Cannot make boast to have that which he hath,
Nor feels not what he owes, but by reflection;
As when his virtues shining upon others
Heat them, and they retort that heat again
To the first giver.

Achil. This is not strange, Ulysses.

The beauty that is borne here in the face
The bearer knows not, but commends itself
To others' eyes: nor doth the eye itself
(That most pure spirit of sense,) behold itself,
Not going from itself; but eye to eye oppos'd
Salutes each other with each other's form.
For speculation turns not to itself,

Till it hath travell'd, and is married there
Where it may see itself: this is not strange at all.
Ulyss. I do not strain at the position,

It is familiar; but at the author's drift:
Who, in his circumstance, expressly proves-
That no man is the lord of any thing,

(Though in and of him there be much consisting,)
Till he communicate his parts to others:

Nor doth he of himself know them for aught

Till he behold them form'd in the applause

Where they are extended; which, like an arch, rever berates

The voice again; or like a gate of steel
Fronting the sun, receives and renders back

His figure and his heat. I was much rapt in this ;
And apprehended here immediately

The unknown Ajax.7

Heavens, what a man is there! a very horse ;

That has he knows not what. Nature, what things there are,

Most abject in regard, and dear in use !
What things again most dear in the esteem,

And poor in worth! Now shall we see to-morrow,
An act that very chance doth throw upon him,
Ajax renown'd. O heavens, what some men do,
While some men leave to do!

How some men creep in skittish fortune's hall,
Whiles others play the ideot in her eyes!
How one man eats into another's pride,
While pride is fasting in his wantonness!

[6] In the detail or circumduction of his argument. JOHNS.

[7] Ajax, who has abilities which were never brought into view or use

JOH NS.

To see these Grecian lords !-why, even already
They clap the lubber Ajax on the shoulder;
As if his foot were on brave Hector's breast,
And great Troy shrinking.

Achil. I do believe it: for they pass'd by me,
As misers do by beggars; neither gave to me
Good word, nor look: What, are my deeds forgot?
Ulyss. Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back,
Wherein he puts alms for oblivion,

A great-sized monster of ingratitudes :

Those scraps are good deeds past: which are devour'd As fast as they are made, forgot as soon

As done Perséverance, dear my lord,

Keeps honour bright: To have done, is to hang
Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail

In monumental mockery. Take the instant way:
For honour travels in a strait so narrow,

Where one but goes abreast: keep then the path;
For emulation hath a thousand sons,

That one by one pursue: If you give way,
Or hedge aside from the direct forthright,
Like to an enter'd tide, they all rush by,
And leave you hindmost ;-

Or, like a gallant horse fallen in first rank,
Lie there for pavement to the abject rear,

O'er-run and trampled on: Then what they do in present,
Though less than yours in past, must o'ertop yours:
For time is like a fashionable host,

That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand;
And with his arms out-stretch'd, as he would fly,
Grasps-in the comer: Welcome ever smiles,

And farewell goes out sighing. O, let not virtue seek Remuneration for the thing it was ;

For beauty, wit,

High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service,
Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all

To envious and calumniating time.

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,-
That all, with one consent, praise new-born gawds,
Though they are made and molded of things past;
And give to dust, that is a little gilt,

More laud than gilt o'er-dusted.

[8] I read :

And give to dust, that is a little gilt,

More laud than they will give to gold, o'er-dusted. THEO Gilt, in the second line, is a substantive.

MAL.

The present eye praises the present object :
Then marvel not, thou great and complete man,
That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax ;
Since things in motion sooner catch the eye,
Than what not stirs. The cry went once on thee,
And still it might; and yet it may again,

If thou wouldst not entomb thyself alive,

And case thy reputation in thy tent;

Whose glorious deeds, but in these fields of late,
Made emulous missions 'mongst the gods themselves, 9
And drave great Mars to faction.

Achil. Of this my privacy

I have strong reasons.

Ulyss. But 'gainst your privacy

The reasons are more potent and heroical :

"Tis known, Achilles, that you are in love With one of Priam's daughters."

Achil. Ha! known?

Ulyss. Is that a wonder?

The providence that's in a watchful state,

Knows almost every grain of Plutus' gold;

Finds bottom in the uncomprehensive deeps;

Keeps place with thought, 2 and almost, like the gods,
Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles.
There is a mystery (with whom relation
Durst never meddle)3 in the soul of state;
Which hath an operation more divine,

Than breath, or pen, can give expressure to :
All the commérce that you have had with Troy,
As perfectly is ours, as yours, my lord;
And better would it fit Achilles much,
To throw down Hector, than Polyxena:

But it must grieve young Pyrrhus now at home,
When fame shall in our islands sound her trump;
And all the Greekish girls shall tripping sing,-
Great Hector's sister did Achilles win;
But our great Ajax bravely beat down him.
Farewell, my lord: I as your lover speak;

[9] The meaning of mission seem to be, despatches of the gods from heaven about mortal business, such as often happened at the siege of Troy. JOH. [1] Polyxena, in the act of marrying whom, he was afterwards killed by Paris. STEEV.

[2] i. e. there is in the providence of a state, as in the providence of the universe, a kind of ubiquity. WARB.

Is there not here some allusion to that sublime description of the Divine Omnipresence in the 139th Psalm? HENLEY.

[3] There is a secret administration of affairs, which no history was ever able to discover. JOHNS,

The fool slides o'er the ice that you should break. [Exit.
Patr. To this effect, Achilles, have I mov'd you :
A woman impudent and mannish grown

Is not more loath'd than an effeminate man
In time of action. I stand condemn'd for this;
They think, my little stomach to the war,
And your great love to me, restrains you thus:
Sweet, rouse yourself; and the weak wanton Cupid
Shall from your neck unloose his amorous fold,
And, like a dew-drop from the lion's mane,

Be shook to air.

Achil. Shall Ajax fight with Hector ?

Patr. Ay; and, perhaps, receive much honour by him.
Achil. I see, my reputation is at stake;

My fame is shrewdly gor❜d.

Patr. O, then beware;

Those wounds heal ill, that men do give themselves :
Omission to do what is necessary

Seals a commission to a blank of danger;

And danger, like an ague, subtly taints

Even then when we sit idly in the sun.

Achil. Go call Thersites hither, sweet Patroclus:

I'll send the fool to Ajax, and desire him

To invite the Trojan lord after the combat,

To see us here unarm'd: I have a woman's longing,
An appetite that I am sick withal,

To see great Hector in his weeds of peace;
To talk with him, and to behold his visage,
Even to my full of view.

A labour sav'd!

Enter THERSITES.

Ther. A wonder!

Achil. What?

Ther. Ajax goes up and down the field, asking for himself.

Achil. How so?

Ther. He must fight singly to-morrow with Hector; and is so prophetically proud of an heroical cudgelling, that he raves in saying nothing.

Achil. How can that be?

Ther. Why, he stalks up and down like a peacock, a stride, and a stand: ruminates, like an hostess, that hath no arithmetic but her brain to set down her reckoning: bites his lip with a politic regard, as who should saythere were wit in this head, an 'twould out; and so there is; but it lies as coldly in him as fire in a flint, which will not show without knocking. The man's undone

for ever; for if Hector break not his reck i'the combat, he'll break it himself in vain-glory. He knows not me: I said, Good-morrow, Ajax ; and he replies, Thanks, Agamemnon. What think you of this man, that takes me for the general? He is grown a very land-fish, language-less, a monster. A plague of opinion! A man may wear it on both sides, like a leather jerkin.

Achil. Thou must be my embassador to him, Thersites. Ther. Who, I? why, he'll answer nobody; he professes not answering; speaking is for beggars; He wears his tongue in his arms. I will put on his presence; let Patroclus make demands to me, you shall see the pageant of Ajax.

Achil. To him, Patroclus: Tell him,-I humbly desire the valiant Ajax, to invite the most valorous Hector to come unarmed to my tent; and to procure safe conduct for his person, of the magnanimous, and most illustrious, six-or-seven-times-honoured captain-general of the Grecian army, Agamemnon. Do this.

Patr. Jove bless great Ajax.

Ther. Humph!

Patr. I come from the worthy Achilles,-
Ther. Ha!

Patr. Who most humbly desires you, to invite Hector to his tent !

Ther. Humph!

Patr. And to procure safe conduct from Agamemnon, Ther. Agamemnon ?

Patr. Ay, my lord.

Ther. Ha!

Patr. What say you to't?

Ther. God be wi' you, with all my heart.

Patr. Your answer, sir.

Ther. If to-morrow be a fair day, by eleven o'clock it will go one way or other; howsoever, he shall pay for me ere he has me.

Patr. Your answer, sir.

Ther. Fare you well, with all my heart.

Achil. Why, but he is not in this tune, is he?

Ther. No, but he's out o'tune thus. What music will be in him, when Hector has knocked out his brains, I know not: But, I am sure, none; unless the fiddler Apollo get his sinews to make catlings on.

Achil. Come, thou shalt bear a letter to him straight. Ther. Let me bear another to his horse; for that's the more capable creature.

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VOL. VII.