Æne. I have been seeking you this hour, my lord: 180
Hector by this is arming him in Troy;
Ajax your guard stays to conduct you home.[2273]
Tro. Have with you, prince. My courteous lord, adieu.
Farewell, revolted fair! and, Diomed,
Stand fast, and wear a castle on thy head! 185
Ulyss. I'll bring you to the gates.
Tro. Accept distracted thanks.
[Exeunt Troilus, Æneas, and Ulysses.
Ther. 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 190
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.
Scene III. Troy. Before Priam's palace.[2274]
Enter Hector and Andromache.
And. When was my lord so much ungently temper'd,
To stop his ears against admonishment?
Unarm, unarm, and do not fight to-day.
Hect. You train me to offend you; get you in:[2275]
By all the everlasting gods, I'll go![2276] 5
And. My dreams will, sure, prove ominous to the day.[2277]
Hect. No more, I say.
Enter Cassandra.
Cas. Where is my brother Hector?
And. Here, sister; arm'd, and bloody in intent.
Consort with me in loud and dear petition;[2278]
Pursue we him on knees; for I have dream'd 10
Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night
Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of slaughter.[2279]
Cas. O, 'tis true.
Hect. Ho! bid my trumpet sound!
Cas. No notes of sally, for the heavens, sweet brother.[2280]
Hect. Be gone, I say: the gods have heard me swear. 15
Cas. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows:
They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd
Than spotted livers in the sacrifice.
Cas. It is the purpose that makes strong the vow;[2287]
But vows to every purpose must not hold:
Unarm, sweet Hector.[2288]
Hect. Hold you still, I say; 25
Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate:[2289]
Life every man holds dear; but the dear man[2290]
Holds honour far more precious-dear than life.[2291]
Enter Troilus.
How now, young man! mean'st thou to fight to-day?[2292]
And. Cassandra, call my father to persuade. 30
[Exit Cassandra.
Hect. 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,[2293]
And tempt not yet the brushes of the war.[2294]
Unarm thee, go; and doubt thou not, brave boy, 35
I'll stand to-day for thee and me and Troy.
Tro. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you,
Which better fits a lion than a man.
Hect. What vice is that, good Troilus? chide me for it.[2295]
Tro. When many times the captive Grecian falls,[2296] 40
Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword,[2297]
You bid them rise and live.[2298]
Hect. O, 'tis fair play.
Tro. Fool's play, by heaven, Hector.
Hect. How now! how now!
Tro. For the love of all the gods,[2299]
Let's leave the hermit pity with our mother;[2300] 45
And when we have our armours buckled on,
The venom'd vengeance ride upon our swords,[2301]
Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth![2302]
Hect. Fie, savage, fie!
Tro. Hector, then 'tis wars.[2303]
Hect. Troilus, I would not have you fight to-day. 50
Tro. Who should withhold me?[2304]
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; 55
Nor 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.[2305]
Cas. Lay hold upon him, Priam, hold him fast:[2306]
He is thy crutch; now if thou lose thy stay, 60
Thou on him leaning, and all Troy on thee,
Fall all together.
Pri. Come, Hector, come, go back:[2307]
Thy wife hath dream'd; thy mother hath had visions;
Cassandra doth foresee; and I myself
Am like a prophet suddenly enrapt, 65
To tell thee that this day is ominous:
Therefore, come back.
Hect. Æneas is afield;[2308]
And I do stand engaged to many Greeks,
Even in the faith of valour, to appear
This morning to them.
Pri. Ay, but thou shalt not go.[2309] 70
Hect. 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. 75
Cas. O Priam, yield not to him!
And. Do not, dear father.
Hect. Andromache, I am offended with you:
Upon the love you bear me, get you in. [Exit Andromache.
Tro. This foolish, dreaming, superstitious girl
Makes all these bodements.
Cas. O, farewell, dear Hector! 80
Look, how thou diest! look, how thy eye turns pale![2310]
Look, how thy wounds do bleed at many vents![2311]
Hark, how Troy roars! how Hecuba cries out![2312]
How poor Andromache shrills her dolours forth![2313]
Behold, distraction, frenzy and amazement,[2314] 85
Like witless antics, one another meet,
And all cry 'Hector! Hector's dead! O Hector!'
Cas. Farewell: yet, soft! Hector, I take my leave:[2316]
Thou dost thyself and all our Troy deceive. [Exit. 90
Hect. You are amazed, my liege, at her exclaim:
Go in and cheer the town: we'll forth and fight,[2317]
Do deeds worth praise and tell you them at night.[2318]
Pri. Farewell: the gods with safety stand about thee!
[Exeunt severally Priam and Hector. Alarum.[2319]
Tro. They are at it, hark! Proud Diomed, believe,[2320] 95
I come to lose my arm, or win my sleeve.
Enter Pandarus.[2321]
Pan. Here's a letter come from yond poor girl.[2322]
Pan. A whoreson tisick, a whoreson rascally tisick so[2322][2325]
troubles me, and the foolish fortune of this girl; and what[2322]
one thing, what another, that I shall leave you one o' these[2322][2326]
days: and I have a rheum in mine eyes too, and such an[2322]
ache in my bones that, unless a man were cursed, I cannot[2322] 105
tell what to think on't. What says she there?[2322]
Tro. Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart;[2322]
The effect doth operate another way. [Tearing the letter.[2322][2327]
Go, wind, to wind, there turn and change together.[2322]
My love with words and errors still she feeds,[2322][2328] 110
But edifies another with her deeds. [Exeunt severally.[2322][2329]
Scene IV. The field between Troy and the Grecian camp.
Alarums. Excursions. Enter Thersites.[2330]
Ther. Now they are clapper-clawing one another; I'll go
look on. That dissembling abominable varlet, Diomed, has
got that same scurvy doting foolish young knave's sleeve of[2331][2332]
Troy there in his helm: I would fain see them meet; that[2332]
that same young Trojan ass, that loves the whore there, 5
might send that Greekish whoremasterly villain, with the
sleeve, back to the dissembling luxurious drab, of a sleeveless
errand. O' the t'other side, the policy of those crafty[2333]
swearing rascals, that stale old mouse-eaten dry cheese,[2334]
Nestor, and that same dog-fox, Ulysses, is not proved worth[2335] 10
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[2336]
barbarism, and policy grows into an ill opinion. 15
Enter Diomedes and Troilus.[2337]
Soft! here comes sleeve, and t'other.[2338]
Tro. Fly not; for shouldst thou take the river Styx,[2339]
I would swim after.[2339]
Dio. Thou dost miscall retire:
I do not fly; but advantageous care
Withdrew me from the odds of multitude:[2340] 20
Have at thee![2340]
Ther. Hold thy whore, Grecian! Now for thy whore,
Trojan! Now the sleeve, now the sleeve!
[Exeunt Troilus and Diomedes, fighting.[2341]
Enter Hector.
Hect. What art thou, Greek? art thou for Hector's match?[2342]
Art thou of blood and honour? 25
Ther. No, no: I am a rascal; a scurvy railing knave;[2343]
a very filthy rogue.[2343]
Hect. I do believe thee. Live. [Exit.[2344]
Ther. God-a-mercy, that thou wilt believe me; but a
plague break thy neck for frighting me! What's become of[2345] 30
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.
Scene V. Another part of the field.
Enter Diomedes and Servant.[2346]
Dio. Go, go, my servant, take thou Troilus' horse;[2347]
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.
Ser. I go, my lord. [Exit. 5
Enter Agamemnon.[2348]
Agam. Renew, renew! The fierce Polydamas[2349]
Hath beat down Menon: bastard Margarelon
Hath Doreus prisoner,[2350]
And stands colossus-wise, waving his beam,
Upon the pashed corses of the kings[2351] 10
Epistrophus and Cedius: Polyxenes is slain;[2352]
Amphimachus and Thoas deadly hurt;[2353]
Patroclus ta'en or slain; and Palamedes
Sore hurt and bruised: the dreadful sagittary[2354]
Appals our numbers: haste we, Diomed, 15
To reinforcement, or we perish all.
Enter Nestor.
Nest. Go, bear Patroclus' body to Achilles,[2355]
And bid the snail-paced Ajax arm for shame.
There is a thousand Hectors in the field:[2356]
Now here he fights on Galathe his horse, 20
And there lacks work; anon he's there afoot,
And there they fly or die, like scaled sculls[2357]
Before the belching whale; then is he yonder,
And there the strawy Greeks, ripe for his edge,[2358]
Fall down before him, like the mower's swath:[2359] 25
Here, there and every where he leaves and takes,[2360]
Dexterity so obeying appetite
That what he will he does, and does so much[2361]
That proof is call'd impossibility.
Enter Ulysses.
Ulyss. O, courage, courage, princes! great Achilles 30
Is arming, weeping, cursing, vowing vengeance:
Patroclus' wounds have roused his drowsy blood,[2355]
Together with his mangled Myrmidons,
That noseless, handless, hack'd and chipp'd, come to him,
Crying on Hector. Ajax hath lost a friend, 35
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, 40
As if that luck, in very spite of cunning,[2362][2363]
Bade him win all.[2362]
Enter Ajax.
Ajax. Troilus! thou coward Troilus! [Exit.[2364]
Dio. Ay, there, there.
Nest. So, so, we draw together.[2365]
Enter Achilles.
Achil. Where is this Hector?
Come, come, thou boy-queller, show thy face;[2366] 45
Know what it is to meet Achilles angry:
Hector! where's Hector? I will none but Hector. [Exeunt.[2367]
Scene VI. Another part of the field.[2368]
Enter Ajax.
Ajax. Troilus, thou coward Troilus, show thy head![2369]
Enter Diomedes.
Dio. Troilus, I say! where's Troilus?[2370]
Ajax. What wouldst thou?
Dio. I would correct him.
Ajax. Were I the general, thou shouldst have my office[2371]
Ere that correction. Troilus, I say! what, Troilus! 5
Enter Troilus.
Tro. O traitor Diomed! Turn thy false face, thou traitor.
And pay thy life thou owest me for my horse.[2372]
Dio. Ha, art thou there?
Ajax. I'll fight with him alone: stand, Diomed.
Dio. He is my prize; I will not look upon.[2373] 10
Tro. Come both, you cogging Greeks; have at you both! [Exeunt, fighting.
Enter Hector.[2374]
Hect. Yea, Troilus? O, well fought, my youngest brother!
Enter Achilles.
Achil. Now do I see thee; ha! have at thee, Hector![2375]
Hect. Pause, if thou wilt.[2376]
Achil. I do disdain thy courtesy, proud Trojan: 15
Be happy that my arms are out of use:
My rest and negligence befriends thee now,[2377]
But thou anon shalt hear of me again;[2378]
Till when, go seek thy fortune. [Exit.[2379]
Hect. Fare thee well:
I would have been much more a fresher man,[2380] 20
Had I expected thee.
Re-enter Troilus.[2381]