That my integrity and truth to you Might be affronted with the match and weight O virtuous fight, Tro. When right with right wars who shall be most right! True swains in love shall, in the world to come, Approve their truths by Troilus: when their rhymes, Full of protest, of oath, and big compare, As iron to adamant, as earth to the centre,- As truth's authentick author to be cited, Cres. When waterdrops have worn the stones of Troy, And mighty states characterless are grated From false to false, among false maids in love, Upbraid my falsehood! when they have saidas false As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth, Pan. Go to, a bargain made: seal it, seal it: I'll be the witness. Here I hold your hand; here, my cousin's. If ever you prove false one to another, since I have taken such pains to bring you together, let all pitiful goers-between be called to the world's end after my name, call them all-Pandars; let all constant men be Troiluses, all false women Cressids, and all brokers-between Pandars! say, amen. Tro. Amen. Cres. Amen. Pan. Amen. Whereupon I will show you a chamber and a bed, which bed, because it shall not speak of your pretty encounters, press it to death away. And Cupid grant all tongue-tied maidens here, Bed, chamber, Pandar to provide this geer! [Exeunt. SCENE III. The Grecian Camp. Enter AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES, DIOMEDES, NESTOR, AJAX, MENELAUS, and CALCHAS. Cal. Now, princes, for the service I have done The advantage of the time prompts me aloud Out of those many register'd in promise, [tenor, Cal. You have a Trojan prisoner, call'd AnYesterday took; Troy holds him very dear. Oft have you (often have you thanks therefore), Desir'd my Cressid in right great exchange, Whom Troy hath still denied: But this Antenor, I know, is such a wrest in their affairs, That their negotiations all must slack, Wanting his manage; and they will almost Give us a prince of 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. Agam. Let Diomedes bear him, And bring us Cressid hither; Calchas shall have What he requests of us.-Good Diomed, Furnish you fairly for this interchange: Withal, bring word-if Hector will to-morrow Be answer'd in his challenge: Ajax is ready. Dio. This shall I undertake; and 'tis a burden Which I am proud to bear. [Exeunt DIOMEDES and CALCHAS. Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS, before their Tent. Ulyss. Achilles stands i' the entrance of his tent: Please it our general to pass strangely by him, Lay negligent and loose regard upon him: If so, I have derision med'cinable, To use between your strangeness and his pride, You know my mind, I'll fight no more 'gainst Agam. What says Achilles? would he aught with us? Nest. Would you, my lord, aught with the Achil. general? No. Nest. Nothing, my lord. Agam. The better. Achil. [Exeunt AGAMEMNON and NESTOR. Good day, good day. Men. How do you? how do you? Achil. What, does the cuckold scorn me? Exit MENELAUS. Good morrow, Ajax. Ajax. How now, Patroclus? Achil. Ajax. Achil. Good morrow. Ajax. Ha? Ay, and good next day too. [Exit AJAX. Achil. What mean these fellows? Know they not Achilles? Patr. They pass by strangely: they were us'd To send their smiles before them to Achilles; Achil. What, am I poor of late? 'Tis certain, greatness, once fallen out with for tune, Must fall out with men too: What the declin'd is, Hath any honour; but honour for those honours Which when they fall, as being slippery standers, Save these men's looks: who do, methinks, find out Something not worth in me such rich beholding As they have often given. Here is Ulysses; I'll interrupt his reading. How now, Ulysses? Ulyss Now, great Thetis' son? Achil. What are you reading? Ulyss. 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. Till it hath travell'd, and is married there (Though in and of him there be much consisting), The voice again; or like a gate of steel Fronting the sun, receives and renders back His figure and his heat. I was much rapt in this; And apprehended here immediately The unknown Ajax. Heavens, what a man is there! a very horse; That has he knows not what. Nature, what things there are, Most abject in regard, and dear in use! How some men creep in skittish fortune's hall, Achil. I do believe it: for they passed by me, As misers do by beggars: neither gave to me Good word, nor look: What, are my deeds forgot? Ulyss. Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back, |