William Shakespeare - The Tragedies of William Shakespeare

T HE T RAGEDIES OF
S HAKESPEARE T HE
T RAGEDIES OF
W ILLIAM
S HAKESPEARE
T H E M O D E R N L I B R A R Y N E W Y O R K Contents
1994 Modern Library Edition All rights reserved under International and Pan-American
Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by
Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada
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TROILUS AND CRESSIDA
CAST OF CHARACTERS PRIAM, King of Troy

HECTOR		his Sons
TROILUS
PARIS
DEIPHOBUS
HELENUS

MARGARELON, a Bastard Son of Priam

NEAS		Trojan Commanders
ANTENOR

CALCHAS, a Trojan Priest, taking part with theGreeks PANDARUS, Uncle to Cressida AGAMEMNON, the Grecian General MENELAUS, his Brother

ACHILLES		Grecian Commanders
AJAX
ULYSSES
NESTOR
DIOMEDES
PATROCLUS

THERSITES, a deformed and scurrilous Grecian 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 Grecian Camp before it PROLOGUE In Troy there lies the scene. From isles of Greece The princes orgulous, their high blood chafd, 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 ravishd Helen, Menelaus queen, With wanton Paris sleeps; and thats the quarrel. To Tenedos they come, And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorge Their warlike fraughtage: now on Dardan plains The fresh and yet unbruised Greeks do pitch Their brave pavilions: Priams six-gated city, Dardan, and Tymbria, Ilias, Chetas, Trojan, 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, Trojan and Greek, Sets all on hazard. And hither am I come A prologue armd, but not in confidence Of authors pen or actors voice, but suited In like conditions as our argument, To tell you, fair beholders, that our play Leaps oer 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 ONE SCENE ONE Troy. Before Priams 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! has none. PANDARUS. Will this gear neer 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 womans tear, Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance, Less valiant than the virgin in the night, And skilless as unpractisd infancy. PANDARUS. Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part, I ll not meddle nor make no further.

He that will have a cake out of the wheat must tarry the grinding. TROILUS. Have I not tarried? PANDARUS. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the bolt ing. TROILUS. Have I not tarried? PANDARUS.

Ay, the bolting; but you must tarry the leaven ing. TROILUS. Still have I tarried. PANDARUS. Ay, to the leavening; but heres yet in the word hereafter the kneading, the making of the cake, the heating of the oven, and the baking; nay, you must stay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips. TROILUS.

Patience herself, what goddess eer she be, Doth lesser blench at sufferance than I do. At Priams royal table do I sit; And when fair Cressid comes into my thoughts, So, traitor! when she comes!When is she thence? PANDARUS. Well, she looked yesternight fairer than ever I saw her look, or any woman else. TROILUS. I was about to tell thee: when my heart, As wedged with a sigh, would rive in twain Lest Hector or my father should perceive me, I haveas when the sun doth light a storm Buried this sigh in wrinkle of a smile; But sorrow, that is couchd in seeming gladness, Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness. PANDARUS.

An her hair were not somewhat darker than Helens,well, go to,there were no more comparison between the women: but, for my part, she is my kins woman; I would not, as they term it, praise her; but I would somebody had heard her talk yesterday, as I did: I will not dispraise your sister Cassandras wit, but TROILUS. O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus, When I do tell thee, there my hopes lie drownd, Reply not in how many fathoms deep They lie indrenchd. I tell thee I am mad In Cressids love: thou answerst, she is fair; Pourst in the open ulcer of my heart Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice; Handlest in thy discourse, O! that her hand, In whose comparison all whites are ink, Writing their own reproach; to whose soft seizure The cygnets down is harsh, and spirit of sense Hard as the palm of ploughman: this thou tellst me, As true thou tellst me, when I say I love her; But, saying thus, instead of oil and balm, Thou layst in every gash that love hath given me The knife that made it. PANDARUS. I speak no more than truth. TROILUS.

Thou dost not speak so much. PANDARUS. Faith, I ll not meddle in t. Let her be as she is: if she be fair, tis the better for her; an she be not, she has the mends in her own hands. TROILUS. Good Pandarus, how now, Pandarus! PANDARUS.

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