Complete Plays, The (109 page)
Read Complete Plays, The Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
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, 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.
Enter Achilles
Achilles
Where is this Hector?
Come, come, thou boy-queller, show thy face;
Know what it is to meet Achilles angry:
Hector? where’s Hector? I will none but Hector.
Exeunt
S
CENE
VI. A
NOTHER
PART
OF
THE
PLAINS
.
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. Troilus, I say! what, Troilus!
Enter Troilus
Troilus
O traitor Diomed! turn thy false face, thou traitor,
And pay thy life thou owest 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!
Exeunt, fighting
Enter Hector
Hector
Yea, Troilus? O, well fought, my youngest brother!
Enter Achilles
Achilles
Now do I see thee, ha! have at thee, Hector!
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 hear 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. How now, my brother!
Re-enter Troilus
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 I end my life to-day.
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: wilt thou not, beast, abide?
Why, then fly on, I’ll hunt thee for thy hide.
Exeunt
S
CENE
VII. A
NOTHER
PART
OF
THE
PLAINS
.
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 aims.
Follow me, sirs, and my proceedings eye:
It is decreed Hector the great must die.
Exeunt
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- henned sparrow! ’loo, Paris, ’loo! The bull has the game: ware horns, ho!
Exeunt Paris and Menelaus
Enter Margarelon
Margarelon
Turn, slave, and fight.
Thersites
What art thou?
Margarelon
A bastard son of Priam’s.
Thersites
I am a bastard too; I love bastards: I am a bastard begot, bastard instructed, bastard in mind, bastard in valour, in every thing 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 judgment: farewell, bastard.
Exit
Margarelon
The devil take thee, coward!
Exit
S
CENE
VIII. A
NOTHER
PART
OF
THE
PLAINS
.
Enter Hector
Hector
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.
Puts off his helmet and hangs his shield behind him
Enter Achilles and Myrmidons
Achilles
Look, Hector, how the sun begins to set;
How ugly night comes breathing at his heels:
Even with the vail and darking of the sun,
To close the day up, Hector’s life is done.
Hector
I am unarm’d; forego this vantage, Greek.
Achilles
Strike, fellows, strike; this is the man I seek.
Hector falls
So, Ilion, fall thou next! 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 slain.’
A retreat sounded
Hark! a retire upon our Grecian part.
Myrmidons
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-supp’d sword, that frankly would have fed,
Pleased with this dainty bait, thus goes to bed.
Sheathes his sword
Come, tie his body to my horse’s tail;
Along the field I will the Trojan trail.
Exeunt
S
CENE
IX. A
NOTHER
PART
OF
THE
PLAINS
.
Enter Agamemnon, Ajax, Menelaus, Nestor, Diomedes, and others, marching. Shouts within
Agamemnon
Hark! hark! what shout is that?
Nestor
Peace, drums!
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
S
CENE
X. A
NOTHER
PART
OF
THE
PLAINS
.
Enter Aeneas and Trojans
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
Hector! the gods forbid!
Troilus
He’s dead; and at the murderer’s horse’s tail,
In beastly sort, dragg’d through the shameful field.
Frown on, you heavens, effect your rage with speed!
Sit, gods, upon your thrones, and smile 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 call’d,
Go in to Troy, and say there, 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 pight 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 Aeneas and Trojans
As Troilus is going out, enter, from the other side, Pandarus
Pandarus
But hear you, hear you!
Troilus
Hence, broker-lackey! ignomy and shame
Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy name!
Exit
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 loved 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 armed 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 pander’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 bequeathe you my diseases.
Exit
Othello, the Moor of Venice
T
ABLE
OF
C
ONTENTS
S
CENE
I. A S
EA
-
PORT
IN
C
YPRUS
. A
N
OPEN
PLACE
NEAR
THE
QUAY
.
S
CENE
III. T
HE
GARDEN
OF
THE
CASTLE
.
