The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 06Dryden, John
General
The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 06
Dryden, John
English literature
_Ulys._ So I hope.
Pray heaven Thersites have informed me true!-- [_Aside._
_Troil._ Good night, my lord; accept distracted thanks!
[_Exit_ ULYSSES.
_Enter_ PANDARUS.
_Pand._ Hear ye, my lord, hear ye; I have been seeing yon poor girl.
There have been old doings there, i'faith.
_Troil._ [_Aside._]
Hold yet, my spirits: let him pour it in:
The poison's kind: the more I drink of it,
The sooner 'twill dispatch me.
_AEn._ to _Pand._ Peace, thou babbler!
_Pand._ She has been mightily made on by the Greeks: she takes most
wonderfully among 'em. Achilles kissed her, and Patroclus kissed her:
nay, and old Nestor put aside his grey beard, and brushed her with his
whiskers. Then comes me Agamemnon with his general's staff, diving
with a low bow even to the ground, and rising again, just at her lips:
and after him came Ulysses, and Ajax, and Menelaus: and they so pelted
her, i'faith, pitter patter, pitter patter, as thick as hail-stones.
And after that, a whole rout of 'em: never was a woman in Phrygia
better kissed.
_Troil._ [_Aside._] Hector said true: I find, I find it now!
_Pand._ And, last of all, comes me Diomede, so demurely: that's a
notable sly rogue, I warrant him! mercy upon us, how he laid her on
upon the lips! for, as I told you, she's most mightily made on among
the Greeks. What, cheer up, I say, man! she has every one's good word.
I think, in my conscience, she was born with a caul upon her head.
_Troil._ [_Aside._] Hell, death, confusion, how he tortures me!
_Pand._ And that rogue-priest, my brother, is so courted and treated
for her sake: the young sparks do so pull him about, and haul him by
the cassock: nothing but invitations to his tent, and his tent, and
his tent. Nay, and one of 'em was so bold, as to ask him, if she were
a virgin; and with that, the rogue, my brother, takes me up a little
god in his hand, and kisses it, and swears devoutly that she was; then
was I ready to burst my sides with laughing, to think what had passed
betwixt you two.
_Troil._ O I can bear no more! she's falsehood all:
False by both kinds; for with her mother's milk
She sucked the infusion of her father's soul.
She only wants an opportunity;
Her soul's a whore already.
_Pand._ What, would you make a monopoly of a woman's lips? a little
consolation, or so, might be allowed, one would think, in a lover's
absence.
_Troil._ Hence from my sight!
Let ignominy brand thy hated name;
Let modest matrons at thy mention start;
And blushing virgins, when they read our annals,
Skip o'er the guilty page that holds thy legend,
And blots the noble work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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