The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare (book suggestions TXT) 📖

enter.

Instance, O instance! strong as Pluto’s gates: Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven.

Instance, O instance! strong as heaven itself: The bonds of heaven are slipp’d, dissolv’d, and loos’d; And with another knot, five-finger-tied, The fractions of her faith, orts of her love, The fragments, scraps, the bits, and greasy relics Of her o’er-eaten faith, are bound to Diomed.

ULYSSES. May worthy Troilus be half-attach’d With that which here his passion doth express?

TROILUS. Ay, Greek; and that shall be divulged well In characters as red as Mars his heart Inflam’d with Venus. Never did young man fancy With so eternal and so fix’d a soul.

Hark, Greek: as much as I do Cressid love, So much by weight hate I her Diomed.

That sleeve is mine that he’ll bear on his helm; Were it a casque compos’d by Vulcan’s skill My sword should bite it. Not the dreadful spout Which shipmen do the hurricano call,

Constring’d in mass by the almighty sun, Shall dizzy with more clamour Neptune’s ear In his descent than shall my prompted sword Falling on Diomed.

THERSITES. He’ll tickle it for his concupy.

TROILUS. O Cressid! O false Cressid! false, false, false!

Let all untruths stand by thy stained name, And they’ll seem glorious.

ULYSSES. O, contain yourself;

Your passion draws ears hither.

 

Enter AENEAS

 

AENEAS. I have been seeking you this hour, my lord.

Hector, by this, is arming him in Troy; Ajax, your guard, stays to conduct you home.

TROILUS. Have with you, Prince. My courteous lord, adieu.

Fairwell, revolted fair!-and, Diomed, Stand fast and wear a castle on thy head.

ULYSSES. I’ll bring you to the gates.

TROILUS. Accept distracted thanks.

 

Exeunt TROILUS, AENEAS. and ULYSSES

 

THERSITES. Would I could meet that rogue Diomed! I would croak like a raven; I would bode, I would bode. Patroclus will give me anything 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

ACT V. SCENE 3.

Troy. Before PRIAM’S palace

 

Enter HECTOR and ANDROMACHE

 

ANDROMACHE. When was my lord so much ungently temper’d To stop his ears against admonishment?

Unarm, unarm, and do not fight to-day.

HECTOR. You train me to offend you; get you in.

By all the everlasting gods, I’ll go.

ANDROMACHE. My dreams will, sure, prove ominous to the day.

HECTOR. No more, I say.

 

Enter CASSANDRA

 

CASSANDRA. Where is my brother Hector?

ANDROMACHE. Here, sister, arm’d, and bloody in intent.

Consort with me in loud and dear petition, Pursue we him on knees; for I have dreamt Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of slaughter.

CASSANDRA. O, ‘tis true!

HECTOR. Ho! bid my trumpet sound.

CASSANDRA. No notes of sally, for the heavens, sweet brother!

HECTOR. Be gone, I say. The gods have heard me swear.

CASSANDRA. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows; They are polluted off’rings, more abhorr’d Than spotted livers in the sacrifice.

ANDROMACHE. 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.

CASSANDRA. It is the purpose that makes strong the vow; But vows to every purpose must not hold.

Unarm, sweet Hector.

HECTOR. 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 dear than life.

 

Enter TROILUS

 

How now, young man! Mean’st thou to fight to-day?

ANDROMACHE. Cassandra, call my father to persuade.

Exit CASSANDRA HECTOR. No, faith, young Troilus; doff thy harness, youth; I am to-day i’ th’ 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.

TROILUS. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you Which better fits a lion than a man.

HECTOR. What vice is that, good Troilus?

Chide me for it.

TROILUS. When many times the captive Grecian falls, Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword, You bid them rise and live.

HECTOR. O, ‘tis fair play!

TROILUS. Fool’s play, by heaven, Hector.

HECTOR. How now! how now!

TROILUS. For th’ 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!

HECTOR. Fie, savage, fie!

TROILUS. Hector, then ‘tis wars.

HECTOR. Troilus, I would not have you fight to-day.

TROILUS. Who should withhold me?

Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars Beck’ning 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

 

CASSANDRA. 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.

PRIAM. Come, Hector, come, go back.

Thy wife hath dreamt; 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.

HECTOR. Aeneas is a-field;

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

PRIAM. Ay, but thou shalt not go.

HECTOR. 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.

CASSANDRA. O Priam, yield not to him!

ANDROMACHE. Do not, dear father.

HECTOR. Andromache, I am offended with you.

Upon the love you bear me, get you in.

Exit ANDROMACHE

TROILUS. This foolish, dreaming, superstitious girl Makes all these bodements.

CASSANDRA. 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 dolours forth; Behold distraction, frenzy, and amazement, Like witless antics, one another meet, And all cry, Hector! Hector’s dead! O Hector!

TROILUS. Away, away!

CASSANDRA. Farewell!-yet, soft! Hector, I take my leave.

Thou dost thyself and all our Troy deceive. Exit HECTOR. 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.

PRIAM. Farewell. The gods with safety stand about thee!

Exeunt severally PRIAM and HECTOR. Alarums TROILUS. They are at it, hark! Proud Diomed, believe, I come to lose my arm or win my sleeve.

 

Enter PANDARUS

 

PANDARUS. Do you hear, my lord? Do you hear?

TROILUS. What now?

PANDARUS. Here’s a letter come from yond poor girl.

TROILUS. Let me read.

PANDARUS. 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’ th’s days; and I have a rheum in mine eyes too, and such an ache in my bones that unless a man were curs’d I cannot tell what to think on’t. What says she there?

TROILUS. Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart; Th’ 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. Exeunt severally

ACT V. SCENE 4.

The plain between Troy and the Grecian camp Enter THERSITES. Excursions

 

THERSITES. 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 Troyan ass that loves the whore there might send that Greekish whoremasterly villain with the sleeve back to the dissembling luxurious drab of a sleeve-less errand. A th’ t’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 prov’d 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.

 

Enter DIOMEDES, TROILUS following Soft! here comes sleeve, and t’other.

TROILUS. Fly not; for shouldst thou take the river Styx I would swim after.

DIOMEDES. Thou dost miscall retire.

I do not fly; but advantageous care

Withdrew me from the odds of multitude.

Have at thee.

THERSITES. Hold thy whore, Grecian; now for thy whore, Troyan-now the sleeve, now the sleeve!

Exeunt TROILUS and DIOMEDES fighting Enter HECTOR

 

HECTOR. What art thou, Greek? Art thou for Hector’s match?

Art thou of blood and honour?

THERSITES. No, no-I am a rascal; a scurvy railing knave; a very filthy rogue.

HECTOR. I do believe thee. Live. Exit THERSITES. 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. Exit

ACT V. SCENE 5.

Another part of the plain

 

Enter DIOMEDES and A SERVANT

 

DIOMEDES. 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 Troyan, And am her knight by proof.

SERVANT. I go, my lord. Exit Enter AGAMEMNON

 

AGAMEMNON. Renew, renew! The fierce Polydamus Hath beat down enon; bastard Margarelon Hath Doreus prisoner,

And stands colossus-wise, waving his beam, Upon the pashed corses of the kings

Epistrophus and Cedius. Polixenes is slain; Amphimacus and Thoas deadly hurt;

Patroclus ta’en, or slain; and Palamedes Sore hurt and bruis’d. The dreadful Sagittary Appals our numbers. Haste we, Diomed, To reinforcement, or we perish all.

 

Enter NESTOR

 

NESTOR. Go, bear Patroclus’ body to Achilles, And bid the snail-pac’d Ajax arm for shame.

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 scaled sculls 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 call’d impossibility.

 

Enter ULYSSES

 

ULYSSES. O, courage, courage, courage, Princes! Great Achilles Is 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 And foams at mouth, and he is arm’d and at it, Roaring for Troilus; who hath done to-day 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 Troilus! Exit DIOMEDES. Ay, there, there.

NESTOR. So, so, we draw together. Exit Enter ACHILLES