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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)

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

5 A slave, whose gall coins slanders like a mint)
To match us in comparisons with dirt;
To weaken and discredit our exposure,
How ranksoever rounded in with danger.
Ulyss. They tax our policy, and call it cowardice;
Count wisdom as no member of the war;
Forestall pre-science, 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 mea-

10

15

sure

Of their observant toil, the enemies' weight,
Why, this hath not a finger's dignity;
They call this-bed-work, mappery, closet wart
So that the ram, that batters down the wall,
20 For the great swing and rudeness of his poize,
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
25 Makes many Thetis' sons.
Trumpet sounds.
Agam. What trumpet? look, Menelaus.
Men. From Troy.

He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon,
Thy topless deputation he puts on;
And, like a strutting player,-whose conceit
Lies in his ham-string, and doth think it rich
To hear the wooden dialogue and sound
'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage,-
Such to-be-pitied and o'er-rested' seeming
He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks,
'Tis like a chime amending; with terms unsquar'd, 30|
Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon drop'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 'drest to some oration.'
That's done as near as the extremest ends
Of parallels; as like as Vulcan and his wife:

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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-funbling 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 *,
Atchievements, 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

Enter Æneas.

Agam. What would you 'fore our tent? [you?
Ane. Is this great Agamemnon's tent, I pray
Agam. Even this.

Ane. May one, that is a herald, and a prince,
Do a fair message to his kingly ears?

Agam. With surety stronger than Achilles' arm 35 Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice Call Agamemnon head and general.

40

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

Ane. 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 Phœbus:

45 Which is that god in office, guiding men?
Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon?
Agam. This Trojan scoms us; or the men of Troy
Are ceremonious courtiers.

50

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 [accord, galls, Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, Jove's Nothing so full of heart. But peace, Æneas, 55 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, sole pure, transcends.

Ar emulation not vigorous and active, but malignant and sluggish. sovers gn. 'Read o'er-wrested, i, e. over-charged.

cellen irreprehensible.

bridle

2 Topless means supreme, *All our good of grace exact, means our exThat is, holds up his head as haughtily.We still say of a girl, she

A rank weed is a high weed.

Agam

Agam. Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself Æneas?
Ane. Ay, Greek, that is my name.
Agam. What's your affair, I pray you?
Ane. Sir, pardon; 'tis for Agamemnon's ears.
Agam. He hears nought privately, that comes 5
from Troy.
[him:
Ene. Nor I from Troy come not to whisper
I bring 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.
[Trumpets sound.
We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy
A prince call'd Hector, Priam is his father;
Who in this dull and long-continu'd 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 his 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,
In other arms than hers, to him this challenge.
Hector, in view of Trojans and of Greeks,
Shall make it good, or do his best to do it.
He hath a lady, wiser, fairer, truer,
Than ever Greek did compass in his arms;
And will to-morrow with his trumpet call,
Mid-way between your tents and walls of Troy,
To rouse a Grecian that is true in love:
If any come, Hector shall honour him;
If none, he'll say in Troy, when he retires,
The Grecian dames are sun-burnt, and not worth
The splinter of a lance. Even so much.

Agam. This shall be told our lovers,lord Eneas;
If none of them have soul in such a kind,
We left them all at home: But we are soldiers;
that soldier a mere recreant prove,
That means not, hath not, or is not in love!
If then one is, or hath, or means to be,
That one meets Hector; if none else, I am he.

And may

Nest. Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man
When Hector's grandsire suck'd: he is old now;
But, if there be not in our Grecian host
One noble man that hath one spark of fire,
To answer for his love, Tell him from me,-
I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver,
And in my vantbrace2 put this wither'd brawn;
And, meeting him, will tell him, That my lady
Was fairer than his grandame, and as chaste

As may be in the world: His youth in flood,
I'll pawn this truth with my three drops of blood.
Ane.Now heavens forbid such scarcityof youth!
Ulyss. Amen.

Agam. Fair lord Æneas, let me touch your hand;
To our pavilion shall I lead you, sir.
Achilles shall have word of this intent;
So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent;
Yourself shall feast with us before you go,
10 And find the welcome of a noble foe.
Manent Ulysses and Nestor.

Ulyss. Nestor,

Nest. What says Ulysses?

[Exeunt.

Ulyss. I have a young conception in my brain, 15 Be you my time to bring it to some shape. Nest. What is 't?

Ulyss. This 'tis :

Blunt wedges rive hard knots: The seeded pride
That hath to its maturity blown up

20 In rank Achilles, must or now be cropt,
Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil,
To over-bulk us all.

25

Nest. Well, and how?

Ulyss. This challenge that the gallant Hector
However it is spread in general name, [sends,
Relates in purpose only to Achilles. [stance,
Nest. The purpose is perspicuous even as sub-
Whose grossness little characters sum up3:
And, in the publication, make no strain',
30 But that Achilles, were his brain as barren
As banks of Libya,-though, Apollo knows,
Tis dry enough,-will with great speed of judge
ment,

Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose
35 Pointing on him.

Ulyss. And wake him to the answer, think you?
Nest. Yes, 'tis most meet: Whom may you

else oppose,

That can from Hector bring those honours off, 40 If not Achilles? Though 't be a sportful combat, Yet in this trial much opinion dwells;

For here the Trojans taste our dear'st repute
With their fin'st palate: And trust to me, Ulysses,
Our impntation shall be oddly pois'd

45 In this wild action: for the success,
Although particular, shall give a scantling
Of good or bad unto the general;
And in such indexes, although small pricks
To their subsequent volumes, there is seen
50 The baby figure of the giant mass

Of things to come at large. It is suppos'd,
He, that meets Hector, issues from our choice
And choice, being mutual act of all our souls,
Makes merit her election; and doth boil,
55 As 'twere from forth us all, a man distill'd
Out of our virtues; Who miscarrying,
What heart receives from hence a conquering
To steel a strong opinion to themselves? [part,
Which entertain'd, limbs are in his instruments,

1 Confession for profession. 2 An armour for the arm,-avantbras. value of which is ascertained by the use of small characters, i. e. numerals.

3 Substance is estate; the

* i. e. make no difficulty,

no doubt, when this duel comes to be proclaimed, but that Achilles, dull as he is, will discover the drift of it. Small points compared with the volumes.

In no less working, thån are swords and bows
Directive by the limbs.

In taint of our best man. No, make a lottery;
And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw
The sort to fight with Hector: Among ourselves,
Give him allowance as the better man,
5 For that will physick the great Myrmidon,
Who broils in loud applause; and make him fall
His crest, that prouder than blue Iris bends,
If the dull brainless Ajax come safe off,
We'll dress him up in voices: If he fail,
10 Yet go we under our opinion still,

Ulyss. Give pardon to my speech;
Therefore 'tis meet, Achilles meet not Hector.
Let us, like merchants, shew our foulest wares,
And think, perchance, they'll sell; if not,
The lustre of the better shall exceed,
By shewing the worst first. Do not consent,
That ever Hector and Achilles meet;
For both our honour and our shame, in this,
Are dogg'd with two strange followers.
Nest. I see them not with
are they?
Ulyss. What glory our Achilles shares from Hec-
[tor,
Were he not proud, we all should share with him: 15
But he already is too insolent;

my old eyes; What

And we were better parch in Africk sun,
Than in the pride and salt scorn of his eyes,
Should he 'scape Hector fair: If he were foil'd,
Why, then we did our main opinion crush

That we have better men. But, hit or miss,
Our project's life this shape of sense assumes,-
Ajax, employ'd, plucks down Achilles' plumes,
Now I begin to relish thy advice;
Nest. Ulysses,
And I will give a taste of it forthwith
To Agamemnon: go we to him straight.
Two curs shall tame each other; Pride alone
Must tarre' the mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone.
[Exeunt.

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35

40

Ther. Then there would come some matter 45 from him; I see none now.

Ajax. Thou bitch-wolf's son, canst thou not hear? Feel then.

Ther. The plague of Greece upon thee, thou [Strikes him. mungrel beef-witted lord!

Ajax. Speak then, thou unsalted leaten', speak: I will beat thee into handsomeness.

50

Ther. I shall sooner rail thee into wit and holiness: but, I think, thy horse will sooner con an oration, than thou learn a prayer without book. 55 Thou canst strike, canst thou? a red murrain o' thy jade's tricks!

Ajax. Toads-stool, learn me the proclamation. Ther: Dost thou think, I have no sense, thou strik'st me thus?

Ajax. The proclamation,

1 1i. e. the lot:

Ther. Thou art proclaim'd a fool, I think. Ajax. Donot, porcupine, do not; my fingers itch. Ther. I would, thou didst itch from head to foot, and I had the scratching of thee; I would make thee the loathsomest scab in Greece. When thou art forth in the incursions, thou strik'st as slow as another.

Ajax. I say, the proclamation,

Ther. Thou grumblest and railest every hour on Achilles; and thou art as full of envy at his greatness, as Cerberus is at Proserpine's beauty, ay, that thou bark'st at him.

Ajax. Mistress Thersites !

Ther. Thou should'st strike him,
Ajax. Cobloaf!

Ther. He would pun' thee into shivers with
This fist, as a sailor breaks a bisket,
Ajax. You whoreson cur!

Ther. Do, do.

Ajdx. Thou stool for a witch "!

[Beating him.

Ther. Ay, do, do; thou sodden-witted lord! an assinego' may tutor thee: Thou scurvy valiant thou hast no more brain than I have in my elbows; ass! thou art here put to thrash Trojans; and thou art bought and sold among those of any wit, like a barbarian slave. If thou use to beat me, I will begin at thy heel and tell what thou art by 60 inches, thou thing of no bowels, thou! Ajax. You dog!

leaven, means sour without salt; metaphorically, malignity without wit. Tarre is an old English word, signifying to provoke or urge on. 3 Unsalted

in some counties called by this name. word for pound. A crusty uneven loaf is Pun is, in the midland counties, the vulgar and colloquial, legs tied across, that all the weight of her body might rest upon her seat; and by that means, after In one way of trying a witch, they used to place her on a chair or stool, with her some time, the circulation of the blood would be much stopped, and her sitting would be as painful as the wooden horse. 2.Assinego seems to have been a cant term for a foolish fellow,-Assinega

Portuguese for a little ass.

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- Ther. Nay, but regard him well.

Achil. Well, why I do so.

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Ajax. I shall cut out your tongue.

Ther. 'Tis no matter; Ishall speak as much as thou afterwards.

Patr. No more words, Thersites; peace. Ther. I will hold my peace when Achilles' brach bids me', shall I?

Achil. There's for you, Patroclus.

Ther. I'will see you hang'd, like clodpoles, ere I come any more to your tents; I will keep where

Ther. But yet you look not well upon him: for, 15 there is wit stirring, and leave the faction of fools.

whosoever you take him to be, he is Ajax.

Achil. I know that, fool.

Ther. Ay, but that fool knows not himself.
Ajax. Therefore I beat thee.

Ther. Lo, lo, lo, lo, what modicums of wit he 20
utters! his evasions have ears thus long. I have
bobb'd his brain, more than he has beat my bones:
I will buy nine sparrows for a penny, and his pia
mater is not worth the ninth part of a sparrow.
This lord, Achilles, Ajax,-who wears his wit in 25
his belly, and his guts in his head,-
-I'll tell you
what I say of him.

Achil. What?

Ther. I say, this Ajax

Achil. Nay, good Ajax.

[Ajax offers to strike him, Achilles interposes. Ther. Has not so much wit

Achil. Nay, I must hold you.

Ther. As will stop the eye of Helen's needle, for whom he comes to fight.

Achil. Peace, fool!

Ther. I would have peace and quietness, but the fool will not: he there; that he; look you there.

Ajax. O thou damn'd cur! I shall

Achil. Will you set your wit to a fool's? Ther. No, I warrant you; for a fool's will shame it.

Patr. Good words, Thersites.

Achil. What's the quarrel?

Ajax. I bade the vile owl go learn me the tenour of the proclamation; and he rails upon me. Ther. I serve thee not.

Ajax. Well, go to, go to.

Ther. I serve here voluntary.

Achil. Your last service was sufferance, 'twas not voluntary; no man is beaten voluntary: Ajax was here the voluntary, and you as under an impress.

30

35

Patr. A good riddance.

[Exit.

Achil. Marry this, sir, is proclaim'd through
all our host:

That Hector, by the fifth 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.
Who shall answer him?
Ajax. Farewell.
Achil. I know not, it is put to lottery; otherwise,
He knew his man.

Ajax. O, meaning you :-I'll go learn more
[Excunto

of it.

SCENE II.

TROY.

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
40 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
45 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,
50 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 drawnabout this question,
Every tithe soul,'mongst many thousand dismes2,
Hath been as dear as Helen; I mean, of ours:
If we have lost so many tenths of ours,
To guard a thing not ours; not worth to us,
Had it our name, the value of one ten;
What merit's in that reason, which denies
60 The yielding of her up?

Ther. Even so?-a great deal of your wit too 55 lies in your sinews, or else there be liars. Hector shall have a great catch, if he knock out either of your brains; 'a were as good crack a fusty nut with no kernel.

Achil. What, with me too, Thersites ? Ther. There's Ulysses and old Nestor,-whose wit was mouldy ere your grandsires had nails on

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Troi. Fie, fie, my brother!
Weigh you the worth and honour of a king,

Disme, Fr. is the tithe, the tenth.

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So great as our dread father, in a scale
Of common ounces? will you with counters sum
The past-proportion' of his infinite?
And buckle-in a waist most fathomless,
With spans and inches so diminutive

As fears and reasons? fie, for godly shame! [sons,
Hel. No marvel, though you bite so sharp at rea-
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
Troi. You are for dreams and slumbers, brother
priest,
[reasons:
You fur your gloves with reason. Here are your
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,
Let's shutourgates, andsleep: Manhoodandhonour
Should have hare hearts, would they but fat their
thoughts

With this cramm'd reason: reason and respect
Make livers pale, and lustyhood deject.

[cost

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

5

10

15

20

25

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 pr.. e,
(As you must needs, foryou 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,
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?
Troi. 'Tis our mad sister, I do know her voice.
Cas. [within.] Cry, Trojans!

Hect. It is Cassandra.

Enter Cassandra, racing.

Cas. Cry, Trojans, cry! lend me ten thousand
And I will fill them with prophetic tears. [eyes,
Hect. Peace, sister, peace.
[elders,
Cas. Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled
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, Paris, burns us all.
30 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

35 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?

Troi. What is aught, but as 'tis valu'd? 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 inclinable To what infectiously itself affects, Without some image of the affected merit. Troi. I take to-day a wife, and my élection 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 judgement; How may I avoid, Although my will distaste what it elected, The wife I chose? There can be no evasion Toblench from this, and to stand firm by honour: 45 We turn not back the silks upon the merchant, When we have soil'd them; nor the remainder viands

:|

Troi. Why, brother Hector,

40 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 ruptures
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 would offend the weakest spleen
50 To fight for and maintain !

We do not throw in unrespective sieve,
Because we now are full. It was thought meet,
Paris should do some vengeance on the Greeks
Your breath of full consent belly'd his sails;
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 55
captive,
[freshness

He brought a Grecian queen, whose youth and
Wrinkles Apollo's, and niakes 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'dabove a thousand ships,
And turn'd crown'd kings to merchants.

Par. Else might the world convince of levity
As well my undertakings, as your counsels:
But I attest the gods, your full consent
Gave wings to my propension, and cut off
All fears attending on so dire a project.
For what, alas, can these my single arms?
What propugnation is in one man's valour,
To stand the push and enmity of those
This quarrel would excite? Yet, I protest,
60 Were I alone to pass the difficulties,

And had as ample power as I have will,
Paris should ne'er retract what he hath done,

'The meaning is, that greatness to which no measure bears any proportion. That is, into a common roider.

1. e. corrupt; change to a worse state.

3 K 2

Nor

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