Troilus and Cressida (Folger Shakespeare Library)

by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare shapes the action of his play and the speeches of his characters so as to diminish the characters.

In Shakespeare’s version, all the Greeks and Trojans, Paris excepted, doubt that Helen is worth the lives lost in their war for her. Just as Paris dotes on Helen, so Troilus on Cressida. Yet in contrast to Chaucer’s Troilus, Shakespeare’s fails to mature in response to his love and remains in adolescent self-absorption, almost indifferent to Cressida’s plight when she is forced out of Troy and made to go to her father in the Greek camp.

one that makes his play a savage attack on the ideals that serve as cover for greed, violence, and lust.

In Troy there lies the scene.

Call here my varlet; I’ll unarm again.

⟨ACT 1⟩ ⟨Scene 1⟩ Enter Pandarus and Troilus. TROILUS Call here my varlet; I’ll unarm again. 1 Why should I war without the walls of Troy 2 That find such cruel battle here within? 3 Each Trojan that is master of his heart, 4 Let him to field; Troilus, alas, hath none. 5

Her bed is India; there she lies, a pearl.

ALEXANDER They say he is a very man per se 19 And stands alone. 20 CRESSIDA So do all men unless ⟨they⟩ are drunk, sick, 21 or have no legs. 22

ALEXANDER They say he is a very man per se 19 And stands alone. 20 CRESSIDA So do all men unless ⟨they⟩ are drunk, sick, 21 or have no legs. 22

Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing. 294 That she beloved knows naught that knows not this: 295 Men prize the thing ungained more than it is. 296

CRESSIDA By the same token, you are a bawd. 288 ⟨Pandarus exits.⟩ Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love’s full sacrifice 289 He offers in another’s enterprise; 290 But more in Troilus thousandfold I see 291 Than in the glass of Pandar’s praise may be. 292 Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing; 293 Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing. 294 That she beloved knows naught that knows not this: 295 Men prize the thing ungained more than it is. 296 That she was never yet that ever knew 297 Love got so sweet as when desire did sue. 298 Therefore this maxim out of love I teach: 299 Achievement is command; ungained, beseech. 300 Then though my heart’s content firm love doth bear, 301 Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear. 302 She exits.

And therefore is the glorious planet Sol 93 In noble eminence enthroned and sphered 94 Amidst the other, whose med’cinable eye 95 Corrects the influence of evil planets, 96 And posts, like the commandment of a king, 97 Sans check, to good and bad.

ULYSSES Troy, yet upon his ⟨basis,⟩ had been down, 79 And the great Hector’s sword had lacked a master 80 But for these instances: 81 The specialty of rule hath been neglected, 82 And look how many Grecian tents do stand 83 Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions. 84 When that the general is not like the hive 85 To whom the foragers shall all repair, 86 What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded, 87 Th’ unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask. 88 The heavens themselves, the planets, and this center 89 Observe degree, priority, and place, 90 Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, 91 Office, and custom, in all line of order. 92 And therefore is the glorious planet Sol 93 In noble eminence enthroned and sphered 94 Amidst the other, whose med’cinable eye 95 Corrects the influence of evil planets, 96 And posts, like the commandment of a king, 97 Sans check, to good and bad.

Take but degree away, untune that string, 113 And hark what discord follows.

But when the planets 98 In evil mixture to disorder wander, 99 What plagues and what portents, what mutiny, 100 What raging of the sea, shaking of Earth, 101 Commotion in the winds, frights, changes, horrors 102 Divert and crack, rend and deracinate 103 The unity and married calm of states 104 Quite from their fixture! O, when degree is shaked, 105 Which is the ladder of all high designs, 106 The enterprise is sick. How could communities, 107 Degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities, 108 Peaceful commerce from dividable shores, 109 The primogeneity and due of birth, 110 Prerogative of age, crowns, scepters, laurels, 111 But by degree stand in authentic place? 112 Take but degree away, untune that string, 113 And hark what discord follows.

A slave whose gall coins slanders like a mint—

there is seen 353 The baby figure of the giant mass 354 Of things to come at large.

Ay, do, do, thou sodden-witted lord. Thou 44 hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows;

modest doubt is called 15 The beacon of the wise,

pleasure and revenge 180 Have ears more deaf than adders to the voice 181 Of any true decision.

The 28 common curse of mankind, folly and ignorance,

The raven chides blackness.

Friend, we understand not one another. I 27 am too courtly and thou ⟨art⟩ too cunning.

He eats nothing but doves, love, and that breeds 127 hot blood, and hot blood begets hot thoughts, and 128 hot thoughts beget hot deeds, and hot deeds is love.

PARIS He eats nothing but doves, love, and that breeds 127 hot blood, and hot blood begets hot thoughts, and 128 hot thoughts beget hot deeds, and hot deeds is love. 129

Nothing but our undertakings, when we vow 77 to weep seas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tigers, 78 thinking it harder for our mistress to devise impo- 79 sition enough than for us to undergo any difficulty 80 imposed. This ⟨is⟩ the monstruosity in love, lady, that 81 the will is infinite and the execution confined, that 82 the desire is boundless and the act a slave to limit.

TROILUS Nothing but our undertakings, when we vow 77 to weep seas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tigers, 78 thinking it harder for our mistress to devise impo-79 sition enough than for us to undergo any difficulty 80 imposed. This ⟨is⟩ the monstruosity in love, lady, that 81 the will is infinite and the execution confined, that 82 the desire is boundless and the act a slave to limit. 83

Hard to seem won; but I was won, my lord, 117 With the first glance that ever—pardon me;

But you are wise, 155 Or else you love not; for to be wise and love 156 Exceeds man’s might. That dwells with gods above.

If I be false or swerve a hair from truth, 186 When time is old ⟨and⟩ hath forgot itself, 187 When water drops have worn the stones of Troy 188 And blind oblivion swallowed cities up, 189 And mighty states characterless are grated 190 To dusty nothing, yet let memory, 191 From false to false, among false maids in love, 192 Upbraid my falsehood!

CRESSIDA Prophet may you be! 185 If I be false or swerve a hair from truth, 186 When time is old ⟨and⟩ hath forgot itself, 187 When water drops have worn the stones of Troy 188 And blind oblivion swallowed cities up, 189 And mighty states characterless are grated 190 To dusty nothing, yet let memory, 191 From false to false, among false maids in love, 192 Upbraid my falsehood! When they’ve said “as false 193 As air, as water, wind or sandy earth, 194 As fox to lamb, or wolf to heifer’s calf, 195 Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son,” 196 Yea, let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood, 197 “As false as Cressid.”

they passed by me 147 As misers do by beggars,

Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back 150 Wherein he puts alms for oblivion, 151 A great-sized monster of ingratitudes.

ULYSSES Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back 150 Wherein he puts alms for oblivion, 151 A great-sized monster of ingratitudes. 152 Those scraps are good deeds past, which are devoured 153 As fast as they are made, forgot as soon 154 As done. Perseverance, dear my lord, 155 Keeps honor bright. To have done is to hang 156 Quite out of fashion like a rusty < mail > 157 In monumental mock’ry. Take the instant way, 158 For honor travels in a strait so narrow 159 Where one but goes abreast. Keep, then, the path, 160 For Emulation hath a thousand sons 161 That one by one pursue. If you give way 162 Or turn aside from the direct forthright, 163 Like to an entered tide they all rush by 164 And leave you ⟨hindmost; 165 Or, like a gallant horse fall’n in first rank, 166 Lie there for pavement to the abject < rear, > 167 O’errun and trampled on.⟩ Then what they do in 168 present, 169 Though less than yours in ⟨past,⟩ must o’ertop yours; 170 For Time is like a fashionable host 171 That slightly shakes his parting guest by th’ hand 172 And, with his arms outstretched as he would fly, 173 Grasps in the comer. Welcome ever smiles, 174 And Farewell goes out sighing. Let not virtue seek 175 Remuneration for the thing it was, 176 For beauty, wit, 177 High birth, vigor of bone, desert in service, 178 Love, friendship, charity are subjects all 179 To envious and calumniating Time. 180

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin, 181 That all, with one consent, praise newborn gauds, 182 Though they are made and molded of things past, 183 And <give> to dust that is a little gilt 184 More laud than gilt o’erdusted. 185 The present eye praises the present object.

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin, 181 That all, with one consent, praise newborn gauds, 182 Though they are made and molded of things past, 183 And < give > to dust that is a little gilt 184 More laud than gilt o’erdusted. 185 The present eye praises the present object. 186

Those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves.

My mind is troubled, like a fountain stirred, 323 And I myself see not the bottom of it.

Since she could speak, 78 She hath not given so many good words breath 79 As for her Greeks and Trojans suffered death.

Sleep kill those pretty eyes 5 And give as soft attachment to thy senses 6 As infants’ empty of all thought!

Time, force, and death 107 Do to this body what extremes you can, 108 But the strong base and building of my love 109 Is as the very center of the Earth, 110 Drawing all things to it.

CRESSIDA My lord, will you be true? 109 TROILUS Who, I? Alas, it is my vice, my fault. 110 Whiles others fish with craft for great opinion, 111 I with great truth catch mere simplicity. 112 Whilst some with cunning gild their copper crowns, 113 With truth and plainness I do wear mine bare. 114 Fear not my truth. The moral of my wit 115 Is “plain and true”; there’s all the reach of it.

CRESSIDA My lord, will you be true? 109 TROILUS Who, I? Alas, it is my vice, my fault. 110 Whiles others fish with craft for great opinion, 111 I with great truth catch mere simplicity. 112 Whilst some with cunning gild their copper crowns, 113 With truth and plainness I do wear mine bare. 114 Fear not my truth. The moral of my wit 115 Is “plain and true”; there’s all the reach of it. 116

There’s language in her eye, her cheek, her lip; 64 Nay, her foot speaks. Her wanton spirits look out 65 At every joint and motive of her body. 66

ULYSSES Fie, fie upon her! 63 There’s language in her eye, her cheek, her lip; 64 Nay, her foot speaks. Her wanton spirits look out 65 At every joint and motive of her body. 66

idol of idiot-worshippers,

This she? No, this is Diomed’s Cressida. 166 If beauty have a soul, this is not she; 167 If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimonies, 168 If sanctimony be the gods’ delight, 169 If there be rule in unity itself, 170 This ⟨is⟩ not she.

TROILUS This she? No, this is Diomed’s Cressida. 166 If beauty have a soul, this is not she; 167 If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimonies, 168 If sanctimony be the gods’ delight, 169 If there be rule in unity itself, 170 This ⟨is⟩ not she. O madness of discourse, 171 That cause sets up with and against itself! 172 Bifold authority, where reason can revolt 173 Without perdition, and loss assume all reason 174 Without revolt. This is and is not Cressid. 175 Within my soul there doth conduce a fight 176 Of this strange nature, that a thing inseparate 177 Divides more wider than the sky and Earth, 178 And yet the spacious breadth of this division 179 Admits no orifex for a point as subtle 180 As Ariachne’s broken woof to enter. 181 Instance, O instance, strong as Pluto’s gates, 182 Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven; 183 Instance, O instance, strong as heaven itself, 184 The bonds of heaven are slipped, dissolved, and 185 loosed, 186 And with another knot, ⟨five-finger-tied,⟩ 187 The fractions of her faith, orts of her love, 188 The fragments, scraps, the bits and greasy relics 189 Of her o’er-eaten faith are given to Diomed. 190

Life every man holds dear, but the dear man 30 Holds honor far more precious-dear than life.

My love with words and errors still she feeds, 122 But edifies another with her deeds.

I am a bastard too. I love bastards. I am 8 bastard begot, bastard instructed, bastard in mind, 9 bastard in valor, in everything illegitimate.

THERSITES I am a bastard too. I love bastards. I am 8 bastard begot, bastard instructed, bastard in mind, 9 bastard in valor, in everything illegitimate. One 10 bear will not bite another, and wherefore should 11 one bastard? Take heed: the quarrel’s most omi-12 nous to us. If the son of a whore fight for a whore, 13 he tempts judgment. Farewell, bastard. 14 < He exits. > BASTARD The devil take thee, coward! 15 He exits.