But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis, and anon, behold,

The ftrong-ribb'd bark thro' liquid mountains cuts ;
Bounding between the two moist elements,

Like Perfeus horse: Where's then the faucy boat,
Whofe weak untimber'd fides but even now
Co-rival'd greatness ? or to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even fo
Doth valour's fhew and valour's worth divide
In ftorms of fortune. For in her ray and brightness,
The herd hath more annoyance by the brize
Than by the tyger: but when fplitting winds
Make flexible the knees of knotted oaks,
And flies get under fhade; the thing of courage,
As rowz'd with rage, with rage doth fympathize;
And, with an accent tun'd in felf-fame key,
Returns to chiding fortune.

Uly. Agamemnon,

Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece,
Heart of our numbers, foul, and only fpirit,

In whom the tempers and the minds of all

Should be fhut up: hear, what Ulyffes fpeaks.

Befides th' applaufe and approbation

The which,moft mighty for thy place and fway, [ToAga.
And thou,moft rev'rend for thy ftretch'd out life, [ToNeft.
I give to both your fpeeches; which were fuch,
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece

Should hold up high in brass; and such again,
As venerable Neftor (hatch'd in filver)

Should with a bond of air, strong as the axle-tree
On which heav'n rides, knit all the Grecians' ears
To his experienc'd tongue: yet let it please both
(Thou great, and wife) to hear Ulyffes speak.

Aga. Speak, Prince of Ithaca: we lefs expect,
That matter needlefs, of importlefs burden,
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,
When rank Therfites opes his mastiff jaws,
We shall hear mufick, wit, and oracle.

Ulyff. Troy, yet upon her bafis, had been down,
And the great Hector's fword had lack'd a master,

But for these instances.

The fpeciality 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 fhall all repair,

What honey is expected? degree being vizarded,
Th' unworthiest shews as fairly in the mask,

The heav'ns themselves, the planets, and this center,
Obferve degree, priority and place,

Infifture, course, proportion, season, 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 reft, whofe med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill aspects 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 diforder 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 fixture? Oh, when degree is fhaken, (Which is the ladder to all high defigns)

The enterprize is fick. How could communities,
Degrees in fchools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogeniture, and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, fcepters, lawrels,
(But by degree) stand in authentick place?
Take but degree away, untune that firing,
And hark what difcord follows; each thing meets
In meer oppugnancy. The bounded waters
Would lift their bofoms higher than the shores,
And make a fop of all this folid globe:

Strength would be lord of imbecillity,

And the rude fon would strike his father dead:

Force would be Right; or rather, Right and Wrong (11)
(Between whofe endless jar Juftice refides)
Would lofe their names and so would Justice too.
Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite (an univerfal wolf,

So doubly feconded with will and power)
Must make perforce an univerfal prey,
And laft eat up itself. Great Agamemnon!
This chaos, when degree is fuffocate,
Follows the choaking:

And this neglection of degree is it,

That by a peace goes backward, in 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 lives, not in her ftrength.
Neft. Moft wifely hath Ulyffes here difcover'd
The fever, whereof all our power is fick.

Aga. The nature of the fickness found, Ulyffes,
What is the remedy?

Ul. The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns The finew and the fore-hand of our hoft,

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 live-long day

Breaks fcurril jests;

And with ridiculous and aukward action

(11)

-Right and Wrong,

Berveen whofe endless jar Justice refides,

Would lofe their names;] This is not a bad comment upon what Horace

has faid on this subject;

-funt certi deniq; fines

Quos ultrà citroq; nequit consistere ¡e&tum.

(Which,

(Which, flanderer, he imitation calls)
He pageants us. Sometimes, great Agamemnon,
Thy toplefs deputation he puts on;

And like a ftrutting player, (whofe conceit
Lies in his ham-ftring, and doth think it rich
To hear the wooden dialogue and found
'Twixt his ftretch d footing and the scaffoldage)
Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wreited feeming
He acts thy greatnefs in: and when he speaks,
'Tis like a chyme a mending; with terms unfquar'd:
Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropt,
Would feem hyperboles. At this fully stuff
The large Achilles, on his preft-bed lolling,
From his deep cheft laughs out a loud applaufe:
Cries- excellent!- 'tis Agamemnon juft-
Now play me Neftor-hum, and ftroke thy beard,
As he, being dreft to fome oration.

That's done- as near as the extremeft ends (12)
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 answer in a night-alarm:

And then, forfooth, the faint defects of age
Muft be the fcene of mirth, to cough and fpit,
And with a palfy fumbling on his gorget,
Shake in and out the rivet- and at this fport,
Sir Valour dies; cries "O!-enough, Patroclus”
Or" give me ribs of steel, I shall split all
"In pleasure of my fpleen." And, in this fashion,
All our abilities, gifts, natures, fhapes,
Severals and generals of grace exact,
Atchievements, plots, orders, preventions,
Excitements to the field, or speech for truce,
Success or lofs, what is, or is not, serves
As ftuff for these two to make paradoxes.
Neft. And in the imitation of these twain,

as near as the extremeft ends

(12)Of parallels;] i. e. vaftly diftant; for parallel lines, tho' they run all the way equi-diftant, yet their extremities are as far off from each other as the points of east and weft.

Q3

(Whom,

(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 pace,

As broad Achilles; and keeps his tent like him;
Makes factious feafts, rails on our ftate of war,
Bold as an oracle; and fets Therfiles

(A flave. whofe gall coins flanders like a mint)
To match us in comparisons with dirt;

To weaken and difcredit our expofure,
How hard foever rounded in with danger.

Uly They tax our policy, and call it cowardife,
Count wisdom as no member of the war;
Fore-stall our prescience, and esteem no act
But that of hand: The still and mental parts,
That do contrive how many hands fhall ftrike,
When fitness call 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 mapp'ry, clofet war: (13)
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 thofe that with the fineness of their fouls
By reafon guide his execution.

Neft. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse
Makes many Thetis' fons.

Aga. What trumpet? look, Menelaus.

Men, From Troy.

Enter Æneas.

Aga. What would you 'fore our tent?

[Tucket founds.

Ane. Is this great Agamemnon's tent, I pray you?

(13) They call this bed-work, mapp'ry, closet war,] The Poet in my opinion would say, this is planning out action and war, as a man might do on his pillow and in his clofet. If so, bedwork must be the epithet to mappery, as clofet is to war: and therefore I have expung'd the comma, which feparated the fift from its fubftantive. So Gui derius, in Cymbeline, fpeaking of an unactive life, fays it is

A cell of ignorance; travelling a bed.

Aga.