Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare
Act 5 - Scene 10
Another part of the plains.
Aeneas : Stand, ho! yet are we masters of the field:
[p]Never go home; here
starve we out the night.
Troilus : Hector is slain.
All : Hector! the gods forbid!
Troilus : He's dead; and at the murderer's horse's tail,
[p]In beastly sort,
dragg'd through the shameful field.
[p]Frown on, you heavens, effect
your rage with speed!
[p]Sit, gods, upon your thrones, and smile at
Troy!
[p]I say, at once let your brief plagues be mercy,
[p]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:
[p]I do not speak of flight, of
fear, of death,
[p]But dare all imminence that gods and men
[p]Address
their dangers in. Hector is gone:
[p]Who shall tell Priam so, or
Hecuba?
[p]Let him that will a screech-owl aye be call'd,
[p]Go in to
Troy, and say there, Hector's dead:
[p]There is a word will Priam turn
to stone;
[p]Make wells and Niobes of the maids and wives,
[p]Cold
statues of the youth, and, in a word,
[p]Scare Troy out of itself.
But, march away:
[p]Hector is dead; there is no more to say.
[p]Stay
yet. You vile abominable tents,
[p]Thus proudly pight upon our
Phrygian plains,
[p]Let Titan rise as early as he dare,
[p]I'll
through and through you! and, thou great-sized coward,
[p]No space of
earth shall sunder our two hates:
[p]I'll haunt thee like a wicked
conscience still,
[p]That mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy's
thoughts.
[p]Strike a free march to Troy! with comfort go:
[p]Hope of
revenge shall hide our inward woe.
[p][Exeunt AENEAS and
Trojans]
[p][As TROILUS is going out, enter, from the other]
[p]side,
PANDARUS]
Pandarus : But hear you, hear you!
Troilus : Hence, broker-lackey! ignomy and shame
[p]Pursue thy life, and live
aye with thy name!
Pandarus : A goodly medicine for my aching bones! O world!
[p]world! world! thus
is the poor agent despised!
[p]O traitors and bawds, how earnestly are
you set
[p]a-work, and how ill requited! why should our
[p]endeavour
be so loved and the performance so loathed?
[p]what verse for it? what
instance for it? Let me see:
[p]Full merrily the humble-bee doth
sing,
[p]Till he hath lost his honey and his sting;
[p]And being once
subdued in armed tail,
[p]Sweet honey and sweet notes together
fail.
[p]Good traders in the flesh, set this in your
[p]painted
cloths.
[p]As many as be here of pander's hall,
[p]Your eyes, half
out, weep out at Pandar's fall;
[p]Or if you cannot weep, yet give
some groans,
[p]Though not for me, yet for your aching
bones.
[p]Brethren and sisters of the hold-door trade,
[p]Some two
months hence my will shall here be made:
[p]It should be now, but that
my fear is this,
[p]Some galled goose of Winchester would
hiss:
[p]Till then I'll sweat and seek about for eases,
[p]And at that
time bequeathe you my diseases.
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Next: Act 5 - Scene 10
