tro. No.

But something may be done, that we will not:
And sometimes we are devils to ourselves,
When we will tempt the frailty of our powers,
Presuming on their changeful potency.
Ene. [Within.] Nay, good my lord,-

Tro.

Come, kiss; and let us part.

Par. [Within.] Brother Troilus!

Tro. Good brother, come you hither; And bring Æneas, and the Grecian, with you. Cres. My lord, will you be true?

Tro. Who I? alas, it is my vice, my fault: While others fish with craft for great opinion, I with great truth catch mere simplicity; Whilst some with cunning gild their copper crowns, With truth and plainness I do wear mine bare. Fear not my truth; the moral of my wit11 Is-plain, and true, there's all the reach of it.

10 The lavolta was a dance. See King Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 5, note 4, p. 452.

11 The moral of my wit' is the meaning of it. Thus in The Taming of the Shrew, Act iv. Sc. 4:- he has left me behind to expound the meaning or moral of his signs and tokens.' See vol. ii. p. 176, note 9.

Enter ENEAS, PARIS, ANTenor, Deiphobus, and DIOMEDES.

Welcome, Sir Diomed! here is the lady,
Which for Antenor we deliver you:

At the port 12, lord, I'll give her to thy hand;
And, by the way, possess 13 thee what she is.
Entreat her fair; and, by my soul, fair Greek,
If e'er thou stand at mercy of my sword,
Name Cressid, and thy life shall be as safe
As Priam is in Ilion.

Dio.

Fair lady Cressid,

So please you, save the thanks this prince expects :
The lustre in your eye, heaven in your cheek,
Pleads your fair usage; and to Diomed
You shall be mistress, and command him wholly.
Tro. Grecian, thou dost not use me courteously,
To shame the zeal of my petition to thee,
In praising her 14: I tell thee, lord of Greece,
She is as far high-soaring o'er thy praises,
As thou unworthy to be call'd her servant.
I charge thee, use her well, even for my charge;
For, by the dreadful Pluto, if thou dost not,
Though the great bulk Achilles be thy guard,
I'll cut thy throat.

Dio.
O, be not mov'd, Prince Troilus ;
Let me be privileg'd by my place, and message,
To be a speaker free; when I am hence,

12 i. e. the gate.

13 i. e. inform. See vol. i. p. 72, note 5; p. 204, note 24. 14 Troilus apparently means to say, that Diomed does not use him courteously by addressing himself to Cressida, and assuring her that she shall be well treated for her own sake, and on account of her singular beauty, instead of making a direct answer to that warm request which Troilus had just made to him to entreat her fair.' The subsequent words justify this interpretation:

'I charge thee, use her well, even for my charge.'