Troilus and Cressida, Act II, Scene 2
TROILUS:
I take today a wife, and my election
Is led on in the conduct of my will,
My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears,
Two traded pilots 'twixt the dangerous shores
Of will and judgement. How may I avoid
Although my will distaste what it elected
The wife I chose? There can be no evasion
To blench from this and to stand firm by honour.
We turn not back the silks upon the merchant
When we have spoiled them, nor the remainder viands
We do not throw in unrespective sewer
Because we now are full. It was thought meet
Paris should do some vengeance on the Greeks;
Your breath of full consent bellied his sails,
The seas and winds, old wranglers, took a truce
And did him service. He touched the ports desired
And for an old aunt whom the Greeks held captive
He brought a Grecian Queen, whose youth and freshness
Wrinkles Apollo's and makes stale the morning.
Why keep we her? The Grecians keep our aunt.
Is she worth keeping? Why, she is a pearl
Whose price hath launched above a thousand ships
And turned crowned kings to merchants.
If you'll avouch 'twas wisdom Paris went,
As you must needs, for you all cried,‘Go, go!’
If you'll confess he brought home noble prize,
As you must needs, for you all clapped your hands
And cried,‘Inestimable!’Why do you now
The issue of your proper wisdoms rate
And do a deed that never fortune did:
Beggar the estimation which you prized
Richer than sea and land? O theft most base,
That we have stol'n what we fear to keep!
But thieves unworthy of a thing so stol'n,
That in their country did them that disgrace
We fear to warrant in our native place.