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Pan. What were you talking of, when I came ? Was Hector armed, and gone, cre ye came to Ilium? Helen was not up, was she?

Cres. Hector was gone; but Helen was not up.
Pan. E'en so; Hector was stirring early.
Cres. That were we talking of, and of his anger.
Pan. Was he angry?
Cres. So he says here.

Pan. True, he was so; I know the cause too; he'll lay about him to-day, I can tell them that: and there is Troilus will not come far behind him; let them take heed of Troilus; I can tell them that too.

Cres. What, is he angry too?

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Cres. Indeed, a tapster's arithmetic may 3000 bring his particulars therein to a total.

Pan. Why, he is very young: and yet will he, within three pound, lift as much as his brother Hector.

Cres. Is he so young a man, and so old a lifter? Pan. But, to prove to you that Helen loves

Pan. Who, Troilus? Troilus is the better man him ;-she came, and puts me her white hand to of the two.

Cres. O, Jupiter! there's no comparison.

Pan. What, not between Troilus and Hector? Do you know a man, if you see him?

his cloven chin,

Cres. Juno have mercy!-How came it cloven? Pan. Why, you know, 'tis dimpled: I think, his smiling becomes him better than any man in

Cres. Ay; if ever I saw him before, and knew all Phrygia. him.

Pan. Well, I say, Troilus is Troilus.

Cres. Then you say as I say; for, I am sure, he is not Hector.

Pan. No, nor Hector is not Troilus, in some degrees.

Cres. 'Tis just to each of them; he is himself. Pan. Himself? Alas, poor Troilus! I would, he were,

Cres. So he is.

Pan.

Cres. O, he smiles valiantly.

Pan. Does he not?

Cres. O yes, an 'twere a cloud in autumn. Pan. Why, go to then :-But to prove to you, that Helen loves Troilus,

Cres. Troilus will stand to the proof, if you'll prove it so.

Pan. Troilus? why, he esteems her no more than I esteem an addle egg.

Cres. If you love an addle egg as well as you

shell.

Pan. I cannot choose but laugh, to think how she tickled his chin;-Indeed she has a marvellous white hand, I must needs confess.

'Condition, I had gone barefoot to India. love an idle head, you would eat chickens i'the Cres. He is not Hector. Pan. Himself? no, he's not himself.-'Would a were himself! Well, the gods are above; Time must friend, or end: Well, Troilus, well, I would, my heart were in her body!-No, Hector is not a better man than Troilus.

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Pan. 'Faith, to say truth, brown and not brown.

Cres. To say the truth, true and not true.
Pan. She prais'd his complexion above Paris.
Cres. Why, Paris hath colour enough.
Pan. So he has.

Cres. Then, Troilus should have too much: if she praised him above, his complexion is higher than his; be having colour enough, and the other higher, is too flaming a praise for a good complexion. I bad as lief, Helen's golden tongue had commended Troilus for a copper. nose.

Cres. Without the rack.

Pan. And she takes upon her to spy a white hair on his chin.

Cres. Alas, poor chin! inany a wart is richer. Pan. But there was such laughing,-Queen Hecuba laughed, that her eyes ran o'er.

Cres. With millstones.

Pan. And Cassandra laughed.

Cres. But there was a more temperate fire under the pot of her eyes;-did her eyes run Pan. And Hector laugh'd. [o'er too?

Cres. At what was all this laughing? Pan. Marry, at the white hair that Helen spied on Troilus' chin.

Cres. An't had been a green hair, I should have laughed too.

Pan. They laughed not so much at the hair, as at his pretty answer.

Cres. What was his answer?

Pan. Quoth she, Here's but one and fifty hairs on your chin, and one of them is white.

Cres. This is her question.

Pan. That's true; make no question of that. One and fifty hairs, quoth he, and one white : that white hair is my father, and all the rest are his sons. Jupiter quoth she, which of these hairs is Paris, my husband? The forked one, quoth be; pluck it out, and give it him. But, there was such laughing! and Helen so blushed, and Paris so chafed, and all the rest so laughed, that it passed.

Cres. So let it now; for it has been a great while going by.

Pan. Well, cousin, I told you a thing yesterday; think on't.

Cres. So I do.

Pan. I'll be sworn, 'tis true; he will weep you, an 'twere a man born in April.

Cres. What sneaking fellow comes yonder?
Troilus passes over.

Pan. Where? yonder? that's Deiphobus. 'Tis
Troilus! there's a man, niece! Hem!-Brave
Troilus! the prince of chivalry!

Cres. Peace, for shame, peace!

Pun. Mark him; note him; O brave Troilus!

Cres. And I'll spring up in his tears, an 'twere-look well upon him, niece; look you, how his a nettle against May. [a retreat sounded. sword is bloodied, and his helm more hack'd than Pan. Hark, they are coming from the field: Hector's; and how he looks, and how he goes!—— shall we stand up here, and see them, as they O admirable youth! he ne'er saw three and pass toward Ilium? good niece, do; sweet niece twenty. Go thy way, Troilus, go thy way; had Cres. At your pleasure, [Cressida. I a sister were a grace, or a daughter a goddess, Pan. Here, here, here's an excellent place; he should take his choice. O admirable man! here we may see them most bravely: I'll tell Paris ?-Paris is dirt to him; and, I warrant, you them all by their names, as they pass by; Helen, to change, would give an eye to boot. but mark Troilus above the rest. Forces pass over the stage.

Eneas passes over the stage. Cres. Speak not so loud.

Pan. That's Æneas. Is not that a brave man? he's one of the flowers of Troy, I can tell you; but mark Troilus; you shall see anon,

Crcs. Who's that?

Antenor passes over.

Pan. That's Antenor; he has a shrewd wit, I can tell you; and he's a man good enough: he's one o'the soundest judgments in Troy, whosoever, and a proper man of person :— -When comes Troilus?-I'll show you Troilus anon; if he see me, you shall see him nod at me.

Cres. Will he give you the nod?
Pan. You shall see.

Cres. If he do, the rich shall have more.
Hector passes over.

Pan. That's Hector, that, that, look you, that. There's a fellow!-Go thy way, Hector.-There's a brave man, niece. O brave Hector-Look, how he looks! there's a countenance: Is't not a brave man?

Cres. O, a brave man!

Pan. Is 'a not? It does a man's heart good— Look you what hacks are on his helmet! look you yonder, do you see? look you there! There's no jesting: there's laying on; take't off who will, as they say: there be hacks!

Cres. Be those with swords?

Paris passes over.

Pan. Swords? any thing, he cares not: an the devil come to him, it's all one: by god's lid it does one's heart good. Yonder comes Paris, yonder comes Paris: look ye yonder, niece; is't not a gallant man too, is't not?—Why, this is brave now. Who said, he came hurt home to-day? he's not hurt why, this will do Helen's heart good now. Ha! 'would I could see Troilus now!-you shall see Troilus anon.

Cres. Who's that?

Helenus passes over.

Pan. That's Helenus;-I marvel, where Troilus is: that's Helenus ;-I think he went not forth to-day:-that's Helenus.

Cres. Can Helenus fight, uncle?

Pan. Helenus? no ;-yes, he'll fight indifferent well: I marvel, where Troilus is!-Hark; do you not hear the people cry, Troilus? Helenus is a priest.

Cres. Here come more.

Pan. Asses, fools, dolts! chaff and bran, chaff and bran! Porridge after meat! I could live and die i'the eyes of Troilus. Ne'er look, ne'er look; the eagles are gone; crows and daws, crows and daws! I had rather be such a man as Troilus, than Agamemnon and all Greece.

Cres. There is among the Greeks, Achilles; a better man than Troilus.

Pan. Achilles? a drayman, a porter, a very camel.

Cres. Well, well.

Pan. Well, well?-Why, have you any discretion? have you any eyes? Do you know what a man is? Is not birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that season a man?

Cres. Ay, a minced man; and then to be baked with no date in the pye, for then the man's date is out.

Pan. You are such a woman! one knows not at what ward you lie.

Cres. Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon my wit, to defend my wiles; upon my secrecy, to defend mine honesty; my mask, to defend my beauty; and you, to defend all these: and at all these wards I lie, at a thousand watches.

Pan. Say one of your watches.

Cres. Nay, I'll watch you for that; and that's one of the chiefest of them too: if I cannot ward what I would not have hit, I can watch you for telling how I took the blow; unless it swell past hiding, and then it is past watching. Pan. You are such another! Enter Troilus' Boy.

Boy. Sir, my lord would instantly speak with you.

Pan. Where?

Boy. At your own house; there he unarm him.

Pan, Good boy, tell him I come: [exit Boy] I doubt, he be hurt.-Fare ye well, good niece. Cres. Adieu, uncle.

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.
[exit Pandarus.

Co-rival'd greatness? either to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune.
Even so

Words, vows, griefs, tears, and love's full sacrifice, | Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now
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.

SCENE III. THE GRECIAN CAMP. BEFORE AGAMEM

NON'S TENT.

Doth valour's show, and valour's worth, divide,
In storms of fortune: for, in her ray and bright-

ness,

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 courage,

As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize,
And with an accent tun'd in self-same key,
Returns to chiding fortune.

Ulyss. Agamemnon,—

Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greeco,
Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit,
In whom the tempers and the minds of all

Trumpets. Enter Agamemnon, Nestor, Ulysses, Should be shut up,-hear what Ulysses speaks.
Menelaus, and others.

Agam. Princes,

What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks?
The ample proposition, that hope makes

In all designs begun on earth below,

Besides the applause and approbation

sway,

Fails in the promis'd largeness: checks and I give to both your speeches,-which were such,

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,

The which, most mighty for thy place and
[to Agamemnon.
And thou most reverend for thy stretch'd-out
life,-
[to Nestor.
As Agamemnon and the band 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 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 expect,

That matter needless, of importless burden,
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,
When rank Thersites opes his mastiff jaws,

That give't surmised shape. Why then, you We shall hear music, wit, and oracle.

princes,

Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works;
And think them shames, 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 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.

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

centre

Observe degree, priority, and place,
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
Office, and custom, in all line of order:

Nest. With due observance of thy godlike seat, And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol,
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 Roreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis, and, anon, behold
The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains
Bounding between the two moist elements, [cut,
Like Perseus' horse: where's then the saucy host,

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, (planets,
What plagues, and what portents? what mutiny?
What raging of the sea? shaking of earth?
Commotion in the winds? frights, changes, he♪~
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate
The unity and married calm of states

[rors,

Quite from their fixture? O, when degree is shak'd, | Now play me Nestor :-hem, and stroke thy bear 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 degrees, stand in authentic 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,
What is the remedy?
[Ulysses,
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 live-long day
Breaks scurril jests;

And with ridiculous and awkward action
(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 hamstring, and doth think it rich
To hear the wooden dialogue and sound
'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage,-
Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrested seeming
He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks,
'Tis like a chime a-mending; with terms un-
squar'd,
[dropp'd,
Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon
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.—

As he, being 'drest to some oration.
That's done;-as near as the extremest ends
Of parallels; 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 on his gorget,
Shake in and out the rivet :-and, at this sport,
Sir Valour dies; cries, Ol-enough, Patroclus;-
Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all
In pleasure of my spleen. And in this fashion,
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.

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, 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 comparisons with dirt;
To weaken and discredit our exposure,
How rank soever rounded in with danger.

Ulyss. They tax our policy, and call it cow-
ardice;

Count wisdom as no member of the war;
Forestall prescience, 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,—
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.

Nest. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse Makes many Thetis' sons. [trumpet sounds. Agam. What trumpet? look, Menelaus.

Enter Eneas.

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Ene. Ay;

I ask, that I might waken reverence,
And bid the cheek be ready with a blush,
Modest as morning, when she coldly eyes
The youthful Phoebus:

Which is that god in office, guiding men?
Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon?
Agam. This Trojan scorns us; or the men of
Are ceremonious courtiers.

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[Troy Ene. 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, [accord, Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and Jove's 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 himself bring the praise forth: But what the repining enemy commends, That breath fame follows; that praise, sole pure, transcends.

Agam. Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself Æneas?
Ene. Ay, Greek, that is my name.
Agam. What's your affair,

pray you?

Ene. Sir, pardon; 'tis for Agamemnon's ears. Agam. He hears nought privately, that comes from Troy.

[him :

Ene. Nor I from Troy come not to whisper
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.

Ene. 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
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,
That holds his honour higher than his ease;
That seeks his praise more than he fears his 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 Greck 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. 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
Que 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 put this wither'd brawn;
And, meeting him, will tell him, that my lady
Was fairer than his grandame, and as chaste
As may be in the world: his youth in flood,
I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood.
Ene. Now heavens forbid such scarcity of
Ulyss. Amen
[youth!

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. Nest. What is't?

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Whose grossness little characters sum up:
And, in the publication, make no strain,
But that Achilles, were his brain as barren
As banks of Libya,-though, Apollo knows,
'Tis dry enough,—will with great speed of judg-
ment,

Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose
Pointing on him.

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 off,
If not Achilles? Though't be a sportful combut,
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
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 masa

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