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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,
And tempt not yet the brushes of the war.
Unarm thee, go; and doubt thou not, brave boy,
I'll stand to-day, for thee, and me, and Troy.

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, 't is 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 mothers;
And when we have our armours buckled on,
The venom'd vengeance ride upon our swords;
Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from futh.
HECT. Fie, savage, fie!

TRO.

Hector, then 't is 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;
Nor you, my brother, with your true sword drawn,
Oppos'd to hinder me, should stop my way,

But by my ruin.

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.

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

PRI.

Ay, 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 dolour 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
Thou dost thyself and all our Troy deceive.

leave:

[Exit.

HECT. You are amaz'd, 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! [Exeunt severally PRIAM and HECTOR. Alarums.

I

TRO. They are at it; hark! Proud Diomed, believe, 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?

TRO. What now?

PAN. Here's a letter from yon' poor girl.
TRO. Let me read.

PAN. A whoreson tisick, a whoreson rascally tisick 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 ach 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;

The effect doth operate another way.—

[Tearing the letter.

Go, wind, to wind, there turn and change together.—

My love with words and errors still she feeds;
But edifies another with her deeds.

PAN. Why! but hear you.

TRO. Hence, broker lackey! ignomy and shame Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy name.

[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, of 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, shouldst 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.

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.

[Exit.

SERV.

I go, my lord.

[Exit Servant.

Enter AGAMEMNON.

AGAM. Renew, renew!

The fierce Polydamus

Hath beat down Menon: bastard Margarelon

Hath Doreus prisoner ;

But thou anon shalt hear of me again;

Till when, go seek thy fortune.

HECT.

[Exit.

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

Enter one in sumptuous armour.

[Exit.

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 arms.
Follow me, sirs, and my proceedings eye:—
It is decreed Hector the great must die.

SCENE VIII. The same.

[Exeunt.

[Exeunt.

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

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