Troilus And Cressida

A Tragedy

William Shakespeare

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781443443593
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

Madly in love with Cressida, Trojan prince Troilus is heartbroken when she is traded to the Greeks in a prisoner exchange. Amidst the turmoil of the two lovers, Greece and Troy remain at war with Agamemnon, the king of the Greeks, and Priam, the king of Troy, at their respective helms. Shakespeare's most experimental and undefinable play, Troilus and Cressida's interweaving plots tell various stories of the Trojan War.

Known as "The Bard of Avon," William Shakespeare is arguably the greatest English-language writer known. Enormously popular during his life, Shakespeare's works continue to resonate more than three centuries after his death, as has his influence on theatre and literature. Shakespeare's innovative use of character, language, and experimentation with romance as tragedy served as a foundation for later playwrights and dramatists, and some of his most famous lines of dialogue have become part of everyday speech.

HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

ACT ONE

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 Troyan that is master of his heart,

[5]

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,

[10]

Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance,

Less valiant than the virgin in the night,

And skilless as unpractis’d infancy.

[16]

PANDARUS Well, I have told you enough of this; for my part, I’ll not meddle nor make no farther. 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?

[21]

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

TROILUS Still have I tarried.

[26]

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 suff’rance than I do.

At Priam’s royal table do I sit;

[30]

And when fair Cressid comes into my thoughts –

So, traitor, then she comes when she is thence.

PANDARUS Well, she look’d yesternight fairer than ever I saw her look, or any woman else.

TROILUS I was about to tell thee: when my heart,

[35]

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

[40]

Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness.

[46]

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

[50]

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

In Cressid’s love. Thou answer’st ‘She is fair’ –

Pourest in the open ulcer of my heart –

Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice,

Handiest in thy discourse. O, that her hand,

[55]

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;

[60]

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.

[67]

PANDARUS Faith, I’ll not meddle in it. 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!

[71]

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?

[77]

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 a Friday as Helen is on Sunday. But what care I? I care not an she were a blackamoor; ’tis all one to me.

TROILUS Say I she is not fair?

[82]

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’ th’ matter.

TROILUS Pandarus!

PANDARUS Not I.

[85]

TROILUS Sweet Pandarus!

PANDARUS Pray you, speak no more to me: I will leave all as I found it, and there an end.

[Exit. Sound alarum.

TROILUS Peace, you ungracious clamours! Peace, rude sounds!

Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair,

[90]

When with your blood you daily paint her thus.

I cannot fight upon this argument;

It is too starv’d a subject for my sword.

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

I cannot come to Cressid but by Pandar;

[95]

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;

[100]

Between our Ilium and where she resides

Let it be call’d the wild and wand’ring 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?

[105]

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.

[110]

TROILUS Let Paris bleed: ’tis but a scar to scorn;

Paris is gor’d 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?

[115]

AENEAS In all swift haste.

TROILUS Come, go we then together.

[Exeunt.

SC...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Troilus and Cressida
• Dramatis Personae
• Prologue
• Act One
• Act Two
• Act Three
• Act Four
• Act Five
• About the Author
• About the Series
• Copyright
• About the Publisher