Act 5, Scene 9

Another part of the plain

[Sound retreat. Shout. Enter AGAMEMNON, AJAX, MENELAUS, NESTOR, DIOMEDES, and the rest, marching.]
Agamemnon
3332 Hark! hark! what shout is this?
Nestor
3333 Peace, drums!
[Within.]
Soldiers
3334 Achilles! Achilles! Hector's slain. Achilles!
Diomedes
3335 The bruit is Hector's slain, and by Achilles.
Ajax
3336 If it be so, yet bragless let it be;
3337 Great Hector was as good a man as he.
Agamemnon
3338 March patiently along. Let one be sent
3339 To pray Achilles see us at our tent.
3340 If in his death the gods have us befriended;
3341 Great Troy is ours, and our sharp wars are ended.
[Exeunt.]

Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 3335archaic vocab
“The bruit is Hector's slain”
'Bruit' means a rumour or loud report -- in Elizabethan English the ordinary word for a piece of news shouted or spread about (from Old French bruit, 'noise'). Diomedes is saying: the report going round is that Hector has been killed by Achilles.
TLN 3336archaic vocab
“yet bragless let it be”
'Bragless' means without boasting. Ajax insists that even if Achilles really did kill Hector, it should be spoken of quietly and without triumph — because Hector was as great a warrior as Achilles. The word underscores how hollow any celebration would be.
TLN 3340rhetorical device
“If in his death the gods have us befriended”
Agamemnon frames Hector's murder as a divine gift: 'if the gods have helped us in this' — as though the gods' favour explains the killing rather than Achilles's treachery. The rhetorical move converts an ambush into a blessing and lets the Greeks march forward without acknowledging what actually happened.