CRESSIDA.
O you immortal gods! I will not go.
PANDARUS.
Thou must.
CRESSIDA.
I will not, uncle. I have forgot my father;
I know no touch of consanguinity,
No kin, no love, no blood, no soul so near me
As the sweet Troilus. O you gods divine,
Make Cressid’s name the very crown of falsehood,
If ever she leave Troilus! Time, force, and death,
Do to this body what extremes you can,
But the strong base and building of my love
Is as the very centre of the earth,
Drawing all things to it. I’ll go in and weep—
PANDARUS.
Do, do.
CRESSIDA.
Tear my bright hair, and scratch my praised cheeks,
Crack my clear voice with sobs and break my heart,
With sounding ‘Troilus.’ I will not go from Troy.
[Exeunt.]
German
SCENE III
Troy. A street before PANDARUS’ house
[Enter PARIS, TROILUS, AENEAS, DEIPHOBUS, ANTENOR, and DIOMEDES.]
PARIS.
It is great morning; and the hour prefix’d
For her delivery to this valiant Greek
Comes fast upon. Good my brother Troilus,
Tell you the lady what she is to do
And haste her to the purpose.
TROILUS.
Walk into her house.
I’ll bring her to the Grecian presently;
And to his hand when I deliver her,
Think it an altar, and thy brother Troilus
A priest, there off’ring to it his own heart.
[Exit.]
PARIS.
I know what ‘tis to love,
And would, as I shall pity, I could help!
Please you walk in, my lords.
[Exeunt.]
German
SCENE IV
Troy. PANDARUS’ house
[Enter PANDARUS and CRESSIDA.]
PANDARUS.
Be moderate, be moderate.
CRESSIDA.
Why tell you me of moderation?
The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste,
And violenteth in a sense as strong
As that which causeth it. How can I moderate it?
If I could temporize with my affections
Or brew it to a weak and colder palate,
The like allayment could I give my grief.
My love admits no qualifying dross;
No more my grief, in such a precious loss.
[Enter TROILUS.]
PANDARUS.
Here, here, here he comes. Ah, sweet ducks!
CRESSIDA.
[Embracing him.]
O Troilus! Troilus!
PANDARUS.
What a pair of spectacles is here! Let me embrace too. ‘O heart,’ as the goodly saying is,—
O heart, heavy heart,
Why sigh’st thou without breaking?
when he answers again
Because thou canst not ease thy smart
By friendship nor by speaking.
There was never a truer rhyme. Let us cast away nothing, for we may live to have need of such a verse. We see it, we see it. How now, lambs!
TROILUS.
Cressid, I love thee in so strain’d a purity
That the bless’d gods, as angry with my fancy,
More bright in zeal than the devotion which
Cold lips blow to their deities, take thee from me.
CRESSIDA.
Have the gods envy?
PANDARUS.
Ay, ay, ay; ‘tis too plain a case.
CRESSIDA.
And is it true that I must go from Troy?
TROILUS.
A hateful truth.
CRESSIDA.
What! and from Troilus too?
TROILUS.
From Troy and Troilus.
CRESSIDA.
Is it possible?
TROILUS.
And suddenly; where injury of chance
Puts back leave-taking, justles roughly by
All time of pause, rudely beguiles our lips
Of all rejoindure, forcibly prevents
Our lock’d embrasures, strangles our dear vows
Even in the birth of our own labouring breath.
We two, that with so many thousand sighs
Did buy each other, must poorly sell ourselves
With the rude brevity and discharge of one.
Injurious time now with a robber’s haste
Crams his rich thievery up, he knows not how.
As many farewells as be stars in heaven,
With distinct breath and consign’d kisses to them,
He fumbles up into a loose adieu,
And scants us with a single famish’d kiss,
Distasted with the salt of broken tears.
AENEAS.
[Within.] My lord, is the lady ready?
TROILUS.
Hark! you are call’d. Some say the Genius so
Cries ‘Come!’ to him that instantly must die.
Bid them have patience; she shall come anon.
PANDARUS.
Where are my tears? Rain, to lay this wind, or my heart will be blown up by the root!
[Exit.]