Agam.
Princes,
What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks?
The ample proposition, that hope makes
In all designs begun on earth below,
Fails in the promis'd largeness: checks and disasters
Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd;
As knots, by the conflúx of meeting sap,
Infect the sound pine, and divert his grain
Tortive and errant from his course of growth.
Nor, princes, is it matter new to us,
That we come short of our suppose so far,
That, after seven years' siege, yet Troy walls stand;
Sith every action that hath gone before,
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 think them shame* ^note, 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^{6 note}
and kin:
But, in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction, with a broad^{7 note} 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^{8 note}

With those of nobler bulk^{2 note}

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^{5 note}

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^{9 note}



On which heaven rides,) knit all the Greekish ears
To his experienc'd tongue^{1 note}

Thou great,—and wise^{2 note}
,—to hear Ulysses speak.

Agam.
Speak^{3 note}, prince of Ithaca; and be't of less expect^{4 note}

That matter needless, of importless burden,
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,

When rank Thersites opes his mastive jaws,
We shall hear musick, wit, and oracle.

Ulyss.
Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down,
And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master^{5 note}

,
But for these instances.
The specialty of rule^{6 note} hath been neglected:
And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand
Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions^{7 note}

To whom the foragers shall all repair,
What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,
The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask.
The heavens themselves^{9 note}, the planets, and this center^{1 note}

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^{4 note}


The unity and married calm of states^{5 note}

Quite from their fixture? O, when degree is shak'd^{6 note}
,
Which is the ladder of all high designs,
The enterprize^{7 note}
is sick! How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities^{8 note},
Peaceful commérce from dividable shores^{9 note},
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentick place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy^{1 note}

: The bounded waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores,
And make a sop of all this solid globe^{2 note}

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,
This chaos, when degree is suffocate,
Follows the choking.
And this neglection^{3 note}

of degree it is,
That by a pace^{4 note} goes backward, with a purpose
It hath to climb^{5 note}

Nest.
Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover'd
The fever whereof all our power^{7 note}
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^{8 note},
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 aukward action
(Which, slanderer, he imitation calls,)
He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon,
Thy topless deputation^{9 note}

He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks,
'Tis like a chime a mending^{3 note}; with terms unsquar'd^{4 note},
Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropp'd,
Would seem hyperboles. At this fusty stuff,
The large Achilles, on his press'd bed lolling,
From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause;
Cries—Excellent!—'tis Agamemnon just.—
Now play me Nestor;—hem, and stroke thy beard,
As he, being 'drest to some oration.
That's done;—as near as the extremest ends
Of parallels^{5 note}
; as like as Vulcan and his wife:
Yet good Achilles still cries, Excellent!
'Tis Nestor right! Now play him me, Patroclus,
Arming to answer in a night alarm.
And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age
Must be the scene of mirth; to cough, and spit,
And with a palsy-fumbling^{6 note}

In pleasure of my spleen. And in this fashion,
All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,
Severals and generals of grace exact,
Achievements, plots^{7 note}

, orders, preventions,
Excitements to the field, or speech for truce,
Success, or loss, what is, or is not, serves
As stuff for these two to make paradoxes^{8 note}
.

Nest.
And in the imitation of these twain
(Whom, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns
With an imperial voice,) many are infect.
Ajax is grown self-will'd: and bears his head
In such a rein^{9 note}
, in full as proud a place
As broad Achilles: keeps his tent like him;
Makes factious feasts; rails on our state of war,
Bold as an oracle: and sets Thersites
(A slave, whose gall coins slanders like a mint^{1 note},)
To match us in comparisons with dirt;
To weaken and discredit our exposure,
How rank soever rounded in with danger^{2 note}

Ulyss.
They tax our policy, and call it cowardice;
Count wisdom as no member of the war;
Forestall prescíence, and esteem no act

But that of hand: the still and mental parts,—
That do contrive how many hands shall strike,
When fitness calls them on; and know, by measure
Of their observant toil, the enemies' weight^{3 note}

Nest.
Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse
Makes many Thetis' sons. [Trumpet sounds.

Agam.
What trumpet? look, Menelaus^{4 note}. Enter Æneas.

Men.
From Troy.

Agam.
What would you 'fore our tent?

Æne.
Is this
Great Agamemnon's tent, I pray?

Agam.
Even this.

Æne.
May one, that is a herald, and a prince,
Do a fair message to his kingly ears^{5 note}
?

Agam.
With surety stronger than Achilles' arm^{6 note}

'Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice
Call Agamemnon head and general.

Æne.
Fair leave, and large security. How may
A stranger to those most imperial looks^{7 note}

Agam.
How?

Æne.
Ay;
I ask, that I might waken reverence,
And bid the cheek^{8 note}
be ready with a blush
Modest as morning when she coldly eyes
The youthful Phœbus:
Which is that god in office, guiding men?
Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon?

Agam.
This Trojan scorns us; or the men of Troy
Are ceremonious courtiers.

Æne.
Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm'd

As bending angels; that's their fame in peace:
But when they would seem soldiers, they have galls,
Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, Jove's accord,
Nothing so full of heart^{9 note}

Peace, Trojan; lay thy finger on thy lips!
The worthiness of praise disdains his worth,
If that the prais'd himself bring the praise forth^{1 note}



:
But what the repining enemy commends,
That breath fame follows; that praise, sole pure, transcends.

Agam.
Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself Æneas?

Æne.
Ay, Greek, that is my name.

Agam.
What's your affair, I pray you^{2 note}

Æne.
Sir, pardon; 'tis for Agamemnon's ears.

Agam.
He hears nought privately, that comes from Troy.

Æne.
Nor I from Troy came not to whisper him:
I bring a trumpet to awake his ear;
To set his sense on the attentive bent,
And then to speak.

Agam.
Speak frankly as the wind^{3 note}


;
It is not Agamemnon's sleeping hour:
That thou shalt know, Trojan, he is awake,
He tells thee so himself.

Æne.
Trumpet, blow loud,
Send thy brass voice through all these lazy tents;—
And every Greek of mettle, let him know,
What Troy means fairly, shall be spoke aloud. [Trumpet sounds.
We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy
A prince call'd Hector, (Priam is his father,)
Who in this dull and long-continued truce^{4 note}

That loves his mistress more than in confession^{6 note},
(With truant vows to her own lips he loves^{7 note},)
And dare avow her beauty and her worth,
In other arms than hers,—to him this challenge.
Hector, in view of Trojans and of Greeks,
Shall make it good, or do his best to do it,
He hath a lady, wiser, fairer, truer,
Than ever Greek did compass in his arms;
And will to-morrow with his trumpet call,
Mid-way between your tents and walls of Troy,
To rouse a Grecian that is true in love:
If any come, Hector shall honour him;
If none, he'll say in Troy, when he retires,
The Grecian dames are sun-burn'd, and not worth
The splinter of a lance^{8 note}
. Even so much.

Agam.
This shall be told our lovers, lord Æneas;
If none of them have soul in such a kind,
We left them all at home: But we are soldiers;
And may that soldier a mere recreant prove,
That means not, hath not, or is not in love!
If then one is, or hath, or means to be,
That one meets Hector; if none else, I am he.

Nest.
Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man
When Hector's grandsire suck'd: he is old now;
But, if there be not in our Grecian host^{9 note}
One noble man that hath one spark of fire,
To answer for his love, Tell him from me,—
I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver,

And in my vantbrace^{2 note}

Æne.
Now heavens forbid such scarcity of youth!

Ulyss.
Amen.

Agam.
Fair lord Æneas, let me touch your hand;
To our pavilion shall I lead you, sir.
Achilles shall have word of this intent;
So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent:
Yourself shall feast with us before you go,
And find the welcome of a noble foe. [Exeunt all but Ulysses and Nestor.

Ulyss.
Nestor,—

Nest.
What says Ulysses?

Ulyss.
I have a young conception in my brain,
Be you my time to bring it to some shape^{4 note}

Nest.
What is't?

Ulyss.
This 'tis:
Blunt wedges rive hard knots: The seeded pride^{5 note}

That hath to this maturity blown up
In rank Achilles, must or now be cropp'd,
Or, shedding, breed a nursery^{6 note} of like evil,
To overbulk us all.

Nest.
Well, and how^{7 note}

Ulyss.
This challenge that the gallant Hector sends,
However it is spread in general name,
Relates in purpose only to Achilles.

Nest.
The purpose is perspicuous even as substance,
Whose grossness little characters sum up^{8 note}

And, in the publication, make no strain^{9 note}

Ulyss.
And wake him to the answer, think you?

Nest.
Yes,
It is most meet: Whom may you else oppose,
That can from Hector bring those honours^{1 note} off,
If not Achilles? Though't be a sportful combat,
Yet in the trial much opinion dwells;
For here the Trojans taste our dear'st repute
With their fin'st palate: And trust to me, Ulysses,
Our imputation shall be oddly pois'd
In this wild action: for the success,
Although particular, shall give a scantling^{2 note}

Of things to come at large. It is suppos'd,
He, that meets Hector, issues from our choice:
And choice, being mutual act of all our souls,
Makes merit her election; and doth boil,
As 'twere from forth us all, a man distill'd
Out of our virtues; Who miscarrying,
What heart receives from hence a conquering part,
To steel a strong opinion to themselves?
Which entertain'd^{4 note}, limbs are his instruments^{5 note}

Ulyss.
Give pardon to my speech;—
Therefore 'tis meet, Achilles meet not Hector.
Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares,
And think, perchance, they'll sell; if not^{6 note}
,
The lustre of the better shall exceed,
By showing the worse first^{7 note}

Nest.
I see them not with my old eyes; what are they?

Ulyss.
What glory our Achilles shares from Hector,
Were he not proud, we all should share^{8 note} with him:
But he already is too insolent;
And we were better parch in Africk sun,
Than in the pride and salt scorn of his eyes,
Should he 'scape Hector fair: If he were foil'd,
Why, then we did our main opinion^{9 note} crush
In taint of our best man. No, make a lottery;
And, by device, let blockish Ajax^{1 note}

The sort^{2 note}

For that will physick the great Myrmidon,
Who broils in loud applause; and make him fall
His crest, that prouder than blue Iris bends.
If the dull brainless Ajax come safe off,
We'll dress him up in voices: If he fail,
Yet go we under our opinion^{3 note} still
That we have better men. But, hit or miss,
Our project's life this shape of sense assumes,—
Ajax, employ'd, plucks down Achilles' plumes.

Nest.
Ulysses,
Now I begin to relish thy advice^{4 note}
;
And I will give a taste of it forthwith
To Agamemnon: go we to him straight.
Two curs shall tame each other; Pride alone
Must tarre the mastiffs on^{5 note}

, as 'twere their bone. [Exeunt. 6 ^note.

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