CRESSIDA

In kissing do you render or receive?

⌈MENELAUS⌉

Both take and give.

CRESSIDA I’ll make my match to live,

The kiss you take is better than you give.

Therefore no kiss.

MENELAUS

I’ll give you boot: I’ll give you three for one.

CRESSIDA

You are an odd man: give even or give none.

MENELAUS

An odd man, lady? Every man is odd.

CRESSIDA

No, Paris is not—for you know ’tis true

That you are odd, and he is even with you.

MENELAUS

You fillip me o’th’ head.

CRESSIDA No, I’ll be sworn.

ULYSSES

It were no match, your nail against his horn.

May I, sweet lady, beg a kiss of you?

CRESSIDA

You may.

ULYSSES I do desire it.

CRESSIDA Why, beg too.

ULYSSES

Why then, for Venus’ sake, give me a kiss,

When Helen is a maid again, and his—

CRESSIDA

I am your debtor; claim it when ’tis due.

ULYSSES

Never’s my day, and then a kiss of you.

DIOMEDES

Lady, a word. I’ll bring you to your father.

⌈They talk apart⌉

NESTOR

A woman of quick sense.

ULYSSES Fie, fie upon her!

There’s language in her eye, her cheek, her lip;

Nay, her foot speaks. Her wanton spirits look out

At every joint and motive of her body.

O these encounterers so glib of tongue,

That give accosting welcome ere it comes,

And wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts

To every ticklish reader, set them down

For sluttish spoils of opportunity

And daughters of the game.

⌈Exeunt Diomedes and Cressida⌉

Flourish

ALL The Trojans’ trumpet.

Enter all off Troy: Hector ⌈armed⌉, Paris, Aeneas, Helenus, and attendants, among them Troilus

AGAMEMNON Yonder comes the troop.

AENEAS ⌈coming forward⌉

Hail, all you state of Greece! What shall be done

To him that victory commands? Or do you purpose

A victor shall be known? Will you the knights

Shall to the edge of all extremity

Pursue each other, or shall they be divided

By any voice or order of the field?

Hector bade ask.

AGAMEMNON Which way would Hector have it?

AENEAS

He cares not; he’ll obey conditions.

⌈ACHILLES⌉

’Tis done like Hector—but securely done,

A little proudly, and great deal disprising

The knight opposed.

AENEAS If not Achilles, sir,

What is your name?

ACHILLES If not Achilles, nothing.

AENEAS

Therefore Achilles. But whate’er, know this:

In the extremity of great and little,

Valour and pride excel themselves in Hector,

The one almost as infinite as all,

The other blank as nothing. Weigh him well,

And that which looks like pride is courtesy.

This Ajax is half made of Hector’s blood,

In love whereof half Hector stays at home.

Half heart, half hand, half Hector comes to seek

This blended knight, half Trojan and half Greek.

ACHILLES

A maiden battle, then? O I perceive you.

Enter Diomedes

AGAMEMNON

Here is Sir Diomed.—Go, gentle knight,

Stand by our Ajax. As you and Lord Aeneas

Consent upon the order of their fight,

So be it: either to the uttermost

Or else a breath.

⌈Exeunt Ajax, Diomedes, Hector, and Aeneas⌉

The combatants being kin

Half stints their strife before their strokes begin. ULYSSES They are opposed already.

AGAMEMNON

What Trojan is that same that looks so heavy?

ULYSSES

The youngest son of Priam, a true knight:

They call him Troilus.

Not yet mature, yet matchless-firm of word,

Speaking in deeds and deedless in his tongue;

Not soon provoked, nor being provoked soon calmed;

His heart and hand both open and both free.

For what he has he gives; what thinks, he shows;

Yet gives he not till judgement guide his bounty,

Nor dignifies an impare thought with breath.

Manly as Hector but more dangerous,

For Hector in his blaze of wrath subscribes

To tender objects, but he in heat of action

Is more vindicative than jealous love.

They call him Troilus, and on him erect

A second hope as fairly built as Hector.

Thus says Aeneas, one that knows the youth

Even to his inches, and with private soul

Did in great Ilium thus translate him to me.

Alarum

AGAMEMNON They are in action.

NESTOR Now, Ajax, hold thine own!

TROILUS Hector, thou steep’st! Awake thee!

AGAMEMNON

His blows are well disposed. There, Ajax! ⌈Exeunt⌉

4.7 ⌈Enter Hector and Ajax fighting, and Aeneas and Diomedes interposing.⌉ Trumpets cease

DIOMEDES

You must no more.

AENEAS Princes, enough, so please you.

AJAX

I am not warm yet. Let us fight again.

DIOMEDES

As Hector pleases.

HECTOR Why then will I no more.—

Thou art, great lord, my father’s sister’s son,

A cousin-german to great Priam’s seed.

The obligation of our blood forbids

A gory emulation ‘twixt us twain.

Were thy commixtion Greek and Trojan so

That thou couldst say ’This hand is Grecian all,

And this is Trojan; the sinews of this leg

All Greek, and this all Troy; my mother’s blood

Runs on the dexter cheek, and this sinister

Bounds in my father‘s,’ by Jove multipotent

Thou shouldst not bear from me a Greekish member

Wherein my sword had not impressure made

Of our rank feud. But the just gods gainsay

That any drop thou borrowed’st from thy mother,