The History of Troilus and Cressida E-Book

William Shakespeare

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Seitenzahl: 134

Beschreibung

In Troy, there lies the scene. From isles of Greece The princes orgulous, their high blood chaf'd, Have to the port of Athens sent their ships Fraught with the ministers and instruments Of cruel war. Sixty and nine that wore Their crownets regal from the Athenian bay Put forth toward Phrygia; and their vow is made To ransack Troy, within whose strong immures The ravish'd Helen, Menelaus' queen, With wanton Paris sleeps-and that's the quarrel. To Tenedos they come, And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorge Their war-like fraughtage. Now on Dardan plains The fresh and yet unbruised Greeks do pitch Their brave pavilions: Priam's six-gated city, Dardan, and Tymbria, Ilias, Chetas, Troien, And Antenorides, with massy staples And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts, Sperr up the sons of Troy. Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits On one and other side, Troyan and Greek, Sets all on hazard. And hither am I come A prologue arm'd, but not in confidence Of author's pen or actor's voice, but suited In like conditions as our argument, To tell you, fair beholders, that our play Leaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils, Beginning in the middle; starting thence away, To what may be digested in a play. Like or find fault; do as your pleasures are; Now good or bad, 'tis but the chance of war.

Leseprobe

The History of Troilus and Cressida

The History of Troilus and CressidaDRAMATIS PERSONAEPROLOGUEACT I.ACT II.ACT III.ACT IV.ACT V.Copyright

The History of Troilus and Cressida

William Shakespeare

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

PRIAM, King of TroyHis sons:HECTORTROILUSPARISDEIPHOBUSHELENUSMARGARELON, a bastard son of PriamTrojan commanders:AENEASANTENORCALCHAS, a Trojan priest, taking part with the GreeksPANDARUS, uncle to CressidaAGAMEMNON, the Greek generalMENELAUS, his brotherGreek commanders:ACHILLESAJAXULYSSESNESTORDIOMEDESPATROCLUSTHERSITES, a deformed and scurrilous GreekALEXANDER, servant to CressidaSERVANT to TroilusSERVANT to ParisSERVANT to DiomedesHELEN, wife to MenelausANDROMACHE, wife to HectorCASSANDRA, daughter to Priam, a prophetessCRESSIDA, daughter to CalchasTrojan and Greek Soldiers, and AttendantsSCENE: Troy and the Greek camp before it

PROLOGUE

In Troy, there lies the scene. From isles of GreeceThe princes orgulous, their high blood chaf'd,Have to the port of Athens sent their shipsFraught with the ministers and instrumentsOf cruel war. Sixty and nine that woreTheir crownets regal from the Athenian bayPut forth toward Phrygia; and their vow is madeTo ransack Troy, within whose strong immuresThe ravish'd Helen, Menelaus' queen,With wanton Paris sleeps—and that's the quarrel.To Tenedos they come,And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorgeTheir war-like fraughtage. Now on Dardan plainsThe fresh and yet unbruised Greeks do pitchTheir brave pavilions: Priam's six-gated city,Dardan, and Tymbria, Ilias, Chetas, Troien,And Antenorides, with massy staplesAnd corresponsive and fulfilling bolts,Sperr up the sons of Troy.Now expectation, tickling skittish spiritsOn one and other side, Troyan and Greek,Sets all on hazard. And hither am I comeA prologue arm'd, but not in confidenceOf author's pen or actor's voice, but suitedIn like conditions as our argument,To tell you, fair beholders, that our playLeaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils,Beginning in the middle; starting thence away,To what may be digested in a play.Like or find fault; do as your pleasures are;Now good or bad, 'tis but the chance of war.

ACT I.

SCENE 1. Troy. Before PRIAM'S palace[Enter TROILUS armed, and PANDARUS.]TROILUS.Call here my varlet; I'll unarm again.Why should I war without the walls of TroyThat find such cruel battle here within?Each Trojan that is master of his heart,Let him to field; Troilus, alas! hath none.PANDARUS.Will this gear ne'er be mended?TROILUS.The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their strength,Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant;But I am weaker than a woman's tear,Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance,Less valiant than the virgin in the night,And skilless as unpractis'd infancy.PANDARUS. Well, I have told you enough of this; for my part, I'll not meddle nor make no further. He that will have a cake out of the wheat must tarry the grinding.TROILUS.Have I not tarried?PANDARUS.Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the bolting.TROILUS.Have I not tarried?PANDARUS.Ay, the bolting; but you must tarry the leavening.TROILUS.Still have I tarried.PANDARUS. Ay, to the leavening; but here's yet in the word 'hereafter' the kneading, the making of the cake, the heating of the oven, and the baking; nay, you must stay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips.TROILUS.Patience herself, what goddess e'er she be,Doth lesser blench at suff'rance than I do.At Priam's royal table do I sit;And when fair Cressid comes into my thoughts,So, traitor! 'when she comes'! when she is thence?PANDARUS. Well, she look'd yesternight fairer than ever I saw her look, or any woman else.TROILUS.I was about to tell thee: when my heart,As wedged with a sigh, would rive in twain,Lest Hector or my father should perceive me,I have, as when the sun doth light a storm,Buried this sigh in wrinkle of a smile.But sorrow that is couch'd in seeming gladnessIs like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness.PANDARUS. An her hair were not somewhat darker than Helen's, well, go to, there were no more comparison between the women. But, for my part, she is my kinswoman; I would not, as they term it, praise her, but I would somebody had heard her talk yesterday, as I did. I will not dispraise your sister Cassandra's wit; but—TROILUS.O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus,When I do tell thee there my hopes lie drown'd,Reply not in how many fathoms deepThey lie indrench'd. I tell thee I am madIn Cressid's love. Thou answer'st 'She is fair';Pour'st in the open ulcer of my heartHer eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice,Handlest in thy discourse. O! that her hand,In whose comparison all whites are inkWriting their own reproach; to whose soft seizureThe cygnet's down is harsh, and spirit of senseHard as the palm of ploughman! This thou tell'st me,As true thou tell'st me, when I say I love her;But, saying thus, instead of oil and balm,Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given meThe knife that made it.PANDARUS.I speak no more than truth.TROILUS.Thou dost not speak so much.PANDARUS. Faith, I'll not meddle in't. Let her be as she is: if she be fair, 'tis the better for her; an she be not, she has the mends in her own hands.TROILUS.Good Pandarus! How now, Pandarus!PANDARUS. I have had my labour for my travail, ill thought on of her and ill thought on of you; gone between and between, but small thanks for my labour.TROILUS.What! art thou angry, Pandarus? What! with me?PANDARUS. Because she's kin to me, therefore she's not so fair as Helen. An she were not kin to me, she would be as fair on Friday as Helen is on Sunday. But what care I? I care not an she were a blackamoor; 'tis all one to me.TROILUS.Say I she is not fair?PANDARUS. I do not care whether you do or no. She's a fool to stay behind her father. Let her to the Greeks; and so I'll tell her the next time I see her. For my part, I'll meddle nor make no more i' the matter.TROILUS.PandarusPANDARUS.Not I.TROILUS.Sweet Pandarus—PANDARUS. Pray you, speak no more to me: I will leave all as I found it, and there an end.[Exit PANDARUS. An alarum.]TROILUS.Peace, you ungracious clamours! Peace, rude sounds!Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair,When with your blood you daily paint her thus.I cannot fight upon this argument;It is too starv'd a subject for my sword.But Pandarus, O gods! how do you plague me!I cannot come to Cressid but by Pandar;And he's as tetchy to be woo'd to wooAs she is stubborn-chaste against all suit.Tell me, Apollo, for thy Daphne's love,What Cressid is, what Pandar, and what we?Her bed is India; there she lies, a pearl;Between our Ilium and where she residesLet it be call'd the wild and wandering flood;Ourself the merchant, and this sailing PandarOur doubtful hope, our convoy, and our bark.[Alarum. Enter AENEAS.]AENEAS.How now, Prince Troilus! Wherefore not afield?TROILUS.Because not there. This woman's answer sorts,For womanish it is to be from thence.What news, Aeneas, from the field to-day?AENEAS.That Paris is returned home, and hurt.TROILUS.By whom, Aeneas?AENEAS.Troilus, by Menelaus.TROILUS.Let Paris bleed: 'tis but a scar to scorn;Paris is gor'd with Menelaus' horn.[Alarum.]AENEAS.Hark what good sport is out of town to-day!TROILUS.Better at home, if 'would I might' were 'may.'But to the sport abroad. Are you bound thither?AENEAS.In all swift haste.TROILUS.Come, go we then together. [Exeunt.]ACT I.SCENE 2. Troy. A street[Enter CRESSIDA and her man ALEXANDER.]CRESSIDA.Who were those went by?ALEXANDER.Queen Hecuba and Helen.CRESSIDA.And whither go they?ALEXANDER.Up to the eastern tower,Whose height commands as subject all the vale,To see the battle. Hector, whose patienceIs as a virtue fix'd, to-day was mov'd.He chid Andromache, and struck his armourer;And, like as there were husbandry in war,Before the sun rose he was harness'd light,And to the field goes he; where every flowerDid as a prophet weep what it foresawIn Hector's wrath.CRESSIDA.What was his cause of anger?ALEXANDER.The noise goes, this: there is among the GreeksA lord of Troyan blood, nephew to Hector;They call him Ajax.CRESSIDA.Good; and what of him?ALEXANDER.They say he is a very man per se,And stands alone.CRESSIDA.So do all men, unless they are drunk, sick, or have no legs.ALEXANDER. This man, lady, hath robb'd many beasts of their particular additions: he is as valiant as a lion, churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant—a man into whom nature hath so crowded humours that his valour is crush'd into folly, his folly sauced with discretion. There is no man hath a virtue that he hath not a glimpse of, nor any man an attaint but he carries some stain of it; he is melancholy without cause and merry against the hair; he hath the joints of every thing; but everything so out of joint that he is a gouty Briareus, many hands and no use, or purblind Argus, all eyes and no sight.CRESSIDA. But how should this man, that makes me smile, make Hector angry?ALEXANDER. They say he yesterday cop'd Hector in the battle and struck him down, the disdain and shame whereof hath ever since kept Hector fasting and waking.[Enter PANDARUS.]CRESSIDA.Who comes here?ALEXANDER.Madam, your uncle Pandarus.CRESSIDA.Hector's a gallant man.ALEXANDER.As may be in the world, lady.PANDARUS.What's that? What's that?CRESSIDA.Good morrow, uncle Pandarus.PANDARUS. Good morrow, cousin Cressid. What do you talk of?—Good morrow, Alexander.—How do you, cousin? When were you at Ilium?CRESSIDA.This morning, uncle.PANDARUS. What were you talking of when I came? Was Hector arm'd and gone ere you came to Ilium? Helen was not up, was she?CRESSIDA.Hector was gone; but Helen was not up.PANDARUS.E'en so. Hector was stirring early.CRESSIDA.That were we talking of, and of his anger.PANDARUS.Was he angry?CRESSIDA.So he says here.PANDARUS. True, he was so; I know the cause too; he'll lay about him today, I can tell them that. And there's Troilus will not come far behind him; let them take heed of Troilus, I can tell them that too.CRESSIDA.What, is he angry too?PANDARUS.Who, Troilus? Troilus is the better man of the two.CRESSIDA.O Jupiter! there's no comparison.PANDARUS. What, not between Troilus and Hector? Do you know a man if you see him?CRESSIDA.Ay, if I ever saw him before and knew him.PANDARUS.Well, I say Troilus is Troilus.CRESSIDA.Then you say as I say, for I am sure he is not Hector.PANDARUS.No, nor Hector is not Troilus in some degrees.CRESSIDA.'Tis just to each of them: he is himself.PANDARUS.Himself! Alas, poor Troilus! I would he were!CRESSIDA.So he is.PANDARUS.Condition I had gone barefoot to India.CRESSIDA.He is not Hector.PANDARUS. Himself! no, he's not himself. Would 'a were himself! Well, the gods are above; time must friend or end. Well, Troilus, well! I would my heart were in her body! No, Hector is not a better man than Troilus.CRESSIDA.Excuse me.PANDARUS.He is elder.CRESSIDA.Pardon me, pardon me.PANDARUS. Th' other's not come to't; you shall tell me another tale when th' other's come to't. Hector shall not have his wit this year.CRESSIDA.He shall not need it if he have his own.ANDARUS.Nor his qualities.CRESSIDA.No matter.PANDARUS.Nor his beauty.CRESSIDA.'Twould not become him: his own's better.PANDARUS. You have no judgment, niece. Helen herself swore th' other day that Troilus, for a brown favour, for so 'tis, I must confess—not brown neither—CRESSIDA.No, but brown.PANDARUS.Faith, to say truth, brown and not brown.CRESSIDA.To say the truth, true and not true.PANDARUS.She prais'd his complexion above Paris.CRESSIDA.Why, Paris hath colour enough.PANDARUS.So he has.CRESSIDA. Then Troilus should have too much. If she prais'd him above, his complexion is higher than his; he having colour enough, and the other higher, is too flaming praise for a good complexion. I had as lief Helen's golden tongue had commended Troilus for a copper nose.PANDARUS.I swear to you I think Helen loves him better than Paris.CRESSIDA.Then she's a merry Greek indeed.PANDARUS. Nay, I am sure she does. She came to him th' other day into the compass'd window—and you know he has not past three or four hairs on his chin—CRESSIDA. Indeed a tapster's arithmetic may soon bring his particulars therein to a total.PANDARUS. Why, he is very young, and yet will he within three pound lift as much as his brother Hector.CRESSIDA.Is he so young a man and so old a lifter?PANDARUS. But to prove to you that Helen loves him: she came and puts me her white hand to his cloven chin—CRESSIDA.Juno have mercy! How came it cloven?PANDARUS. Why, you know, 'tis dimpled. I think his smiling becomes him better than any man in all Phrygia.CRESSIDA.O, he smiles valiantly!PANDARUS.Does he not?CRESSIDA.O yes, an 'twere a cloud in autumn!PANDARUS.Why, go to, then! But to prove to you that Helen lovesTroilus—CRESSIDA.Troilus will stand to the proof, if you'll prove it so.PANDARUS. Troilus! Why, he esteems her no more than I esteem an addle egg.CRESSIDA. If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle head, you would eat chickens i' th' shell.PANDARUS. I cannot choose but laugh to think how she tickled his chin. Indeed, she has a marvell's white hand, I must needs confess.CRESSIDA.Without the rack.PANDARUS.And she takes upon her to spy a white hair on his chin.CRESSIDA.Alas, poor chin! Many a wart is richer.PANDARUS. But there was such laughing! Queen Hecuba laugh'd that her eyes ran o'er.CRESSIDA.With millstones.PANDARUS.And Cassandra laugh'd.CRESSIDA. But there was a more temperate fire under the pot of her eyes. Did her eyes run o'er too?PANDARUS.And Hector laugh'd.CRESSIDA.At what was all this laughing?PANDARUS. Marry, at the white hair that Helen spied on Troilus' chin.CRESSIDA.An't had been a green hair I should have laugh'd too.PANDARUS. They laugh'd not so much at the hair as at his pretty answer.CRESSIDA.What was his answer?PANDARUS. Quoth she 'Here's but two and fifty hairs on your chin, and one of them is white.'CRESSIDA.This is her question.PANDARUS. That's true; make no question of that. 'Two and fifty hairs,' quoth he 'and one white. That white hair is my father, and all the rest are his sons.' 'Jupiter!' quoth she 'which of these hairs is Paris my husband?' 'The forked one,' quoth he, 'pluck't out and give it him.' But there was such laughing! and Helen so blush'd, and Paris so chaf'd; and all the rest so laugh'd that it pass'd.CRESSIDA.So let it now; for it has been a great while going by.PANDARUS.Well, cousin, I told you a thing yesterday; think on't.CRESSIDA.So I do.PANDARUS. I'll be sworn 'tis true; he will weep you, and 'twere a man born in April.CRESSIDA. And I'll spring up in his tears, an 'twere a nettle against May.[Sound a retreat.]PANDARUS. Hark! they are coming from the field. Shall we stand up here and see them as they pass toward Ilium? Good niece, do, sweet niece Cressida.CRESSIDA.At your pleasure.PANDARUS. Here, here, here's an excellent place; here we may see most bravely. I'll tell you them all by their names as they pass by; but mark Troilus above the rest.[AENEAS passes.]CRESSIDA.Speak not so loud.PANDARUS. That's Aeneas. Is not that a brave man? He's one of the flowers of Troy, I can tell you. But mark Troilus; you shall see anon.[ANTENOR passes.]CRESSIDA.Who's that?PANDARUS. That's Antenor. He has a shrewd wit, I can tell you; and he's a man good enough; he's one o' th' soundest judgments in Troy, whosoever, and a proper man of person. When comes Troilus? I'll show you Troilus anon. If he see me, you shall see him nod at me.CRESSIDA.Will he give you the nod?PANDARUS.You shall see.CRESSIDA.If he do, the rich shall have more.[HECTOR passes.]