'Tis said he holds you well; and will be led,
At your request, a little from himself.

Ulyss. O, Agamemnon, let it not be so !
We'll consecrate the steps that Ajax makes
When they go from Achilles: shall the proud lord,
That bastes his arrogance with his own seam,1
And never suffers matter of the world
Enter his thoughts,—save such as do revolve
And ruminate himself,-shall he be worshipped
Of that we hold an idol more than he?
No, this thrice-worthy and right-valiant lord
Must not so stale his palm, nobly acquired;
Nor, by my will, assubjugate his merit,
As amply titled as Achilles is,

By going to Achilles :

That were to enlard his fat-already pride;

And add more coals to Cancer when he burns
With entertaining great Hyperion.2

This lord go to him! Jupiter forbid;

And say in thunder-Achilles go to him!

Nest. [Aside.] O, this is well; he rubs the vein of him.3 Dio. [Aside.] And how his silence drinks up this applause!

Ajax. If I go to him, with my armed fist

I'll pash him o'er the face.

Agam. O, no, you shall not go.

Ajax. An 'a be proud with me, I'll pheeze his pride: 4 Let me go to him.

Seam] Grease; lard.

2 When he burns, &c.] When the sun is in the constellation of Cancer, the sign of the summer solstice.

3 Rubs the vein of him] Flatters his humour.

Pheeze his pride] Untwist his pride; tame his pride down. The word pheeze occurs also in the first speech of the Taming of the Shrew.

Ulyss. Not for the worth that hangs upon our quarrel. Ajax. A paltry, insolent fellow,—

Nest. [Aside.] How he describes himself?

Ajax. Can he not be sociable?

Ulyss. [Aside.] The raven chides blackness.

Ajax. I'll let his humours blood.1

Agam. [Aside.] He will be the physician that should

be the patient.

Ajax. An all men were o' my mind,

Ulyss. [Aside.] Wit would be out of fashion.

Ajax. 'A should not bear it so, 'a should eat swords first shall pride carry

it?

Nest. [Aside.] An't would, you'd carry half.

Ulyss. [Aside.] 'A would have ten shares.

Ajax. I will knead him, I'll make him supple.

Nest. [Aside.] He's not yet through-warm: force hini with praises pour in, pour in; his ambition is dry.2 Ulyss. [To AGAMEMNON.] My lord, you feed too much on this dislike.

Nest. Our noble general, do not do so.

Dio. You must prepare to fight without Achilles.

Ulyss. Why, 'tis this naming of him doth him harm. Here is a man-but 'tis before his face ;

I will be silent.

Nest.

Wherefore should you so ?

He is not emulous, as Achilles is.

Ulyss, Know the whole world, he is as valiant.

3

Ajax. A whoreson dog, that shall palter 3 thus with us!

Would he were a Trojan !

Nest. What a vice were it in Ajax now

Ulyss. If he were proud,

I'll let, &c.] I'll let some blood out of his humours.

2 Dry] Thirsty.

3 Palter] Trifle.

Dio. Or covetous of praise,—

Ulyss. Ay, or surly borne,

Dio. Or strange, or self-affected ! 1

Ulyss. Thank the heavens, lord, thou art of sweet com

2 posure;

Praise him that got thee, she that gave thee suck :

Famed be thy tutor, and thy parts of nature

Thrice-famed, beyond all erudition :
But he that disciplined thy arms to fight,
Let Mars divide eternity in twain,

And give him half: and, for thy vigour,
Bull-bearing Milo 3 his addition yield
To sinewy Ajax. I'll not praise thy wisdom.
Which, like a bourn, a pale, a shore, confines
Thy spacious and dilated parts: here 's Nestor,-
Instructed by the antiquary times,

He must, he is, he cannot but be wise ;

But pardon, father Nestor, were your days

As green as Ajax', and your brain so tempered,
You should not have the eminence of him,

Ulyss. There is no tarrying here; the hart Achilles

Keeps thicket. Please it our great general

To call together all his state of war;

1 Self-affected] Self-seeking; full of self-love.

2

Composure] Condition; disposition.

Bull-bearing Milo] A renowned athlete of Crotona who amongst other feats of strength is said to have carried a grown bullock on his shoulders forty yards, and then to have felled the animal dead with one blow of his fist.

* His addition] His distinction.

Fresh kings are come to Troy; to-morrow,

We must with all our main of power stand fast:
And here's a lord,-come knights from east to west,
And cull their flower, Ajax shall cope the best.

Agam. Go we to council. Let Achilles sleep: Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks draw deep. [Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I.-Troy. A Room in Priam's Palace.

Enter PANDARUS and a Servant.

Pan. Friend, you,—pray you, a word: do not you follow the young lord Paris?

Serv. Ay, sir, when he goes before me.

Pan. You depend upon him, I mean?

Serv. Sir, I do depend upon the lord.

Pan. You depend upon a noble gentleman;

I must needs praise him.

Serv. The lord be praised!

Pan. You know me, do you not?

Serv. Faith, sir, superficially.

Pan. Friend, know me better; I am the lord Pandarus.

Serv. I hope I shall know your honour better.

Pan. I do desire it.

Serv. You are in the state of grace.

[Music within.

Pan. Grace! not so, friend; honour and lordship are

my titles. What music is this?

Serv. I do partly know, sir; it is music in parts.

Pan. Know you the musicians?

Serv. Wholly, sir.

Pan. Who play they to?

Serv. To the hearers, sir.

Pan. At whose pleasure, friend?