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    Trolius & Cressida: "The common curse of mankind, - folly and ignorance"
    Trolius & Cressida: "The common curse of mankind, - folly and ignorance"
    Trolius & Cressida: "The common curse of mankind, - folly and ignorance"
    Ebook246 pages2 hours

    Trolius & Cressida: "The common curse of mankind, - folly and ignorance"

    By Willam Shakespeare

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    The life of William Shakespeare, arguably the most significant figure in the Western literary canon, is relatively unknown. Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1565, possibly on the 23rd April, St. George’s Day, and baptised there on 26th April. Little is known of his education and the first firm facts to his life relate to his marriage, aged 18, to Anne Hathaway, who was 26 and from the nearby village of Shottery. Anne gave birth to their first son six months later. Shakespeare’s first play, The Comedy of Errors began a procession of real heavyweights that were to emanate from his pen in a career of just over twenty years in which 37 plays were written and his reputation forever established. This early skill was recognised by many and by 1594 the Lord Chamberlain’s Men were performing his works. With the advantage of Shakespeare’s progressive writing they rapidly became London’s leading company of players, affording him more exposure and, following the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, a royal patent by the new king, James I, at which point they changed their name to the King’s Men. By 1598, and despite efforts to pirate his work, Shakespeare’s name was well known and had become a selling point in its own right on title pages. No plays are attributed to Shakespeare after 1613, and the last few plays he wrote before this time were in collaboration with other writers, one of whom is likely to be John Fletcher who succeeded him as the house playwright for the King’s Men. William Shakespeare died two months later on April 23rd, 1616, survived by his wife, two daughters and a legacy of writing that none have since yet eclipsed.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCopyright Group
    Release dateFeb 1, 2016
    ISBN9781785435911
    Trolius & Cressida: "The common curse of mankind, - folly and ignorance"

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      Book preview

      Trolius & Cressida - Willam Shakespeare

      Trolius & Cressida by William Shakespeare

      The life of William Shakespeare, arguably the most significant figure in the Western literary canon, is relatively unknown.   

      Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1565, possibly on the 23rd April, St. George’s Day, and baptised there on 26th April.

      Little is known of his education and the first firm facts to his life relate to his marriage, aged 18, to Anne Hathaway, who was 26 and from the nearby village of Shottery.  Anne gave birth to their first son six months later.

      Shakespeare’s first play, The Comedy of Errors began a procession of real heavyweights that were to emanate from his pen in a career of just over twenty years in which 37 plays were written and his reputation forever established.

      This early skill was recognised by many and by 1594 the Lord Chamberlain’s Men were performing his works.  With the advantage of Shakespeare’s progressive writing they rapidly became London’s leading company of players, affording him more exposure and, following the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, a royal patent by the new king, James I, at which point they changed their name to the King’s Men. 

      By 1598, and despite efforts to pirate his work, Shakespeare’s name was well known and had become a selling point in its own right on title pages.

      No plays are attributed to Shakespeare after 1613, and the last few plays he wrote before this time were in collaboration with other writers, one of whom is likely to be John Fletcher who succeeded him as the house playwright for the King’s Men.

      William Shakespeare died two months later on April 23rd, 1616, survived by his wife, two daughters and a legacy of writing that none have since yet eclipsed.

      Index of Contents

      DRAMATIS PERSONAE

      ACT I

      Scene I - Troy. Before Priam's Palace

      Scene II - The Same. A Street

      Scene III - The Grecian Camp. Before Agamemnon's Tent

      ACT II

      Scene I - A Part of the Grecian Camp

      Scene II - Troy. A Room in Priam's palace.

      Scene III - The Grecian Camp. Before Achilles' Tent.

      ACT III

      Scene I - Troy. Priam's Palace.

      Scene II - The Same. Pandarus' Orchard.

      Scene III - The Grecian Camp. Before Achilles' Tent.

      ACT IV

      Scene I - Troy. A Street.

      Scene II - The Same. Court of Pandarus' House.

      Scene III - The Same. Street before Pandarus' House.

      Scene IV - The Same. Pandarus' House.

      Scene V - The Grecian Camp. Lists Set Out.

      ACT V

      Scene I - The Grecian Camp. Before Achilles' Tent.

      Scene II - The Same. Before Calchas' Tent.

      Scene III - Troy. Before Priam's Palace.

      Scene IV - Plains Between Troy and the Grecian Camp.

      Scene V - Another Part of the Plains.

      Scene VI - Another Part of the Plains.

      Scene VII - Another Part of the Plains.

      Scene VIII - Another Part of the Plains.

      Scene IX - Another Part of the Plains.

      Scene X - Another Part of the Plains.

      William Shakespeare – A Short Biography

      William Shakespeare – A Concise Bibliography

      Shakespeare; or, the Poet by Ralph Waldo Emerson

      William Shakespeare – A Tribute in Verse

      DRAMATIS PERSONAE

      PRIAM, King of Troy.

      HECTOR, TROILUS, PARIS, DEIPHOBUS, & HELENUS: his Sons.

      MARGARELON, a Bastard Son of Priam.

      ÆNEAS & ANTENOR, Trojan Commanders.

      CALCHAS, a Trojan Priest, taking part with the Greeks.

      PANDARUS, Uncle to Cressida.

      AGAMEMNON, the Grecian General.

      MENELAUS, his Brother.

      ACHILLES, AJAX, ULYSSES, 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

      PROLOGUE

      In Troy, there lies the scene. From isles of Greece

      The princes orgulous, their high blood chafed,

      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 warlike fraughtage: now on Dardan plains

      The fresh and yet unbruised Greeks do pitch

      Their brave pavilions: Priam's six-gated city,

      Dardan, and Tymbria, Helias, 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, Trojan 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.

      SCENE I. 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 Troy,

      That 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 unpractised 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 needs 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 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?

      PANDARUS

      Well, she looked 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 gladness,

      Is 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 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 cheek, her gait, her voice,

      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,

      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 me

      The 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 black-a-moor; '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

      Pandarus,—

      PANDARUS

      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 starved 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 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 gored 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

      SCENE II. The Same. A Street

      Enter CRESSIDA and 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 patience

      Is, as a virtue, fix'd, to-day was moved:

      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 flower

      Did, as a prophet, weep what it foresaw

      In Hector's wrath.

      CRESSIDA

      What was his cause of anger?

      ALEXANDER

      The noise goes, this: there is among the Greeks

      A lord of Trojan 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 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 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 coped Hector in the battle and struck him down, the disdain and shame whereof hath ever since kept Hector fasting and waking.

      CRESSIDA

      Who comes here?

      ALEXANDER

      Madam, your uncle Pandarus.

      Enter 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 armed and gone ere ye came to Ilium? Helen was not up, was she?

      CRESSIDA

      Hector was gone, but Helen was not up.

      PANDARUS

      Even 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 to-day, 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

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