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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:
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.

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
Tortive and errant1 from his course of growth:

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
Bias and thwart, not answering the aim,
And that unbodied figure of the thought

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 ?
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 affined 2 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.

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

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But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis, and, anon, behold

The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains 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 harbor fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so
Doth valor's show and valor's worth divide

In storms of fortune: for, in her ray and brightness,
The herd hath more annoyance by the brize,1
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,

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,
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 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,
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece

Should hold up high in brass; and such again,
As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver,

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

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:
And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand
Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions.
When that the general is not like the hive,
To whom the foragers shall all repair,

What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,3
The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask.
The heavens themselves, the planets, and this
centre,

1 Expectation. • Masked.

2 Rights of supreme authority.

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