READ STUDY GUIDE: Act I, Scenes i-ii |
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Act I, Scene i:
Troy. Before PRIAM'S palace
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 Trojan that is master of his heart, |
| 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, |
| Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance, |
| Less valiant than the virgin in the night, |
| And skilless as unpractis'd infancy. |
| PANDARUS.: |
| Well, I have told you enough of this; for my part, I'll not |
| meddle nor make no further. He that will have a cake out of the |
| wheat must tarry the grinding. |
| TROILUS.: |
| Have I not tarried? |
| PANDARUS.: |
| Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the bolting. |
| TROILUS.: |
| Have I not tarried? |
| PANDARUS.: |
| Ay, the bolting; but you must tarry the leavening. |
| TROILUS.: |
| Still have I tarried. |
| 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; |
| And when fair Cressid comes into my thoughts, |
| So, traitor! 'when 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, |
| 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 |
| Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness. |
| 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 |
| They lie indrench'd. I tell thee I am mad |
| In Cressid's love. 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, |
| Handlest in thy discourse. O! that her hand, |
| 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; |
| 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. |
| 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 |
| mends in her own hands. |
| TROILUS.: |
| Good Pandarus! How now, Pandarus! |
| 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? |
| 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 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? |
| 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' the 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. An alarum.] |
| TROILUS.: |
| 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 starv'd 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 |
| 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 AENEAS.] |
| AENEAS.: |
| How now, Prince Troilus! Wherefore not afield? |
| 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. |
| 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? |
| AENEAS.: |
| In all swift haste. |
| TROILUS.: |
| Come, go we then together.[Exeunt.] |
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