Troilus and Cressida | Page 3

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THE HISTORY OF TROILUS AND CRESSIDA
by William Shakespeare

DRAMATIS PERSONAE
PRIAM, King of Troy
His sons: HECTOR TROILUS PARIS DEIPHOBUS HELENUS
MARGARELON, a bastard son of Priam
Trojan commanders: AENEAS ANTENOR
CALCHAS, a Trojan priest, taking part with the Greeks PANDARUS,
uncle to Cressida AGAMEMNON, the Greek general MENELAUS,
his brother
Greek commanders: ACHILLES AJAX ULYSSES NESTOR
DIOMEDES PATROCLUS
THERSITES, a deformed and scurrilous Greek ALEXANDER, servant
to Cressida SERVANT to Troilus SERVANT to Paris SERVANT to
Diomedes HELEN, wife to Menelaus ANDROMACHE, wife to Hector
CASSANDRA, daughter to Priam, a prophetess CRESSIDA, daughter
to Calchas
Trojan and Greek Soldiers, and Attendants
SCENE: Troy and the Greek camp before it
PROLOGUE
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA
In Troy, there lies the scene. From isles of Greece The princes orgulous,
their high blood chaf'd, 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
immures The ravish'd Helen, Menelaus' queen, With wanton Paris
sleeps--and that's the quarrel. To Tenedos they come, And the
deep-drawing barks do there disgorge Their war-like fraughtage. Now
on Dardan plains The fresh and yet unbruised Greeks do pitch Their
brave pavilions: Priam's six-gated city, Dardan, and Tymbria, Ilias,
Chetas, Troien, And Antenorides, with massy staples And
corresponsive and fulfilling bolts, Sperr up the sons of Troy. Now

expectation, tickling skittish spirits On one and other side, Troyan 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. Like
or find fault; do as your pleasures are; Now good or bad, 'tis but the
chance of war.

ACT I.
SCENE 1. Troy. Before PRIAM'S palace
[Enter TROILUS armed, and PANDARUS.]
TROILUS. Call here my varlet; I'll unarm again. Why should I war
without the walls of Troy That find such cruel battle here within? Each
Trojan that is master of his heart, Let him to field; Troilus, alas! hath
none.
PANDARUS. Will this gear ne'er be mended?
TROILUS. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to 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, Less valiant
than the virgin in the night, And skilless as unpractis'd infancy.
PANDARUS. Well, I have told you enough of this; for