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,
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 poise,
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.

Agam. What trumpet? look, Menelaus.

Men. From Troy.

Enter ENEAS.

Agam. What would you 'fore our tent?

Ene. Is this great Agamemnon's tent, I pray you?
Agam. Even this.

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

Agam. With surety stronger than Achilles' arm 'Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice Call Agamemnon head and general.

Ene. Fair leave and large security. How may
A stranger to those most imperial looks
Know them from eyes of other mortals?
Agam.

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:

How !

200

210

[A tucket

220

230

Which is that god in office, guiding men?

Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon?

Agam. This Trojan scorns us; or the men of Troy

Are ceremonious courtiers.

Ene. Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm❜d,

As bending angels; that's their fame in peace :

Achilles was fabled to be the son of the Nereid Thetis by Peleus, a

212 Thetis sons.

Thessalian chieftain.

But when they would seem soldiers, they have galls,

Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, Jove's 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 himself bring the praise forth:

But what the repining enemy commends,

That breath fame blows; 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, I pray you?

Ene. Sir, pardon; 't is for Agamemnon's ears.

Agam. He hears nought privately that comes from Troy.

Ene. 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.

Trumpet, blow loud,

Ene.
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.
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 Greek did compass in his arms,
And will to-morrow with his trumpet call

Midway between your tents and walls of Troy,
To rouse a Grecian that is true in love:

240

250

[Trumpet sounds.

260

270

than in confession, etc., that is, than he loves in confession with truant vows to her

own lips.

If any come, Hector shall honour him

280

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!
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
One 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 grandam 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 youth!
Ulyss. Amen.

Agam. Fair Lord Æneas, let me touch

your hand;

To our pavilion shall I lead you, sir.

Achilles shall have word of this intent;

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300

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?

Ulyss. This 't is :

Blunt wedges rive hard knots: the seeded pride

That hath to this maturity blown

up

In rank Achilles must or now be cropp'd,

Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil,

310

To overbulk us all.

320

Ulyss. This challenge that the gallant Hector sends,

283 The splinter of a lance. It is almost needless to say that in this challenge S. carelessly transfers the language and the usages of chivalry back to the days of Greece. 296 beaver the movable front of the helmet, frequently used for the whole helmet. Grecian helmets were without it.

207 cantbrace armor for the arm.

However it is spread in general name,

Relates in purpose only to Achilles.

Nest. The purpose is perspicuous even 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 Libya, though, Apollo knows,

'Tis dry enough,—will, with great speed of judgement, Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose

Pointing on him.

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

Nest. Why, 't is most meet: whom may you else oppose, That can from Hector bring his honour 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: 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 subsequent 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 't were from forth us all, a man distill'd
Out of our virtues; who miscarrying,

330

340

350

To steel a strong opinion to themselves?

What heart receives from hence the conquering part,

Which entertain'd, limbs are his instruments,

In no less working than are swords and bows
Directive by the limbs.

Ulyss. Give pardon to my speech:

Therefore 't is meet Achilles meet not Hector.
Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares,
And think, perchance, they 'll sell; if not,
The lustre of the better yet to show,
Shall show the better. Do not consent
That ever Hector and Achilles meet;
For both our honour and our shame in this

Are dogg'd with two strange followers.

360

143 indexes in S.'s day were usually placed before the body of the book: pricks were small points or dots, such as run in a line between an index word on one side of a page and a figure on the other.

Nest. I see them not with my old eyes: what are they?
Ulyss. What glory our Achilles shares from Hector,
Were he not proud, we all should share with him :
But he already is too insolent;

And we were better parch in Afric 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 main opinion crush

In taint of our best man.

No, make a lott'ry;

And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw

The sort to fight with Hector: among ourselves
Give him allowance for the better man ;
For that will physic 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.
Nest. Ulysses,

Now I begin to relish thy advice;

And I will give a taste of it forthwith
To Agamemnon: go we to him straight.
Two curs shall tame each other: pride alone

Must tarre the mastiffs on, as 't were their bone.

370

380

390

[Exeunt.

ACT II.

SCENE I. A part of the Grecian camp.

Ajax. Thersites !

Enter AJAX and THERSITES.

Ther. Agamemnon, how if he had boils? full, all over, generally?

Ajax. Thersites !

Ther. And those boils did run? say so: did not the general run then? were not that a botchy corps?

Ajax. Dog!

Ther. Then would come some matter from him; I see none

now.

Ajax. Thou bitch-wolf's son, canst thou not hear? [Beating him.] Feel, then.

376 The sort the lot, the radical meaning of the word.
392 tarre provoke, incite, set.

II