Troilus And Cressida

1 Enter Hector and Andromache.
2 ANDROMACHE.
3 When was my lord so much ungently temper’d
4 To stop his ears against admonishment?
5 Unarm, unarm, and do not fight today.
6 HECTOR.
7 You train me to offend you; get you in.
8 By all the everlasting gods, I’ll go.
9 ANDROMACHE.
10 My dreams will, sure, prove ominous to the day.
11 HECTOR.
12 No more, I say.
13 Enter Cassandra.
14 CASSANDRA.
15 Where is my brother Hector?
16 ANDROMACHE.
17 Here, sister, arm’d, and bloody in intent.
18 Consort with me in loud and dear petition,
19 Pursue we him on knees; for I have dreamt
20 Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night
21 Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of slaughter.
22 CASSANDRA.
23 O, ’tis true!
24 HECTOR.
25 Ho! bid my trumpet sound.
26 CASSANDRA.
27 No notes of sally, for the heavens, sweet brother!
28 HECTOR.
29 Be gone, I say. The gods have heard me swear.
30 CASSANDRA.
31 The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows;
32 They are polluted off’rings, more abhorr’d
33 Than spotted livers in the sacrifice.
34 ANDROMACHE.
35 O, be persuaded! Do not count it holy
36 To hurt by being just. It is as lawful,
37 For we would give much, to use violent thefts
38 And rob in the behalf of charity.
39 CASSANDRA.
40 It is the purpose that makes strong the vow;
41 But vows to every purpose must not hold.
42 Unarm, sweet Hector.
43 HECTOR.
44 Hold you still, I say.
45 Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate.
46 Life every man holds dear; but the dear man
47 Holds honour far more precious dear than life.
48 Enter Troilus.
49 How now, young man! Mean’st thou to fight today?
50 ANDROMACHE.
51 Cassandra, call my father to persuade.
52 [_Exit_ Cassandra.]
53 HECTOR.
54 No, faith, young Troilus; doff thy harness, youth;
55 I am today i’ th’vein of chivalry.
56 Let grow thy sinews till their knots be strong,
57 And tempt not yet the brushes of the war.
58 Unarm thee, go; and doubt thou not, brave boy,
59 I’ll stand today for thee and me and Troy.
60 TROILUS.
61 Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you,
62 Which better fits a lion than a man.
63 HECTOR.
64 What vice is that? Good Troilus, chide me for it.
65 TROILUS.
66 When many times the captive Grecian falls,
67 Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword,
68 You bid them rise and live.
69 HECTOR.
70 O, ’tis fair play!
71 TROILUS.
72 Fool’s play, by heaven, Hector.
73 HECTOR.
74 How now? how now?
75 TROILUS.
76 For th’ love of all the gods,
77 Let’s leave the hermit Pity with our mother;
78 And when we have our armours buckled on,
79 The venom’d vengeance ride upon our swords,
80 Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth!
81 HECTOR.
82 Fie, savage, fie!
83 TROILUS.
84 Hector, then ’tis wars.
85 HECTOR.
86 Troilus, I would not have you fight today.
87 TROILUS.
88 Who should withhold me?
89 Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars
90 Beckoning with fiery truncheon my retire;
91 Not Priamus and Hecuba on knees,
92 Their eyes o’er-galled with recourse of tears;
93 Nor you, my brother, with your true sword drawn,
94 Oppos’d to hinder me, should stop my way,
95 But by my ruin.
96 Re-enter Cassandra with Priam.
97 CASSANDRA.
98 Lay hold upon him, Priam, hold him fast;
99 He is thy crutch; now if thou lose thy stay,
100 Thou on him leaning, and all Troy on thee,
101 Fall all together.
102 PRIAM.
103 Come, Hector, come, go back.
104 Thy wife hath dreamt; thy mother hath had visions;
105 Cassandra doth foresee; and I myself
106 Am like a prophet suddenly enrapt
107 To tell thee that this day is ominous.
108 Therefore, come back.
109 HECTOR.
110 Aeneas is a-field;
111 And I do stand engag’d to many Greeks,
112 Even in the faith of valour, to appear
113 This morning to them.
114 PRIAM.
115 Ay, but thou shalt not go.
116 HECTOR.
117 I must not break my faith.
118 You know me dutiful; therefore, dear sir,
119 Let me not shame respect; but give me leave
120 To take that course by your consent and voice
121 Which you do here forbid me, royal Priam.
122 CASSANDRA.
123 O Priam, yield not to him!
124 ANDROMACHE.
125 Do not, dear father.
126 HECTOR.
127 Andromache, I am offended with you.
128 Upon the love you bear me, get you in.
129 [_Exit_ Andromache.]
130 TROILUS.
131 This foolish, dreaming, superstitious girl
132 Makes all these bodements.
133 CASSANDRA.
134 O, farewell, dear Hector!
135 Look how thou diest. Look how thy eye turns pale.
136 Look how thy wounds do bleed at many vents.
137 Hark how Troy roars; how Hecuba cries out;
138 How poor Andromache shrills her dolours forth;
139 Behold distraction, frenzy, and amazement,
140 Like witless antics, one another meet,
141 And all cry, ‘Hector! Hector’s dead! O Hector!’
142 TROILUS.
143 Away, away!
144 CASSANDRA.
145 Farewell! yet, soft! Hector, I take my leave.
146 Thou dost thyself and all our Troy deceive.
147 [_Exit_.]
148 HECTOR.
149 You are amaz’d, my liege, at her exclaim.
150 Go in, and cheer the town; we’ll forth, and fight,
151 Do deeds worth praise and tell you them at night.
152 PRIAM.
153 Farewell. The gods with safety stand about thee!
154 [_Exeunt severally Priam and Hector. Alarums._]
155 TROILUS.
156 They are at it, hark! Proud Diomed, believe,
157 I come to lose my arm or win my sleeve.
158 Enter Pandarus.
159 PANDARUS.
160 Do you hear, my lord? Do you hear?
161 TROILUS.
162 What now?
163 PANDARUS.
164 Here’s a letter come from yond poor girl.
165 TROILUS.
166 Let me read.
167 PANDARUS.
168 A whoreson tisick, a whoreson rascally tisick, so troubles me, and the
169 foolish fortune of this girl, and what one thing, what another, that I
170 shall leave you one o’ these days; and I have a rheum in mine eyes too,
171 and such an ache in my bones that unless a man were curs’d I cannot
172 tell what to think on’t. What says she there?
173 TROILUS.
174 Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart;
175 Th’effect doth operate another way.
176 [_Tearing the letter_.]
177 Go, wind, to wind, there turn and change together.
178 My love with words and errors still she feeds,
179 But edifies another with her deeds.
180 [_Exeunt severally_.]