There is a mystery-with whom relation But it must grieve young Pyrrhus now at home, The fool slides o'er the ice that you should break. A woman impudent and mannish grown Is not more loath'd than an effeminate man In time of action. I stand condemn'd for this; Be shook to air. Achilles. Shall Ajax fight with Hector? 210 [Exit. 220 Patroclus. Ay, and perhaps receive much honour by him. Achilles. I see my reputation is at stake; My fame is shrewdly gor'd. Patroclus. O, then, beware! Those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves. Omission to do what is necessary Seals a commission to a blank of danger; And danger, like an ague, subtly taints Even then when we sit idly in the sun. 230 Achilles. Go call Thersites hither, sweet Patroclus. I'll send the fool to Ajax and desire him To invite the Trojan lords after the combat To see us here unarm'd; I have a woman's longing, To see great Hector in his weeds of peace, To talk with him and to behold his visage, Enter THERSITES. A labour sav'd! 240 Thersites. A wonder! Achilles. What? Thersites. Ajax goes up and down the field, asking for himself. Achilles. How so? Thersites. He must fight singly to-morrow with Hector, and is so prophetically proud of an heroical cudgelling that he raves in saying nothing. Achilles. How can that be? 250 Thersites. Why, he stalks up and down like a peacock,a stride and a stand; ruminates like an hostess that hath no arithmetic but her brain to set down her reckoning; bites his lip with a politic regard, as who should say 'There were wit in this head, an 't would out;' and so there is, but it lies as coldly in him as fire in a flint, which will not show without knocking. The man 's undone for ever; for if Hector break not his neck i' the combat, he'll break 't himself in vainglory. He knows not me: I said 'Good morrow, Ajax;' and he replies Thanks, Agamemnon.' What think you of this man that takes me for the general? He's grown a very land-fish, languageless, a monster. A plague of opinion! a man may wear it on both sides, like a leather jerkin. 263 Achilles. Thou must be my ambassador to him, Thersites. Thersites. Who, I? why, he 'll answer nobody; he professes not answering: speaking is for beggars; he wears his tongue in 's arms. I will put on his presence; let Patroclus make demands to me, you shall see the pageant of Ajax. Achilles. To him, Patroclus; tell him I humbly desire the valiant Ajax to invite the most valorous Hector to come unarmed to my tent, and to procure safe-conduct for his person of the magnanimous and most illustrious six-or-seven-timeshonoured captain-general of the Grecian army, Agamemnon, Do this. et cetera. Patroclus. Jove bless great Ajax. Thersites. Hum! Patroclus. I come from the worthy Achilles,— Patroclus. Who most humbly desires you to invite Hector to his tent, Thersites. Hum! 281 Patroclus. And to procure safe-conduct from Agamemnon. Thersites. Agamemnon! Patroclus. Ay, my lord. Thersites. Ha! Patroclus. What say you to 't? Thersites. God b' wi' you, with all my heart. Patroclus. Your answer, sir. Thersites. If to-morrow be a fair day, by eleven o'clock it will go one way or other; howsoever, he shall pay for me ere he has me. Patroclus. Your answer, sir. Thersites. Fare you well, with all my heart. Achilles. Why, but he is not in this tune, is he? 292 Thersites. No, but he 's out o' tune thus. What music will be in him when Hector has knocked out his brains, I know not; but, I am sure, none, unless the fiddler Apollo get his sinews to make catlings on. Achilles. Come, thou shalt bear a letter to him straight. Thersites. Let me bear another to his horse, for that's the more capable creature. Achilles. My mind is troubled, like a fountain stirr'd; And I myself see not the bottom of it. 302 [Exeunt Achilles and Patroclus. Thersites. Would the fountain of your mind were clear again, that I might water an ass at it! I had rather be a tick in a sheep than such a valiant ignorance. [Exit. AJAX, FROM THE ÆGINETAN SCULPTures. |