Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

SCENE IX.-Another Part of the Plains.

Enter HECTOR.

Hect. Most putrified core, so fair without,
Thy goodly armour thus hath cost thy life.
Now is my day's work done: I'll take good breath:
Rest, sword: thou hast thy fill of blood and death!

[Puts off his helmet, and hangs his shield behind him.

Enter ACHILLES and Myrmidons.

Achil. Look, Hector, how the sun begins to set;
How ugly night comes breathing at his heels:
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.

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."

[HECTOR falls.

[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.

Come, tie his body to my horse's tail;
Along the field I will the Trojan trail.

[Exeunt.

[Sheaths his sword.

SCENE X-The same.

Enter AGAMEMNON, AJAX, MENELAUS, NESTOR, DIOMEDES, and others, marching. Shouts within.

Agam. Hark! hark! what shout is that?

Nest.

[Within.]

Peace, drums.

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 Plains.

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 murderer'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 sure 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,

Thus proudly pight upon our Phrygian plains,
Let Titan rise as early as he dare,

I'll through and through you!—and thou great-siz'd coward!
No space of earth shall sunder our two hates;
I'll haunt thee like a wicked conscience still,
That mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy's thoughts.
Strike a free march to Troy !-with comfort go:
Hope of revenge shall hide our inward woe.

[Exeunt ÆNEAS and Trojans.

As TROILUS is going out, enter, from the other side, Pandarus.

[blocks in formation]

Tro. Hence, broker lackey! ignomy and shame

Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy name.

[Exit TROILUS.

Pan. A goodly medicine for mine aching bones!-O world! world! world! thus is the poor agent despised!

[Exit.

NOTES TO TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

PROLOGUE.

1 Princes orgulous; princes haughty and disdainful. Fr. orguilleux. 2 Dardan, and Tymbria, Ilias, Chetas, Trojan,

And Antenorides.

This list is the same as that given in Caxton's Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye. In the folio, the last name is Antenonidus. Lydgate, in his poem on Troy, writes it Anthonydes, which, in the edition of 1555, is corrected to Antinorydes.

3 Sperr up the sons of Troy. The folio has 'stir up;' but as the context declares that the sons of Troy were shut up and defended by bars, the old Teutonic word 'sperr' was substituted by Theobald. So in Spenser :

The other which was enter'd labour'd fast
To sperr the gate.'

Chaucer also has the word; and Tyrrwhit explains it as sparred.

4 A prologue arm'd. The actor who spoke the prologue was arrayed in armour, not dressed in black, as the prologue-speakers usually were. Afterwards he says that the play 'leaps o'er the vaunt'—that is, the commencement (Fr. avant) of the war.

ACT I.

1 My varlet. This word, as Steevens says, anciently signified a servant or footman to a knight or warrior.

2 Doth lesser blench. To 'blench' is to shrink, start off, or fly from. The word was common in Shakespeare's time.

3 She has the mends in her own hands. A proverbial saying. 'If men will be jealous in such cases, the mends is in their own hands.'BURTON'S Anatomy of Melancholy.

* The compassed window; a bay or bow window.

5 A lifter-a thief.

Here's but one and fifty hairs.

In the old copies, 'two and fifty." Theobald made the correction, observing, 'How else can the number make out Priam and his fifty sons?'

7 Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech. Mr Harness proposed 'Achiev'd men us command,' &c. But the text seems perfectly intelligible achievement is as good as command-it leads to it. Thus a famous metaphor in Junius' Letters-Private credit is wealth; public honour is security.'

8 Annoyance by the brize-by the horse-fly or gad.

Retorts to chiding fortune. In the old copies, retires, an obvious misprint. Pope read returns; Hanmer, replies; Mr Staunton, re-chides. We have adopted the reading of Mr Dyce.

10 And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn. The 'vantbrace' (Fr. avantbras) was the armour for the arm.

11 Must tarre the mastiff's on. We have had this expression (signifying to incite, to provoke) in King John and Hamlet.

АСТ II.

1 Thou vinewdst leaven-mouldy leaven. In the folio the word is spelt whinidst; the quartos have unsalted.

2 Pun thee into shivers-pound thee.

3 Assinego; the Portuguese diminutive for an ass.

4 Achilles' brach-Achilles' dog. The old editions have 'Achilles' brooch, which Rowe altered to 'brach.'

5 The tent that searches. To 'tent' a wound is to probe or search it. 6 Dismes-tenths.

7 Makes stale the morning. The quartos have pale.

8 Enter Cassandra, raving. In Lydgate's poem we have:

'This was the noise and the piteous cry

Of Cassandra, that so dreadfully

She 'gan to make about,' &c.

The words in the text form the stage direction in the quartos. The folio is more specific, 'Enter Cassandra, with her hair about her ears.'

9 Our firebrand brother, Paris. When Hecuba was pregnant with Paris, she dreamt that she should be delivered of a burning torch.

10 He shent our messengers; he rebuked or rated them. The quarto has sate; the folio, sent.

11 His pettish lunes. In the folio, lines. Shakespeare has several times used the word 'lunes'-freaks of folly or lunacy.

12 I'll pheeze his pride; I'll dress or comb his pride. See Induction to Taming of the Shrew.

« ElőzőTovább »