Enter ACHILLES.

Achil. Now do I see thee; Ha!-Have at thee,

Hector.

Hect. Pause, if thou wilt.

Achil. I do disdain thy courtesy, proud Trojan. Be happy, that my arms are out of use: My rest and negligence befriend thee now, But thou anon shalt hear of me again; Till when, go seek thy fortune.

Hect.

[Exit.

Fare thee well:

I would have been much more a fresher man,
Had I expected thee.-How now, my brother?
Re-enter TROILUS.

Tro. Ajax hath ta'en Æneas; Shall it be?
No, by the flame of yonder glorious heaven,
He shall not carry him3; I'll be taken, 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.

[Exit.

Hect. Stand, stand, thou Greek; thou art a goodly mark :

1

No? wilt thou not?—I like thy armour well*;
I'll frush 5 it, and unlock the rivets all,

But I'll be master of it:-Wilt thou not, beast, abide?
Why then, fly on, I'll hunt thee for thy hide.

[Exeunt.

3 i. e. prevail over him. So in All's Well that Ends Well:-
The count he woos your daughter,
Resolves to carry her.'

4 This circumstance is also taken from Lydgate's poem, who furnished Shakspeare with the hint for the following line :'I am unarm'd; forego this vantage, Greek.'

5 To frush is to break or bruise. So in the Destruction of Troy: Saying these words, Hercules caught by the head poor Lychas-and threw him against a rocke so fiercely that he to-frushed and all to-burst his bones, and so slew him.'

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 execute1 your arms. Follow me, sirs, and my proceedings eye! It is decreed-Hector the great must die. [Exeunt.

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!

[Exeunt PARIS and MENELAUS.

Enter MARGARELON.

Mar. Turn, slave, and fight.

Ther. What art thou?

Mar. A bastard son of Priam's.

Ther. I am a bastard too; I love bastards2: I am a bastard begot, bastard instructed, bastard in mind, bastard in valour, in every thing illegitimate.

1 To execute their arms is to employ them, to put them to use. So in Love's Labour's Lost, Rosaline says to Biron :

Full of comparisons and wounding flouts,
Which you on all estates will execute.'

2 Bastard, in ancient times, was not a disreputable appella tion. See King Henry VI. Part 1. Act i. Sc. 2, note 5, p. 16.

One bear will not bite another, and wherefore should one bastard? Take heed, the quarrel's most ominous to us: if the son of a whore fight for a whore, he tempts judgment: Farewell, bastard. Mar. The devil take thee, coward! [Exeunt.

SCENE IX. Another part of the Field.
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 vail1 and dark'ning 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 2.
[HECTOR falls.

1 The vail of the sun' is the sinking, setting, or vailing of the sun.

2 Heywood, in his Rape of Lucrece, 1638, gives the same account of Achilles overpowering Hector by numbers :—

Had puissant Hector by Achilles' hand
Dy'd in a single monomachie, Achilles
Had been worthy; but being slain by odds,
The poorest myrmidon had as much honour
As faint Achilles in the Trojan's death.'

In Lydgate and the old story book the same account is given of the death of Troilus. Lydgate, following Guido of Colonna, who in the grossest manner has violated all the characters drawn

So, Ilion, fall thou next! 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, stickler3 like, the armies separates.

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.

by Homer, reprehends the Grecian poet as the original offender. Thus in his fourth book:

'Oh, thou Homer, for shame be now red,

And thee amase that holdest thyself so wyse,
On Achylles to set suche great a pryse
In thy bokes for his chivalrye,

Above echone that dost hym magnyfye,

That was so sleyghty and so full of fraude,

Why gevest thou hym so hye a prayse and laude?

3 Sticklers were persons who attended upon combatants in trials of skill, to part them when they had fought enough, and, doubtless, to see fair play. They were probably so called from the stick or wand which they carried in their hands. The name is still given to the arbitrators at wrestling matches in the west country.

[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 as good a man as he.

To

Agam. March patiently along:-Let one be sent 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: go home; here starve we out the night.

Never

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?

1 Hanmer and Warburton read:-
:-

smite at Troy ;'

which, it must be confessed, is more in correspondence with the rest of Troilus's wish.