Ulyss. No; you see, he is his argument, that has his argument; Achilles.

Nest. All the better; their fraction is more our wish, than their faction: But it was a strong composure, a fool could disunite.

Ulyss. The amity, that wisdom knits not, folly may easily untie. Here comes Patroclus.

Re-enter Patroclus.

Nest. No Achilles with him.

Ulyss. The elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy: his legs are legs for necessity, not for flexure.

Patr. Achilles bids me say-he is much sorry, If any thing more than your sport and pleasure Did move your greatness, and this noble state, To call upon him; he hopes, it is no other, But, for your health and your digestion's sake, An after-dinner's breath*.

Agam.
Hear you, Patroclus ;-
We are too well acquainted with these answers:
But his evasion, wing'd thus swift with scorn,
Cannot outfly onr apprehensions.

Much attribute he hath; and much the reason
Why we ascribe it to him: yet all his virtues,—
Not virtuously on his own part beheld,-
Do, in our eyes, begin to lose their gloss;
Yea, like fair fruit in an unwholesome dish,
Are like to rot untasted. Go and tell him,
We come to speak with him: And you shall not sin,
If you do say we think him over-proud,

And under-honest; in self-assumption greater, Than in the note of judgment; and worthier than himself

Here tend the savage strangeness‡ he puts on;
Disguise the holy strength of their command,
And underwrites in an observing kind

His humorous predominance; yea, watch

* Exercise.

† Attend.

Shyness. § Subscribe, obey.

His pettish lunes*, his ebbs, his flows, as if
The passage and whole carriage of this action
Rode on his tide. Go, tell him this; and add,
That, if he overhold his price so much,

We'll none of him; but let him, like an engine
Not portable, lie under this report-
Bring action hither, this cannot go to war:
A stirring dwarf we do allowance† give
Before a sleeping giant:-Tell him so.

Patr. I shall; and bring his answer presently.

[Exit. Agam. In second voice we'll not be satisfied, We come to speak with him.-Ulysses, enter. [Exit Ulysses. Ajax. What is he more than another? Agam. No more than what he thinks he is. Ajax. Is he so much? Do you not think, hè thinks himself a better man than I am?

Agam. No question.

Ajax. Will you subscribe his thought, and say he is?

Agam. No, noble Ajax; you are as strong, as valiant, as wise, no less noble, much more gentle, and altogether more tractable.

Ajax. Why should a man be proud? How doth pride grow? I know not what pride is.

Agam. Your mind's the clearer, Ajax, and your virtues the fairer. He that is proud, eats up himself: pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle; and whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise.

Ajax. I do hate a proud man, as I hate the engendering of toads.

Nest. And yet he loves himself: Is it not strange? [Aside.

Re-enter Ulysses.

Ulyss. Achilles will not to the field to-morrow. Agam. What's his excuse?

He doth rely on none ;

Ulyss.
But carries on the stream of his dispose,
Without observance or respect of any,
In will peculiar, and in self-admission.

Agam. Why will he not, upon our fair request, Untent his person, and share the air with us?

Ulyss. Things small as nothing, for request's sake only,

He makes important: Possess'd he is with greatness;
And speaks not to himself, but with a pride
That quarrels at self-breath: imagin'd 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.

Agam.

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.

Ulyss. 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 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 acquir'd; 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 Cancert, when he burns

With entertaining great Hyperion‡.

* Fat.

t, The sign in the zodiac into which the sun enters June 21, ‘And Cancer reddens with the solar blaze.'

THOMSON.

This lord go to him? Jupiter forbid ;
And say in thunder-Achilles, go to him.

Nest. 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.

Agam.

O, no, you shall not go. Ajax. An he be proud with me, I'll pheeze+ his pride:

Let me go to him.

Ulyss. Not for the worth that hangs upon our

Ajax.

I will let his humours blood.

Agam. He'll be physician, that should be the pa

tient.

[Aside.

Ajax. An all men

Were o'my mind,

Ulyss.

Wit would be out of fashion.

[Aside.

Ajax. He should not bear it so,

He should eat swords first: Shall pride carry it?

Nest. An 'twould, you'd carry half.
Ulyss.

[Aside.

He'd have ten shares.

[Aside.

Ajax. I'll knead him, I will make him supple :Nest. He's not yet thorough warm: force him with praises:

Pour in, pour in; his ambition is dry.

[Aside. Ulyss. My lord, you feed too much on this dis

like.

* Strike.

+ Comb or curry.

[To Agamemnon.

Stuff.

Nest, O noble general, do not do so.
Dio. You must prepare to fight without Achilles.
Ulyss. Why, 'tis this naming of him does him

harm.

Here is a man-But 'tis before his face ;

I will be silent.

Nest.

Wherefore should you so?

He is not emulous*, as Achilles is.

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

I would, he were a Trojan !

Nest.

Were it in Ajax now

Ulyss.

What a vice

If he were proud ?

Ay, or surly borne ?

Dio. Or covetous of praise?

Ulyss.

Dio. Or strange, or self-affected?

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

composure;

Praise him that got thee, she that give thee suck :
Fam❜d be thy tutor, and thy parts of nature
Thrice-fam'd, beyond all erudition:

But he that disciplin'd thy arms to fight,
Let Mars divide eternity in twain,

And give him half: and, for thy vigour,
Bull-bearing Milo his addition ‡ 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,

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,
But be as Ajax.

Ajax. Shall I call you father?
Nest. Ay, my good son.
Dio.

* Envious, † Trifle.

Be rul'd by him, lord Ajax.

Titles. § Stream, rivulet.