Aga.
Princes,

What grief hath set this jaundice ^{note note} on your ^note cheeks?
The ample proposition, that hope ^note 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 ^note the sound pine, and divert ^note 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 ^note that hath gone before,
Whereof we have record, trial did draw
Bias and thwart, not answering the aim,
And that unbody'd figure of the thought
That gave't surmised shape. Why then, you princes,
Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works;
And think them ^note shames ^note, which are, indeed, nought ^note 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 ^note powerful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
And what hath mass,14Q1206 or matter, by itself
Lies, rich in virtue, and unmingled.

Nes.
With due observance of thy godlike ^note seat ^note,
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 ^note breast, making their way
With those of nobler ^note bulk?
But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis, and, anon, behold
The strong-rib'd bark through liquid mountains cut ^note,
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 shew, 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 flee under ^note shade, Why, then, the thing of courage,
As rouz'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize,
And, with an accent tun'd in self-same key,
Returns ^note to chiding fortune.

Uly.
Agamemnon,—
Thou great commander, nerve ^note 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 applause14Q1207 and approbation,
The which,—most mighty for thy place and sway ^note,—
And thou most reverend for thy stretcht ^note-out life,—
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 axle-tree
On which ^note heaven rides) knit all the Greekish ^note ears
To his experienc'd tongue,—let ^note it please both,—
Thou great,—and wise,—to hear Ulysses speak.

Aga.
Speak, prince of Ithaca: and we less ^note expect ^note
That matter needless, of importless burthen,
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,
When rank Thersites opes his mastiff ^note jaws,
We shall hear musick, wit, and oracle.

Uly.
Troy, yet upon her basis ^note, 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 lik'd o'the ^note hive,
To whom the foragers shall all repair,
What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,
The unworthiest shews as fairly in the mask.
The heavens themselves,14Q1208 the planets, and this center,
Observe degree, priority, and place,
Insisture ^note, 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
Amid'st ^note the other; whose med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill aspécts of planets evil ^note,
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 porténts? 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 marry'd calm of states
Quite from their fixure? O, when degree is shak'd ^note,
Which is the ladder of all ^note high designs,
The enterprise is sick! How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commérce from dívidable shores,
The primogeniture ^{note note} and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, scepters, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets ^note
In meer 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 ^note)
Should lose their names ^note, and so should justice too.
Then every thing includes ^note 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 choaking.
And this neglection of degree it is ^note,
That by a pace goes backward in a ^note 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,
Exampl'd 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 stands, not ^note in her strength.

Nes.
Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover'd
The fever whereof all our power is sick.

Aga.
The nature of the sickness found, Ulysses,
What is the remedy?

Uly.
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 aukward action ^note
(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 ham-string, and doth think it rich
To hear the wooden dialogue and sound
'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage,—
Such to-be-pity'd and o'er-rested seeming
He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks,
'Tis like a chime a mending; with terms unsquar'd ^note,
Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon drop'd,

Would ^note seem ^note 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. ^note
Now play me Nestor; hem ^note, and stroak thy beard,
As he, being 'drest to some oration.
That's done; as near as the extreamest ends
Of parallels, like as ^note Vulcan and his wife:
Yet good ^note 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 on his gorget,
Shake in and out the rivet: and at this sport
Sir Valour dies; cries, O, enough, Patroclus;
Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all
In pleasure of my spleen. And in this fashion14Q1209
All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,
Severals and generals of grace exact,
Atchievements, plots, 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.

Nes.
And in the imitation of these twain
(Whom, as ^note 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, in full as proud a place
As broad Achilles: keeps ^note 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)
To match us in comparisons with dirt;
To weaken and discredit ^note our exposure,
How rank soever rounded in with danger.

Uly.
They tax our policy, and call it cowardise;
Count wisdom as no member of the war;
Forestal 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 ^note on; and know, by measure
Of their observant toil, the enemies' weight,—
Why, this hath not a finger's dignity;
They call this—bed-work mappery, closet war:
So that the ram, that batters down the wall,
For the great swing and rudeness of his poize,
They place before his hand that made the engine;
Or those, that with the fineness of their souls
By reason guide his execution.

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

Aga.
What trumpet's that? look, Menelaus.

Men.
From Troy. Enter Æneas.

Aga.
What would you 'fore our tent?

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

Aga.
Even this.

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

Aga.
With surety14Q1210 stronger than Achilles' arm ^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
Know them from eyes of other mortals?

Aga.
How?

Æne.
I ask, that I ^note might waken reverence,
And bid the ^note cheek 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?

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

Æne.
Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm'd. ^note
As bending angels; that's their fame ^note in peace:
But when they would seem soldiers, they have galls,
Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, Jove's ^note accord,
Nothing so full of heart. But peace, Æneas,
Peace, Trojan; lay thy finger on thy lips!
The worthiness of praise distains his worth,
If that the prais'd ^note himself bring the praise forth:
What ^note the repining enemy commends,
That breath fame blows; that praise, sole pure, transcends.

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

Æne.
Ay, Greek, that is my name.

Aga.
What's your affair ^note, I pray you?

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

Aga.
He hears nought ^note privately, that comes from Troy.

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

Aga.
Speak frankly as the wind;
It is not Agamemnon's sleeping hour:

That thou shalt know, Trojan, he is awake,
He tells thee so himself.

Æne.
Trumpet, blow loud ^note,
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 called ^note Hector, Priam is his father,
Who in this ^note dull and long-continu'd truce
Is rusty ^note grown; he bad me take a trumpet,
And to this purpose speak. Kings, princes, lords!
If there be one, among ^note the fair'st of Greece,
That holds his honour higher than his ease;
That seeks his praise more than he fears his ^note peril;
That knows his valour, and knows not his fear;
That loves his mistress more than in confession,
(With truant vows to her own lips he loves)
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 ^note his arms;
And will to-morrow with his trumpet call,
Mid-way between your tents and walls of Troy,
To rouze 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-burnt, and not worth
The splinter of a lance. Even so much.

Aga.
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 ^note to be,
That one meets Hector; if none else ^note, I am he ^note.

Nes.
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 ^note
One noble man, that hath one spark ^note 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 put this wither'd brawn ^note;
And, meeting him, will tell him, That my lady
Was fairer than his grandame, and as chast
As may be in the world: His youth in flood,
I'll pawn this truth ^note with my three drops of blood.

Æne.
Now heavens forbid such scarcity of youth ^note!

Aga.
Amen. ^note14Q1211
Fair ^note lord Æneas, let me touch your hand;
To our pavilion shall I lead you, ^note 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 Uly. and Nes.

Uly.
Nestor,—

Nes.
What says Ulysses?

Uly.
I have a young conception in my brain,
Be you my time to bring it to some shape.

Nes.
What is't?

Uly.
Blunt wedges rive hard knots: The seeded pride ^note

That hath to this maturity blown up ^note
In rank Achilles, must or now be crop'd,
Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil,
To over-bulk us all.

Nes.
Well, sir, and how?

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

Nes.
The ^note purpose is14Q1212 perspicuous even ^note as substance,
Whose grossness little characters sum up:
And, in the publication, make no strain,
But that Achilles, were his brain as barren
As banks of Lybia,—though, Apollo knows,
'Tis dry enough,—will with great speed of judgment,
Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose
Pointing on him.

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

Nes.
Yes;
It is ^note most meet; Whom ^note may you else oppose,
That can from Hector bring those honours ^note off,
If not Achilles? Though't be a sportful combat,
Yet in the trial ^note 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 poiz'd
In this wild ^note action: for the success,
Although particular, shall give a scantling
Of good or bad unto the general;
And in such indexes, although small pricks
To their subséquent volumes, there is seen
The baby figure of the giant mass
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 ^note, a conquering part,
To steel a strong opinion to themselves? ^note?

Uly.
Give pardon to my speech;—Therefore 'tis meet,
Achilles meet not Hector: Let us, like merchants,
First shew foul wares, ^note and think perchance they'll sell;
If not,
The lustre of the better shall exceed,
By shewing the worse first. Do not consent,
That ever Hector and Achilles meet;
For both our honour and our shame, in this,
Are dog'd with two strange followers.

Nes.
What are they?
I see them not with my old eyes; What are they?

Uly.
What glory our Achilles shares from Hector,
Were he not proud, we all should share ^note with him:
But he already is too insolent;
And we were ^note 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 ^note main opinion crush
In taint of our best man. No, make a lottery;
And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw
The sort to fight with Hector: Among ourselves,
Give him allowance ^note for the better man:
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 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.

Nes.
Now I ^note begin to relish thy advice;
And I will give a taste of it forthwith ^note
To Agamemnon: go we to him straight.
Two curs shall tame each other; Pride alone
Must tar the ^note mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone ^note. [Exeunt.

Previous section