Re-enter CASSANDRA, with PRIAM.

Cas. 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.

Pri. 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.

Hect. Eneas is a-field;

And I do stand engaged to many Greeks,
Even in the faith of valour, to appear
This morning to them.

Pri. But thou shalt not go.

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.
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.

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, destruction, frenzy, and amazement,
Like witless antics, one another meet,

And all cry-Hector! Hector 's dead! O Hector!
Tro. Away!-Away!

Cas. Farewell.-Yet, soft:-Hector, I take my leave:

Thou dost thyself and all our Troy deceive.

Hect. 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.

Pri. Farewell: the gods with safety stand about thee!

[Exit.

[Exeunt severally PRIAM and HECTOR. Alarums. Tro. They are at it; hark! Proud Diomed, believe,

I come to lose my arm, or win my sleeve.

As TROILUS is going out, enter, from the other side, PANDARUS. Pan. Do you hear, my lord? do you hear?

Pan. A whoreson ptisick, a whoreson rascally ptisick so troubles me, and the foolish fortune of this girl; and what one

* Disgrace the respect I owe you.

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?

*

Tro. Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart; [Tearing the letter.

The effect doth operate another way.

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.-Between Troy and the Grecian camp.

Alarums: Excursions. Enter THERSITES.

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 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 whoremasterly villain, with the sleeve, back to the dissembling luxurious drab, on a sleeveless errand. O' the other side, the policy of those crafty swearing rascals, that stale old mouseeaten dry cheese, Nestor; and that same dog-fox, Ulysses,-is not proved 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 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.

Tro. Fly not; for, should'st thou take the river Styx,

I would swim after.

Dio. Thou dost miscall retire:

I do not fly; but advantageous care

Withdrew me from the odds of multitude:

Have at thee!

Ther. Hold thy whore, Grecian !-now for thy whore, Trojan ! -now the sleeve, now the sleeve !

[Exeunt TROILUS and DIOMEDES, fighting.

Enter HECTOR.

Hect. What art thou, Greek? art thou for Hector's match? Art thou of blood, and honour?

Ther. No, no:-I am a rascal; a scurvy railing knave; a very filthy rogue.

Hect. I do believe thee; live.

[Exit.

Ther. 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.

VOL. III.

* Under some witch's malediction.

2 I

[Exit.

SCENE V-The same.

Enter DIOMEDES and a SERVANT.

Dio. 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 chastis'd the amorous Trojan,
And am her knight by proof.

Serv. I go, my lord.

Enter AGAMEMNON,

Agam. Renew, renew! The fierce Polydamus
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; Polixenes is slain;
Amphimachus, and Thous, 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.

[Exit SERVANT.

Nest. Go, bear Patroclus' body to Achilles;
And bid the snail-pac'd 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 everywhere, 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.

Ulyss. O, courage, courage, princes! great Achilles Is arming, weeping, cursing, vowing vengeance: Patroclus' wounds have rous'd 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.

§ Quantity of grass cut by a single sweep of the scythe.

+ Shoal of fish.

*

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.

SCENE VI.-Another part of the Field.

Enter AJAX.

Ajax. Troilus, thou coward Troilus, show thy head!

Enter DIOMEDES.

Dio. Troilus, I say! where's Troilus?

Ajax. What wouldest thou?

Dio. I would correct him.

[Exit.

[Exeunt.

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!
Dio. Ha! art thou there ?

Ajax. I'll fight with him alone: stand, Diomed.

Dio. He is my prize, I will not look upon.†

Tro. Come both, you cogging‡ Greeks; have at you both.

Enter HECTOR.

[Exeunt, fighting.

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,
But thou anon shalt hear of me again;

Till when, go seek thy fortune.

Hect. Fare thee well:

I would have been much more a fresher man,
Had I expected thee.-How now, my brother?

Re-enter TROILUS.

Tro. Ajax hath ta'en Æneas; Shall it be? No, by the flame of yonder glorious heaven, He shall not carry § him; I'll be taken too, Or bring him off:-Fate, hear me what I say! I reck§ not though I end my life to-day.

[Exit.

[Exit

+ Lying.

Care.

Enter one in sumptuous armour.

Hect. 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.

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 aims.

Follow me, Sirs, and my proceedings eye:

[Exeunt.

It is decreed-Hector the great must die.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VIII.-The same.

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 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 valour, in everything 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!

SCENE IX-Another part of the Field.

Enter HECTOR.

Hect. Most putrified 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!

[Exeunt.

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 veil and dark'ning of the sun,
To close the day up, Hector's life is done.

* Burst.