Than in the note of judgment; and worthier than

himself

Here tend the savage strangeness' he puts on;
Disguise the holy strength of their command,
And underwrite in an observing kind'
His humorous predominance; yea, watch
His pettish lunes, his ebbs, his flows, as if
The passage and whole carriage of this action.
Rode on his tide. Go, tell him this; and add,
That, if he overhold his price so much,
We'll none of him; but let him, like an engine
Not portable, lie under this report-
Bring action hither, this cannot go to war:
A stirring dwarf we do allowance give
Before a sleeping giant:-Tell him so.

8

Patr. I shall; and bring his answer presently.

[Exit: Agam. In second voice we'll not be satisfied, We come to speak with him.-Ulysses, enter. [Exit ULYSSES.

Ajax. What is he more than another? Agam. No more than what he thinks he is. Ajax. Is he so much? Do you not think, he thinks himself a better man than I am?

Agam. No question.

Ajax. Will you subscribe his thought, and say

he is?

Agam. No, noble Ajax; you are as strong, as valiant, as wise, no less noble, much more gentle, and altogether more tractable.

Ajax. Why should a man be proud? How doth pride grow? I know not what pride is.

5

tend the savage strangeness-] i. e. shyness, distant behaviour. To tend is to attend upon.

7

attentive.

underwrite-] To subscribe, in Shakspeare, is to obey.
in an observing kind-] i. e. in a mode religiously

allowance give-] Allowance is approbation.

Agam. Your mind's the clearer, Ajax, and your virtues the fairer. He that is proud, eats up himself: pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle; and whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise.

Ajax. I do hate a proud man, as I hate the engendering of toads.

Nest. And yet he loves himself: Is it not strange?

Re-enter ULYSSES.

[Aside.

Ulyss. Achilles will not to the field to-morrow. Agam. What's his excuse? Ulyss. But carries on the stream of his dispose, Without observance or respect of any,

He doth rely on none;

In will peculiar and in self-admission.

Agam. Why will he not, upon our fair request, Untent his person, and share the air with us? Ulyss. Things small as nothing, for request's sake

only,

He makes important: Possess'd he is with greatness;
And speaks not to himself, but with a pride
That quarrels at self-breath: imagin'd worth
Holds in his blood such swoln and hot discourse,
That, 'twixt his mental and his active parts,
Kingdom'd Achilles in commotion rages,

And batters down himself: What should I say?
He is so plaguy proud, that the death tokens of it'
Cry-No recovery.

Agam.

Let Ajax go to him.

Dear lord, go you and greet him in his tent: "Tis said, he holds you well; and will be led,

At your request, a little from himself.

9 the death-tokens of it-] Alluding to the decisive spots appearing on those infected by the plague.

Ulyss. O Agamemnon, let it not be so! We'll consecrate the steps that Ajax makes

When they go from Achilles: Shall the proud lord,
That bastes his arrogance with his own seam;'
And never suffers matter of the world

Enter his thoughts,-save such as do revolve
And ruminate himself,-shall he be worshipp'd
Of that we hold an idol more than he?
No, this thrice worthy and right valiant lord
Must not so stale his palm, nobly acquir'd;
Nor, by my will, assubjugate his merit,
As amply titled as Achilles is,

By going to Achilles:

That were to enlard his fat-already pride;2

And add more coals to Cancer, when he burns
With entertaining great Hyperion.

This lord go to him! Jupiter forbid;

And say in thunder-Achilles, go to him.

Nest. O, this is well; he rubs the vein of him.

[Aside.

Dio. And how his silence drinks up this applause!

[Aside.

Ajax. If I go to him, with my arm'd fist I'll pash him3

Over the face.

Agam.

O, no, you shall not go. Ajax. An he be proud with me, I'll pheeze his pride:*

Let me go to him.

1

lard.

·with his own seam;] Swine-seam, in the North, is hog's

That were to enlard, &c.] This is only the well-known proverb-Grease a fat sow, &c. in a more stately dress.

3

I'll pash him-] i. e. strike him with violence. pheeze his pride:] To pheeze is to comb or curry.

Ulyss. Not for the worth' that hangs upon our

quarrel.

Ajax. A paltry, insolent fellow,——————

Nest.

Himself!

How he describes

[Aside.

Ajax. Can he not be sociable?

Ajax.

Ulyss.

Chides blackness.

I will let his humours blood.

Agam. He'll be physician, that should be the

The raven

[Aside.

patient.

[Aside.

Wit would be out of fashion.

[Aside.

Ajax. He should not bear it so,

He should eat swords first: Shall pride carry it?

Nest. An 'twould, you'd carry half.

[Aside.

Ulyss.

He'd have ten shares.

[Aside.

Ajax. I'll knead him, I will make him supple:Nest. He's not yet thorough warm: force him with praises:

Pour in, pour in; his ambition is dry.

[Aside.

Ulyss. My lord, you feed too much on this dis[To AGAMEMNon. Nest. O noble general, do not do so.

like.

Dio. You must prepare to fight without Achilles. Ulyss. Why, 'tis this naming of him does him

harm.

Here is a man-But 'tis before his face;

I will be silent.

Nest.

Wherefore should you so?

"Not for the worth-] Not for the value of all for which we are fighting.

force him-] i. e. stuff him. Farcir, Fr.

He is not emulous,' as Achilles is.

Ulyss. Know the whole world, he is as valiant.
Ajax. A whoreson dog, that shall palter thus

Ay, or surly borne?

Dio. Or covetous of praise?

Ulyss.

Dio. Or strange, or self-affected?

Ulyss. Thank the heavens, lord, thou art of

sweet composure;

Praise him that got thee, she that gave thee suck:
Fam'd be thy tutor, and thy parts of nature
Thrice-fam'd, beyond all erudition:

But he that disciplin'd thy arms to fight,
Let Mars divide eternity in twain,
And give him half: and, for thy vigour,
Bull-bearing Milo his addition yield9

To sinewy Ajax. I will not praise thy wisdom,
Which, like a bourn,' a pale, a shore, confines
Thy spacious and dilated parts: Here's Nestor,-
Instructed by the antiquary times,

He must, he is, he cannot but be wise;-
But pardon, father Nestor, were your days

"He is not emulous,] Emulous, in this instance, and perhaps in some others, may well enough be supposed to signify-jealous of higher authority.

that shall palter-] That shall juggle with us, or fly from his engagements.

• Bull-bearing Milo his addition yield—] i. e. yield his titles, his celebrity for strength. Addition, in legal language, is the title given to each party, showing his degree, occupation, &c. as esquire, gentleman, yeoman, merchant, &c.

Our author here, as usual, pays no regard to chronology. Milo of Croton lived long after the Trojan war.

1- like a bourn,] A bourn is a boundary, and sometimes a rivulet dividing one place from another.

VOL. VII.

B B