ENEAS,

ANTENOR,

Trojan Commanders.

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

PANDARUS, uncle to Cressida.

AGAMEMNON, the Grecian General.

MENELAUS, his brother.

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 Grecian Soldiers, and Attendants SCENE, TROY, and the GRECIAN CAMP before it.

(266)

TROILUS AND

CRESSIDA.

PROLOGUE.

N 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
[mures
To ransack Troy, within whose strong im-
The ravish'd Helen, Menelaus' queen,
With wanton Paris sleeps,-and that's the
quarrel.

made

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,

[jan, Dardan, and Tymbria, Helias, Chetas, Tro

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 suitea
In like conditions as our argument,--
To tell you, fair beholders, that our play
Leaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those
broils,
[away
Beginning in the middle; starting thence
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

ACT I.

SCENE I.-Troy. Before Priam's Palace

Enter TROILUS armed, and Pandarus

Troilus.

ALL 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.