But printing was broken off after three pages, perhaps due to a copyright dispute, and Troilus was eventually squeezed in between the Histories and Tragedies (after the setting of the “Catalogue” of plays in the Folio’s preliminary matter). When printing was resumed, a manuscript that had many differences from the Quarto text was used, though the influence of Quarto can still be strongly detected. Some scholars suppose that Folio was printed from an annotated Quarto, but this does not square with the superiority of many individual Quarto readings: why annotate a sound reading in a printed text with an alteration that makes less good sense? It is therefore probable that an independent scribal copy, perhaps based on the theater promptbook, and perhaps reflecting playhouse revision, also lies behind the Folio. In accordance with our editorial policy, we follow Folio where it is viable, but, in light of the demonstrable presence of Quarto in the editing or printing of the Folio, we adopt Quarto readings where Folio cannot be defended.
On two occasions the text includes passages that seem to be authorial “first thoughts” intended for deletion. Most modern editors relegate such lines to an appendix. Our fidelity to Folio means that we have not done so, though we have indicated the lines in question by enclosing them within double solidi (// //): they should almost certainly be cut in performance, but are of great interest in apparently revealing Shakespeare in the process of composition.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA
LIST OF PARTS
PROLOGUE, in armour
Trojans
PRIAM, King of Troy
his sons
HECTOR
DEIPHOBUS
HELENUS, a priest
PARIS
TROILUS
MARGARELON, a bastard
CASSANDRA, Priam’s daughter, a prophetess
ANDROMACHE, wife of Hector
HELEN, wife of Paris, previously wife of Menelaus
PANDARUS, a lord
CRESSIDA, his niece
CALCHAS, her father who has joined the Greeks
ALEXANDER, her servant
military commanders
AENEAS
ANTENOR
BOY, servant to Troilus
Greeks
AGAMEMNON, Commander-in-Chief
MENELAUS, his brother
ULYSSES
NESTOR
ACHILLES
PATROCLUS, his friend
AJAX
DIOMEDES
THERSITES
MYRMIDONS, Achilles’ soldiers
Servants, Attendants
The Prologue
[Enter the Prologue, in armour]
In Troy there lies the scene. From isles of Greece
The princes orgulous2, their high blood chafed,
Have to the port of Athens sent their ships
Fraught4 with the ministers and instruments
Of cruel war: sixty and nine, that wore
Their crownets6 regal, from th’Athenian bay
Put forth toward Phrygia7, and their vow is made
To ransack Troy, within whose strong immures8
The ravished9 Helen, Menelaus’ queen,
With wanton10 Paris sleeps, and that’s the quarrel.
To Tenedos11 they come,
And the deep-drawing barks12 do there disgorge
Their warlike fraughtage13: now on Dardan plains
The fresh and yet unbruisèd Greeks do pitch
Their brave pavilions15: Priam’s six-gated city,
Dardan, and Tymbria, Helias, Chetas, Troien,
And Antenorides16, with massy staples
And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts17,
Stir up the sons of Troy.
Now expectation, tickling20 skittish spirits,
On one and other side, Trojan and Greek,
Sets all on hazard22. And hither am I come,
A prologue armed23, but not in confidence
Of author’s pen or actor’s voice, but suited
In like conditions as our24 argument25,
To tell you, fair beholders, that our play
Leaps o’er the vaunt and firstlings27 of those broils,
Beginning in the middle28, starting thence away
To what may be digested29 in a play.
Like or find fault, do as your pleasures are:
Now good or bad, ’tis but the chance of war.
[Exit]
Act 1 Scene 1
running scene 1
Location: Troy
Enter Pandarus and Troilus
TROILUS Call here my varlet1, I’ll unarm again:
Why should I war without2 the walls of Troy
That find such cruel battle here within?
Each Trojan that is master of his heart,
Let him to field5: Troilus, alas, hath none.
PANDARUS Will this gear6 ne’er be mended?
TROILUS The Greeks are strong and skilful to7 their strength,
Fierce to their skill and to their fierceness valiant,
But I am weaker than a woman’s tear,
Tamer10 than sleep, fonder than ignorance,
Less valiant than the virgin in the night,
And skilless12 as unpractised infancy.
PANDARUS Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part, I’ll
not meddle nor make14 no further. He that will have a cake out
of the wheat must needs tarry15 the grinding.
TROILUS Have I not tarried?
PANDARUS Ay, the grinding, but you must tarry the bolting17.
TROILUS Have I not tarried?
PANDARUS Ay, the bolting, but you must tarry the leav’ning19.
TROILUS Still have I tarried.
PANDARUS Ay, to the leavening, but here’s yet in the word
‘hereafter’ the kneading, the making of22 the cake, the heating
of the oven and the baking; nay, you must stay23 the cooling
too, or you may chance to burn your lips24.
TROILUS Patience herself, what goddess e’er she be,
Doth lesser blench at suff’rance26 than I do.
At Priam’s royal table do I sit;
And when fair Cressid comes into my thoughts —
So, traitor29, 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 wedgèd33 with a sigh, would rive in twain,
Lest Hector or my father should perceive me —
I have, as when the sun doth light a-scorn35,
Buried this sigh in wrinkle of a smile:
But sorrow, that is couched37 in seeming gladness
Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness.
PANDARUS An39 her hair were not somewhat darker than
Helen’s — well, go to40 — there were no more comparison
between the women. But, for my part, she is my kinswoman:
I would42 not, as they term it, praise her, but I would somebody
had heard her talk yesterday, as I did. I will not dispraise43 your
sister Cassandra’s wit44, but—
TROILUS O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus —
When I do tell thee, there my hopes lie drowned,
Reply not in how many fathoms47 deep
They lie indrenched48. I tell thee I am mad
In Cressid’s love49. 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,
Handlest52 in thy discourse, O, that her hand
In whose comparison53 all whites are ink
Writing their own reproach, to54 whose soft seizure
The cygnet55’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 balm58,
Thou lay’st in every gash59 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
mends65 in her own hands.
TROILUS Good Pandarus, how now, Pandarus?
PANDARUS I have had my labour for my travail67: 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 Sunday72. But what care I? I care not an
she were a blackamoor74: ’tis all one to me.
TROILUS Say I she is not fair75?
PANDARUS I do not care whether you do or no. She’s a fool to
stay behind her father77: 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.
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
Sound alarum
TROILUS Peace, you ungracious85 clamours, peace, rude sounds!
Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair
When with your blood you daily paint87 her thus.
I cannot fight upon this argument88:
It is too starved89 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 tetchy92 to be wooed to woo
As she is stubborn, chaste, against all suit93.
Tell me, Apollo94, for thy Daphne’s love,
What Cressid is, what Pandar, and what we95?
Her bed is India96: there she lies, a pearl.
Between our Ilium97 and where she resides,
Let it be called the wild and wand’ring flood98,
Ourself the merchant99, and this sailing Pandar
Our doubtful hope, our convoy100 and our bark.
Alarum. Enter Aeneas
AENEAS How now, Prince Troilus? Wherefore not afield?101
TROILUS Because not there102: this woman’s answer sorts,
For womanish it is to be from thence.
What news, Aeneas, from the field today?
AENEAS That Paris is returnèd home and hurt.
TROILUS By whom, Aeneas?
AENEAS Troilus, by Menelaus.
TROILUS Let Paris bleed, ’tis but a scar to scorn108:
Paris is gored with Menelaus’ horn109.
Alarum
AENEAS Hark, what good sport110 is out of town today!
TROILUS Better at home, if ‘would I might’ were ‘may’.
But to the sport abroad112: are you bound thither?
AENEAS In all swift haste.
TROILUS Come, go we then together.
Exeunt
[Act 1 Scene 2]
running scene 2
Enter Cressida and her Man [Alexander]
CRESSIDA Who were those went by?
ALEXANDER Queen Hecuba and Helen.
CRESSIDA And whither go they?
ALEXANDER Up to the eastern tower,
Whose height commands as subject5 all the vale,
To see the battle. Hector, whose patience
Is as a virtue fixed7, today was moved:
He chides Andromache and struck his armourer,
And, like as9 there were husbandry in war,
Before the sun rose he was harnessed light10,
And to the field goes he, where every flower
Did as a prophet weep what it foresaw
In Hector’s wrath.
CRESSIDA What was his cause of anger?
ALEXANDER The noise15 goes, this: there is among the Greeks
A lord of Trojan blood, nephew16 to Hector:
They call him Ajax.
CRESSIDA Good18, and what of him?
ALEXANDER They say he is a very man per se19, and stands alone.
CRESSIDA So do all men, unless they are drunk, sick, or have
no legs20.
ALEXANDER This man, lady, hath robbed many beasts of their
particular additions23: he is as valiant as the lion, churlish as
the bear, slow24 as the elephant: a man into whom nature hath
so crowded humours25 that his valour is crushed into folly, his
folly sauced with discretion. There is no man hath a virtue
that he hath not a glimpse27 of, nor any man an attaint but he
carries some stain of it: he is melancholy without cause, and
merry against the hair29: he hath the joints of everything, but
everything so out of joint that he is a gouty30 Briareus, many
hands and no use, or purblinded31 Argus, all eyes and no sight.
CRESSIDA But how should this man, that makes me smile
make Hector angry?
ALEXANDER They say he yesterday coped34 Hector in the battle
and struck him down, the disdain35 and shame whereof hath
ever since kept Hector fasting and waking36.
Enter Pandarus
CRESSIDA Who comes here?
ALEXANDER Madam, your uncle Pandarus.
CRESSIDA Hector’s a gallant man.
ALEXANDER As may be in the world, lady.
PANDARUS What’s that? What’s that?
CRESSIDA Good morrow, uncle Pandarus.
PANDARUS Good morrow, cousin Cressid. What do you talk
of?— Good morrow, Alexander.— How do you, cousin?
When were you at Ilium?
CRESSIDA This morning, uncle.
PANDARUS What were you talking of when I came? Was Hector
armed and gone ere48 ye came to Ilium? Helen was not up, was
she?
CRESSIDA Hector was gone, but Helen was not up.
PANDARUS E’en so; Hector was stirring early.
CRESSIDA That were we talking of, and of his anger.
PANDARUS Was he angry?
CRESSIDA So he says here.
PANDARUS True, he was so; I know the cause too: he’ll lay
about him55 today, 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.
CRESSIDA What, is he angry too?
PANDARUS Who, Troilus? Troilus is the better man of the two.
CRESSIDA O Jupiter61, there’s no comparison.
PANDARUS What, not between Troilus and Hector? Do you
know a man63 if you see him?
CRESSIDA Ay, if I ever saw him before and knew him.
PANDARUS Well, I say Troilus is Troilus.
CRESSIDA Then you say as I say, for I am sure he is not Hector.
PANDARUS No, nor Hector is not Troilus in some degrees67.
CRESSIDA ’Tis just68 to each of them: he is himself.
PANDARUS Himself? Alas, poor Troilus, I would he were.
CRESSIDA So he is.
PANDARUS Condition, I had gone barefoot to India71.
CRESSIDA He is not Hector.
PANDARUS Himself? No, he’s not himself: would a73 were himself!
Well, the gods are above, time must friend74 or end. Well,
Troilus, well. I would my heart were in her body. No, Hector
is not a better man than Troilus.
CRESSIDA Excuse me77.
PANDARUS He is elder.
CRESSIDA Pardon me, pardon me.
PANDARUS Th’other’s not come to’t80; you shall tell me another
tale, when th’other’s come to’t. Hector shall not have his wit81
this year.
CRESSIDA He shall not need it if he have his own.
PANDARUS Nor his qualities.
CRESSIDA No matter.
PANDARUS Nor his beauty.
CRESSIDA ’Twould not become87 him: his own’s better.
PANDARUS You have no judgement, niece; Helen herself swore
th’other day that Troilus for a brown favour89 — for so ’tis, I
must confess — not brown neither—
CRESSIDA No, but brown91.
PANDARUS ’Faith, to say truth, brown and not brown.
CRESSIDA To say the truth, true and not true.
PANDARUS She praised his complexion above Paris.
CRESSIDA Why, Paris hath colour enough.
PANDARUS So he has.
CRESSIDA Then Troilus should97 have too much: if she praised
him above, his98 complexion is higher than his: he having
colour enough, and the other higher, is too flaming99 a praise
for a good complexion. I had as lief100 Helen’s golden tongue
had commended Troilus for a copper101 nose.
PANDARUS I swear to you, I think Helen loves him better than
Paris.
CRESSIDA Then she’s a merry Greek104 indeed.
PANDARUS Nay, I am sure she does. She came to him th’other
day into the compassed106 window — and, you know, he has
not past three or four hairs on his chin—
CRESSIDA Indeed, a tapster’s arithmetic108 may soon bring his
particulars109 therein to a total.
PANDARUS Why, he is very young, and yet will he within three
pound lift as much as his brother Hector.
CRESSIDA Is he so young a man and so old112 a lifter?
PANDARUS But to prove to you that Helen loves him, she came
and puts me her white hand to his cloven114 chin—
CRESSIDA Juno115 have mercy! How came it cloven?
PANDARUS Why, you know ’tis dimpled. I think his smiling
becomes him better than any man in all Phrygia.
CRESSIDA O, he smiles valiantly.
PANDARUS Does he not?
CRESSIDA O yes, an ’twere a cloud in autumn120.
PANDARUS Why, go to, then. But to prove to you that Helen
loves Troilus—
CRESSIDA Troilus will stand to the proof123, if you’ll prove it so.
PANDARUS Troilus? Why, he esteems her no more than I esteem
an addle125 egg.
CRESSIDA If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle
head, you would eat chickens i’th’shell126.
PANDARUS I cannot choose but laugh to think how she tickled
his chin. Indeed, she has a marvellous129 white hand, I must
needs confess130—
CRESSIDA Without the rack131.
PANDARUS And she takes upon her to spy a white hair on his
chin.
CRESSIDA Alas, poor chin.
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