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Achil. There's for you, Patroclus.

Ther. I will see you hanged, like clotpoles, ere I come any more to your tents; I will keep where there is wit stirring, and leave the faction of fools.

Patr. A good riddance.

[Exit.

Achil. Marry, this, sir, is proclaimed through all our

host:

That Hector, by the first hour of the sun,
Will, with a trumpet, 'twixt our tents and Troy,
To-morrow morning call some knight to arms,
That hath a stomach; and such a one, that dare
Maintain — I know not what; 'tis trash: Farewell.
Ajax. Farewell. Who shall answer him?

Achil. I know not, it is put to lottery; otherwise, He knew his man.

Ajax. O, meaning you:- I'll go learn more of it.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Troy. A Room in Priam's Palace.

Enter PRIAM, HECTOR, TROILUS, PARIS, and
HELENUS.

Pri. After so many hours, lives, speeches spent,
Thus once again says Nestor from the Greeks;
Deliver Helen, and all damage else -

As honour, loss of time, travel, expence,

Wounds, friends, and what else dear that is consum'd

In hot digestion of this cormorant war,

Shall be struck off:- Hector, what say you to't?

Hect. Though no man lesser fears the Greeks than I,

As far as toucheth my particular, yet,

Dread Priam,

There is no lady of more softer bowels,

More spungy to suck in the sense of fear,

More ready to cry out - Who knows what follows?
Than Hector is: The wound of peace is surety,

Surety secure; but modest doubt is call'd

The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches
To the bottom of the worst.
Let Helen go:

Since the first sword was drawn about this question,
Every tithe soul, 'mongst many thousand dismes,
Hath been as dear as Helen; I mean, of ours:

If we have lost so many tenths of ours,

To guard a thing not our's; not worth to us,
Had it our name, the value of one ten;
What merit's in that reason, which denies
The yielding of her up?

Tro.

Fye, fye, my brother!
Weigh you the worth and honour of a king,
So great as our dread father, in a scale

Of common ounces? will you with counters sum
The past-proportion of his infinite? 5
And buckle-in a waist most fathomless,
With spans and inches so diminutive

As fears and reasons? fye, for godly shame!

Hel. No marvel, though you bite so sharp at reasons, You are so empty of them. Should not our father Bear the great sway of his affairs with reasons, Because your speech hath none, that tells him so?

Tro. You are for dreams and slumbers, brother priest, You fur your gloves with reason. Here are your rea

sons:

You know, an enemy intends you harm;
You know, a sword employ'd is perilous,
And reason flies the object of all harm:
Who marvels then, when Helenus beholds
A Grecian and his sword, if he do set
The very wings of reason to his heels;

And fly like chidden Mercury from Jove,

Or like a star dis-orb'd? - Nay, if we talk of reason,

4

many thousand dismes,] Disme, Fr. is the tithe, the tenth. The past-proportion of his infinite?] i. e. that greatness to which no measure bears any proportion.

Let's shut our gates, and sleep: Manhood and honour Should have hare hearts, would they but fat their

thoughts

With this cramm'd reason; reason and respect "
Make livers pale, and lustihood deject.

Hect. Brother, she is not worth what she doth cost The holding.

Tro.

What is aught, but as 'tis valued?
Hect. But value dwells not in particular will;
It holds his estimate and dignity

As well wherein 'tis precious of itself
As in the prizer: 'tis mad idolatry,
To make the service greater than the god;
And the will dotes, that is attributive7
. To what infectiously itself affects,
Without some image of the affected merit.
Tro. I take to-day a wife, and my election
Is led on in the conduct of my will;
My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears,
Two traded pilots 'twixt the dangerous shores
Of will and judgment: How may I avoid,
Although my will distaste what it elected,
The wife I chose? there can be no evasion

To blench from this, and to stand firm by honour:
We turn not back the silks upon the merchant,
When we have soil'd them: nor the remainder viands
We do not throw in unrespective sieve,

8

Because we now are full. It was thought meet,
Paris should do some vengeance on the Greeks:
Your breath with full consent9 bellied his sails;

[blocks in formation]

Make livers pale, &c.] Respect is caution, a regard to consequences.

7 And the will dotes, that is attributive —] i. e. the will dotes that attributes or gives the qualities which it affects; that first causes excellence, and then admires it.

unrespective sieve,] That is, unto a common voider.

9 Your breath with full consent ] Your breaths all blowing together; your unanimous approbation.

The seas and winds (old wranglers) took a truce,
And did him service: he touch'd the ports desir'd;
And, for an old aunt', whom the Greeks held captive,
He brought a Grecian queen, whose youth and freshness
Wrinkles Apollo's, and makes pale the morning.
Why keep we her? the Grecians keep our aunt:
Is she worth keeping? why, she is a pearl,
Whose price hath launch'd above a thousand ships,
And turn'd crown'd kings to merchants.

If you'll avouch, 'twas wisdom Paris went,

(As you must needs, for you all cry'd — Go, go,)
If you'll confess, he brought home noble prize,
(As you must needs, for you all clapp'd your hands,
And cry'd-Inestimable !) why do you now
The issue of your proper wisdoms rate;
And do a deed that fortune never did,2
Beggar the estimation which you priz'd

Richer than sea and land? O theft most base;
That we have stolen what we do fear to keep!
But, thieves, unworthy of a thing so stolen,
That in their country did them that disgrace,
We fear to warrant in our native place!

Cas. [within.] Cry, Trojans, cry!

Pri.

What noise? what shriek is this?

Tro. 'Tis our mad sister, I do know her voice.

Cas. [within.] Cry, Trojans !

Hect. It is Cassandra.

Enter CASSANDRA, raving.

Cas. Cry, Trojans, cry! lend me ten thousand eyes, And I will fill them with prophetick tears.

Hect. Peace, sister, reace.

1 And, for an old aunt,] Priam's sister, Hesione, whom Hercules, being enraged at Priam's breach of faith, gave to Telamon, who by her had Ajax.

2 And do a deed that fortune never did,] i. e. act with more inconstancy and caprice than ever did fortune.

Cas. Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled elders, Soft infancy, that nothing canst but cry, Add to my clamours! let us pay betimes A moiety of that mass of moan to come. Cry, Trojans, cry! practise your eyes with tears! Troy must not be, nor goodly Ilion stand; Our fire-brand brother, Paris3, burns us all. Cry, Trojans, cry! a Helen, and a woe: Cry, cry! Troy burns, or else let Helen go.

[Exit. Hect. Now, youthful Troilus, do not these high strains

Of divination in our sister work

Some touches of remorse? or is your blood

So madly hot, that no discourse of reason,
Nor fear of bad success in a bad cause,

Can qualify the same?

Tro.

Why, brother Hector,

We may not think the justness of each act
Such and no other than event doth form it;
Nor once deject the courage of our minds,
Because Cassandra's mad; her brain-sick raptures
Cannot distaste the goodness of a quarrel,
Which hath our several honours all engag'd
To make it gracious. For my private part,
I am no more touch'd than all Priam's sons:
And Jove forbid, there should be done amongst us
Such things as might offend the weakest spleen
To fight for and maintain!

Par. Else might the world convince of levity
As well my undertakings, as your counsels:

3 Our fire-brand brother,] Hecuba, when pregnant with Paris, dreamed she should be delivered of a burning torch.

4

distaste,] Corrupt; change to a worse state.

5 To make it gracious.] i. e. to set it off; to show it to advantage. 6 convince of levity-] This word, which our author frequently employs in the obsolete sense of-to overpower, subdue, seems, in the present instance, to signify-convict, or subject to the charge of levity.

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