Enter Priam, Hector, Troilus, Paris and Helenas.PRIAM After so many hours, lives, speeches spent, Thus once again says Nestor from the Greeks: “Deliver Helen, and all damage else— As honor, loss of time, travel, expense,5 Wounds, friends, and what else dear that is consumed In hot digestion of this cormorant war— Shall be struck off.”—Hector, what say you to ’t?HECTOR Though no man lesser fears the Greeks than I As far as toucheth my particular,10 Yet, dread Priam, There is no lady of more softer bowels, More spongy to suck in the sense of fear, More ready to cry out “Who knows what follows?” Than Hector is. The wound of peace is ⟨surety,15 Surety⟩ secure; but modest doubt is called The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches To th’ bottom of the worst. Let Helen go. Since the first sword was drawn about this question, Every tithe soul, ’mongst many thousand dismes,20 Hath been as dear as Helen; I mean, of ours. If we have lost so many tenths of ours To guard a thing not ours—nor worth to us, Had it our name, the value of one ten—
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What merit’s in that reason which denies25 The yielding of her up?TROILUS Fie, fie, my brother, Weigh you the worth and honor of a king So great as our dread father’s in a scale Of common ounces? Will you with counters sum30 The past-proportion of his infinite, And buckle in a waist most fathomless With spans and inches so diminutive As fears and reasons? Fie, for godly shame!HELENUS No marvel though you bite so sharp ⟨at⟩ reasons,35 You are so empty of them. Should not our father Bear the great sway of his affairs with reason, Because your speech hath none that tell him so?TROILUS You are for dreams and slumbers, brother priest. You fur your gloves with reason. Here are your40 reasons: You know an enemy intends you harm; You know a sword employed is perilous, And reason flies the object of all harm. Who marvels, then, when Helenus beholds45 A Grecian and his sword, if he do set The very wings of reason to his heels And fly like chidden Mercury from Jove Or like a star disorbed? Nay, if we talk of reason, ⟨Let’s⟩ shut our gates and sleep. Manhood and honor50 Should have hare hearts, would they but fat their thoughts With this crammed reason. Reason and respect Make livers pale and lustihood deject.HECTOR Brother, she is not worth what she doth cost55 The keeping.TROILUS What’s aught but as ’tis valued?
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HECTOR But value dwells not in particular will; It holds his estimate and dignity As well wherein ’tis precious of itself60 As in the prizer. ’Tis mad idolatry To make the service greater than the god; And the will dotes that is attributive To what infectiously itself affects Without some image of th’ affected merit.TROILUS 65 I take today a wife, and my election Is led on in the conduct of my will— My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears, Two traded pilots ’twixt the dangerous ⟨shores⟩ Of will and judgment. How may I avoid,70 Although my will distaste what it elected, The wife I choose? There can be no evasion To blench from this and to stand firm by honor. We turn not back the silks upon the merchant When we have soiled them, nor the remainder75 viands We do not throw in unrespective sieve Because we now are full. It was thought meet Paris should do some vengeance on the Greeks. Your breath with full consent bellied his sails;80 The seas and winds, old wranglers, took a truce And did him service. He touched the ports desired, And for an old aunt whom the Greeks held captive, He brought a Grecian queen, whose youth and freshness85 Wrinkles Apollo’s and makes pale the morning. Why keep we her? The Grecians keep our aunt. Is she worth keeping? Why, she is a pearl Whose price hath launched above a thousand ships And turned crowned kings to merchants.90 If you’ll avouch ’twas wisdom Paris went—
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As you must needs, for you all cried “Go, go”— If you’ll confess ⟨he⟩ brought home worthy prize— As you must needs, for you all clapped your hands And cried “Inestimable”—why do you now95 The issue of your proper wisdoms rate And do a deed that never Fortune did, Beggar the estimation which you prized Richer than sea and land? O, theft most base, That we have stol’n what we do fear to keep!100 But thieves unworthy of a thing so stol’n, That in their country did them that disgrace We fear to warrant in our native place.CASSANDRA, ⌜within⌝ Cry, Trojans, cry!PRIAM What noise? What shriek is this?TROILUS 105 ’Tis our mad sister. I do know her voice.CASSANDRA, ⌜within⌝ Cry, Trojans!HECTOR It is Cassandra.Enter Cassandra raving.CASSANDRA Cry, Trojans, cry! Lend me ten thousand eyes, And I will fill them with prophetic tears.HECTOR 110Peace, sister, peace!CASSANDRA Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled elders, Soft infancy, that nothing canst but cry, Add to my clamors. Let us pay betimes A moiety of that mass of moan to come.115 Cry, Trojans, cry! Practice your eyes with tears. Troy must not be, nor goodly Ilium stand. Our firebrand brother Paris burns us all. Cry, Trojans, cry! A Helen and a woe! Cry, cry! Troy burns, or else let Helen go.She exits.
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HECTOR 120 Now, youthful Troilus, do not these high strains Of divination in our sister work Some touches of remorse? Or is your blood So madly hot that no discourse of reason Nor fear of bad success in a bad cause125 Can qualify the same?TROILUS Why, brother Hector, We may not think the justness of each act Such and no other than event doth form it, Nor once deject the courage of our minds130 Because Cassandra’s mad. Her brainsick raptures Cannot distaste the goodness of a quarrel Which hath our several honors all engaged To make it gracious. For my private part, I am no more touched than all Priam’s sons;135 And Jove forbid there should be done amongst us Such things as might offend the weakest spleen To fight for and maintain!PARIS Else might the world convince of levity As well my undertakings as your counsels.140 But I attest the gods, your full consent Gave wings to my propension and cut off All fears attending on so dire a project. For what, alas, can these my single arms? What propugnation is in one man’s valor145 To stand the push and enmity of those This quarrel would excite? Yet, I protest, Were I alone to pass the difficulties And had as ample power as I have will, Paris should ne’er retract what he hath done150 Nor faint in the pursuit.PRIAM Paris, you speak Like one besotted on your sweet delights. You have the honey still, but these the gall. So to be valiant is no praise at all.
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PARIS 155 Sir, I propose not merely to myself The pleasures such a beauty brings with it, But I would have the soil of her fair rape Wiped off in honorable keeping her. What treason were it to the ransacked queen,160 Disgrace to your great worths, and shame to me, Now to deliver her possession up On terms of base compulsion? Can it be That so degenerate a strain as this Should once set footing in your generous bosoms?165 There’s not the meanest spirit on our party Without a heart to dare or sword to draw When Helen is defended, nor none so noble Whose life were ill bestowed or death unfamed Where Helen is the subject. Then I say,170 Well may we fight for her whom, we know well, The world’s large spaces cannot parallel.HECTOR Paris and Troilus, you have both said well, And on the cause and question now in hand Have glozed—but superficially, not much175 Unlike young men, whom Aristotle thought Unfit to hear moral philosophy. The reasons you allege do more conduce To the hot passion of distempered blood Than to make up a free determination180 ’Twixt right and wrong, for pleasure and revenge Have ears more deaf than adders to the voice Of any true decision. Nature craves All dues be rendered to their owners. Now, What nearer debt in all humanity185 Than wife is to the husband? If this law Of nature be corrupted through affection, And that great minds, of partial indulgence To their benumbèd wills, resist the same,
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There is a law in each well-ordered nation190 To curb those raging appetites that are Most disobedient and refractory. If Helen, then, be wife to Sparta’s king, As it is known she is, these moral laws Of nature and of nations speak aloud195 To have her back returned. Thus to persist In doing wrong extenuates not wrong, But makes it much more heavy. Hector’s opinion Is this in way of truth; yet, ne’ertheless, My sprightly brethren, I propend to you200 In resolution to keep Helen still, For ’tis a cause that hath no mean dependence Upon our joint and several dignities.TROILUS Why, there you touched the life of our design! Were it not glory that we more affected205 Than the performance of our heaving spleens, I would not wish a drop of Trojan blood Spent more in her defense. But, worthy Hector, She is a theme of honor and renown, A spur to valiant and magnanimous deeds,210 Whose present courage may beat down our foes, And fame in time to come canonize us; For I presume brave Hector would not lose So rich advantage of a promised glory As smiles upon the forehead of this action215 For the wide world’s revenue.HECTOR I am yours, You valiant offspring of great Priamus. I have a roisting challenge sent amongst The dull and factious nobles of the Greeks220 Will ⟨strike⟩ amazement to their drowsy spirits. I was advertised their great general slept, Whilst emulation in the army crept. This, I presume, will wake him.They exit.
Troilus and Cressida
