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2
In Troy, there lies the scene. From isles of Greece
3
The princes orgulous, their high blood chafed,
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Have to the port of Athens sent their ships,
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Fraught with the ministers and instruments
6
Of cruel war: sixty and nine, that wore
7
Their crownets regal, from the Athenian bay
8
Put forth toward Phrygia; and their vow is made
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To ransack Troy, within whose strong immures
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The ravish'd Helen, Menelaus' queen,
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With wanton Paris sleeps; and that's the quarrel.
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And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorge
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Their warlike fraughtage: now on Dardan plains
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The fresh and yet unbruised Greeks do pitch
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Their brave pavilions: Priam's six-gated city,
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Dardan, and Tymbria, Helias, Chetas, Troien,
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And Antenorides, with massy staples
19
And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts,
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Sperr up the sons of Troy.
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Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits,
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On one and other side, Trojan and Greek,
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Sets all on hazard: and hither am I come
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A prologue arm'd, but not in confidence
25
Of author's pen or actor's voice, but suited
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In like conditions as our argument,
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To tell you, fair beholders, that our play
28
Leaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils,
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Beginning in the middle, starting thence away
30
To what may be digested in a play.
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Like or find fault; do as your pleasures are:
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Now good or bad, 'tis but the chance of war.
1
Troy. Before Priam’s palace.
2
[Enter TROILUS armed, and PANDARUS]
4
Call here my varlet; I'll unarm again:
5
Why should I war without the walls of Troy,
6
That find such cruel battle here within?
7
Each Trojan that is master of his heart,
8
Let him to field; Troilus, alas! hath none.
10
Will this gear ne'er be mended?
12
The Greeks are strong and skilful to their strength,
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Fierce to their skill and to their fierceness valiant;
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But I am weaker than a woman's tear,
15
Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance,
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Less valiant than the virgin in the night
17
And skilless as unpractised infancy.
19
Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part,
20
I'll not meddle nor make no further. He that will
21
have a cake out of the wheat must needs tarry the grinding.
25
Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry
30
Ay, the bolting, but you must tarry the leavening.
34
Ay, to the leavening; but here's yet in the word
35
'hereafter' the kneading, the making of the cake, the
36
heating of the oven and the baking; nay, you must
37
stay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips.
39
Patience herself, what goddess e'er she be,
40
Doth lesser blench at sufferance than I do.
41
At Priam's royal table do I sit;
42
And when fair Cressid comes into my thoughts,—
43
So, traitor! 'When she comes!' When is she thence?
45
Well, she looked yesternight fairer than ever I saw
46
her look, or any woman else.
48
I was about to tell thee:—when my heart,
49
As wedged with a sigh, would rive in twain,
50
Lest Hector or my father should perceive me,
51
I have, as when the sun doth light a storm,
52
Buried this sigh in wrinkle of a smile:
53
But sorrow, that is couch'd in seeming gladness,
54
Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness.
56
An her hair were not somewhat darker than Helen's—
57
well, go to—there were no more comparison between
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the women: but, for my part, she is my kinswoman; I
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would not, as they term it, praise her: but I would
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somebody had heard her talk yesterday, as I did. I
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will not dispraise your sister Cassandra's wit, but—
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O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus,—
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When I do tell thee, there my hopes lie drown'd,
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Reply not in how many fathoms deep
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They lie indrench'd. I tell thee I am mad
67
In Cressid's love: thou answer'st 'she is fair;'
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Pour'st in the open ulcer of my heart
69
Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice,
70
Handlest in thy discourse, O, that her hand,
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In whose comparison all whites are ink,
72
Writing their own reproach, to whose soft seizure
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The cygnet's down is harsh and spirit of sense
74
Hard as the palm of ploughman: this thou tell'st me,
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As true thou tell'st me, when I say I love her;
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But, saying thus, instead of oil and balm,
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Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given me
78
The knife that made it.
80
I speak no more than truth.
82
Thou dost not speak so much.
84
Faith, I'll not meddle in't. Let her be as she is:
85
if she be fair, 'tis the better for her; an she be
86
not, she has the mends in her own hands.
88
Good Pandarus, how now, Pandarus!
90
I have had my labour for my travail; ill-thought on of
91
her and ill-thought on of you; gone between and
92
between, but small thanks for my labour.
94
What, art thou angry, Pandarus? what, with me?
96
Because she's kin to me, therefore she's not so fair
97
as Helen: an she were not kin to me, she would be as
98
fair on Friday as Helen is on Sunday. But what care
99
I? I care not an she were a black-a-moor; 'tis all one to me.
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Say I she is not fair?
103
I do not care whether you do or no. She's a fool to
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stay behind her father; let her to the Greeks; and so
105
I'll tell her the next time I see her: for my part,
106
I'll meddle nor make no more i' the matter.
114
Pray you, speak no more to me: I will leave all as I
115
found it, and there an end.
116
[Exit PANDARUS. An alarum]
118
Peace, you ungracious clamours! peace, rude sounds!
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Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair,
120
When with your blood you daily paint her thus.
121
I cannot fight upon this argument;
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It is too starved a subject for my sword.
123
But Pandarus,—O gods, how do you plague me!
124
I cannot come to Cressid but by Pandar;
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And he's as tetchy to be woo'd to woo.
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As she is stubborn-chaste against all suit.
127
Tell me, Apollo, for thy Daphne's love,
128
What Cressid is, what Pandar, and what we?
129
Her bed is India; there she lies, a pearl:
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Between our Ilium and where she resides,
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Let it be call'd the wild and wandering flood,
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Ourself the merchant, and this sailing Pandar
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Our doubtful hope, our convoy and our bark.
134
[Alarum. Enter AENEAS]
136
How now, Prince Troilus! wherefore not afield?
138
Because not there: this woman's answer sorts,
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For womanish it is to be from thence.
140
What news, AEneas, from the field to-day?
142
That Paris is returned home and hurt.
146
Troilus, by Menelaus.
148
Let Paris bleed; 'tis but a scar to scorn;
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Paris is gored with Menelaus' horn.
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Hark, what good sport is out of town to-day!
154
Better at home, if 'would I might' were 'may.'
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But to the sport abroad: are you bound thither?
159
Come, go we then together.
2
[Enter CRESSIDA and ALEXANDER]
4
Who were those went by?
6
Queen Hecuba and Helen.
10
Up to the eastern tower,
11
Whose height commands as subject all the vale,
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To see the battle. Hector, whose patience
13
Is, as a virtue, fix'd, to-day was moved:
14
He chid Andromache and struck his armourer,
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And, like as there were husbandry in war,
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Before the sun rose he was harness'd light,
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And to the field goes he; where every flower
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Did, as a prophet, weep what it foresaw
21
What was his cause of anger?
23
The noise goes, this: there is among the Greeks
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A lord of Trojan blood, nephew to Hector;
27
Good; and what of him?
29
They say he is a very man per se,
32
So do all men, unless they are drunk, sick, or have no legs.
34
This man, lady, hath robbed many beasts of their
35
particular additions; he is as valiant as the lion,
36
churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant: a man
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into whom nature hath so crowded humours that his
38
valour is crushed into folly, his folly sauced with
39
discretion: there is no man hath a virtue that he
40
hath not a glimpse of, nor any man an attaint but he
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carries some stain of it: he is melancholy without
42
cause, and merry against the hair: he hath the
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joints of every thing, but everything so out of joint
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that he is a gouty Briareus, many hands and no use,
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or purblind Argus, all eyes and no sight.
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But how should this man, that makes
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me smile, make Hector angry?
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They say he yesterday coped Hector in the battle and
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struck him down, the disdain and shame whereof hath
52
ever since kept Hector fasting and waking.
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Madam, your uncle Pandarus.
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Hector's a gallant man.
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As may be in the world, lady.
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What's that? what's that?
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Good morrow, uncle Pandarus.
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Good morrow, cousin Cressid: what do you talk of?
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Good morrow, Alexander. How do you, cousin? When
73
What were you talking of when I came? Was Hector
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armed and gone ere ye came to Ilium? Helen was not
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Hector was gone, but Helen was not up.
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Even so: Hector was stirring early.
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That were we talking of, and of his anger.
87
True, he was so: I know the cause too: he'll lay
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about him to-day, I can tell them that: and there's
89
Troilus will not come far behind him: let them take
90
heed of Troilus, I can tell them that too.
92
What, is he angry too?
94
Who, Troilus? Troilus is the better man of the two.
96
O Jupiter! there's no comparison.
98
What, not between Troilus and Hector? Do you know a
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Ay, if I ever saw him before and knew him.
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Well, I say Troilus is Troilus.
105
Then you say as I say; for, I am sure, he is not Hector.
107
No, nor Hector is not Troilus in some degrees.
109
'Tis just to each of them; he is himself.
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Himself! Alas, poor Troilus! I would he were.
115
Condition, I had gone barefoot to India.
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Himself! no, he's not himself: would a' were
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himself! Well, the gods are above; time must friend
121
or end: well, Troilus, well: I would my heart were
122
in her body. No, Hector is not a better man than Troilus.
128
Pardon me, pardon me.
130
Th' other's not come to't; you shall tell me another
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tale, when th' other's come to't. Hector shall not
132
have his wit this year.
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He shall not need it, if he have his own.
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'Twould not become him; his own's better.
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You have no judgment, niece: Helen
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herself swore th' other day, that Troilus, for
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a brown favour—for so 'tis, I must confess,—
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'Faith, to say truth, brown and not brown.
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To say the truth, true and not true.
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She praised his complexion above Paris.
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Why, Paris hath colour enough.
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Then Troilus should have too much: if she praised
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him above, his complexion is higher than his; he
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having colour enough, and the other higher, is too
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flaming a praise for a good complexion. I had as
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lief Helen's golden tongue had commended Troilus for
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I swear to you. I think Helen loves him better than Paris.
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Then she's a merry Greek indeed.
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Nay, I am sure she does. She came to him th' other
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day into the compassed window,—and, you know, he
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has not past three or four hairs on his chin,—
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Indeed, a tapster's arithmetic may soon bring his
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particulars therein to a total.
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Why, he is very young: and yet will he, within
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three pound, lift as much as his brother Hector.
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Is he so young a man and so old a lifter?
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But to prove to you that Helen loves him: she came
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and puts me her white hand to his cloven chin—
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Juno have mercy! how came it cloven?
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Why, you know 'tis dimpled: I think his smiling
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becomes him better than any man in all Phrygia.
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O, he smiles valiantly.
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O yes, an 'twere a cloud in autumn.
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Why, go to, then: but to prove to you that Helen
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Troilus will stand to the proof, if you'll
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Troilus! why, he esteems her no more than I esteem
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If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle
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head, you would eat chickens i' the shell.
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I cannot choose but laugh, to think how she tickled
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his chin: indeed, she has a marvellous white hand, I
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And she takes upon her to spy a white hair on his chin.
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Alas, poor chin! many a wart is richer.
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But there was such laughing! Queen Hecuba laughed
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that her eyes ran o'er.
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And Cassandra laughed.
227
But there was more temperate fire under the pot of
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her eyes: did her eyes run o'er too?
232
At what was all this laughing?
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Marry, at the white hair that Helen spied on Troilus' chin.
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An't had been a green hair, I should have laughed
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They laughed not so much at the hair as at his pretty answer.
243
Quoth she, 'Here's but two and fifty hairs on your
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chin, and one of them is white.
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This is her question.
248
That's true; make no question of that. 'Two and
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fifty hairs' quoth he, 'and one white: that white
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hair is my father, and all the rest are his sons.'
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'Jupiter!' quoth she, 'which of these hairs is Paris,
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my husband? 'The forked one,' quoth he, 'pluck't
253
out, and give it him.' But there was such laughing!
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and Helen so blushed, an Paris so chafed, and all the
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rest so laughed, that it passed.
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So let it now; for it has been while going by.
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Well, cousin. I told you a thing yesterday; think on't.
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I'll be sworn 'tis true; he will weep you, an 'twere
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And I'll spring up in his tears, an 'twere a nettle
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Hark! they are coming from the field: shall we
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stand up here, and see them as they pass toward
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Ilium? good niece, do, sweet niece Cressida.
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Here, here, here's an excellent place; here we may
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see most bravely: I'll tell you them all by their
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names as they pass by; but mark Troilus above the rest.
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That's AEneas: is not that a brave man? he's one of
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the flowers of Troy, I can tell you: but mark
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Troilus; you shall see anon.
290
That's Antenor: he has a shrewd wit, I can tell you;
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and he's a man good enough, he's one o' the soundest
292
judgments in whosoever, and a proper man of person.
293
When comes Troilus? I'll show you Troilus anon: if
294
he see me, you shall see him nod at me.
296
Will he give you the nod?
300
If he do, the rich shall have more.
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That's Hector, that, that, look you, that; there's a
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fellow! Go thy way, Hector! There's a brave man,
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niece. O brave Hector! Look how he looks! there's
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a countenance! is't not a brave man?
310
Is a' not? it does a man's heart good. Look you
311
what hacks are on his helmet! look you yonder, do
312
you see? look you there: there's no jesting;
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there's laying on, take't off who will, as they say:
316
Be those with swords?
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Swords! any thing, he cares not; an the devil come
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to him, it's all one: by God's lid, it does one's
320
heart good. Yonder comes Paris, yonder comes Paris.
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Look ye yonder, niece; is't not a gallant man too,
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is't not? Why, this is brave now. Who said he came
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hurt home to-day? he's not hurt: why, this will do
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Helen's heart good now, ha! Would I could see
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Troilus now! You shall see Troilus anon.
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That's Helenus. I marvel where Troilus is. That's
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I think he went not forth to-day. That's Helenus.
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Can Helenus fight, uncle?
337
Helenus? no. Yes, he'll fight indifferent well. I
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marvel where Troilus is. Hark! do you not hear the
339
people cry 'Troilus'? Helenus is a priest.
341
What sneaking fellow comes yonder?
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Where? yonder? that's Deiphobus. 'Tis Troilus!
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there's a man, niece! Hem! Brave Troilus! the
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Peace, for shame, peace!
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Mark him; note him. O brave Troilus! Look well upon
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him, niece: look you how his sword is bloodied, and
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his helm more hacked than Hector's, and how he looks,
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and how he goes! O admirable youth! he ne'er saw
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three and twenty. Go thy way, Troilus, go thy way!
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Had I a sister were a grace, or a daughter a goddess,
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he should take his choice. O admirable man! Paris?
357
Paris is dirt to him; and, I warrant, Helen, to
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change, would give an eye to boot.
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Asses, fools, dolts! chaff and bran, chaff and bran!
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porridge after meat! I could live and die i' the
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eyes of Troilus. Ne'er look, ne'er look: the eagles
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are gone: crows and daws, crows and daws! I had
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rather be such a man as Troilus than Agamemnon and
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There is among the Greeks Achilles, a better man than Troilus.
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Achilles! a drayman, a porter, a very camel.
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'Well, well!' why, have you any discretion? have
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you any eyes? Do you know what a man is? Is not
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birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, manhood,
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learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, liberality,
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and such like, the spice and salt that season a man?
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Ay, a minced man: and then to be baked with no date
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in the pie, for then the man's date's out.
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You are such a woman! one knows not at what ward you
388
Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon my wit, to
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defend my wiles; upon my secrecy, to defend mine
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honesty; my mask, to defend my beauty; and you, to
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defend all these: and at all these wards I lie, at a
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Say one of your watches.
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Nay, I'll watch you for that; and that's one of the
397
chiefest of them too: if I cannot ward what I would
398
not have hit, I can watch you for telling how I took
399
the blow; unless it swell past hiding, and then it's
402
You are such another!
403
[Enter Troilus's Boy]
405
Sir, my lord would instantly speak with you.
409
At your own house; there he unarms him.
411
Good boy, tell him I come.
413
I doubt he be hurt. Fare ye well, good niece.
417
I'll be with you, niece, by and by.
421
Ay, a token from Troilus.
423
By the same token, you are a bawd.
425
Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full sacrifice,
426
He offers in another's enterprise;
427
But more in Troilus thousand fold I see
428
Than in the glass of Pandar's praise may be;
429
Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing:
430
Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing.
431
That she beloved knows nought that knows not this:
432
Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is:
433
That she was never yet that ever knew
434
Love got so sweet as when desire did sue.
435
Therefore this maxim out of love I teach:
436
Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech:
437
Then though my heart's content firm love doth bear,
438
Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear.
1
The Grecian camp. Before Agamemnon’s tent.
2
[Sennet. Enter AGAMEMNON, NESTOR, ULYSSES,] [p]MENELAUS, and others]
5
What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks?
6
The ample proposition that hope makes
7
In all designs begun on earth below
8
Fails in the promised largeness: cheques and disasters
9
Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd,
10
As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap,
11
Infect the sound pine and divert his grain
12
Tortive and errant from his course of growth.
13
Nor, princes, is it matter new to us
14
That we come short of our suppose so far
15
That after seven years' siege yet Troy walls stand;
16
Sith every action that hath gone before,
17
Whereof we have record, trial did draw
18
Bias and thwart, not answering the aim,
19
And that unbodied figure of the thought
20
That gave't surmised shape. Why then, you princes,
21
Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works,
22
And call them shames? which are indeed nought else
23
But the protractive trials of great Jove
24
To find persistive constancy in men:
25
The fineness of which metal is not found
26
In fortune's love; for then the bold and coward,
27
The wise and fool, the artist and unread,
28
The hard and soft seem all affined and kin:
29
But, in the wind and tempest of her frown,
30
Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan,
31
Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
32
And what hath mass or matter, by itself
33
Lies rich in virtue and unmingled.
35
With due observance of thy godlike seat,
36
Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply
37
Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance
38
Lies the true proof of men: the sea being smooth,
39
How many shallow bauble boats dare sail
40
Upon her patient breast, making their way
41
With those of nobler bulk!
42
But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
43
The gentle Thetis, and anon behold
44
The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut,
45
Bounding between the two moist elements,
46
Like Perseus' horse: where's then the saucy boat
47
Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now
48
Co-rivall'd greatness? Either to harbour fled,
49
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so
50
Doth valour's show and valour's worth divide
51
In storms of fortune; for in her ray and brightness
52
The herd hath more annoyance by the breeze
53
Than by the tiger; but when the splitting wind
54
Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks,
55
And flies fled under shade, why, then the thing of courage
56
As roused with rage with rage doth sympathize,
57
And with an accent tuned in selfsame key
58
Retorts to chiding fortune.
61
Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece,
62
Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit.
63
In whom the tempers and the minds of all
64
Should be shut up, hear what Ulysses speaks.
65
Besides the applause and approbation To which,
67
most mighty for thy place and sway,
69
And thou most reverend for thy stretch'd-out life
70
I give to both your speeches, which were such
71
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece
72
Should hold up high in brass, and such again
73
As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver,
74
Should with a bond of air, strong as the axle-tree
75
On which heaven rides, knit all the Greekish ears
76
To his experienced tongue, yet let it please both,
77
Thou great, and wise, to hear Ulysses speak.
79
Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be't of less expect
80
That matter needless, of importless burden,
81
Divide thy lips, than we are confident,
82
When rank Thersites opes his mastic jaws,
83
We shall hear music, wit and oracle.
85
Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down,
86
And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master,
87
But for these instances.
88
The specialty of rule hath been neglected:
89
And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand
90
Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions.
91
When that the general is not like the hive
92
To whom the foragers shall all repair,
93
What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,
94
The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask.
95
The heavens themselves, the planets and this centre
96
Observe degree, priority and place,
97
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
98
Office and custom, in all line of order;
99
And therefore is the glorious planet Sol
100
In noble eminence enthroned and sphered
101
Amidst the other; whose medicinable eye
102
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,
103
And posts, like the commandment of a king,
104
Sans cheque to good and bad: but when the planets
105
In evil mixture to disorder wander,
106
What plagues and what portents! what mutiny!
107
What raging of the sea! shaking of earth!
108
Commotion in the winds! frights, changes, horrors,
109
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate
110
The unity and married calm of states
111
Quite from their fixure! O, when degree is shaked,
112
Which is the ladder to all high designs,
113
Then enterprise is sick! How could communities,
114
Degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities,
115
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
116
The primogenitive and due of birth,
117
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
118
But by degree, stand in authentic place?
119
Take but degree away, untune that string,
120
And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets
121
In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters
122
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores
123
And make a sop of all this solid globe:
124
Strength should be lord of imbecility,
125
And the rude son should strike his father dead:
126
Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong,
127
Between whose endless jar justice resides,
128
Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
129
Then every thing includes itself in power,
130
Power into will, will into appetite;
131
And appetite, an universal wolf,
132
So doubly seconded with will and power,
133
Must make perforce an universal prey,
134
And last eat up himself. Great Agamemnon,
135
This chaos, when degree is suffocate,
137
And this neglection of degree it is
138
That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose
139
It hath to climb. The general's disdain'd
140
By him one step below, he by the next,
141
That next by him beneath; so every step,
142
Exampled by the first pace that is sick
143
Of his superior, grows to an envious fever
144
Of pale and bloodless emulation:
145
And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,
146
Not her own sinews. To end a tale of length,
147
Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength.
149
Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover'd
150
The fever whereof all our power is sick.
152
The nature of the sickness found, Ulysses,
155
The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns
156
The sinew and the forehand of our host,
157
Having his ear full of his airy fame,
158
Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent
159
Lies mocking our designs: with him Patroclus
160
Upon a lazy bed the livelong day
161
Breaks scurril jests;
162
And with ridiculous and awkward action,
163
Which, slanderer, he imitation calls,
164
He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon,
165
Thy topless deputation he puts on,
166
And, like a strutting player, whose conceit
167
Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich
168
To hear the wooden dialogue and sound
169
'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage,—
170
Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrested seeming
171
He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks,
172
'Tis like a chime a-mending; with terms unsquared,
173
Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropp'd
174
Would seem hyperboles. At this fusty stuff
175
The large Achilles, on his press'd bed lolling,
176
From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause;
177
Cries 'Excellent! 'tis Agamemnon just.
178
Now play me Nestor; hem, and stroke thy beard,
179
As he being drest to some oration.'
180
That's done, as near as the extremest ends
181
Of parallels, as like as Vulcan and his wife:
182
Yet god Achilles still cries 'Excellent!
183
'Tis Nestor right. Now play him me, Patroclus,
184
Arming to answer in a night alarm.'
185
And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age
186
Must be the scene of mirth; to cough and spit,
187
And, with a palsy-fumbling on his gorget,
188
Shake in and out the rivet: and at this sport
189
Sir Valour dies; cries 'O, enough, Patroclus;
190
Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all
191
In pleasure of my spleen.' And in this fashion,
192
All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,
193
Severals and generals of grace exact,
194
Achievements, plots, orders, preventions,
195
Excitements to the field, or speech for truce,
196
Success or loss, what is or is not, serves
197
As stuff for these two to make paradoxes.
199
And in the imitation of these twain—
200
Who, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns
201
With an imperial voice—many are infect.
202
Ajax is grown self-will'd, and bears his head
203
In such a rein, in full as proud a place
204
As broad Achilles; keeps his tent like him;
205
Makes factious feasts; rails on our state of war,
206
Bold as an oracle, and sets Thersites,
207
A slave whose gall coins slanders like a mint,
208
To match us in comparisons with dirt,
209
To weaken and discredit our exposure,
210
How rank soever rounded in with danger.
212
They tax our policy, and call it cowardice,
213
Count wisdom as no member of the war,
214
Forestall prescience, and esteem no act
215
But that of hand: the still and mental parts,
216
That do contrive how many hands shall strike,
217
When fitness calls them on, and know by measure
218
Of their observant toil the enemies' weight,—
219
Why, this hath not a finger's dignity:
220
They call this bed-work, mappery, closet-war;
221
So that the ram that batters down the wall,
222
For the great swing and rudeness of his poise,
223
They place before his hand that made the engine,
224
Or those that with the fineness of their souls
225
By reason guide his execution.
227
Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse
228
Makes many Thetis' sons.
231
What trumpet? look, Menelaus.
236
What would you 'fore our tent?
238
Is this great Agamemnon's tent, I pray you?
242
May one, that is a herald and a prince,
243
Do a fair message to his kingly ears?
245
With surety stronger than Achilles' arm
246
'Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice
247
Call Agamemnon head and general.
249
Fair leave and large security. How may
250
A stranger to those most imperial looks
251
Know them from eyes of other mortals?
256
I ask, that I might waken reverence,
257
And bid the cheek be ready with a blush
258
Modest as morning when she coldly eyes
259
The youthful Phoebus:
260
Which is that god in office, guiding men?
261
Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon?
263
This Trojan scorns us; or the men of Troy
264
Are ceremonious courtiers.
266
Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm'd,
267
As bending angels; that's their fame in peace:
268
But when they would seem soldiers, they have galls,
269
Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and,
271
Nothing so full of heart. But peace, AEneas,
272
Peace, Trojan; lay thy finger on thy lips!
273
The worthiness of praise distains his worth,
274
If that the praised himself bring the praise forth:
275
But what the repining enemy commends,
276
That breath fame blows; that praise, sole sure,
279
Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself AEneas?
281
Ay, Greek, that is my name.
283
What's your affair I pray you?
285
Sir, pardon; 'tis for Agamemnon's ears.
287
He hears naught privately that comes from Troy.
289
Nor I from Troy come not to whisper him:
290
I bring a trumpet to awake his ear,
291
To set his sense on the attentive bent,
294
Speak frankly as the wind;
295
It is not Agamemnon's sleeping hour:
296
That thou shalt know. Trojan, he is awake,
297
He tells thee so himself.
300
Send thy brass voice through all these lazy tents;
301
And every Greek of mettle, let him know,
302
What Troy means fairly shall be spoke aloud.
304
We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy
305
A prince call'd Hector,—Priam is his father,—
306
Who in this dull and long-continued truce
307
Is rusty grown: he bade me take a trumpet,
308
And to this purpose speak. Kings, princes, lords!
309
If there be one among the fair'st of Greece
310
That holds his honour higher than his ease,
311
That seeks his praise more than he fears his peril,
312
That knows his valour, and knows not his fear,
313
That loves his mistress more than in confession,
314
With truant vows to her own lips he loves,
315
And dare avow her beauty and her worth
316
In other arms than hers,—to him this challenge.
317
Hector, in view of Trojans and of Greeks,
318
Shall make it good, or do his best to do it,
319
He hath a lady, wiser, fairer, truer,
320
Than ever Greek did compass in his arms,
321
And will to-morrow with his trumpet call
322
Midway between your tents and walls of Troy,
323
To rouse a Grecian that is true in love:
324
If any come, Hector shall honour him;
325
If none, he'll say in Troy when he retires,
326
The Grecian dames are sunburnt and not worth
327
The splinter of a lance. Even so much.
329
This shall be told our lovers, Lord AEneas;
330
If none of them have soul in such a kind,
331
We left them all at home: but we are soldiers;
332
And may that soldier a mere recreant prove,
333
That means not, hath not, or is not in love!
334
If then one is, or hath, or means to be,
335
That one meets Hector; if none else, I am he.
337
Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man
338
When Hector's grandsire suck'd: he is old now;
339
But if there be not in our Grecian host
340
One noble man that hath one spark of fire,
341
To answer for his love, tell him from me
342
I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver
343
And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn,
344
And meeting him will tell him that my lady
345
Was fairer than his grandam and as chaste
346
As may be in the world: his youth in flood,
347
I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood.
349
Now heavens forbid such scarcity of youth!
353
Fair Lord AEneas, let me touch your hand;
354
To our pavilion shall I lead you, sir.
355
Achilles shall have word of this intent;
356
So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent:
357
Yourself shall feast with us before you go
358
And find the welcome of a noble foe.
359
[Exeunt all but ULYSSES and NESTOR]
365
I have a young conception in my brain;
366
Be you my time to bring it to some shape.
371
Blunt wedges rive hard knots: the seeded pride
372
That hath to this maturity blown up
373
In rank Achilles must or now be cropp'd,
374
Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil,
379
This challenge that the gallant Hector sends,
380
However it is spread in general name,
381
Relates in purpose only to Achilles.
383
The purpose is perspicuous even as substance,
384
Whose grossness little characters sum up:
385
And, in the publication, make no strain,
386
But that Achilles, were his brain as barren
387
As banks of Libya,—though, Apollo knows,
388
'Tis dry enough,—will, with great speed of judgment,
389
Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose
392
And wake him to the answer, think you?
394
Yes, 'tis most meet: whom may you else oppose,
395
That can from Hector bring his honour off,
396
If not Achilles? Though't be a sportful combat,
397
Yet in the trial much opinion dwells;
398
For here the Trojans taste our dear'st repute
399
With their finest palate: and trust to me, Ulysses,
400
Our imputation shall be oddly poised
401
In this wild action; for the success,
402
Although particular, shall give a scantling
403
Of good or bad unto the general;
404
And in such indexes, although small pricks
405
To their subsequent volumes, there is seen
406
The baby figure of the giant mass
407
Of things to come at large. It is supposed
408
He that meets Hector issues from our choice
409
And choice, being mutual act of all our souls,
410
Makes merit her election, and doth boil,
411
As 'twere from us all, a man distill'd
412
Out of our virtues; who miscarrying,
413
What heart receives from hence the conquering part,
414
To steel a strong opinion to themselves?
415
Which entertain'd, limbs are his instruments,
416
In no less working than are swords and bows
417
Directive by the limbs.
419
Give pardon to my speech:
420
Therefore 'tis meet Achilles meet not Hector.
421
Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares,
422
And think, perchance, they'll sell; if not,
423
The lustre of the better yet to show,
424
Shall show the better. Do not consent
425
That ever Hector and Achilles meet;
426
For both our honour and our shame in this
427
Are dogg'd with two strange followers.
429
I see them not with my old eyes: what are they?
431
What glory our Achilles shares from Hector,
432
Were he not proud, we all should share with him:
433
But he already is too insolent;
434
And we were better parch in Afric sun
435
Than in the pride and salt scorn of his eyes,
436
Should he 'scape Hector fair: if he were foil'd,
437
Why then, we did our main opinion crush
438
In taint of our best man. No, make a lottery;
439
And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw
440
The sort to fight with Hector: among ourselves
441
Give him allowance for the better man;
442
For that will physic the great Myrmidon
443
Who broils in loud applause, and make him fall
444
His crest that prouder than blue Iris bends.
445
If the dull brainless Ajax come safe off,
446
We'll dress him up in voices: if he fail,
447
Yet go we under our opinion still
448
That we have better men. But, hit or miss,
449
Our project's life this shape of sense assumes:
450
Ajax employ'd plucks down Achilles' plumes.
453
Now I begin to relish thy advice;
454
And I will give a taste of it forthwith
455
To Agamemnon: go we to him straight.
456
Two curs shall tame each other: pride alone
457
Must tarre the mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone.
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