TRO. Say I she is not fair?

PAN. 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.

PAN. Pray you, speak no more to me: I will leave all as I found it, and there an end. [Exit. An alarum. TRO. 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,

80 her father] Calchas, the Trojan priest, who, being sent by Priam to consult the oracle at Delphi, joined the Greeks at the divine command.

95 tetchy to be woo'd] ill-tempered, peevish, on being wooed. 97 Apollo ... Daphne's love] The story of Apollo's courtship of Daphne is told in Ovid's Metam., I, 452 seq. Cf. T. of Shrew, Induction, II,

55-58.

100 Ilium] It is clear that wherever Shakespeare employs the form

100

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 ENEAS

ENE. How now, Prince Troilus! wherefore not afield?

TRO. Because not there: this woman's answer sorts, For womanish it is to be from thence.

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

ENE. That Paris is returned home, and hurt.
TRO. By whom, Æneas?

ENE.

Troilus, by Menelaus.

TRO. Let Paris bleed: 't is but a scar to scorn; Paris is gored with Menelaus' horn.

[Alarum.

ENE. Hark, what good sport is out of town to-day! TRO. Better at home, if "would I might" were

"may."

But to the sport abroad: are you bound thither?
ENE. In all swift haste.

TRO.

Come, go we then together.

[Exeunt.

"Ilium" he designates Priam's royal palace (cf. I, ii, 43, infra) in agreement with his medieval authorities. Elsewhere, II, ii, 109, and V, viii, 11, infra, Shakespeare uses the form "Ilion," by which he seems to mean, though the point is uncertain, Troy itself, in accordance with classical usage.

105 sorts] fits, harmonises.

110 a scar to scorn] a scar to be scorned.

111 Menelaus' horn] a reference to the belief that horns sprouted from the foreheads of husbands whose wives were unfaithful.

110

SCENE II- THE SAME

A STREET

Enter CRESSIDA and ALEXANDER her man

CRES. Who were those went by?

ALEX.

Queen Hecuba and Helen.

Up to the eastern tower,

CRES. And whither go they?
ALEX.

Whose height commands as subject all the vale,
To see the battle. Hector, whose patience
Is as a virtue fix'd, to-day was moved:

He chid Andromache and struck his armourer;
And, like as there were husbandry in war,
Before the sun rose he was harness'd light,
And to the field goes he; where every flower
Did, as a prophet, weep what it foresaw
In Hector's wrath.

CRES.

What was his cause of anger? ALEX. The noise goes, this: there is among the

Greeks

A lord of Trojan blood, nephew to Hector;
They call him Ajax.

5 fix'd] constant or inherent, not variable nor accidental.

7 like as... husbandry in war] as if there were need of economy (of time and energy) in warfare.

8 light] nimbly, quickly. No reference is intended to the weight of the

armour.

13-14 A lord of Trojan blood... Ajax] Ajax's mother, Priam's sister,

10

CRES.

Good; and what of him?

ALEX. They say he is a very man per se,

And stands alone.

CRES. So do all men, unless they are drunk, sick, or have no legs.

ALEX. This man, lady, hath robbed many beasts of their particular additions; he is as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant: a man into whom nature hath so crowded humours that his valour is crushed into folly, his folly sauced with discretion: there is no man hath a virtue that he hath not a glimpse of, nor any man an attaint but he carries some stain of it: he is melancholy without cause and merry against the hair: he hath the joints of every thing; but every thing so out of joint that he is a gouty Briareus, many hands and no use, or purblind Argus, all eyes and no sight.

was a Trojan, and was Hector's first cousin. Cf. II, i, 12, II, ii, 77, and IV, v, 120 seq., infra. “Nephew" may be used for "kinsman" like the Latin "nepos."

15 a very man per se] a man unique, peerless, sui generis. The phrase is often written "A per se" (i. e., the letter A by itself), which is sometimes corrupted into "apersey."

20 particular additions] particular qualities, titles to merit, or attributes. 22-23 his valour . . . folly] his valour is so mixed up with folly that the two are indistinguishable from one another in the mass.

26-27 against the hair] against the grain, unseasonably, like the French "à contrepoil."

27 the joints of every thing] the limbs of every kind of being.

28 Briareus] the hundred-handed monster of classical mythology. He is mentioned by Shakespeare nowhere else. Cf. "centumgeminus Briareus": Virgil, Eneid, VI, 287.

29 Argus] the hundred-eyed monster of classical mythology. Cf. Ovid's Metam., 1, 625. “Centum luminibus cinctum caput Argus habebat."

15

CRES. But how should this man, that makes me smile, make Hector angry?

ALEX. They say he yesterday coped Hector in the battle and struck him down, the disdain and shame whereof hath ever since kept Hector fasting and waking.

Enter PANDARUS

CRES. Who comes here?

ALEX. Madam, your uncle Pandarus.
CRES. Hector's a gallant man.
ALEX. As may be in the world, lady.
PAN. What's that? what's that?
CRES. Good morrow, uncle Pandarus.

PAN. Good morrow, cousin Cressid: what do you talk of? Good morrow, Alexander. How do you, cousin? When were you at Ilium ?

CRES. This morning, uncle.

PAN. What were you talking of when I came? Was Hector armed and gone ere you came to Ilium? Helen was not up, was she?

CRES. Hector was gone; but Helen was not up.
PAN. E'en so: Hector was stirring early.

CRES. That were we talking of, and of his anger.
PAN. Was he angry
?
CRES. So he says here.

PAN. True, he was so; I know the cause too; he 'll lay about him to-day, I can tell them that: and there's Troilus will not come far behind him; let them take heed of Troilus, I can tell them that too.

32 coped] met, encountered.

43 Ilium] See note on I, i, 100, supra.

31

40

50