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Want similes, truth tir'd with iteration,-
As true as steel, as plantage to the moon",
As sun to day, as turtle to her mate,

As iron to adamant, as earth to the centre,—
Yet, after all comparisons of truth,

As truth's authentic author to be cited,
As true as Troilus shall crown up the verse,
And sanctify the numbers.

Cres.

Prophet may you be!

If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth,
When time is old and hath forgot itself,

When waterdrops have worn the stones of Troy,
And blind oblivion swallow'd cities up,

And mighty states characterless are grated

To dusty nothing; yet let memory,

From false to false, among false maids in love, Upbraid my falsehood! when they have said-as false As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth,

As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf,

Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son;

Yea, let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood,
As false as Cressid.

Pan. Go to, a bargain made; seal it, seal it: I'll be the witness. Here I hold your hand; here, my cousin's. If ever you prove false one to another, since I have taken such pains to bring you together, let all pitiful goers-between be called to the world's end after my name, call them all-Pandars: let all constant men be Troiluses, all false women Cressids, and all brokersbetween Pandars! say, amen.

Tro. Amen.

6 as plantage to the moon,] "Alluding," observes Warburton, "to the common opinion of the influence the moon has over what is planted or sown, which was therefore done in the increase." Farmer makes the following quotation from "Scott's Discoverie of Witchcraft," 1584: "The poore husbandman perceiveth that the increase of the moone maketh plants frutefull: so as in the full moone they are in the best strength; decaieing in the wane; and in the conjunction do utterlie wither and vade."

Cres. Amen.

Pan. Amen. Whereupon I will show you a chamber; which bed', because it shall not speak of your pretty encounters, press it to death away!

And Cupid grant all tongued-tied maidens here,
Bed, chamber, Pandar to provide this gear!

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

The Grecian Camp.

Enter AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES, DIOMEDES, NESTOR,
AJAX, MENELAUS, and CALCHAS.

Cal. Now, princes, for the service I have done you,
Th' advantage of the time prompts me, aloud
To call for recompense. Appear it to your mind,
That, through the sight I bear in things, to Joves
I have abandon'd Troy, left my possession,
Incurr'd a traitor's name; expos'd myself,
From certain and possess'd conveniences,
To doubtful fortunes; sequestering from me all
That time, acquaintance, custom, and condition,
Made tame and most familiar to my nature;
And here, to do you service, am become
As new into the world, strange, unacquainted:
I do beseech you, as in way of taste,
To give me now a little benefit,

Out of those many register'd in promise,

7 I will show you a chamber; which bed, &c.] So all the old copies. Malone, and others before him, added, and a bed, after "chamber;" but the word "chamber" may be supposed to imply a bed.

8 to Jove] It may certainly admit of dispute whether the word in the old copies, quarto as well as folio, be " Jove" or love: Jove was formerly spelt with a capital I; and the l in love is so nearly like it, that the difference is hardly perceptible. The sense seems to require Jove, and we have therefore preferred it. The Rev. Mr. Barry would read, with some of the early editors, "things to come;" but " things above" seems a more probable conjecture.

Which, you say, live to come in my behalf.

Agam. What would'st thou of us, Trojan? make demand.

Cal. You have a Trojan prisoner, call'd Antenor,
Yesterday took: Troy holds him very dear.
Oft have you, (often have you thanks therefore)
Desir'd my Cressid in right great exchange,
Whom Troy hath still denied; but this Antenor,
I know, is such a wrest in their affairs,
That their negociations all must slack,
Wanting his manage; and they will almost
Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam,
In change of him: let him be sent, great princes,
And he shall buy my daughter; and her presence
Shall quite strike off all service I have done,

In most accepted pain.

Agam.

Let Diomedes bear him,

And bring us Cressid hither: Calchas shall have
What he requests of us.-Good Diomed,

Furnish you fairly for this interchange :

Withal, bring word, if Hector will to-morrow
Be answer'd in his challenge.

Ajax is ready.

Dio. This shall I undertake; and 'tis a burden Which I am proud to bear.

[Exeunt DIOMEDES and CALCHAS.

Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS, before their Tent'.

Ulyss. Achilles stands i' the entrance of his tent :
Please it our general to pass strangely by him,
As if he were forgot; and, princes all,

to

9 I know, is such a WREST in their affairs,] Johnson understands "wrest mean distortion; while Steevens supposes 66 "" wrest to be misprinted for rest, which is to be taken in the sense of stay or support. All the old copies agree in the mode of printing "wrest," and Douce would take it to be the old name of the tuner of stringed instruments.

1 - before their Tent.] The stage-direction in the quartos is, " Achilles and Patroclus stand in their Tent:" and in the folio, “ Enter Achilles and Patroclus in their Tent."

Lay negligent and loose regard upon him.

I will come last: 'tis like, he'll question me,

Why such unplausive eyes are bent, why turn'd on him?

If so, I have derision medicinable,

To use between your strangeness and his pride,
Which his own will shall have desire to drink.
It may do good: pride hath no other glass
To show itself, but pride; for supple knees
Feed arrogance, and are the proud man's fees.
Agam. We'll execute your purpose, and put on
A form of strangeness as we pass along :-
So do each lord; and either greet him not,
Or else disdainfully, which shall shake him more
Than if not look'd on. I will lead the way.

Achil. What! comes the general to speak with me? You know my mind: I'll fight no more 'gainst Troy. Agam. What says Achilles? would he aught with us?

Nest. Would you, my lord, aught with the general? Achil. No.

Nest. Nothing, my lord.

Agam. The better.

[Exeunt AGAMEMNON and NESTOR.

Achil. Good day, good day.

Men. How do you? how do you?

[Exit MENELAUS.

Achil. What! does the cuckold scorn me?

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Patr. They pass by strangely: they were us'd to

Know they not

bend,

To send their smiles before them to Achilles;
To come as humbly, as they us'd to creep

To holy altars.

Achil.

What am I poor of late?

'Tis certain, greatness, once fallen out with fortune,
Must fall out with men too: what the declin'd is,
He shall as soon read in the eyes of others,

As feel in his own fall; for men, like butterflies,
Show not their mealy wings but to the summer,
And not a man, for being simply man,

Hath any honour; but honour for those honours2
That are without him, as place, riches, and favour,
Prizes of accident as oft as merit :

Which, when they fall, as being slippery standers,
The love that lean'd on them, as slippery too,
Doth one pluck down another, and together
Die in the fall. But 'tis not so with me:
Fortune and I are friends: I do enjoy

At ample point all that I did possess,

Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out
Something not worth in me such rich beholding
As they have often given. Here is Ulysses:

I'll interrupt his reading.—

How now, Ulysses!

Ulyss.

Now, great Thetis' son!

A strange fellow here

Achil. What are you reading?
Ulyss.
Writes me, that man-how dearly ever parted3,
How much in having, or without or in,—
Cannot make boast to have that which he hath,
Nor feels not what he owes, but by reflection;
As when his virtues shining upon others'
Heat them, and they retort that heat again

3

2 but HONOUR for those honours] The folio reads honour'd.

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how dearly ever PARTED,] i. e. says Johnson, however excellently endowed.

- his virtues SHINING upon others] So the folio: the quartos, less intelligibly, read aiming for "shining."

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