SCENE I. Troy. Before Priam's palace. Troilus and Cressida  Shakespeare homepage  |  Troiles and Cressida  | Act 1, Scene 1 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE I. Troy. Before Priam's 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! hath none. 

 PANDARUS  Will this gear ne'er 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 woman's tear, 

 Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance, 

 Less valiant than the virgin in the night 

 And skilless as unpractised 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 needs tarry the grinding. 

 TROILUS  Have I not tarried? 

 PANDARUS  Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry 

 the bolting. 

 TROILUS  Have I not tarried? 

 PANDARUS  Ay, the bolting, but you must tarry the leavening. 

 TROILUS  Still have I tarried. 

 PANDARUS  Ay, to the leavening; but here's 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 e'er she be, 

 Doth lesser blench at sufferance than I do. 

 At Priam's 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 have, as when the sun doth light a storm, 

 Buried this sigh in wrinkle of a smile: 

 But sorrow, that is couch'd in seeming gladness, 

 Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness. 

 PANDARUS  An her hair were not somewhat darker than Helen's-- 

 well, go to--there were no more comparison between 

 the women: but, for my part, she is my kinswoman; 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 Cassandra's wit, but-- 

 TROILUS  O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus,-- 

 When I do tell thee, there my hopes lie drown'd, 

 Reply not in how many fathoms deep 

 They lie indrench'd. I tell thee I am mad 

 In Cressid's love: thou answer'st 'she is fair;' 

 Pour'st 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 cygnet's down is harsh and spirit of sense 

 Hard as the palm of ploughman: this thou tell'st me, 

 As true thou tell'st me, when I say I love her; 

 But, saying thus, instead of oil and balm, 

 Thou lay'st 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  I have had my labour for my travail; ill-thought on of 

 her and ill-thought on of you; gone between and 

 between, but small thanks for my labour. 

 TROILUS  What, art thou angry, Pandarus? what, with me? 

 PANDARUS  Because she's kin to me, therefore she's not so fair 

 as Helen: an she were not kin to me, she would be as 

 fair on Friday as Helen is on Sunday. But what care 

 I? I care not an she were a black-a-moor; 'tis all one to me. 

 TROILUS  Say I she is not fair? 

 PANDARUS  I do not care whether you do or no. She's a fool to 

 stay behind her father; let her to the Greeks; and so 

 I'll tell her the next time I see her: for my part, 

 I'll meddle nor make no more i' the matter. 

 TROILUS  Pandarus,-- 

 PANDARUS  Not I. 

 TROILUS  Sweet Pandarus,-- 

 PANDARUS  Pray you, speak no more to me: I will leave all as I 

 found it, and there an end. 



 Exit PANDARUS. An alarum  TROILUS  Peace, you ungracious clamours! peace, rude sounds! 

 Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair, 

 When with your blood you daily paint her thus. 

 I cannot fight upon this argument; 

 It is too starved a subject for my sword. 

 But Pandarus,--O gods, how do you plague me! 

 I cannot come to Cressid but by Pandar; 

 And he's as tetchy to be woo'd to woo. 

 As she is stubborn-chaste against all suit. 

 Tell me, Apollo, for thy Daphne's love, 

 What Cressid is, what Pandar, and what we? 

 Her bed is India; there she lies, a pearl: 

 Between our Ilium and where she resides, 

 Let it be call'd the wild and wandering flood, 

 Ourself the merchant, and this sailing Pandar 

 Our doubtful hope, our convoy and our bark. 



 Alarum. Enter AENEAS  AENEAS  How now, Prince Troilus! wherefore not afield? 

 TROILUS  Because not there: this woman's answer sorts, 

 For womanish it is to be from thence. 

 What news, AEneas, from the field to-day? 

 AENEAS  That Paris is returned home and hurt. 

 TROILUS  By whom, AEneas? 

 AENEAS  Troilus, by Menelaus. 

 TROILUS  Let Paris bleed; 'tis but a scar to scorn; 

 Paris is gored with Menelaus' horn. 



 Alarum  AENEAS  Hark, what good sport is out of town to-day! 

 TROILUS  Better at home, if 'would I might' were 'may.' 

 But to the sport abroad: are you bound thither? 

 AENEAS  In all swift haste. 

 TROILUS  Come, go we then together. 



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