Character

Pandarus in Troilus and Cressida

Role: Go-between and bawdy uncle; architect of the lovers' affair and its undoing Family: Uncle to Cressida First appearance: Act 1, Scene 1 Last appearance: Act 5, Scene 10 Approx. lines: 159

Pandarus is the play’s most paradoxical figure: a facilitator of genuine feeling who reduces love itself to transaction and spectacle. Uncle to Cressida and Trojan lord, he enters the play as a witty, gossipy attendant to the Trojan court, amusing Helen and Paris with elaborate compliments and scandalous observations about the warriors. But his real purpose is to bring Troilus and Cressida together. For much of the early action, he is energetic, playful, and seemingly invested in the couple’s happiness. He works tirelessly to arrange their meeting, speaking eloquently on Troilus’s behalf and using every rhetorical trick to overcome Cressida’s (partly feigned) resistance. When the lovers finally embrace, Pandarus stands as their witness and blessing, even prophesying that future lovers will swear “As true as Troilus” and all panders will be called by his name. In that moment, he seems almost noble—a servant of love, present at its consecration.

Yet the play’s structure inverts this image completely. The same man who orchestrated their union watches helplessly as Cressida is traded to the Greeks, and the full weight of his complicity crashes down upon him. By the final scenes, Pandarus has devolved into something far meaner: a literal broker of flesh, addressing the audience with bitter prophecies about his own legacy. He has become the very thing he joked about—a “pandar,” a synonym for corruption. Troilus, seeing him at the play’s end, spits curses: “Hence, broker-lackey! ignomy and shame / Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy name!” Pandarus is struck down not by fate or war but by the man he helped make happy, cast out as the embodiment of the play’s deeper truth: that love, once exposed to the marketplace and politics of war, cannot survive. His descent from privileged go-between to despised bawd mirrors the play’s own movement from romance toward cynicism, and he becomes the scapegoat for the world’s inability to keep love pure.

Pandarus’s tragedy is that he always saw the transaction beneath the feeling. He knew Cressida was valuable, knew Troilus’s need was desperate, and facilitated their meeting anyway—not out of malice, but because he could not resist the pleasure of arranging, speaking, and controlling the narrative. He made their love into a story he could tell, with himself as the clever narrator. When the story turns to ash, he is left with nothing but his own name as a curse. His final speech, addressing future “brothers and sisters of the hold-door trade,” is one of the play’s most desolate moments—a man made immortal by infamy, left to pass on only his diseases.

Key quotes

Go to, a bargain made: seal it, seal it; I’ll be the witness. Here I hold your hand, here my cousin’s. If ever you prove false one to another, since I have taken such pains to bring you together, let all pitiful goers-between be called to the world’s end after my name; call them all Pandars; let all constant men be Troiluses, all false women Cressids, and all brokers-between Pandars! say, amen.

Alright, it’s a deal: seal it, seal it; I’ll be the witness. Here, I hold your hand, and here’s my cousin’s. If you ever prove false to each other, since I’ve worked so hard to bring you together, let all the poor matchmakers be cursed with my name; Call them all Pandars; let all faithful men be Troiluses, all false women Cressids, and all go-betweens be Pandars! Say, "Amen."

Pandarus · Act 3, Scene 2

Pandarus seals the lovers' vows as witness and swears that his name will become a curse—that all go-betweens will be called Pandars, all faithful men Troiluses, all false women Cressids. The moment sticks because Pandarus prophesies his own damnation even as he celebrates the union, unwittingly naming the future that is already written. It is the play's clearest statement that these characters are trapped inside their own legends.

Is’t possible? no sooner got but lost? The devil take Antenor! the young prince will go mad: a plague upon Antenor! I would they had broke ’s neck!

Is it possible? He’s gotten her, then lost her? The devil Take Antenor! The young prince will go crazy: a Curse on Antenor! I wish they had broken his neck!

Pandarus · Act 4, Scene 2

Pandarus learns that Cressida is being traded to the Greeks and reacts with shock at the speed of ruin—gained and lost in a breath. The line matters because it shows how suddenly the game becomes real; what seemed impossible moments ago is now fact, and Pandarus sees his entire work collapse. His despair is real, even if his pity for himself outweighs his concern for the young prince.

Here! what should he do here?

What’s going on here? What’s he doing here?

Pandarus · Act 4, Scene 2

Pandarus denies knowing where Troilus is, even as Troilus approaches from inside the house. The line works because it captures Pandarus playing dumb at the exact moment when pretense has become useless—Aeneas knows Troilus is there, and so does Pandarus. It shows how the play's characters cling to performance even when exposure is certain.

Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart: The effect doth operate another way.

Words, words, just words, they don’t come from the heart: The outcome works in a different way.

Pandarus · Act 5, Scene 3

Troilus tears up Cressida's letter, declaring that words mean nothing when the deeds contradict them. The line lands hard because it is Troilus's final statement about love—that language cannot compete with the body's betrayal, that promises dissolve under pressure. He has moved from poet to man, and the shift costs him everything he believed in.

Relationships

Pandarus & Troilus

Co-conspirator in love; witness to their vows

Pandarus & Cressida

Uncle; eager facilitator of her romance

Pandarus & Helen of Troy

Gossip and court attendant

Pandarus & Paris

Political associate in Troy

Where Pandarus appears

In the app

Hear Pandarus, narrated.

Synced read-along narration: every line, Pandarus's voice and the others, words highlighting as they're spoken.

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