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 Ilion, 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, Yond 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:
After the general, I beseech you next To feast with me and see me at my tent. ACHILLES I shall forestall thee, Lord Ulysses, 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 an 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 every where, 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 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?
To-morrow do I meet thee, fell as death;
To-night all friends. HECTOR Thy hand upon that match. AGAMEMNON First, all you peers of Greece, go to my tent;
There in the full convive we: afterwards, As Hector's leisure and your bounties shall Concur together, severally entreat him.
Beat loud the tabourines, let the trumpets blow, That this great soldier may his welcome know.
Exeunt all except 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 to-night;
Who neither looks upon the heaven nor earth, But gives all gaze and bent of amorous view On the fair Cressid. TROILUS Shall 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.