There in the full convive' we: afterwards, Ther. No? why art thou then exasperate, thou idle immaterial skein of sleive 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; Tro. Shall I, sweet lord, be bound to you so Away, Patroclus. much, After we part from Agamemnon's tent, You shall command me, sir. Tro. O, sir, to such as boasting show their scars, ACT V. [Exeunt. SCENE I.-The Grecian camp. Before Achilles' tent. Enter Achilles and Patroclus. Achil. I'll heat his blood with Greekish wine to-night, Which with my scimitar I'll cool to-morrow.- Achil. Enter Thersites. How now, thou core 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? 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, gold palsies, raw eyes, dirt-rotten livers, wheezing lungs, bladders full of imposthume, sciaticas, limekilns 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. (1) Feast. (2) Small drums. (3) Contrariety. (4) Coarse, unwrought. (5) Harlots. [Exeunt Achil. and Patr. 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 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, 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 Menclaus.-Hey day! spirits and fires! Enter Hector, Troilus, Ajax, Agamemnon, Ulysses, There, where we see the lights. Ajax. No, not a whit. No, yonder 'tis ; I trouble you. Here comes himself to guide you. Achil. Welcome, brave Hector; welcome, princes all. 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 Menelaus. Ther. Sweet draught: Sweet, quoth 'a! sweet sink, sweet sewer. Achil. Good night, 0 To Calchas' tent; I'll keep you company [Exeunt Achilles, Hector, Ajax, and Nestor. Dio. What, are you up here, ho? speak. Dio. Diomed.-Calchas, I think.-Where's your daughter? Cal. [Within.] She comes to you. Enter Troilus and Ulysses, at a distance; after them Thersites. She strokes his cheek! A guard of patience:-stay a little while. Ther. How the devil luxury, with his fat rump and potatoe finger, tickles these together! Fry, lechery, fry! Dio. But will you then? Cres. In faith, I will, la; never trust me else. [Exit. Fear me not, my lord; Re-enter Cressida. Ther. Now the pledge; now, now, now! My lord, Tro. I will be patient; outwardly I will. well. He loved me-O false wench!-Give't me again. Cres. No matter, now I have't again. I pr'ythee, Diomed, visit me no more. Cres. Dio. What, this? Ay, that. Cres. You shall not have it, Diomed; 'faith you I'll give you something else. Dio. I will have this; Whose was it? 'Tis no matter Dio. Come, tell me whose it was. If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimony, Cres. 'Twas one's that loved me better than you If sanctimony be the god's delight, will. But, now you have it, take it. Div. Dio. To-morrow will I wear it on my helm ; It should be challeng'd. If there be rule in unity itself, This was not she. O madness of discourse, Cres. Well, well, 'tis done, 'tis past ;-And yet Admits no orifice for a point, as subtle it is not; I will not keep my word. Dio. Why then, farewell; Thou never shalt mock Diomed again. As is Arachne's broken woof, to enter. Cres. You shall not go:-One cannot speak a The bonds of heaven are slipp'd, dissolv'd, and word, But it straight starts you. Dio. What, shall I come? the hour? Farewell till then. Tro. Let it not be believ'd for womanhood! Tro. Nothing at all, unless that this were she. loos'd; And with another knot, five-finger-tied, Tro. Ay, Greek; and that shall be divulged well, Ther. He' tickle it for his concupy.13 Let all untruths stand by thy stain'd name, Ulyss. O, contain yourself; Your passion draws ears hither. Enter Æneas. Ene. I have been seeking you this hour, my lord: 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 [Exil. them! Ther. Will he swagger himself out on's own eyes? SCENE III.-Troy. Before Priam's palace. Tro. This she? no, this is Diomed's Cressida : (1) The stars. (2) Remembrance. (3) Since. Enter Hector and Andromache. And. When was my lord so much ungently tem- (11) Helmet. (13) Concupiscence. Where is my brother Hector? Nor you, my brother, with your true sword drawn, 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. Cassandra doth foresee; and I myself Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of To tell thee-that this day is ominous: slaughter. Cas. O, it is true. Hect. Begone, I say: the gods have heard me swear. Cas. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish' vows; They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd Than spotted liver in the sacrifice. And. O! be persuaded: Do not count it holy To hurt by being just it is as lawful, For we would give much, to use violent thefts, And rob in the behalf of charity. Cas. It is the purpose that makes strong the vow; But vows, to every purpose, must not hold : Unarm, sweet Hector. Hect. Hold you still, I say; Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate: Life every man holds dear: but the dear man Holds honour far more precious dears than life. Enter Troilus. How now, young man? mean'st thou to fight today? And. Cassandra, call my father to persuade. I am to-day i'the vein of chivalry: Tro. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you, Which better fits a lion, than a man. Hect. What vice is that, good Troilus? chide me for it. Tro. When many times the captive Grecians fall, Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword, You bid them rise, and live. Hect. O, 'tis fair play. Tro. Fool's play, by heaven, Hector. Hect. How now? how now? Tro. For the love of all the gods, Let's leave the hermit Pity with our mother; And when we have our armours buckled on, The venom'd vengeance ride upon our swords; Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth.5 Hect. Fie, savage, fie! Tro. Hector, then 'tis wars. Hect. Troilus, I would not have you fight to-day. Tro. Who should withhold me? Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars Beckoning with fiery truncheon my retire; Not Priamus and Hecuba on knees, Their eyes o'ergalled with recourse of tears; (2) Valuable. (3) Put off. (1) Foolish. Therefore, come back. Hect. But thou shalt not go. Hect. I must not break my faith. And. [Exit Andromache. Tro. This foolish, dreaming, superstitious, girl, Makes all these bodements. Cas. O farewell, dear Hector. Look, how thou dicst! look, how thy eye turns pale! Look, how thy wounds do bleed at many vents! Cas. Farewell.-Yet, soft:-Hector, I take my leave; [Ex. Thou dost thyself and all our Troy deceive. [Exeunt severally Priam and Hector. Alarums. Tro. They are at it; hark! Proud Diomed, be lieve, I come to lose my arm, or win my sleeve. As Troilus is going out, enter, from the other side, Pan. Do you hear, my lord? do you hear? Pan. Here's a letter from yon' poor girl. Pan. A whoreson ptisic, a whoreson rascally ptisic 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, 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 to- Appals our numbers; haste we, Diomed, gether. Enter Nestor. My love with words and errors still she feeds; But edifies another with her deeds. [Exe. severally. Nest. Go, bear Patroclus' body to Achilles; SCENE IV.-Between Troy and the Grecian And bid the snail-pac'd Ajax arm for shame.camp. Alarums: Excursions. Enter Thersites. There is a thousand Hectors in the field: Ther. Now they are clapper-clawing one another; Now here he fights on Galathe his horse, I'll go look on. That dissembling abominable var- And there lacks work; anon, he's there afoot, let, Diomed, has got that same scurvy doating fool- And there they fly, or die, like scaled sculls ish young knave's sleeve of Troy there, in his helm: Before the belching whale; then is he yonder, I would fain see them meet; that that same young And there the strawy Greeks, ripe for his edge, Trojan ass, that loves the whore there, might send Fall down before him, like the mower's swath that Greekish whoremaster villain, with the sleeve, Here, there, and every where, he leaves, and takes ; back to the dissembling luxurious drab, on a sleeve- Dexterity so obeying appetite, Enter Ulysses. Ulyss. O courage, courage, princes! great less errand. O'the other side, The policy of those That what he will, he does; and does so much, crafty swearing rascals,-that stale old mouse-eaten That proof is call'd impossibility. 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 Is 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. 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, Tro. Fly not; for, should'st thou take the river And foams at mouth, and he is arm'd, and at it, Styx, I would swim after. Dio. Thou dost miscall retire: Ther. Hold thy whore, Grecian!-now for thy Hec. What art thou, Greek? art thou for Hector's match? Art thou of blood, and honour? Ther. No, no:-I am 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 SCENE V.-The same. Enter Diomedes and a Dio. Go, go, my servant, take thou Troilus' horse; I go, my lord. Roaring for Troilus; who hath done to-day Engaging and redeeming of himself, Enter Ajax. [Exil Ay, there, there, Ajax. Troilus! thou coward Troilus! Achil. SCENE VI.-Another part of the field. Enter Ajax. Troilus, thou coward Troilus, show thy Enter Diomedes. Dio. I would correct him. my office, Ere that correction:-Troilus, I say! what, Troilus! Tro. O traitor Diomed!-turn thy false face, thou And pay thy life thou ow'st me for my horse! Ajax. I'll fight with him alone: stand, Diomed. |