Troilus and cressida, p.7
Troilus and Cressida, page 7
The issue91 of your proper wisdoms rate,
And do a deed that fortune never did92,
Beggar the estimation93 which you prized
Richer than sea and land? O, theft most base,
That we have stol’n what we do fear to keep!
But96 thieves unworthy of a thing so stol’n,
That in their country did them that disgrace,
We fear to warrant in our native place97!
Enter Cassandra [at a distance] with her hair about her ears
CASSANDRA Cry, Trojans, cry!
PRIAM What noise? What shriek is this?
TROILUS ’Tis our mad sister, I do know her voice.
CASSANDRA Cry, Trojans!
Coming forward
HECTOR It is Cassandra.
CASSANDRA Cry, Trojans, cry! Lend me ten thousand eyes,
And I will fill them with prophetic tears.
HECTOR Peace, sister, peace!
CASSANDRA Virgins and boys, mid-age107 and wrinkled old,
Soft108 infancy, that nothing can but cry,
Add to my clamour! Let us pay betimes109
A moiety110 of that mass of moan to come.
Cry, Trojans, cry! Practise111 your eyes with tears!
Troy must not be, nor goodly Ilium stand:
Our firebrand113 brother, Paris, burns us all.
Cry, Trojans, cry! A Helen and a woe;
Cry, cry! Troy burns, or else let Helen go.
Exit
HECTOR Now, youthful Troilus, do not these high strains116
Of divination in our sister work117
Some touches of remorse118? Or is your blood
So madly hot that no discourse of reason,
Nor fear of bad success120 in a bad cause,
Can qualify the same121?
TROILUS Why, brother Hector,
We may not think123 the justness of each act
Such and no other than event doth form it124,
Nor once deject125 the courage of our minds
Because Cassandra’s mad: her brainsick raptures126
Cannot distaste127 the goodness of a quarrel
Which hath our several128 honours all engaged
To make it gracious129. For my private part,
I am no more touched130 than all Priam’s sons:
And Jove forbid there should be done amongst us
Such things as might offend the weakest spleen
To fight for and maintain132.
PARIS Else134 might the world convince of levity
As well135 my undertakings as your counsels:
But I attest136 the gods, your full consent
Gave wings to my propension137 and cut off
All fears attending on so dire138 a project.
For what, alas, can these my single arms139?
What propugnation140 is in one man’s valour
To stand the push141 and enmity of those
This quarrel would excite? Yet, I protest,
Were I alone to pass143 the difficulties
And had as ample power as I have will,
Paris should ne’er retract what he hath done,
Nor faint146 in the pursuit.
PRIAM Paris, you speak
Like one besotted148 on your sweet delights:
You have the honey still, but these149 the gall,
So150 to be valiant is no praise at all.
PARIS Sir, I propose151 not merely to myself
The pleasures such a beauty brings with it,
But I would have the soil153 of her fair rape
Wiped off in honourable keeping her154.
What treason were it155 to the ransacked queen,
Disgrace to your great worths and shame to me,
Now to deliver her possession157 up
On terms of base compulsion! Can it be
That so degenerate a strain159 as this
Should once set footing in your generous160 bosoms?
There’s not the meanest spirit161 on our party
Without162 a heart to dare or sword to draw
When Helen is defended, nor none so noble
Whose life were ill bestowed164 or death unfamed
Where Helen is the subject. Then, I say,
Well may we fight for her whom, we know well,
The world’s large spaces cannot parallel.
HECTOR Paris and Troilus, you have both said well,
And on the cause and question now in hand
Have glozed170, but superficially, not much
Unlike young men, whom Aristotle171 thought
Unfit to hear moral philosophy:
The reasons you allege173 do more conduce
To the hot passion of distempered174 blood
Than to make up a free determination175
’Twixt right and wrong, for pleasure and revenge
Have ears more deaf than adders177 to the voice
Of any true decision. Nature craves
All dues179 be rendered to their owners: now,
What nearer180 debt in all humanity
Than wife is to the husband? If this law
Of nature be corrupted through affection182,
And that183 great minds, of partial indulgence
To their benumbèd184 wills, resist the same,
There is a law in each well-ordered nation
To curb those raging appetites that are
Most disobedient and refractory187.
If Helen then be wife to Sparta’s king,
As it is known she is, these moral laws
Of nature and of nation speak aloud
To have her back returned: thus to persist
In doing wrong extenuates not192 wrong,
But makes it much more heavy193. Hector’s opinion
Is this in way of194 truth, yet ne’ertheless,
My spritely195 brethren, I propend to you
In resolution to keep Helen still196,
For ’tis a cause that hath no mean dependence197
Upon our joint198 and several dignities.
TROILUS Why, there you touched the life of our design199:
Were it not glory that we more affected200
Than the performance of our heaving spleens201,
I would not wish a drop of Trojan blood
Spent more in her defence. But, worthy Hector,
She is a theme204 of honour and renown,
A spur to valiant and magnanimous205 deeds,
Whose present courage206 may beat down our foes,
And fame in time to come canonize207 us,
For I presume brave Hector would not lose
So rich advantage of a promised glory
As smiles upon the forehead210 of this action
For211 the wide world’s revenue.
HECTOR I am yours,
You valiant offspring of great Priamus.
I have a roisting214 challenge sent amongst
The dull and factious nobles of the Greeks
Will216 strike amazement to their drowsy spirits.
I was advertised217 their great general slept
Whilst emulation218 in the army crept:
This, I presume, will wake him.
Exeunt
[Act 2 Scene 3]
running scene 5
Location: the Greek camp
Enter Thersites, solus
THERSITES How now, Thersites? What, lost in the labyrinth of
thy fury? Shall the elephant2 Ajax carry it thus? He beats me,
and I rail3 at him. O, worthy satisfaction! Would it were
otherwise: that I could beat him, whilst he railed at me.
’Sfoot5, I’ll learn to conjure and raise devils, but I’ll see some
issue6 of my spiteful execrations. Then there’s Achilles, a rare
engineer7. If Troy be not taken till these two undermine it, the
walls will stand till they fall of themselves8. O thou great
thunder-darter9 of Olympus, forget that thou art Jove, the
king of gods and, Mercury, lose all the serpentine craft10 of thy
caduceus11, if thou take not that little, little, less than little wit
from them that they have, which short-armed12 ignorance
itself knows is so abundant scarce, it will not in circumvention13
deliver14 a fly from a spider without drawing the massy irons
and cutting the web. After15 this, the vengeance on the whole
camp! Or, rather, the bone-ache16, for that, methinks, is the
curse dependent on17 those that war for a placket. I have said
my prayers and devil Envy say ‘Amen’.— What ho? My lord
Achilles?
Enter Patroclus [from the tent]
PATROCLUS Who’s there? Thersites? Good Thersites, come in
and rail.
Patroclus returns to the tent
THERSITES If I could have remembered a gilt counterfeit22, thou
wouldst not have slipped23 out of my contemplation. But it is
no matter: thyself upon thyself24! The common curse of
mankind, folly and ignorance, be thine in great revenue25!
Heaven bless26 thee from a tutor, and discipline come not near
thee! Let thy blood27 be thy direction till thy death! Then if she
that lays thee out28 says thou art a fair corpse, I’ll be sworn
and sworn upon’t she never shrouded29 any but lazars.
Amen.— Where’s Achilles?
Patroclus reemerges from the tent
PATROCLUS What, art thou devout? Wast thou in a prayer?
THERSITES Ay, the heavens hear me!
Enter Achilles [from the tent]
ACHILLES Who’s there?
PATROCLUS Thersites, my lord.
ACHILLES Where, where? Art thou come? Why, my cheese36, my
digestion, why hast thou not served thyself in to my table so
many meals37? Come, what’s Agamemnon?
THERSITES Thy commander, Achilles. Then tell me, Patroclus,
what’s Achilles?
PATROCLUS Thy lord, Thersites: then tell me, I pray thee, what’s
thyself?
THERSITES Thy knower43, Patroclus: then tell me, Patroclus,
what art thou?
PATROCLUS Thou mayst tell that know’st.
ACHILLES O, tell, tell.
THERSITES I’ll decline47 the whole question: Agamemnon
commands Achilles, Achilles is my lord, I am Patroclus’
knower, and Patroclus is a fool.
PATROCLUS You rascal!
THERSITES Peace, fool, I have not done51.
ACHILLES He is a privileged man52. Proceed, Thersites.
THERSITES Agamemnon is a fool, Achilles is a fool, Thersites is
a fool, and, as aforesaid, Patroclus is a fool.
ACHILLES Derive55 this: come.
THERSITES Agamemnon is a fool to offer56 to command Achilles,
Achilles is a fool to be commanded of57 Agamemnon, Thersites
is a fool to serve such a fool, and Patroclus is a fool positive58.
PATROCLUS Why am I a fool?
Enter Agamemnon, Ulysses, Nestor, Diomedes, Ajax and Calchas [at a distance]
THERSITES Make that demand to60 the creator: it suffices me
thou art. Look you, who comes here?
ACHILLES Patroclus, I’ll speak with nobody. Come in with me,
Thersites.
Exit
THERSITES Here is such patchery64, such juggling and such
knavery! All the argument65 is a cuckold and a whore, a good
quarrel to draw66 emulations, factions and bleed to death
upon. Now, the dry serpigo67 on the subject, and war and
lechery confound68 all!
[Exit]
AGAMEMNON Where is Achilles?
Comes forward
PATROCLUS Within his tent, but ill disposed70, my lord.
AGAMEMNON Let it be known to him that we are here.
He shent72 our messengers, and we lay by
Our appertainments73, visiting of him:
Let him be told of74, so perchance he think
We dare not move the question of our place75,
Or know not what we are.
PATROCLUS I shall so say to him.
[Exit]
ULYSSES We saw him at the opening of his tent:
He is not sick.
AJAX Yes, lion-sick80, sick of proud heart: you may call it
melancholy if you will favour the man, but, by my head, it is
pride. But why, why? Let him show us the cause.— A word,
my lord.
Ajax and Agamemnon speak aside
NESTOR What moves Ajax thus to bay84 at him?
ULYSSES Achilles hath inveigled85 his fool from him.
NESTOR Who, Thersites?
ULYSSES He.
NESTOR Then will Ajax lack matter88, if he have lost his
argument.
ULYSSES No, you see, he is his argument that has his
argument — Achilles90.
NESTOR All the better: their fraction is more our wish than
their faction92, but it was a strong council that a fool could
disunite93.
ULYSSES The amity95 that wisdom knits not, folly may easily
untie.
Enter Patroclus
Here comes Patroclus.
NESTOR No Achilles with him?
ULYSSES The elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy99: his
legs are legs for necessity, not for flight.
PATROCLUS Achilles bids me say, he is much sorry
If anything more than your sport102 and pleasure
Did move your greatness and this noble state103
To call upon him; he hopes it is no other104
But for your health and your digestion’ sake,
An after-dinner’s breath106.
AGAMEMNON Hear you, Patroclus:
We are too well acquainted with these answers,
But his evasion, winged thus swift with scorn,
Cannot outfly our apprehensions110.
Much attribute111 he hath, and much the reason
Why we ascribe it to him, yet all his virtues,
Not virtuously of his own part beheld113,
Do in our eyes begin to lose their gloss,
Yea, and like fair115 fruit in an unwholesome dish,
Are like116 to rot untasted. Go and tell him,
We came to speak with him; and you shall not sin117
If you do say we think him over-proud
And under-honest119, in self-assumption greater
Than in the note of judgement, and worthier than himself
Here tends the savage strangeness he puts on120,
Disguise the holy strength of their command122,
And underwrite in an observing kind123
His humorous124 predominance. Yea, watch
His pettish lunes125, his ebbs, his flows, as if
The passage126 and whole carriage of this action
Rode on his tide127. Go tell him this, and add
That if he overhold128 his price so much,
We’ll none of129 him; but let him, like an engine
Not portable, lie under130 this report:
‘Bring action hither, this131 cannot go to war:
A stirring132 dwarf we do allowance give
Before133 a sleeping giant.’ Tell him so.
PATROCLUS I shall, and bring his answer presently134.
AGAMEMNON In second voice135 we’ll not be satisfied:
We come to speak with him.— Ulysses, enter you.
Exit Ulysses [following Patroclus]
AJAX What is he more than another?
AGAMEMNON No more than what he thinks he is.
AJAX Is he so much? Do you not think he thinks himself a
better man than I am?
AGAMEMNON No question.
AJAX Will you subscribe142 his thought, and say he is?
AGAMEMNON No, noble Ajax: you are as strong, as valiant, as
wise, no less noble, much more gentle144, and altogether more
tractable.
AJAX Why should a man be proud? How doth pride grow?
I know not what it is.
AGAMEMNON Your mind is the clearer148, Ajax, and your virtues
the fairer. He that is proud eats up himself: pride is his own
glass150, his own trumpet, his own chronicle, and whatever
praises itself but in the deed151, devours the deed in the praise.
Enter Ulysses
AJAX I do hate a proud man, as I hate the engendering152 of
toads.
NESTOR Yet he loves himself: is’t not strange?
Aside
ULYSSES Achilles will not to the field155 tomorrow.
AGAMEMNON What’s his excuse?
ULYSSES He doth rely on none,
But carries on the stream of his dispose158
Without observance159 or respect of any,
In will peculiar160 and in self-admission.
AGAMEMNON Why will he not upon our fair161 request
Untent his person162 and share the air with us?
ULYSSES Things small as nothing, for request’s sake only163,
He makes important: possessed he is with greatness164,
And speaks not to himself but with a pride
That quarrels at self-breath165: imagined worth
Holds in his blood such swoll’n and hot167 discourse
That ’twixt his mental and his active parts
Kingdomed Achilles169 in commotion rages
And batters gainst itself. What should I say?
He is so plaguy171 proud that the death-tokens of it
Cry ‘No recovery.’
AGAMEMNON Let Ajax go to him.—
Dear lord, go you and greet him in his tent;
’Tis said he holds175 you well, and will be led
At your request a little from himself176.
ULYSSES O Agamemnon, let it not be so!
We’ll consecrate178 the steps that Ajax makes
When they go from179 Achilles. Shall the proud lord
That bastes his arrogance with his own seam180
And never suffers181 matter of the world
Enter his thoughts, save such as do revolve
And ruminate himself182: shall he be worshipped
Of that we hold an idol more than he?184
No, this thrice-worthy and right valiant lord
Must not so stale186 his palm, nobly acquired,
Nor by my will assubjugate187 his merit,
As amply titled as Achilles is188, by going to Achilles:
That were189 to enlard his fat-already pride
And add more coals to Cancer when he burns
With entertaining great Hyperion190.
