As true as Troilus shall crown up the verse,
And fanctifie the numbers.
Cre. Prophet may you be !
If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth,
When time is old and hath forgot it self,
When water drops 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 said, a's false
As air, as water, as wind, as fandy earth;
As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf;
Pard to the hind, or step-dame to her son ;
Yea, let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood,
As false as Cresid.
Pan. Go to, a bargain made : seal it, seal it, I'll be the witness.--Here I hold your hand; here my coufin's ; if ever you prove false to one another, since I have taken such pains to bring you together, let all pitiful Goers-between be call'd to the world's end after my name ; call them all Pandars : let all constant men be Troilus's, all false women Cressida's, and all brokersbetween Pandars: say, Amen.
Troi. Amen.
Cre. Amen.
Pan. Amen. Whereupon I will shew you a bed. chamber ; which bed, because it shall not speak of your pretty encounters, press it to death : away. And Cupid grant all tongue-ty'd maidens here, Bed, chamber, and Pandar to provide this Geer!
[Exeunt.
SCENE changes to the Grecian Camp.
Enter Agamemnon, Ulysses, Diomedes, Nestor, Ajax,
Menelaus, and Calchas. Cal. OW, Princes, for the service I have done you,
Th’advantage of the time prompts me aloud
To Call for recompense : appear it to you, (28)
That, through the sight I bear in things to come,
I have abandon’d Troy, left my poffeffion,
Incurr'd a traitor's name, expos'd my self,
From certain and poffeft conveniences,
To doubtful fortunes ; fequeftred from all
That time, acquaintance, custom, and condition,
Made tame and most familiar co my nature :
And here, to do you service, am become
As new into the world, strange, unacquainted.
I do beseech you, as in way of taste,
To give me now a little benefit,
Out of those many registred in promise,
Which, you say, live to come in my behalf.
Aga. What wouldst thou of us, Trojan? make de
mand.
Cal. You have a Trojan prisoner, callid Antenor,
Yesterday took: Troy holds him very dear.
Oft have you (often have you thanks therefore ;)
Desir'd my Cresjid in right-great exchange,
Whom Troy hath ftill deny'd: but this Antenor,
I know, is such a wrest in their affairs,
That their negociations all must nack,
Wanting his Manage; and they will almost
Give us a Prince oth blood, a son of Priam,
In Change of him. Let him be sent, great Princes,
And he shall buy my daughter : and her presence
Shall quite strike off all service I have done,
In most accepted pain.
Aga. Let Diomedes bear him,
And bring us Cresid hither : Calcbas shall have
What he requests of us. Good Diomede,
Furnish you fairly for this enterchange ;
Withall, bring word, if Heator will to morrow
Be answer'd in his Challenge. Ajax is ready
Dio. This shall I undertake, and 'tis a burthen
Which I am proud to bear.
[Exit.
Enter Achilles and Patroclus, before their Tent.
Ulys. Achilles ftands i'ch' entrance of his Tent,
Please it our General to pass ftrangely by him,
As if he were forgot; and, Princes all,
Lay negligent and loose regard upon him :
I will come last ; 'tis like, he'll question me,
Why such unplaufive eyes are bent on him?
If so, I have decision medicinable
To use between your strangeness and his pride,
Which his own will shall have desire to drink.
It may do good: Pride hath no other glass
To shew it self, but pride ; for fupple knees
Feed arrogance, and are the proud man's fees.
Aga. We'll execute your purpose, and put on
A form of strangeness as we pass along ;
So do each lord, and either greet him not,
Or else disdainfully, which shall fhake him more
Than if not look'd on. I will lead the way.
Achil. What, comes the General to speak with me? You know my mind. I'll fight no more 'gainst Troy. Aga. What says Achilles? would he ought with us? E 2
'Neit,
Neft. Would you, my lord, ought with the General?
Acbil. No.
Nest. Nothing, my lord.
Aga. The better.
#chil. Good day, good day.
Men. How do you? how do you?
Achil. What, does the cuckold scorn me?
Ajax. How now, Patroclus?
Áchil
. Good morrow, Ajax.
Ajax. Ha?
Åbil. Good morrow.
Ajax. Ay, and good next day too.
(Exe. Achil. What mean these fellows? know they not
Achilles ? Patr. They pass by strangely: they were us’d to bend, To send their smiles before them to Achilles, To come as humbly as they us'd to creep To holy altars. Achil. What, am I
poor
of late?
'Tis certain, Greatness, once fall'n out with fortune,
Must fall out with men too: what the declin'd is,
He shall as soon read in the eyes of others,
As feel in his own Fall: for men, like butter-fies,
Shew not their mealy wings but to the summer ;
And not a man, for being simply man,
Hath honour, but is honour'd by those honours
That are without him ; as place, riches, favour,
Prizes of accident as ofr as merit:
Which when they fall, (as being Nipp'ry standers)
The love that lean'd on them, as Nipp’ry too,
Doth one pluck down another, and together
Dye in the Fall. But 'tis not so with me:
Fortune and I are friends ; I do enjoy
At ample point all that I did poffels,
Save these men's looks ; who do, methinks, find out
Something in me not worth that rich beholding,
As they have often giv’n. Here is Ulyles.
I'll interrupt his Reading.- -Now, Ulvses?
Ulys. Now, Thetis' son!
Acbil. What are you Reading?
Ulyf.
Ulys. A strange fellow here
Writes me, that Man, how dearly ever parted,
How much in Having, or without, or in,
Cannot make boast to have That which he hath,
Nor feels not what he owes, but by reflection ;
As when his virtues shining upon others
Heat them, and they retort that heat again
To the first giver.
Achil. This is not strange, Ulysses.
The beauty that is borne here in the face
The bearer knows not, but commends it felf
To others eyes : nor doth the eye it self
(That most pure spirit of sense) behold it felf
Not going from it self; but eyes oppos’d
Salute each other with each other's form.
For speculation turns not to it felf,
'Till it hach travellid, and is marry'd there
Where it may see its self; this is not strange.
Ulys. I do not strain at the position,
It is familiar ; but the author's drift;
Who, in his circumstance, exprelly proves
That no man is the lord of any thing,
(Tho' in, and of, him there is much consisting)
'Till he communicate his parts to others ;
Nor doth he of himself know them for ought,
'Till he behold them formed in th' applause
Where they're extended; which, like an arch, reverb'rates
The voice again ; or, like a gate of steel
Fronting the Sun, receives and renders back
His figure and his heat. I was much wrapt in this,
And apprehended here immediately
The unknown Ajax-
Heav'ns! what a man is there? a very horse,
That has he knows not what. Nature! what Things
Most abject in regard, and dear in use?
What things again most dear in the efteem,
And
poor in worth? Now shall we fee to morrow
An Act, that very Chance doth throw upon him:
Ajax renown'd! Oh heav'ns, what some men do,
E 3
While
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