Pan.

How now ^note! where's thy master? at my cousin Cressida's?

Boy.

No, sir; he stays for ^note you to conduct him thither.

Pan.
O, here he comes. Enter Troilus.
How now, how now!

Tro.
Sirrah, walk off. [Exit Boy. ^note

Pan.
Have you seen my cousin?

Tro.
No, Pandarus: I stalk about her door,
Like ^note a strange soul upon the Stygian banks
Staying for waftage. O, be thou my Charon,
And give me swift transportance to those ^note fields
Where I may wallow in the lily-beds
Proposed for the deserver! O gentle Pandarus ^note,
From Cupid's shoulder pluck his painted wings,
And fly with me to Cressid!

Pan.
Walk here i' the orchard, I'll ^note bring her straight. [Exit. ^note

Tro.
I am ^note giddy; expectation whirls me round.
The imaginary relish is so sweet
That it enchants my sense ^note: what will it be,

When that the watery palates taste ^note indeed
Love's thrice repured ^note nectar? death, I fear me,
Swounding ^note destruction, or some joy too fine,
Too subtle-potent ^note, tuned too ^note sharp in sweetness,
For the capacity of my ruder ^note powers:
I fear it much, and I do fear besides
That I shall lose distinction in my joys,
As doth a battle, when they charge on heaps
The enemy flying. Re-enter ^note Pandarus.

Pan.

She's making her ready, she'll come straight: you must be witty now. She does so blush, and fetches her wind so short, as if she were frayed with a sprite ^note: I'll fetch ^note her. It is the prettiest villain: she fetches her breath as short ^note as a new-ta'en sparrow.

Tro.
Even such a passion doth embrace my bosom:
My heart beats thicker than a feverous pulse;
And all my powers do their bestowing lose,
Like vassalage at unawares ^note encountering
The eye of majesty. Re-enter ^note Pandarus with Cressida. ^note

Pan.

Come, come, what need you blush? ^note shame's a baby. Here she is now: swear the oaths now to her that you have sworn to me. What, are you gone again? you

must be watched ere you be made tame, must you? Come your ways, come your ways; an ^note you draw backward, we'll put you i' the fills ^note. Why do you not speak to her? Come, draw this curtain, and let's see your picture. Alas the ^note day, how loath you are to offend daylight! an 'twere dark, you'ld 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. The falcon as ^note the tercel, for all the ducks i' the river: go to, go to.

Tro.

You have bereft me of all words, lady.

Pan.

Words pay no debts, give her deeds: but she'll bereave you o' the ^note deeds too, if she call your activity in question. What, billing again? Here's ‘In witness whereof the parties interchangeably’— ^noteCome in, come in: I'll go get a fire.

Cres.

Will you walk in, my lord?

Tro.

O Cressida ^note, how often have I wished me thus!

Cres.

Wished, my lord?—The gods grant— ^noteO my lord!

Tro.

What should they grant? what makes this pretty abruption? What too curious dreg espies my sweet lady ^note in the fountain of our love?

Cres.

More dregs than water, if my fears ^note have eyes.

Tro.

Fears make devils of ^note cherubins ^note; they never see truly.

Cres.

Blind fear, that ^note seeing reason leads, finds safer ^note

footing than blind reason stumbling without fear: to fear the worst oft cures the worse ^note.

Tro.

O, let my lady apprehend no fear: in all Cupid's pageant there is presented no monster. ^note

Cres.

Nor ^note nothing monstrous neither? ^note

Tro.

Nothing, but our ^note undertakings; when we vow to weep seas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tigers; thinking it harder for our mistress to devise imposition enough than for us to undergo any difficulty imposed. This is ^note the monstruosity ^note in love, lady, that the will is infinite and the execution confined, that the desire is boundless and the act a slave to limit.

Cres.

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?

Tro.

Are there such? such are not we: praise us as we are tasted, allow us as we prove; our head shall go bare till merit crown it: no perfection ^note in reversion shall have a praise in present: we will not name desert before his birth, and, being born, his addition shall be humble. Few words to fair faith: Troilus shall be such to Cressid as what envy can say worst shall be a mock for his truth ^note, and what truth can speak truest, not truer than Troilus.

Cres.

Will you walk in, my lord?

Pan.

What, blushing still? have you not done talking yet?

Cres.

Well, uncle, what folly I commit, I dedicate to you.

Pan.

I thank you for that: if my lord get a boy of you, you'll give him me. Be true to my lord: if he flinch, chide me for it.

Tro.

You know now your hostages; your uncle's word and my firm faith.

Pan.

Nay, I'll give my word for her too: our kindred, though they be long ere they are wooed ^note, they are constant being won: they are burs, I can tell you; they'll stick where they are thrown.

Cres.
Boldness comes to me now, and brings me heart.
Prince Troilus, I have loved you night and day
For many weary months. ^note

Tro.
Why was my Cressid then so hard to win?

Cres.
Hard to seem won: but I was won, my lord,
With the first glance that ever—pardon ^note me;
If I confess much, you will play the tyrant.
I love you now; but not, till now, ^note so much
But I might master it: in faith, I lie;
My thoughts were like unbridled children, grown ^note
Too headstrong for their mother. See, we fools!
Why have I blabb'd? who shall be true to us,
When we are so unsecret to ourselves?
But, though I loved you well, I woo'd you not;
And yet, good faith, I wish'd myself a man,
Or that we ^note women had men's privilege
Of speaking first. Sweet, bid me hold my tongue;
For in this rapture I shall surely speak
The thing I shall repent. See, see ^note, your silence,
Cunning ^note in dumbness, from ^note my weakness draws

My very soul of counsel ^note! Stop my mouth. ^note

Tro.
And shall, albeit sweet music issues thence.

Pan.
Pretty, i' faith.

Cres.
My lord, I do beseech you, pardon me;
'Twas not my purpose thus to beg a kiss:
I am ashamed; O heavens! what have I done?
For this time will I take my leave, my lord.

Tro.
Your leave, sweet ^note Cressid?

Pan.
Leave! an ^note you take leave till to-morrow morning— ^note

Cres.
Pray you, content you.

Tro.
What offends you, lady?

Cres.
Sir, mine own company.

Tro.
You cannot ^note shun yourself.

Cres.
Let me go and try ^note: ^note
I have a kind of self resides ^{note note} with you,
But an unkind self that itself will leave
To be another's fool. I would be gone:
Where is my wit? I know not what I speak. ^note

Tro.
Well know they what they speak that speak ^note so wisely.

Cres.
Perchance, my lord, I show ^note more craft than love,
And fell so roundly to a large confession
To angle for your thoughts: but you are wise;
Or else ^note you ^note love not ^note, for ^note to be wise and love
Exceeds man's might; that ^note dwells with gods above.

Tro.
O that I thought it could be in a woman—
As ^note, if it can, I will presume in you—
To feed for aye ^note her lamp and flames of love;
To keep her constancy in plight and youth,
Outliving beauty's ^note outward, with a mind
That doth renew swifter than blood decays!
Or ^note that persuasion could but thus convince me,
That my integrity and truth to you
Might be affronted with the match and weight
Of such a winnowed ^note purity ^note in love;
How were I then uplifted! but, alas!
I am as true as truth's simplicity
And simpler than the infancy of truth.

Cres.
In that I'll war with you.

Tro.
O virtuous fight,
When right with right wars who shall ^note be most right ^note! ^note
True swains in love shall in the world to come ^note
Approve their truths ^note by Troilus: when their rhymes,
Full of protest, of oath and big compare,
Want similes ^note, truth ^note tired with iteration,
‘As true as steel, as plantage to the moon ^note,
As sun to day, as turtle to her mate,
As iron to adamant, as earth to the centre,’
Yet ^note, after all comparisons of truth,
As truth's authentic author ^note to be cited,
‘As true as Troilus’ shall crown up ^note the verse

And sanctify the numbers.

Cres.
Prophet may you be!
If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth,
When ^note time is old and hath ^note forgot itself,
When waterdrops have worn the stones of Troy,
And blind oblivion swallow'd cities up,
And mighty states characterless are grated
To dusty nothing, yet let memory,
From false to false, among false maids in love,
Upbraid my falsehood! when they've ^note said ‘as false
As air, as water, wind, or ^note sandy earth,
As fox to lamb, or wolf ^note to heifer's calf,
Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son,’
‘Yea,’ let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood,
‘As false as Cressid.’

Pan.

Go to, a bargain made: seal it, seal it; I'll be the witness. Here ^note I hold your hand; here my cousin's. ^note If ever you prove false one to ^note another, since I have taken such pains ^note to bring you together, let all pitiful goers-between be called to the world's end after my name; call them all Pandars; let all constant ^note men be Troiluses, all false women Cressids ^note, and all brokers-between Pandars! Say ‘amen.’

Tro.

Amen.

Cres.

Amen.

Pan.

Amen. Whereupon I will show you a chamber with a bed; which bed ^note, because it shall not speak of your pretty encounters, press it to death: away!

And Cupid grant all tongue-tied maidens here
Bed, chamber, Pandar ^note to provide this gear! [Exit. ^{note note}

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