Troilus and Cressida | Page 7

fellow!
Go thy way, Hector! There's a brave man, niece. O brave Hector! Look
how he looks. There's a countenance! Is't not a brave man?
CRESSIDA. O, a brave man!
PANDARUS. Is 'a not? It does a man's heart good. Look you what
hacks are on his helmet! Look you yonder, do you see? Look you there.
There's no jesting; there's laying on; take't off who will, as they say.
There be hacks.

CRESSIDA. Be those with swords?
PANDARUS. Swords! anything, he cares not; an the devil come to him,
it's all one. By God's lid, it does one's heart good. Yonder comes Paris,
yonder comes Paris.
[PARIS passes.]
Look ye yonder, niece; is't not a gallant man too, is't not? Why, this is
brave now. Who said he came hurt home to-day? He's not hurt. Why,
this will do Helen's heart good now, ha! Would I could see Troilus now!
You shall see Troilus anon.
[HELENUS passes.]
CRESSIDA. Who's that?
PANDARUS. That's Helenus. I marvel where Troilus is. That's
Helenus. I think he went not forth to-day. That's Helenus.
CRESSIDA. Can Helenus fight, uncle?
PANDARUS. Helenus! no. Yes, he'll fight indifferent well. I marvel
where Troilus is. Hark! do you not hear the people cry 'Troilus'?
Helenus is a priest.
CRESSIDA. What sneaking fellow comes yonder?
[TROILUS passes.]
PANDARUS. Where? yonder? That's Deiphobus. 'Tis Troilus. There's
a man, niece. Hem! Brave Troilus, the prince of chivalry!
CRESSIDA. Peace, for shame, peace!
PANDARUS. Mark him; note him. O brave Troilus! Look well upon
him, niece; look you how his sword is bloodied, and his helm more
hack'd than Hector's; and how he looks, and how he goes! O admirable
youth! he never saw three and twenty. Go thy way, Troilus, go thy way.
Had I a sister were a grace or a daughter a goddess, he should take his
choice. O admirable man! Paris? Paris is dirt to him; and, I warrant,
Helen, to change, would give an eye to boot.
CRESSIDA. Here comes more.
[Common soldiers pass.]
PANDARUS. Asses, fools, dolts! chaff and bran, chaff and bran!
porridge after meat! I could live and die in the eyes of Troilus. Ne'er
look, ne'er look; the eagles are gone. Crows and daws, crows and daws!
I had rather be such a man as Troilus than Agamemnon and all Greece.
CRESSIDA. There is amongst the Greeks Achilles, a better man than
Troilus.

PANDARUS. Achilles? A drayman, a porter, a very camel!
CRESSIDA. Well, well.
PANDARUS. Well, well! Why, have you any discretion? Have you
any eyes? Do you know what a man is? Is not birth, beauty, good shape,
discourse, manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, liberality, and
such like, the spice and salt that season a man?
CRESSIDA. Ay, a minc'd man; and then to be bak'd with no date in the
pie, for then the man's date is out.
PANDARUS. You are such a woman! A man knows not at what ward
you lie.
CRESSIDA. Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon my wit, to
defend my wiles; upon my secrecy, to defend mine honesty; my mask,
to defend my beauty; and you, to defend all these; and at all these
wards I lie at, at a thousand watches.
PANDARUS. Say one of your watches.
CRESSIDA. Nay, I'll watch you for that; and that's one of the chiefest
of them too. If I cannot ward what I would not have hit, I can watch
you for telling how I took the blow; unless it swell past hiding, and
then it's past watching
PANDARUS. You are such another!
[Enter TROILUS' BOY.]
BOY. Sir, my lord would instantly speak with you.
PANDARUS. Where?
BOY. At your own house; there he unarms him.
PANDARUS. Good boy, tell him I come.Exit Boy I doubt he be hurt.
Fare ye well, good niece.
CRESSIDA. Adieu, uncle.
PANDARUS. I will be with you, niece, by and by.
CRESSIDA. To bring, uncle.
PANDARUS. Ay, a token from Troilus.
CRESSIDA. By the same token, you are a bawd.
[Exit PANDARUS.]
Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full sacrifice, He offers in another's
enterprise; But more in Troilus thousand-fold I see Than in the glass of
Pandar's praise may be, Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing:
Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing. That she belov'd
knows nought that knows not this: Men prize the thing ungain'd more

than it is. That she was never yet that ever knew Love got so sweet as
when desire did sue; Therefore this maxim out of love I teach:
Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech. Then though my heart's
content firm love doth bear, Nothing of that shall from mine eyes
appear.
[Exit.]

ACT I.
SCENE 3. The Grecian camp. Before AGAMEMNON'S tent
[Sennet. Enter AGAMEMNON, NESTOR, ULYSSES, DIOMEDES,