What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded, The unworthieft shows as fairly in the mask.
The heavens themselves, the planets, and this center,
Obferve degree, priority, and place,
Infifture, course, proportion, seafon, form,
Office, and cuftom, in all line of order :
And therefore,is the glorious planet, Sol,
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
Amidst the other; whofe med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill afpécts of planets evil,
And pofts, 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 fea? fhaking 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 fixure? O, when degree is shak'd,
Which is the ladder of all high designs,
The enterprize is fick! How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commérce from dividable fhores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, fcepters, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentick place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what difcord follows! each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy: The bounded waters
Should lift their bofoms higher than the shores,
And make a sop of all this folid globe:
Strength should be lord of imbecility,
And the rude fon fhould ftrike his father dead :
Force fhould be right; or, rather, right and wrong,
(Between whofe endless jar juftice refides,)
Should lofe their names, and fo fhould juftice too.
Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite, an universal wolf,
So doubly feconded with will and power,
Muft make perforce an universal prey,
And, laft, eat up himself. Great Agamemnon,
This chaos, when degree is fuffocate,
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 difdain'd
By him one step below; he, by the next;
That next, by him beneath: fo every step,
Exampled by the first pace that is fick
Of his fuperior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodless emulation:
And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,"
Not her own finews. To end a tale of length,
Troy in our weakness ftands, not in her ftrength.
NEST. Moft.wifely hath Ulyffes here discover'd
The fever whereof all our power is fick.
AGAM. The nature of the ficknefs found, Ulyffes, What is the remedy?
ULrss. The great Achilles,-whom opinion crowns The finew 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 defigns: With him, Patroclus,
Upon a lazy bed, the livelong day
And with ridiculous and aukward action
(Which, flanderer, he imitation calls,)
He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon,
Thy topless deputation he puts on;
And, like a strutting player,-whofe conceit
Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich
To hear the wooden dialogue and found
'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the fcaffoldage,-
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 unfquar'd,
Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropp'd,
Would feem hyperboles. At this fufty stuff,
The large Achilles, on his prefs'd bed lolling,
From his deep cheft laughs out a loud applause;
Cries-Excellent!-'tis Agamemnon juft.-
Now play me Neftor;-bem, and stroke thy beard,
As he, being 'dreft to fome oration.
That's done ;-as near as the extremeft ends
Of parallels; as like as Vulcan and his wife :
Yet good Achilles ftill cries, Excellent!
'Tis Neftor right! Now play him me, Patroclus,
Arming to anfwer in a night alarm. •
And then, forfooth, the faint defects of age
Must be the scene of mirth; to cough, and spit,
And with a palfy-fumbling on his gorget,
Shake in and out the rivet and at this fport,
Sir Valoúr dies; cries, O!-enough, Patroclus ;-
Or give me ribs of fteel! I fhall split all
In pleasure of my spleen. And in this fashion,
All our abilities, gifts, natures, fhapes,
Severals and generals of grace exact,
Achievements, plots, orders, preventions,
N n iiij
Excitements to the field, or fpeech for truce,
Succefs, or lofs, what is, or is not, ferves
As ftuff for these two to make paradoxes.
NEST. And in the imitation of these twain
(Whom, as Ulyffes fays, opinion crowns
With an imperial voice,) many are infect.
Ajax is grown felf-will'd; and bears his head
In fuch a rein, in full as proud a place
As broad Achilles: keeps his tent like him;
Makes factious feafts; rails on our ftate of war,
Bold as an oracle: and fets Therfites
(A flave, whofe gall coins flanders like a mint,)
To match us in comparisons with dirt;
To weaken and difcredit our expofure,
How rank foever rounded in with danger.
ULrss. They tax our policy, and call it cowardice ;
Count wisdom as no member of the war ;
Foreftall prescience, and esteem no act
But that of hand: the still and mental parts,-
That do contrive how many hands fhall strike,
When fitness calls them on; and know, by measure
Of their obfervant 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 fwing and rudeness of his poize,
They place before his hand that made the engine;
Or those, that with the fineness of their fouls
By reafon guide his execution.
NEST. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse
AGAM. What trumpet? look, Menelaus.
AGAM. What would you 'fore our tent?
Great Agamemnon's tent, I pray?
ENE. May one, that is a herald, and a prince, Do a fair meffage to his kingly ears?
AGAM. With furety stronger than Achilles' arm
'Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice
Call Agamemnon head and general.
ENE. Fair leave, and large fecurity. 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 weaken reverence,
And bid the cheek be ready with a blush
Modeft as morning when the coldly eyes
The youthful Phœbus :
Which is that god in office, guiding men?
Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon?
AGAM. This Trojan fcorns 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 foldiers, they have galls,
Good arms, strong joints, true fwords; and, Jove's accord,
Nothing fo full of heart. But peace, Æneas,
Peace, Trojan; lay thy finger on thy lips!
The worthiness of praise distains his worth,
If that the prais'd himself bring the praise forth :
But what the repining enemy commends,
That breath fame blows; that praise, fole
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