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Troilus and Cressida: Act III, Scene 1

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Troilus and Cressida
Act III, Scene 1

Scene 1

Troy. Priam’s palace.

  1. Music sounds within. Enter Pandarus and Paris’s Servant.

Pandarus

1 - 2
  1. Friend, you! Pray you a word. Do you not follow the young
  2. Lord Paris?

Paris’s Servant

3
  1. Ay, sir, when he goes before me.

Pandarus

4
  1. You depend upon him, I mean.

Paris’s Servant

5
  1. Sir, I do depend upon the Lord.

Pandarus

6 - 7
  1. You depend upon a notable gentleman; I must needs praise
  2. him.

Paris’s Servant

8
  1. The Lord be prais’d!

Pandarus

9
  1. You know me, do you not?

Paris’s Servant

10
  1. Faith, sir, superficially.

Pandarus

11
  1. Friend, know me better, I am the Lord Pandarus.

Paris’s Servant

12
  1. I hope I shall know your honor better!

Pandarus

13
  1. I do desire it.

Paris’s Servant

14
  1. You are in the state of grace.

Pandarus

15 - 16
  1. Grace? Not so, friend, honor and lordship are my titles.
  2. What music is this?

Paris’s Servant

17
  1. I do but partly know, sir, it is music in parts.

Pandarus

18
  1. Know you the musicians?

Paris’s Servant

19
  1. Wholly, sir.

Pandarus

20
  1. Who play they to?

Paris’s Servant

21
  1. To the hearers, sir.

Pandarus

22
  1. At whose pleasure, friend?

Paris’s Servant

23
  1. At mine, sir, and theirs that love music.

Pandarus

24
  1. Command, I mean, friend.

Paris’s Servant

25
  1. Who shall I command, sir?

Pandarus

26 - 27
  1. Friend, we understand not one another; I am too courtly and
  2. thou too cunning. At whose request do these men play?

Paris’s Servant

28 - 30
  1. That’s to’t indeed, sir. Marry, sir, at the request of Paris
  2. my lord, who is there in person; with him, the mortal Venus,
  3. the heart-blood of beauty, love’s invisible soul.

Pandarus

31
  1. Who? My cousin Cressida?

Paris’s Servant

32 - 33
  1. No, sir, Helen. Could not you find out that by her
  2. attributes?

Pandarus

34 - 37
  1. It should seem, fellow, thou hast not seen the Lady Cressid.
  2. I come to speak with Paris from the Prince Troilus. I will
  3. make a complimental assault upon him, for my business
  4. seethes.

Paris’s Servant

38
  1. Sodden business! There’s a stew’d phrase indeed!
  1. Enter Paris and Helen attended.

Pandarus

39 - 41
  1. Fair be to you, my lord, and to all this fair company! Fair
  2. desires, in all fair measure, fairly guide them! Especially
  3. to you, fair queen, fair thoughts be your fair pillow!

Helen

42
  1. Dear lord, you are full of fair words.

Pandarus

43 - 44
  1. You speak your fair pleasure, sweet queen. Fair prince, here
  2. is good broken music.

Paris

45 - 47
  1. You have broke it, cousin; and by my life you shall make it
  2. whole again—you shall piece it out with a piece of your
  3. performance. Nell, he is full of harmony.

Pandarus

48
  1. Truly, lady, no.

Byam Shaw, 1901

Helen

49
  1. O sir—

Pandarus

50
  1. Rude, in sooth, in good sooth, very rude.

Paris

51
  1. Well said, my lord, well, you say so in fits.

Pandarus

52 - 53
  1. I have business to my lord, dear queen. My lord, will you
  2. vouchsafe me a word?

Helen

54 - 55
  1. Nay, this shall not hedge us out, we’ll hear you sing,
  2. certainly.

Pandarus

56 - 58
  1. Well, sweet queen, you are pleasant with me. But marry thus,
  2. my lord: my dear lord and most esteem’d friend, your brother
  3. Troilus—

Helen

59
  1. My Lord Pandarus, honey-sweet lord—

Pandarus

60 - 61
  1. Go to, sweet queen, go to—commends himself most
  2. affectionately to you—

Helen

62 - 63
  1. You shall not bob us out of our melody. If you do, our
  2. melancholy upon your head!

Pandarus

64
  1. Sweet queen, sweet queen, that’s a sweet queen—i’ faith—

Helen

65
  1. And to make a sweet lady sad is a sour offense.

Pandarus

66 - 69
  1. Nay, that shall not serve your turn, that shall it not, in
  2. truth la! Nay, I care not for such words, no, no. And, my
  3. lord, he desires you, that if the King call for him at
  4. supper, you will make his excuse.

Helen

70
  1. My Lord Pandarus—

Pandarus

71
  1. What says my sweet queen, my very very sweet queen?

Paris

72
  1. What exploit’s in hand? Where sups he tonight?

Helen

73
  1. Nay, but, my lord—

Pandarus

74
  1. What says my sweet queen? My cousin will fall out with you.

Helen

75
  1. You must not know where he sups.

Paris

76
  1. I’ll lay my life, with my disposer Cressida.

Pandarus

77 - 78
  1. No, no! No such matter, you are wide. Come, your disposer is
  2. sick.

Paris

79
  1. Well, I’ll make ’s excuse.

Pandarus

80 - 81
  1. Ay, good my lord. Why should you say Cressida? No, your poor
  2. disposer’s sick.

Paris

82
  1. I spy!

Pandarus

83 - 84
  1. You spy? What do you spy?—Come, give me an instrument.—Now,
  2. sweet queen.

Helen

85
  1. Why, this is kindly done.

Pandarus

86 - 87
  1. My niece is horribly in love with a thing you have, sweet
  2. queen.

Helen

88
  1. She shall have it, my lord, if it be not my Lord Paris.

Pandarus

89
  1. He? No! She’ll none of him. They two are twain.

Helen

90
  1. Falling in, after falling out, may make them three.

Pandarus

91 - 92
  1. Come, come, I’ll hear no more of this, I’ll sing you a song
  2. now.

Helen

93 - 94
  1. Ay, ay, prithee now. By my troth, sweet lord, thou hast a
  2. fine forehead.

Pandarus

95
  1. Ay, you may, you may.

Helen

96 - 97
  1. Let thy song be love. This love will undo us all. O Cupid,
  2. Cupid, Cupid!
Helen of Troy

Helen of Troy

Frederick Sandys, 1867

Pandarus

98
  1. Love? Ay, that it shall, i’ faith.

Paris

99
  1. Ay, good now, love, love, nothing but love.

Pandarus

100 - 112
  1. In good troth, it begins so.
  2. Sings.
  3. “Love, love, nothing but love, still love, still more!
  4. For O, love’s bow
  5. Shoots buck and doe.
  6. The shaft confounds
  7. Not that it wounds,
  8. But tickles still the sore.
  9. These lovers cry, O ho, they die!
  10. Yet that which seems the wound to kill,
  11. Doth turn O ho! To ha, ha, he!
  12. So dying love lives still.
  13. O ho! A while, but ha, ha, ha!
  14. O ho! Groans out for ha, ha, ha!—hey ho!”

Helen

113
  1. In love, i’ faith, to the very tip of the nose.

Paris

114 - 116
  1. He eats nothing but doves, love, and that breeds hot blood,
  2. and hot blood begets hot thoughts, and hot thoughts beget
  3. hot deeds, and hot deeds is love.

Pandarus

117 - 119
  1. Is this the generation of love—hot blood, hot thoughts, and
  2. hot deeds? Why, they are vipers. Is love a generation of
  3. vipers? Sweet lord, who’s a-field today?

Paris

120 - 122
  1. Hector, Deiphobus, Helenus, Antenor, and all the gallantry
  2. of Troy. I would fain have arm’d today, but my Nell would
  3. not have it so. How chance my brother Troilus went not?

Helen

123
  1. He hangs the lip at something. You know all, Lord Pandarus.

Pandarus

124 - 125
  1. Not I, honey-sweet queen. I long to hear how they sped
  2. today. You’ll remember your brother’s excuse?

Paris

126
  1. To a hair.

Pandarus

127
  1. Farewell, sweet queen.

Helen

128
  1. Commend me to your niece.

Pandarus

129
  1. I will, sweet queen.
  1. Exit. Sound a retreat.

Paris

130 - 136
  1. They’re come from the field. Let us to Priam’s hall
  2. To greet the warriors. Sweet Helen, I must woo you
  3. To help unarm our Hector. His stubborn buckles,
  4. With these your white enchanting fingers touch’d,
  5. Shall more obey than to the edge of steel,
  6. Or force of Greekish sinews. You shall do more
  7. Than all the island kings—disarm great Hector.

Helen

137 - 140
  1. ’Twill make us proud to be his servant, Paris!
  2. Yea, what he shall receive of us in duty
  3. Gives us more palm in beauty than we have,
  4. Yea, overshines ourself.

Paris

141
  1. Sweet, above thought I love thee!
  1. Exeunt.

These lovers cry, O ho, they die!

Charles Robinson, circa 1915

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