Achievement is, command; ungain'd, befeech; Then though my heart's content firm love doth bear, Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear.
SCENE III. The Grecian Camp.
Trumpets. Enter AGAMEMNON, NESTOR, ULYSSES, MENELAUS, with others.
What grief hath fet the jaundice on your cheeks? The ample propofition, that hope makes
In all defigns begun on earth below,
Fails in the promis'd largenefs; checks and difafters
Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd;
As knots, by the conflux of meeting fap,
Infect the found pine, and divert his grain
Tortive and errant from his course of growth.
Nor, princes, is it matter new to us,
That we come short of our suppose so far,
That, after seven years' fiege, yet Troy walls ftand;
Sith every action that hath gone before,
Whereof we have record, trial did draw
Bias and thwart, not anfwering the aim,
And that unbodied figure of the thought
That gav't furmifed fhape. Why then, you princes,
Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works;
And think them fhames, which are, indeed, nought
But the protractive trials of great Jove,
To find perfiftive conftancy in men?
The fineness of which metal is not found
In fortune's love for then, the bold and coward, The wife and fool, the artist and unread,
The hard and foft, feem all affin'd and kin:
But, in the wind and tempeft of her frown,
Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
And what hath mass, or matter, by itself
Lies, rich in virtue, and unmingled.
Neft. With due obfervance of thy godlike feat, Great Agamemnon, Neftor fhall apply
Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance
Lies the true proof of men: The sea being smooth,
How many fhallow bauble boats dare fail
Upon her patient breast, making their way
With those of nobler bulk?
But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis, and, anon, behold
The ftrong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains
Bounding between the two moist elements, [cut,
Like Perfeus' horfe: Where's then the faucy boat,
Whofe weak untimber'd fides but even now
Co-rival'd greatness? either to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even fo
Doth valour's fhew, and valour's worth, divide
In ftorms of fortune: For, in her ray and brightness,
The herd hath more annoyance by the brize,
Than by the tyger: but when splitting winds
Make flexible the knees of knotted oaks,
And flies flee under fhade, Why, then, the thing of courage,
As rouz'd with rage, with rage doth fympathize, And with an accent tun'd in felf-fame key, Returns to chiding fortune.
Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece, Heart of our numbers, foul and only fpirit,
In whom the tempers and the minds of all
Should be fhut up,-hear what Ulyffes fpeaks.
Befides the applause and approbation
The which,-moft mighty for thy place and fway,--
[To AGAMEMNON.
And thou most reverend for thy ftretcht-out life,-
To NESTOR
I give to both your fpeeches,-which were fach,
As Agamemnon and the hand of Grecce
Should hold up high in brafs: and fuch again,
As venerable Neftor, hatch'd in filver,
Should with a bond of air (strong as the axle-tree
On which heaven rides) knit all the Greekish ears
To his experienc'd tongue,-yet let it please both,―
Thou great, and wife,-to hear Ulyffes fpeak.
Aga. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be't of lefs
expect
That matter needlefs, of importless burden,
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,
When rank Therfites opes his mastiff jaws,
We fhall hear mufic, wit, and oracle.
Uly. Troy, yet upon her bafis, had been down, And the great Hector's fword had lack'd a master, But for thefe inftances.
The fpeciality of rule hath been neglected;
And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand
Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions.
When that the general is not like the hive,
To whom the foragers fhall all repair,
What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,
The unworthieft fhews as fairly in the mafk.
The heavens themfelves, the planets, and this centre,
Obferve degree, priority, and place,
Infifture, course, proportion, feason, form,
Office, and cuftom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorius planet, Sol,
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
Amidst the other; whofe med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill afpects of planets evil,
And pofts, like the commandment of a king,
Sans check, to good and bad: But, when the planets,
In evil mixture, to diforder wander,
What plagues, and what portents? what mutiny?
What raging of the fea? fhaking of earth?
Commotion in the winds? fright, changes, horrors,
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate
The unity and married calm of states
Quite from their fixure? O, when degree is shak'd,
Which is the ladder to all high defigns,
The enterprize is fick! How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, fceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets
In meer oppugnancy: The bounded waters
Should lift their bofoms higher than the shores,
And make a fop of all this folid globe:
Strength fhould be lord of imbecility,
And the rude fon fhould strike his father dead:
Force fhould be right; or, rather, right and wrong
(Between whofe endless jar justice refides)
Should lofe their names, and fo fhould justice too.
Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite, an univerfal wolf,
So doubly feconded with will and power,
Must make perforce an universal prey,
And, laft, eat up himself. Great Agamemnon,
This chaos, when degree is fuffocate,
Follows the choking.
And this neglection of degree it is,
That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose
It hath to climb: The general's disdain'd
By him one step below; he, by the next;
That next, by him beneath: fo every step,
Exampled by the first pace that is fick
Of his fuperior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodlefs emulation:
And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,
Not her own finews. To end a tale of length,
Troy in our weakness stands, not in her ftrength.
Neft. Moft wifely hath Ulyffes here discover'd
The fever whereof all our power is fick.
Aga. The nature of the fickness found, Ulyffes, What is the remedy?
Uly. The great Achilles,-whom opinion crowns The finew and the forehand of our hoft,Having his ear full of his airy fame,
Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent
Lies mocking our defigns: With him, Patroclus,
Upon a lazy bed, the livelong day
And with ridiculous and aukward action
(Which, flanderer, he imitation calls)
He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon,
Thy toplefs deputation he puts on;
And, like a ftrutting player, whose conceit
Lies in his ham-ftring, and doth think it rich
To hear the wooden dialogue and found
'Twixt his ftretch'd footing and the scaffoldage,
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