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O the gods! What's the matter?

PANDARUS.

Pray thee, get thee in. Would thou hadst ne'er been born!

I knew thou wouldst be his death! O, poor gentleman! A plague

upon Antenor!

CRESSIDA.

Good uncle, I beseech you, on my knees I beseech you,

what's the matter?

PANDARUS.

Thou must be gone, wench, thou must be gone; thou art

chang'd for Antenor; thou must to thy father, and be gone from

Troilus. 'Twill be his death; 'twill be his bane; he cannot bear it.

CRESSIDA.

O you immortal gods! I will not go.

PANDARUS.

Thou must.

CRESSIDA.

I will not, uncle. I have forgot my father;

I know no touch of consanguinity,

No kin, no love, no blood, no soul so near me

As the sweet Troilus. O you gods divine,

Make Cressid's name the very crown of falsehood,

If ever she leave Troilus! Time, force, and death,

Do to this body what extremes you can,

But the strong base and building of my love

Is as the very centre of the earth,

Drawing all things to it. I'll go in and weep-

PANDARUS.

Do, do.

CRESSIDA.

Tear my bright hair, and scratch my praised cheeks,

Crack my clear voice with sobs and break my heart,

With sounding 'Troilus.' I will not go from Troy.

Exeunt

ACT IV. SCENE 3. Troy. A street before PANDARUS' house

Enter PARIS, TROILUS, AENEAS, DEIPHOBUS, ANTENOR, and DIOMEDES

PARIS.

It is great morning; and the hour prefix'd

For her delivery to this valiant Greek

Comes fast upon. Good my brother Troilus,

Tell you the lady what she is to do

And haste her to the purpose.

TROILUS.

Walk into her house.

I'll bring her to the Grecian presently;

And to his hand when I deliver her,

Think it an altar, and thy brother Troilus

A priest, there off'ring to it his own heart.

Exit

PARIS. I know what 'tis to love,

And would, as I shall pity, I could help!

Please you walk in, my lords.

Exeunt

ACT IV. SCENE 4. Troy. PANDARUS' house

Enter PANDARUS and CRESSIDA

PANDARUS.

Be moderate, be moderate.

CRESSIDA.

Why tell you me of moderation?

The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste,

And violenteth in a sense as strong

As that which causeth it. How can I moderate it?

If I could temporize with my affections

Or brew it to a weak and colder palate,

The like allayment could I give my grief.

My love admits no qualifying dross;

No more my grief, in such a precious loss.

Enter TROILUS

PANDARUS.

Here, here, here he comes. Ah, sweet ducks!

CRESSIDA.

O Troilus! Troilus! [Embracing him]

PANDARUS.

What a pair of spectacles is here! Let me embrace

too. 'O

heart,' as the goodly saying is,

O heart, heavy heart,

Why sigh'st thou without breaking?

where he answers again

Because thou canst not ease thy smart

By friendship nor by speaking.

There was never a truer rhyme. Let us cast away nothing, for we

may live to have need of such a verse. We see it, we see it.

How now, lambs!

TROILUS.

Cressid, I love thee in so strain'd a purity

That the bless'd gods, as angry with my fancy,

More bright in zeal than the devotion which

Cold lips blow to their deities, take thee from me.

CRESSIDA.

Have the gods envy?

PANDARUS.

Ay, ay, ay; 'tis too plain a case.

CRESSIDA.

And is it true that I must go from Troy?

TROILUS.

A hateful truth.

CRESSIDA.

What, and from Troilus too?

TROILUS.

From Troy and Troilus.

CRESSIDA.

Is't possible?

TROILUS.

And suddenly; where injury of chance

Puts back leave-taking, justles roughly by

All time of pause, rudely beguiles our lips

Of all rejoindure, forcibly prevents

Our lock'd embrasures, strangles our dear vows

Even in the birth of our own labouring breath.

We two, that with so many thousand sighs

Did buy each other, must poorly sell ourselves

With the rude brevity and discharge of one.

Injurious time now with a robber's haste

Crams his rich thievery up, he knows not how.

As many farewells as be stars in heaven,

With distinct breath and consign'd kisses to them,

He fumbles up into a loose adieu,

And scants us with a single famish'd kiss,

Distasted with the salt of broken tears.

AENEAS.

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