That, after seven years' siege, yet Troy walls stand;
Sith 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 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!

1 Since.

2 Joined by affinity.

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,—

1 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. 3 Masked.

2 Rights of supreme authority.

Observe degree, priority, and place,
Insisture,1 course, proportion, season, form,
Office, and custom, in all line of order;
And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol,
In noble eminence enthroned and sphered
Amidst the other; whose medicinable 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,

What plagues and what portents! what mutiny!
What raging of the sea! shaking of earth!

Commotion in the winds! frights, changes, horrors,
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate 3

The unity and married calm of states

Quite from their fixture! O, when degree is shaked,
Which is the ladder of all high designs,

The enterprise is sick! How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable 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 5 oppugnancy. The bounded waters

1 Constancy.

3 Force up by the roots.

$ Absolute.

2 Without.

4 For divided.

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 Agamemnon,
This chaos, when degree is suffocate,

Follows the choking:

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.

Nes. Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover'd The fever whereof all our power1 is sick.

1 Army.