And. My dreams will, sure, prove ominous to the day. Hect. No more, I say.

Cas.

Enter CASSANDRA.

Where is my brother Hector?

And. Here, sister; arm'd, and bloody in intent:
Consort with me in loud and dear petition,2
Pursue we him on knees; for I have dream'd
Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night

Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of slaughter.
Cas. O, it is true.

Hect.

Ho! bid my trumpet sound!: Cas. No notes of sally, for the heavens, sweet brother. Hect. Begone, I say: the gods have heard me swear. Cas. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish3 vows; They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd

Than spotted livers in the sacrifice.

And. O! be persuaded: Do not count it holy

To hurt by being just: it is as lawful,

For we would give much, to use violent thefts,

And rob in the behalf of charity.

Cas. It is the purpose1, that makes strong the vow : But vows, to every purpose, must not hold:

Unarm, sweet Hector.

Hect.

Hold you still, I say;

Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate:
Life every man holds dear; but the dear man 5
Holds honour far more precious-dear than life.·

2 dear petition,] Dear, on this occasion, seems to mean, important, consequential.

3

- peevish — ] i. e. foolish.

It is the purpose,] The mad prophetess speaks here with all the coolness and judgment of a skilful casuist. "The essence of a lawful vow, is a lawful purpose, and the vow of which the end is wrong, must not be regarded as cogent." JOHNSON.

Enter TROILUS.

How now, young man? mean'st thou to fight to-day? And. Cassandra, call my father to persuade.

[Exit CASSANDRA.

Hect. No, 'faith, young Troilus; doff thy harness, youth,

I am to-day i'the vein of chivalry :

Let grow thy sinews till their knots be strong,
And tempt not yet the brushes of the war.
Unarm thee, go; and doubt thou not, brave boy,
I'll stand, to-day, for thee, and me, and Troy.
Tro. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you,
Which better fits a lion," than a man.

Hect. What vice is that, good Troilus? chide me for it.

Tro. When many times the captive Grecians fall, Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword,

You bid them rise, and live.7

Hect. O, 'tis fair play.

Tro.

Fool's play, by heaven, Hector.

Hect. How now? how now?

Tro.

For the love of all the gods,

Let's leave the hermit pity with our mother;
And when we have our armours buckled on,
The venom'd vengeance ride upon our swords;
Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth.
Hect. Fye, savage, fye!

Tro.

Hector, then 'tis wars.

6 Which better fits a lion,] The traditions and stories of the darker ages abounded with examples of the lion's generosity. Upon the supposition that these acts of clemency were true, Troilus reasons not improperly, that to spare against reason, by mere instinct of pity, became rather a generous beast than a wise man.

7 You bid them rise, and live.] Shakspeare seems not to have studied the Homeric character of Hector, whose disposition was by no means inclined to clemency.

Hect. Troilus, I would not have you fight to-day.
Tro. Who should withhold me?
Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars
Beckoning with fiery truncheon my retire;
Not Priamus and Hecuba on knees,

Their eyes o'ergalled with recourse of tears;
Nor you, my brother, with your true sword drawn,
Oppos'd to hinder me, should stop my way,
But by my ruin.

Re-enter CASSANDRA, with PRIAM.

Cas. Lay hold upon him, Priam, hold him fast:
He is thy crutch; now if thou lose thy stay,
Thou on him leaning, and all Troy on thee,
Fall all together.

Pri.

Come, Hector, come, go back:

Thy wife hath dream'd; thy mother hath had visions;
Cassandra doth foresee; and I myself
Am like a prophet suddenly enrapt,

To tell thee - that this day is ominous
Therefore, come back.

Hect.

:

Eneas is a-field;

And I do stand engag'd to many Greeks,
Even in the faith of valour, to appear

This morning to them.

Pri.

But thou shalt not go.

Hect. I must not break my faith.

You know me dutiful; therefore, dear sir,
Let me not shame respect9; but give me leave
To take that course by your consent and voice,
Which you do here forbid me, royal Priam.

8

with fiery truncheon] We have here but a modern Mars. Antiquity acknowledges no such ensign of command as a truncheon. The spirit of the passage, however, is such as might atone for a greater impropriety.

9 -

shame respect;] i. e. disgrace the respect I owe you, by acting in opposition to your commands.

Cas. O Priam, yield not to him.
And.
Hect. Andromache, I am offended with you:
Upon the love you bear me, get you in.

Do not, dear father.

[Exit ANDROMACHE.

Tro. This foolish, dreaming, superstitious girl

Makes all these bodements.

Cas.

O farewell, dear Hector. Look, how thou diest! look, how thy eye turns pale! Look, how thy wounds do bleed at many vents! Hark, how Troy roars! how Hecuba cries out! How poor Andromache shrills her dolours forth! Behold, destruction, frenzy, and amazement, Like witless anticks, one another meet,

And all cry Hector! Hector's dead! O Hector!
Tro. Away! Away! -

Yet, soft:- Hector, I take my

Thou dost thyself and all our Troy deceive.

[Exit.

Hect. You are amaz'd, my liege, at her exclaim: Go in, and cheer the town: we'll forth, and fight; Do deeds worth praise, and tell you them at night. Pri. Farewell: the gods with safety stand about thee! [Exeunt severally PRIAM and HECTOR. Alarums.

Tro. They are at it; hark!

I come to lose my arm, or win

Proud Diomed, believe, my sleeve.

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

Pan. Do you hear, my lord? do hear?

Tro. What now?

you

Pan. Here's a letter from yon' poor girl.

Tro. Let me read.

Pan. A whoreson ptisick, a whoreson rascally ptisick so troubles me, and the foolish fortune of this girl; and

what one thing, what another, that I shall leave you one o'these days: And I have a rheum in mine eyes too; and such an ache in my bones, that, unless a man were cursed', I cannot tell what to think on't.—What says she there?

Tro. Words, words, mere words, no matter from the

heart;

[Tearing the Letter.

The effect doth operate another way.—
Go, wind, to wind, there turn and change together.
My love with words and errors still she feeds;
But edifies another with her deeds.

[Exeunt severally.

SCENE IV.

Between Troy and the Grecian Camp.

Alarums: Excursions. Enter THERSITES.

Ther. Now they are clapper-clawing one another; I'll go look on. That dissembling abominable varlet, Diomed, has got that same scurvy doting foolish young knave's sleeve of Troy there in his helm: I would fain see them meet; that that same young Trojan ass, that loves the whore there, might send that Greekish whoremasterly villain, with the sleeve, back to the dissembling luxurious drab, ont a sleeveless errand. O'the other side, The policy of those crafty swearing rascals, that stale old mouse-eaten dry cheese, Nestor; and that same dog-fox, Ulysses,- is not proved worth a blackberry: They set me up, in policy, that mongrel cur, Ajax, against that dog of as bad a kind, Achilles: and now is the cur Ajax prouder than the cur Achilles, and will

-

·cursed,] i. e. under the influence of a malediction, such as mischievous beings have been supposed to pronounce upon those who had offended them. STEEVENS.

+" of a sleeveless," &c. - MALOne.