shall have a praise in present: we will not name desert, before his birth; and, being born, his addition shall be humble.7 Few words to fair faith: Troilus shall be such to Cressid, as what envy can say worst, shall be a mock for his truth 8; 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, With the first glance that ever

Pardon me; — 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.

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 I might master it :-in faith, I lie;
My thoughts were like unbridled children, grown
Too headstrong for their mother : See, we fools !
Why have I blabb'd? who shall be true to us,
When we are so unsecret to ourselves ?
But, though I lov'd you well, I woo'd you not ;
And yet, good faith, I wish'd myself a man ;
Or that we women had men's privilege
Of speaking first. Sweet, bid me hold my tongue;
For, in this rapture, I shall surely speak
The thing I shall repent. See, see, your silence,
Cunning in dumbness, from my weakness draws
My very soul of counsel : Stop my mouth.

Tro. And shall, albeit sweet musick issues thence.
Pan. Pretty, i'faith.

Cres. My lord, I do beseech you, pardon me:
'Twas not my purpose, thus to beg a kiss :
I am asham'd ;-0 heavens! what have I done ? -
For this time will I take my leave, my lord.

Tro. Your leave, sweet Cressid ?

Pan. Leave ! an you take leave till to-morrow morn-
ing,
Cres. Pray you, content you.
Tro.

What offeņds you, lady?
Cres. Sir, mine own company.
Tro.

You cannot shun
Yourself.
Cres. Let me go

and

try : I have a kind of self resides with

you: 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 ;
Or else you love not; For to be wise, and love,
Exceeds man’s might; that dwells with gods above.

Tro. O, that I thought it could be in a woman,
(As, if it can, I will presume in you,)
To feed for aye her lamp and flames of love;
To keep her constancy in plight and youth,
Outliving beauty's outward, with a mind
That doth renew swifter than blood decays !
Or, that persuasion could but thus convince me,
That my integrity and truth to you
Might be affronted with the match' and weight
Of such a winnow'd purity in love;
How were I then uplifted! but, alas,
I am as true as truth's simplicity,
And simpler than the infancy of truth.
Cres. In that I'll war with

you. Tro.

O virtuous fight, When right with right wars who shall be most right! True swains in love shall, in the world to come, Approve their truths by Troilus : when their rhymes, Full of protest, of oath, and big compare, ? Want similes, truth tir'd with iteration, As true as steel, as plantage to the moon, As sun to day, as turtle to her mate, As iron to adamant, as earth to the center, — Yet, after all comparisons of truth, As truth's authentick author to be cited, 3

As true as Troilus shall crown up the verse,
And sanctify the numbers.
Cres.

Prophet may you be !
If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth,
When time is old and hath forgot itself,
When waterdrops have worn the stones of Troy,
And blind oblivion swallow'd cities up,
And mighty states characterless are grated
To dusty nothing; yet let memory
From false to false, among false maids in love,
Upbraid my falsehood! when they have said - as false
As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth,
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,
As false as Cressid.

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,
Bed, chamber, Pandar to provide this geer!

[Exeunt.

crown up-] i. e. conclude it.

SCENE III.

The Grecian Camp.

Enter AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES, DIOMEDES, NESTOR,

AJAX, MENELAUś, and Calchas. Cal. Now, princes, for the service I have done you, The advantage of the time prompts me aloud To call for recompense. Appear it to your mind, That, through the sight I bear in things, to Jove I have abandon’d Troy, left my possession, Incurr'd a traitor's name; expos'd myself, From certain and possess'd conveniences, To doubtful fortunes; séquest'ring from me all That time, acquaintance, custom, and condition, Made tame and most familiar to my nature; And here, to do you service, am become As new into the world, strange, unacquainted : I do beseech you, as in way of taste, 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, Yesterday took; Troy holds him

very

dear.
Oft have you, (often have you thanks therefore,)
Desir'd my Cressid in right great exchange,
Whom Troy hath still denied : But this Antenor,
I know, is such a wrest in their affairs,
That their negotiations all must slack,
Wanting his manage; and they will almost
Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam,
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.