Page 2901 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

ULYSSES

Nor mine, my lord: Cressid was here but now.

TROILUS
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 [135]
By Cressid’s rule; rather think this not Cressid.

ULYSSES
What hath she done, Prince, that can soil our mothers?

TROILUS
Nothing at all, unless that this were she.

THERSITES
Will he swagger himself out on’s own eyes?

TROILUS
This she? No, this is Diomed’s Cressida. [140]

If beauty have a soul, this is not she;
If souls guide vows, if vows are sanctimony,
If sanctimony be the gods’ delight,
If there be rule in unity itself,

This is not she. O madness of discourse, [145]
That cause sets up with and against itself!
Bifold authority, where reason can revolt
Without perdition, and loss assume all reason

Without revolt. This is, and is not, Cressid!
Within my soul there doth conduce a fight [150]
Of this strange nature, that a thing inseparate
Divides more wider than the sky and earth;

And yet the spacious breadth of this division
Admits no orifex for a point as subtle
As Ariachne’s broken woof to enter. [155]
Instance, O instance, strong as Pluto’s gates!

Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven.