Think it an altar, and thy brother Troilus

A priest, there offering to it his own heart.
Par. I know what 'tis to love;

[Exit.

And would, as I shall pity, I could help !—
Please you walk in, my lords.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV. The same. A room in PANDARUS' house.

Enter PANDARUS and CRESSIDA.

Pan. Be moderate, be moderate.

Cres. Why tell you me of moderation? The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste,

And violenteth in a sense as strong

As that which causeth it: how can I moderate it?

If I could temporize with my affection,

Or brew it to a weak and colder palate,
The like allayment could I give my grief:
My love admits no qualifying dross;
No more my grief, in such a precious loss.
Pan. Here, here, here he comes.

Enter TROILUS.

Ah, sweet ducks! (121)

too.

Cres. O Troilus! Troilus !

Pan. What a pair of spectacles is here! "O heart," as the goodly saying is,

[Embracing him. Let me embrace

O heart, O(122) heavy heart,
Why sigh'st thou without breaking?"

where he answers again,

(121) Ah, sweet ducks!] So the quarto ("a [i.e. ah: see note 116] sweete ducks").-The folio has "a sweet ducke." But the plural is right: Pandarus, seeing the lovers embrace (which, from his next speech, it is evident they do), calls them "sweet ducks,"-as, presently, he calls them "lambs."

(122) 0 Not in the old eds.

"Because thou canst not ease thy smart
By friendship nor by speaking." (123)

There was never a truer rhyme. Let us cast away nothing, for we may live to have need of such a verse: we see it, we see it. How now, lambs!

Tro. Cressid, I love thee in so strain'd a purity,
That the bless'd gods, as angry with my fancy,
More bright in zeal than the devotion which
Cold lips blow to their deities, take thee from me.
Cres. Have the gods envy?

Pan. Ay, ay, ay, ay; 'tis too plain a case.

Cres. And is it true that I must go from Troy?
Tro. A hateful truth.

Cres.

What, and from Troilus too?

Tro. From Troy and Troilus.
Cres.

Is it possible?

Tro. And suddenly; where injury of chance
Puts back leave-taking, justles roughly by
All time of pause, rudely beguiles our lips.
Of all rejoindure, forcibly prevents
Our lock'd embrasures, strangles our dear vows
Even in the birth of our own labouring breath:
We two, that with so many thousand sighs
Did buy each other, must poorly sell ourselves
With the rude brevity and discharge of one.
Injurious time now, with a robber's haste,
Crams his rich thievery up, he knows not how:
As many farewells as be stars in heaven,

With distinct breath and consign'd kisses to them,
He fumbles up into a loose adieu;

And scants us with a single famish'd kiss,

Distasted with the salt of broken tears.

Ene. [within] My lord, is the lady ready?

Tro. Hark! you are call'd: some say the Genius so

(123) Because thou canst not ease thy smart

By friendship nor by speaking.]

This, it must be confessed, reads oddly.-Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector substitutes "By silence nor by speaking."

Cries "Come!" to him that instantly must die.-
Bid them have patience; she shall come anon.

Pan. Where are my tears? rain, to lay this wind, or my heart will be blown up by the root.

Cres. I must, then, to the Grecians ?(124)

Tro.

No remedy.

Cres. A woful Cressid 'mongst the merry Greeks! When shall we see again ?(125)

[Exit.

Tro. Hear me, my love: be thou but true of heart,— Cres. I true! how now! what wicked deem is this? Tro. Nay, we must use expostulation kindly,

For it is parting from us:

I speak not " be thou true," as fearing thee;
For I will throw my glove to Death himself,
That there's no maculation in thy heart:
But "be thou true," say I, to fashion in
My sequent protestation; be thou true,
And I will see thee.

Cres. O, you shall be expos'd, my lord, to dangers

As infinite as imminent! but I'll be true.

Tro. And I'll grow friend with danger. Wear this sleeve. Cres. And you this glove. When shall I see you?

Tro. I will corrupt the Grecian sentinels,

To give thee nightly visitation.

But yet, be true.

Cres.

O heavens !" be true" again!

Tro. Hear why I speak it, love:

The Grecian youths are full of quality;

They're loving, well compos'd with gifts of nature,

And swelling o'er with arts and exercise: (126)

How novelty may move, and parts with person,

(124) Grecians?] Mr. W. N. Lettsom, on account of what follows, would read "Greeks."

(125) When shall we see again?] In Cymbeline, act i. sc. 1, Imogen addresses the very same words to Posthumus.-See note 122 on Measure for Measure, and note 2 on King Henry VIII.

(126) The Grecian youths are full of quality;

They're loving, well compos'd with gifts of nature,
And swelling o'er with arts and exercise:]

The quarto has only

Alas, a kind of godly jealousy

Which, I beseech you, call a virtuous sin-

Makes me afeard.

Cres.

O heavens! you love me not,

Tro. Die I a villain, then!

In this I do not call your faith in question

So mainly as my merit: I cannot sing,
Nor heel the high lavolt, nor sweeten talk,
Nor play at subtle games; fair virtues all,

To which the Grecians are most prompt and pregnant:
But I can tell, that in each grace of these
There lurks a still and dumb-discoursive devil

That tempts most cunningly but be not tempted.
Cres. Do you think I will?

Tro. No.

But something may be done that we will not:
And sometimes we are devils to ourselves,
When we will tempt the frailty of our powers,
Presuming on their changeful potency.(127)

The folio has

"The Grecian youths are full of quality,
And swelling ore with arts and exercise.'

"The Grecian youths are full of qualitie,

Their louing well compos'd, with guift of nature,
Flawing and swelling ore with Arts and exercise;"

where "Flawing" (a misprint for "Flowing") and "swelling" are surely varia lectiones: earlier in this play a double reading has crept into the text of the old copies; see note 88.-But Mr. W. N. Lettsom "entirely differs from those who think that either 'flowing' or 'swelling' was intended to be cancelled." He would read and arrange (nearly with the folio),

"They're loving, well compos'd with gifts of nature;
Flowing, swelling o'er, with arts and exercise :"

and he adds that "Flowing' is here a monosyllable, and 'exercise' a
plural;" and that "swelling o'er' strengthens 'Flowing:' for the
metaphor is taken from rivers, which, if they are of
any consequence,
always flow, but only occasionally swell over their banks."

(127) their changeful potency.] Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector, inventing a word, reads "their chainful potency," from which reading (though starker nonsense was never put on paper) Mr. Collier, equally cuperós, contrives to elicit a meaning," their potency to hold as with a chain." But may not the old reading be explained "their potency which is subject to variation, and therefore imperfect, and not to be rashly relied on"?

Ene. [within] Nay, good my lord,—
Tro.

Come, kiss; and let us part.

Par. [within] Brother Troilus!

Tro.

Good brother, come you hither;

And bring Æneas and the Grecian with you.

Cres. My lord, will you be true?

Tro. Who, I? alas, it is my vice, my fault:
Whiles others fish with craft for great opinion,
I with great truth catch mere simplicity;

Whilst some with cunning gild their copper crowns,
With truth and plainness I do wear mine bare.
Fear not my truth: the moral of my wit

Is "plain and true;" there's all the reach of it.

Enter ENEAS, PARIS, ANTENOR, DEIPHOBUS, and DIOMEDES.

Welcome, Sir Diomed! here is the lady

Which for Antenor we deliver you:

At the port, lord, I'll give her to thy hand;
And by the way possess thee what she is.

Entreat her fair; and, by my soul, fair Greek,(128)
If e'er thou stand at mercy of my sword,

Name Cressid, and thy life shall be as safe
As Priam's (129) is in Ilion.

Dio.

Fair Lady Cressid,

So please you, save the thanks this prince expects :
The lustre in your eye, heaven in your cheek,
Pleads your fair usage; and to Diomed
You shall be mistress, and command him wholly.

Tro. Grecian, thou dost not use me courteously,
To shame the zeal (13) of my petition to thee

(128) Entreat her fair; and, by my soul, fair Greek,] "Wrong, I think; 'fair' occurs again four and seven lines below." Walker's Crit. Exam., &c., vol. i. p. 298.

(129) Priam's] So Hanmer; and Walker (Crit. Exam., &c., vol. i. p. 265). The old eds. have "Priam."

(130) zeal] The old eds. have "seale;" which is defended by Heath (who altogether misunderstands the passage), and is retained by Mr. Collier and Mr. Knight; by the former, without any remark,--by the latter with a note which, to me at least, is unintelligible.-1865. Mr. Collier now reads, with his Ms. Corrector, "zeal.”