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

He that takes that doth take my heart withal.

DIOMEDES.

I had your heart before; this follows it.

TROILUS.

I did swear patience.

CRESSIDA.

You shall not have it, Diomed; faith, you shall not;

I'll give you something else.

DIOMEDES.

I will have this. Whose was it?

CRESSIDA.

It is no matter.

DIOMEDES.

Come, tell me whose it was.

CRESSIDA.

'Twas one's that lov'd me better than you will.

But, now you have it, take it.

DIOMEDES.

Whose was it?

CRESSIDA.

By all Diana's waiting women yond,

And by herself, I will not tell you whose.

DIOMEDES.

To-morrow will I wear it on my helm,

And grieve his spirit that dares not challenge it.

TROILUS.

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

It should be challeng'd.

CRESSIDA.

Well, well, 'tis done, 'tis past; and yet it is not;

I will not keep my word.

DIOMEDES.

Why, then farewell;

Thou never shalt mock Diomed again.

CRESSIDA.

You shall not go. One cannot speak a word

But it straight starts you.

DIOMEDES.

I do not like this fooling.

THERSITES.

Nor I, by Pluto; but that that likes not you

Pleases me best.

DIOMEDES.

What, shall I come? The hour-

CRESSIDA.

Ay, come-O Jove! Do come. I shall be plagu'd.

DIOMEDES.

Farewell till then.

CRESSIDA.

Good night. I prithee come. Exit

DIOMEDES

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.

Exit

THERSITES. A proof of strength she could not publish more,

Unless she said 'My mind is now turn'd whore.'

ULYSSES.

All's done, my lord.

TROILUS.

It is.

ULYSSES.

Why stay we, then?

TROILUS.

To make a recordation to my soul

Of every syllable that here was spoke.

But if I tell how these two did coact,

Shall I not lie in publishing a truth?

Sith yet there is a credence in my heart,

An esperance so obstinately strong,

That doth invert th' attest of eyes and ears;

As if those organs had deceptious functions

Created only to calumniate.

Was Cressid here?

ULYSSES.

I cannot conjure, Troyan.

TROILUS.

She was not, sure.

ULYSSES.

Most sure she was.

TROILUS.

Why, my negation hath no taste of madness.

ULYSSES.

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

TROILUS.

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.

ULYSSES.

What hath she done, Prince, that can soil our mothers?

TROILUS.

Nothing at all, unless that this were she.

THERSITES.

Will 'a swagger himself out on's own eyes?

TROILUS.

This she? No; this is Diomed's Cressida.

If beauty have a soul, this is not she;

If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimonies,

If sanctimony be the god's delight,

If there be rule in unity itself,

This was not she. O madness of discourse,

That cause sets up with and against itself!

Bifold authority! where reason can revolt

Without perdition, and loss assume all reason

Without revolt: this is, and is not, Cressid.

Within my soul there doth conduce a fight

Of this strange nature, that a thing inseparate

Divides more wider than the sky and earth;

And yet the spacious breadth of this division

Admits no orifex for a point as subtle

As Ariachne's broken woof to enter.

Instance, O instance! strong as Pluto's gates:

Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven.

Instance, O instance! strong as heaven itself:

The bonds of heaven are slipp'd, dissolv'd, and loos'd;

And with another knot, five-finger-tied,

The fractions of her faith, orts of her love,

The fragments, scraps, the bits, and greasy relics

Of her o'er-eaten faith, are bound to Diomed.

ULYSSES.

May worthy Troilus be half-attach'd

With that which here his passion doth express?

TROILUS.

Ay, Greek; and that shall be divulged