Ulyss. Nor mine, my lord: Cressid was here but now.
Tro. Let it not be believed for womanhood!
Think, we had mothers; do not give advantage
To stubborn critics, apt without a theme
For depravation, to square the general sex[2248] 130
By Cressid's rule: rather think this not Cressid.
Ulyss. What hath she done, prince, that can soil our mothers?[2249]
Tro. Nothing at all, unless that this were she.
Ther. Will a'swagger himself out on's own eyes?[2250]
Tro. This she? no, this is Diomed's Cressida:[2251] 135
If beauty have a soul, this is not she;
If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimonies,[2252]
If sanctimony be the gods' delight,
If there be rule in unity itself,[2253]
This is not she. O madness of discourse,[2254] 140
That cause sets up with and against itself![2255]
Bi-fold authority! where reason can revolt[2256][2257]
Without perdition, and loss assume all reason[2257][2258]
Without revolt: this is, and is not, Cressid!
Within my soul there doth conduce a fight[2259] 145
Of this strange nature, that a thing inseparate
Divides more wider than the sky and earth;[2260]
And yet the spacious breadth of this division
Admits no orifex for a point as subtle[2261][2262]
As Ariachne's broken woof to enter.[2261][2263] 150
Instance, O instance! strong as Pluto's gates;
Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven:
Instance, O instance! strong as heaven itself;
The bonds of heaven are slipp'd, dissolved and loosed;
And with another knot, five-finger-tied,[2264] 155
The fractions of her faith, orts of her love,
The fragments, scraps, the bits and greasy relics
Of her o'er-eaten faith, are bound to Diomed.[2265]
Ulyss. May worthy Troilus be half attach'd[2266]
With that which here his passion doth express? 160
Tro. Ay, Greek; and that shall be divulged well
In characters as red as Mars his heart
Inflamed with Venus: never did young man fancy[2267]
With so eternal and so fix'd a soul.
Hark, Greek: as much as I do Cressid love,[2268] 165
So much by weight hate I her Diomed:
That sleeve is mine that he'll bear on his helm:[2269]
Were it a casque composed by Vulcan's skill,
My sword should bite it: not the dreadful spout
Which shipmen do the hurricano call, 170
Constringed in mass by the almighty sun,[2270]
Shall dizzy with more clamour Neptune's ear[2271]
In his descent, than shall my prompted sword[2271]
Falling on Diomed.[2271]
Ther. He'll tickle it for his concupy.[2272] 175
Tro. O Cressid! O false Cressid! false, false, false!
Let all untruths stand by thy stained name,
And they'll seem glorious.