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Whereof we have record, trial did draw
Bias and thwart, not answering the aim,
And that unbodied figure of the thought

That gav't surmised shape. Why then, you princes, Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works,

And call them shames', which are, indeed, nought else

But the protractive trials of great Jove,

To find persistive constancy in men?

The fineness of which metal is not found

In fortune's love; for then, the bold and coward,

The wise and fool, the artist and unread,

The hard and soft, seem all affin'd' and kin:
But, in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan",
Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
And what hath mass, or matter, by itself
Lies rich in virtue, and unmingled.

Nest. With due observance of thy godlike seat*,
Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply

Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance

Lies the true proof of men: the sea being smooth,
How many shallow bauble boats dare sail
Upon her patient breasts, making their way
With those of nobler bulk?

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage

The gentle Thetis, and, anon, behold,

The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut,

1 And call them shames,] So the quartos; the folio, "And think them shame.” 2 - seem all AFFIN'D-] i. e. joined by affinity or relationship. The word occurs twice in "Othello," Act i. sc. 1, and Act ii. sc. 3.

3 with a BROAD and powerful fan,] This is the better reading of the quartos; but that of the folio, " loud and powerful fan," is not inconsistent with "tempest" in the preceding line.

4

thy godlike seat,] The quarto reads, "the godlike seat," and the folio, "thy godly seat," (not “goodly seat," as Theobald asserted,) and the true reading, "thy godlike seat," is, therefore, to be made up from both of them.

5 Upon her PATIENT breast,] The quartos read ancient for "patient" of the folio: if "patient" be a misprint, it certainly is an improvement with reference to the rest of the passage.

Bounding between the two moist elements,

Like Perseus' horse: where's then the saucy boat,
Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now
Co-rival'd greatness? either to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so
Doth valour's show, and valour's worth, divide
In storms of fortune: for, in her ray and brightness,
The herd hath more annoyance by the brize",
Than by the tiger; but when the splitting wind
Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks,

And flies fled under shade, why then, the thing of

courage,

As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize,

And with an accent tun'd in self-same key,

Returns to chiding fortune'.

Ulyss.

Agamemnon,

Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece,
Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit,

In whom the tempers and the minds of all
Should be shut up, hear what Ulysses speaks.
Besides the applause and approbation

The which,-most mighty for thy place and sway,-
[To AGAMEMNON.
And thou most reverend for thy stretch'd-out life,-
[TO NESTOR.
I give to both your speeches, which were such,
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece
Should hold up high in brass; and such again,
As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver,

Should with a bond of air (strong as the axletree
On which heaven rides) knit all the Greekish ears
To his experienc'd tongues,—yet let it please both,—

6 by the BRIZE,] The "brize" is the gad or horse-fly.

7 RETURNS to chiding fortune.] The quartos and folios have retires. Pope made the judicious change to "returns." Retires is a more probable misprint for "returns" than for replies, which Sir Thomas Hanmer substituted.

To his experienc'd tongue,] This is the better reading of the quartos: the folio gives the passage thus:"Should

Thou great,—and wise,—to hear Ulysses speak.

Agam. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be't of less expect9

That matter needless, of importless burden,
Divide thy lips, than we are confident,
When rank Thersites opes his mastiff jaws',
We shall hear music, wit, and oracle.

Ulyss. Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down,
And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master,
But for these instances.

The specialty 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 hive2,
To whom the foragers shall all repair,

What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,
Th' unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask.

The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre,
Observe degree, priority, and place,

Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
Office, and custom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol,
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
Amidst the other; whose med'cinable eye

"Should with a bond of air, strong as the axletree

In which the heavens ride knit all Greek's ears
To his experienc'd tongue."

Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be't of less expect] "Expect" is here used for expectation. This and the four lines following are only in the folio.

1

his MASTIFF jaws,] In the folio it is printed "masticke jaws," but it is probably an error of the press. Malone changes mastick to "mastiff," without observation.

2 When that the general is NOT LIKE the hive,] "The meaning," says Johnson, "is,-When the general is not to the army like the hive to the bees, the repository of the stock of every individual, that to which each particular resorts with whatever he has collected for the good of the whole, what honey is expected? what hope of advantage?" Johnson's explanation may possibly be doubted, and in this passage, as in others, in "Measure for Measure," Vol. ii. p. 42, and in “Hamlet,” A. ii. sc. 2, “"Twas caviare to the general," the word “ general" might be taken for the general body of the people. Ulysses may mean to ask, what advantage can be expected when the subjects of a king are not like bees, which, after foraging among flowers, all repair to the hive with their honey.

Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,

And posts, 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 sea, shaking 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 fixure3! O! when degree is shak'd,
Which is the ladder to all high designs,

The enterprize is sick. How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets1
In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores,
And make a sop of all this solid globe:
Strength should be lord of imbecility,

And the rude son should strike his father dead:
Force should be right; or, rather, right and wrong,
(Between whose endless jar justice resides)
Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;

And appetite, an universal wolf,

So doubly seconded with will and power,
Must make perforce an universal prey,

And last eat up himself. Great Agamemnon,

3 Quite from their FIXURE!] The modern reading is fixture; but Shakespeare's word is "fixure," and he uses it also in "The Winter's Tale," and in "The Merry Wives of Windsor."

- each thing MEETS] So the folio: the quartos have melts. The latter may be right, but the former seems preferable.

This chaos, when degree is suffocate,
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 disdain'd
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 stands3, 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,)

He pageants us: sometime, great Agamemnon,

Thy topless deputation he puts on;

And, like a strutting player,—whose conceit
Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich

To hear the wooden dialogue and sound

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"Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage,— 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 unsquar'd,

6

5 Troy in our weakness STANDS,] The quartos have "stands," the folio lives. and AWKWARD action] The quartos, "and silly action."

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