Troilus and Cressida
Act IV, Scene 2
Troy. A court before Pandarus’s house.
Byam Shaw, 1901
- Enter Troilus and Cressida.
Troilus
1- Dear, trouble not yourself, the morn is cold.
Cressida
2 - 3- Then, sweet my lord, I’ll call mine uncle down,
- He shall unbolt the gates.
Troilus
4 - 7- Trouble him not;
- To bed, to bed. Sleep kill those pretty eyes,
- And give as soft attachment to thy senses
- As infants empty of all thought!
Cressida
8- Good morrow then.
Troilus
9- I prithee now to bed.
Cressida
10- Are you a-weary of me?
Troilus
11 - 14- O Cressida! But that the busy day,
- Wak’d by the lark, hath rous’d the ribald crows,
- And dreaming night will hide our joys no longer,
- I would not from thee.
Cressida
15- Night hath been too brief.
Troilus
16 - 19- Beshrew the witch! With venomous wights she stays
- As tediously as hell, but flies the grasps of love
- With wings more momentary-swift than thought.
- You will catch cold and curse me.
Cressida
20 - 23- Prithee tarry,
- You men will never tarry.
- O foolish Cressid! I might have still held off,
- And then you would have tarried. Hark, there’s one up.
Pandarus
24- Within.
- What’s all the doors open here?
Troilus
25- It is your uncle.
- Enter Pandarus.
Cressida
26 - 27- A pestilence on him! Now will he be mocking.
- I shall have such a life!
Pandarus
28 - 29- How now, how now, how go maidenheads?
- Here, you maid! Where’s my cousin Cressid?
Cressida
30 - 31- Go hang yourself, you naughty mocking uncle!
- You bring me to do—and then you flout me too.
Pandarus
32 - 33- To do what, to do what? Let her say what.
- What have I brought you to do?
Cressida
34 - 35- Come, come, beshrew your heart, you’ll ne’er be good,
- Nor suffer others.
Pandarus
36 - 38- Ha, ha! Alas, poor wretch! A poor capocchia! Hast not slept
- tonight? Would he not, a naughty man, let it sleep? A
- bugbear take him!
Cressida
39 - 42- Did not I tell you? Would he were knock’d i’ th’ head!
- One knocks.
- Who’s that at door? Good uncle, go and see.
- My lord, come you again into my chamber.
- You smile and mock me, as if I meant naughtily.
Troilus
43- Ha, ha!
Cressida
44 - 46- Come, you are deceived, I think of no such thing.
- Knock.
- How earnestly they knock! Pray you come in.
- I would not for half Troy have you seen here.
- Exeunt Troilus and Cressida.
Pandarus
47 - 48- Who’s there? What’s the matter? Will you beat down the door?
- How now, what’s the matter?
- Enter Aeneas.
Aeneas
49- Good morrow, lord, good morrow.
Pandarus
50 - 51- Who’s there? My Lord Aeneas! By my troth,
- I knew you not. What news with you so early?
Aeneas
52- Is not Prince Troilus here?
Pandarus
53- Here? What should he do here?
Aeneas
54 - 55- Come, he is here, my lord, do not deny him. It doth import
- him much to speak with me.
Pandarus
56 - 57- Is he here, say you? It’s more than I know, I’ll be sworn.
- For my own part, I came in late. What should he do here?
Aeneas
58 - 60- Who!—nay then. Come, come, you’ll do him wrong ere you are
- ware. You’ll be so true to him, to be false to him. Do not
- you know of him, but yet go fetch him hither, go.
- Enter Troilus.
Pandarus, Cressida, and Troilus
J. Coghlan, circa 1825
Troilus
61- How now, what’s the matter?
Aeneas
62 - 69- My lord, I scarce have leisure to salute you,
- My matter is so rash. There is at hand
- Paris your brother, and Deiphobus,
- The Grecian Diomed, and our Antenor
- Deliver’d to us; and for him forthwith,
- Ere the first sacrifice, within this hour,
- We must give up to Diomedes’ hand
- The Lady Cressida.
Troilus
70- Is it so concluded?
Aeneas
71 - 72- By Priam and the general state of Troy.
- They are at hand and ready to effect it.
Troilus
73 - 75- How my achievements mock me!
- I will go meet them; and, my Lord Aeneas,
- We met by chance, you did not find me here.
Aeneas
76 - 77- Good, good, my lord, the secrets of neighbor Pandar
- Have not more gift in taciturnity.
- Exeunt Troilus and Aeneas.
Pandarus
78 - 80- Is’t possible? No sooner got but lost? The devil take
- Antenor! The young prince will go mad. A plague upon
- Antenor! I would they had broke ’s neck!
- Enter Cressida.
Cressida
81- How now? What’s the matter? Who was here?
Pandarus
82- Ah, ah!
Cressida
83 - 84- Why sigh you so profoundly? Where’s my lord? Gone? Tell me,
- sweet uncle, what’s the matter?
Pandarus
85- Would I were as deep under the earth as I am above!
Cressida
86- O the gods! What’s the matter?
Pandarus
87 - 89- Pray thee get thee in. Would thou hadst ne’er been born! I
- knew thou wouldest be his death. O poor gentleman! A plague
- upon Antenor!
Cressida
90 - 91- Good uncle, I beseech you, on my knees I beseech you, what’s
- the matter?
Pandarus
92 - 95- Thou must be gone, wench, thou must be gone; thou art
- chang’d for Antenor. Thou must to thy father, and be gone
- from Troilus. ’Twill be his death, ’twill be his bane, he
- cannot bear it.
Cressida
96- O you immortal gods! I will not go.
Pandarus
97- Thou must.
Cressida
98 - 107- I will not, uncle. I have forgot my father,
- I know no touch of consanguinity;
- No kin, no love, no blood, no soul so near me
- As the sweet Troilus. O you gods divine,
- Make Cressid’s name the very crown of falsehood,
- If ever she leave Troilus! Time, force, and death,
- Do to this body what extremes you can;
- But the strong base and building of my love
- Is as the very center of the earth,
- Drawing all things to it. I’ll go in and weep.
Pandarus
108- Do, do.
Cressida
109 - 111- Tear my bright hair, and scratch my praised cheeks,
- Crack my clear voice with sobs, and break my heart,
- With sounding Troilus. I will not go from Troy.
- Exeunt.
Cressida and Pandarus
Edwin Austin Abbey, 1907