There they stand yet; and modestly I think, A drop of Grecian blood. The end crowns all; Ulys. So to him we leave it. Most gentle, and most valiant Hector, welcome! Hect. Is this Achilles? Achil. I am Achilles. Hect. Stand fair, I pray thee: let me look on thee! Achil. Behold thy fill! Hect. Nay, I have done already. Achil. Thou art too brief; I will the second time, Shall I destroy him? whether there, there, or there? Achil. I tell thee, yea. Hect. Wert thou an oracle to tell me so, I'd not believe thee. Henceforth guard thee well! For I'll not kill thee there, nor there, nor there; But, by the forge, that stithied Mars his helm, I'll kill thee every where, yea, o'er and o'er. You wisest Grecians, pardon me this brag, His insolence draws folly from my lips! But I'll endeavour deeds to match these words, may I never Or Ajax. Do not chafe thee, cousin!— And you, Achilles, let these threats alone, Till accident, or purpose, bring you to't: You may have every day enough of Hector, If you have stomach; the general state, I fear, Can scarce entreat you to be odd with him. Hect. I pray you, let us see you in the field! We have had pelting wars, since you refus'd The Grecians' cause. Achil. Dost thou entreat me, Hector? To-night, all friends. Hect. Thy hand upon that match!' Enter THERSITRS. Achil. How now, thou core of envy, Ther. Why, thou full dish of fool, from Troy. 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, cold palsies, raw eyes, dirt- rotten livers, wheezing lungs, bladders full of imposthume, sciaticas, lime-kilns i' the palm, incurable bone-ach, and the rivelled feesimple 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. 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. Agam. First, all you peers of Greece, go to my tent! Here is a letter from queen Hecuba, There in the full convive we: afterwards, - As Hector's leisure and your bounties shall Tro. Shall I, sweet lord, be bound to you so much, After we part from Agamemnon's tent, A token from her daughter, my fair love, 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 litchew, 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 Menelaus. Hey-day! spirits and fires! - A Hect. Thanks,and good night,to the Greeks' general! Men. Good night, my lord! Heet. Good night, sweet Menelaus! Ther. Sweet draught! Sweet, quoth'a! sweet sink, And let your mind be coupled with your words! [Exeunt Agamemnon and Menelaus. Achil. Old Nestor tarries; and you too, Diomed, Keep Hector company an hour or two! Dio. I cannot, lord; I have important business, The tide whereof is now. Good night, great Hector! Hect. Give me your hand! Ulys. Follow his torch, he goes Tro. Sweet sir, you honour me. Cres. Sweet honey Creek,tempt me no more to folly! Dio. Nay, then, Cres. I'll tell you what. Dio. Pho! pho! come, tell a pin. You are for Tro. Hold, patience! Ulys. How now, Trojan? Dio. No, no, good night! I'll be your fool no more. Cres. Hark! one word in your ear! Ulys. You are mov'd, prince; let us depart, I pray [Exit Diomed; Ulysses and Troilus fol- I will not speak a word! Achil. Come, come, enter my tent! [Exeunt Achilles, Hector, Ajax, and Nestor. Ther. That same Diomed's a false-hearted rogue, a most unjust knave; I will no more trust him, when he leers, than I will a serpent, when he hisses: he will spend his mouth, and promise, like Brabler the hound; but when he performs, astronomers foretell it; it is prodigious, there will come some change; the suu borrows of the moon, when Diomed keeps his word. I will rather leave to see Hector, than not to dog him they say, he keeps a Trojan drab, and uses the traitor Calchas' tent: I'll after. - Nothing but lechery! all incontinent varlets! [Exit. I Ulys. Why, how now, lord? Cres. Guardian!-why, Greek! Tro. She strokes his cheek! Calchas, I think. Where's your fry! Cal. [Within.] She comes to you. them THERSITES. Ulys. Stand, where the torch may not discover us! Tro. Cressid come forth to him! - Dio. But will you then? Cres. In faith, I will, la; never trust me else! Ulys. You have sworn patience. I will not be myself, nor have cognition T He I T Re-enter CRESSIDA. Tro. I will be patient; outwardly I will. Cres. You look upon that sleeve; behold it well!— He lov'd me- O false wench!-Give't me again. Dio. Who was't? Cres. No matter, now I have't again. I will not meet with you to-morrow night: Ther. Now she sharpens. --Well said, whetstone. Cres. O, all you gods! O pretty pretty pledge! Of thee, and me; and sighs, and takes my glove, As I kiss thee.- Nay, do not snatch it from me; Cres. You shall not have it, Diomed: 'faith, you I'll give you something else. Dio. I will have this; whose was it? Cres. 'Tis no matter. Dio. Come, tell me whose it was. Tro. Why, my negation hath no taste of madness. Tro. Nothing at all, unless that this were she. This was not she. O madness of discourse, Cres. 'Twas one's that lov'd me better, than you will. Divides more wider, than the sky and earth; Dio. Whose was it? Cres. By all Diana's waiting-women yonder, Cres. Well, well, 'tis done, 'tis past! — and yet it is not; I will not keep my word. Dio. Why then, farewell! Thou never shalt mock Diomed again! one cannot speak a word, Cres. You shall not go: Dio. I do not like this fooling. But it straight starts you. And yet the spacious breadth of this division Ther. Nor I, by Pluto: but that, that likes not you, With so eternal and so fix'd a soul. pleases me best. Dio. What, shall I come? the hour? Cres. Ay, come! - O Jove! Do come! I shall be plagu'd. - Hark, Greek! - As much as I do Cressid love, Ther. He'll-tickle it for his concupy. Tro. O Cressid! O false Cressid! false, false, false! Ulys. O, contain yourself; Aene. I have been seeking you this hour, my lord! Ajax, your guard, stays to conduct you home. Farewell, revolted fair!-and, Diomed, Tro. Accept distracted thanks. Tro. Who should withhold me? SCENE III.Troy. Before PRIAM's palace. Hect. You train me to offend you; get you in; And. My dreams will, sure, prove ominous to the day. Enter CASSANDRA. Cas. Where is my brother Hector? And. Here, sister; arm'd, and bloody in intent: Hect. Ho! bid my trumpet sound! Cas.No uotes of sally, for the heavens, sweet brother! And. O! be persuaded: do not count it holy Re-enter CASSANDRA, with PRIAM. Cas. It is the purpose, that makes strong the vow; Hect. Hold you still, I say! Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate: Pri. Come, Hector, come, go back! Thy wife hath dream'd; thy mother hath had visions; Hect. Aeneas is a-field; And I do stand engag'd to many Greeks, How now, young man? mean'st thou to fight to-day? I am to-day i'the vein of chivalry: Pri. But thou shalt not go. Makes all these bodements. Cas. O farewell, dear Hector! Look, how thou diest! look, how thy eye turns pale! Cas. Farewell! yes, soft: - Hector, I take my Thou dost thyself and all our Troy deceive Hect. Troilus, I would not have you fight to-day. [Exit. Tro. Let me read. Pan. A whoreson phthisic,a whoreson rascally phthi sic 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 boues, 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. SCENE IV. -- [Exeunt Severally Enter NESTOR. Nest. Go, bear Patroclus' body to Achilles; · 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: would fain see them meet; that that same Trojan ass, that loves the whore there, might send that Greekish whoremasterly villain, with the sleeve, Ulys. O, courage, courage, princes! great Achilles back to the dissembling luxurious drab, on a sleeve- Is arming, weeping, cursing, vowing vengeance: less errand. O'the other side, the policy of those Patroclus' wounds have rous'd his drowsy blood, crafty swearing rascals, that stale old mouse-eat-Together with his mangled Myrmidons, That what he will, he does; and does so much, en dry cheese, Nestor; and that same dog-fox, That noseless, handless, hack'd and chipp'd, come Ulysses, is not proved worth a blackberry. They to him, set me up, in policy, that mongrel cur, Ajax, against Crying on Hector. Ajax hath lost a friend, that dog of as bad a kind, Achilles: and now is the And foams at mouth, and he is arm'd, and at it, cur Ajax prouder, than the cur Achilles, and will not Roaring for Troilus; who hath done to-day arm to-day; whereupon the Grecians begin to pro- Mad and fantastic execution; claim barbarism, and policy grows into an ill opi-Engaging and redeeming of himself, nion. Soft! here come sleeve, and t'other. Enter DIOMEDES, TROILUS following. Tro. Fly not! for, shouldst thou take the river I would swim after. Dio. Thou dost miscall retire: I do not fly; but advantageous care Withdrew me from the odds of multitude: 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 frightening 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. With such a careless force, and forceless care, Enter AJAX. Achil. Now do I see thee. Ha! Have at thee, Hect. Pause, if thou wilt. Achil. I do disdain thy courtesy, proud Trojan. Hect. Fare thee well! [Exit. I would have been much more a fresher man, |