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 Pan. Ay, ay, ay, ay; 'tis too plain a case. Cres. What, and from Troilus too? Tro. From Troy, and Troilus. Is it possible? Tro. And suddenly; where injury of chance Our lock'd embrasures, strangles our dear vows With distinct breath and consign'd kisses to them, And scants us with a single famish'd kiss, Æne. [Within.] My lord! is the lady ready? nius so Cries, Come! to him that instantly must die 3.- [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, 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)! 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; 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; 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, Tro. No. But something may be done, that we will not: 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, At the port 12, lord, I'll give her to thy hand; Dio. Fair lady Cressid, So please you, save the thanks this prince expects : Dio. 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.' |