Troilus and Cressida
Act V, Scene 8
Another part of the plains.
Come tie his body to my horse’s tail
From: Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare
Charles Cowden Clarke, Mary Cowden Clarke, 1866
- Enter Hector.
Hector
1 - 4- Most putrefied core, so fair without,
- Thy goodly armor 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
5 - 8- Look, Hector, how the sun begins to set,
- How ugly night comes breathing at his heels;
- Even with the vail and dark’ning of the sun,
- To close the day up, Hector’s life is done.
Hector
9- I am unarm’d, forgo this vantage, Greek.
Achilles
10 - 15- Strike, fellows, strike, this is the man I seek.
- Hector falls.
- So, Ilion, fall thou next! Come, 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!”
- Retreat.
- Hark, a retire upon our Grecian part.
Myrmidon
16- The Troyans’ trumpet sound the like, my lord.
Achilles
17 - 22- 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,
- Pleas’d 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 Troyan trail.
- Exeunt.