My lord, will you vouchsafe me a word? HELEN Nay, this shall not hedge us out: we'll hear you sing, certainly. PANDARUS Well, sweet queen. you are pleasant with me. But, marry, thus, my lord: my dear lord and most esteemed friend, your brother Troilus,-- HELEN My Lord Pandarus; honey-sweet lord,-- PANDARUS Go to, sweet queen, to go:--commends himself most affectionately to you,-- HELEN You shall not bob us out of our melody: if you do, our melancholy upon your head! PANDARUS Sweet queen, sweet queen! that's a sweet queen, i' faith. HELEN And to make a sweet lady sad is a sour offence. PANDARUS Nay, that shall not serve your turn; that shall not, in truth, la. Nay, I care not for such words; no, no. And, my lord, he desires you, that if the king call for him at supper, you will make his excuse. HELEN My Lord Pandarus,-- PANDARUS What says my sweet queen, my very very sweet queen? PARIS What exploit's in hand? where sups he to-night? HELEN Nay, but, my lord,-- PANDARUS What says my sweet queen? My cousin will fall out with you. You must not know where he sups. PARIS I'll lay my life, with my disposer Cressida. PANDARUS No, no, no such matter; you are wide: come, your disposer is sick. PARIS Well, I'll make excuse. PANDARUS Ay, good my lord. Why should you say Cressida? no, your poor disposer's sick. PARIS I spy. PANDARUS You spy! what do you spy? Come, give me an instrument. Now, sweet queen. HELEN Why, this is kindly done. PANDARUS My niece is horribly in love with a thing you have, sweet queen. HELEN She shall have it, my lord, if it be not my lord Paris. PANDARUS He! no, she'll none of him; they two are twain. HELEN Falling in, after falling out, may make them three. PANDARUS Come, come, I'll hear no more of this;
I'll sing you a song now. HELEN Ay, ay, prithee now. By my troth, sweet lord, thou hast a fine forehead. PANDARUS Ay, you may, you may. HELEN Let thy song be love: this love will undo us all.
O Cupid, Cupid, Cupid! PANDARUS Love! ay, that it shall, i' faith. PARIS Ay, good now, love, love, nothing but love. PANDARUS In good troth, it begins so.
Sings Love, love, nothing but love, still more!
For, O, love's bow Shoots buck and doe:
The shaft confounds, Not that it wounds, But tickles still the sore.
These lovers cry Oh! oh! they die!
Yet that which seems the wound to kill, Doth turn oh! oh! to ha! ha! he!
So dying love lives still:
Oh! oh! a while, but ha! ha! ha!
Oh! oh! groans out for ha! ha! ha!
Heigh-ho! HELEN In love, i' faith, to the very tip of the nose. PARIS He eats nothing but doves, love, and that breeds hot blood, and hot blood begets hot thoughts, and hot thoughts beget hot deeds, and hot deeds is love. PANDARUS Is this the generation of love? hot blood, hot thoughts, and hot deeds? Why, they are vipers: is love a generation of vipers? Sweet lord, who's a-field to-day? PARIS Hector, Deiphobus, Helenus, Antenor, and all the gallantry of Troy: I would fain have armed to-day, but my Nell would not have it so. How chance my brother Troilus went not? HELEN He hangs the lip at something: you know all, Lord Pandarus. PANDARUS Not I, honey-sweet queen. I long to hear how they sped to-day. You'll remember your brother's excuse? PARIS To a hair. PANDARUS Farewell, sweet queen. HELEN Commend me to your niece. PANDARUS I will, sweet queen.
Exit A retreat sounded PARIS They're come from field: let us to Priam's hall, To greet the warriors. Sweet Helen, I must woo you To help unarm our Hector: his stubborn buckles, With these your white enchanting fingers touch'd, Shall more obey than to the edge of steel Or force of Greekish sinews; you shall do more Than all the island kings,--disarm great Hector. HELEN 'Twill make us proud to be his servant, Paris;
Yea, what he shall receive of us in duty Gives us more palm in beauty than we have, Yea, overshines ourself. PARIS Sweet, above thought I love thee.
