William Shakespeare: The History of Troilus and Cressida

ACT IV. SCENE 4. Troy. PANDARUS' house

[Enter PANDARUS and CRESSIDA.]

PANDARUS.
Be moderate, be moderate.

CRESSIDA.
Why tell you me of moderation?
The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste,
And violenteth in a sense as strong
As that which causeth it. How can I moderate it?
If I could temporize with my affections
Or brew it to a weak and colder palate,
The like allayment could I give my grief.
My love admits no qualifying dross;
No more my grief, in such a precious loss.

[Enter TROILUS.]

PANDARUS.
Here, here, here he comes. Ah, sweet ducks!

CRESSIDA.
[Embracing him.]
O Troilus! Troilus!

PANDARUS.
What a pair of spectacles is here! Let me embrace too. 'O
heart,' as the goodly saying is,--

  O heart, heavy heart,
  Why sigh'st thou without breaking?

when he answers again

  Because thou canst not ease thy smart
  By friendship nor by speaking.

There was never a truer rhyme. Let us cast away nothing, for we
may live to have need of such a verse. We see it, we see it. How
now, lambs!

TROILUS.
Cressid, I love thee in so strain'd a purity
That the bless'd gods, as angry with my fancy,
More bright in zeal than the devotion which
Cold lips blow to their deities, take thee from me.

CRESSIDA.
Have the gods envy?

PANDARUS.
Ay, ay, ay; 'tis too plain a case.

CRESSIDA.
And is it true that I must go from Troy?

TROILUS.
A hateful truth.

CRESSIDA.
What! and from Troilus too?

TROILUS.
From Troy and Troilus.