TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

Deiphobus,

Helenus,

Æneas,

}

Trojan commanders.

Antenor,

Calchas, a Trojan priest, taking part
Greeks.

Pandarus, Uncle to Cressida.

Margarelon, a bastard son of Priam.

Agamemnon, the Grecian general.
Menelaus, his brother.

Achilles,

Ajax,

U ysses,

Nestor,

Diomedes,

Patroclus,

Thersites, a deformed and scurrilous Grecian.

Grecian commanders.

the

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 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 warlike fraughtaget: 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, Trojan,
And Antenorides, with massy staples,
And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts,
Sperrt 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 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

+ Freight.

* Proud, disdainful.
+ Shut.

Leaps o'er the vaunt* and firstlings of those broils,
'Ginning 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.

* Avaunt, what went before.

TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Troy. Before Priam's palace.

Enter Troilus arm'd, 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.
Pan. Will this geer † ne'er be mended?

Tro. 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 skill-less as unpractis'd infancy.

Pan. Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part, I'll not meddle nor make no further. He,

+ Habit.

* A servant to a knight.
Weaker.