ACT IISCENE I. The Grecian camp.EnterAjaxandThersites.AJAX.Thersites!THERSITES.Agamemnon—how if he had boils, full, all over, generally?AJAX.Thersites!THERSITES.And those boils did run—say so. Did not the general run then? Were not that a botchy core?AJAX.Dog!THERSITES.Then there would come some matter from him;I see none now.AJAX.Thou bitch-wolf’s son, canst thou not hear? Feel, then.[Strikes him.]THERSITES.The plague of Greece upon thee, thou mongrel beef-witted lord!AJAX.Speak, then, thou unsalted leaven, speak. I will beat thee into handsomeness.THERSITES.I shall sooner rail thee into wit and holiness; but I think thy horse will sooner con an oration than thou learn a prayer without book. Thou canst strike, canst thou? A red murrain o’ thy jade’s tricks!AJAX.Toadstool, learn me the proclamation.THERSITES.Dost thou think I have no sense, thou strikest me thus?AJAX.The proclamation!THERSITES.Thou art proclaim’d fool, I think.AJAX.Do not, porpentine, do not; my fingers itch.THERSITES.I would thou didst itch from head to foot and I had the scratching of thee; I would make thee the loathsomest scab in Greece. When thou art forth in the incursions, thou strikest as slow as another.AJAX.I say, the proclamation.THERSITES.Thou grumblest and railest every hour on Achilles; and thou art as full of envy at his greatness as Cerberus is at Proserpina’s beauty—ay, that thou bark’st at him.AJAX.Mistress Thersites!THERSITES.Thou shouldst strike him.AJAX.Cobloaf!THERSITES.He would pun thee into shivers with his fist, as a sailor breaks a biscuit.AJAX.You whoreson cur![Strikes him.]THERSITES.Do, do.AJAX.Thou stool for a witch!THERSITES.Ay, do, do; thou sodden-witted lord! Thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows; an asinico may tutor thee. You scurvy valiant ass! Thou art here but to thrash Trojans, and thou art bought and sold among those of any wit like a barbarian slave. If thou use to beat me, I will begin at thy heel and tell what thou art by inches, thou thing of no bowels, thou!AJAX.You dog!THERSITES.You scurvy lord!AJAX.You cur![Strikes him.]THERSITES.Mars his idiot! Do, rudeness; do, camel; do, do.EnterAchillesandPatroclus.ACHILLES.Why, how now, Ajax! Wherefore do ye thus?How now, Thersites! What’s the matter, man?THERSITES.You see him there, do you?ACHILLES.Ay; what’s the matter?THERSITES.Nay, look upon him.ACHILLES.So I do. What’s the matter?THERSITES.Nay, but regard him well.ACHILLES.Well! why, so I do.THERSITES.But yet you look not well upon him; for whosomever you take him to be, he is Ajax.ACHILLES.I know that, fool.THERSITES.Ay, but that fool knows not himself.AJAX.Therefore I beat thee.THERSITES.Lo, lo, lo, lo, what modicums of wit he utters! His evasions have ears thus long. I have bobb’d his brain more than he has beat my bones. I will buy nine sparrows for a penny, and his pia mater is not worth the ninth part of a sparrow. This lord, Achilles—Ajax, who wears his wit in his belly and his guts in his head—I’ll tell you what I say of him.ACHILLES.What?THERSITES.I say this Ajax—[Ajaxoffers to strike him.]ACHILLES.Nay, good Ajax.THERSITES.Has not so much wit—ACHILLES.Nay, I must hold you.THERSITES.As will stop the eye of Helen’s needle, for whom he comes to fight.ACHILLES.Peace, fool.THERSITES.I would have peace and quietness, but the fool will not— he there; that he; look you there.AJAX.O thou damned cur! I shall—ACHILLES.Will you set your wit to a fool’s?THERSITES.No, I warrant you, the fool’s will shame it.PATROCLUS.Good words, Thersites.ACHILLES.What’s the quarrel?AJAX.I bade the vile owl go learn me the tenour of the proclamation, and he rails upon me.THERSITES.I serve thee not.AJAX.Well, go to, go to.THERSITES.I serve here voluntary.ACHILLES.Your last service was suff’rance; ’twas not voluntary. No man is beaten voluntary. Ajax was here the voluntary, and you as under an impress.THERSITES.E’en so; a great deal of your wit too lies in your sinews, or else there be liars. Hector shall have a great catch and knock out either of your brains: a’ were as good crack a fusty nut with no kernel.ACHILLES.What, with me too, Thersites?THERSITES.There’s Ulysses and old Nestor—whose wit was mouldy ere your grandsires had nails on their toes—yoke you like draught oxen, and make you plough up the wars.ACHILLES.What, what?THERSITES.Yes, good sooth. To Achilles, to Ajax, to—AJAX.I shall cut out your tongue.THERSITES.’Tis no matter; I shall speak as much as thou afterwards.PATROCLUS.No more words, Thersites; peace!THERSITES.I will hold my peace when Achilles’ brach bids me, shall I?ACHILLES.There’s for you, Patroclus.THERSITES.I will see you hang’d like clotpoles ere I come any more to your tents. I will keep where there is wit stirring, and leave the faction of fools.[Exit.]PATROCLUS.A good riddance.ACHILLES.Marry, this, sir, is proclaim’d through all our host,That Hector, by the fifth hour of the sun,Will with a trumpet ’twixt our tents and Troy,Tomorrow morning, call some knight to armsThat hath a stomach; and such a one that dareMaintain I know not what; ’tis trash. Farewell.AJAX.Farewell. Who shall answer him?ACHILLES.I know not; ’tis put to lott’ry, otherwise,He knew his man.AJAX.O, meaning you? I will go learn more of it.[Exeunt.]SCENE II. Troy. Priam’s palace.EnterPriam, Hector, Troilus, ParisandHelenus.PRIAM.After so many hours, lives, speeches spent,Thus once again says Nestor from the Greeks:‘Deliver Helen, and all damage else—As honour, loss of time, travail, expense,Wounds, friends, and what else dear that is consum’dIn hot digestion of this cormorant war—Shall be struck off.’ Hector, what say you to’t?HECTOR.Though no man lesser fears the Greeks than I,As far as toucheth my particular,Yet, dread Priam,There is no lady of more softer bowels,More spongy to suck in the sense of fear,More ready to cry out ‘Who knows what follows?’Than Hector is. The wound of peace is surety,Surety secure; but modest doubt is call’dThe beacon of the wise, the tent that searchesTo th’ bottom of the worst. Let Helen go.Since the first sword was drawn about this question,Every tithe soul ’mongst many thousand dismesHath been as dear as Helen—I mean, of ours.If we have lost so many tenths of oursTo guard a thing not ours, nor worth to us,Had it our name, the value of one ten,What merit’s in that reason which deniesThe yielding of her up?TROILUS.Fie, fie, my brother!Weigh you the worth and honour of a king,So great as our dread father’s, in a scaleOf common ounces? Will you with counters sumThe past-proportion of his infinite,And buckle in a waist most fathomlessWith spans and inches so diminutiveAs fears and reasons? Fie, for godly shame!HELENUS.No marvel though you bite so sharp of reasons,You are so empty of them. Should not our fatherBear the great sway of his affairs with reason,Because your speech hath none that tells him so?TROILUS.You are for dreams and slumbers, brother priest;You fur your gloves with reason. Here are your reasons:You know an enemy intends you harm;You know a sword employ’d is perilous,And reason flies the object of all harm.Who marvels, then, when Helenus beholdsA Grecian and his sword, if he do setThe very wings of reason to his heelsAnd fly like chidden Mercury from Jove,Or like a star disorb’d? Nay, if we talk of reason,Let’s shut our gates and sleep. Manhood and honourShould have hare hearts, would they but fat their thoughtsWith this cramm’d reason. Reason and respectMake livers pale and lustihood deject.HECTOR.Brother, she is not worth what she doth cost the keeping.TROILUS.What’s aught but as ’tis valued?HECTOR.But value dwells not in particular will:It holds his estimate and dignityAs well wherein ’tis precious of itselfAs in the prizer. ’Tis mad idolatryTo make the service greater than the god,And the will dotes that is attributiveTo what infectiously itself affects,Without some image of th’affected merit.TROILUS.I take today a wife, and my electionIs led on in the conduct of my will;My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears,Two traded pilots ’twixt the dangerous shoresOf will and judgement: how may I avoid,Although my will distaste what it elected,The wife I chose? There can be no evasionTo blench from this and to stand firm by honour.We turn not back the silks upon the merchantWhen we have soil’d them; nor the remainder viandsWe do not throw in unrespective sieve,Because we now are full. It was thought meetParis should do some vengeance on the Greeks;Your breath with full consent bellied his sails;The seas and winds, old wranglers, took a truce,And did him service. He touch’d the ports desir’d;And for an old aunt whom the Greeks held captiveHe brought a Grecian queen, whose youth and freshnessWrinkles Apollo’s, and makes stale the morning.Why keep we her? The Grecians keep our aunt.Is she worth keeping? Why, she is a pearlWhose price hath launch’d above a thousand ships,And turn’d crown’d kings to merchants.If you’ll avouch ’twas wisdom Paris went—As you must needs, for you all cried ‘Go, go’—If you’ll confess he brought home worthy prize—As you must needs, for you all clapp’d your hands,And cried ‘Inestimable!’—why do you nowThe issue of your proper wisdoms rate,And do a deed that never Fortune did—Beggar the estimation which you priz’dRicher than sea and land? O theft most base,That we have stol’n what we do fear to keep!But thieves unworthy of a thing so stol’nThat in their country did them that disgraceWe fear to warrant in our native place!CASSANDRA.[Within.] Cry, Trojans, cry.PRIAM.What noise, what shriek is this?TROILUS.’Tis our mad sister; I do know her voice.CASSANDRA.[Within.] Cry, Trojans.HECTOR.It is Cassandra.EnterCassandra,raving.CASSANDRA.Cry, Trojans, cry. Lend me ten thousand eyes,And I will fill them with prophetic tears.HECTOR.Peace, sister, peace.CASSANDRA.Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled eld,Soft infancy, that nothing canst but cry,Add to my clamours. Let us pay betimesA moiety of that mass of moan to come.Cry, Trojans, cry. Practise your eyes with tears.Troy must not be, nor goodly Ilion stand;Our firebrand brother, Paris, burns us all.Cry, Trojans, cry, A Helen and a woe!Cry, cry. Troy burns, or else let Helen go.[Exit.]HECTOR.Now, youthful Troilus, do not these high strainsOf divination in our sister workSome touches of remorse? Or is your bloodSo madly hot, that no discourse of reason,Nor fear of bad success in a bad cause,Can qualify the same?TROILUS.Why, brother Hector,We may not think the justness of each actSuch and no other than event doth form it;Nor once deject the courage of our mindsBecause Cassandra’s mad. Her brain-sick rapturesCannot distaste the goodness of a quarrelWhich hath our several honours all engag’dTo make it gracious. For my private part,I am no more touch’d than all Priam’s sons;And Jove forbid there should be done amongst usSuch things as might offend the weakest spleenTo fight for and maintain.PARIS.Else might the world convince of levityAs well my undertakings as your counsels;But I attest the gods, your full consentGave wings to my propension, and cut offAll fears attending on so dire a project.For what, alas, can these my single arms?What propugnation is in one man’s valourTo stand the push and enmity of thoseThis quarrel would excite? Yet I protest,Were I alone to pass the difficulties,And had as ample power as I have will,Paris should ne’er retract what he hath done,Nor faint in the pursuit.PRIAM.Paris, you speakLike one besotted on your sweet delights.You have the honey still, but these the gall;So to be valiant is no praise at all.PARIS.Sir, I propose not merely to myselfThe pleasures such a beauty brings with it;But I would have the soil of her fair rapeWip’d off in honourable keeping her.What treason were it to the ransack’d queen,Disgrace to your great worths, and shame to me,Now to deliver her possession upOn terms of base compulsion! Can it be,That so degenerate a strain as thisShould once set footing in your generous bosoms?There’s not the meanest spirit on our partyWithout a heart to dare or sword to drawWhen Helen is defended; nor none so nobleWhose life were ill bestow’d or death unfam’d,Where Helen is the subject. Then, I say,Well may we fight for her whom we know wellThe world’s large spaces cannot parallel.HECTOR.Paris and Troilus, you have both said well;And on the cause and question now in handHave gloz’d, but superficially; not muchUnlike young men, whom Aristotle thoughtUnfit to hear moral philosophy.The reasons you allege do more conduceTo the hot passion of distemp’red bloodThan to make up a free determination’Twixt right and wrong; for pleasure and revengeHave ears more deaf than adders to the voiceOf any true decision. Nature cravesAll dues be rend’red to their owners. Now,What nearer debt in all humanityThan wife is to the husband? If this lawOf nature be corrupted through affection;And that great minds, of partial indulgenceTo their benumbed wills, resist the same;There is a law in each well-order’d nationTo curb those raging appetites that areMost disobedient and refractory.If Helen, then, be wife to Sparta’s king—As it is known she is—these moral lawsOf nature and of nations speak aloudTo have her back return’d. Thus to persistIn doing wrong extenuates not wrong,But makes it much more heavy. Hector’s opinionIs this, in way of truth. Yet, ne’ertheless,My spritely brethren, I propend to youIn resolution to keep Helen still;For ’tis a cause that hath no mean dependenceUpon our joint and several dignities.TROILUS.Why, there you touch’d the life of our design.Were it not glory that we more affectedThan the performance of our heaving spleens,I would not wish a drop of Trojan bloodSpent more in her defence. But, worthy Hector,She is a theme of honour and renown,A spur to valiant and magnanimous deeds,Whose present courage may beat down our foes,And fame in time to come canonize us;For I presume brave Hector would not loseSo rich advantage of a promis’d gloryAs smiles upon the forehead of this actionFor the wide world’s revenue.HECTOR.I am yours,You valiant offspring of great Priamus.I have a roisting challenge sent amongstThe dull and factious nobles of the GreeksWill strike amazement to their drowsy spirits.I was advertis’d their great general slept,Whilst emulation in the army crept.This, I presume, will wake him.[Exeunt.]SCENE III. The Grecian camp. Before the tent of Achilles.EnterThersites,solus.THERSITES.How now, Thersites! What, lost in the labyrinth of thy fury? Shall the elephant Ajax carry it thus? He beats me, and I rail at him. O worthy satisfaction! Would it were otherwise: that I could beat him, whilst he rail’d at me! ‘Sfoot, I’ll learn to conjure and raise devils, but I’ll see some issue of my spiteful execrations. Then there’s Achilles, a rare engineer! If Troy be not taken till these two undermine it, the walls will stand till they fall of themselves. O thou great thunder-darter of Olympus, forget that thou art Jove, the king of gods, and, Mercury, lose all the serpentine craft of thy caduceus, if ye take not that little little less than little wit from them that they have! which short-arm’d ignorance itself knows is so abundant scarce, it will not in circumvention deliver a fly from a spider without drawing their massy irons and cutting the web. After this, the vengeance on the whole camp! or, rather, the Neapolitan bone-ache! for that, methinks, is the curse depending on those that war for a placket. I have said my prayers; and devil Envy say ‘Amen.’ What ho! my Lord Achilles!EnterPatroclus.PATROCLUS.Who’s there? Thersites! Good Thersites, come in and rail.THERSITES.If I could a’ rememb’red a gilt counterfeit, thou wouldst not have slipp’d out of my contemplation; but it is no matter; thyself upon thyself! The common curse of mankind, folly and ignorance, be thine in great revenue! Heaven bless thee from a tutor, and discipline come not near thee! Let thy blood be thy direction till thy death. Then if she that lays thee out says thou art a fair corse, I’ll be sworn and sworn upon’t she never shrouded any but lazars. Amen. Where’s Achilles?PATROCLUS.What, art thou devout? Wast thou in prayer?THERSITES.Ay, the heavens hear me!PATROCLUS.Amen.EnterAchilles.ACHILLES.Who’s there?PATROCLUS.Thersites, my lord.ACHILLES.Where, where? O, where? Art thou come? Why, my cheese, my digestion, why hast thou not served thyself in to my table so many meals? Come, what’s Agamemnon?THERSITES.Thy commander, Achilles. Then tell me, Patroclus, what’s Achilles?PATROCLUS.Thy lord, Thersites. Then tell me, I pray thee, what’s Thersites?THERSITES.Thy knower, Patroclus. Then tell me, Patroclus, what art thou?PATROCLUS.Thou must tell that knowest.ACHILLES.O, tell, tell,THERSITES.I’ll decline the whole question. Agamemnon commands Achilles; Achilles is my lord; I am Patroclus’ knower; and Patroclus is a fool.PATROCLUS.You rascal!THERSITES.Peace, fool! I have not done.ACHILLES.He is a privileg’d man. Proceed, Thersites.THERSITES.Agamemnon is a fool; Achilles is a fool; Thersites is a fool; and, as aforesaid, Patroclus is a fool.ACHILLES.Derive this; come.THERSITES.Agamemnon is a fool to offer to command Achilles; Achilles is a fool to be commanded of Agamemnon; Thersites is a fool to serve such a fool; and this Patroclus is a fool positive.PATROCLUS.Why am I a fool?THERSITES.Make that demand of the Creator. It suffices me thou art. Look you, who comes here?EnterAgamemnon, Ulysses, Nestor, Diomedes, AjaxandCalchas.ACHILLES.Come, Patroclus, I’ll speak with nobody. Come in with me, Thersites.[Exit.]THERSITES.Here is such patchery, such juggling, and such knavery. All the argument is a whore and a cuckold—a good quarrel to draw emulous factions and bleed to death upon. Now the dry serpigo on the subject, and war and lechery confound all![Exit.]AGAMEMNON.Where is Achilles?PATROCLUS.Within his tent; but ill-dispos’d, my lord.AGAMEMNON.Let it be known to him that we are here.He shent our messengers; and we lay byOur appertainings, visiting of him.Let him be told so; lest, perchance, he thinkWe dare not move the question of our placeOr know not what we are.PATROCLUS.I shall say so to him.[Exit.]ULYSSES.We saw him at the opening of his tent.He is not sick.AJAX.Yes, lion-sick, sick of proud heart. You may call it melancholy, if you will favour the man; but, by my head, ’tis pride. But why, why? Let him show us a cause. A word, my lord.[TakesAgamemnonaside.]NESTOR.What moves Ajax thus to bay at him?ULYSSES.Achilles hath inveigled his fool from him.NESTOR.Who, Thersites?ULYSSES.He.NESTOR.Then will Ajax lack matter, if he have lost his argument.ULYSSES.No; you see he is his argument that has his argument, Achilles.NESTOR.All the better; their fraction is more our wish than their faction. But it was a strong composure a fool could disunite!ULYSSES.The amity that wisdom knits not, folly may easily untie.Re-enterPatroclus.Here comes Patroclus.NESTOR.No Achilles with him.ULYSSES.The elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy; his legs are legs for necessity, not for flexure.PATROCLUS.Achilles bids me say he is much sorryIf any thing more than your sport and pleasureDid move your greatness and this noble stateTo call upon him; he hopes it is no otherBut for your health and your digestion sake,An after-dinner’s breath.AGAMEMNON.Hear you, Patroclus.We are too well acquainted with these answers;But his evasion, wing’d thus swift with scorn,Cannot outfly our apprehensions.Much attribute he hath, and much the reasonWhy 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 himWe come to speak with him; and you shall not sinIf you do say we think him over-proudAnd under-honest, in self-assumption greaterThan in the note of judgement; and worthier than himselfHere tend the savage strangeness he puts on,Disguise the holy strength of their command,And underwrite in an observing kindHis humorous predominance; yea, watchHis course and time, his ebbs and flows, as ifThe passage and whole stream of this commencementRode on his tide. Go tell him this, and addThat if he overhold his price so muchWe’ll none of him, but let him, like an engineNot portable, lie under this report:Bring action hither; this cannot go to war.A stirring dwarf we do allowance giveBefore a sleeping giant. Tell him so.PATROCLUS.I shall, and bring his answer presently.[Exit.]AGAMEMNON.In second voice we’ll not be satisfied;We come to speak with him. Ulysses, enter you.[ExitUlysses.]AJAX.What is he more than another?AGAMEMNON.No more than what he thinks he is.AJAX.Is he so much? Do you not think he thinks himself a better man than I am?AGAMEMNON.No question.AJAX.Will you subscribe his thought and say he is?AGAMEMNON.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.AGAMEMNON.Your mind is 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.Re-enterUlysses.AJAX.I do hate a proud man as I do hate the engend’ring of toads.NESTOR.[Aside.] And yet he loves himself: is’t not strange?ULYSSES.Achilles will not to the field tomorrow.AGAMEMNON.What’s his excuse?ULYSSES.He doth rely on none;But carries on the stream of his dispose,Without observance or respect of any,In will peculiar and in self-admission.AGAMEMNON.Why will he not, upon our fair request,Untent his person and share th’air with us?ULYSSES.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 prideThat quarrels at self-breath. Imagin’d worthHolds in his blood such swol’n and hot discourseThat ’twixt his mental and his active partsKingdom’d Achilles in commotion rages,And batters down himself. What should I say?He is so plaguy proud that the death tokens of itCry ‘No recovery.’AGAMEMNON.Let Ajax go to him.Dear lord, go you and greet him in his tent.’Tis said he holds you well; and will be ledAt your request a little from himself.ULYSSES.O Agamemnon, let it not be so!We’ll consecrate the steps that Ajax makesWhen they go from Achilles. Shall the proud lordThat bastes his arrogance with his own seamAnd never suffers matter of the worldEnter his thoughts, save such as doth revolveAnd ruminate himself—shall he be worshipp’dOf that we hold an idol more than he?No, this thrice worthy and right valiant lordShall 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 Cancer when he burnsWith entertaining great Hyperion.This lord go to him! Jupiter forbid,And say in thunder ‘Achilles go to him.’NESTOR.[Aside.] O, this is well! He rubs the vein of him.DIOMEDES.[Aside.] And how his silence drinks up this applause!AJAX.If I go to him, with my armed fist I’ll pash him o’er the face.AGAMEMNON.O, no, you shall not go.AJAX.An a’ be proud with me I’ll pheeze his pride.Let me go to him.ULYSSES.Not for the worth that hangs upon our quarrel.AJAX.A paltry, insolent fellow!NESTOR.[Aside.] How he describes himself!AJAX.Can he not be sociable?ULYSSES.[Aside.] The raven chides blackness.AJAX.I’ll let his humours blood.AGAMEMNON.[Aside.] He will be the physician that should be the patient.AJAX.And all men were o’ my mind—ULYSSES.[Aside.] Wit would be out of fashion.AJAX.A’ should not bear it so, a’ should eat’s words first.Shall pride carry it?NESTOR.[Aside.] And ’twould, you’d carry half.ULYSSES.[Aside.] A’ would have ten shares.AJAX.I will knead him, I’ll make him supple.NESTOR.[Aside.] He’s not yet through warm. Force him with praises; pour in, pour in; his ambition is dry.ULYSSES.[To Agamemnon.] My lord, you feed too much on this dislike.NESTOR.Our noble general, do not do so.DIOMEDES.You must prepare to fight without Achilles.ULYSSES.Why ’tis this naming of him does him harm.Here is a man—but ’tis before his face;I will be silent.NESTOR.Wherefore should you so?He is not emulous, as Achilles is.ULYSSES.Know the whole world, he is as valiant.AJAX.A whoreson dog, that shall palter with us thus!Would he were a Trojan!NESTOR.What a vice were it in Ajax now—ULYSSES.If he were proud.DIOMEDES.Or covetous of praise.ULYSSES.Ay, or surly borne.DIOMEDES.Or strange, or self-affected.ULYSSES.Thank the heavens, lord, thou art of sweet composure.Praise him that gat thee, she that gave thee suck;Fam’d be thy tutor, and thy parts of natureThrice fam’d beyond, beyond all erudition;But he that disciplin’d thine arms to fight—Let Mars divide eternity in twainAnd give him half; and, for thy vigour,Bull-bearing Milo his addition yieldTo sinewy Ajax. I will not praise thy wisdom,Which, like a bourn, a pale, a shore, confinesThy 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 daysAs 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?NESTOR.Ay, my good son.DIOMEDES.Be rul’d by him, Lord Ajax.ULYSSES.There is no tarrying here; the hart AchillesKeeps thicket. Please it our great generalTo call together all his state of war;Fresh kings are come to Troy. TomorrowWe must with all our main of power stand fast;And here’s a lord—come knights from east to westAnd cull their flower, Ajax shall cope the best.AGAMEMNON.Go we to council. Let Achilles sleep.Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks draw deep.[Exeunt.]
EnterAjaxandThersites.
AJAX.Thersites!
THERSITES.Agamemnon—how if he had boils, full, all over, generally?
AJAX.Thersites!
THERSITES.And those boils did run—say so. Did not the general run then? Were not that a botchy core?
AJAX.Dog!
THERSITES.Then there would come some matter from him;I see none now.
AJAX.Thou bitch-wolf’s son, canst thou not hear? Feel, then.
[Strikes him.]
THERSITES.The plague of Greece upon thee, thou mongrel beef-witted lord!
AJAX.Speak, then, thou unsalted leaven, speak. I will beat thee into handsomeness.
THERSITES.I shall sooner rail thee into wit and holiness; but I think thy horse will sooner con an oration than thou learn a prayer without book. Thou canst strike, canst thou? A red murrain o’ thy jade’s tricks!
AJAX.Toadstool, learn me the proclamation.
THERSITES.Dost thou think I have no sense, thou strikest me thus?
AJAX.The proclamation!
THERSITES.Thou art proclaim’d fool, I think.
AJAX.Do not, porpentine, do not; my fingers itch.
THERSITES.I would thou didst itch from head to foot and I had the scratching of thee; I would make thee the loathsomest scab in Greece. When thou art forth in the incursions, thou strikest as slow as another.
AJAX.I say, the proclamation.
THERSITES.Thou grumblest and railest every hour on Achilles; and thou art as full of envy at his greatness as Cerberus is at Proserpina’s beauty—ay, that thou bark’st at him.
AJAX.Mistress Thersites!
THERSITES.Thou shouldst strike him.
AJAX.Cobloaf!
THERSITES.He would pun thee into shivers with his fist, as a sailor breaks a biscuit.
AJAX.You whoreson cur!
[Strikes him.]
THERSITES.Do, do.
AJAX.Thou stool for a witch!
THERSITES.Ay, do, do; thou sodden-witted lord! Thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows; an asinico may tutor thee. You scurvy valiant ass! Thou art here but to thrash Trojans, and thou art bought and sold among those of any wit like a barbarian slave. If thou use to beat me, I will begin at thy heel and tell what thou art by inches, thou thing of no bowels, thou!
AJAX.You dog!
THERSITES.You scurvy lord!
AJAX.You cur!
[Strikes him.]
THERSITES.Mars his idiot! Do, rudeness; do, camel; do, do.
EnterAchillesandPatroclus.
ACHILLES.Why, how now, Ajax! Wherefore do ye thus?How now, Thersites! What’s the matter, man?
THERSITES.You see him there, do you?
ACHILLES.Ay; what’s the matter?
THERSITES.Nay, look upon him.
ACHILLES.So I do. What’s the matter?
THERSITES.Nay, but regard him well.
ACHILLES.Well! why, so I do.
THERSITES.But yet you look not well upon him; for whosomever you take him to be, he is Ajax.
ACHILLES.I know that, fool.
THERSITES.Ay, but that fool knows not himself.
AJAX.Therefore I beat thee.
THERSITES.Lo, lo, lo, lo, what modicums of wit he utters! His evasions have ears thus long. I have bobb’d his brain more than he has beat my bones. I will buy nine sparrows for a penny, and his pia mater is not worth the ninth part of a sparrow. This lord, Achilles—Ajax, who wears his wit in his belly and his guts in his head—I’ll tell you what I say of him.
ACHILLES.What?
THERSITES.I say this Ajax—
[Ajaxoffers to strike him.]
ACHILLES.Nay, good Ajax.
THERSITES.Has not so much wit—
ACHILLES.Nay, I must hold you.
THERSITES.As will stop the eye of Helen’s needle, for whom he comes to fight.
ACHILLES.Peace, fool.
THERSITES.I would have peace and quietness, but the fool will not— he there; that he; look you there.
AJAX.O thou damned cur! I shall—
ACHILLES.Will you set your wit to a fool’s?
THERSITES.No, I warrant you, the fool’s will shame it.
PATROCLUS.Good words, Thersites.
ACHILLES.What’s the quarrel?
AJAX.I bade the vile owl go learn me the tenour of the proclamation, and he rails upon me.
THERSITES.I serve thee not.
AJAX.Well, go to, go to.
THERSITES.I serve here voluntary.
ACHILLES.Your last service was suff’rance; ’twas not voluntary. No man is beaten voluntary. Ajax was here the voluntary, and you as under an impress.
THERSITES.E’en so; a great deal of your wit too lies in your sinews, or else there be liars. Hector shall have a great catch and knock out either of your brains: a’ were as good crack a fusty nut with no kernel.
ACHILLES.What, with me too, Thersites?
THERSITES.There’s Ulysses and old Nestor—whose wit was mouldy ere your grandsires had nails on their toes—yoke you like draught oxen, and make you plough up the wars.
ACHILLES.What, what?
THERSITES.Yes, good sooth. To Achilles, to Ajax, to—
AJAX.I shall cut out your tongue.
THERSITES.’Tis no matter; I shall speak as much as thou afterwards.
PATROCLUS.No more words, Thersites; peace!
THERSITES.I will hold my peace when Achilles’ brach bids me, shall I?
ACHILLES.There’s for you, Patroclus.
THERSITES.I will see you hang’d like clotpoles ere I come any more to your tents. I will keep where there is wit stirring, and leave the faction of fools.
[Exit.]
PATROCLUS.A good riddance.
ACHILLES.Marry, this, sir, is proclaim’d through all our host,That Hector, by the fifth hour of the sun,Will with a trumpet ’twixt our tents and Troy,Tomorrow morning, call some knight to armsThat hath a stomach; and such a one that dareMaintain I know not what; ’tis trash. Farewell.
AJAX.Farewell. Who shall answer him?
ACHILLES.I know not; ’tis put to lott’ry, otherwise,He knew his man.
AJAX.O, meaning you? I will go learn more of it.
[Exeunt.]
EnterPriam, Hector, Troilus, ParisandHelenus.
PRIAM.After so many hours, lives, speeches spent,Thus once again says Nestor from the Greeks:‘Deliver Helen, and all damage else—As honour, loss of time, travail, expense,Wounds, friends, and what else dear that is consum’dIn hot digestion of this cormorant war—Shall be struck off.’ Hector, what say you to’t?
HECTOR.Though no man lesser fears the Greeks than I,As far as toucheth my particular,Yet, dread Priam,There is no lady of more softer bowels,More spongy to suck in the sense of fear,More ready to cry out ‘Who knows what follows?’Than Hector is. The wound of peace is surety,Surety secure; but modest doubt is call’dThe beacon of the wise, the tent that searchesTo th’ bottom of the worst. Let Helen go.Since the first sword was drawn about this question,Every tithe soul ’mongst many thousand dismesHath been as dear as Helen—I mean, of ours.If we have lost so many tenths of oursTo guard a thing not ours, nor worth to us,Had it our name, the value of one ten,What merit’s in that reason which deniesThe yielding of her up?
TROILUS.Fie, fie, my brother!Weigh you the worth and honour of a king,So great as our dread father’s, in a scaleOf common ounces? Will you with counters sumThe past-proportion of his infinite,And buckle in a waist most fathomlessWith spans and inches so diminutiveAs fears and reasons? Fie, for godly shame!
HELENUS.No marvel though you bite so sharp of reasons,You are so empty of them. Should not our fatherBear the great sway of his affairs with reason,Because your speech hath none that tells him so?
TROILUS.You are for dreams and slumbers, brother priest;You fur your gloves with reason. Here are your reasons:You know an enemy intends you harm;You know a sword employ’d is perilous,And reason flies the object of all harm.Who marvels, then, when Helenus beholdsA Grecian and his sword, if he do setThe very wings of reason to his heelsAnd fly like chidden Mercury from Jove,Or like a star disorb’d? Nay, if we talk of reason,Let’s shut our gates and sleep. Manhood and honourShould have hare hearts, would they but fat their thoughtsWith this cramm’d reason. Reason and respectMake livers pale and lustihood deject.
HECTOR.Brother, she is not worth what she doth cost the keeping.
TROILUS.What’s aught but as ’tis valued?
HECTOR.But value dwells not in particular will:It holds his estimate and dignityAs well wherein ’tis precious of itselfAs in the prizer. ’Tis mad idolatryTo make the service greater than the god,And the will dotes that is attributiveTo what infectiously itself affects,Without some image of th’affected merit.
TROILUS.I take today a wife, and my electionIs led on in the conduct of my will;My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears,Two traded pilots ’twixt the dangerous shoresOf will and judgement: how may I avoid,Although my will distaste what it elected,The wife I chose? There can be no evasionTo blench from this and to stand firm by honour.We turn not back the silks upon the merchantWhen we have soil’d them; nor the remainder viandsWe do not throw in unrespective sieve,Because we now are full. It was thought meetParis should do some vengeance on the Greeks;Your breath with full consent bellied his sails;The seas and winds, old wranglers, took a truce,And did him service. He touch’d the ports desir’d;And for an old aunt whom the Greeks held captiveHe brought a Grecian queen, whose youth and freshnessWrinkles Apollo’s, and makes stale the morning.Why keep we her? The Grecians keep our aunt.Is she worth keeping? Why, she is a pearlWhose price hath launch’d above a thousand ships,And turn’d crown’d kings to merchants.If you’ll avouch ’twas wisdom Paris went—As you must needs, for you all cried ‘Go, go’—If you’ll confess he brought home worthy prize—As you must needs, for you all clapp’d your hands,And cried ‘Inestimable!’—why do you nowThe issue of your proper wisdoms rate,And do a deed that never Fortune did—Beggar the estimation which you priz’dRicher than sea and land? O theft most base,That we have stol’n what we do fear to keep!But thieves unworthy of a thing so stol’nThat in their country did them that disgraceWe fear to warrant in our native place!
CASSANDRA.[Within.] Cry, Trojans, cry.
PRIAM.What noise, what shriek is this?
TROILUS.’Tis our mad sister; I do know her voice.
CASSANDRA.[Within.] Cry, Trojans.
HECTOR.It is Cassandra.
EnterCassandra,raving.
CASSANDRA.Cry, Trojans, cry. Lend me ten thousand eyes,And I will fill them with prophetic tears.
HECTOR.Peace, sister, peace.
CASSANDRA.Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled eld,Soft infancy, that nothing canst but cry,Add to my clamours. Let us pay betimesA moiety of that mass of moan to come.Cry, Trojans, cry. Practise your eyes with tears.Troy must not be, nor goodly Ilion stand;Our firebrand brother, Paris, burns us all.Cry, Trojans, cry, A Helen and a woe!Cry, cry. Troy burns, or else let Helen go.
[Exit.]
HECTOR.Now, youthful Troilus, do not these high strainsOf divination in our sister workSome touches of remorse? Or is your bloodSo madly hot, that no discourse of reason,Nor fear of bad success in a bad cause,Can qualify the same?
TROILUS.Why, brother Hector,We may not think the justness of each actSuch and no other than event doth form it;Nor once deject the courage of our mindsBecause Cassandra’s mad. Her brain-sick rapturesCannot distaste the goodness of a quarrelWhich hath our several honours all engag’dTo make it gracious. For my private part,I am no more touch’d than all Priam’s sons;And Jove forbid there should be done amongst usSuch things as might offend the weakest spleenTo fight for and maintain.
PARIS.Else might the world convince of levityAs well my undertakings as your counsels;But I attest the gods, your full consentGave wings to my propension, and cut offAll fears attending on so dire a project.For what, alas, can these my single arms?What propugnation is in one man’s valourTo stand the push and enmity of thoseThis quarrel would excite? Yet I protest,Were I alone to pass the difficulties,And had as ample power as I have will,Paris should ne’er retract what he hath done,Nor faint in the pursuit.
PRIAM.Paris, you speakLike one besotted on your sweet delights.You have the honey still, but these the gall;So to be valiant is no praise at all.
PARIS.Sir, I propose not merely to myselfThe pleasures such a beauty brings with it;But I would have the soil of her fair rapeWip’d off in honourable keeping her.What treason were it to the ransack’d queen,Disgrace to your great worths, and shame to me,Now to deliver her possession upOn terms of base compulsion! Can it be,That so degenerate a strain as thisShould once set footing in your generous bosoms?There’s not the meanest spirit on our partyWithout a heart to dare or sword to drawWhen Helen is defended; nor none so nobleWhose life were ill bestow’d or death unfam’d,Where Helen is the subject. Then, I say,Well may we fight for her whom we know wellThe world’s large spaces cannot parallel.
HECTOR.Paris and Troilus, you have both said well;And on the cause and question now in handHave gloz’d, but superficially; not muchUnlike young men, whom Aristotle thoughtUnfit to hear moral philosophy.The reasons you allege do more conduceTo the hot passion of distemp’red bloodThan to make up a free determination’Twixt right and wrong; for pleasure and revengeHave ears more deaf than adders to the voiceOf any true decision. Nature cravesAll dues be rend’red to their owners. Now,What nearer debt in all humanityThan wife is to the husband? If this lawOf nature be corrupted through affection;And that great minds, of partial indulgenceTo their benumbed wills, resist the same;There is a law in each well-order’d nationTo curb those raging appetites that areMost disobedient and refractory.If Helen, then, be wife to Sparta’s king—As it is known she is—these moral lawsOf nature and of nations speak aloudTo have her back return’d. Thus to persistIn doing wrong extenuates not wrong,But makes it much more heavy. Hector’s opinionIs this, in way of truth. Yet, ne’ertheless,My spritely brethren, I propend to youIn resolution to keep Helen still;For ’tis a cause that hath no mean dependenceUpon our joint and several dignities.
TROILUS.Why, there you touch’d the life of our design.Were it not glory that we more affectedThan the performance of our heaving spleens,I would not wish a drop of Trojan bloodSpent more in her defence. But, worthy Hector,She is a theme of honour and renown,A spur to valiant and magnanimous deeds,Whose present courage may beat down our foes,And fame in time to come canonize us;For I presume brave Hector would not loseSo rich advantage of a promis’d gloryAs smiles upon the forehead of this actionFor the wide world’s revenue.
HECTOR.I am yours,You valiant offspring of great Priamus.I have a roisting challenge sent amongstThe dull and factious nobles of the GreeksWill strike amazement to their drowsy spirits.I was advertis’d their great general slept,Whilst emulation in the army crept.This, I presume, will wake him.
[Exeunt.]
EnterThersites,solus.
THERSITES.How now, Thersites! What, lost in the labyrinth of thy fury? Shall the elephant Ajax carry it thus? He beats me, and I rail at him. O worthy satisfaction! Would it were otherwise: that I could beat him, whilst he rail’d at me! ‘Sfoot, I’ll learn to conjure and raise devils, but I’ll see some issue of my spiteful execrations. Then there’s Achilles, a rare engineer! If Troy be not taken till these two undermine it, the walls will stand till they fall of themselves. O thou great thunder-darter of Olympus, forget that thou art Jove, the king of gods, and, Mercury, lose all the serpentine craft of thy caduceus, if ye take not that little little less than little wit from them that they have! which short-arm’d ignorance itself knows is so abundant scarce, it will not in circumvention deliver a fly from a spider without drawing their massy irons and cutting the web. After this, the vengeance on the whole camp! or, rather, the Neapolitan bone-ache! for that, methinks, is the curse depending on those that war for a placket. I have said my prayers; and devil Envy say ‘Amen.’ What ho! my Lord Achilles!
EnterPatroclus.
PATROCLUS.Who’s there? Thersites! Good Thersites, come in and rail.
THERSITES.If I could a’ rememb’red a gilt counterfeit, thou wouldst not have slipp’d out of my contemplation; but it is no matter; thyself upon thyself! The common curse of mankind, folly and ignorance, be thine in great revenue! Heaven bless thee from a tutor, and discipline come not near thee! Let thy blood be thy direction till thy death. Then if she that lays thee out says thou art a fair corse, I’ll be sworn and sworn upon’t she never shrouded any but lazars. Amen. Where’s Achilles?
PATROCLUS.What, art thou devout? Wast thou in prayer?
THERSITES.Ay, the heavens hear me!
PATROCLUS.Amen.
EnterAchilles.
ACHILLES.Who’s there?
PATROCLUS.Thersites, my lord.
ACHILLES.Where, where? O, where? Art thou come? Why, my cheese, my digestion, why hast thou not served thyself in to my table so many meals? Come, what’s Agamemnon?
THERSITES.Thy commander, Achilles. Then tell me, Patroclus, what’s Achilles?
PATROCLUS.Thy lord, Thersites. Then tell me, I pray thee, what’s Thersites?
THERSITES.Thy knower, Patroclus. Then tell me, Patroclus, what art thou?
PATROCLUS.Thou must tell that knowest.
ACHILLES.O, tell, tell,
THERSITES.I’ll decline the whole question. Agamemnon commands Achilles; Achilles is my lord; I am Patroclus’ knower; and Patroclus is a fool.
PATROCLUS.You rascal!
THERSITES.Peace, fool! I have not done.
ACHILLES.He is a privileg’d man. Proceed, Thersites.
THERSITES.Agamemnon is a fool; Achilles is a fool; Thersites is a fool; and, as aforesaid, Patroclus is a fool.
ACHILLES.Derive this; come.
THERSITES.Agamemnon is a fool to offer to command Achilles; Achilles is a fool to be commanded of Agamemnon; Thersites is a fool to serve such a fool; and this Patroclus is a fool positive.
PATROCLUS.Why am I a fool?
THERSITES.Make that demand of the Creator. It suffices me thou art. Look you, who comes here?
EnterAgamemnon, Ulysses, Nestor, Diomedes, AjaxandCalchas.
ACHILLES.Come, Patroclus, I’ll speak with nobody. Come in with me, Thersites.
[Exit.]
THERSITES.Here is such patchery, such juggling, and such knavery. All the argument is a whore and a cuckold—a good quarrel to draw emulous factions and bleed to death upon. Now the dry serpigo on the subject, and war and lechery confound all!
[Exit.]
AGAMEMNON.Where is Achilles?
PATROCLUS.Within his tent; but ill-dispos’d, my lord.
AGAMEMNON.Let it be known to him that we are here.He shent our messengers; and we lay byOur appertainings, visiting of him.Let him be told so; lest, perchance, he thinkWe dare not move the question of our placeOr know not what we are.
PATROCLUS.I shall say so to him.
[Exit.]
ULYSSES.We saw him at the opening of his tent.He is not sick.
AJAX.Yes, lion-sick, sick of proud heart. You may call it melancholy, if you will favour the man; but, by my head, ’tis pride. But why, why? Let him show us a cause. A word, my lord.
[TakesAgamemnonaside.]
NESTOR.What moves Ajax thus to bay at him?
ULYSSES.Achilles hath inveigled his fool from him.
NESTOR.Who, Thersites?
ULYSSES.He.
NESTOR.Then will Ajax lack matter, if he have lost his argument.
ULYSSES.No; you see he is his argument that has his argument, Achilles.
NESTOR.All the better; their fraction is more our wish than their faction. But it was a strong composure a fool could disunite!
ULYSSES.The amity that wisdom knits not, folly may easily untie.
Re-enterPatroclus.
Here comes Patroclus.
NESTOR.No Achilles with him.
ULYSSES.The elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy; his legs are legs for necessity, not for flexure.
PATROCLUS.Achilles bids me say he is much sorryIf any thing more than your sport and pleasureDid move your greatness and this noble stateTo call upon him; he hopes it is no otherBut for your health and your digestion sake,An after-dinner’s breath.
AGAMEMNON.Hear you, Patroclus.We are too well acquainted with these answers;But his evasion, wing’d thus swift with scorn,Cannot outfly our apprehensions.Much attribute he hath, and much the reasonWhy 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 himWe come to speak with him; and you shall not sinIf you do say we think him over-proudAnd under-honest, in self-assumption greaterThan in the note of judgement; and worthier than himselfHere tend the savage strangeness he puts on,Disguise the holy strength of their command,And underwrite in an observing kindHis humorous predominance; yea, watchHis course and time, his ebbs and flows, as ifThe passage and whole stream of this commencementRode on his tide. Go tell him this, and addThat if he overhold his price so muchWe’ll none of him, but let him, like an engineNot portable, lie under this report:Bring action hither; this cannot go to war.A stirring dwarf we do allowance giveBefore a sleeping giant. Tell him so.
PATROCLUS.I shall, and bring his answer presently.
[Exit.]
AGAMEMNON.In second voice we’ll not be satisfied;We come to speak with him. Ulysses, enter you.
[ExitUlysses.]
AJAX.What is he more than another?
AGAMEMNON.No more than what he thinks he is.
AJAX.Is he so much? Do you not think he thinks himself a better man than I am?
AGAMEMNON.No question.
AJAX.Will you subscribe his thought and say he is?
AGAMEMNON.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.
AGAMEMNON.Your mind is 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.
Re-enterUlysses.
AJAX.I do hate a proud man as I do hate the engend’ring of toads.
NESTOR.[Aside.] And yet he loves himself: is’t not strange?
ULYSSES.Achilles will not to the field tomorrow.
AGAMEMNON.What’s his excuse?
ULYSSES.He doth rely on none;But carries on the stream of his dispose,Without observance or respect of any,In will peculiar and in self-admission.
AGAMEMNON.Why will he not, upon our fair request,Untent his person and share th’air with us?
ULYSSES.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 prideThat quarrels at self-breath. Imagin’d worthHolds in his blood such swol’n and hot discourseThat ’twixt his mental and his active partsKingdom’d Achilles in commotion rages,And batters down himself. What should I say?He is so plaguy proud that the death tokens of itCry ‘No recovery.’
AGAMEMNON.Let Ajax go to him.Dear lord, go you and greet him in his tent.’Tis said he holds you well; and will be ledAt your request a little from himself.
ULYSSES.O Agamemnon, let it not be so!We’ll consecrate the steps that Ajax makesWhen they go from Achilles. Shall the proud lordThat bastes his arrogance with his own seamAnd never suffers matter of the worldEnter his thoughts, save such as doth revolveAnd ruminate himself—shall he be worshipp’dOf that we hold an idol more than he?No, this thrice worthy and right valiant lordShall 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 Cancer when he burnsWith entertaining great Hyperion.This lord go to him! Jupiter forbid,And say in thunder ‘Achilles go to him.’
NESTOR.[Aside.] O, this is well! He rubs the vein of him.
DIOMEDES.[Aside.] And how his silence drinks up this applause!
AJAX.If I go to him, with my armed fist I’ll pash him o’er the face.
AGAMEMNON.O, no, you shall not go.
AJAX.An a’ be proud with me I’ll pheeze his pride.Let me go to him.
ULYSSES.Not for the worth that hangs upon our quarrel.
AJAX.A paltry, insolent fellow!
NESTOR.[Aside.] How he describes himself!
AJAX.Can he not be sociable?
ULYSSES.[Aside.] The raven chides blackness.
AJAX.I’ll let his humours blood.
AGAMEMNON.[Aside.] He will be the physician that should be the patient.
AJAX.And all men were o’ my mind—
ULYSSES.[Aside.] Wit would be out of fashion.
AJAX.A’ should not bear it so, a’ should eat’s words first.Shall pride carry it?
NESTOR.[Aside.] And ’twould, you’d carry half.
ULYSSES.[Aside.] A’ would have ten shares.
AJAX.I will knead him, I’ll make him supple.
NESTOR.[Aside.] He’s not yet through warm. Force him with praises; pour in, pour in; his ambition is dry.
ULYSSES.[To Agamemnon.] My lord, you feed too much on this dislike.
NESTOR.Our noble general, do not do so.
DIOMEDES.You must prepare to fight without Achilles.
ULYSSES.Why ’tis this naming of him does him harm.Here is a man—but ’tis before his face;I will be silent.
NESTOR.Wherefore should you so?He is not emulous, as Achilles is.
ULYSSES.Know the whole world, he is as valiant.
AJAX.A whoreson dog, that shall palter with us thus!Would he were a Trojan!
NESTOR.What a vice were it in Ajax now—
ULYSSES.If he were proud.
DIOMEDES.Or covetous of praise.
ULYSSES.Ay, or surly borne.
DIOMEDES.Or strange, or self-affected.
ULYSSES.Thank the heavens, lord, thou art of sweet composure.Praise him that gat thee, she that gave thee suck;Fam’d be thy tutor, and thy parts of natureThrice fam’d beyond, beyond all erudition;But he that disciplin’d thine arms to fight—Let Mars divide eternity in twainAnd give him half; and, for thy vigour,Bull-bearing Milo his addition yieldTo sinewy Ajax. I will not praise thy wisdom,Which, like a bourn, a pale, a shore, confinesThy 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 daysAs 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?
NESTOR.Ay, my good son.
DIOMEDES.Be rul’d by him, Lord Ajax.
ULYSSES.There is no tarrying here; the hart AchillesKeeps thicket. Please it our great generalTo call together all his state of war;Fresh kings are come to Troy. TomorrowWe must with all our main of power stand fast;And here’s a lord—come knights from east to westAnd cull their flower, Ajax shall cope the best.
AGAMEMNON.Go we to council. Let Achilles sleep.Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks draw deep.
[Exeunt.]