Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
And what hath mass, or matter, by itself
Lies, rich in virtue, and unmingled.

Nest. 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.

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 harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so
Doth valour's show, and valour's worth, divide,
In storms of fortune: For, in her ray and brightness,
The herd hath more annoyance by the brize, t
Than by the tiger: but when the splitting wind
Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks,

And flies filed under shade, why, then, the thing of courage, §
As roused with rage, with rage doth sympathize,

And with an accent turn'd in self-same key,

Returns to chiding || fortune.

Ulyss. 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,-[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 Ñestor, hatch'd in silver, T

Should with a bond of air (strong as the axletree
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.

Agam. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be't of less expect **
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.

*The throne.

+ The gad fly.

↑ (Are).

The tiger, which is said to be most furious in storms. Noisy, clamorous. I. e. ornamented with a silvery beard. **Expectation.

Ulyss. Troy, yet upon his basis had been down,
And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master,
But for these instances.

The speciality of rule * 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, †
The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask.

The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre ‡
Observe degree, priority, and place,

Insisture, § 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 med'cinable 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 ||

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 commérce 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 merett oppugnancy: The bounded waters
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,

* Rights of authority.

Constancy.

** Divided.

+ Masked.
Uproot.
†† Absolute.

I. e. the earth itself. Corporations, companies.

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

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,

Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent

Lies mocking our designs: With him, Patroclus,
Upon a lazy bed the livelong day

Breaks scurril jests;

And with ridiculous and awkward action (Which, slanderer, he imitation calls),

He pageants § us. Sometime, great Agamemnon,

Thy topless deputation he puts on;

And, like a strutting player, whose conceit
Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich

To hear the wooden dialogue and sound

"Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage, T-
Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrested ** seeming
He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks,

"Tis like a chime a mending; with terms unsquared, ++
Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropp'd,
Would seem hyperboles. At this fusty stuff,
The large Achilles, on his press'd bed lolling,
From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause;
Cries Excellent!-'tis Agamemnon just.—
Now play me Nestor;-hem, and stroke thy beard,
As he, being dress'd to some oration.

That's done;-as near as the extremest ends
Of parallels; as like as Vulcan and his wife.
Yet good Achilles still cries, Excellent!

'Tis Nestor right! Now play him me, Patroclus,
Arming to answer in a night alarm.

And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age
Must be the scene of mirth; to cough, and spit,

And with a palsy-fumbling on his gorget,

Shake in and out the rivet :-and at this sport,
Sir Valour dies; cries, O!-enough, Patroclus ;-
Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all
In pleasure of my spleen. And in this fashion,
All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,
Severals and generals of grace exact,
Achievements, plots, orders, preventions,
Excitements to the field, or speech for truce,
Success, or loss, what is, or is not, serves
As stuff for these two to make paradoxes.
Nest. And in the imitation of these twain
(Whom, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns
With an imperial voice), many are infect.
Ajax is grown self-will'd; and bears his head
In such a rein,* in full as proud a place
As broad Achilles: keeps his tent like him;
Makes factious feasts; rails on our state of war,
Bold as an oracle: and sets Thersites

(A slave, whose gall coins slanders like a mint)
To match us in comparisons with dirt;

To weaken and discredit our exposure,
How rank soever rounded in with danger.

Ulyss. They tax our policy, and call it cowardice;
Count wisdom as no member of the war;
Forestall prescience, and esteem no act

But that of hand: the still and mental parts,-
That do contrive how many hands shall strike,
When fitness calls them on; and know, by measure+
Of their observant toil, the enemies' weight,-
Why, this hath not a finger's dignity:
They call this-bed-work, mappery, closet-war:
So that the ram, that batters down the wall,
For the great swing and rudeness of his poise,
They place before his hand that made the engine;
Or those, that with the fineness of their souls
By reason guide his execution.

Nest. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse
Makes many Thetis sons.

Agam. What trumpet? look, Menelaus.

Men. From Troy.

Enter ENEAS.

Agam. What would you 'fore our tent?
Ene. Is this

Great Agamemnon's tent, I pray?

Agam. Even this.

Ene. May one, that is a herald and a prince,

Do a fair message to his kingly ears?

[Trumpet sounds.

Agam. With surety stronger than Achilles' arm 'Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice Call Agamemnon head and general.

Ene. Fair leave, and large security. How may
A stranger to those most imperial looks
Know them from eyes of other mortals?
Agam. How?

Ene. Ay;

I ask, that I might waken reverence,
And bid the cheek be ready with a blush
Modest as morning when she coldly eyes
The youthful Phoebus:

Which is that god in office, guiding men?
Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon?

Agam. This Trojan scorns us; or the men of Troy
Are ceremonious courtiers.

Ene. Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm❜d,

As bending angels; that's their fame in peace:
But when they would seem soldiers, they have galls,
Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, Jove's accord,
Nothing so full of heart. But peace, Eneas,

Peace, Trojan; lay thy finger on thy lips!

The worthiness of praise disdains his worth,

If that the praised himself bring the praise forth:

But what the repining enemy commends,

That breath fame follows; that praise, sole pure, transcends.

Agam. Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself Æneas ?

Ene. Ay, Greek, that is my name.

Agam. What's your affair, I pray you?

Ene. Sir, pardon; 'tis for Agamemnon's ears.

Agam. He hears nought privately that comes from Troy.

Ene. Nor I from Troy come not to whisper him :

Boring a trumpet to awake his ear;

To set his sense on the attentive bent,

And then to speak.

Agam. Speak frankly* as the wind;

It is not Agamemnon's sleeping hour:
That thou shalt know, Trojan, he is awake,

He tells thee so himself.

Ene. Trumpet, blow loud,

Send thy brass voice through all these lazy tents:

And every Greek of mettle, let him know,

What Troy means fairly shall be spoke aloud. [Trumpet sounds.
We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy

A prince call'd Hector (Priam is his father),
Who in this dull and long-continued truce
Is rusty grown; he bade me take a trumpet,
And to this purpose speak. Kings, princes, lords!
If there be one among the fair'st of Greece,
That holds his honour higher than his ease;
That seeks his praise more than he fears his peril;
That knows his valour, and knows not to fear;
That loves his mistress more than in confession†
(With truant vows to her own lips he loves),
And dare avow her beauty and her worth,
† Profession.

* Freely.