But more in Troilus thousand fold I see Than in the glass of Pandar's praise may be ; [Exit. SCENE III. The Grecian Camp. Before Trumpets. Enter AGAMEMNON, NESTOR, ULYSSES, Agam. Princes, What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks? In all designs begun on earth below, Fails in the promised largeness; checks and disasters. As knots, by the conflúx of meeting sap, 1 That woman. 2 "Achievement is command; ungained, beseech." The meaning of this obscure line seems to be, "Men after possession become our commanders; before it they are our suppliants."" 66 My heart's content," in the next line, probably signifies my will, my desire. And that unbodied figure of the thought That gave't surmised shape. Why, then, you princes, To find persistive constancy in men? The fineness of which metal is not found In fortune's love; for then, the bold and coward, Nest. With due observance of thy godlike seat,2 Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance Lies the true proof of men. The sea being smooth, Upon her patient breast, making their way But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage The gentle Thetis, and, anon, behold The strong-ribbed bark through liquid mountains cut, Like Perseus' horse. Where's then the saucy boat. 1 Joined by affinity. 2 The throne. 3 To apply, here, is used for to bend the mind, or attend particularly to Agamemnon's words. 4 Pegasus was, strictly speaking, Bellerophon's horse; but Shakspeare followed the Old Troy Book. “Of the blood that issued out [from Medusa's head] there engendered Pegasus or the flying horse. By the flying horse that was engendered of the blood issued from her head, is under stood that of her riches issuing of that realme he [Perseus] founded, and made a ship named Pegase, and this ship was likened unto an horse flying,” &c. In another place we are told that this ship, which the writer always calls Perseus' flying horse," flew on the sea like unto a bird."-Destruction of Troy, 4to, 1617, p. 155–164. 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 sympathize, Ulyss. 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,- Should with a bond of air (strong as the axletree -- Agam. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be't of less expect 4 That matter needless, of importless burden, 1 The gadfly that stings cattle. 2 i. e. replies to noisy or clamorous fortune. 3 Ulysses evidently means to say that Agamemnon's speech should be writ in brass; and that venerable Nestor, with his silver hairs, by his speech should rivet the attention of all Greece. The phrase hatched in silver, is a simile borrowed from the art of design; to hatch being to fill a design with a number of consecutive fine lines; and to hatch in silver was a design inlaid with lines of silver. The lines of the graver on a plate of metal are still called hatchings. Hence, hatched in silver, for silver-haired or gray-haired. Expect for expectation. Divide thy lips; than we are confident, Ulyss. Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down, And the great Hector's sword had lacked a master, But for these instances. 1 The specialty of rule hath been neglected : What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded, The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre,2 Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, And posts, like the commandment of a king, What plagues, and what portents? what mutiny? Commotion in the winds? frights, changes, horrors, The unity and married3 calm of states Quite from their fixture? O, when degree is shaked, The enterprise is sick! How could communities, 5 Peaceful commérce from dividable shores, The primogenitive and due of birth, Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels, 1 The particular rights of supreme authority. 2 i. e. this globe. 3 The epithet married denotes an intimate union. 4 Confraternities, corporations, companies. 5 The termination ble is often thus used by Shakspeare for ed. But by degree, stand in authentic place? And the rude son should strike his father dead. And appetite, an universal wolf, So doubly seconded with will and power, Must make perforce an universal prey, And, last, eat up himself. Great Agamemnon, And this neglection1 of degree it is, That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot, Agam. The nature of the sickness found, Ulysses, What is the remedy? Ulyss. The great Achilles,-whom opinion crowns The sinew and the forehand of our host,Having his ear full of his airy fame, 1 This uncommon word occurs again in Pericles, 1609. 2 "That goes backward step by step, with a design in each man to aggrandize himself by slighting his immediate superior." |