That's done; -as near as the extremest ends Of parallels, like as Vulcan and his wife:- 168 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 172 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 th All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, Severals and generals of grace exact, Achievements, 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. 184 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 188 In such a rein, 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- To match us in comparison with dirt; To weaken and discredit our exposure, How rank soever rounded in with danger.
Ulyss. They tax our policy, and call it cowardice;
Count wisdom as no member of the war; Forestall prescience, and esteem no act But that of hand: the still and mental parts, ২০০ That do contrive how many hands shall strike, When fitness calls them on, and know by
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 poise, They place before his hand that made the engine, Or those that with the fineness of their souls 209 By reason guides his execution.
Nest. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse Makes many Thetis' sons.
[A tucket. Agam. What trumpet? look, Menelaus. 213 Men. From Troy.
Agam. What would you 'fore our tent? Æne. Is this great Agamemnon's tent, I pray you?
Æne. Nor I from Troy come 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:
It is not Agamemnon's sleeping hour; That thou shalt know, Trojan, he is awake, He tells thee so himself. Æne.
Trumpet, blow aloud, 256 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.
Æne. Mav one. that is a herald and a prince, We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy. 26
A prince called Hector, -Priam is his father, - And find the welcome of a noble foe.
Who in this dull and long-continu'd truce
Is rusty grown: he bade me take a trumpet,
And to this purpose speak: kings, princes, lords! If there be one among the fair'st of Greece 265 That holds his honour higher than his ease,
That seeks his praise more than he fears his
That knows his valour, and knows not his fear, That loves his mistress more than in confes
sion, 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 chal
Hector, in view of Trojans and of Greeks, 273 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; 276 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 sunburnt, and not worth The splinter of a lance. 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! 288 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
[Exeunt all but ULYSSES and NESTOR.
That can from Hector bring those honours 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: andtrust to me, Ulysses, Our imputation shall be oddly pois'd In this wild 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 subsequent volumes, there is seen 344
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, 348 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 bence the conquering
Yourself shall feast with us before you go, 308
To steel a strong opinion to themselves? Which entertain'd, limbs are his instruments, In no less working than are swords and bows Directive by the limbs.
Achil. Why, how now, Ajax! wherefore do you this?
Ther. Then would come some matter from How now, Thersites! what's the matter, man? him: I see none now.
Ther. You see him there, do you?
My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears,
Soft infancy, that nothing canst but cry, Add to my clamours! let us pay betimes A moiety of that mass of moan to come.
Cas. Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled
Two traded pilots 'twixt the dangerous shores 64 Cry, Trojans, cry! practise your eyes with tears
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