And signify this loving interview Hect. The worthiest of them tell me name by name; But for Achilles, my own searching eyes Agam. Worthy of arms! as welcome as to one But in this extant moment, faith and troth, From heart of every heart, great Hector, wel Agam. My well fam'd lord of Troy, no less to [To TROILUS. you. Men. Let me confirm my princely brother's greeting ; You brace of warlike brothers, welcome hither. Hect. Whom must we answer? Men. The noble Menelaus. Hect. O you, my lord? by Mars his gauntlet, thanks! Mock not, that I affect the untraded + oath ; Your quondam wife swears still by Venus' glove: She's well, but bade me not commend her to you. Men. Name her not now, Sir; she's a deadly theme. Hect. Oh! pardon; I offend. Nest. I have, thou gallant Trojan, seen thee Labouring for destiny, make cruel way [oft, Through ranks of Greekish youth: and I have seen thee, As hot as Perseus, spur thy Phrygian steed, Not letting it decline on the declin'd; § Like an Olympian wrestling: This have I seen; But, by great Mars, the captain of us all, Hect. Let me embrace thee, good old chronicle, [time :Thou hast so long walk'd hand in hand with Most reverend Nestor, I am glad to clasp thee. Nest. I would my arms could match thee in contention, As they contend with thee in courtesy. Nest. Ha! [row. By this white beard, I'd fight with thee to-mow. Well, welcome, welcome! I have seen the time Ulyss. I wonder now how yonder city stands, When we have here her base and pillar by us. Hect. I know your favour, lord Ulysses, well. Ab! Sir, there's many a Greek and Trojau dead, Since first I saw yourself and Diomed In Ilion, on your Greekish embassy. Ulyss. Sir, I foretold you then what would For yonder walls, that pertly front your town, Hect. I must not believe you: There they stand yet; and modestly I think, Ulyss. So to him we leave it. Most gentle, and most valiant Hector, welcome. Now, Hector, I have fed mine eyes on thee; Hect. Is this Achilles ? Achil. I am Achilles. As I would buy thee, view thee limb by limb. Hect. Oh! like a book of sport thou’it read me o'er ; But there's more in me than thou understand'st. man, To answer such a question: Stand again : Think'st thou to catch my life so pleasantly, As to prenominate in nice conjecture, Where thou wilt hit me dead? Achil. I tell thee, yea. Hect. Wert thou an oracle to tell me so, I'd not believe thee. Henceforth guard thee well; For I'll not kill thee there, nor there, nor there; Ajax. Do not chafe thee, cousin ;— Hect. I pray you, let us see you in the field; We have bad 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. There in the full convive¶ we: afterwards, 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: + Forename. Inclination. 1 Former. • Observed. Stithy, a smith's shop. Petty. Feast. • Small drums There Diomed doth feast with him to-night; Tre. Shall I, sweet lord, be bound to you so much, After we part from Agamemnon's tent, Ulyss. You shall command me, Sir. 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 This Cressida in Troy? Had she no lover wax: And the goodly transformation of Jupiter there That wails her absence? Tro. O Sir, to such as boasting show their scars, A mock is due. Will you walk on, my lord ? ACT V. SCENE I-The Grecian Camp.-Before ACHILLES' Tent. Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS. Achil. I'll beat his blood with Greekish wine to-night, Which with my scimitar I'll cool to-morrow.Patrocius, let us feast him to the height. Patr. Here comes Thersites. Enter THERSITES. Achil. How now, thou core of envy ? Thos 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. Arail. 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 whand. Patr. Well said, Adversity! and what need these tricks? Ther. Prythee be silent, boy; I profit not by thy talk: thou art thought to be Achilles' male Patr. Male varlet, you rogue! what's that? Ther. Why, his masculine whore. Now the rotten diseases of the south, the guts-griping, raptures, catarrhs, loads o'gravel i'the back, lethargies, cold palsies, raw eyes, dirt-rotten Evers, wheezing lungs, bladders full of impostheme, sciaticas, limekilus i'the palm, incurabie bone-ache, and the rivelled fee-simple of the tetter; take and take again such preposterous dacoveries! Petr. Why thou damnable box of envy, thou, what meanest thou to curse thus ? 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 leg, 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, on owl, a puttock, or a herring without a row, 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 DIOMED, with Lights. Agam. We go wrong, we go wrong. There, where we see the lights. Ajax. No, not a whit. Ulyss. Here comes himself to guide you. 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 bound; 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. Ther. Now the pledge; now, now, now ! Tro. I will be patient: outwardly I will. He loved me-O false wench!-Giv't me again. Dio. Who was't? Cres. No matter, now I hav't again. I will not meet with you to-morrow night: I pr'ythee Diomed, visit me no more. Cres. Sweet honey Greek, tempt me no more stone. to folly. Ther. Roguery! Dio. Nay, then,— Cres. I'll tell you what : Dio. Pho! pho! come, tell a pin: You are forsworn. Dio. I shall have it. Cres. What, this? Dio. Ay, that. Cres. Oh! all you gods!-0 pretty pretty pledge! Thy master now lies thinking in his bed Cres. You shall not have it, Diomed; 'faith you shall not: I'll give you something else, Dio. I will have this; Whose was it? Dio. Come, tell me whose it was. Cres. 'Twas one's that loved me better than you will. But now you have it, take it. Dio. Whose was it? Cres. By all Diana's waiting-women yonder,† And by herself, I will not tell you whose. Dio. To morrow will I wear it on my helm; And grieve his spirit that dares not challenge it. Tro. Wert thou the devil, and wor'st on thy It should be challenged. [horn, Cres. Well, well, 'tis done, 'tis past ;-And yet it is not; But it straight starts you. Dio. I do not like this fooling. Ther. Nor I, by Pluto: but that that likes not you, pleases me best. Dio. What, shall I come? the hour? Cres. Ay, come :-O Jove ! Do come :-I shall be plagu'd. Cres. Good night. I pr'ythee, come. [Exit DIONEDES. Troilus, farewell! one eye yet looks on thee; But with my heart the other eye doth see. Ah! poor our sex! this fault in us I find, The error of our eye directs our mind: What error leads, must err; O then, conclude, Minds, sway'd by eyes, are full of turpitude. [Exit CRESSIDA. ་ Ther. A proof of strength she could not publish more, Unless she said, My mind is now turn'd whore. Ulyss. Why stay we then? Tro. To make a recordation to my soul Ther. Will he swagger himself out on's own eves! Tro. This she? no, this is Diomed's Cressida: If beauty have a soul, this is not she; If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimony, This was not she. O madness of discourse, is strange nature, that a thing inseparate And with another knot, five-finger tied, Of her o'er-eaten faith, are bound to Diomed. so eternal and so fix'd a soul. Hark, Greek ;—As much as I do Cressid love, Bach by weight hate I her Diomed: That sireve is mine, that he'll bear on his helm ; Were it a casque 5 compos'd by Vulcan's skill, Msword should bite it: not the dreadful spout, Which shipmen do the hurricano call, Constring d in mass by the almighty sun, kad dizzy with more clamour Neptune's ear la his descent, than shall my prompted sword Fang on Diomed. Ter. He'll tickle it for his concupy. ¶¶ Tre. O Cressid! O false Cressid ! false, false, false ! Let all untruths stand by thy stained name, And they'll seem glorious. Ulyss. Oh! contain yourself; Your passion draws ears hither. Enter ENEAS. Ene. I have been seeking you this hour, my lord: Hector, by this, is arming him in Troy; Farewell, revolted fair!-and, Diomed, [Exeunt TROILUS, ÆNEAS, and ULYSSES. Ther. 'Would I could meet that rogue Diomed! I would croak like a raven; I would bode, I would bode. Patroclus will give me any thing for the intelligence of this whore: the parrot will not do more for an almond, than he for a commodious drab. Lechery, lechery; still, wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion: A burning devil take them! [Exit. SCENE III.-Troy.-Before PRIAM'S Enter HECTOR and ANDROMACHE. And. When was my lord so much ungently temper'd, To stop his ears against admonishment? And. My dreams will, sure, prove ominous to the day. Hect. No more, I say. Enter CASSANDRA. Cas. Where is my brother Hector? And. Here, sister; arm'd, and bloody in intent: Consort with me in loud and dear petition, Cas. Oh! it is true. Hect. Ho! bid my trumpet sound! Cas. No notes of sally, for the heavens, sweet How now, young man? mean'st thou to fight today? And. Cassandra, call my father to persuade. [Exit CASSANDRA. Hect. 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, Hect. What vice is that, good Troilus? chide! Tro. When many times the captive Grecians fall, Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword, Hect. Oh! 'tis fair play. Tro. Fool's play, by heaven, Hector. Tro. For the love of all the gods, Let's leave the hermit pity with our mother; Hect. Fie, savage, fie! Tro. Hector, then 'tis wars. Go in, and cheer the town: we'll forth, and [Exeunt severally PRIAM and HECTOR. 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 Pan. Do you hear, my lord? do you hear f Pan. Here's a letter from yon' poor girl. Pan. A whoreson ptisick, a whoreson rascally ptisick 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, Hect. Troilus, I would not have you fight I cannot tell what to think on't.-What says she to-day. Tro. Who should withhold me? Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars Oppos'd to hiuder me, should stop my way, Re-enter CASSANDRA, with PRIAM. Cas. Lay hold upon him, Priam, hold him He is thy crutch; now if thou lose thy stay, Fall altogether. Pri. Come, Hector, come, go back: there? Tro. Words, words, mere words, no matter My love with words and errors still she feeds; [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. This dissembling abo ninable varlet, Diomed, has got that same scurvy doting foolish young knave's sleeve of Troy Thy wife hath dream'd; thy mother hath bad there, in his helm: I would fain see them meet; visions; Cassandra doth foresee; and I myself Am like a prophet suddenly enrapt, Hect. Eneas is a-field; And I do stand engag'd to many Greeks, Pri. But thou shalt not go. Hect. I must not break my faith. Hect. Andromache, I am offended with you: Cas. O farewell, dear Hector. Look, how thou diest! look, how thy eye turns Look, how thy wounds do bleed at many vents! Behold, destruction, frenzy, and amazement, And all cry-Hector! Hector's dead! O Hec- that that same young Trojan ass, that loves the whore there, might send that Greekish whoremasterly villain with the sleeve, back to the dis sembling luxurions drab, on a sleeveless errand. O' the 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 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 come 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 miscal retire: I do not fly; but advantageous care Ther. Hold thy whore, Grecian -now for thy whore, Trojan!-now the sleeve, now the sleeve! [Exeunt TROILUS and DIOMEDES, fighting. |