Life every man holds dear; but the dear man Enter TROILUS. How now, young man! mean'st thou to fight to day? And. Cassandra, call my father to persuade. [Exit CASSANDRA. Hect. No, 'faith, young Troilus; doff thy harness, youth; I am to-day i'the 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. Tro. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you, Which better fits a lion than a man." Hect. What vice is that, good Troilus? chide me for it. Tro. When many times the captive Grecians fall, Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword, You bid them rise, and live. Hect. O! 'tis fair play. Tro. Fool's play, by Heaven, Hector. Hect. How now! how now! Tro. For the love of all the gods, Let's leave the hermit Pity with our mothers; 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, 4 The dear man is the man of worth. 5 The traditions and stories of the darker ages abounded with examples of the lion's generosity. Upon the supposition that these acts of clemency were true, Troilus reasons not improperly, that to spare against reason, by mere instinct and pity, became rather a generous beast than a wise man. Hect. Fie, savage, fie! Tro. Hector, then 'tis wars. Hect. Troilus, I would not have you fight to-day Tro. Who should withhold me? Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars Their eyes o'ergalled with recourse of tears; But by my ruin. Re-enter CASSANDRA, with PRIAM. Cas. 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. Pri. Come, Hector, come; go back: Thy wife hath dream'd, thy mother hath had visions, Am like a prophet suddenly enrapt, Hect. Æneas is a-field; And I do stand engag'd to many Greeks, Pri. Ay, but thou shalt not go. Hect. 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, Cas. O Priam! yield not to him. And. Do not, dear father Hect. Andromache, I am offended with you. Upon the love you bear me, get you in. [Exit ANDROMACHE, Tro. This foolish, dreaming, superstitious girl Makes all these bodements. Cas. 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, Hector! Hector's dead! O Hector! And all cry Cas. Farewell. leave: - Yet, soft! Hector, I take my Thou dost thyself and all our Troy deceive. [Exit. Hect. You are amaz'd, my liege, at her exclaim. • The Destruction of Troy continues the story thus: "In the morning Andromeda went to the king Priamus, and to the queene, and told them the verity of her vision, and prayed them with all her heart, that they would do so much at her request as to dissuade Hector, that he should not in any wise that day go to the battle. It happened that the day was faire and clear, and the Trojans armed them, and Troylus issued first into the battle; after him Eneas. And the king Priamus sent to Hector, that he should keepe him well that day from going to battle. Wherefore Hector was angry, and said to his wife many reproachful words, as that he knew well that this commandment came by her request; yet, notwithstanding the forbidding, he armed him. At this instant came the queene Hecuba, and the queene Helen, and the sisters of Hector, and kneeled down presently before his feet, and prayed him with weeping tears that he would do off his harness, and come with them into the hall: but never would he do it for their prayers, but descended from the palace, and tooke his horse, and would have gone to battle. But at the request of Andromeda the king Priamus came running anon, and tooke him by the bridle, and said to him so many things of one and other, that he made him to re torn, but ir no wise would he be made to unarm him." H. Go in, and cheer the town: we'll forth, and fight; Do deeds worth praise, and tell you them at night. Pri. Farewell: the gods with safety stand about thee! [Exeunt severally PRIAM and HEC Tro. They are at it; hark! Proud Diomed, believe, I come to lose my arm, or win my sleeve. [Going. Enter PANDARUS. Pan. Do you hear, my lord? do you hear? Pan. Here's a letter from yond' poor girl. Pan. 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'these 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? Tro. Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart; [Tearing the Letter. The effect doth operate another way. — Go, wind to wind, there turn and change together. My love with words and errors still she feeds, [Exeunt severally. ? That is, under the influence of a malediction, such as mischievous beings have been supposed to pronounce upon those who offended them. The folio has the following additional here: "Pan. Why, but heare you? "Troy. Hence, brother lackie; ignomie and shame The folio repeats the lines near the close of the play, save that SCENE IV. Between Troy and the Grecian Camp. Alarums: Excursions. Enter THERSITES. Ther. Now they are clapper-clawing one another: 7'1 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 Trojan ass, that loves the whore there, might send that Greekish whoremasterly villain, with the sleeve, back to the dissembling luxurious drab, of a sleeveless errand. O' th' other side, the policy of those crafty swearing rascals, that stale old mouseeaten 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. Soft! here comes sleeve, and th'other. Enter DIOMEDES, TROILUS following. Tro. Fly not; for, shouldst thou take the river I would swim after. brother, doubtless a misprint, is there corrected to broker. There seems no reason why the lines should be retained in both places, and they are much more fitting in the latter place. Collier's second folio has " brothel-lackey." H. To set up the authority of ignorance, and to declare that they will be governed by policy no longer. |