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
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
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.