ACT V. SCENE 5. Another part of the plain

Enter DIOMEDES and A SERVANT

DIOMEDES. 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 Troyan, And am her knight by proof.

SERVANT. I go, my lord.

Exit

Enter AGAMEMNON

AGAMEMNON. Renew, renew! The fierce Polydamus Hath beat down enon; 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; Amphimacus and Thoas deadly hurt; 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

NESTOR. 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 sculls Before the belching whale; then is he yonder, And there the strawy Greeks, ripe for his edge, Fall down before him like the mower's swath. Here, there, and everywhere, he leaves and takes; Dexterity so obeying appetite That what he will he does, and does so much That proof is call'd impossibility.

Enter ULYSSES

ULYSSES. O, courage, courage, courage, Princes! Great Achilles Is arming, weeping, cursing, vowing vengeance. Patroclus' wounds have rous'd his drowsy blood, Together with his mangled Myrmidons, That noseless, handless, hack'd and chipp'd, come 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 With such a careless force and forceless care As if that luck, in very spite of cunning, Bade him win all.

Enter AJAX

AJAX. Troilus! thou coward Troilus!

Exit

DIOMEDES. Ay, there, there.

NESTOR. So, so, we draw together.

Exit

Enter ACHILLES

ACHILLES. Where is this Hector? Come, come, thou boy-queller, show thy face; Know what it is to meet Achilles angry. Hector! where's Hector? I will none but

HECTOR.

Exeunt

William Shakespeare
Classic Literature Library

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