Mojo, The Bard, & Me

My half-supped sword, that frankly would have fed,

Pleased with this dainty bit, thus goes to bed.

-Achilles

Troilus And Cressida                                      Act V, Scene viii, Line 19-20

Okay, back at it. This is an interesting line towards the end of an interesting, albeit short, scene. In the original Iliad, Achilles battles Hector and wins. In Shakespeare’s version Achilles pretty much has his guys take care of Hector. Here’s the whole scene; it’s only twenty-two lines.

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

And that’s it. And that’s the end of Hector. While I’ve not read the Iliad (I really need to do that; I bought Fagles’s translation last year) I’m pretty sure that the battle between Hector and Achilles is a one-on-one and a pivotal scene. Here it’s just a little talk and then the Myrmidons take care of the task. The Myrmidons, by the way, are Achilles guys. I guess they’re all from Myrmid? Not too sure about that. But they’re not a bunch of male mermaids. That would just be weird.

Anyway, there’s some good stuff in that short scene. It starts with Hector talking to his sword and it ends with Achilles talking to his, before he gets ready to drag Hector’s body around the walls of Troy (and isn’t that where someone shoots Achilles in the heel and kills him, thus begetting the saying ‘the Achilles heel’?). And they really give some life to those swords, don’t they? Achilles sword is ‘half-supped’, would have liked to eat more, but now it’s going to bed. It almost makes me see a little sword guy prancing around.  

 

Mr. Sword