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Complete Plays, The

Page 86

by William Shakespeare

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

  SCENE IV. PLAINS BETWEEN TROY AND THE GRECIAN CAMP.

  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

  SCENE V. ANOTHER PART OF THE PLAINS.

  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

  SCENE VI. ANOTHER PART OF THE PLAINS.

  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

  SCENE VII. ANOTHER PART OF THE PLAINS.

  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

  SCENE VIII. ANOTHER PART OF THE PLAINS.

  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

  SCENE IX. ANOTHER PART OF THE PLAINS.

  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

  SCENE X. ANOTHER PART OF THE PLAINS.

  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.

 

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