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TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

That what he will he does; and does so much
Dexterity so obeying appetite
That proof is call'd impossibility.

drab, of a sleeveless errand. O' the other side, | Fall down before him like the mower's swath: the policy of those crafty swearing rascals,-that Here, there, and everywhere, he leaves and stale old mouse-eaten dry cheese, Nestor, and that same dog-fox, Ulysses,-is not proved worth a takes; blackberry:-They set me up, in policy, that mongrel our, 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 t'other.

Enter DIOMEDES, TROILUS following.
Tro. Fly not; for, shouldst thou take the river
Styx,

I would swim after.

Dio.

Thou dost miscall retire: I do not fly; but advantageous care Withdrew me from the odds of multitude:

Have at thee!

Enter ULYSSES.

Ulyss. O courage, courage, princes! great
Achilles

Is arming, weeping, cursing, vowing vengeance;
Patroclus' wounds have rous'd his drowsy blood,
That noseless, handless, hack'd and chipp'd, come
Together with his mangled Myrmidons,
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,

T'her. Hold thy whore, Grecian!-now for thy With such a careless force, and forceless care, whore,

Trojan!-now the sleeve, now the sleeve!

[Exeunt TROILUS and DIOMEDES, fighting.

Enter HECTOR.

Hect. What art thou, Greek, art thou for
Hector's match?

Art thou of blood and honour?

Ther. No, no:-I am a rascal; a scurvy railing knave; a very filthy rogue.

Hect. I do believe thee;-live.

[Exit. Ther. God-a-mercy that thou wilt believe me; But a plague break thy neck for frighting me! What's become of the wenching rogues? I think they have swallowed one another: I would laugh at that miracle. Yet, in a sort, lechery eats itself. I'll seek them. [Exit.

SCENE V.-The same.

Enter DIOMEDES and a Servant.

Dio. Go, go, my servant, take thou Troilus'

horse!

Present the fair steed to my lady Cressid:
Fellow, commend my service to her beauty;
Tell her I have chastis'd the amorous Trojan,
And am her knight by proof.
Serv.

I go, my lord.
[Exit Servant.

Enter AGAMEMNON.

Agam. Renew, renew!

The fierce Polydamus

Hath beat down Menon: bastard Margarelon
Hath Doreus prisoner;

And stands colossus-wise, waving his beam,
Upon the pashed corses of the kings
Epistrophus and Cedius: Polixenes is slain;
Amphimmacus and Thoas deadly nurt;
Patroclus ta'en, or slain; and Palamedes
Sore hurt and bruis'd: the dreadful Sagittary
Appals our numbers; haste we, Diomed,
To reinforcement, or we perish all.

Enter NESTOR.

Nest. Go, bear Patroclus' body to Achilles;
And bid the snail-pac'd Ajax arm for shame.
There is a thousand Hectors in the field:
Now here he fights on Galathe his horse,
And there lacks work; anon, he's there afoot,
And there they fly, or die, like scaled skulls
Before the belching whale; then is he yonder,
And there the strawy Greeks, ripe for his edge,

As if that luck, in very spite of cunning,
Bade him win all.

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Ere that correction:-Troilus, I sav! what,

Troilus!

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But thou anon shalt hear of me again;
Till when, go seek thy fortune
flect.

[Exit.
Fare thee well:-
I would have been much more a fresher man
Had I expected thee.-How now, my brother?
Enter TROILUS.

Tro. Ajax hath ta'en Æneas: 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.

Enter one in sumptuous armour.

[E.cit.

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Enter ACHILLES, with Myrmidons. Achil. 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 arms. Follow me, sirs, and my proceedings eye:It is decreed Hector the great must die. [Exeunt.

SCENE VIII.-The same.

Enter MENELAUS and PARIS, fighting: then THERSITES.

Ther. 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! [Ex. PAR. and MEN.

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Even with the vail and darking of the sun
To close the day up, Hector's life is done.
Hect. I am unarm'd; forego this vantage, Greek.
Achil. Strike, fellows, strike; this is the man I
seek.
[HECTOR falls.

So, Ilion, fall thou; 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 retreat upon our Grecian part. Myr. The Trojan trumpets sound the like, my

lord.

Achil. The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth,

And, stickler-like, the armies separate.

My half-supp'd sword that frankly would have fed,

Pleas'd with this dainty bit, thus goes to bed.-
[Sheaths his sword.
Come, tie his body to my horse's tail;
Along the field I will the Trojan trail. [Exeunt.
SCENE X.-The same.

Enter AGAMEMNON, AJAX, MENELAUS, NESTOR,
DIOMEDES, and others, marching. Shouts within.
Agam. Hark! hark! what shout is that?
Nest.
Peace, drums.
[Within.]
Achilles,

Achilles! Hector's slain! Achilles!
Dio. 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.

Agam. 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

SCENE XI.-Another part of the Field.

Enter ENEAS and Trojans.

Ene. Stand, ho! yet are we masters of the field: Never go home; here starve we out the night. Enter TROILUS.

Tro. Hector is slain.

All. Hector?--The gods forbid! Tro. He's dead; and at the murtherer'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 sare destructions on!

Ene. My lord, you do discomfort all the host. Tro. 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

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you set a'work, and how ill requited! Why should our endeavour be so desired, 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 fall.-
Good traders in the flesh, set this in your painted
cloths.

Your eyes, half out, weep out at Pandar's fall:
As many as be here of pander's hall,
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, bequeath you my diseases.

[Exil.

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If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.
Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS,
Fran. I think I hear them.-Stand! who is
there?

Hor. Friends to this ground.
Mar.

And liegemen to the Dane.

O, farewell, honest soldier:

Fran. Give you good night. Mar. Who hath reliev'd you?

Fran.

Give you good night.

Mar.

Ber.

Bernardo hath my place. [Exit FRAN. Holla! Bernardo!

What, is Horatio there?

Hor.

Say. A piece of him.

Ber. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Marcellus.

Mar. What, has this thing appear'd again to-night?

Ber. I have seen nothing.

Mar. Horatio says, 'tis but our fantasy;
And will not let belief take hold of him,
Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us:
Therefore I have entreated him along
With us to watch the minutes of this night.

That, if again this apparition come,
He may approve our eyes, and speak to it.
Hor. Tush! tush! 'twill not appear.
Ber.

Sit down awhile,

And let us once again assail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story,
What we two nights have seen.

Hor.
Well, sit we down,
And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.
Ber. Last night of all,

When yon same star, that's westward from the pole, Had made his course to illumine that part of heaven

Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,
The bell then beating one,-

Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again!

Enter Ghost.

Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's dead. Mar. Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio. Ber. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.

Hor. Most like:-it harrows me with fear and wonder.

Ber. It would be spoke to.
Mar.
Question it, Horatio.
Hor. What art thou, that usurp'st this time of
night,

Together with that fair and warlike form
In which the majesty of buried Denmark
Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee
speak.
Mar. It is offended.
Ber.

See! it stalks away. Hor. Stay; speak: speak I charge thee, speak. [Exit Ghost.

Mar. "Tis gone, and will not answer.
Ber. How now, Horatio? you tremble. and
look pale:

Is not this something more than fantasy?
What think you on't?

Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe
Without the sensible and true avouch
Of mine owr eyes.

HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK.

Mar.
Hor. As thou art to thyself:
Such was the very armour he had on,
When he the ambitious Norway combated;
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.

Is it not like the king?

"Tis strange.

Mar. Thus, twice before, and just at this dead
hour,

With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
Hor. In what particular thought to work, I
know not;

But, in the gross and scope of my opinion,
This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that
knows,

Why this same strict and most observant watch
So nightly toils the subject of the land?
And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war:
Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore

task

Does not divide the Sunday from the week:
What might be toward that this sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day;
Who is't that can inform me?
That can I;

Hor.

At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king,
Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,
Dar'd to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet
(For so this side of our known world esteem'd him)
Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compact,
Well ratified by law and heraldry,

Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands,
Which he stood seiz'd on, to the conqueror:
Against the which, a moiety competent
Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

Had he been vanquisher; as by the same cov'nant
And carriage of the article design'd.
His fell to Hamlet: Now, sir, young Fortinbras,
Of unimproved mettle hot and full,
Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,
Shark'd up a list of landless resolutes,
For food and diet, to some enterprize
That hath a stomach in't: which is no other
(And it doth well appear unto our state),
But to recover of us, by strong hand,
And terms compulsative, those 'foresaid lands
So by his father lost: And this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations;
The source of this our watch; and the chief head
Of this post-haste and romage in the land,

Ber. I think it be no other, but even so:
Well may it sort, that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch: so like the king
That was, and is, the question of these wars

Hor. A moth it is to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets :
As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
Disasters in the sun; and the moist star,
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands,
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse.
And even the like precurse of fierce events,
As harbingers preceding still the fates,
And prologue to the omen coming on,
Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
Unto our climatures and countrymen

Re-enter Ghost.

But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again!
I'll cross it, though it blast me.-Stay, illusion!
If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
Speak to me:

If there be any good thing to be done,
Speak to me:
That may to thee do ease, and grace to me.

If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,
O, speak!

Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,
Speak of it:-stay, and speak.-Stop it, Marcellus.
[Cock crows
Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partizan?
Hor. Do, if it will not stand.

Ber.

Hor.

Mar. "Tis gone!

"Tis here!

"Tis nere: [Exit Ghost

We do it wrong, being so majestical,
To offer it the show of violence;
And our vain blows malicious mockery.
For it is, as the air, invulnerable,

Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew
Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful summons. I have heard

The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,
The extravagant and erring spirit hies
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
To his confine and of the truth herein
This present object made probation.

Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock.
Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike
And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad;
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,

Hor. So have I heard, and do in part believe it
But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill:
Break we our watch up; and, by my advice,
Let us impart what we have seen to-night
Unto young Hamlet: for, upon my life,
This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him:
Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,
As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?

Mar. Let's do't, I pray: and I this morning
know

Where we shall find him most conveniently

SCENE II.-The same.

[Exeunt. A Room of State in

the same.
Enter the KING, QUEEN, HAMLET, POLONIUS,
LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, and Lords
Attendant.

King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's
death

The memory be green; and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe;
Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature,
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen
The imperial jointress of this warlike state,

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