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They tax our policy and call it cowardice,
Count wisdom as no member of the war,
Forestall prescience, and esteem no act
But that of hand. The still and mental parts
That do contrive how many hands shall strike
When fitness calls them on and know by measure
Of their observant toil the enemy’s weight—
Why, this hath not a finger’s dignity.
They call this bed-work, mapp’ry, closet war[.] (1.3.201–209)
After describing how Achilles commands Patroclus to do insulting impressions of each of the Greek leaders, Ulysses summarizes the men’s key complaint about the military leadership. The main issue, according to Achilles and Patroclus, is that the Greek leaders spend too much time discussing “policy”—which is to say, strategy. Instead of focusing on matters “of hand,” they emphasize “the still and mental parts” of war, which they equate to “cowardice.” Ulysses underscores the emasculating implications of this charge when he relates how they refer to excessing plotting as “bed-work, mapp’ry, closet war.” Words won’t win the war; only action will. As a master of strategy, Ulysses naturally disagrees with this assessment, and he will employ his gift at plotting to manipulate Achilles back in to the war.
Sweet, bid me hold my tongue,
For in this rapture I shall surely speak
The thing I shall repent. See, see, your silence,
Cunning in dumbness, from my weakness draws
My very soul of counsel! Stop my mouth. (3.2.129–33)
Cressida addresses these lines to herself during the orchard scene where she and Troilus meet for the first time in the play. Though at this point neither one has made a firm pledge of fidelity, Troilus clearly shows himself most eager to express his affection. Cressida, meanwhile, seems to hedge her bets, aware of the significance of pledging herself. Shortly before the quote given here, Cressida wondered aloud about the danger of lovers “vowing more” (3.2.86) than they can deliver. Now she expresses worry that she herself may be vowing too much, and she commands herself to “hold [her] tongue” and “stop [her] mouth.” If she remains silent and “cunning in dumbness,” she will protect herself from “speak[ing] / The thing I shall repent.” All this caution shows Cressida’s intuitive awareness that words aren’t empty. Rather, when used to make a vow, words effectively become deeds.
Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart.
Th’ effect doth operate another way. (5.3.119–20)
Troilus speaks these lines after reading the letter Pandarus has just delivered to him from Cressida. At this point in the play, Troilus has already witnessed the scene of her infidelity with Diomedes. With that act, Cressida broke the pledge she repeatedly made to him about remaining faithful to him even after she’d been delivered to the Greek camp. What he had taken to be a fully committing speech act turned out to be nothing but empty words. He reflects this deep disappointment when he tears up Cressida’s letter and decries its contents as “words, words, mere words.” Significantly, we never find out what Cressida wrote in this letter. Troilus reads it to himself, and he refuses to tell Pandarus what it says. Yet given how fickle her speech has been throughout the play, we in the audience can safely infer that her letter contained yet more vacillation and equivocation.
