Boy. At your own house; there he unarms him. Pan. Good boy, tell him I come: [Exit Boy.] I
doubt, he be hurt-Fare ye well, good niece.
Pan. I'll be with you, niece, by and by.
Cres. To bring, uncle,-
Pan. Ay, a token from Troilus.
Cres. By the same token-you are a bawd.
Words, vows, griefs, tears, and love's full sacrifice,
He offers in another's enterprise :
But more in Troilus thousand fold I see
Than in the glass of Pandar's praise may be;
Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing:
Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing :
That she belov'd knows nought, that knows not this, -
Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is :
That she was never yet, that ever knew
Love got so sweet, as when desire did sue :
Therefore this maxim out of love I teach,-
Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech :
Then though my heart's content firm love doth bear,
Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear. [Exit.
The Grecian camp. Before Agamemnon's tent.
Trumpets. Enter Agamemnon, Nestor, Ulysses, Menelaus, and others.
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 conflux 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 shames, which are, indeed, nought
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 breast, 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,
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 filed under shade, Why, then, the thing of
As rouz'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize, And with an accent tun'd in self-same key, Returns to chiding fortune.
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 tongue, -yet let it please both,-
Thou great, and wise, -to hear Ulysses speak.
Agam. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be't of less
That matter needless, of importless burden,
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,
When rank Thersites opes his mastiff 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, 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 hive,
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, the planets, and this
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
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,
And posts, like the commandment of a king,
Sans check, to good and bad: But when the
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 fixture; O, when degree is shak'd,
Which is the ladder of all high designs,
The enterprise is sick! how could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods || in cities,
Peaceful commérce from dividable
shores,
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: 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,
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 stands, 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
And with ridiculous and aukward action
(Which, slanderer, he imitation calls), He pageants† us. Sometime, great Agamemnon,
Thy topless deputation he puts on;
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