Thou on him leaning, and all Troy on thee,
Fall all together.
PRIAM Come, Hector, come. Go back.
Thy wife hath dreamt, 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.
HECTOR Aeneas is afield,
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.
70
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.
75
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!
80
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 dolour forth!
Behold, distraction, frenzy and amazement,
85
Like witless antics, one another meet,
And all cry, ‘Hector! Hector’s dead! O, Hector!’
TROILUS Away! Away!
CASSANDRA Farewell. Yet soft! Hector, I take my leave.
Thou dost thyself and all our Troy deceive. Exit.
90
HECTOR [to Priam]
You are amazed, my liege, at her exclaim.
Go in and cheer the town. We’ll forth and fight,
Do deeds of praise, and tell you them at night.
PRIAM
Farewell. The gods with safety stand about thee!
Exeunt Priam and Hector at different doors. Alarum.
TROILUS
They are at it, hark! – Proud Diomed, believe,
95
I come to lose my arm or win my sleeve.
Enter PANDARUS with a letter.
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. [Reads.]
100
PANDARUS A whoreson phthisic, a whoreson rascally
phthisic 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 rheum in mine eyes
too, and such an ache in my bones that, unless a man
105
were cursed, I cannot tell what to think on’t. – What
says she there?
TROILUS
Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart;
Th’effect doth operate another way.
[Tears the letter and tosses it away.]
Go, wind, to wind! There turn and change together.
110
My love with words and errors still she feeds,
But edifies another with her deeds. Exeunt severally.
5.4 Alarum; excursions. Enter THERSITES.
THERSITES 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 Troy there in his helm. I
would fain see them meet, that that same young
5
Trojan ass that loves the whore there might send that
Greekish whoremasterly villain with the sleeve back to
the dissembling luxurious drab, of a sleeveless errand.
O’th’ t’other side, the policy of those crafty swearing
rascals – that stale old mouse-eaten dry cheese,
10
NESTOR, and that same dog-fox, Ulysses – is proved not
worth 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 today, whereupon the
15
Grecians began to proclaim barbarism, and policy
grows into an ill opinion.
Enter DIOMEDES, wearing Cressida’s sleeve on his helmet, and TROILUS following.
Soft! Here comes sleeve and t’other. [Stands aside.]
TROILUS [to Diomedes]
Fly not, for shouldst thou take the river Styx
I would swim after.
DIOMEDES Thou dost miscall retire.
20
I do not fly, but advantageous care
Withdrew me from the odds of multitude.
Have at thee! [They fight.]
THERSITES Hold thy whore, Grecian! Now for thy
whore, Trojan! Now the sleeve, now the sleeve!
25
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.
30
THERSITES God-a-mercy, that thou wilt believe me; but
a plague break thy neck for frighting 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.
35
5.5 Enter DIOMEDES and 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.
5
Enter AGAMEMNON.
AGAMEMNON Renew, renew! The fierce Polydamas
Hath beat down Menon; bastard Margareton
Hath Doreus prisoner,
And stands colossus-wise, waving his beam
Upon the pashed corpses of the kings
10
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,
15
To reinforcement, or we perish all.
Enter NESTOR with soldiers bearing Patroclus’ body.
NESTOR [to his soldiers]
Go, bear Patroclus’ body to Achilles,
And bid the snail-paced Ajax arm for shame.
Exeunt some soldiers with the body.
There is a thousand Hectors in the field.
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 schools
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.
25
Here, there and everywhere he leaves and takes,
Dexterity so obeying appetite
That what he will he does, and does so much
Tha
t proof is called impossibility.
Enter ULYSSES.
ULYSSES O, courage, courage, princes! Great Achilles
30
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
35
And foams at mouth, and he is armed and at it,
Roaring for Troilus, who hath done today
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,
Bade him win all.
Enter AJAX.
AJAX Troilus! Thou coward Troilus!
Exit.
DIOMEDES Ay, there, there!
Exit.
NESTOR So, so, we draw together.
45
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.
Exit with others.
5.6 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
5
Ere that correction. – Troilus, I say! What, Troilus!
Enter TROILUS.
TROILUS
O traitor Diomed! Turn thy false face, thou traitor,
And pay the life thou owest me for my horse!
DIOMEDES Ha, art thou there?
10
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!
Enter HECTOR.
Exit Troilus fighting with Ajax and Diomedes.
HECTOR
Yea, Troilus? O, well fought, my youngest brother!
Enter ACHILLES.
ACHILLES
Now do I see thee. Ha! Have at thee, Hector!
[They fight.]
HECTOR Pause, if thou wilt.
15
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.
20
I would have been much more a fresher man,
Had I expected thee.
Enter TROILUS.
How now, my brother!
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,
25
Or bring him off. Fate, hear me what I say!
I reck not though thou end my life today. Exit.
Enter one in Greek 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,
30
But I’ll be master of it. Exit one in armour.
Wilt thou not, beast, abide?
Why then, fly on. I’ll hunt thee for thy hide.
Exit in pursuit.
5.7 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;
5
In fellest manner execute your arms.
Follow me, sirs, and my proceedings eye.
It is decreed Hector the great must die. Exeunt.
5.8 Enter THERSITES; MENELAUS and PARIS fighting.
THERSITES The cuckold and the cuckold-maker are at it.
Now, bull! Now, dog! ’Loo, Paris, ’loo! Now, my double-
horned Spartan! ’Loo, Paris, ’loo! – The bull
has the game. Ware horns, ho!
Exeunt Paris and Menelaus.
Enter Bastard MARGARETON.
MARGARETON Turn, slave, and fight.
5
THERSITES What art thou?
MARGARETON A bastard son of Priam’s.
THERSITES I am a bastard too; I love bastards. I am
bastard begot, bastard instructed, bastard in mind,
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 521