Pan. Where?

Boy. At your own house; there he unarms him.

Pun. Good boy, tell him I come: [Exit Boy.] I doubt, he be hurt.-Fare ye well, good niece.

Cres. Adieu, uncle.

Pan. I'll be with you, niece, by and by.
Cres. To bring, uncle,-

Pan. Ay, a token from Troilus.
Cres. By the same token you are a bawd.-
[Exit PANDARUS.
Words, vows, griefs, tears, and love's full sa-
He offers in another's enterprize: [crifice,
But more in Troilus thousand fold I see
Than in the glass of Pandar's praise may be;
Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing:
Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the do-
ing:

That she belov'd knows nought, that knows not this,

Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is: That she was never yet, that ever knew

Love got so sweet, as when desire did sue: Therefore this maxim out of love I teach,Achievement is command; ungain'd beseech: Then though my heart's content firm love doth bear,

Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear. [Exit.

SCENE III.—The Grecian Camp.-Before
Agamemnon's Tent.

Trumpets. Enter AGAMEMNON, Nestor,
ULYSSES, MENELAUS, and others.

nought else

But the protractive trials of great Jove.
To find persistive constancy in men?
The fineness of which metal is not found

In fortune's love: for then, the bold and coward,

The wise and fool, the artist and unread,
The hard and soft, seem all affin'd‡ and kin:
But, in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
And what hath mass, or matter, by itself
Lies, rich in virtue, and unmingled.
Nest. With due observance of thy godlike
seat,$

Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply

*Twisted and rambling. Joined by affinity.

+ Since.

The throne.

Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance Lies the true proof of men: The sea being smooth,

How many shallow bauble boats dare sail
Upon her patient breast, making their way
With those of nobler bulk.

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis, and, anon, behold
The strong ribb'd bark through liquid moun
tains cut,

Bounding between the two moist elements, Like Perseus' horse: Where's then the saucy boat,

Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now
Co-rival'd greatness? either to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so
Doth valour's show, and valour's worth, divide,
In storms of fortune: For, in her ray and
brightness,

The herd hath more annoyance by the brize,+'
Than by the tiger: but when the splitting wind
Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks,
And flies fled under shade, Why, then, the

thing of courage,

[thize, As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympa. And with an accent turn'd in self-same key, Returns to chiding fortune.

Ulyss. Agamemnon,

[Greece, Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit, In whom the tempers and the minds of all Should be shut up,-hear what Ulysses speaks. Besides the applause and approbation The which,-most mighty for thy place and [To AGAMEMNON.

sway,

And thou most reverend for thy stretch'd-out I give to both your speeches,—which were life,[TO NESTOR.

such,

As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece Should hold up high in brass; and such again, As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver, [tree Should with a bond of air (strong as the axleOn which heaven rides,) knit all the Greekish [both,

ears

To his experienc'd tongue,-yet let it please Thou great, and wise, to hear Ulysses speak.

Agam. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be't of less expect

That matter needless, of importless burden,
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,
When rank Thersites opes his mastiff jaws,
We shall hear music, wit, and oracle.

Ulyss. Troy, yet upon his basis had been down, [master, And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a

The speciality of rules hath been neglected: And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow fac

But for these instances.

tions.

When that the general is not like the hive,
To whom the foragers shall all repair,
What honey is expected? Degree being viz-
arded,||

The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask. The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre,

Observe degree, priority, and place,
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
Office, and custom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol,
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
The daughter of Neptune.
The gad fly that stings cattle.
Rights of authority. Masked.

+ Expectation. ¶ Constancy.

Amidst the other; whose med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,
And posts, like the commandment of a king,
Sans check, to good and bad: But when the
planets,

In evil mixture, to disorder wander, [tiny?
What plagues, and what portents? what mu-
What raging of the sea? shaking of earth?
Commotion in the winds? frights, changes,
horrors,

Divert and crack, rend and deracinatet
The unity and married calm of states

And, like a strutting player,-whose conceit Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich To hear the wooden dialogue and sound "Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage,*

Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrestedt seeming He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks, "Tis like a chime a mending; with terms unsquar'd, [dropp'd, Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon Would seem hyperboles. At this fusty stuff, The large Achilles, on his press'd bed lolling,

shak'd,

Which is the ladder of all high designs,

The enterprize is sick! How could communities,

Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities, Peaceful commérce from dividables shores, The primogenitive and due of birth, Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels, But by degree, stand in authentic place? Take but degree away, untune that string, And, hark, what discord follows! each thing

meets

In mere oppugnancy: The bounded waters Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores, And make a sop of all this solid globe: Strength should be lord of imbecility,

And the rude son should strike his father dead: Force should be right; or, rather, right and wrong,

(Between whose endless jar justice resides,) Should lose their names, and so should justice

too.

Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite, a universal wolf,
So doubly seconded with will and power,
Must make perforce a universal prey,
And, last, eat up himself. Great Agamem-
This chaos, when degree is suffocate,
Follows the choking.

[non,

And this neglection of degree it is,
That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose
It hath to climb. The general's disdain'd
By him one step below; he, by the next;
That next, by him beneath: so every step,
Exampled by the first pace that is sick
Of his superior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodless emulation:
And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,
Not her own sinews. To end a tale of length,
Troy in our weakness stands, not in her
strength.

Nest. Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover'd

The fever whereof all our power¶ is sick.
Agam. The nature of the sickness found,
What is the remedy?
[Ulysses,
Ulyss. The great Achilles,-whom opinion

plause;

Cries-Excellent!-'tis Agamemnon just.--
Now play me Nestor;-hem, and stroke thy
As he, being dress'd to some oration. [beard,
That's done ;-as near as the extremest ends
Of parallels; as like as Vulcan and his wife.
Yet good Achilles still cries, Excellent!
'Tis Nestor right! Now play him me, Patroclus,
Arming to answer in a night alarm.

And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age
Must be the scene of mirth; to cough, and spit,
And with a palsy-fumbling on his gorget,
Shake in and out the rivet:-and at this sport,
Sir Valour dies; cries, O!-enough, Patro-
clus;-

Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all
In pleasure of my spleen. And in this fashion,
All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,
Severals and generals of grace exact,
Achievements, plots, orders, preventions,
Excitements to the field, or speech for trucc,
Success, or loss, what is, or is not, serves
As stuff for these two to make paradoxes.

Nest. And in the imitation of these twain
(Whom, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns
With an imperial voice,) many are infect.
Ajax is grown self-will'd; and bears his head
In such a reign, in full as proud a place
As broad Achilles: keeps his tent like him ;
Makes factious feasts; rails on our state of
Bold as an oracle: and sets Thersites [war,
(A slave, whose gall coins slanders like a mint,)
To match us in comparisons with dirt;
To weaken and discredit our exposure,
How rank soever rounded in with danger.
Ulyss. They tax our policy, and call it cow-
ardice;

Count wisdom as no member of the war;
Forestall prescience, and esteem no act
But that of hand: the still and mental parts,--
That do contrive how many hands shall strike,
When fitness calls them on; and know, by

Ene. Ay;

I ask, that I might waken reverence,
And bid the cheek be ready with a blush
Modest as morning when she coldly eyes
The youthful Phoebus:

Which is that god in office, guiding men?
Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon?
Agam. This Trojan scorns us; or the men of
Are ceremonious courtiers.
[Troy
Ene. Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm'd,
As bending angels; that's their fame in peace:
But when they would seem soldiers, they have
galls,

Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and,
Jove's accord,

Nothing so full of heart. But peace, Eneas,
Peace, Trojan; lay thy finger on thy lips!
The worthiness of praise distains his worth,
If that the prais'd himself bring the praise
forth:

But what the repining enemy commends,
That breath fame follows; that praise, sole
pure, transcends.

Agam. Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself
Æneas?

Ene. Ay, Greek, that is my name.
Agum. What's your affair, I pray you?
Ene. Sir, pardon; 'tis for Agamemnon's

ears.

Agam. He hears nought privately, that comes

from Troy.

[him:

Ene. Nor I from Troy come not to whisper oring a trumpet to awake his ear; To set his sense on the attentive bent, And then to speak.

Agam. Speak frankly* as the wind; It is not Agamemnon's sleeping hour: That thou shalt know, Trojan, he is awake, He tells thee so himself.

Ene. Trumpet, blow loud, [tents; Send thy brass voice through all these lazy And every Greek of mettle, let him know, What Troy means fairly shall be spoke aloud. [Trumpet sounds. We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy A prince call'd Hector, (Priam is his father,) Who in this dull and long-continued truce Is rusty grown; he bade me take a trumpet, And to this purpose speak. Kings, princes,

lords!

If there be one among the fair'st of Greece, That holds his honour higher than his ease; That seeks his praise more than he fears his peril;

That knows his valour, and knows not to fear;
That loves his mistress more than in confession,
(With truant vows to her own lips he loves,)
And dare avow her beauty and her worth,
In other arms than hers,-to him this chal-
lenge.

Hector, in view of Trojans and of Greeks,
Shall make it good, or do his best to do it,

• Freely.

The splinter of a lance. Even so much.
Agam. This shall be told our lovers, lord
Eneas;

man

If none of them have soul in such a kind,
We left them all at home: But we are soldiers;
And may that soldier a mere recreant prove,
That means not, hath not, or is not in love!
If then one is, or hath, or means to be,
That one meets Hector; if none else, I am he.
Nest. Tell him of Nestor, one that was a
When Hector's grandsire suck'd: he is old
[now;
But if there be not in our Grecian host
One noble man, that hath one spark of fire
To answer for his love, Tell him from me,-
I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver,
And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn;
And meeting him, will tell him, That my lady
Was fairer than his grandame, and as chaste
As may be in the world: His youth in flood,
I'll prove this truth with my three drops of
blood

Ene. Now heavens forbid such scarcity of youth!

Ulyss. Amen!

Agam. Fair lord Eneas, let me touch your To our pavilion shall I lead you, Sir. [hand; Achilles shall have word of this intent:"

So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent: Yourself shall feast with us before you go, And find the welcome of a noble foe.

[Exeunt all but ULYSSES and NESTOR. Ulyss. Nestor,

-

Nest. What says Ulysses?

Ulyss. I have a young conception in my brain,

Be you my time to bring it to some shape.
Nest. What is't?

Ulyss. This 'tis:

[pride

Blunt wedges rive hard knots: The seeded
That hath to this maturity blown up

In rank Achilles, must or now be cropp'd,
Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil,
To overbulk us all.

Nest. Well, and how?

Ulyss. This challenge that the gallant Hec tor sends,

However it is spread in general name,
Relates in purpose only to Achilles.

Nest. The purpose is perspicuous even as substance,

Whose grossness little characters sum up:
And, in the publication, make no strain,t
But that Achilles, were his brain as barren
As banks of Libya,-though, Apollo knows,
'Tis dry enough,-will, with what great speed
of judgement,

Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose
Pointing on him.

Ulyss. And wake him to the answer, think you?

Nest. Yes,

It is most meet; Whom may you else oppose, That can from Hector bring those honours off, If not Achilles? Though't be a sportful combat, Yet in the trial much opinion dwells;

For here the Trojans taste our dear'st repute
With their fin'st palate: And trust to me,
Ulysses,

Our imputation shall be oddly pois'd
In this wild action: for the success,
Although particular, shall give a scantling*
Of good or bad unto the general;
And in such indexes, although small prickst
To their subsequent volumes, there is seen
The baby figure of the giant mass

Of things to come at large. It is suppos'd,
He, that meets Hector, issues from our choice:
And choice, being mutual, act of all our souls,
Makes merit her election; and doth boil,
As 'twere from forth us all, a man distill'd
Out of our virtues; Who miscarrying,
What heart receives from hence a conquering

part,

To steel strong opinion to themselves? Which entertain'd, limbs are his instruments, In no less working, than are swords and bows Directive by the limbs.

Ulyss. Give pardon to my speech;-
Therefore 'tis meet, Achilles meet not Hector.
Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares,
And think, perchance, they'll sell; if not,
The lustre of the better shall exceed,
By showing the worse first. Do not consent,
That ever Hector and Achilles meet;
For both our honour and our shame, in this,
Are dogg'd with two strange followers.
Nest. I see then not with my old eyes, what
are they?

Ulyss. What glory our Achilles shares fro
Hector,

Were he not proud, we all should share with him:

But he already is too insolent;

And we were better parch in Afric sun,
Than in the pride and salt scorn of his eyes,
Should he 'scape Hector fair: If he were foil'd,
Why, then we did our main opinion; crush
In taint of our best man. No, make a lottery;
And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw
The sorts to fight with Hector: Among our-
selves,

Give him allowance for the better man,
For that will physic the great Myrmidon,
Who broils in loud applause; and make him
fall

His crest, that prouder than blue Iris bends.
If the dull brainless Ajax come safe off,
We'll dress him up in voices: If he fail,
Yet go we under our opinion|| still
That we have better men. But, hit or miss,
Our project's life this shape of sense assumes-
Ajax, employ'd, plucks down Achilles' plumes.
Nest. Ulysses,

Now I begin to relish thy advice;
And I will give a taste of it forthwith
To Agamemnon: go we to him straight.
Two curs shall tame each other, Pride alone
Must tarre the mastiffs on, as 'twere their
bone.
[Exeunt.

did not the general run then? were not that a botchy core?

Ajax. Dog,

Ther. Then would come some matter from him; I see none now.

Ajax. Thou bitch-wolf's son, canst thou not hear? Feel then. [Strikes him.

Ther. The plague of Greece upon thee, thou mongrel beef-witted lord!

Ajax. Speak then, thou unsalted leaven, speak: I will beat thee into handsomeness.

Ther. I shall sooner rail thee into wit and holiness: but, I think, thy horse will sooner con an oration, than thou learn a prayer without book. Thou canst strike, canst thou? a red murrain o' thy jade's tricks!

Ajax. Toads-stool, learn me the proclamation. Ther. Dost thou think, I have no sense, thou strikest me thus?

Ajax. The proclamation,

Ther. Thou art proclaimed a fool, I think. Ajax. Do not, porcupine, do not; my fingers itch.

Ther. I would, thou didst itch from head to foot, and I had the scratching of thee; I would make thee the loathsomest scab in Greece. When thou art forth in the incursions, thou strikest as slow as another.

Ajax. I say, the proclamation,

Ther. Thou grumblest and railest every hour on Achilles; and thou art as full of envy at his greatness, as Cerberus is at Proserpina's beauty, ay, that thou barkest at him. Ajax. Mistress Thersites!

Ther. Thou shouldest strike him.
Ajax. Cobloaf!

Ther. He would pun* thee into shivers with his list, as a sailor breaks a biscuit. Ajax. You whoreson cur!

[Beating hun.

Ther. Ay, do, do; thou sodden-witted lord! thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows; an assinegot may tutor thee: Thou scurvy valiant ass; thou art here put to thrash Trojans; and thou art bought and sold among those of any wit, like a Barbarian slave. If thou use to beat me, I will begin at thy heel, and tell what thou art by inches, thou thing of no bowels, thou!

Ajax. You dog!

Ther. You scurvy lord!
Ajax. You cur!

[Beating him. Ther. Mars his idiot! do, rudeness; do, camel; do, do.

Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS.

Achil. Why, how now, Ajax? wherefore do you thus?

How now, Thersites? what's the matter, man? Ther. You see him there, do you?

Achil. Ay; what's the matter?

Ther. Nay, look upon him.

Achil. So I do; What's the matter?

Ther. Nay, but regard him well.
Achil. Well, why I do so.

Ther. But yet you look not well upon him: for, whosoever you take him to be, he is Ajax. Achil. I knew that, fool.

Ther. Ay, but that fool knows not himself. Ajax. Therefore I beat thee.

Ther. Lo, lo, lo, lo, what modicums of wit I have bobbed his brain, more than he has beat he utters! his evasions have ears thus long.