Enter DIOMEDE, retiring before TROILUS, and falling as he enters.

Troil. Now beg thy life, or die.
Diom. No; use thy fortune:

I loath the life, which thou canst give, or take. Troil. Scorn'st thou my mercy, villain!--Take thy wish.

Cres. Hold, hold your hand, my lord, and hear me speak.

[TROILUS turns back; in which time DIOMEDE rises, Trojans and Greeks enter, and rank themselves on both sides of their Captains. Troil. Did I not hear the voice of perjured Cressida? Com'st thou to give the last stab to my heart? As if the proofs of all thy former falsehood Were not enough convincing, com'st thou now To beg my rival's life?

Whom, oh, if any spark of truth remain'd,
Thou couldst not thus, even to my face, prefer.
Cres. What shall I say!-that you suspect me false,
Has struck me dumb! but let him live, my Troilus;
By all our loves, by all our past endearments,
I do adjure thee, spare him,

Troil. Hell and death!

Cres. If ever I had power to bend your mind, Believe me still your faithful Cressida ; And though my innocence appear like guilt, Because I make his forfeit life my suit, 'Tis but for this, that my return to you Would be cut off for ever by his death; My father, treated like a slave, and scorn'd; Myself in hated bonds a captive held.

Troil. Could I believe thee, could I think thee true, In triumph would I bear thee back to Troy, Though Greece could rally all her shatter'd troops, And stand embattled to oppose my way.

But oh, thou syren, I will stop my ears

To thy enchanting notes; the winds shall bear Upon their wings thy words, more light than they. Cres. Alas! I but dissembled love to him.

If ever he had any proof, beyond

What modesty might give

Diom. No! witness this.

[The ring shewn.

There, take her, Trojan, thou deserv'st her best; You good, kind-natured, well-believing fools, Are treasures to a woman.

I was a jealous, hard, vexatious lover,

And doubted even this pledge,-till full possession; But she was honourable to her word,

And I have no just reason to complain.

Cres. O unexampled, frontless impudence! Troil. Hell, shew me such another tortured wretch as Troilus!

Diom. Nay, grieve not; I resign her freely up; I'm satisfied; and dare engage for Cressida, That, if you have a promise of her person, She shall be willing to come out of debt.

Cres. [Kneeling.] My only lord, by all those holy vows,

Which, if there be a Power above, are binding,
Or, if there be a hell below, are fearful,

May every imprecation, which your rage
Can wish on me, take place, if I am false !

Diom. Nay, since you're so concern'd to be believed,

I'm sorry I have press'd my charge so far:
Be what you would be thought; I can be grateful.
Troil. Grateful! Oh torment! now hell's bluest

flames

Receive her quick, with all her crimes upon her!
Let her sink spotted down! let the dark host
Make room, and point, and hiss her as she goes!
Let the most branded ghosts of all her sex
Rejoice, and cry," Here comes a blacker fiend!"
Let her

Cres. Enough, my lord; you've said enough.
This faithless, perjured, hated Cressida,
Shall be no more the subject of your curses:
Some few hours hence, and grief had done your
work;

But then your eyes had miss'd the satisfaction,
Which thus I give you,-thus-

[She stabs herself; they both run to her.

Diom. Help! save her, help!

Cres. Stand off, and touch me not, thou traitor
Diomede ;-

But you, my only Troilus, come near:

Trust me, the wound, which I have given this breast,
Is far less painful than the wound you gave it.
Oh, can you yet believe, that I am true?

Troil. This were too much, even if thou hadst
been false !

But oh, thou purest, whitest innocence,

For such I know thee now, too late I know it !—
May all my curses, and ten thousand more,
Heavier than they, fall back upon my head;
Pelion and Ossa, from the giants' graves
Be torn by some avenging deity,

And hurl'd at me, a bolder wretch than they,
Who durst invade the skies!

Cres. Hear him not, heavens ;

But hear me bless him with my latest breath!
And, since I question not your hard decree,
That doom'd my days unfortunate and few,
Add all to him you take away from me;

And I die happy, that he thinks me true. [Dies.
Troil. She's gone for ever, and she blest me dying!
Could she have cursed me worse! she died for me,
And, like a woman, I lament for her.
Distraction pulls me several ways at once:
Here pity calls me to weep out my eyes,
Despair then turns me back upon myself,
And bids me seek no more, but finish here.

[Points his Sword to his Breast.

Ha, smilest thou, traitor! thou instruct'st me best, And turn'st my just revenge to punish thee.

Diom. Thy worst, for mine has been beforehand with thee;

I triumph in thy vain credulity,

Which levels thy despairing state to mine;
But yet thy folly, to believe a foe,

Makes thine the sharper and more shameful loss.
Troil. By my few moments of remaining life,
I did not hope for any future joy;

But thou hast given me pleasure ere I die,
To punish such a villain.-Fight apart;

[To his Soldiers. For heaven and hell have mark'd him out for me, And I should grudge even his least drop of blood To any other hand.

[TROILUS and DIOMEDE fight, and both Parties engage at the same time. The Trojans make the Greeks retire, and TROILUS makes DIOMEDE give ground, and hurts him. Trumpets sound. ACHILLES enters with his Myrmidons, on the backs of the Trojans, who fight in a ring, encompassed round. TROILUS, singling DIOMEDE, gets him down, and kills him; and ACHILLES kills TROILUS upon him. All the Trojans die upon the place, TROILUS last.

Enter AGAMEMNON, MENELAUS, ULYSSES, NESTOR, AJAX, and Attendants.

Achil. Our toils are done, and those aspiring walls, The work of gods, and almost mating heaven, Must crumble into rubbish on the plain.

Agam. When mighty Hector fell beneath thy

sword,

Their old foundations shook; their nodding towers Threaten'd from high the amazed inhabitants; And guardian-gods, for fear, forsook their fanes.

Achil. Patroclus, now be quiet; Hector's dead;

And, as a second offering to thy ghost,
Lies Troilus high upon a heap of slain;
And noble Diomede beneath, whose death
This hand of mine revenged.

Ajax. Revenged it basely:

For Troilus fell by multitudes opprest,
And so fell Hector; but 'tis vain to talk.
Ulys. Hail, Agamemnon! truly victor now!
While secret envy, and while open pride,
Among thy factious nobles discord threw ;
While public good was urged for private ends,
And those thought patriots, who disturb'd it most;
Then, like the headstrong horses of the sun,
That light, which should have cheer'd the world,
consumed it:

Now peaceful order has resumed the reins,
Old Time looks young, and Nature seems renew'd.
Then, since from home-bred faction ruin springs,
Let subjects learn obedience to their kings.

[Exeunt.