Act 1, Scene 2

Troy. A street

[Enter CRESSIDA and her man ALEXANDER.]
Cressida
145 Who were those went by?
Alexander
146 Queen Hecuba and Helen.
Cressida
147 And whither go they?
Alexander
148 Up to the eastern tower,
149 Whose height commands as subject all the vale,
150 To see the battle. Hector, whose patience
151 Is as a virtue fix'd, to-day was mov'd.
152 He chid Andromache, and struck his armourer;
153 And, like as there were husbandry in war,
154 Before the sun rose he was harness'd light,
155 And to the field goes he; where every flower
156 Did as a prophet weep what it foresaw
157 In Hector's wrath.
Cressida
158 What was his cause of anger?
Alexander
159 The noise goes, this: there is among the Greeks
160 A lord of Troyan blood, nephew to Hector;
161 They call him Ajax.
Cressida
162 Good; and what of him?
Alexander
163 They say he is a very man per se,
164 And stands alone.
Cressida
165 So do all men, unless they are drunk, sick, or have no legs.
Alexander
166 This man, lady, hath robb'd many beasts of their particular
167 additions: he is as valiant as a lion, churlish as the bear, slow
168 as the elephant—a man into whom nature hath so crowded
169 humours that his valour is crush'd into folly, his folly sauced
170 with discretion. There is no man hath a virtue that he hath not a
171 glimpse of, nor any man an attaint but he carries some stain of
172 it; he is melancholy without cause and merry against the hair; he
173 hath the joints of every thing; but everything so out of joint
174 that he is a gouty Briareus, many hands and no use, or purblind
175 Argus, all eyes and no sight.
Cressida
176 But how should this man, that makes me smile, make Hector
177 angry?
Alexander
178 They say he yesterday cop'd Hector in the battle and
179 struck him down, the disdain and shame whereof hath ever since
180 kept Hector fasting and waking.
[Enter PANDARUS.]
Cressida
181 Who comes here?
Alexander
182 Madam, your uncle Pandarus.
Cressida
183 Hector's a gallant man.
Alexander
184 As may be in the world, lady.
Pandarus
185 What's that? What's that?
Cressida
186 Good morrow, uncle Pandarus.
Pandarus
187 Good morrow, cousin Cressid. What do you talk of?—Good
188 morrow, Alexander.—How do you, cousin? When were you at Ilium?
Cressida
189 This morning, uncle.
Pandarus
190 What were you talking of when I came? Was Hector arm'd
191 and gone ere you came to Ilium? Helen was not up, was she?
Cressida
192 Hector was gone; but Helen was not up.
Pandarus
193 E'en so. Hector was stirring early.
Cressida
194 That were we talking of, and of his anger.
Pandarus
195 Was he angry?
Cressida
196 So he says here.
Pandarus
197 True, he was so; I know the cause too; he'll lay about
198 him today, I can tell them that. And there's Troilus will not
199 come far behind him; let them take heed of Troilus, I can tell
200 them that too.
Cressida
201 What, is he angry too?
Pandarus
202 Who, Troilus? Troilus is the better man of the two.
Cressida
203 O Jupiter! there's no comparison.
Pandarus
204 What, not between Troilus and Hector? Do you know a man
205 if you see him?
Cressida
206 Ay, if I ever saw him before and knew him.
Pandarus
207 Well, I say Troilus is Troilus.
Cressida
208 Then you say as I say, for I am sure he is not Hector.
Pandarus
209 No, nor Hector is not Troilus in some degrees.
Cressida
210 'Tis just to each of them: he is himself.
Pandarus
211 Himself! Alas, poor Troilus! I would he were!
Cressida
212 So he is.
Pandarus
213 Condition I had gone barefoot to India.
Cressida
214 He is not Hector.
Pandarus
215 Himself! no, he's not himself. Would 'a were himself!
216 Well, the gods are above; time must friend or end. Well, Troilus,
217 well! I would my heart were in her body! No, Hector is not a
218 better man than Troilus.
Cressida
219 Excuse me.
Pandarus
220 He is elder.
Cressida
221 Pardon me, pardon me.
Pandarus
222 Th' other's not come to't; you shall tell me another tale
223 when th' other's come to't. Hector shall not have his wit this
224 year.
Cressida
225 He shall not need it if he have his own.
Pandarus
226 Nor his qualities.
Cressida
227 No matter.
Pandarus
228 Nor his beauty.
Cressida
229 'Twould not become him: his own's better.
Pandarus
230 You have no judgment, niece. Helen herself swore th'
231 other day that Troilus, for a brown favour, for so 'tis, I must
232 confess—not brown neither—
Cressida
233 No, but brown.
Pandarus
234 Faith, to say truth, brown and not brown.
Cressida
235 To say the truth, true and not true.
Pandarus
236 She prais'd his complexion above Paris.
Cressida
237 Why, Paris hath colour enough.
Pandarus
238 So he has.
Cressida
239 Then Troilus should have too much. If she prais'd him
240 above, his complexion is higher than his; he having colour
241 enough, and the other higher, is too flaming praise for a good
242 complexion. I had as lief Helen's golden tongue had commended
243 Troilus for a copper nose.
Pandarus
244 I swear to you I think Helen loves him better than Paris.
Cressida
245 Then she's a merry Greek indeed.
Pandarus
246 Nay, I am sure she does. She came to him th' other day
247 into the compass'd window—and you know he has not past three or
248 four hairs on his chin—
Cressida
249 Indeed a tapster's arithmetic may soon bring his
250 particulars therein to a total.
Pandarus
251 Why, he is very young, and yet will he within three pound
252 lift as much as his brother Hector.
Cressida
253 Is he so young a man and so old a lifter?
Pandarus
254 But to prove to you that Helen loves him: she came and
255 puts me her white hand to his cloven chin—
Cressida
256 Juno have mercy! How came it cloven?
Pandarus
257 Why, you know, 'tis dimpled. I think his smiling becomes
258 him better than any man in all Phrygia.
Cressida
259 O, he smiles valiantly!
Pandarus
260 Does he not?
Cressida
261 O yes, an 'twere a cloud in autumn!
Pandarus
262 Why, go to, then! But to prove to you that Helen loves
263 Troilus—
Cressida
264 Troilus will stand to the proof, if you'll prove it so.
Pandarus
265 Troilus! Why, he esteems her no more than I esteem an
266 addle egg.
Cressida
267 If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle
268 head, you would eat chickens i' th' shell.
Pandarus
269 I cannot choose but laugh to think how she tickled his
270 chin. Indeed, she has a marvell's white hand, I must needs
271 confess.
Cressida
272 Without the rack.
Pandarus
273 And she takes upon her to spy a white hair on his chin.
Cressida
274 Alas, poor chin! Many a wart is richer.
Pandarus
275 But there was such laughing! Queen Hecuba laugh'd that
276 her eyes ran o'er.
Cressida
277 With millstones.
Pandarus
278 And Cassandra laugh'd.
Cressida
279 But there was a more temperate fire under the pot of her
280 eyes. Did her eyes run o'er too?
Pandarus
281 And Hector laugh'd.
Cressida
282 At what was all this laughing?
Pandarus
283 Marry, at the white hair that Helen spied on Troilus'
284 chin.
Cressida
285 An't had been a green hair I should have laugh'd too.
Pandarus
286 They laugh'd not so much at the hair as at his pretty
287 answer.
Cressida
288 What was his answer?
Pandarus
289 Quoth she 'Here's but two and fifty hairs on your chin,
290 and one of them is white.'
Cressida
291 This is her question.
Pandarus
292 That's true; make no question of that. 'Two and fifty
293 hairs,' quoth he 'and one white. That white hair is my father,
294 and all the rest are his sons.' 'Jupiter!' quoth she 'which of
295 these hairs is Paris my husband?' 'The forked one,' quoth he,
296 'pluck't out and give it him.' But there was such laughing! and
297 Helen so blush'd, and Paris so chaf'd; and all the rest so
298 laugh'd that it pass'd.
Cressida
299 So let it now; for it has been a great while going by.
Pandarus
300 Well, cousin, I told you a thing yesterday; think on't.
Cressida
301 So I do.
Pandarus
302 I'll be sworn 'tis true; he will weep you, and 'twere a
303 man born in April.
Cressida
304 And I'll spring up in his tears, an 'twere a nettle
305 against May.
[Sound a retreat.]
Pandarus
306 Hark! they are coming from the field. Shall we stand up
307 here and see them as they pass toward Ilium? Good niece, do,
308 sweet niece Cressida.
Cressida
309 At your pleasure.
Pandarus
310 Here, here, here's an excellent place; here we may see
311 most bravely. I'll tell you them all by their names as they pass
312 by; but mark Troilus above the rest.
[AENEAS passes.]
Cressida
313 Speak not so loud.
Pandarus
314 That's Aeneas. Is not that a brave man? He's one of the
315 flowers of Troy, I can tell you. But mark Troilus; you shall see
316 anon.
[ANTENOR passes.]
Cressida
317 Who's that?
Pandarus
318 That's Antenor. He has a shrewd wit, I can tell you; and
319 he's a man good enough; he's one o' th' soundest judgments in
320 Troy, whosoever, and a proper man of person. When comes Troilus?
321 I'll show you Troilus anon. If he see me, you shall see him nod
322 at me.
Cressida
323 Will he give you the nod?
Pandarus
324 You shall see.
Cressida
325 If he do, the rich shall have more.
[HECTOR passes.]
Pandarus
326 That's Hector, that, that, look you, that; there's a
327 fellow! Go thy way, Hector! There's a brave man, niece. O brave
328 Hector! Look how he looks. There's a countenance! Is't not a
329 brave man?
Cressida
330 O, a brave man!
Pandarus
331 Is 'a not? It does a man's heart good. Look you what
332 hacks are on his helmet! Look you yonder, do you see? Look you
333 there. There's no jesting; there's laying on; take't off who
334 will, as they say. There be hacks.
Cressida
335 Be those with swords?
Pandarus
336 Swords! anything, he cares not; an the devil come to him,
337 it's all one. By God's lid, it does one's heart good. Yonder
338 comes Paris, yonder comes Paris.
[PARIS passes.]
Pandarus
339 Look ye yonder, niece; is't not a gallant man too, is't not? Why,
340 this is brave now. Who said he came hurt home to-day? He's not
341 hurt. Why, this will do Helen's heart good now, ha! Would I could
342 see Troilus now! You shall see Troilus anon.
[HELENUS passes.]
Cressida
343 Who's that?
Pandarus
344 That's Helenus. I marvel where Troilus is. That's
345 Helenus. I think he went not forth to-day. That's Helenus.
Cressida
346 Can Helenus fight, uncle?
Pandarus
347 Helenus! no. Yes, he'll fight indifferent well. I marvel
348 where Troilus is. Hark! do you not hear the people cry 'Troilus'?
349 Helenus is a priest.
Cressida
350 What sneaking fellow comes yonder?
[TROILUS passes.]
Pandarus
351 Where? yonder? That's Deiphobus. 'Tis Troilus. There's a
352 man, niece. Hem! Brave Troilus, the prince of chivalry!
Cressida
353 Peace, for shame, peace!
Pandarus
354 Mark him; note him. O brave Troilus! Look well upon him,
355 niece; look you how his sword is bloodied, and his helm more
356 hack'd than Hector's; and how he looks, and how he goes! O
357 admirable youth! he never saw three and twenty. Go thy way,
358 Troilus, go thy way. Had I a sister were a grace or a daughter a
359 goddess, he should take his choice. O admirable man! Paris? Paris
360 is dirt to him; and, I warrant, Helen, to change, would give an
361 eye to boot.
Cressida
362 Here comes more.
[Common soldiers pass.]
Pandarus
363 Asses, fools, dolts! chaff and bran, chaff and bran!
364 porridge after meat! I could live and die in the eyes of Troilus.
365 Ne'er look, ne'er look; the eagles are gone. Crows and daws,
366 crows and daws! I had rather be such a man as Troilus than
367 Agamemnon and all Greece.
Cressida
368 There is amongst the Greeks Achilles, a better man than
369 Troilus.
Pandarus
370 Achilles? A drayman, a porter, a very camel!
Cressida
371 Well, well.
Pandarus
372 Well, well! Why, have you any discretion? Have you any
373 eyes? Do you know what a man is? Is not birth, beauty, good
374 shape, discourse, manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth,
375 liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that season a man?
Cressida
376 Ay, a minc'd man; and then to be bak'd with no date in
377 the pie, for then the man's date is out.
Pandarus
378 You are such a woman! A man knows not at what ward you
379 lie.
Cressida
380 Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon my wit, to defend
381 my wiles; upon my secrecy, to defend mine honesty; my mask, to
382 defend my beauty; and you, to defend all these; and at all these
383 wards I lie at, at a thousand watches.
Pandarus
384 Say one of your watches.
Cressida
385 Nay, I'll watch you for that; and that's one of the
386 chiefest of them too. If I cannot ward what I would not have hit,
387 I can watch you for telling how I took the blow; unless it swell
388 past hiding, and then it's past watching
Pandarus
389 You are such another!
[Enter TROILUS' BOY.]
Boy
390 Sir, my lord would instantly speak with you.
Pandarus
391 Where?
Boy
392 At your own house; there he unarms him.
Pandarus
393 Good boy, tell him I come.Exit Boy
394 I doubt he be hurt. Fare ye well, good niece.
Cressida
395 Adieu, uncle.
Pandarus
396 I will be with you, niece, by and by.
Cressida
397 To bring, uncle.
Pandarus
398 Ay, a token from Troilus.
Cressida
399 By the same token, you are a bawd.
[Exit PANDARUS.]
Cressida
400 Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full sacrifice,
401 He offers in another's enterprise;
402 But more in Troilus thousand-fold I see
403 Than in the glass of Pandar's praise may be,
404 Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing:
405 Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing.
406 That she belov'd knows nought that knows not this:
407 Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is.
408 That she was never yet that ever knew
409 Love got so sweet as when desire did sue;
410 Therefore this maxim out of love I teach:
411 Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech.
412 Then though my heart's content firm love doth bear,
413 Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear.
[Exit.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 149archaic vocab
“Whose height commands as subject all the vale”
'Commands as subject' here means 'dominates as its overlord' — the tower is so high that the whole valley below it lies subject to its view, as a vassal lies subject to a lord. 'Vale' is a valley.
TLN 150archaic vocab
“Hector, whose patience Is as a virtue fix'd”
'Patience' here means steadiness of temper under provocation — a settled, almost permanent quality (hence 'fix'd') rather than passive endurance. Alexander is saying Hector is famously unflappable, which makes today's anger extraordinary.
TLN 163archaic vocab
“a very man per se, And stands alone”
'A man per se' — Latin for 'in and of himself' — means an individual so exceptional that he is a category of one, a man without parallel or comparison. Alexander is praising Ajax as absolutely singular. Cressida immediately punctures this: any man stands alone if he is not drunk, sick, or legless.
TLN 166archaic vocab
“hath robb'd many beasts of their particular additions”
'Additions' means distinguishing qualities or attributes — titles, badges of excellence — taken from specific animals. Ajax has stolen the lion's courage, the bear's churlishness, the elephant's slowness, having crammed all of them into one body. The idea is that he is a catalogue of virtues and faults without any balance or coherence.
classical The Greek and Trojan heroes
TLN 171archaic vocab
“any man an attaint but he carries some stain of it”
'Attaint' means a fault, a stain of dishonour, or a moral blemish. Alexander is saying Ajax carries some taint of every vice there is — he is a complete sample of human weakness as well as human virtue. The word comes from legal usage (attainder, the corruption of blood) and carries a sense of inherited disgrace.
TLN 172archaic vocab
“merry against the hair”
'Against the hair' means against the grain — contrary to one's natural inclination or disposition. Ajax is merry when he has no reason to be and melancholy without cause: his moods are permanently out of step with circumstances.
TLN 174classical allusion
“a gouty Briareus, many hands and no use, or purblind Argus, all eyes and no sight”
Briareus was a hundred-handed giant of Greek myth; Argus was the hundred-eyed giant set to watch the cow-goddess Io. Alexander is mocking Ajax: he has Briareus's many hands but is gouty (too stiff and pained to use them), and Argus's many eyes but is purblind (nearly blind). Maximum equipment, zero effectiveness.
TLN 203archaic vocab
“O Jupiter! there's no comparison”
Cressida swears by Jupiter — the king of the Roman gods, and the strongest oath available in this classical Trojan setting — to emphasize how obviously superior Troilus is to Hector. The exclamation works like a modern 'Good God!' and signals exasperated sarcasm, since she is mocking Pandarus's obvious partiality.
TLN 213archaic vocab
“Condition I had gone barefoot to India”
'Condition' here means 'even on condition that' or 'even if.' Pandarus is saying he would have wagered his willingness to walk barefoot to India (an extreme, absurd hardship) on the proposition that Troilus IS himself — meaning fully his own glorious self. It is comic hyperbole to stress how exceptional Troilus is.
TLN 231archaic vocab
“for a brown favour, for so 'tis, I must confess”
'Favour' means face or complexion. Pandarus is saying Troilus has a brownish, sun-darkened face — the natural result of a soldier's outdoor life — but even so, Helen praised his looks above Paris's. 'Brown' in this period was not entirely negative, but a fair (light) complexion was the Elizabethan beauty ideal, so it is a mild concession.
TLN 245wordplay
“she's a merry Greek indeed”
'A merry Greek' was Elizabethan slang for a dissolute, loose-living person. Cressida applies it pointedly: if Helen loves Troilus while living with Paris, she is not just cheerful but sexually promiscuous — a 'merry Greek' in the bawdy sense, and an ironic one at that, since Helen is Trojan by adoption.
TLN 247archaic vocab
“into the compass'd window”
A 'compass'd window' is a bay window or bow window — one that projects outward from the wall in a curved or angled (compass = circular, rounded) shape. Helen came into Troilus's room via this fashionable architectural feature. The detail places the scene in a prosperous Trojan interior.
TLN 249wordplay
“a tapster's arithmetic may soon bring his particulars therein to a total”
A tapster (bartender) was proverbially the lowest form of arithmetic — counting small sums of money on his fingers. Cressida jokes that Troilus's four hairs need nothing beyond a tapster's counting ability to add up. 'Particulars' (individual items) and 'total' (the sum) carry the commercial language of a bartender's bill.
TLN 272wordplay
“Without the rack”
Pandarus says Helen has a 'marvell's white hand'; Cressida replies 'Without the rack' — meaning no one had to torture the admission out of Helen. The rack was a device of torture that stretched the body. The joke is: yes, she confesses it freely, no stretching required. The wit also implies this 'confession' cost little, since it is not exactly controversial.
TLN 302archaic vocab
“he will weep you, and 'twere a man born in April”
April was proverbially the month of rain and showers (spring weeping), so 'a man born in April' would weep readily and at length. Pandarus is saying Troilus is so deeply in love with Cressida that he weeps over her as naturally and abundantly as April showers. The 'you' is not a direct object but an ethical dative — 'he will weep, I tell you.'
TLN 314archaic vocab
“He's one of the flowers of Troy”
'Flowers' means the best, the finest examples — the choicest individuals of a group. Pandarus praises Aeneas as one of Troy's most distinguished warriors. The phrase was a conventional aristocratic compliment.
TLN 318archaic vocab
“he has a shrewd wit”
'Shrewd' here does not mean dishonest; it means sharp, piercing, or penetrating — a keen intelligence. Pandarus is praising Antenor's cleverness. Later in the play Antenor's value as an intelligence asset is exactly why the Trojans trade Cressida for him — making this offhand compliment retrospectively ominous.
TLN 363archaic vocab
“chaff and bran, chaff and bran! porridge after meat! I could live and die in the eyes of Troilus. Ne'er look, ne'er look; the eagles are gone. Crows and daws”
Pandarus distinguishes the common soldiers (chaff, bran, porridge, crows, daws) from the noble warriors (the wheat, the eagle, the meat itself). 'Chaff' is the husks left after threshing grain; 'bran' is the rough outer husk of wheat; 'porridge' is a humble filler after the main course; 'daws' are jackdaws — noisy, common birds. All are images of what is cheap, coarse, and left over.
TLN 373historical topical
“birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that season a man”
Pandarus lists the Renaissance ideal of the complete courtier — noble birth, physical beauty, good bearing, eloquence ('discourse'), martial courage, scholarship, courtesy, virtue, youth, and generosity — arguing these qualities 'season' (give flavour to) a man as spices and salt season food. He claims Troilus possesses them all.
classical The Greek and Trojan heroes
TLN 376wordplay
“a minc'd man; and then to be bak'd with no date in the pie, for then the man's date is out”
Pandarus says Troilus has all the qualities of a perfect man — 'spice and salt.' Cressida takes the culinary metaphor literally: fine, then he is a 'minc'd man' (the spiced, minced-meat filling of a mince pie), baked without a 'date' (a date fruit used in medieval spiced pies). But 'date' also means a span of time: a man without a date has 'his date out' — his time is up, he is past his best, out of date. The joke mocks romantic inflation with market logic.
TLN 378archaic vocab
“A man knows not at what ward you lie”
A 'ward' is a defensive position or guard stance in fencing — the posture a swordsman takes to block an attack. Pandarus says he cannot tell what Cressida's guard is, meaning she is impossible to catch off balance or out-argue. It is an admission of defeat by a man who cannot keep up with her wit.
TLN 399wordplay
“By the same token, you are a bawd”
Pandarus says he will bring Cressida a 'token' (a love-gift or message) from Troilus. Cressida turns 'by the same token' (meaning 'and moreover' — a linking phrase) back into a literal meaning: by the same act that makes him a token-carrier, you are a bawd (a procurer of illicit sex). It is the scene's clearest statement of what Pandarus is doing.
historical Pandarus and the word 'pander'
TLN 400cultural context
“Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full sacrifice, He offers in another's enterprise”
Cressida's closing soliloquy reveals she genuinely loves Troilus but has calculated that women who yield immediately lose value ('Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing'). She will 'hold off' to sustain desire. The soliloquy shows her as strategically self-aware, not simply passive — but also trapped in a logic where her own feelings must be hidden to have any power.
historical Cressida and the 'false woman' traditionhistorical A woman's honour: chastity and the double standard