Текст книги "William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition"

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4.7 ⌈Enter Hector and Ajax fighting, and Aeneas and Diomedes interposing.⌉ Trumpets cease

DIOMEDES

You must no more.

AENEAS Princes, enough, so please you.

AJAX

I am not warm yet. Let us fight again.

DIOMEDES

As Hector pleases.

HECTOR Why then will I no more.—

Thou art, great lord, my father’s sister’s son,

A cousin-german to great Priam’s seed.

The obligation of our blood forbids

A gory emulation ‘twixt us twain.

Were thy commixtion Greek and Trojan so

That thou couldst say ’This hand is Grecian all,

And this is Trojan; the sinews of this leg

All Greek, and this all Troy; my mother’s blood

Runs on the dexter cheek, and this sinister

Bounds in my father‘s,’ by Jove multipotent

Thou shouldst not bear from me a Greekish member

Wherein my sword had not impressure made

Of our rank feud. But the just gods gainsay

That any drop thou borrowed’st from thy mother,

My sacred aunt, should by my mortal sword

Be drained. Let me embrace thee, Ajax.

By him that thunders, thou hast lusty arms.

Hector would have them fall upon him thus.

Cousin, all honour to thee.

AJAX I thank thee, Hector.

Thou art too gentle and too free a man.

I came to kill thee, cousin, and bear hence

A great addition earned in thy death.

HECTOR

Not Neoptolemus so mirable,

On whose bright crest Fame with her loud‘st oyez

Cries ’This is he!’, could promise to himself

A thought of added honour torn from Hector.

AENEAS

There is expectance here from both the sides

What further you will do.

HECTOR We’ll answer it:

The issue is embracement.—Ajax, farewell.

AJAX

If I might in entreaties find success,

As seld I have the chance, I would desire

My famous cousin to our Grecian tents.

DIOMEDES

’Tis Agamemnon’s wish—and great Achilles

Doth long to see unarmed the valiant Hector.

HECTOR

Aeneas, call my brother Troilus to me,

And signify this loving interview

To the expecters of our Trojan part.

Desire them home. ⌈Exit Aeneas⌉

Give me thy hand, my cousin.

I will go eat with thee, and see your knights.

Enter Agamemnon and the rest: Aeneas, Ulysses,

Menelaus, Nestor, Achilles, Patroclus, Troilus, and

others

AJAX

Great Agamemnon comes to meet us here.

HECTOR (to Aeneas)

The worthiest of them, tell me name by name.

But for Achilles, mine own searching eyes

Shall find him by his large and portly size.

AGAMEMNON (embracing him)

Worthy of arms, as welcome as to one

That would be rid of such an enemy.

But that’s no welcome. Understand more clear:

What’s past and what’s to come is strewed with husks

And formless ruin of oblivion,

But in this extant moment faith and troth,

Strained purely from all hollow bias-drawing,

Bids thee with most divine integrity

From heart of very heart, ‘Great Hector, welcome!’

HECTOR

I thank thee, most imperious Agamemnon.

AGAMEMNON ⌈to Troilus⌉

My well-famed lord of Troy, no less to you.

MENELAUS

Let me confirm my princely brother’s greeting.

You brace of warlike brothers, welcome hither.

⌈He embraces Hector and Troilus⌉

HECTOR (to Aeneas)

Who must we answer?

AENEAS The noble Menelaus.

HECTOR

O, you, my lord! By Mars his gauntlet, thanks.

Mock not that I affect th’untraded oath.

Your quondam wife swears still by Venus’ glove.

She’s well, but bade me not commend her to you.

MENELAUS

Name her not now, sir. She’s a deadly theme.

HECTOR O, pardon. I offend.

NESTOR

I have, thou gallant Trojan, seen thee oft,

Labouring for destiny, make cruel way

Through ranks of Greekish youth, and I have seen thee

As hot as Perseus spur thy Phrygian steed,

And seen thee scorning forfeits and subduements,

When thou hast hung th‘advancèd sword i’th’ air,

Not letting it decline on the declined,

That I have said unto my standers-by,

‘Lo, Jupiter is yonder, dealing life’.

And I have seen thee pause and take thy breath,

When that a ring of Greeks have hemmed thee in,

Like an Olympian, wrestling. This have I seen;

But this thy countenance, still locked in steel,

I never saw till now. I knew thy grandsire

And once fought with him. He was a soldier good,

But—by great Mars, the captain of us all—

Never like thee. Let an old man embrace thee;

And, worthy warrior, welcome to our tents.

He embraces Hector

AENEAS (to Hector) ’Tis the old Nestor.

HECTOR

Let me embrace thee, good old chronicle,

That hast so long walked hand in hand with time.

Most reverend Nestor, I am glad to clasp thee.

NESTOR

I would my arms could match thee in contention

As they contend with thee in courtesy.

HECTOR I would they could.

NESTOR

Ha! By this white beard I’d fight with thee tomorrow.

Well, welcome, welcome! I have seen the time.

ULYSSES

I wonder now how yonder city stands

When we have here her base and pillar by us?

HECTOR

I know your favour, Lord Ulysses, well.

Ah, sir, there’s many a Greek and Trojan dead

Since first I saw yourself and Diomed

In Ilium on your Greekish embassy.

ULYSSES

Sir, I foretold you then what would ensue.

My prophecy is but half his journey yet;

For yonder walls that pertly front your town,

Yon towers whose wanton tops do buss the clouds,

Must kiss their own feet.

HECTOR I must not believe you.

There they stand yet, and modestly I think

The fall of every Phrygian stone will cost

A drop of Grecian blood. The end crowns all,

And that old common arbitrator Time

Will one day end it.

ULYSSES So to him we leave it.

Most gentle and most valiant Hector, welcome.

⌈He embraces him⌉

After the General, I beseech you next

To feast with me and see me at my tent.

ACHILLES

I shall forestall thee, Lord Ulysses. ⌈To Hector⌉ Thou!

Now, Hector, I have fed mine eyes on thee.

I have with exact view perused thee, Hector,

And quoted joint by joint.

HECTOR Is this Achilles?

ACHILLES I am Achilles.

HECTOR

Stand fair, I pray thee, let me look on thee.

ACHILLES

Behold thy fill.

HECTOR Nay, I have done already.

ACHILLES

Thou art too brief. I will the second time,

As I would buy thee, view thee limb by limb.

HECTOR

O, like a book of sport thou‘lt read me o’er.

But there’s more in me than thou understand’st.

Why dost thou so oppress me with thine eye?

ACHILLES

Tell me, you heavens, in which part of his body

Shall I destroy him—whether there, or there, or

there—

That I may give the local wound a name,

And make distinct the very breach whereout

Hector’s great spirit flew? Answer me, heavens.

HECTOR

It would discredit the blest gods, proud man,

To answer such a question. Stand again.

Think’st thou to catch my life so pleasantly

As to prenominate in nice conjecture

Where thou wilt hit me dead?

ACHILLES I tell thee, yea.

HECTOR

Wert thou the oracle to tell me so,

I’d not believe thee. Henceforth guard thee well.

For I’ll not kill thee there, nor there, nor there,

But, by the forge that stithied Mars his helm,

I’ll kill thee everywhere, yea, o‘er and o’er.—

You wisest Grecians, pardon me this brag:

His insolence draws folly from my lips.

But I’ll endeavour deeds to match these words,

Or may I never—

AJAX Do not chafe thee, cousin.—

And you, Achilles, let these threats alone,

Till accident or purpose bring you to’t.

You may have every day enough of Hector,

If you have stomach. The general state, I fear,

Can scarce entreat you to be odd with him.

HECTOR (to Achilles)

I pray you, let us see you in the field.

We have had pelting wars since you refused

The Grecians’ cause.

ACHILLES Dost thou entreat me, Hector?

Tomorrow do I meet thee, fell as death;

Tonight, all friends.

HECTOR Thy hand upon that match.

AGAMEMNON

First, all you peers of Greece, go to my tent.

There in the full convive you. Afterwards,

As Hector’s leisure and your bounties shall

Concur together, severally entreat him.

Beat loud the taborins, let the trumpets blow,

That this great soldier may his welcome know.

Flourish. Exeunt all but Troilus and Ulysses

TROILUS

My Lord Ulysses, tell me, I beseech you,

In what place of the field doth Calchas keep?

ULYSSES

At Menelaus’ tent, most princely Troilus.

There Diomed doth feast with him tonight—

Who neither looks on heaven nor on earth,

But gives all gaze and bent of amorous view

On the fair Cressid.

TROILUS

Shall I, sweet lord, be bound to you so much,

After we part from Agamemnon’s tent,

To bring me thither?

ULYSSES You shall command me, sir.

As gentle tell me, of what honour was

This Cressida in Troy? Had she no lover there

That wails her absence?

TROILUS

O sir, to such as boasting show their scars

A mock is due. Will you walk on, my lord?

She was beloved, she loved; she is, and doth.

But still sweet love is food for fortune’s tooth. Exeunt

5.1 Enter Achilles and Patroclus

ACHILLES

I’ll heat his blood with Greekish wine tonight,

Which with my scimitar I’ll cool tomorrow.

Patroclus, let us feast him to the height.

PATROCLUS

Here comes Thersites.

Enter Thersites

ACHILLES How now, thou core of envy,

Thou crusty botch of nature, what’s the news?

THERSITES Why, thou picture of what thou seemest, and idol of idiot-worshippers, here’s a letter for thee.

ACHILLES From whence, fragment?

THERSITES Why, thou full dish of fool, from Troy.

Achilles reads the letter

PATROCLUS Who keeps the tent now?

THERSITES The surgeon’s box or the patient’s wound.

PATROCLUS Well said, adversity. And what need these tricks?

THERSITES Prithee be silent, boy. I profit not by thy talk.

Thou art thought to be Achilles’ male varlet.

PATROCLUS ‘Male varlet’, you rogue? What’s that?

THERSITES Why, his masculine whore. Now the rotten diseases of the south, guts-griping, ruptures, catarrhs, loads o’ gravel i’th’ back, lethargies, cold palsies, and the like, take and take again such preposterous discoveries!

PATROCLUS Why, thou damnable box of envy thou, what mean’st thou to curse thus?

THERSITES Do I curse thee?

PATROCLUS Why, no, you ruinous butt, you whoreson indistinguishable cur, no.

THERSITES No? Why art thou then exasperate? Thou idle immaterial skein of sleave-silk, thou green sarsenet flap for a sore eye, thou tassel of a prodigal’s purse, thou! Ah, how the poor world is pestered with such waterflies! Diminutives of nature.

PATROCLUS Out, gall!

THERSITES Finch egg!

ACHILLES

My sweet Patroclus, I am thwarted quite

From my great purpose in tomorrow’s battle.

Here is a letter from Queen Hecuba,

A token from her daughter, my fair love,

Both taxing me, and gaging me to keep

An oath that I have sworn. I will not break it.

Fall, Greeks; fail, fame; honour, or go or stay.

My major vow lies here; this I’ll obey.—

Come, come, Thersites, help to trim my tent.

This night in banqueting must all be spent.—

Away, Patroclus. Exeunt Achilles and Patroclus

THERSITES With too much blood and too little brain these two may run mad, but if with too much brain and too little blood they do, I’ll be a curer of madmen. Here’s Agamemnon: an honest fellow enough, and one that loves quails, but he has not so much brain as ear-wax. And the goodly transformation of Jupiter there, his brother the bull, the primitive statue and oblique memorial of cuckolds, a thrifty shoeing-horn in a chain, hanging at his brother’s leg: to what form but that he is should wit larded with malice and malice farced with wit turn him to? To an ass were nothing: he is both ass and ox. To an ox were nothing: he is both ox and ass. To be a dog, a mule, a cat, a fitchew, a toad, a lizard, an owl, a puttock, or a herring without a roe, I would not care; but to be Menetaus!—I would conspire against destiny. Ask me not what I would be if I were not Thersites, for I care not to be the louse of a lazar, so I were not Menetaus.—Hey-day, sprites and fires.

Enter Hector, Ajax, Agamemnon, Ulysses, Nestor,

Menelaus, Troilus, and Diomedes, with lights

AGAMEMNON

We go wrong, we go wrong.

AJAX No, yonder ’tis:

There, where we see the light.

HECTOR I trouble you.

AJAX

No, not a whit.

Enter Achilles

ULYSSES Here comes himself to guide you.

ACHILLES

Welcome, brave Hector. Welcome, princes all.

AGAMEMNON (to Hector)

So now, fair prince of Troy, I bid good night.

Ajax commands the guard to tend on you.

HECTOR

Thanks and good night to the Greeks’ general.

MENELAUS

Good night, my lord.

HECTOR Good night, sweet Lord Menelaus.

THERSITES (aside) Sweet draught! ‘Sweet’, quoth a? Sweet sink, sweet sewer.

ACHILLES

Good night and welcome both at once, to those

That go or tarry.

AGAMEMNON Good night.

Exeunt Agamemnon and Menelaus

ACHILLES

Old Nestor tarries, and you too, Diomed.

Keep Hector company an hour or two.

DIOMEDES

I cannot, lord. I have important business

The tide whereof is now.—Good night, great Hector.

HECTOR Give me your hand.

ULYSSES (aside to Troilus)

Follow his torch, he goes to Calchas’ tent.

I’ll keep you company.

TROILUS (aside) Sweet sir, you honour me.

HECTOR (to Diomedes)

And so good night.

ACHILLES Come, come, enter my tent.

Exeunt Diomedes, followed by Ulysses and

Troilus, at one door; and Achilles, Hector,

Ajax, and Nestor at another door

THERSITES That same Diomed’s a false-hearted rogue, a most unjust knave. I will no more trust him when he leers than I will a serpent when he hisses. He will spend his mouth and promise like Brabbler the hound, but when he performs astronomers foretell it: that is prodigious, there will come some change. The sun borrows of the moon when Diomed keeps his word. I will rather leave to see Hector than not to dog him. They say he keeps a Trojan drab, and uses the traitor Calchas his tent. I’ll after.—Nothing but lechery! All incontinent varlets! Exit

5.2 Enter Diomedes

DIOMEDES What, are you up here? Ho! Speak!

CALCHAS ⌈at the door⌉ Who calls?

DIOMEDES Diomed. Calchas, I think. Where’s your daughter?

CALCHAS ⌈at the door⌉ She comes to you.

Enter Troilus and Ulysses, unseen

ULYSSES (aside)

Stand where the torch may not discover us.

TROILUS (aside)

Cressid comes forth to him.

Enter Cressida

DIOMEDES How now, my charge?

CRESSIDA

Now, my sweet guardian. Hark, a word with you.

She whispers to him.

⌈Enter Thersites, unseen⌉

TROILUS (aside) Yea, so familiar?

ULYSSES (aside) She will sing any man at first sight.

THERSITES (aside) And any man may sing her, if he can take her clef. She’s noted.

DIOMEDES Will you remember?

CRESSIDA Remember? Yes.

DIOMEDES Nay, but do then, And let your mind be coupled with your words.

TROILUS (aside) What should she remember?

ULYSSES (aside) List!

CRESSIDA

Sweet honey Greek, tempt me no more to folly.

THERSITES (aside) Roguery.

DIOMEDES Nay, then!

CRESSIDA I’ll tell you what—

DIOMEDES

Fo, fo! Come, tell a pin. You are forsworn.

CRESSIDA

In faith, I cannot. What would you have me do?

THERSITES (aside) A juggling trick: to be secretly open.

DIOMEDES

What did you swear you would bestow on me?

CRESSIDA

I prithee, do not hold me to mine oath.

Bid me do anything but that, sweet Greek.

DIOMEDES Good night.

TROILUS (aside)

Hold, patience!

ULYSSES (aside) How now, Trojan?

CRESSIDA Diomed.

DIOMEDES

No, no, good night. I’ll be your fool no more.

TROILUS (aside) Thy better must.

CRESSIDA Hark, one word in your ear.

She whispers to him

TROILUS (aside) O plague and madness!

ULYSSES (aside)

You are moved, Prince. Let us depart, I pray you,

Lest your displeasure should enlarge itself

To wrathful terms. This place is dangerous,

The time right deadly. I beseech you go.

TROILUS (aside)

Behold, I pray you.

ULYSSES (aside) Nay, good my lord, go off.

You flow to great distraction. Come, my lord.

TROILUS (aside)

I prithee, stay.

ULYSSES (aside) You have not patience. Come.

TROILUS (aside)

I pray you, stay. By hell and all hell’s torments,

I will not speak a word.

DIOMEDES And so good night.

CRESSIDA

Nay, but you part in anger.

TROILUS (aside) Doth that grieve thee?

O withered truth!

ULYSSES (aside) Why, how now, lord?

TROILUS (aside) By Jove,

I will be patient.

⌈Diomedes starts to go⌉

CRESSIDA Guardian! Why, Greek!

DIOMEDES Fo, fo! Adieu. You palter.

CRESSIDA

In faith, I do not. Come hither once again.

ULYSSES (aside)

You shake, my lord, at something. Will you go?

You will break out.

TROILUS (aside) She strokes his cheek.

ULYSSES (aside) Come, come.

TROILUS (aside)

Nay, stay. By Jove, I will not speak a word.

There is between my will and all offences

A guard of patience. Stay a little while.

THERSITES (aside) How the devil Luxury with his fat rump and potato finger tickles these together! Fry, lechery, fry.

DIOMEDES But will you then?

CRESSIDA

In faith, I will, la. Never trust me else.

DIOMEDES

Give me some token for the surety of it.

CRESSIDA I’ll fetch you one. Exit

ULYSSES (aside) You have sworn patience.

TROILUS (aside) Fear me not, sweet lord.

I will not be myself, nor have cognition

Of what I feel. I am all patience.

Enter Cressida with Troilus’ sleeve

THERSITES (aside) Now the pledge! Now, now, now.

CRESSIDA Here Diomed, keep this sleeve.

TROILUS (aside) O beauty, where is thy faith?

ULYSSES (aside) My lord.

TROILUS (aside)

I will be patient; outwardly I will.

CRESSIDA

You look upon that sleeve. Behold it well.

He loved me—O false wench!—give’t me again.

She takes it back

DIOMEDES Whose was’t?

CRESSIDA

It is no matter, now I ha’t again.

I will not meet with you tomorrow night.

I prithee, Diomed, visit me no more.

THERSITES (aside) Now she sharpens. Well said, whetstone.

DIOMEDES I shall have it.

CRESSIDA What, this?

DIOMEDES Ay, that.

CRESSIDA

O all you gods! O pretty pretty pledge!

Thy master now lies thinking on his bed

Of thee and me, and sighs, and takes my glove

And gives memorial dainty kisses to it—

⌈DIOMEDES⌉

As I kiss thee.

⌈he snatches the sieeve⌉

⌈CRESSiDA⌉ Nay, do not snatch it from me.

He that takes that doth take my heart withal.

DIOMEDES

I had your heart before; this follows it.

TROILUS (aside) I did swear patience.

CRESSIDA

You shall not have it, Diomed. Faith, you shall not.

I’ll give you something else.

DIOMEDES I will have this. Whose was it?

CRESSIDA

It is no matter.

DIOMEDES Come, tell me whose it was?

CRESSIDA

’Twas one’s that loved me better than you will.

But now you have it, take it.

DIOMEDES Whose was it?

CRESSIDA

By all Diana’s waiting-women yond,

And by herself, I will not tell you whose.

DIOMEDES

Tomorrow will I wear it on my helm,

And grieve his spirit that dares, not challenge it.

TROILUS (aside)

Wert thou the devil and wor’st it on thy horn,

It should be challenged.

CRESSIDA

Well, well, ‘tis done, ’tis past—and yet it is not.

I will not keep my word.

DIOMEDES Why then, farewell.

Thou never shalt mock Diomed again.

CRESSIDA

You shall not go. One cannot speak a word

But it straight starts you.

DIOMEDES I do not like this fooling.

⌈TROILUS⌉ (aside)

Nor I, by Pluto—but that that likes not you

Pleases me best.

DIOMEDES What, shall I come? The hour—

CRESSIDA

Ay, come. O Jove, do come. I shall be plagued.

DIOMEDES

Farewell till then.

CRESSIDA Good night. I prithee, come.

Exit Diomedes

Troilus, farewell. One eye yet looks on thee,

But with my heart the other eye doth see.

Ah, poor our sex! This fault in us I find:

The error of our eye directs our mind.

What error leads must err. O then conclude:

Minds swayed by eyes are full of turpitude. Exit

THERSITES (aside)

A proof of strength she could not publish more

Unless she said, ‘My mind is now turned whore’.

ULYSSES

All’s done, my lord.

TROILUS It is.

ULYSSES Why stay we then?

TROILUS

To make a recordation to my soul

Of every syllable that here was spoke.

But if I tell how these two did co-act,

Shall I not lie in publishing a truth?

Sith yet there is a credence in my heart,

An esperance so obstinately strong,

That doth invert th’attest of eyes and ears,

As if those organs had deceptious functions

Created only to calumniate.

Was Cressid here?

ULYSSES I cannot conjure, Trojan.

TROILUS

She was not, sure.

ULYSSES Most sure, she was.

TROILUS

Why, my negation hath no taste of madness.

ULYSSES

Nor mine, my lord. Cressid was here but now.

TROILUS

Let it not be believed, for womanhood.

Think: we had mothers. Do not give advantage

To stubborn critics, apt without a theme

For depravation to square the general sex

By Cressid’s rule. Rather, think this not Cressid.

ULYSSES

What hath she done, Prince, that can soil our mothers?

TROILUS

Nothing at all, unless that this were she.

THERSITES (aside) Will a swagger himself out on’s own eyes?

TROILUS

This, she? No, this is Diomed’s Cressida.

If beauty have a soul, this is not she.

If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimonies,

If sanctimony be the gods’ delight,

If there be rule in unity itself,

This is not she. O madness of discourse,

That cause sets up with and against thyselfl

Bifold authority, where reason can revolt

Without perdition, and loss assume all reason

Without revolt! This is and is not Cressid.

Within my soul there doth conduce a fight

Of this strange nature, that a thing inseparate

Divides more wider than the sky and earth,

And yet the spacious breadth of this division

Admits no orifex for a point as subtle

As Ariachne’s broken woof to enter.

Instance, O instance, strong as Pluto’s gates:

Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven.

Instance, O instance, strong as heaven itself:

The bonds of heaven are slipped, dissolved, and loosed,

And with another knot, five-finger-tied,

The fractions of her faith, orts of her love,

The fragments, scraps, the bits and greasy relics

Of her o’er-eaten faith, are bound to Diomed.

ULYSSES

May worthy Troilus e’en be half attached

With that which here his passion doth express?

TROILUS

Ay, Greek, and that shall be divulged well

In characters as red as Mars his heart

Inflamed with Venus. Never did young man fancy

With so eternal and so fixed a soul.

Hark, Greek: as much as I do Cressid love,

So much by weight hate I her Diomed.

That sleeve is mine that he’ll bear in his helm.

Were it a casque composed by Vulcan’s skill,

My sword should bite it. Not the dreadful spout

Which shipmen do the hurricano call,

Constringed in mass by the almighty sun,

Shall dizzy with more clamour Neptune’s ear

In his descent, than shall my prompted sword

Falling on Diomed.

THERSITES (aside) He’ll tickle it for his concupy.

TROILUS

O Cressid, O false Cressid! False, false, false.

Let all untruths stand by thy stained name,

And they’ll seem glorious.

ULYSSES O contain yourself.

Your passion draws ears hither.

Enter Aeneas

AENEAS (to Troilus)

I have been seeking you this hour, my lord.

Hector by this is arming him in Troy.

Ajax your guard stays to conduct you home.

TROILUS

Have with you, Prince.—My courteous lord, adieu.—

Farewell, revolted fair; and Diomed,

Stand fast and wear a castle on thy head.

ULYSSES

I’ll bring you to the gates.

TROILUS Accept distracted thanks.

Exeunt Troilus, Aeneas, and Ulysses

THERSITES Would I could meet that rogue Diomed! I would croak like a raven. I would bode, I would bode. Patroclus will give me anything for the intelligence of this whore. The parrot will not do more for an almond than he for a commodious drab. Lechery, lechery, still wars and lechery! Nothing else holds fashion. A burning devil take them! Exit