| [Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS] | |
| ACHILLES | I'll heat his blood with Greekish wine to-night,
Which with my scimitar I'll cool to-morrow. Patroclus, let us feast him to the height. |
| PATROCLUS | Here comes Thersites. |
| [Enter THERSITES] | |
| ACHILLES | How now, thou core of envy!
Thou crusty batch of nature, what's the news? |
| THERSITES | Why, thou picture of what thou seemest, and idol
of idiot worshippers, here's a letter for thee. |
| ACHILLES | From whence, fragment? |
| THERSITES | Why, thou full dish of fool, from Troy. |
| PATROCLUS | Who keeps the tent now? |
| THERSITES | The surgeon's box, or the patient's wound. |
| PATROCLUS | Well said, adversity! and what need these tricks? |
| THERSITES | Prithee, be silent, boy; I profit not by thy talk:
thou art thought to be Achilles' male varlet. |
| PATROCLUS | Male varlet, you rogue! what's that? |
| THERSITES | Why, his masculine whore. Now, the rotten diseases
of the south, the guts-griping, ruptures, catarrhs, loads o' gravel i' the back, lethargies, cold palsies, raw eyes, dirt-rotten livers, wheezing lungs, bladders full of imposthume, sciaticas, limekilns i' the palm, incurable bone-ache, and the rivelled fee-simple of the tetter, take and take again such preposterous discoveries! |
| PATROCLUS | Why thou damnable box of envy, thou, what meanest
thou to curse thus? |
| THERSITES | Do I curse thee? |
| PATROCLUS | Why no, you ruinous butt, you whoreson
indistinguishable cur, no. |
| THERSITES | No! why art thou then exasperate, thou idle
immaterial skein of sleave-silk, thou green sarcenet flap for a sore eye, thou tassel of a prodigal's purse, thou? Ah, how the poor world is pestered with such waterflies, diminutives of nature! |
| PATROCLUS | Out, gall! |
| THERSITES | Finch-egg! |
| ACHILLES | My sweet Patroclus, I am thwarted quite
From my great purpose in to-morrow's battle. Here is a letter from Queen Hecuba, A token from her daughter, my fair love, Both taxing me and gaging me to keep An oath that I have sworn. I will not break it: Fall Greeks; fail fame; honour or go or stay; My major vow lies here, this I'll obey. Come, come, Thersites, help to trim my tent: This night in banqueting must all be spent. Away, Patroclus! |
| [Exeunt ACHILLES and PATROCLUS] | |
| THERSITES | With too much blood and too little brain, these two
may run mad; but, if with too much brain and too little blood they do, I'll be a curer of madmen. Here's Agamemnon, an honest fellow enough and one that loves quails; but he has not so much brain as earwax: and the goodly transformation of Jupiter there, his brother, the bull,--the primitive statue, and oblique memorial of cuckolds; a thrifty shoeing-horn in a chain, hanging at his brother's leg,--to what form but that he is, should wit larded with malice and malice forced with wit turn him to? To an ass, were nothing; he is both ass and ox: to an ox, were nothing; he is both ox and ass. To be a dog, a mule, a cat, a fitchew, a toad, a lizard, an owl, a puttock, or a herring without a roe, I would not care; but to be Menelaus, I would conspire against destiny. Ask me not, what I would be, if I were not Thersites; for I care not to be the louse of a lazar, so I were not Menelaus! Hey-day! spirits and fires! |
| [Enter HECTOR, TROILUS, AJAX, AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES,
NESTOR, MENELAUS, and DIOMEDES, with lights] | |
| AGAMEMNON | We go wrong, we go wrong. |
| AJAX | No, yonder 'tis;
There, where we see the lights. |
| HECTOR | I trouble you. |
| AJAX | No, not a whit. |
| ULYSSES | Here comes himself to guide you. |
| [Re-enter ACHILLES] | |
| ACHILLES | Welcome, brave Hector; welcome, princes all. |
| AGAMEMNON | So now, fair prince of Troy, I bid good night.
Ajax commands the guard to tend on you. |
| HECTOR | Thanks and good night to the Greeks' general. |
| MENELAUS | Good night, my lord. |
| HECTOR | Good night, sweet lord Menelaus. |
| THERSITES | Sweet draught: 'sweet' quoth 'a! sweet sink,
sweet sewer. |
| ACHILLES | Good night and welcome, both at once, to those
That go or tarry. |
| AGAMEMNON | Good night. |
| [Exeunt AGAMEMNON and MENELAUS] | |
| ACHILLES | Old Nestor tarries; and you too, Diomed,
Keep Hector company an hour or two. |
| DIOMEDES | I cannot, lord; I have important business,
The tide whereof is now. Good night, great Hector. |
| HECTOR | Give me your hand. |
| ULYSSES | [Aside to TROILUS] Follow his torch; he goes to
Calchas' tent: I'll keep you company. |
| TROILUS | Sweet sir, you honour me. |
| HECTOR | And so, good night. |
| [Exit DIOMEDES; ULYSSES and TROILUS following] | |
| ACHILLES | Come, come, enter my tent. |
| [Exeunt ACHILLES, HECTOR, AJAX, and NESTOR] | |
| THERSITES | That same Diomed's a false-hearted rogue, a most
unjust knave; I will no more trust him when he leers than I will a serpent when he hisses: he will spend his mouth, and promise, like Brabbler the hound: but when he performs, astronomers foretell it; it is prodigious, there will come some change; the sun borrows of the moon, when Diomed keeps his word. I will rather leave to see Hector, than not to dog him: they say he keeps a Trojan drab, and uses the traitor Calchas' tent: I'll after. Nothing but lechery! all incontinent varlets! |
| [Exit] |
| [Enter DIOMEDES] | |
| DIOMEDES | What, are you up here, ho? speak. |
| CALCHAS | [Within] Who calls? |
| DIOMEDES | Calchas, I think. Where's your daughter? |
| CALCHAS | [Within] She comes to you. |
| [Enter TROILUS and ULYSSES, at a distance;
after them, THERSITES] | |
| ULYSSES | Stand where the torch may not discover us. |
| [Enter CRESSIDA] | |
| TROILUS | Cressid comes forth to him. |
| DIOMEDES | How now, my charge! |
| CRESSIDA | Now, my sweet guardian! Hark, a word with you. |
| [Whispers] | |
| TROILUS | Yea, so familiar! |
| ULYSSES | She will sing any man at first sight. |
| THERSITES | And any man may sing her, if he can take her cliff;
she's noted. |
| DIOMEDES | Will you remember? |
| CRESSIDA | Remember! yes. |
| DIOMEDES | Nay, but do, then;
And let your mind be coupled with your words. |
| TROILUS | What should she remember? |
| ULYSSES | List. |
| CRESSIDA | Sweet honey Greek, tempt me no more to folly. |
| THERSITES | Roguery! |
| DIOMEDES | Nay, then,-- |
| CRESSIDA | I'll tell you what,-- |
| DIOMEDES | Foh, foh! come, tell a pin: you are forsworn. |
| CRESSIDA | In faith, I cannot: what would you have me do? |
| THERSITES | A juggling trick,--to be secretly open. |
| DIOMEDES | What did you swear you would bestow on me? |
| CRESSIDA | I prithee, do not hold me to mine oath;
Bid me do any thing but that, sweet Greek. |
| DIOMEDES | Good night. |
| TROILUS | Hold, patience! |
| ULYSSES | How now, Trojan! |
| CRESSIDA | Diomed,-- |
| DIOMEDES | No, no, good night: I'll be your fool no more. |
| TROILUS | Thy better must. |
| CRESSIDA | Hark, one word in your ear. |
| TROILUS | O plague and madness! |
| ULYSSES | You are moved, prince; let us depart, I pray you,
Lest your displeasure should enlarge itself To wrathful terms: this place is dangerous; The time right deadly; I beseech you, go. |
| TROILUS | Behold, I pray you! |
| ULYSSES | Nay, good my lord, go off:
You flow to great distraction; come, my lord. |
| TROILUS | I pray thee, stay. |
| ULYSSES | You have not patience; come. |
| TROILUS | I pray you, stay; by hell and all hell's torments
I will not speak a word! |
| DIOMEDES | And so, good night. |
| CRESSIDA | Nay, but you part in anger. |
| TROILUS | Doth that grieve thee?
O wither'd truth! |
| ULYSSES | Why, how now, lord! |
| TROILUS | By Jove,
I will be patient. |
| CRESSIDA | Guardian!--why, Greek! |
| DIOMEDES | Foh, foh! adieu; you palter. |
| CRESSIDA | In faith, I do not: come hither once again. |
| ULYSSES | You shake, my lord, at something: will you go?
You will break out. |
| TROILUS | She strokes his cheek! |
| ULYSSES | Come, come. |
| TROILUS | Nay, stay; by Jove, I will not speak a word:
There is between my will and all offences A guard of patience: stay a little while. |
| THERSITES | How the devil Luxury, with his fat rump and
potato-finger, tickles these together! Fry, lechery, fry! |
| DIOMEDES | But will you, then? |
| CRESSIDA | In faith, I will, la; never trust me else. |
| DIOMEDES | Give me some token for the surety of it. |
| CRESSIDA | I'll fetch you one. |
| [Exit] | |
| ULYSSES | You have sworn patience. |
| TROILUS | Fear me not, sweet lord;
I will not be myself, nor have cognition Of what I feel: I am all patience. |
| [Re-enter CRESSIDA] | |
| THERSITES | Now the pledge; now, now, now! |
| CRESSIDA | Here, Diomed, keep this sleeve. |
| TROILUS | O beauty! where is thy faith? |
| ULYSSES | My lord,-- |
| TROILUS | I will be patient; outwardly I will. |
| CRESSIDA | You look upon that sleeve; behold it well.
He loved me--O false wench!--Give't me again. |
| DIOMEDES | Whose was't? |
| CRESSIDA | It is no matter, now I have't again.
I will not meet with you to-morrow night: I prithee, Diomed, visit me no more. |
| THERSITES | Now she sharpens: well said, whetstone! |
| DIOMEDES | I shall have it. |
| CRESSIDA | What, this? |
| DIOMEDES | Ay, that. |
| CRESSIDA | O, all you gods! O pretty, pretty pledge!
Thy master now lies thinking in his bed Of thee and me, and sighs, and takes my glove, And gives memorial dainty kisses to it, As I kiss thee. Nay, do not snatch it from me; He that takes that doth take my heart withal. |
| DIOMEDES | I had your heart before, this follows it. |
| TROILUS | I did swear patience. |
| CRESSIDA | You shall not have it, Diomed; faith, you shall not;
I'll give you something else. |
| DIOMEDES | I will have this: whose was it? |
| CRESSIDA | It is no matter. |
| DIOMEDES | Come, tell me whose it was. |
| CRESSIDA | 'Twas one's that loved me better than you will.
But, now you have it, take it. |
| DIOMEDES | Whose was it? |
| CRESSIDA | By all Diana's waiting-women yond,
And by herself, I will not tell you whose. |
| DIOMEDES | To-morrow will I wear it on my helm,
And grieve his spirit that dares not challenge it. |
| TROILUS | Wert thou the devil, and worest it on thy horn,
It should be challenged. |
| CRESSIDA | Well, well, 'tis done, 'tis past: and yet it is not;
I will not keep my word. |
| DIOMEDES | Why, then, farewell;
Thou never shalt mock Diomed again. |
| CRESSIDA | You shall not go: one cannot speak a word,
But it straight starts you. |
| DIOMEDES | I do not like this fooling. |
| THERSITES | Nor I, by Pluto: but that that likes not you pleases me best. |
| DIOMEDES | What, shall I come? the hour? |
| CRESSIDA | Ay, come:--O Jove!--do come:--I shall be plagued. |
| DIOMEDES | Farewell till then. |
| CRESSIDA | Good night: I prithee, come. |
| [Exit DIOMEDES] | |
| Troilus, farewell! one eye yet looks on thee
But with my heart the other eye doth see. Ah, poor our sex! this fault in us I find, The error of our eye directs our mind: What error leads must err; O, then conclude Minds sway'd by eyes are full of turpitude. | |
| [Exit] | |
| THERSITES | A proof of strength she could not publish more,
Unless she said ' My mind is now turn'd whore.' |
| ULYSSES | All's done, my lord. |
| TROILUS | It is. |
| ULYSSES | Why stay we, then? |
| TROILUS | To make a recordation to my soul
Of every syllable that here was spoke. But if I tell how these two did co-act, Shall I not lie in publishing a truth? Sith yet there is a credence in my heart, An esperance so obstinately strong, That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears, As if those organs had deceptious functions, Created only to calumniate. Was Cressid here? |
| ULYSSES | I cannot conjure, Trojan. |
| TROILUS | She was not, sure. |
| ULYSSES | Most sure she was. |
| TROILUS | Why, my negation hath no taste of madness. |
| ULYSSES | Nor mine, my lord: Cressid was here but now. |
| TROILUS | Let it not be believed for womanhood!
Think, we had mothers; do not give advantage To stubborn critics, apt, without a theme, For depravation, to square the general sex By Cressid's rule: rather think this not Cressid. |
| ULYSSES | What hath she done, prince, that can soil our mothers? |
| TROILUS | Nothing at all, unless that this were she. |
| THERSITES | Will he swagger himself out on's own eyes? |
| TROILUS | This she? no, this is Diomed's Cressida:
If beauty have a soul, this is not she; If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimonies, If sanctimony be the gods' delight, If there be rule in unity itself, This is not she. O madness of discourse, That cause sets up with and against itself! Bi-fold authority! where reason can revolt Without perdition, and loss assume all reason Without revolt: this is, and is not, Cressid. Within my soul there doth conduce a fight Of this strange nature that a thing inseparate Divides more wider than the sky and earth, And yet the spacious breadth of this division Admits no orifex for a point as subtle As Ariachne's broken woof to enter. Instance, O instance! strong as Pluto's gates; Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven: Instance, O instance! strong as heaven itself; The bonds of heaven are slipp'd, dissolved, and loosed; And with another knot, five-finger-tied, The fractions of her faith, orts of her love, The fragments, scraps, the bits and greasy relics Of her o'er-eaten faith, are bound to Diomed. |
| ULYSSES | May worthy Troilus be half attach'd
With that which here his passion doth express? |
| TROILUS | Ay, Greek; and that shall be divulged well
In characters as red as Mars his heart Inflamed with Venus: never did young man fancy With so eternal and so fix'd a soul. Hark, Greek: as much as I do Cressid love, So much by weight hate I her Diomed: That sleeve is mine that he'll bear on his helm; Were it a casque composed by Vulcan's skill, My sword should bite it: not the dreadful spout Which shipmen do the hurricano call, Constringed in mass by the almighty sun, Shall dizzy with more clamour Neptune's ear In his descent than shall my prompted sword Falling on Diomed. |
| THERSITES | He'll tickle it for his concupy. |
| TROILUS | O Cressid! O false Cressid! false, false, false!
Let all untruths stand by thy stained name, And they'll seem glorious. |
| ULYSSES | O, contain yourself
Your passion draws ears hither. |
| [Enter AENEAS] | |
| AENEAS | I have been seeking you this hour, my lord:
Hector, by this, is arming him in Troy; Ajax, your guard, stays to conduct you home. |
| TROILUS | Have with you, prince. My courteous lord, adieu.
Farewell, revolted fair! and, Diomed, Stand fast, and wear a castle on thy head! |
| ULYSSES | I'll bring you to the gates. |
| TROILUS | Accept distracted thanks. |
| [Exeunt TROILUS, AENEAS, and ULYSSES] | |
| THERSITES | Would I could meet that rogue Diomed! I would
croak like a raven; I would bode, I would bode. Patroclus will give me any thing for the intelligence of this whore: the parrot will not do more for an almond than he for a commodious drab. Lechery, lechery; still, wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion: a burning devil take them! |
| [Exit] |
| [Enter HECTOR and ANDROMACHE] | |
| ANDROMACHE | When was my lord so much ungently temper'd,
To stop his ears against admonishment? Unarm, unarm, and do not fight to-day. |
| HECTOR | You train me to offend you; get you in:
By all the everlasting gods, I'll go! |
| ANDROMACHE | My dreams will, sure, prove ominous to the day. |
| HECTOR | No more, I say. |
| [Enter CASSANDRA] | |
| CASSANDRA | Where is my brother Hector? |
| ANDROMACHE | Here, sister; arm'd, and bloody in intent.
Consort with me in loud and dear petition, Pursue we him on knees; for I have dream'd Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of slaughter. |
| CASSANDRA | O, 'tis true. |
| HECTOR | Ho! bid my trumpet sound! |
| CASSANDRA | No notes of sally, for the heavens, sweet brother. |
| HECTOR | Be gone, I say: the gods have heard me swear. |
| CASSANDRA | The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows:
They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd Than spotted livers in the sacrifice. |
| ANDROMACHE | O, be persuaded! do not count it holy
To hurt by being just: it is as lawful, For we would give much, to use violent thefts, And rob in the behalf of charity. |
| CASSANDRA | It is the purpose that makes strong the vow;
But vows to every purpose must not hold: Unarm, sweet Hector. |
| HECTOR | Hold you still, I say;
Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate: Lie every man holds dear; but the brave man Holds honour far more precious-dear than life. |
| [Enter TROILUS] | |
| How now, young man! mean'st thou to fight to-day? | |
| ANDROMACHE | Cassandra, call my father to persuade. |
| [Exit CASSANDRA] | |
| HECTOR | No, faith, young Troilus; doff thy harness, youth;
I am to-day i' the vein of chivalry: Let grow thy sinews till their knots be strong, And tempt not yet the brushes of the war. Unarm thee, go, and doubt thou not, brave boy, I'll stand to-day for thee and me and Troy. |
| TROILUS | Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you,
Which better fits a lion than a man. |
| HECTOR | What vice is that, good Troilus? chide me for it. |
| TROILUS | When many times the captive Grecian falls,
Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword, You bid them rise, and live. |
| HECTOR | O,'tis fair play. |
| TROILUS | Fool's play, by heaven, Hector. |
| HECTOR | How now! how now! |
| TROILUS | For the love of all the gods,
Let's leave the hermit pity with our mothers, And when we have our armours buckled on, The venom'd vengeance ride upon our swords, Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth. |
| HECTOR | Fie, savage, fie! |
| TROILUS | Hector, then 'tis wars. |
| HECTOR | Troilus, I would not have you fight to-day. |
| TROILUS | Who should withhold me?
Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars Beckoning with fiery truncheon my retire; Not Priamus and Hecuba on knees, Their eyes o'ergalled with recourse of tears; Not you, my brother, with your true sword drawn, Opposed to hinder me, should stop my way, But by my ruin. |
| [Re-enter CASSANDRA, with PRIAM] | |
| CASSANDRA | Lay hold upon him, Priam, hold him fast:
He is thy crutch; now if thou lose thy stay, Thou on him leaning, and all Troy on thee, Fall all together. |
| PRIAM | Come, Hector, come, go back:
Thy wife hath dream'd; thy mother hath had visions; Cassandra doth foresee; and I myself Am like a prophet suddenly enrapt To tell thee that this day is ominous: Therefore, come back. |
| HECTOR | AEneas is a-field;
And I do stand engaged to many Greeks, Even in the faith of valour, to appear This morning to them. |
| PRIAM | Ay, but thou shalt not go. |
| HECTOR | I must not break my faith.
You know me dutiful; therefore, dear sir, Let me not shame respect; but give me leave To take that course by your consent and voice, Which you do here forbid me, royal Priam. |
| CASSANDRA | O Priam, yield not to him! |
| ANDROMACHE | Do not, dear father. |
| HECTOR | Andromache, I am offended with you:
Upon the love you bear me, get you in. |
| [Exit ANDROMACHE] | |
| TROILUS | This foolish, dreaming, superstitious girl
Makes all these bodements. |
| CASSANDRA | O, farewell, dear Hector!
Look, how thou diest! look, how thy eye turns pale! Look, how thy wounds do bleed at many vents! Hark, how Troy roars! how Hecuba cries out! How poor Andromache shrills her dolours forth! Behold, distraction, frenzy and amazement, Like witless antics, one another meet, And all cry, Hector! Hector's dead! O Hector! |
| TROILUS | Away! away! |
| CASSANDRA | Farewell: yet, soft! Hector! take my leave:
Thou dost thyself and all our Troy deceive. |
| [Exit] | |
| HECTOR | You are amazed, my liege, at her exclaim:
Go in and cheer the town: we'll forth and fight, Do deeds worth praise and tell you them at night. |
| PRIAM | Farewell: the gods with safety stand about thee! |
| [Exeunt severally PRIAM and HECTOR. Alarums] | |
| TROILUS | They are at it, hark! Proud Diomed, believe,
I come to lose my arm, or win my sleeve. |
| [Enter PANDARUS] | |
| PANDARUS | Do you hear, my lord? do you hear? |
| TROILUS | What now? |
| PANDARUS | Here's a letter come from yond poor girl. |
| TROILUS | Let me read. |
| PANDARUS | A whoreson tisick, a whoreson rascally tisick so
troubles me, and the foolish fortune of this girl; and what one thing, what another, that I shall leave you one o' these days: and I have a rheum in mine eyes too, and such an ache in my bones that, unless a man were cursed, I cannot tell what to think on't. What says she there? |
| TROILUS | Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart:
The effect doth operate another way. |
| [Tearing the letter] | |
| Go, wind, to wind, there turn and change together.
My love with words and errors still she feeds; But edifies another with her deeds. | |
| [Exeunt severally] |
| [Alarums: excursions. Enter THERSITES] | |
| THERSITES | Now they are clapper-clawing one another; I'll go
look on. That dissembling abominable varlets Diomed, has got that same scurvy doting foolish young knave's sleeve of Troy there in his helm: I would fain see them meet; that that same young Trojan ass, that loves the whore there, might send that Greekish whore-masterly villain, with the sleeve, back to the dissembling luxurious drab, of a sleeveless errand. O' the t'other side, the policy of those crafty swearing rascals, that stale old mouse-eaten dry cheese, Nestor, and that same dog-fox, Ulysses, is not proved worthy a blackberry: they set me up, in policy, that mongrel cur, Ajax, against that dog of as bad a kind, Achilles: and now is the cur Ajax prouder than the cur Achilles, and will not arm to-day; whereupon the Grecians begin to proclaim barbarism, and policy grows into an ill opinion. Soft! here comes sleeve, and t'other. |
| [Enter DIOMEDES, TROILUS following] | |
| TROILUS | Fly not; for shouldst thou take the river Styx,
I would swim after. |
| DIOMEDES | Thou dost miscall retire:
I do not fly, but advantageous care Withdrew me from the odds of multitude: Have at thee! |
| THERSITES | Hold thy whore, Grecian!--now for thy whore,
Trojan!--now the sleeve, now the sleeve! |
| [Exeunt TROILUS and DIOMEDES, fighting] | |
| [Enter HECTOR] | |
| HECTOR | What art thou, Greek? art thou for Hector's match?
Art thou of blood and honour? |
| THERSITES | No, no, I am a rascal; a scurvy railing knave:
a very filthy rogue. |
| HECTOR | I do believe thee: live. |
| [Exit] | |
| THERSITES | God-a-mercy, that thou wilt believe me; but a
plague break thy neck for frightening me! What's become of the wenching rogues? I think they have swallowed one another: I would laugh at that miracle: yet, in a sort, lechery eats itself. I'll seek them. |
| [Exit] |
| [Enter DIOMEDES and a Servant] | |
| DIOMEDES | Go, go, my servant, take thou Troilus' horse;
Present the fair steed to my lady Cressid: Fellow, commend my service to her beauty; Tell her I have chastised the amorous Trojan, And am her knight by proof. |
| Servant | I go, my lord. |
| [Exit] | |
| [Enter AGAMEMNON] | |
| AGAMEMNON | Renew, renew! The fierce Polydamas
Hath beat down Menon: bastard Margarelon Hath Doreus prisoner, And stands colossus-wise, waving his beam, Upon the pashed corses of the kings Epistrophus and Cedius: Polyxenes is slain, Amphimachus and Thoas deadly hurt, Patroclus ta'en or slain, and Palamedes Sore hurt and bruised: the dreadful Sagittary Appals our numbers: haste we, Diomed, To reinforcement, or we perish all. |
| [Enter NESTOR] | |
| NESTOR | Go, bear Patroclus' body to Achilles;
And bid the snail-paced Ajax arm for shame. There is a thousand Hectors in the field: Now here he fights on Galathe his horse, And there lacks work; anon he's there afoot, And there they fly or die, like scaled sculls Before the belching whale; then is he yonder, And there the strawy Greeks, ripe for his edge, Fall down before him, like the mower's swath: Here, there, and every where, he leaves and takes, Dexterity so obeying appetite That what he will he does, and does so much That proof is call'd impossibility. |
| [Enter ULYSSES] | |
| 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, hack'd and chipp'd, come to him, Crying on Hector. Ajax hath lost a friend And foams at mouth, and he is arm'd and at it, Roaring for Troilus, who hath done to-day Mad and fantastic execution, Engaging and redeeming of himself With such a careless force and forceless care As if that luck, in very spite of cunning, Bade him win all. |
| [Enter AJAX] | |
| AJAX | Troilus! thou coward Troilus! |
| [Exit] | |
| DIOMEDES | Ay, there, there. |
| NESTOR | So, so, we draw together. |
| [Enter ACHILLES] | |
| ACHILLES | Where is this Hector?
Come, come, thou boy-queller, show thy face; Know what it is to meet Achilles angry: Hector? where's Hector? I will none but Hector. |
| [Exeunt] |
| [Enter AJAX] | |
| AJAX | Troilus, thou coward Troilus, show thy head! |
| [Enter DIOMEDES] | |
| DIOMEDES | Troilus, I say! where's Troilus? |
| AJAX | What wouldst thou? |
| DIOMEDES | I would correct him. |
| AJAX | Were I the general, thou shouldst have my office
Ere that correction. Troilus, I say! what, Troilus! |
| [Enter TROILUS] | |
| TROILUS | O traitor Diomed! turn thy false face, thou traitor,
And pay thy life thou owest me for my horse! |
| DIOMEDES | Ha, art thou there? |
| AJAX | I'll fight with him alone: stand, Diomed. |
| DIOMEDES | He is my prize; I will not look upon. |
| TROILUS | Come, both you cogging Greeks; have at you both! |
| [Exeunt, fighting] | |
| [Enter HECTOR] | |
| HECTOR | Yea, Troilus? O, well fought, my youngest brother! |
| [Enter ACHILLES] | |
| ACHILLES | Now do I see thee, ha! have at thee, Hector! |
| HECTOR | Pause, if thou wilt. |
| ACHILLES | I do disdain thy courtesy, proud Trojan:
Be happy that my arms are out of use: My rest and negligence befriends thee now, But thou anon shalt hear of me again; Till when, go seek thy fortune. |
| [Exit] | |
| HECTOR | Fare thee well:
I would have been much more a fresher man, Had I expected thee. How now, my brother! |
| [Re-enter TROILUS] | |
| TROILUS | Ajax hath ta'en AEneas: shall it be?
No, by the flame of yonder glorious heaven, He shall not carry him: I'll be ta'en too, Or bring him off: fate, hear me what I say! I reck not though I end my life to-day. |
| [Exit] | |
| [Enter one in sumptuous armour] | |
| HECTOR | Stand, stand, thou Greek; thou art a goodly mark:
No? wilt thou not? I like thy armour well; I'll frush it and unlock the rivets all, But I'll be master of it: wilt thou not, beast, abide? Why, then fly on, I'll hunt thee for thy hide. |
| [Exeunt] |
| [Enter ACHILLES, with Myrmidons] | |
| ACHILLES | Come here about me, you my Myrmidons;
Mark what I say. Attend me where I wheel: Strike not a stroke, but keep yourselves in breath: And when I have the bloody Hector found, Empale him with your weapons round about; In fellest manner execute your aims. Follow me, sirs, and my proceedings eye: It is decreed Hector the great must die. |
| [Exeunt] | |
| [Enter MENELAUS and PARIS, fighting:
then THERSITES] | |
| THERSITES | The cuckold and the cuckold-maker are at it. Now,
bull! now, dog! 'Loo, Paris, 'loo! now my double- henned sparrow! 'loo, Paris, 'loo! The bull has the game: ware horns, ho! |
| [Exeunt PARIS and MENELAUS] | |
| [Enter MARGARELON] | |
| MARGARELON | Turn, slave, and fight. |
| THERSITES | What art thou? |
| MARGARELON | A bastard son of Priam's. |
| THERSITES | I am a bastard too; I love bastards: I am a bastard
begot, bastard instructed, bastard in mind, bastard in valour, in every thing illegitimate. One bear will not bite another, and wherefore should one bastard? Take heed, the quarrel's most ominous to us: if the son of a whore fight for a whore, he tempts judgment: farewell, bastard. |
| [Exit] | |
| MARGARELON | The devil take thee, coward! |
| [Exit] |
| [Enter HECTOR] | |
| HECTOR | Most putrefied core, so fair without,
Thy goodly armour thus hath cost thy life. Now is my day's work done; I'll take good breath: Rest, sword; thou hast thy fill of blood and death. |
| [Puts off his helmet and hangs his shield
behind him] | |
| [Enter ACHILLES and Myrmidons] | |
| ACHILLES | Look, Hector, how the sun begins to set;
How ugly night comes breathing at his heels: Even with the vail and darking of the sun, To close the day up, Hector's life is done. |
| HECTOR | I am unarm'd; forego this vantage, Greek. |
| ACHILLES | Strike, fellows, strike; this is the man I seek. |
| [HECTOR falls] | |
| So, Ilion, fall thou next! now, Troy, sink down!
Here lies thy heart, thy sinews, and thy bone. On, Myrmidons, and cry you all amain, 'Achilles hath the mighty Hector slain.' | |
| [A retreat sounded] | |
| Hark! a retire upon our Grecian part. | |
| MYRMIDONS | The Trojan trumpets sound the like, my lord. |
| ACHILLES | The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth,
And, stickler-like, the armies separates. My half-supp'd sword, that frankly would have fed, Pleased with this dainty bait, thus goes to bed. |
| [Sheathes his sword] | |
| Come, tie his body to my horse's tail;
Along the field I will the Trojan trail. | |
| [Exeunt] |
| [Enter AGAMEMNON, AJAX, MENELAUS, NESTOR, DIOMEDES,
and others, marching. Shouts within] | |
| AGAMEMNON | Hark! hark! what shout is that? |
| NESTOR | Peace, drums! |
| [Within] | |
| Achilles! Achilles! Hector's slain! Achilles. | |
| DIOMEDES | The bruit is, Hector's slain, and by Achilles. |
| AJAX | If it be so, yet bragless let it be;
Great Hector was a man as good as he. |
| AGAMEMNON | March patiently along: let one be sent
To pray Achilles see us at our tent. If in his death the gods have us befriended, Great Troy is ours, and our sharp wars are ended. |
| [Exeunt, marching] |
| [Enter AENEAS and Trojans] | |
| AENEAS | Stand, ho! yet are we masters of the field:
Never go home; here starve we out the night. |
| [Enter TROILUS] | |
| TROILUS | Hector is slain. |
| ALL | Hector! the gods forbid! |
| TROILUS | He's dead; and at the murderer's horse's tail,
In beastly sort, dragg'd through the shameful field. Frown on, you heavens, effect your rage with speed! Sit, gods, upon your thrones, and smile at Troy! I say, at once let your brief plagues be mercy, And linger not our sure destructions on! |
| AENEAS | My lord, you do discomfort all the host! |
| TROILUS | You understand me not that tell me so:
I do not speak of flight, of fear, of death, But dare all imminence that gods and men Address their dangers in. Hector is gone: Who shall tell Priam so, or Hecuba? Let him that will a screech-owl aye be call'd, Go in to Troy, and say there, Hector's dead: There is a word will Priam turn to stone; Make wells and Niobes of the maids and wives, Cold statues of the youth, and, in a word, Scare Troy out of itself. But, march away: Hector is dead; there is no more to say. Stay yet. You vile abominable tents, Thus proudly pight upon our Phrygian plains, Let Titan rise as early as he dare, I'll through and through you! and, thou great-sized coward, No space of earth shall sunder our two hates: I'll haunt thee like a wicked conscience still, That mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy's thoughts. Strike a free march to Troy! with comfort go: Hope of revenge shall hide our inward woe. |
| [Exeunt AENEAS and Trojans] | |
| [As TROILUS is going out, enter, from the other
side, PANDARUS] | |
| PANDARUS | But hear you, hear you! |
| TROILUS | Hence, broker-lackey! ignomy and shame
Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy name! |
| [Exit] | |
| PANDARUS | A goodly medicine for my aching bones! O world!
world! world! thus is the poor agent despised! O traitors and bawds, how earnestly are you set a-work, and how ill requited! why should our endeavour be so loved and the performance so loathed? what verse for it? what instance for it? Let me see: Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing, Till he hath lost his honey and his sting; And being once subdued in armed tail, Sweet honey and sweet notes together fail. Good traders in the flesh, set this in your painted cloths. As many as be here of pander's hall, Your eyes, half out, weep out at Pandar's fall; Or if you cannot weep, yet give some groans, Though not for me, yet for your aching bones. Brethren and sisters of the hold-door trade, Some two months hence my will shall here be made: It should be now, but that my fear is this, Some galled goose of Winchester would hiss: Till then I'll sweat and seek about for eases, And at that time bequeathe you my diseases. |
| [Exit] |