my wit, to defend my wiles; upon my secresy, to defend mine honesty; my mask, to defend my beauty; and you, to defend all these: and at all these wards I lie, at a thousand watches. Pan. Say one of your watches. Cres. Nay, I'll watch you for that; and that's one of the chiefest of them too: if I cannot ward what I would not have hit, I can watch you for telling how I took the blow; unless it swell past hiding, and then it is past watching. Pan. You are such another! Enter TROILUS' BOY. Boy. Sir, my lord would instantly speak with you. Pan. Where? Boy. At your own house; there he unarms him. Pan. 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, gifts, tears, and love's full sacrifice, He offers in another's enterprise : 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 doing: That she beloved knows naught, 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: SCENE III. The Grecian camp. Before Agamemnon's tent. Trumpets. Enter AGAMEMNON, NESTOR, ULYSSES, Aga. Princes, What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks? The ample proposition, that hope makes In all designs begun on earth below, Fails in the promised largeness: checks and disasters Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd; As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap, Infect the sound pine, and divert his grain Nor, princes, is it matter new to us, That we come short of our suppose so far, Twisted and rambling. That, after seven years' siege, yet Troy walls stand; 1 Sith 1 every action that hath gone before, Whereof we have record, trial did draw That gave 't surmised shape. Why then, you princes, Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works; And think them shames, which are, indeed, naught else But the protractive trials of great Jove, To find persistive constancy in men ? In Fortune's love: for then, the bold and coward, The hard and soft, seem all affined 2 and kin: Nes. With due observance of thy godlike seat, Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance Lies the true proof of men: the sea being smooth, But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut, Like Perseus' horse. Where's then the saucy boat, In storms of fortune: for, in her ray and brightness, And flies fled under shade; why, then, the thing of courage, As roused with rage, with rage doth sympathise, And with an accent turn'd in self-same key, Returns to chiding fortune. Ulys. Agamemnon, Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece, In whom the tempers and the minds of all The which,-most mighty for thy place and sway,— [to Agamemnon. And thou most reverend for thy stretch'd-out life,— The gad-fly that stings cattle. [to Nestor. I give to both your speeches,—which were such, Should hold up high in brass; and such again, Should with a bond of air (strong as the axle-tree On which heaven rides) knit all the Greekish ears To his experienced tongue;-yet let it please both,― Thou great, and wise, to hear Ulysses speak. Aga. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be 't of less expect 1 1 That matter needless, of importless burden, Ulys. Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down, And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master, But for these instances. The specialty of rule 2 hath been neglected: What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,3 1 Expectation. • Masked. 2 Rights of supreme authority. |