shall have a praise in present: we will not name desert, before his birth; and, being born, his addition shall be humble. Few words to fair faith: Troilus shall be such to Cressid, as what envy can say worst, shall be a mock for his truth; and what truth can speak truest, no truer than Troilus. Cres. Will you walk in, my lord? Re-enter PANDARUS. Pan. What, blushing still? have you not done talking yet? Cres. Well, uncle, what folly I commit, I dedicate to you. Pan. I thank you for that; if my lord get a boy of you, you'll give him me: Be true to my lord: if he flinch, chide me for it. Tro. You know now your hostages; your uncle's word, and my firm faith. Pan. Nay, I'll give my word for her too; our kindred, though they be long ere they are wooed, they are constant, being won: they are burs, I can tell you; they'll stick where they are thrown. Cres. Boldness comes to me now, and brings me heart: : Prince Troilus, I have lov'd you night and day, For many weary months. Tro. Why was my Cressid then so hard to win? Cres. Hard to seem won; but I was won, my lord, Pardon me; With the first glance that ever If I confess much, you will play the tyrant. 7 •his addition shall be humble.] We will give him no high or pompous titles. JOHNSON. S what envy can say worst, shall be a mock for his truth;] i.e. shall be only a mock for his truth. Even malice (for such is the meaning of the word envy) shall not be able to impeach his truth, or attack him in any other way, except by ridiculing him for his constancy. I love you now; but not, till now, so much But, though I lov'd you well, I woo'd you not; Of speaking first. Sweet, bid me hold my tongue; The thing I shall repent. See, see, your silence, Tro. And shall, albeit sweet musick issues thence. Cres. My lord, I do beseech you, pardon me: 'Twas not my purpose, thus to beg a kiss : I am asham'd; O heavens! what have I done? Tro. Your leave, sweet Cressid? Pan. Leave! an you take leave till to-morrow morn But an unkind self, that itself will leave, To be another's fool. I would be gone: Where is my wit? I know not what I speak. Tro. Well know they what they speak, that speak so wisely. Cres. Perchance, my lord, I show more craft than love; And fell so roundly to a large confession, To angle for your thoughts: But you are wise; O virtuous fight, Might be affronted with the match9 and weight 2 9 Might be affronted with the match —] I wish " my integrity might be met and matched with such equality and force of pure unmingled love." JOHNSON. 1 And simpler than the infancy of truth,] This is fine; and means, “Ere truth, to defend itself against deceit in the commerce of the world, had, out of necessity, learned worldly policy." 21 compare,] i. e. comparison. As truth's authentick author to be cited,] Troilus shall crown the verse, as a man to be cited as the authentick author of truth, as one whose protestations were true to a proverb. As true as Troilus shall crown up the verse, Cres. Prophet may you be ! If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth, When waterdrops have worn the stones of Troy, From false to false, among false maids in love, As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf, Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son; Yea, let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood, Pan. Go to, a bargain made: seal it, seal it; I'll be the witness. Here I hold your hand; here, my cousin's. If ever you prove false one to another, since I have taken such pains to bring you together, let all pitiful goers-between be called to the world's end after my name, call them all Pandars; let all constant men be Troiluses, all false women Cressids, and all brokers-between Pandars! say, amen. Tro. Amen. Cres. Amen. Pan. Amen. Whereupon I will show you a chamber and a bed, which bed, because it shall not speak of your pretty encounters, press it to death: away. And Cupid grant all tongue-tied maidens here, crown up—] i. e. conclude it. [Exeunt. SCENE III. The Grecian Camp. Enter AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES, DIOMEDES, NESTOR, AJAX, MENELAUS, and CALCHAS. Cal. Now, princes, for the service I have done you, As new into the world, strange, unacquainted: To give me now a little benefit, Out of those many register'd in promise, Which, you say, live to come in my behalf. Agam. What would'st thou of us, Trojan? make de mand. Cal. You have a Trojan prisoner, call'd Antenor, In change of him: let him be sent, great princes, 5- such a wrest] Wrest is an instrument for tuning the harp by drawing up the strings. |