Aga.
Renew, renew: the fierce Polydamas
Hath beat down Menon: bastard Margarelon
Hath Doreus prisoner,
And stands Colossus-wise, waving his beam
Upon the pashed coarses of the kings,
Epistropus and Odius. Polyxenus is slain;
Amphimachus and Thoas deadly hurt;

Patroclus ta'en or slain, and Palamedes
Sore hurt and bruis'd; the dreadful ^{e note}Sagittary
Appals our numbers: haste we, Diomede,
To reinforcement, or we perish all. Enter Nestor.

Nest.
Go bear Patroclus' body to Achilles,
And bid the snail'd-pac'd Ajax arm for shame.
There are a thousand Hectors in the field:
Now here he fights on Galathe his horse,
And there lacks work; anon he's there a-foot,
And there they fly or dye, like scaled shoals
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 ev'ry 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.

Ulys.
Oh, courage, courage, princes; great Achilles
Is arming, weeping, cursing, vowing vengeance;
Patroclus' wounds have rowz'd his drowsie blood,
Together with his mangled Myrmidons,
That noseless, handless, hackt and chipt, 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 fantastick execution:
Engaging and redeeming of himself,
With such a careless force, and forceless care,
As if that luck in very spite of cunning
Bad him win all.

Previous section

Next section