I fear it much; and I do fear befides,
That I fhall lofe distinction in my joys;
As doth a battle, when they charge on heaps
The enemy flying.

Re-enter PANDARUS.

Pan. She's making her ready, she'll come ftraight: you must be witty now. She does fo blush, and fetches her wind so short, as if he were fray'd with a fprite: I'll fetch her. It is the prettiest villain :-she fetches her breath as fhort as a new-ta'en fparrow. [Exit PANDARUS. Tro. Even fuch a passion doth embrace my bofom:

My heart beats thicker than a feverous pulse;

And all my powers do their bestowing lose,
Like vaffalage at unawares encount'ring
The eye of majesty.

Enter PANDARUS and CRESSIDA.

Pan. Come, come, what need you blush? fhame's a baby. Here the is now: swear the oaths now to her, that you have sworn to me.-What, are you gone again? you must be watch'd ere you be made tame, must you? Come your ways, come your ways; an you draw backward, we'll put you i'the fills.—Why do you not speak to her? -Come, draw this curtain, and let's fee your picture. Alas the day, how loath you are to offend day-light! an 'twere dark, you'd close fooner. So, fo; rub on, and kifs the miftrefs. How now, a kifs in fee-farm! build there, carpenter; the air is fweet.-Nay, you fhall fight your hearts out, ere I part you. The faulcon as the tercel, for all the ducks i'the river: go to, go to. Tro. You have bereft me of all words, lady.

Pan. Words pay no debts, give her deeds: but she'll bereave you of the deeds too, if the call your activity in queftion. What, billing again? Here's-In witness whereof the parties interchangeably-Come in, come in; I'll go get a fire. [Exit PANDARUS.

Cref. Will you walk in, my lord?

Tro. O Creffida, how often have I wish'd me thus? Cref. Wish'd, my lord ?-The gods grant !-O my lord! Tro. What should they grant? what makes this pretty abruption? What too curious dreg efpies my sweet lady in the fountain of our love?

Cref. More dregs than water, if my fears have eyes.

Tro. Fears make devils of cherubins; they never fee truly.

Cref. Blind fear, that feeing reafon leads, finds fafer footing than blind reafon ftumbling without fear: To fear the worst, oft cures the worst.

Tro. O, let my lady apprehend no fear: in all Cupid's pageant there is prefented no monster.

Cref. Nor nothing monstrous neither?

Tro. Nothing, but our undertakings; when we vow to weep feas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tigers; thinking it harder for our mistress to devise impofition enough, than for us to undergo any difficulty impofed. This is the monftruofity in love, lady,-that the will is infinite, and the execution confined; that the defire is boundless, and the act a slave to limit.

Cref. They fay, all lovers swear more performance than they are able, and yet referve an ability that they never perform; vowing more than the perfection of ten, and discharging less than the tenth part of one. They that have the voice of lions, and the act of hares, are they not monsters?

Tro. Are there fuch? fuch are not we: Praise us as we

are tafted, allow us as we prove; our head fhall go bare, till merit crown it: no perfection in reversion shall have a praise in present: we will not name defert, before his birth; and, being born, his addition fhall be humble. Few words to fair faith: Troilus fhall be fuch to Creffid, as what envy can fay worst, shall be a mock for his truth; and what truth can speak truest, not truer than Troilus. Cres. Will you walk in, my lord?

Re-enter PANDARUS.

Pan. What, blushing still? have you not done talking yet?

Cref. Well, uncle, what folly I commit, I dedicate to you.

Pan. I thank you for that; if my lord get a boy of you, you'll give him me: Be true to my lord: if he flinch, chide me for it.

Tro. You know now your hostages; your uncle's word, and my firm faith.

Pan. Nay, I'll give my word for her too; our kindred, though they be long ere thy are woo'd, they are constant, being won: they are burs, I can tell you; they'll stick where they are thrown.

Cref. Boldness comes to me now, and brings me heart :Prince Troilus, I have lov'd you night and day,

For many weary months.

Tro. Why was my Creffid then fo hard to win?
Cref. Hard to feem won; but I was won, my lord,
With the first glance that ever-Pardon me ;-
If I confefs much, you will play the tyrant.
I love you now; but not, till now, fo much
But I might master it:—in faith, I lie;
My thoughts were like unbridled children, grown

1

Too headstrong for their mother: See, we fools!
Why have I blabb'd? who shall be true to us,
When we are fo unfecret to ourselves?

But, though I lov'd you well, I woo'd you not;
And yet, good faith, I wish'd myself a man;
Or that we women had men's privilege

Of speaking first. Sweet, bid me hold my tongue ;
For, in this rapture, I fhall furely speak
The thing I fhall repent. See, see, your filence,
Cunning in dumbness, from my weakness draws
My very foul of counfel: Stop my mouth.

Tro. And thall, albeit fweet mufick iffues thence,
Pan. Pretty, i'faith.

Cref My lord, I do befeech you, pardon me; 'Twas not my purpose, thus to beg a kiss:

I am afham'd;-O heavens! what have I done?-
For this time will I take my leave, my lord.

Tro. Your leave, fweet Creffid?

Pan. Leave! an you take leave till to-morrow morn

I have a kind of felf refides with you;

But an unkind felf, that itfelf will leave,
To be another's fool. I would be gone ;-
Where is my wit? I know not what I speak.

Tro. Well know they what they speak, that speak fo

wifely.

Cref. Perchance, my lord, I fhow more craft than love; And fell fo roundly to a large confeffion,

Το

To angle for your thoughts: But you are wife;
Or else you love not; For to be wife, and love,
Exceeds man's might; that dwells with gods above.
Tro. O, that I thought it could be in a woman,
(As, if it can, I will perfume in you,)

To feed for aye her lamp and flames of love;
To keep her conftancy in plight and youth,
Outliving beauty's outward, with a mind
That doth renew swifter than blood decays!
Or, that perfuafion could but thus convince me,-
That my integrity and truth to you

Might be affronted with the match and weight
Of such a winnow'd purity in love;

How were I then uplifted! but, alas,
I am as true as truth's fimplicity,
And fimpler than the infancy of truth.
Cref. In that I'll war with you.

O virtuous fight,

Tro.
When right with right wars who shall be most right!
True fwains in love fhall, in the world to come,
Approve their truths by Troilus: when their rhymes,
Full of protest, of oath, and big compare,
Want fimiles, truth tir'd with iteration,-
As true as steel, as plantage to the moon,
As fun to day, as turtle to her mate,

As iron to adamant, as earth to the center,-
Yet, after all comparisons of truth,

As truth's authentick author to be cited,
As true as Troilus fhall crown up the verse,
And fanctify the numbers.

Cref.
Prophet may you be !
If I be false, or fwerve a hair from truth,

When time is old and hath forgot itself,
When water-drops have worn the stones of Troy,

And