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Summary
Diomedes comes to Troy to make the exchange of Antenor for Cressida, and he is greeted heartily by Aeneas and Paris. Aeneas goes to fetch Cressida, remarking that this exchange will deal a heavy blow to Troilus. Paris concurs, but he says regretfully that they have no choice: “The bitter disposition of the time / Will have it so” (4.1.53–54). After Aeneas is gone, Diomedes is asked who he thinks deserves Helen more: Paris or Menelaus? With great bitterness, the Greek replies that both deserve her, since both are fools, willing to pay a great price in blood “for a whore” (3.1.72).
Meanwhile, as morning breaks, Troilus regretfully takes leave of Cressida as she pleas with him to stay a little longer. Pandarus comes in and makes several bawdy jokes about their recent lovemaking. Suddenly, there is a knock at the door, and Cressida hides Troilus in her bedroom. Aeneas enters and demands that Pandarus bring out Troilus. When the young prince emerges, Aeneas gives him the heavy news that Cressida must be sent to her father in the Greek camp. Troilus is distraught, and he goes with Aeneas to see his father, Priam, while Pandarus breaks the news to Cressida, who begins to weep.
Troilus brings Diomedes, together with the great lords of Troy, to Cressida’s house and begs leave to say goodbye to his lady. When they are alone, he pledges to be faithful, and Cressida promises that even in the Greek camp she will remain true to him. Then Diomedes enters, and Troilus demands that he “use her well[,] . . . / For, by the dreadful Pluto, if thou dost not, / Though the great bulk Achilles be thy guard, / I’ll cut thy throat” (4.4.135–38). Diomedes retorts that he will make no promises; he will treat Cressida as she deserves, but not because any Trojan prince orders him to. At that moment, a trumpet sounds, calling them all to the Greek camp for the duel between Hector and Ajax.
Analysis
The first scenes of act 4 emphasize lust, rather than romantic love, as what truly motivates Trojan men like Paris and Troilus. First, we hear Diomedes criticize the fight over Helen, whose great beauty famously provided the occasion for the Trojan War. In the debate with his brothers, Troilus argued against returning Helen to the Greeks, describing her as “a theme of honor and renown / A spur to valiant and magnanimous deeds” (2.2.208–209). But in the context of the play, Diomedes’s analysis of the conflict seems more grounded and realistic. In response to the question of whether Menelaus or Paris better deserves Helen, Diomedes dismisses them both (4.1.67–72):
He [i.e., Menelaus], like a puling cuckold, would drink up
The lees and dregs of a flat tamèd piece;
You [i.e., Paris], like a lecher, out of whorish loins
Are pleased to breed out your inheritors.
Both merits poised, each weighs nor less nor more;
But he as he, the heavier for a whore.
Dismayed by the bloodshed on both sides of the war, Diomedes effectively avoids answering the question and instead inveighs against Helen. Thus, not only does Shakespeare render the traditional heroes of Homeric epic as violent and lustful fools, but he also frames Helen, the great beauty, as a “whore” being fought over by a “cuckold” and a “lecher.”
With Helen thus described as a Spartan whore, it is easy enough to see Cressida as her Trojan counterpart. Troilus and Cressida’s morning parting scene reminds one, again, of Romeo and Juliet, save that the couple is again interrupted by the cheery voyeur Pandarus, who comes prancing in to ask Cressida suggestively: “Hast not slept tonight? Would he not, a naughty man, let [you] sleep?” (4.2.36–37). Any pathos we in the audience might have felt at their parting is undermined with the arrival of the bawdy uncle. We are further troubled two scenes later, when Troilus prepares to deliver Cressida to the Greeks. In their final moments alone together, Troilus repeatedly asks Cressida to pledge her fidelity while they’re separated. Cressida initially takes offense at his insistence: “I true? How now, what wicked deem is this?” (4.4.62). Though Troilus insists that he means nothing by it, he makes the same request two more times. Cressida is clearly getting upset even as they near the moment of their parting. The more Troilus presses, the more painful it is—both for Cressida and for the audience, who senses the prophetic force of his suspicions.
Amplifying the ominous tone of the fourth scene is the interaction between Troilus and Diomedes. Troilus entreats Diomedes to care for Cressida and “use her well” (4.4.135). Seemingly unbeknownst to Troilus, the latter phrase carries an as-yet unrealized double meaning, one that Diomedes appears to pick up on when he retorts, “I’ll answer to my lust” (4.4.142). Here again we find a suggestive double meaning. Despite being a colloquial way to say, “I’ll do as I please,” Diomedes’s response has another obvious implication that strongly foreshadows Cressida’s future unfaithfulness to Troilus. On a subtler level, it’s worth noting that the brief exchange between these men recalls the discussion among the Trojans about whether to return Helen to the Greeks. In that scene, Troilus made a somewhat abstruse argument about where objects—including women—get their value. Although he allowed that Helen is innately beautiful, her value to the Trojans was largely strategic, which is why he argued for keeping her in Troy. Here, however, Diomedes implies a similar argument, but this time regarding Cressida. Thus, when Troilus invokes her innate value, Diomedes responds ambiguously: “To her own worth / She shall be prized” (4.4.143–44).
