Cressida.
Pan.
Come, come; what need you blush? Shame's
a baby. Here she is now. Swear the oaths now to
-- 471 --
her, that you have sworn to me. What, are you gone
again? you must be watch'd ere you be made tame,
must you? Come your ways, come your ways; if you
draw backward, 4 notewe'll put you i' th' files.—Why do
you not speak to her? Come, draw this curtain, and
let's see your picture. [Snatching her mask.] Alas
the day, how loth you are to offend day-light? an
'twere dark, you'd close sooner. So, so, rub on, and
kiss the Mistress. How now, a kiss in fee-farm? Build
there, carpenter, the air is sweet. Nay, you shall
fight your hearts out, ere I part you. 5 noteThe faulcon
as the tercel, for all the ducks i' th' river. Go to, go
to.
Troi.
You have bereft me of all words, lady.
Pan.
Words pay no debts, give her deeds: but
she'll bereave you of deeds too, if she call your activity
in question. What, billing again? here's, in witness
whereof the parties interchangeably—Come in,
come in, I'll go get a fire.
[Exit Pandarus.
Cre.
Will you walk in, my Lord?
Troi.
O Cressida, how often have I wisht me thus?
Cre.
Wisht, my Lord! the Gods grant—O my
Lord.
Troi.
What should they grant? what makes this
pretty abruption? what too curious dreg espies my
sweet lady in the fountain of our love?
Cre.
More dregs than water, if my fears have eyes.
Troi.
Fears make devils of cherubins, they never see
truly.
Cre.
Blind fear, which seeing reason leads, finds safer
-- 472 --
footing than blind reason stumbling without fear. To
fear the worst, oft cures the worse.
Troi.
O, let my lady apprehend no fear; in all Cupid's
Pageant there is presented no monster.
Cre.
Nor nothing monstrous neither?
Troi.
Nothing, but our Undertakings; when we
vow to weep seas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tygers;
thinking it harder for our mistress to devise imposition
enough, than for us to undergo any difficulty imposed.
This is the monstrosity in love lady, that the will is
infinite, and the execution confin'd; that the desire is
boundless, and the act a slave to limit.
Cre.
They say, all lovers swear more performance
than they are able; and yet reserve an ability, that
they never perform: vowing more than the perfection
of ten, and discharging less than the tenth part of one.
They that have the voice of lions, and the act of
hares, are they not monsters?
Troi.
Are there such? such are not we. Praise us
as we are tasted, allow us as we prove: 6 noteour head shall
go bare, 'till merit crown it; no perfection in reversion
shall have a praise in present; we will not name
desert before his birth, and, being born, 7 notehis addition
shall be humble; few words to fair faith. Troilus shall
be such to Cressida, as what envy can say worst, shall
be a mock for his truth; and what truth can speak
truest, not truer than Troilus.
Cre.
Will you walk in, my Lord?
-- 473 --
Samuel Johnson [1765], The plays of William Shakespeare, in eight volumes, with the corrections and illustrations of Various Commentators; To which are added notes by Sam. Johnson (Printed for J. and R. Tonson [and] C. Corbet [etc.], London) [word count] [S11001].
