Characters from this famous play by William Shakespeare

Play Script - Text
Troilus and Cressida

Act V
Troilus and Cressida

Site Map Page Back Play Index

Script of Act V Troilus and Cressida
 The play by William Shakespeare

Introduction
This section contains the script of Act V of Troilus and Cressida the play by William Shakespeare. The enduring works of William Shakespeare feature many famous and well loved characters.
Make a note of any unusual words that you encounter whilst reading the script of Troilus and Cressida and check their definition in the Shakespeare Dictionary The script of Troilus and Cressida is extremely long. To reduce the time to load the script of the play, and for ease in accessing specific sections of the script, we have separated the text of Troilus and Cressida into Acts. Please click Troilus and Cressida Script to access further Acts.

Script / Text of Act V Troilus and Cressida

ACT V
SCENE I. The Grecian camp. Before Achilles' tent.

Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS 
ACHILLES 
I'll heat his blood with Greekish wine to-night,
Which with my scimitar I'll cool to-morrow.
Patroclus, let us feast him to the height.

PATROCLUS 
Here comes Thersites.

Enter THERSITES

ACHILLES 
How now, thou core of envy!
Thou crusty batch 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.

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, the guts-griping, ruptures, catarrhs,
loads o' gravel i' the back, lethargies, cold
palsies, raw eyes, dirt-rotten livers, wheezing
lungs, bladders full of imposthume, sciaticas,
limekilns i' the palm, incurable bone-ache, and the
rivelled fee-simple of the tetter, take and take
again such preposterous discoveries!

PATROCLUS 
Why thou damnable box of envy, thou, what meanest
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 sarcenet
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 to-morrow'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
earwax: 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 forced 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 Menelaus, 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 Menelaus! Hey-day!
spirits and fires!

Enter HECTOR, TROILUS, AJAX, AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES, NESTOR, MENELAUS, and DIOMEDES, with lights

AGAMEMNON 
We go wrong, we go wrong.

AJAX 
No, yonder 'tis;
There, where we see the lights.

HECTOR 
I trouble you.

AJAX 
No, not a whit.

ULYSSES 
Here comes himself to guide you.

Re-enter ACHILLES

ACHILLES 
Welcome, brave Hector; welcome, princes all.

AGAMEMNON 
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 
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 
Sweet sir, you honour me.

HECTOR 
And so, good night.

Exit DIOMEDES; ULYSSES and TROILUS following

ACHILLES 
Come, come, enter my tent.

Exeunt ACHILLES, HECTOR, AJAX, and NESTOR

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; it
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' tent: I'll
after. Nothing but lechery! all incontinent varlets!

Exit

SCENE II. The same. Before Calchas' tent.

Enter DIOMEDES 
DIOMEDES 
What, are you up here, ho? speak.

CALCHAS 
[Within] Who calls?

DIOMEDES 
Calchas, I think. Where's your daughter?

CALCHAS 
[Within] She comes to you.

Enter TROILUS and ULYSSES, at a distance; after them, THERSITES

ULYSSES 
Stand where the torch may not discover us.

Enter CRESSIDA

TROILUS 
Cressid comes forth to him.

DIOMEDES 
How now, my charge!

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

Whispers

TROILUS 
Yea, so familiar!

ULYSSES 
She will sing any man at first sight.

THERSITES 
And any man may sing her, if he can take her cliff;
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 
What should she remember?

ULYSSES 
List.

CRESSIDA 
Sweet honey Greek, tempt me no more to folly.

THERSITES 
Roguery!

DIOMEDES 
Nay, then,--

CRESSIDA 
I'll tell you what,--

DIOMEDES 
Foh, foh! come, tell a pin: you are forsworn.

CRESSIDA 
In faith, I cannot: what would you have me do?

THERSITES 
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 any thing but that, sweet Greek.

DIOMEDES 
Good night.

TROILUS 
Hold, patience!

ULYSSES 
How now, Trojan!

CRESSIDA 
Diomed,--

DIOMEDES 
No, no, good night: I'll be your fool no more.

TROILUS 
Thy better must.

CRESSIDA 
Hark, one word in your ear.

TROILUS 
O plague and madness!

ULYSSES 
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 
Behold, I pray you!

ULYSSES 
Nay, good my lord, go off:
You flow to great distraction; come, my lord.

TROILUS 
I pray thee, stay.

ULYSSES 
You have not patience; come.

TROILUS 
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 
Doth that grieve thee?
O wither'd truth!

ULYSSES 
Why, how now, lord!

TROILUS 
By Jove,
I will be patient.

CRESSIDA 
Guardian!--why, Greek!

DIOMEDES 
Foh, foh! adieu; you palter.

CRESSIDA 
In faith, I do not: come hither once again.

ULYSSES 
You shake, my lord, at something: will you go?
You will break out.

TROILUS 
She strokes his cheek!

ULYSSES 
Come, come.

TROILUS 
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 
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 
You have sworn patience.

TROILUS 
Fear me not, sweet lord;
I will not be myself, nor have cognition
Of what I feel: I am all patience.

Re-enter CRESSIDA

THERSITES 
Now the pledge; now, now, now!

CRESSIDA 
Here, Diomed, keep this sleeve.

TROILUS 
O beauty! where is thy faith?

ULYSSES 
My lord,--

TROILUS 
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.

DIOMEDES 
Whose was't?

CRESSIDA 
It is no matter, now I have't again.
I will not meet with you to-morrow night:
I prithee, Diomed, visit me no more.

THERSITES 
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 in his bed
Of thee and me, and sighs, and takes my glove,
And gives memorial dainty kisses to it,
As I kiss thee. 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 
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 
To-morrow will I wear it on my helm,
And grieve his spirit that dares not challenge it.

TROILUS 
Wert thou the devil, and worest 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.

THERSITES 
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 sway'd by eyes are full of turpitude.

Exit

THERSITES 
A proof of strength she could not publish more,
Unless she said ' My mind is now turn'd 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 the 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 
Will he 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 itself!
Bi-fold 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 slipp'd, 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 be half attach'd
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 fix'd 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 on 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 
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 
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 any thing 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

SCENE III. Troy. Before Priam's palace.

Enter HECTOR and ANDROMACHE 
ANDROMACHE 
When was my lord so much ungently temper'd,
To stop his ears against admonishment?
Unarm, unarm, and do not fight to-day.

HECTOR 
You train me to offend you; get you in:
By all the everlasting gods, I'll go!

ANDROMACHE 
My dreams will, sure, prove ominous to the day.

HECTOR 
No more, I say.

Enter CASSANDRA

CASSANDRA 
Where is my brother Hector?

ANDROMACHE 
Here, sister; arm'd, and bloody in intent.
Consort with me in loud and dear petition,
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.

CASSANDRA 
O, 'tis true.

HECTOR 
Ho! bid my trumpet sound!

CASSANDRA 
No notes of sally, for the heavens, sweet brother.

HECTOR 
Be gone, I say: the gods have heard me swear.

CASSANDRA 
The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows:
They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd
Than spotted livers in the sacrifice.

ANDROMACHE 
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.

CASSANDRA 
It is the purpose that makes strong the vow;
But vows to every purpose must not hold:
Unarm, sweet Hector.

HECTOR 
Hold you still, I say;
Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate:
Lie every man holds dear; but the brave man
Holds honour far more precious-dear than life.

Enter TROILUS

How now, young man! mean'st thou to fight to-day?

ANDROMACHE 
Cassandra, call my father to persuade.

Exit CASSANDRA

HECTOR 
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.

TROILUS 
Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you,
Which better fits a lion than a man.

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

TROILUS 
When many times the captive Grecian falls,
Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword,
You bid them rise, and live.

HECTOR 
O,'tis fair play.

TROILUS 
Fool's play, by heaven, Hector.

HECTOR 
How now! how now!

TROILUS 
For the love of all the gods,
Let's leave the hermit pity with our mothers,
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.

HECTOR 
Fie, savage, fie!

TROILUS 
Hector, then 'tis wars.

HECTOR 
Troilus, I would not have you fight to-day.

TROILUS 
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;
Not you, my brother, with your true sword drawn,
Opposed to hinder me, should stop my way,
But by my ruin.

Re-enter CASSANDRA, with PRIAM

CASSANDRA 
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.

PRIAM 
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.

HECTOR 
AEneas is a-field;
And I do stand engaged to many Greeks,
Even in the faith of valour, to appear
This morning to them.

PRIAM 
Ay, but thou shalt not go.

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

CASSANDRA 
O Priam, yield not to him!

ANDROMACHE 
Do not, dear father.

HECTOR 
Andromache, I am offended with you:
Upon the love you bear me, get you in.

Exit ANDROMACHE

TROILUS 
This foolish, dreaming, superstitious girl
Makes all these bodements.

CASSANDRA 
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, distraction, frenzy and amazement,
Like witless antics, one another meet,
And all cry, Hector! Hector's dead! O Hector!

TROILUS 
Away! away!

CASSANDRA 
Farewell: yet, soft! Hector! take my leave:
Thou dost thyself and all our Troy deceive.

Exit

HECTOR 
You are amazed, 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.

PRIAM 
Farewell: the gods with safety stand about thee!

Exeunt severally PRIAM and HECTOR. Alarums

TROILUS 
They are at it, hark! Proud Diomed, believe,
I come to lose my arm, or win my sleeve.

Enter PANDARUS

PANDARUS 
Do you hear, my lord? do you hear?

TROILUS 
What now?

PANDARUS 
Here's a letter come from yond poor girl.

TROILUS 
Let me read.

PANDARUS 
A whoreson tisick, a whoreson rascally tisick 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?

TROILUS 
Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart:
The effect doth operate another way.

Tearing the letter

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. Plains between Troy and the Grecian camp.

Alarums: excursions. Enter THERSITES 
THERSITES 
Now they are clapper-clawing one another; I'll go
look on. That dissembling abominable varlets 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
whore-masterly villain, with the sleeve, back to the
dissembling luxurious drab, of a sleeveless errand.
O' the t'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 worthy 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 not arm
to-day; whereupon the Grecians begin to proclaim
barbarism, and policy grows into an ill opinion.
Soft! here comes sleeve, and t'other.

Enter DIOMEDES, TROILUS following

TROILUS 
Fly not; for shouldst thou take the river Styx,
I would swim after.

DIOMEDES 
Thou dost miscall retire:
I do not fly, but advantageous care
Withdrew me from the odds of multitude:
Have at thee!

THERSITES 
Hold thy whore, Grecian!--now for thy whore,
Trojan!--now the sleeve, now the sleeve!

Exeunt TROILUS and DIOMEDES, fighting

Enter HECTOR

HECTOR 
What art thou, Greek? art thou for Hector's match?
Art thou of blood and honour?

THERSITES 
No, no, I am a rascal; a scurvy railing knave:
a very filthy rogue.

HECTOR 
I do believe thee: live.

Exit

THERSITES 
God-a-mercy, that thou wilt believe me; but a
plague break thy neck for frightening me! What's
become of the wenching rogues? I think they have
swallowed one another: I would laugh at that
miracle: yet, in a sort, lechery eats itself.
I'll seek them.

Exit

SCENE V. Another part of the plains.

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 chastised the amorous Trojan,
And am her knight by proof.

Servant 
I go, my lord.

Exit

Enter AGAMEMNON

AGAMEMNON 
Renew, renew! The fierce Polydamas
Hath beat down Menon: bastard Margarelon
Hath Doreus prisoner,
And stands colossus-wise, waving his beam,
Upon the pashed corses of the kings
Epistrophus and Cedius: Polyxenes is slain,
Amphimachus and Thoas deadly hurt,
Patroclus ta'en or slain, and Palamedes
Sore hurt and bruised: 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-paced 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 every where, 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, princes! great Achilles
Is arming, weeping, cursing, vowing vengeance:
Patroclus' wounds have roused 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.

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

SCENE VI. Another part of the plains.

Enter AJAX 
AJAX 
Troilus, thou coward Troilus, show thy head!

Enter DIOMEDES

DIOMEDES 
Troilus, I say! where's Troilus?

AJAX 
What wouldst thou?

DIOMEDES 
I would correct him.

AJAX 
Were I the general, thou shouldst have my office
Ere that correction. Troilus, I say! what, Troilus!

Enter TROILUS

TROILUS 
O traitor Diomed! turn thy false face, thou traitor,
And pay thy life thou owest me for my horse!

DIOMEDES 
Ha, art thou there?

AJAX 
I'll fight with him alone: stand, Diomed.

DIOMEDES 
He is my prize; I will not look upon.

TROILUS 
Come, both you cogging Greeks; have at you both!

Exeunt, fighting

Enter HECTOR

HECTOR 
Yea, Troilus? O, well fought, my youngest brother!

Enter ACHILLES

ACHILLES 
Now do I see thee, ha! have at thee, Hector!

HECTOR 
Pause, if thou wilt.

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

Exit

HECTOR 
Fare thee well:
I would have been much more a fresher man,
Had I expected thee. How now, my brother!

Re-enter TROILUS

TROILUS 
Ajax hath ta'en AEneas: shall it be?
No, by the flame of yonder glorious heaven,
He shall not carry him: I'll be ta'en too,
Or bring him off: fate, hear me what I say!
I reck not though I end my life to-day.

Exit

Enter one in sumptuous armour

HECTOR 
Stand, stand, thou Greek; thou art a goodly mark:
No? wilt thou not? I like thy armour well;
I'll frush 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

SCENE VII. Another part of the plains.

Enter ACHILLES, with Myrmidons 
ACHILLES 
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 execute your aims.
Follow me, sirs, and my proceedings eye:
It is decreed Hector the great must die.

Exeunt

Enter MENELAUS and PARIS, fighting: then THERSITES

THERSITES 
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

MARGARELON 
Turn, slave, and fight.

THERSITES 
What art thou?

MARGARELON 
A bastard son of Priam's.

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

Exit

MARGARELON 
The devil take thee, coward!

Exit

SCENE VIII. Another part of the plains.

Enter HECTOR 
HECTOR 
Most putrefied 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

ACHILLES 
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.

HECTOR 
I am unarm'd; forego this vantage, Greek.

ACHILLES 
Strike, fellows, strike; this is the man I seek.

HECTOR falls

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 retire upon our Grecian part.

MYRMIDONS 
The Trojan trumpets sound the like, my lord.

ACHILLES 
The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth,
And, stickler-like, the armies separates.
My half-supp'd sword, that frankly would have fed,
Pleased with this dainty bait, thus goes to bed.

Sheathes his sword

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

Exeunt

SCENE IX. Another part of the plains.

Enter AGAMEMNON, AJAX, MENELAUS, NESTOR, DIOMEDES, and others, marching. Shouts within 
AGAMEMNON 
Hark! hark! what shout is that?

NESTOR 
Peace, drums!

Within

Achilles! Achilles! Hector's slain! Achilles.

DIOMEDES 
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.

AGAMEMNON 
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 X. Another part of the plains.

Enter AENEAS and Trojans 
AENEAS 
Stand, ho! yet are we masters of the field:
Never go home; here starve we out the night.

Enter TROILUS

TROILUS 
Hector is slain.

ALL 
Hector! the gods forbid!

TROILUS 
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!

AENEAS 
My lord, you do discomfort all the host!

TROILUS 
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-sized 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 AENEAS and Trojans

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

PANDARUS 
But hear you, hear you!

TROILUS 
Hence, broker-lackey! ignomy and shame
Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy name!

Exit

PANDARUS 
A goodly medicine for my aching bones! O world!
world! world! thus is the poor agent despised!
O traitors and bawds, how earnestly are you set
a-work, and how ill requited! why should our
endeavour be so loved and the performance so loathed?
what verse for it? what instance for it? Let me see:
Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing,
Till he hath lost his honey and his sting;
And being once subdued in armed tail,
Sweet honey and sweet notes together fail.
Good traders in the flesh, set this in your
painted cloths.
As many as be here of pander's hall,
Your eyes, half out, weep out at Pandar's fall;
Or if you cannot weep, yet give some groans,
Though not for me, yet for your aching bones.
Brethren and sisters of the hold-door trade,
Some two months hence my will shall here be made:
It should be now, but that my fear is this,
Some galled goose of Winchester would hiss:
Till then I'll sweat and seek about for eases,
And at that time bequeathe you my diseases.

Exit

 

Script of Act V Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare Personae 

William Shakespeare Index Troilus and Cressida the play

Site Map Page Back Play Index Troilus and Cressida Script

Williamshakespeare - William - GCSE William Shakespeare Coursework - William Shakespeare Essays - GCSE Shakespeare Essay - Shakespeare College - GCSE Shakespeare Coursework - William Shakespeare and his Acting - William Shakespeare and Globe Life - Globe Life and Theatre - Shakespeare - Shakesphere - Shakespearean - Shakespere - Shakespear - Shakespearean - William Shakespeare Sonnet - William Shakespeare Sonnets - Williamshakespeare - Shakesphere - Williamshakespeare - William - GCSE William Shakespeare Coursework - William Shakespeare Essays - GCSE Shakespeare Essay - Shakespeare College - GCSE Shakespeare Coursework - William Shakespeare and his Acting - William Shakespeare and Globe Life - Globe Life and Theatre - Shakespeare - Shakesphere - Shakespearean - Shakespere - Shakespear - Shakespearean - William Shakespeare Sonnet - William Shakespeare Sonnets - Williamshakespeare - Shakesphere - William Shakespeare - William Shakespeare's biography - Shakespeare's sonnets - William Shakespeare's poems - William Shakespeare's plays - Shakespeare's quotes - william Shakespeares Works - Written By Linda Alchin