William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition (354 page)

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Authors: William Shakespeare

Tags: #Drama, #Literary Criticism, #Shakespeare

BOOK: William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition
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Enter Nestor
⌈with Patroclus’ body⌉
 
NESTOR
Go, bear Patroclus’ body to Achilles,
And bid the snail-paced Ajax arm for shame.
⌈
Exit one or more with the body⌉
There is a thousand Hectors in the field.
Now here he fights on Galathe his horse,
And there lacks work; anon he’s there afoot,
And there they fly or die, like scalèd schools
Before the belching whale. Then is he yonder,
And there the strawy Greeks, ripe for his edge,
Fall down before him like the mower’s swath.
Here, there, and everywhere he leaves and takes,
Dexterity so obeying appetite
That what he will he does, and does so much
That proof is called impossibility.
Enter Ulysses
 
ULYSSES
O courage, courage, princes! Great Achilles
Is arming, weeping, cursing, vowing vengeance.
Patroclus’ wounds have roused his drowsy blood,
Together with his mangled Myrmidons,
That noseless, handless, hacked and chipped come to
him
Crying on Hector. Ajax hath lost a friend
And foams at mouth, and he is armed and at it,
Roaring for Troitus—who hath done today
Mad and fantastic execution,
Engaging and redeeming of himself
With such a careless force and forceless care
As if that luck, in very spite of cunning,
Bade him win all.
Enter Ajax
 
AJAX Troilus, thou coward Troitus!
Exit
DIOMEDES Ay, there, there! ⌈
Exit⌉
NESTOR So, so, we draw together.
Enter Achilles
 
ACHILLES Where is this Hector?
Come, come, thou brave boy-queller, show thy face.
Know what it is to meet Achilles angry.
Hector! Where’s Hector? I will none but Hector.
⌈
Exeunt⌉
5.6
Enter Ajax
 
AJAX
Troilus, thou coward Troilus! Show thy head!
Enter Diomedes
 
DIOMEDES
Troilus, I say! Where’s Troilus?
AJAX What wouldst thou? DIOMEDES I would correct him.
AJAX
Were I the general, thou shouldst have my office
Ere that correction.—Troitus, I say! What, Troilus!
Enter
Troilus
 
TROILUS
O traitor Diomed! Turn thy false face, thou traitor,
And pay the life thou ow’st me for my horse.
DIOMEDES Ha, art thou there?
AJAX
I’ll fight with him alone. Stand, Diomed.
DIOMEDES
He is my prize; I will not look upon.
TROILUS
Come, both you cogging Greeks, have at you both!
They fight.
Enter Hector
 
HECTOR
Yea, Troilus? O well fought, my youngest brother!
Exit Troilus
⌈
driving Diomedes and Ajax in⌉
Enter Achilles
⌈
behind⌉
 
ACHILLES
Now do I see thee.—Ha! Have at thee, Hector.
They fight
. ⌈
Achilles is bested⌉
 
HECTOR Pause, if thou wilt.
ACHILLES
I do disdain thy courtesy, proud Trojan.
Be happy that my arms are out of use.
My rest and negligence befriends thee now;
But thou anon shalt here of me again.
Till when, go seek thy fortune. Exit
HECTOR Fare thee well.
I would have been much more a fresher man
Had I expected thee.
Enter Troilus
⌈
ain haste
⌉
 
How now, my brother?
 
TROILUS
Ajax hath ta‘en Aeneas. 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 today.
Exit
Enter one in sumptuous armour
 
HECTOR
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. ⌈
Exit one in armour⌉
Wilt thou not, beast, abide?
 
Why then, fly on; I’ll hunt thee for thy hide. Exit
5.7
Enter Achilles with Myrmidons
 
ACHILLES
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. Exeunt
5.8
Enter Menelaus and Paris, fighting,
⌈
then⌉ Thersites
 
THERSITES The cuckold and the cuckold-maker are at it.—Now, bull! Now, dog! ‘Loo, Paris, ’loo! Now, my double-horned Spartan! ’Loo, Paris, ’loo! The bull has the game. Ware horns, ho!
Exit Menelaus
⌈
driving in⌉ Paris
Enter Bastard
⌈
behind⌉
 
BASTARD Turn, slave, and fight.
THERSITES What art thou?
BASTARD A bastard son of Priam’s.
THERSITES I am a bastard, too. I love bastards. I am bastard begot, bastard instructed, bastard in mind, bastard in valour, in everything illegitimate. One bear will not bite another, and wherefore should one bastard? Take heed: the quarrel’s most ominous to us. If the son of a whore fight for a whore, he tempts judgement. Farewell, bastard. ⌈
Exit⌉
BASTARD The devil take thee, coward.
Exit
5.9
Enter Hector
⌈
dragging⌉ the one in sumptuous
armour
 
HECTOR ⌈
taking off the helmet⌉
Most putrefied core, so fair without,
Thy goodly armour thus hath cost thy life.
Now is my day’s work done. I’ll take good breath.
Rest, sword: thou hast thy fill of blood and death.
He disarms.
Enter Achilles and his Myrmidons, surrounding
Hector
 
ACHILLES
Look, Hector, how the sun begins to set,
How ugly night comes breathing at his heels.
Even with the veil and dark’ning of the sun
To close the day up, Hector’s life is done.
HECTOR
I am unarmed. Forgo this vantage, Greek.
ACHILLES
Strike, fellows, strike! This is the man I seek.
⌈
The Myrmidons⌉
kill Hector
 
So, Ilium, fall thou. Now, Troy, sink down.
Here lies thy heart, thy sinews, and thy bone.—
On, Myrmidons, and cry you all amain,
‘Achilles hath the mighty Hector stain!’
A retreat is sounded
 
Hark, a retire upon our Grecian part.
⌈
Another retreat is sounded
⌉
 
A MYRMIDON
The Trojan trumpets sound the like, my lord.
ACHILLES
The dragon wing of night o’erspreads the earth
And, stickler-like, the armies separates.
My half-supped sword, that frankly would have fed,
Pleased with this dainty bait, thus goes to bed.
He sheathes his sword
 
Come, tie his body to my horse’s tail.
Along the field I will the Trojan trail.
Exeunt, dragging the bodies
5.10
A retreat is sounded. Enter Agamemnon, Ajax, Menelaus, Nestor, Diomedes, and the rest, marching.
⌈
A shout within
⌉
 
AGAMEMNON
Hark, hark! What shout is that?
NESTOR Peace, drums.
MYRMIDONS (within) Achilles!
Achilles! Hector’s slain! Achilles!
DIOMEDES
The bruit is: Hector’s slain, and by Achilles.
AJAX
If it be so, yet bragless let it be.
Great Hector was a man as good as he.
AGAMEMNON
March patiently along. Let one be sent
To pray Achilles see us at our tent.
If in his death the gods have us befriended,
Great Troy is ours, and our sharp wars are ended.
Exeunt
⌈
marching⌉
5.11
Enter Aeneas, Paris, Antenor, and Deiphobus
 
AENEAS
Stand, ho! Yet are we masters of the field.
Never go home; here starve we out the night.
Enter Troilus
 
TROILUS
Hector is slain.
ALL THE OTHERS Hector? The gods forbid.
TROILUS
He’s dead, and at the murderer’s horse’s tail
In beastly sort dragged through the shameful field.
Frown on, you heavens; effect your rage with speed;
Sit, gods, upon your thrones, and smite at Troy.
I say, at once: let your brief plagues be mercy,
And linger not our sure destructions on.
AENEAS
My lord, you do discomfort all the host.
TROILUS
You understand me not that tell me so.
I do not speak of flight, of fear of death,
But dare all imminence that gods and men
Address their dangers in. Hector is gone.
Who shall tell Priam so, or Hecuba?
Let him that will a screech-owl aye be called
Go into Troy and say their Hector’s dead.
There is a word will Priam turn to stone,
Make wells and Niobes of the maids and wives,
Cold statues of the youth, and in a word
Scare Troy out of itself. But march away.
Hector is dead; there is no more to say.
Stay yet.—You vile abominable tents
Thus proudly pitched upon our Phrygian plains,
Let Titan rise as early as he dare,
I’ll through and through you! And thou great-sized
coward,
No space of earth shall sunder our two hates.
I’ll haunt thee like a wicked conscience still,
That mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy’s thoughts.
Strike a free march! To Troy with comfort go:
Hope of revenge shall hide our inward woe.
⌈
Exeunt marching⌉
ADDITIONAL PASSAGES
 
A. The Quarto (below) gives a more elaborate version of Thersites’ speech at 5.1.17-21.
THERSITES Why, his masculine whore. Now the rotten diseases of the south, the guts-griping, ruptures, loads o’ gravel in the back, lethargies, cold palsies, raw eyes, dirt-rotten livers, wheezing lungs, bladders full of impostume, sciaticas, lime-kilns i’th’ palm, incurable bone-ache, and the rivelled fee-simple of the tetter, take and take again such preposterous discoveries.
B. The Quarto gives a different ending to the play (which the Folio inadvertently repeats).
Enter Pandarus
 
PANDARUS But hear you, hear you.
TROILUS
Hence, broker-lackey. ⌈
Strikes him⌉
Ignomy and shame
Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy name.
Exeunt all but Pandarus
 
PANDARUS A goodly medicine for my aching bones. O world, world, world!—thus is the poor agent despised. O traitors and bawds, how earnestly are you set a work, and how ill requited! Why should our endeavour be so desired and the performance so loathed? What verse for it? What instance for it? Let me see,
Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing
Till he hath lost his honey and his sting,
And being once subdued in armèd tail,
Sweet honey and sweet notes together fail.
 
Good traders in the flesh, set this in your painted cloths:
As many as be here of Pandar’s hall,
Your eyes, half out, weep out at Pandar’s fall.
Or if you cannot weep, yet give some groans,
Though not for me, yet for your aching bones.
Brethren and sisters of the hold-door trade,
Some two months hence my will shall here be made.
It should be now, but that my fear is this:
Some galled goose of Winchester would hiss.
Till then I’ll sweat and seek about for eases,
And at that time bequeath you my diseases. Exit
 

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