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You may
have every day enough of Hector,
If you have stomach. The general state, I fear,
Can scarce entreat you to be odd with him3.

Hect. I pray you, let us see you in the field:
We have had pelting wars, since you refus'd
The Grecians' cause.

Achil.

Dost thou entreat me, Hector?

To-morrow, do I meet thee, fell as death;
To-night, all friends.

Hect.

Thy hand upon that match.

Agam. First, all you peers of Greece, go to my tent; There in the full convive we': afterwards,

As Hector's leisure and your bounties shall
Concur together, severally entreat him.—
Beat loud the tabourines", let the trumpets blow,
That this great soldier may his welcome know.

[Exeunt all but TROILUS and ULYSSES.
Tro. My lord Ulysses, tell me, I beseech you,
In what place of the field doth Calchas keep?
Ulyss. At Menelaus' tent, most princely Troilus:
There Diomed doth feast with him to-night;
Who neither looks upon the heaven, nor earth3,
But gives all gaze and bent of amorous view
On the fair Cressid.

Tro. Shall I, sweet lord, be bound to you so much, After we part from Agamemnon's tent,

[blocks in formation]

Can scarce entreat you to be odd with him.] i. e. to be at odds with him, or to contend with him. Ajax refers to the reluctance of Achilles to take the field. 9 We have had PELTING wars,] i. e. trifling, insignificant wars. In “Measure for Measure," A. ii. sc. 2, we have "pelting" explained by the use of a synonyme, "every pelting petty officer."

1 There in the full convive WE :]

The folio, "convive you."

2 Beat loud the TABOURINES,] Instead of these words the quarto carries on the sentence after "entreat him" with the words "To taste your bounties." upon the heaven, nor earth,] "On heaven nor on earth" the folio.

3

This Cressida in Troy? Had she no lover there
That wails her absence?

Tro. O, sir! to such as boasting show their scars,
A mock is due. Will
Will you walk on, my lord?
She was belov'd, she lov'd'; she is, and doth:
But still sweet love is food for fortune's tooth.

[Exeunt.

ACT V. SCENE I.

The Grecian Camp. Before ACHILLES' Tent.

Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS.

Achil. I'll heat his blood with Greekish wine tonight,

Which with my scimitar I'll cool to-morrow.

Patroclus, let us feast him to the height.

Patr. Here comes Thersites.

Achil

Enter THERSITES.

How now, thou cur of envy'!

Thou crusty batch of nature, what's the news?

Ther. Why, thou picture of what thou seemest, and

idol of idiot-worshippers, here's a letter for thee.

Achil. From whence, fragment?

Ther. Why, thou full dish of fool, from Troy.
Patr. Who keeps the tent now?

Ther. The surgeon's box, or the patient's wound.

Patr. Well said, adversity! and what need these tricks?

* She was belov'd, SHE LOV'D ;] The quartos, poorly, "She was belov'd, my lord, she is, and doth."

5 How now,

thou CUR of envy !] So the quartos, although Boswell informs us The folio has "core of envy," which may, or may not,

that they read curse. have been a misprint.

Ther. Pr'ythee be silent, boy; I profit not by thy talk thou art thought to be Achilles' male varlet. Patr. Male varlet, you rogue! what's that?

Ther. Why, his masculine whore. Now the rotten diseases of the south, the guts-griping, ruptures, catarrhs, loads o' gravel i' the back, lethargies, cold palsies, raw eyes, dirt-rotten livers, wheezing lungs, bladders full of imposthume, sciaticas, lime-kilns i' the palm, incurable bone-ache, and the rivelled fee-simple of the tetter, take and take again such preposterous discoveries!

Patr. Why, thou damnable box of envy, thou, what meanest thou to curse thus?

Ther. Do I curse thee?

Patr. Why no, you ruinous butt; you whoreson indistinguishable cur, no.

Ther. No? why art thou then exasperate, thou idle immaterial skein of sleave silk', thou green sarcenet flap for a sore eye, thou tassel of a prodigal's purse, thou? Ah! how the poor world is pestered with such water-flies, diminutives of nature!

Patr. Out, gall!

Ther. Finch egg!

Achil. My sweet Patroclus, I am thwarted quite From my great purpose in to-morrow's battle.

Here is a letter from queen Hecuba;

A token from her daughter, my fair love;

Both taxing me, and 'gaging me to keep

An oath that I have sworn. I will not break it:
Fall Greeks, fail fame, honour, or go, or stay,

My major vow lies here; this I'll obey.

6 - cold palsies,] After these words the folio adds, "and the like," and then proceeds, "take and take again," &c., as in the quartos.

7 - skein of SLEAVE silk,] "Sleave silk" was what we now call floss silk, soye flosche, Fr. It was the coarse unwrought material. In his Italian Dictionary, 1598, Florio translates capitone, " a kind of coarse silk, called sleave silk." It is to this that Macbeth alludes when, in A. ii. sc. 2, he says, "Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care." In the passage before us for "sleave silk" of the quartos, the folio prints "sley'd silk."

Come, come, Thersites, help to trim my tent;
This night in banqueting must all be spent.-
Away, Patroclus.

[Exeunt ACHILLES and PATROCLUS. Ther. With too much blood, and too little brain, these two may run mad; but if with too much brain, and too little blood, they do, I'll be a curer of madmen. Here's Agamemnon,-an honest fellow enough, and one that loves quails; but he has not so much brain as ear-wax and the goodly transformation of Jupiter there, his brother, the bull,-the primitive statue, and oblique memorial of cuckolds; a thrifty shoeing-horn in a chain, hanging at his brother's legs, to what form, but that he is, should wit larded with malice, and malice forced with wit, turn him to? To an ass, were nothing: he is both ass and ox: to an ox were nothing; he is both ox and ass. To be a dog, a mule, a cat, a fitchew, a toad, a lizard, an owl, a puttock, or a herring without a roe, I would not care; but to be Menelaus,-I would conspire against destiny. Ask me not what I would be, if I were not Thersites, for I care not to be the louse of a lazar, so I were not Menelaus.— Hey-day! spirits and fires!

Enter HECTOR, TROILUS, AJAX, Agamemnon, Ulysses, NESTOR, MENELAUS, and DIOMEDES, with Lights.

Agam. We go wrong; we go wrong.

Ajax.

There, where we see the lights.

Hect.

Ajax. No, not a whit.

Ulyss.

No, yonder 'tis ;

I trouble you.

Here comes himself to guide you.

Enter ACHILLES.

Achil. Welcome, brave Hector: welcome, princes all.

8

- hanging at his brother's leg,] So the folio: the quartos, "his bare leg.”

Agam. So now, fair prince of Troy, I bid good night. Ajax commands the guard to tend on you.

Hect. Thanks, and good night, to the Greeks' general.

Men. Good night, my lord.

Hect. Good night, sweet lord Menelaus.

Ther. Sweet draught: sweet, quoth 'a! sweet sink, sweet sewer.

Achil. Good night, and welcome, both at once to those

That go, or tarry.

Agam. Good night.

[Exeunt AGAMEMNON and MENELAUS. Achil. Old Nestor tarries; and you too, Diomed, Keep Hector company an hour or two.

Dio. I cannot, lord; I have important business, The tide whereof is now.-Good night, great Hector. Hect. Give me your hand. Ulyss. To Calchas' tent: I'll keep you company.

Follow his torch, he goes

[Aside to TROILUS.

And so good night.

Tro. Sweet sir, you honour me.

Hect.

[Exit DIOMED; ULYSSES and TROILUS following. Achil. Come, come; enter my tent.

[Exeunt ACHILLES, HECTOR, AJAX, and NESTOR. Ther. That same Diomed's a false-hearted rogue, a most unjust knave: I will no more trust him when he leers, than I will a serpent when he hisses. He will spend his mouth, and promise, like Brabler the hound; but when he performs, astronomers foretel it it is prodigious, there will come some change: the sun borrows of the moon, when Diomed keeps his word. I will rather leave to see Hector, than not to dog him: they say, he keeps a Trojan drab, and uses the traitor Calchas' tent. I'll after.-Nothing but lechery! all incontinent varlets! [Exit.

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