Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

Cre. Sir, mine own company.
Troi. You cannot fhun your felf.
Cre. Let me go try:

I have a kind of felf refides with you:
But an unkind self, that itself will leave,
To be another's fool. Where is my wit?
I would be gone: I fpeak I know not what.

[wifely. Troi. Well know they what they speak, that speak fo Cre. Perchance, my Lord, I fhew more craft than love, And fell fo roundly to a large confeffion,

To angle for your thoughts: but you are wife,
"A fign' you love not: To be wife and love,
Exceeds man's might, and dwells with Gods above.
Troi. O that I thought it could be in a woman,
(As, if it can, I will prefume in you,)
To feed for ay her lamp and flames of love,
To keep her conftancy in plight and youth,
Out-living beauties outward, with a mind
That doth renew swifter than blood decays!
Oh that perfwafion could but thus convince me!
That my integrity and truth to you

Might be affronted with the match and weight
Of fuch a winnow'd purity in love:
How were I then up-lifted! but alas,
I am as true as truth's fimplicity,
And fimpler than the infancy of truth.
Cre. In that I'll war with you.

Troi. O virtuous fight!

True fwains in love fhall in the world to come
Approve their truths by Troilus; when their rhymes,
Full of proteft, of oath, and big compare,

Want fimilies: truth tired with iteration,
As true as fteel, as plantagea to the moon.

+ Or elfe

As

(a) It was heretofore the prevailing opinion that the production and growth of Plants depended much upon the influences of the Moon: and the rules and directions given for fowing, planting, grafting, and pruning, bad reference generally to the changes, the increafe, or waining of the Moon. Warburton.

As fun to day, as turtle to her mate,
As iron to adamant, as earth to th' center:
Yet after all comparisons of truth,

As truth's authentick author to be cited
As true as Troilus fhall crown up the verse
And fanctifie the numbers.

Cre. Prophet may you be!

If I be falfe, or fwerve a hair from truth,
When time is old and hath forgot it felf,
When water-drops have worn the stones of Troy,
And blind oblivion fwallow'd cities up,
And mighty ftates characterlefs are grated
To dufty nothing; yet let memory,

From falfe to falfe, among falfe maids in love,
Upbraid my falfehood; when they've faid as falfe
As air, as water, wind, as fandy earth;
As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf;
Pard to the hind, or step-dame to her fon;
Yea, let them fay, to ftick the heart of falfehood,
As falfe as Cresid.

Pan. Go to, a bargain made: feal it, feal it, I'll be the witness. Here I hold your hand; here my coufin's; if ever you prove falfe to one another, fince I have taken fuch pains to bring you together, let all pitiful goersbetween be called to the world's end after my name; call them all Pandars: let all inconftant men be Troilus's, all falfe women Creffida's, and all brokers-between Pandars Say Amen.

Troi. Amen!.

Cre. Amen!

Pan. Amen! Whereupon I will fhew you a chamber with a bed; which bed, because it fhall not speak of your pretty encounters, prefs it to death: away.

And Cupid grant all tongue-ty'd maidens here,

Bed, chamber, Pandar to provide this geer!

[blocks in formation]

[Exeunt.

SCENE.

[blocks in formation]

Enter Agamemnon, Ulyffes, Diomedes, Neftor, Menelaus, and Calchas.

Cal. Now, Princes, for the fervice I have done you, Th' advantage of the time prompts me aloud To call for recompence: appear it to you That, through the fight I bear in things to come, I have abandon'd Troy, left my poffeffion, Incurr'd a traitor's name, expos'd my felf, From certain and poffett conveniencies, To doubtful fortunes; fequeftred from all, That time, acquaintance, cuftom, and condition, Made tame and moft familiar to my nature : And here to do you fervice am become As new into the world, ftrange, unacquainted. I do befeech you, as in way of taste,

To give me now a little benefit,

Out of thofe many regiftred in promife,

Which you fay live to come in my behalf.

Aga. What wouldst thou of us, Trojan? make demand. Cal. You have a Trojan prifoner, call'd Antenor, Yesterday took: Troy holds him very dear.

Oft have you, (often have you thanks therefore)
Defir'd my Crefid in right great exchange,
Whom Troy hath ftill deny'd: but this Antenor,
I know, is such a reft in their affairs,
That their negotiations all must flack,
Wanting his manage; and they will almost
Give us a Prince o'th' blood, a fon of Priam,
In change of him. Let him be fent, great Princes,
And he fhall buy my daughter: and her prefence
Shall quite strike off all fervice I have done,

In

In moft accepted 'pay`.

Aga. Let Diomede bear him,

And bring us Crefid hither: Calchas fhall have
What he requests of us. Good Diomede,

Furnish you fairly for this enterchange;

Withall, bring word if Hector will to-morrow
Be anfwer'd in his challenge. Ajax is ready.
Dio. This fhall I undertake, and 'tis a burthen
Which I am proud to bear.

SCENE VII.

Achilles, and Patroclus appear before their Tent.

Ulyf. Achilles ftands i'th' entrance of his tent;
Please it our General to pass strangely by him,
As if he were forgot; and Princes all,

Lay negligent and loofe regard upon him:
I will come laft, 'tis like he'll queftion me,
Why fuch unplaufive eyes are bent on him.
If fo, I have decifion medicinable

To ufe between your strangeness and his pride,
Which his own will fhall have defire to drink.
It may do good: Pride hath no other glass
To fhew it self, but pride; for fupple knees
Feed arrogance, and are the proud man's fees.
Aga. We'll execute your purpofe, and put on
A form of ftrangenefs as we pafs along;
So do each Lord, and either greet him not,
Or elfe difdainfully, which shall shake him more
Than if not look'd on. I will lead the way.

[Exit.

Achil. What, comes the General to speak with me? You know my mind. I'll fight no more 'gainft Troy. Aga. What fays Achilles? would he ought with us? Neft. Would you, my Lord, ought with the General?

Achil. No.

Neft. Nothing, my Lord.

4 pain.

Ága.

Aga. The better.

Achil. Good day, good day.

Men. How do you? how do you?

Achil. What, does the cuckold fcorn me?.
Ajax. How now, Patroclus?

Achil. Good morrow, Ajax.

Ajax. Ha?

Achil. Good morrow.

Ajax. Ay, and good next day too.

[Exeunt.

Achil. What mean thefe fellows? know they not

Achilles ?

Pat. They pafs by ftrangely: they were us❜d to bend, To fend their fmiles before them to Achilles, To come as humbly as they us'd to creep To holy altars.

Achil. What, am I poor of late?

'Tis certain, Greatness once fall'n out with fortune
Muft fall out with men too: what the declin'd is,
He shall as foon read in the eyes of others,
As feel in his own fall: for men, like butter-flies,
Shew not their mealy wings but to the fummer;
And not a man, for being fimply man,

Hath honour, but is honour'd by those honours
That are without him; as place, riches, favour,
Prizes of accident as oft as merit:

Which when they fall, as being flipp'ry standers,
(The love that lean'd on them, as flipp'ry too)
'Do one pluck down another, and together
Die in the fall. But 'tis not fo with me:
Fortune and I are friends, I do enjoy
At ample point all that I did poffefs,

Save these men's looks, who do methinks find out
Something in me not worth that rich beholding

As they have often giv'n.

Here is Ulyffes.

Now, Ulyffes!

Ulyf

I'll interrupt his reading.
Ulyf. Now, Thetis' fon!
Achil. What are you reading?

« ZurückWeiter »