Troilus and Cressida
Cressida monologue from Troilus and Cressida
- Play
- William Shakespeare
- Women
- Playing age 20s–30s
- About 0:45
- Classical · verse
Cressida’s monologue from the play Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare. A classical piece for women with a playing age of 20s–30s, running about 0:45.
The full speech. Read it out loud twice before you start working it.
Cressida’s monologue
Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full sacrifice, He offers in another's enterprise;
But more in Troilus thousandfold I see
Than in the glass of Pandar's praise may be;
Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing:
Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing.
That she beloved knows nought that knows not this:
Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is:
That she was never yet that ever knew
Love got so sweet as when desire did sue.
Therefore this maxim out of love I teach:
Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech:
Then though my heart's content firm love doth bear,
Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear.
Public domain text.
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About Troilus and Cressida
- The play is set during the Trojan War.
- It is usually grouped with Shakespeare's "problem plays."
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