he is both ass and ox: to an ox were nothing; he is both ox and ass. Το be a dog, a mule, a cat, a fitchew, a toad, a lizard, an owl, a puttock, or a herring without a roe, I would not care: but to be Menelaus, I would conspire against destiny. Ask me not what I would be if I were not Thersites; for I care not to be the louse of a lazar, so I were not Menelaus. -Hey-day! spirits and fires!

Enter HECTOR, TROILUS, AJAX, AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES, NESTOR, MENELAUS, and DIOMED, with lights.

ACHIL. Welcome, brave Hector; welcome, princes all.
AGAM. So now, fair prince of Troy, I bid good night.
Ajax commands the guard to tend on you.

HECT. Thanks, and good night, to the Greeks' general.
MEN. Good night, my lord.

НЕСТ.

Good night, sweet lord Menelaus.

THER. Sweet draught: Sweet, quoth 'a! sweet sink, sweet sewer.

ACHIL. Good night, and welcome, both at once, to those

That go, or tarry.

AGAM. Good night.

ACHIL. Old Nestor tarries; and you too, Diomed,

Keep Hector company an hour or two.

[Exeunt AGAM. and MEN.

Dio. I cannot, lord; I have important business,
The tide whereof is now.-Good night, great Hector.
HECT. Give me your hand.

ULYSS.

Follow his torch, he

goes

[Aside to TROIlus.

To Calchas' tent; I'll keep you company. TRO. Sweet sir, you honour me.

HECT.

And so good night.

[Exit DIOMED; ULYSSES and TROILUS following.

ACHIL. Come, come, enter my tent.

[Exeunt ACHILLES, HECTOR, AJAX, and NESTOR. THER. That same Diomed 's a false-hearted rogue, a most unjust knave; I will no more trust him when he leers, than I will a serpent when he hisses: he will spend his mouth, and promise, like Brabler the hound; but when he performs, astronomers foretell it that it is prodigious, there will come some

change; the sun borrows of the moon when Diomed keeps his word. I will rather leave to see Hector than not to dog him: they say he keeps a Trojan drab, and uses the traitor Calchas' tent: I'll after.-Nothing but lechery! all incontinent varlets!

[Exit.

SCENE II.-The same. Before Calchas' Tent,

Enter DIOMEDES.

DIO. What, are you up here, ho? speak.

CAL. [Within.] Who calls?

Dio. Diomed.-Calchas, I think.-Where's your daughter?

CAL. [Within.] She comes to you.

Enter TROILUS and ULYSSES, at a distance; after them THERSITES.

ULYSS. Stand where the torch may not discover us.

Enter CRESSIDA.

TRO. Cressid comes forth to him.

Dio.

How now, my charge?

CRES. Now, my sweet guardian!-Hark! a word with you.

TRO. Yea, so familiar!

ULYSS. She will sing any man at first sight.

[Whispers.

THER. And any man may sing her, if he can take her cliff; she's noted.
Dio. Will you remember?

CRES. Sweet honey Greek, tempt me no more to folly.
THER. Roguery!

DIO. Pho! pho! come, tell a pin: You are a forsworn-
CRES. In faith, I cannot: What would you have me do?
THER. A juggling trick, to be secretly open.

Dio. What did you swear you would bestow on me?

CRES. I prithee, do not hold me to mine oath ;

Bid me do anything but that, sweet Greek. Dio. Good night.

TRO.

Hold, patience!

TRAGEDIES.-VOL. II.

F

Hark! one word in your ear.

TRO. O plague and madness!

ULYSS. You are mov'd, prince; let us depart, I pray you,
Lest your displeasure should enlarge itself

To wrathful terms; this place is dangerous;
The time right deadly; I beseech you, go.

TRO. Behold, I pray you!

ULYSS.

You flow to great distraction; come, my lord.

TRO. I pray thee, stay.

ULYSS.

Nay, good my lord, go off:

You have not patience; come.

DIO. Pho, pho! adieu; you palter.

CRES. In faith, I do not; come hither once again.

ULYSS. You shake, my lord, at something; will you go?

TRO.

You will break out.

ULYSS.

She strokes his cheek!

Come, come.

TRO. Nay, stay; by Jove, I will not speak a word:

There is between my will and all offences

A guard of patience :-stay a little while.

THER. How the devil luxury, with his fat rump, and potato finger, tickles these

together! Fry, lechery, fry!

DIO. But will you then?

CRES. In faith, I will, la: never trust me else.

DIO. Give me some token for the surety of it.

CRES. I'll fetch you one.

ULYSS. You have sworn patience.

TRO.

[Exit.

Fear me not, sweet lord;

I will not be myself, nor have cognition
Of what I feel; I am all patience.

a Distraction-the quartos have destruction.

Re-enter CRESSIDA.

THER. Now the pledge; now, now, now!
CRES. Here, Diomed, keep this sleeve 13:
TRO. O beauty! where 's thy faith?
ULYSS.

My lord,-
TRO. I will be patient; outwardly I will.

CRES. You look upon that sleeve: Behold it well.—
-O false wench!-Give 't me again.

He lov'd me—

Dro. Whose was 't?

Ay, that.

CRES. O, all you gods!-O pretty pretty pledge!
Thy master now lies thinking in his bed

Of thee, and me; and sighs, and takes my glove,
And gives memorial dainty kisses to it,

As I kiss thee.-Nay, do not snatch it from me;

He that takes that doth take my heart withal ".

Dio. I had your heart before, this follows it.
TRO. I did swear patience.

CRES. You shall not have it, Diomed; 'faith you shall not;

I'll give you something else.

Dio. I will have this: Whose was it?

CRES.

Dio. Come, tell me whose it was.

"T is no matter.

CRES. T was one's that loved me better than you will.
But, now you have it, take it.

DIO.

Whose was it?

CRES. By all Diana's waiting-women, yond,

And by herself, I will not tell you whose.

Dio. To-morrow will I wear it on my helm;

And grieve his spirit that dares not challenge it.

TRO. Wert thou the devil, and wor'st it on thy horn,

It should be challeng'd.

CRES. Well, well, 't is done, 't is past:--And yet it is not;

I will not keep my word.

This is the line of the quarto. The folio has

The modern editors give us

"He that takes that takes my heart withal." 66 must take."

Dio. Why then, farewell;

Thou never shalt mock Diomed again.

CRES. You shall not go :-One cannot speak a word,

DIO.

But it straight starts you.

I do not like this fooling.

THER. Nor I, by Pluto: but that that likes not you pleases me best.

Dro. What, shall I come? the hour?

CRES.

Ay, come:- -O Jove!

[Exit DIOMEDES.

Farewell till then.

Do come:-I shall be plagued.
DIO.
CRES. Good night. I prithee, come.-

Troilus, farewell! one eye yet looks on thee;
But with my heart the other eye doth see.
Ah! poor our sex! this fault in us I find,
The error of our eye directs our mind:

What error leads must err; O then conclude,
Minds sway'd by eyes are full of turpitude.

THER. A proof of strength she could not publish more,
Unless she say, my mind is now turn'd whore.
ULYSS. All's done, my lord.

TRO. Why, my negation hath no taste of madness.

ULYSS. Nor mine, my lord: Cressid was here but now.

TRO. Let it not be believ'd for womanhood!

Think, we had mothers; do not give advantage

To stubborn critics, apt, without a theme,

For depravation, to square the general sex

By Cressid's rule: rather think this not Cressid.

ULYSS. What hath she done, prince, that can soil our mothers?

TRO. Nothing at all, unless that this were she.

THER. Will he swagger himself out on 's own eyes?

[Exit CRESSIDA.