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Agamemnon
Menelaus is a Greek king. He’s the brother of Agamemnon and the husband of Helen. The play depicts him as a weak and impotent man who is frequently the butt of other’s jokes. Other characters comment about his wife being stolen from him by another man and his implied impotence and inability to please women. In this vein, it’s notable that his brother, rather than Menelaus himself, is the leader of the Greek forces.
Menelaus Quotes in Troilus and Cressida
The Troilus and Cressida quotes below are all either spoken by Menelaus or refer to Menelaus. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Prologue Quotes
In Troy there lies the scene. From Isles of Greece
The princes orgulous, their high blood chafed,
Have to the port of Athens sent their ships
Fraught with the ministers and instruments
Of cruel war. Sixty and nine, that wore
Their crownets regal, from th’ Athenian bay
Put forth toward Phrygia, and their vow is made
To ransack Troy, within whose strong immures
The ravished Helen, Menelaus’ queen,
With wanton Paris sleeps; and that’s the quarrel.
[…]And hither am I come,
A prologue armed, but not in confidence
Of author’s pens or actor’s voice, but suited
In like conditions as our argument,
To tell you, fair beholders, that our play
Leaps o’er the vaunt and firstlings of these broils,
Beginning in the middle, starting thence away
To what may be digested in a play.
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Act 1, Scene 3 Quotes
AGAMEMNON […] Why then, you princes,
DO you with cheeks abashed behold our works
And call them shames, which are indeed naught else
But the protractive trials of great Jove
To find persistive constancy in men?
The fineness of which metal is not found in
Fortune’s love; for then the bold and coward,
The wise and fool, the artist and unread,
The hard and soft seem all affined and kin.
But in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light away,
And what hath mass or matter by itself
Lies rich in virtue and unmingled.
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Act 2, Scene 3 Quotes
ULYSSES He doth rely on none,
But carries on the stream of his dispose,
Without observance or respect of any,
In will peculiar and in self-admission.
AGAMEMNON Why, will he not, upon our fair request,
Untent his person and share th’ air with us?
ULYSSES Things small as nothing, for request’s sake only,
He makes important. Possessed he is with greatness
And speaks not to himself but with a pride
That quarrels at self-breath. Imagined worth
Holds in his blood such swoll’n and hot discourse
That ’twixt his mental and his active parts
Kingdomed Achilles in commotion rages
And batters himself down. What should I say?
He is so plaguey proud that the death-tokens of it
Cry “no recovery.”
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Act 4, Scene 1 Quotes
AENEAS And thou shalt hunt a lion that will fly
With his face backward. In human gentleness,
Welcome to Troy. Now, by Anchises’ life,
Welcome indeed. By Venus’ hand I swear
No an alive can love in such a sort
The thing he means to kill more excellently.
DIOMEDES We sympathize. Jove, let Aeneas live,
If to my sword his fate be not the glory,
A thousand complete courses of the sun!
But in mine emulous honor let him die
With every joint a wound and that tomorrow.
AENEAS We know each other well.
DIOMEDES We do, and long to know each other worse.
PARIS This is the most despiteful gentle greeting,
The noblest hateful love, that e’er I heard of.
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Act 4, Scene 5 Quotes
PATROCLUS The first was Menelaus’ kiss; this mine
Patroclus kisses you.
MENELAUS O, this is trim!
PATROCLUS Paris and I kiss evermore for him.
MENELAUS I’ll have my kiss, sir.—Lady, by your leave.
CRESSIDA In kissing, do you render or receive?
MENELAUS Both take and give.
CRESSIDA I’ll make my match to live,
The kiss you take is better than you give.
Therefore no kiss.
MENELAUS I’ll give you boot: I’ll give you three for one.
CRESSIDA You are an odd man. Give even, or give none.
MENELAUS An odd man, lady? Every man is odd.
CRESSIDA No, Paris is not, for you know ’tis true
That you are odd, and he is even with you.
MENELAUS You fillip me o’ th’ head.
CRESSIDA No, I’ll be sworn.
ULYSSES It were no match, your nail against his horn.
May I, sweet lady, beg a kiss of you?
CRESSIDA You may.
ULYSSES I do desire it.
CRESSIDA Why, beg two.
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Act 5, Scene 5 Quotes
ULYSSES O courage, courage, princes! Great Achilles
Is arming, weeping, cursing, vowing vengeance.
Patroclus’ wounds have roused his drowsy blood,
Together with his mangled Myrmidons,
That noseless, handless, hacked and chipped, come to him,
Crying on Hector. Ajax hath lost a friend
And foams at the mouth, and he is armed and at it,
Roaring for Troilus, who hath done today
Mad and fantastic execution,
Engaging himself and redeeming of himself
With such a careless force and forceless care
As if that luck, in spite of very cunning,
Bade him win all.
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Menelaus Character Timeline in Troilus and Cressida
The timeline below shows where the character Menelaus appears in Troilus and Cressida. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Prologue
...of the Trojan War—Prince Paris of Troy absconding with Helen, the wife of Greek King Menelaus—and how the Greek forces lay siege to the heavily fortified and walled city. The Prologue...
(full context)
Act 1, Scene 1
...streets outside, soon after which Aeneas, another Trojan warrior, finds Troilus and informs him that Menelaus wounded Troilus’s brother, Paris, in battle. A second cry from the streets draws the men’s...
(full context)
Act 2, Scene 2
...Troilus are animated more by heated emotions than reason. He points out that Helen was Menelaus’s wife first. Natural and human laws protect the sanctity of marriage, and Troy might be...
(full context)
Act 3, Scene 3
...revered warrior’s tent as if they neither know nor care who he is. Agamemnon, Nestor, Menelaus, Ajax, and the others do so. As expected, this greatly upsets Achilles, who complains that...
(full context)
Act 4, Scene 1
...events. As Aeneas departs, Paris stalls a little by asking Diomedes whether he (Paris) or Menelaus deserves to have Helen. Bitterly, Diomedes declares that whoever wants Helen can have her, in...
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Act 4, Scene 5
In the Greek camp, Ajax prepares to face Hector in one-on-one combat. Agamemnon, Achilles, Patroclus, Menelaus, Ulysses, and Nestor accompany him as he struts toward the walls and orders a trumpeter...
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...Only Troilus and Ulysses linger. Troilus asks Ulysses where Calchas—and by extension, Cressida—are staying. In Menelaus’s tent, Ulysses replies. Diomedes is already there. He won’t join the others, but will eat...
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Act 5, Scene 1
...noting that sex and violence are the only real motivators of human activity, when Agamemnon, Menelaus, Ulysses, Nestor, Ajax, and Diomedes stumble past. They’ve gotten lost while escorting Hector and Troilus...
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Act 5, Scene 8
Once again, Thersites gets caught up watching other men fight. This time, it’s Menelaus and Paris. He’s surprised by Priam’s bastard son, who challenges him to fight. But, saying...
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Act 5, Scene 10
On one side of the battlefield, the Greek kings and generals—Agamemnon, Ajax, Menelaus, Nestor, Diomedes, and others—learn that Achilles has killed Hector. Ajax mourns the death of his...
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