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i Gent. The .gnity of this act was worth the audience of kings and princes; for by such was it acted.

Gent. One of the prettiest touches of all, and that which angled for mine eyes, (caught the water, though not the fish,) was, when at the relation of the queen's death, with the manner how she came to it, (bravely confessed, and lamented by the king,) how attentiveness wounded his daughter: till, from one sign of dolour to another, she did, with an alas! I would fain say, bleed tears; for, I am sure, my heart wept blood. Who was most marble there, changed colour; some swooned, all sorrowed: if all the world could have seen it, the woe had been universal.

1 Gent. Are they returned to the court?

3 Gent. No: the princess hearing of her mother's statue, which is in the keeping of Paulina,-a piece many years in doing, and now newly performed by that rare Italian master, Julio Romano; who, had he himself eternity, and could put breath into his work, would beguile nature of her custom, so perfectly he is her ape: he so near to Hermione hath done Hermione, that, they say, one would speak to her, and stand in hope of answer: thither, with all greediness of affection, are they gone; and there they intend to sup.

1 Gent. I thought, she had some great matter there in hand; for she hath privately, twice or thrice a day, ever since the death of Hermione, visited that removed house. Shall we thither, and with our company piece the rejoicing?

3 Gent. Who would be thence, that has the benefit of access? every wink of an eye, some new grace will be born: our absence makes us unthrifty to our knowledge. Let's along. [exeunt Gentlemen. Aut. Now, had I not the dash of my former life in me, would preferment drop on my head. I brought the old man and his son aboard the prince; told him, I heard him talk of a fardel, and I know not what: but he at that time, overfond of the shepherd's daughter, (so he then took her to be,) who began to be much sea-sick, and himself little better, extremity of weather continuing, this mystery remained undiscovered. But 'tis all one to me: for had I been the finder-out of this secret, it would not have relished among my other discredits.

Enter Shepherd and Clown.

Here come those I have done good to against my will, and already appearing in the blossoms of their fortune.

Shep. Come, boy; I am past more children; but thy sons and daughters will be all gentlemen born.

Clo. You are well met, sir: you denied to fight with me this other day, because I was no gentleman born: See you these clothes? say, you see them not, and think me still no gentleman born: you were best say, these robes are not gentlemen born. Give me the lie; do; and try whether I am not now a gentleman born.

Aut. I know, you are now, sir, a gentleman born.
Clo Ay, and have been so any time these four

nours.

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Shep. 'Pr'ythee, son, do; for we must be gentle, now we are gentlemen.

Clo. Thou wilt amend thy life?

Aut. Ay, an it like your good worship.

Clo. Give me thy hand: I will swear to the prince, thou art as honest a true fellow as any is in Bohemia.

Shep. You may say it, but not swear it.

Clo. Not swear it, now I am a gentleman ? Let boors and franklins say it, I'll swear it. Shep. How if it be false, son?

Clo. If it be ne'er so false, a true gentleman may swear it, in the behalf of his friend :-And I'll swear to the prince, thou art a tall fellow of thy hands, and that thou wilt not be drunk; but I know, thou art no tall fellow of thy hands, and that thou wilt be drunk; but I'll swear it: and I would, thou would'st be a tall fellow of thy hands.

Aut. I will prove so, sir, to my power.

Clo. Ay, by any means prove a tall fellow: If I do not wonder, how thou darest venture to be drunk, not being a tall fellow, trust me not.-Hark! the kings and the princes, our kindred, are going to see the queen's picture. Come, follow us: we'll be thy good masters. [exeunt.

SCENE III. THE SAME. A ROOM IN PAULINA'S
HOUSE.

Enter Leontes, Polixenes, Florizel, Perdita, Ca-
millo, Paulina, Lords, and Attendants.
Leon. O grave and good Paulina, the great
That I have had of thee!
[comfort

Paul. What, sovereign sir,

I did not well, I meant well: All my services,
You have paid home: but that you have vouchsafd
With your crown'd brother, and these your con-
tracted

Heirs of your kingdoms, my poor house to visit,
It is a surplus of your grace, which never
My life may last to answer.

Leon. O Paulina,

We honour you with trouble: but we came
To see the statue of our queen: your gallery
Have we pass'd through, not without much com

tent

In many singularities; but we saw not
That which my daughter came to look upon,
The statue of her mother.

Paul. As she liv'd peerless,
So her dead likeness, I do well believe;

Excels whatever yet you look'd upon,

Or hand of man hath done; therefore I keep it
Lonely, apart: But here it is: prepare
To see the life as lively mock'd, as ever

Still sleep mock'd death: behold; and say, 'tis well.

[Paulina undraws a curtain, and discovers a statue. I like your silence, it the more shows off Your wonder: But yet speak;-first, you, my liege.

Comes it not something near?

Leon. Her natural posture!

Chide me, dear stone; that I may say, indeed,
Thou art Hermione: or, rather, thou art she,
In thy not chiding; for she was as tender,
As infancy, and grace.-But yet, Paulina,
Hermione was not so much wrinkled; nothing
So aged, as this seems.

Pol. O, not by much.

Paul. So much the more our carver's excellence; Which lets go by some sixteen years, and makes her

As she liv'd now.

Leon. As now she might have done, So much to my good comfort, as it is Now piercing to my soul. O, thus she stood, Even with such life of majesty, (warm life, As now it coldly stands,) when first I woo'd her! I am asham'd: Does not the stone rebuke me, For being more stone than it ?-O, royal piece, There's magic in thy majesty; which has My evils conjur'd to remembrance; and From thy admiring daughter took the spirits, Standing like stone with thee!

Per. And give me leave;

And do not say, 'tis superstition, that

I kneel, and then implore her blessing.-Lady, Dear queen, that ended when I but began, Give me that hand of yours, to kiss.

Paul. O, patience;

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Pol. Masterly done:

The very life seems warm upon her lip.
Leon. The fixure of her eye has motion in't,
As we are mock'd with art.

Paul. I'll draw the curtain ;

My lord's almost so far transported, that
He'll think anon, it lives.

Leon. O sweet Paulina,

Make me to think so twenty years together;
No settled senses of the world can match
The pleasure of that madness. Let 't alone.
Paul. I am sorry, sir, I have thus far stirr'd
you: but

I could afflict you further.

Leon. Do, Paulina;

For this affliction has a taste as sweet

As any cordial comfort.-Still, methinks,
There is an air comes from her: What fine chissel
Could ever yet cut breath? Let no man mock me,
For I will kiss her.

Paul. Good my lord, forbear;

The ruddiness upon her lip is wet;

You'll mar it, if you kiss it; stain your own With oily painting: Shall I draw the curtain ? Leon. No, not these twenty years.

Per. So long could I

Stand by, a looker ou.

Paul. Either forbear,

Quit presently the chapel; or resolve you
For more amazement: If you can behold it,
I'll make the statue move indeed; descend,
And take you by the hand: but then you'll think,
(Which I protest against,) I am assisted
By wicked powers.

Leon. What you can make her do,

I am content to look on: what to speak,

I am content to hear; for 'tis as easy

To make her speak, as move.

Paul. It is requir'd,

You do awake your faith: Then, all stand still; Or those, that think it is unlawful business

I am about, let them depart.

Leon. Proceed;

No foot shall stir.

Paul. Music; awake her: strike.- [music. 'Tis time; descend; be stone no more; approach; Strike all that look upon with marvel. Come; I'll fill your grave up: stir; nay, come away; Bequeath to death your numbness, for from him Dear life redeems you.-You perceive, she stirs ; [Hermione comes down from the pedestal. Start not her actions shall be holy, as, You hear, my spell is lawful: do not shun her, Until you see her die again; for then You kill her double: Nay, present your hand: When she was young, you woo'd her; now, in Is she become the suitor.

Leon. O, she's warm!

If this be magic, let it be an art Lawful as eating.

Pol. She embraces him.

[age, [embracing her.

Cam. She hangs about his neck;

If she pertain to life, let her speak too.
Pol. Ay, and inake't manifest where she has

liv'd,

Or, how stolen from the dead?

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Thy father's court? for thou shalt hear, that I,- By us, a pair of kings.-Let's from this place.— Knowing by Paulina, that the oracle

Gave hope thou wast in being,-have preserv'd Myself, to see the issue.

Paul. There's time enough for that; Lest they desire, upon this push, to trouble Your joys with like relation.—Go together, You precious winners all: your exultation Partake to every one. I, an old turtle, Will wing me to some wither'd bough; and there My mate, that's never to be found again, Lament, till I am lost."

-both your

What? Look upon my brother:

pardons,

That e'er I put between your holy looks
My ill suspicion.-This your son-in-law,
And son unto the king, (whom heavens directing,)
Is troth-plight to your daughter.-Good Paulina,
Lead us from hence; where we may leisurely
Each one demand, and answer to his part
Perfi rm'd in this wide gap of time, since first
We were dissever'd: Hastily lead away. [ertust.

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Calchas, a Trojan Priest, taking part with the Greeks. Pandaus, Uncle to Cressida.

Margarelon, a Bastard Son of Priam

Agamemnon, the Grecian General Menelaus, his Brother

Nestor,

Diomedes,

Patroclus,

Grecian Commanders.

Thersites, a deformed and scurrilous Grecian.

Alexander, Servant to Cressida.

Servant to Troilus; Servant to Paris; Servant to Diomedes

Helen, Wife to Menelaus.

Andromache, Wife to Hector.

Cassandra, Daughter to Priam: a Prophetess.
Cressida, Daughter to Calchas.

Trojan and Greek Soldiers, and Attendants.

SCENE.-Troy, and the Grecian Camp before it.

ACT I.

SCENE I. TROY: BEFORE PRIAM'S PALACE. Enter Troilus, armed; and Pandurus. Tro. CALL here my varlet, I'll unarm again: Why should I war without the walls of Troy, That find such cruel battle here within? Each Trojan, that is master of his heart, Let him to field; Troilus, alas! hath none. Pan. Will this geer ne'er be mended?

Tro. 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 skill-less as unpractis'd infancy.

Pan. 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.

Tro. Have I not tarried?

Tro. Patience herself, what goddess o'er she be, Doth lesser blench at sufferance 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 is she thence

Pan. Well, she look'd yesternight fairer than

ever

I saw her look, or any woman else.

Tro. 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,)
Bury'd this sigh in wrinkle of a smile:
But sorrow, that is couch'd in seeming gladness,
Is like that mirth, fate turns to sudden sadness.

Pan. An her hair were not somewhat darker than Helen's, (well, go to,) there were no more comparison between the women,-But, for my

Pan. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry part, she is my kinswoman; I would not, as they

the bolting.

Tro. Have I not tarried?

term it, praise her, But I would somebody bad heard her talk yesterday, as I did. I will not

Pan. Ay, the bolting; but you must tarry dispraise your sister Cassandra's wit; butthe leavening.

Tro. Still have I tarried.

Pan. 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.

Tro. O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus,— When I do tell thee, There my hopes lie drown', Reply not in how many fathoms deep They lie indrench'd. I tell thee, I am mad In Cressid's love: Thou answer'st, She is fair; Pour'st in the open ulcer of my heart Her eyes, her hair, her cheeks, her galt, her voice;

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Handlest in thy discourse, O, that her hand,
In whose comparison all whites are ink,
Writing their own reproach; to whose soft
seizure

The cygnet's down is harsh, and spirit of sense
Hard as the palm of ploughman! this thou tell'st

me,

Tro. By whom, Æneas?
Ene. Troilus, by Menelaus.

Tro. Let Paris bleed: 'tis but a scar to scorn; Paris is gor'd with Menelaus' horn. [alarum. Ene. Hark! what good sport is out of town to-day!

[may.-. Tro. Better at home, if would I might, were

As true thou tell'st me, when I say I love her: But, to the sport abroad;—Are you bound thither?
But, saying thus, instead of oil and balm,
Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given me,
The knife that made it.

Pan. I speak no more than truth.
Tro. Thou dost not speak so much.

Pan. '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.

Tro. Good Pandarus! how now, Pandarus? Pan. I have had my labour for my travel; ill-thought on of her, and ill-thought on of you: gone between and between, but small thanks for my labour.

Ene. In all swift haste.
Tro. Come, go we then together.

SCENE II. THE SAME. A STREET.

[exeunt

Enter Cressida and Alexander.
Cres. Who were those went by?
Alex. Queen Hecuba and Helen.
Cres. And whither go they?
Alex. Up to the eastern tower,
Whose height commands as subject all the vale,
To see the battle. Hector, whose patience
Is, 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,

Tro. What, art thou angry, Pandarus? what, And to the field goes he; where every flower
with me?
Did, as a prophet, weep what it foresaw
In Hector's wrath.

Pan. Because she is 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 black-a-moor; 'tis all one to me.

Tro. Say I, she is not fair?

Pan. I do not care whether you do or no. Sho'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 in the matter.

Tro. Pandarus,—
Pan. Not I.

Tro. Sweet Pandarus,

Pan. Pray you, speak no more to me; I will leave all as I found it, and there an end.

[er. Pan. ;-alarum.
Tro. 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 woo,
As 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 resides,
Let it be call'd the wild and wandering flood;
Ourself, the merchant; and this sailing Pandar,
Our doubtful hope, our convoy, and our bark.
Alarum. Enter Eneas.

Ene. How now, prince Troilus? wherefore
not a-field?

Tro. Because not there; this woman's answer
sorts,

For womanish it is to be from thence.
What news, Æneas, from the field to day?

Ene. That Paris is return'd home, and hurt.

Cres. What was his cause of anger?
Alex. The noise goes, this: There is among
the Greeks

A lord of Trojan blood, nephew to Hector;
They call him, Ajax.

Cres. Good; and what of him?

Alex. They say he is a very man per se,
And stands alone.

Cres. So do all men; unless they are drunk, sick, or have no legs.

Alex. This man, lady, bath robbed many beasts of their particular additions; he is as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant: a man, into whom nature hath so crowded humours, that his valour is crushed 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 every thing so out of joint, that he is a gouty Briareus, many hands and no use; or purblind Argus, all eyes and no sight.

Cres. But how should this man, that makes me smile, make Hector angry?

Alex. They say, he yesterday coped Hector in the battle, and struck him down: the disdain and shame whereof hath ever since kept Hector fasting and waking.

Enter Pandarus.

Cres. Who comes here?

Alex. Madam, your uncle Pandarus.
Cres. Hector's a gallant man.

Alex. As may be in the world, lady.
Pan. What's that? what's that?

Cres. Good morrow, uncle Pandarus.
Pan. Good morrow, cousin Cressid: What
do you talk of?-Good morrow, Alexander.-
How do you, cousin? When were you at
Ilium?

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Cres. This morning, uucle.

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