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Troilus and Cressida (Folio 1, 1623)

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: W. L. Godshalk
Peer Reviewed
Troylus and Cressida.
Before the belching Whale; then is he yonder,
And there the straying Greekes, ripe for his edge,
Fall downe before him, like the mowers swath;
Here, there, and euery where, he leaues and takes;
3400Dexteritie so obaying appetite,
That what he will, he does, and does so much,
That proofe is call'd impossibility.

Enter Vlisses.
Ulis. Oh, courage, courage Princes: great Achilles
3405Is arming, weeping, cursing, vowing vengeance;
Patroclus wounds haue rouz'd his drowzie bloud,
Together with his mangled Myrmidons,
That noselesse, handlesse, hackt and chipt, come to him;
Crying on Hector. Aiax hath lost a friend,
3410And foames at mouth, and he is arm'd, and at it:
Roaring for Troylus; who hath done to day.
Mad and fantasticke execution;
Engaging and redeeming of himselfe,
With such a carelesse force, and forcelesse care,
3415As if that luck in very spight of cunning, bad him win all.
Enter Aiax.
Aia. Troylus, thou coward Troylus.
Exit.
Dio. I, there, there.
Nest. So, so, we draw together.
Exit.
3420
Enter Achilles.
Achil. Where is this Hector?
Come, come, thou boy-queller, shew thy face:
Know what it is to meete Achilles angry.
Hector, wher's Hector? I will none but Hector.
Exit.
3425
Enter Aiax.
Aia. Troylus, thou coward Troylus, shew thy head.
Enter Diomed.
Diom. Troylus, I say, wher's Troylus?
Aia. What would'st thou?
3430Diom. I would correct him.
Aia. Were I the Generall,
Thou should'st haue my office,
Ere that correction: Troylus I say, what Troylus?
Enter Troylus.
3435Troy. Oh traitour Diomed!
Turne thy false face thou traytor,
And pay thy life thou owest me for my horse.
Dio. Ha, art thou there?
Aia. Ile fight with him alone, stand Diomed.
3440Dio. He is my prize, I will not looke vpon.
Troy. Come both you coging Greekes, haue at you
both.
Exit Troylus.
Enter Hector.
Hect. Yea Troylus? O well fought my yongest Brother.
3445
Euter Achilles.
Achil. Now doe I see thee; haue at thee Hector.
Hect. Pause if thou wilt.
Achil. I doe disdaine thy curtesie, proud Troian;
Be happy that my armes are out of vse:
3450My rest and negligence befriends thee now,
But thou anon shalt heare of me againe:
Till when, goe seeke thy fortune.
Exit.
Hect. Fare thee well:
I would haue beene much more a fresher man,
3455Had I expected thee: how now my Brother?
Enter Troylus.
Troy. Aiax hath tane Æneas; shall it be?
No, by the flame of yonder glorious heauen,
He shall not carry him: Ile be tane too,
3460Or bring him off: Fate heare me what I say;
I wreake not, though thou end my life to day.
Exit.
Enter one in Armour.
Hect. Stand, stand, thou Greeke,
Thou art a goodly marke:
3465No? wilt thou not? I like thy armour well,
Ile frush it, and vnlocke the riuets all,
But Ile be maister of it: wilt thou not beast abide?
Why then flye on, Ile hunt thee for thy hide.
Exit.
Enter Achilles with Myrmidons.
3470Achil. Come here about me you my Myrmidons:
Marke what I say; attend me where I wheele:
Strike not a stroake, but keepe your selues in breath;
And when I haue the bloudy Hector found,
Empale him with your weapons round about:
3475In fellest manner execute your arme.
Follow me sirs, and my proceedings eye;
It is decreed, Hector the great must dye.
Exit.
Enter Thersites, Menelaus, and Paris.
Ther. The Cuckold and the Cuckold maker are at it:
3480now bull, now dogge, lowe; Paris lowe; now my dou-
ble hen'd sparrow; lowe Paris, lowe; the bull has the
game: ware hornes ho?
Exit Paris and Menelaus.
Enter Bastard.
3485Bast. Turne slaue and fight.
Ther. What art thou?
Bast. A Bastard Sonne of Priams.
Ther. I am a Bastard too, I loue Bastards, I am a Ba-
stard begot, Bastard instructed, Bastard in minde, Bastard
3490in valour, in euery thing illegitimate: one Beare will not
bite another, and wherefore should one Bastard? take
heede, the quarrel's most ominous to vs: if the Sonne of a
whore fight for a whore, he tempts iudgement: farewell
Bastard.
3495Bast. The diuell take thee coward.
Exeunt.
Enter Hector.
Hect. Most putrified core so faire without:
Thy goodly armour thus hath cost thy life.
Now is my daies worke done; Ile take good breath:
3500Rest Sword, thou hast thy fill of bloud and death.
Enter Achilles and his Myrmidons.
Achil. Looke Hector how the Sunne begins to set;
How vgly night comes breathing at his heeles,
Euen with the vaile and darking of the Sunne.
3505To close the day vp, Hectors life is done.
Hect. I am vnarm'd, forgoe this vantage Greeke.
Achil. Strike fellowes, strike, this is the man I seeke.
So Illion fall thou: now Troy sinke downe;
Here lyes thy heart, thy sinewes, and thy bone.
3510On Myrmidons, cry you all a maine,
Achilles hath the mighty Hector slaine.
Retreat.
Harke, a retreat vpon our Grecian part.
Gree. The Troian Trumpets sounds the like my Lord.
Achi. The dragon wing of night ore-spreds the earth
3515And stickler-like the Armies seperates
My halfe supt Sword, that frankly would haue fed,
Pleas'd with this dainty bed; thus goes to bed.
Come, tye his body to my horses tayle;
Along the field, I will the Troian traile.
Exeunt.
3520
Sound Retreat. Shout.
Enter Agamemnon, Aiax, Menelaus, Nestor,
Diomed, and the rest marching.

Aga. Harke, harke, what shout is that?
Nest. Peace Drums.
Sol. Achille