Enter DIOMEDES. Dio. Troilus, I say! where's Troilus? Ajax. Dio. I would correct him. What wouldst thou? Ajax. Were I the general, thou shouldst have my office Ere that correction.-Troilus, I say! what, Troilus! Enter TROILUS. Tro. O, traitor Diomed!-turn thy false face, thou traitor, And pay thy life thou owest me for my horse! Ajax. I'll fight with him alone; stand, Diomed. Enter HECTor. 2 Hect. Yea, Troilus! O, well fought, my youngest brother! Enter ACHIlles. Achil. Now do I see thee; ha!-Have at thee, Hector. Hect. Pause, if thou wilt. Achil. I do disdain thy courtesy, proud Trojan; Be happy, that my arms are out of use. My rest and negligence befriend thee now, Till when, go seek thy fortune. Hect. [Exit. Fare thee well: I would have been much more a fresher man, Had I expected thee.-How now, my brother? 1 That is, I will not be a looker-on. 2 Cheating; Cicero bears witness to this character of the ancient Greeks. Re-enter TROILUS. Tro. Ajax hath ta'en Æneas; shall it be? Enter one in sumptuous armor. [Exit. Hect. Stand, stand, thou Greek; thou art a goodly mark: No? wilt thou not?-I like thy armor 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. The same. Enter ACHILLES, with Myrmidons. Achil. 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 arms. Follow me, sirs, and my proceedings eye! It is decreed-Hector the great must die. 3 SCENE VIII. The same. [Exeunt. Enter MENELAUS and PARIS, fighting; then THERSITES. Ther. The cuckold and the cuckold-maker are at it. Now, bull! now, dog! 'Loo, Paris, 'loo! now my VOL. V. 1 i. e. prevail over him. 2 To frush is to break or bruise (froisser, Fr.). 3 To execute their arms is to employ them. 45 double-henned sparrow! 'loo, Paris, loo! The bull has the game :-'ware horns, ho! [Exeunt PARIS and MENELAUS. Enter MARGarelon. Mar. Turn, slave, and fight. Ther. What art thou? Mar. A bastard son of Priam's. Ther. I am a bastard too; I love bastards; I am a bastard begot, bastard instructed, bastard in mind, bastard in valor, 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. Mar. The devil take thee, coward! [Exeunt. SCENE IX. Another Part of the Field. Enter HECTOR. Hect. Most putrified core, so fair without, Thy goodly armor 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. Achil. Look, Hector, how the sun begins to set; How ugly night comes breathing at his heels. Even with the vail 2 and darkening of the sun, To close the day up, Hector's life is done. Hect. I am unarmed: forego this vantage, Greek. 1 Bastard, in ancient times, was not a disreputable appellation. 2 "The vail of the sun," is the sinking, setting, or vailing of the sun. Achil. Strike, fellows, strike; this is the man I seek.1 [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 retreat upon our Grecian part. Myr. The Trojan trumpets sound the like, my lord. Achil. The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth, And, stickler2 like, the armies separates. My half-supped sword, that frankly would have fed, [Sheathes his sword. Come, tie his body to my horse's tail; Along the field I will the Trojan trail. SCENE X. The same. [Exeunt. Enter AGAMEMNON, AJAX, MENELAUS, NESTOR, DIOMEDES, and others, marching. Shouts within. Agam. Hark! hark! what shout is that? Nest. [Within.] Achilles! Hector's slain! Achilles ! Peace, drums. Achilles ! Dio. The bruit is-Hector's slain, and by Achilles. Ajax. If it be so, yet bragless let it be; Great Hector was as good a man as he. 1 Heywood, in his Rape of Lucrece, 1638, gives the same account of Achilles overpowering Hector by numbers. In Lydgate and the old story book, the same account is given of the death of Troilus. Lydgate, following Guido of Colonna, who in the grossest manner has violated all the characters drawn by Homer, reprehends the Grecian poet as the original offender. Sticklers were persons who attended upon combatants in trials of skill, to part them when they had fought enough, and, doubtless, to see fair play. They were probably so called from the stick or wand which they carried in their hands. The name is still given to the arbitrators at wrestlingmatches in the west country. Agam. 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 XI. Another Part of the Field. Enter ENEAS and Trojans. Ene. Stand, ho! yet are we masters of the field. go home; here starve we out the night. Never Enter TROILUS. Tro. Hector is slain. All. Hector?-The gods forbid! Ene. My lord, you do discomfort all the host. Scare Troy out of itself. But, march, away: no more to say. 1 Hanmer and Warburton read :- 66 smite at Troy." |