Re-enter ULYSSES.

Ulys. Achilles will not to the field to-morrow.
Aga. What's his excuse?

Ulys.
He doth rely on none;
But carries on the stream of his dispose,
Without observance or respect of any,
In will peculiar and in self-admission.

Aga. Why will he not, upon our fair request, Untent his person, and share the air with us? Ulys. Things small as nothing, for request's sake

only,

He makes important. Possess'd he is with great

'ness;

And speaks not to himself, but with a pride
That quarrels at self-breath: imagined worth
Holds in his blood such swoln and hot discourse,
That, 'twixt his mental and his active parts,
Kingdom'd Achilles in commotion rages,

And batters down himself. What should I say?
He is so plaguy proud, that the death tokens

of it

Cry No recovery.'

Aga.

Let Ajax go to him.

Dear lord, go you, and greet him in his tent :

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

Ulys. 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;
And never suffers matter of the world

1

Enter his thoughts, save such as do revolve
And ruminate himself;-shall he be worshipp'd
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.

This lord go to him! Jupiter forbid ;

And say in thunder-' Achilles, go to him.'
Nes. O, this is well; he rubs the vein of him.

[aside. Dio. And how his silence drinks up this applause!

[aside.

Ajax. If I go to him, with my arm'd fist I'll pash him

Over the face.

2

Aga. O, no, you shall not go.

Ajax. An he be proud with me, I'll pheeze 3 his pride.

Let me go to him.

Ulys. Not for the worth that hangs upon our quarrel.

1 Lard.

2 Strike.

3 Comb or curry.

Ajax.

I will let his humors blood.

Aga. He will be the physician, that should be the

Ajax. He should not bear it so;

He should eat swords first. Shall pride carry it? Nes. An 'twould, you'd carry half.

Ulys.

[aside.

He'd have ten shares.

[aside.

Ajax. I'll knead him, I will make him supple. Nes. He's not yet thorough warm: force1 him

with praises :

Pour in, pour in; his ambition is dry.

[aside.

Ulys. My lord, you feed too much on this dislike.

[to Agamemnon.

Nes. O noble general, do not do so.

Dio. You must prepare to fight without Achilles. Ulys. Why, 'tis this naming of him does him harm.

1 Stuff: from the French verb farcir.

Here is a man

-but 'tis before his face;

I will be silent.

Nes.

Wherefore should you so?

He is not emulous,1 as Achilles is.

Ulys. Know the whole world, he is as valiant. Ajax. A whoreson dog, that shall palter thus with us!

I would, he were a Trojan!

Dio. Or strange, or self-affected?

Ulys. Thank the heavens, lord, thou art of sweet

composure;

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 vigor,

3

Bull-bearing Milo his addition 3 yield

To sinewy Ajax. I will 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,

1 Envious.
4 Boundary.

SHAK.

2 Trifle.

3 Titles.

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

But pardon, father Nestor, were your days
As green as Ajax', and your brain so temper'd,

You should not have the eminence of him,

Ulys. There is no tarrying here; the hart Achilles
Keeps thicket. Please it our great general
To call together all his state of war.

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

ACT II I.

SCENE I.

Troy. A room in Priam's palace.

Enter PANDARUS and SErvant.

Pan. Friend! you! pray you, a word. Do not you follow the young lord Paris ?

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

Pan. You do depend upon him, I mean?