I love you now; but not, till now, so much
But I might master it :-in faith, I lie;
My thoughts were like unbridled children, grown
Too headstrong for their mother: See, we fools!
Why have I blabb'd? who shall be true to us,
When we are so unsecret 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 shall surely speak

The thing I shall repent. See, see, your silence,
Cunning in dumbness, from my weakness draws
My very soul of counsel: Stop my mouth.

Tro. And shall, albeit sweet musick issues thence.
Pan. Pretty, i'faith.

Cres. My lord, I do beseech you, pardon me: 'Twas not my purpose, thus to beg a kiss:

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

Tro. Your leave, sweet Cressid?

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

Cres. Let me go and try:

I have a kind of self resides with

you:

But an unkind self, that itself 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 so

wisely.

Cres. Perchance, my lord, I show more craft than

love;

And fell so roundly to a large confession,

To angle for your thoughts: But you are wise;
Or else you love not; For to be wise, 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 presume in you,)
To feed for aye her lamp and flames of love;
To keep her constancy in plight and youth,
Outliving beauty's outward, with a mind
That doth renew swifter than blood decays!
Or, that persuasion 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 simplicity,
And simpler than the infancy of truth.1
Cres. In that I'll war with you.

O virtuous fight,

Tro. When right with right wars who shall be most right! True swains in love shall, in the world to come, Approve their truths by Troilus: when their rhymes, Full of protest, of oath, and big compare, 2 Want similes, truth tir'd with iteration, As true as steel, as plantage to the moon, As sun 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, 3

9 Might be affronted with the match —] I wish “ my integrity might be met and matched with such equality and force of pure unmingled love." JOHNSON.

1 And simpler than the infancy of truth,] This is fine; and means, "Ere truth, to defend itself against deceit in the commerce of the world, had, out of necessity, learned worldly policy."

As truth's authentick author to be cited,] Troilus shall crown the verse, as a man to be cited as the authentick author of truth, as one whose protestations were true to a proverb.

TRO. TRUE SWAINS IN LOVE SHALL, IN THE WORLD TO COME,

As true as Troilus shall crown up the verse,
And sanctify the numbers.

Cres.

Prophet may you be ! If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth,

When time is old and hath forgot itself,

When waterdrops have worn the stones of Troy,
And blind oblivion swallow'd cities

up,

And mighty states characterless are grated

To dusty nothing; yet let memory

From false to false, among false maids in love,
Upbraid my falsehood! when they have said as false
As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth,

As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf,

Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son;
Yea, let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood,
As false as Cressid.

Pan. Go to, a bargain made: seal it, seal it; I'll be the witness. Here I hold your hand; here, my cousin's. If ever you prove false one to another, since I have taken such pains to bring you together, let all pitiful goers-between be called to the world's end after my name, call them all Pandars; let all constant men be Troiluses, all false women Cressids, and all brokers-between Pandars! say, amen.

Tro. Amen.

Cres. Amen.

Pan. Amen. Whereupon I will show you a chamber and a bed, which bed, because it shall not speak of your pretty encounters, press it to death: away.

And Cupid grant all tongue-tied maidens here,
Bed, chamber, Pandar to provide this geer!

[Exeunt.

4

crown up—] i. e. conclude it.