That we have stolen what we do fear to keep!
But, thieves, unworthy of a thing so stolen,
That in their country did them that disgrace,
We fear to warrant in our native place!
Cas. [Within.] Cry, Trojans, cry!

Pri.

What noise? what shriek is this? Tro. "Tis our mad sister, I do know her voice, Cas. [Within.] Cry, Trojans! Hect. It is Cassandra.

Enter CASSANDRA, raving.

Cas. Cry, Trojans, cry! lend me ten thousand eyes, And I will fill them with prophetic tears.

Hect. Peace, sister, peace.

Cas. Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled elders,1

Soft infancy, that nothing canst but cry,
Add to my clamours! let us pay betimes
A moiety of that mass of moan to come.
Cry, Trojans, cry! practise your eyes with tears!
Troy must not be, nor goodly Ilion stand;2
Our fire-brand brother, Paris, burns us all.3
Cry, Trojans, cry! a Helen, and a woe:
Cry, cry! Troy burns, or else let Helen go.
Hect. Now, youthful Troilus, do not these

strains

Of divination in our sister, work
Some touches of remorse? or is your blood
So madly hot, that no discourse of reason,
Nor fear of bad success in a bad cause,
Can qualify the same?

Tro.

[Exit. high

Why, brother Hector,
We may not think the justness of each act
Such and no other than event doth form it;
Nor once deject the courage of our minds
Because Cassandra's mad: her brainsick raptures
Cannot distaste the goodness of a quarrel,
Which hath our several honours all engag'd
To 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 us
Such things as might offend the weakest spleen
To fight for and maintain!

Par. Else might the world convinces of levity
As well my undertakings, as your counsels:
But I attest the gods, your full consent"
Gave wings to my propension, and cut off

All fears attending on so dire a project.

For what, alas! can these my single arms?
What propugation is in one man's valour,
To stand the push and enmity of those
This 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.

Pri.
Paris, you speak
Like one besotted on your sweet delights:
You have the honey still, but these the gall;
So to be valiant, is no praise at all.

Par. Sir, I propose not merely to myself

1 The quarto thus. The folio reads wrinkled old," which Ritson thinks should be wrinkled eld. Shak. speare has idle-headed eld,' and 'palsied eld,' in other places.

2 See p. 157, note 5. This line brings to mind one in the second book of the Eneid :

'Trojaque nunc stares, Priamique arx alta maneres.'

The pleasures such a beauty brings with it;
But I would have the so of her fair rape
Wip'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 up,

On terms of base compulsion? Can it be,
That so degenerate a strain as this

Should once set footing in your generous bosoms?
There's not the meanest spirit on our party,
Without a heart to dare, or sword to draw,
Whose life were ill bestow'd, or death unfam'd,
When Helen is defended; nor none so noble,
Where Helen is the subject: then, I say,
Well may we fight for her, whom we know well,
The world's large spaces cannot parallel.

Hect. Paris, and Troilus, you have both said well:
And on the cause and question now in hand
Have gloz'd,3-but superficially; not much
Unlike young men, whom Aristotle 10 thought
Unfit to hear moral philosophy:

The reasons you allege, do more conduce
To the hot passion of distemper'd blood,
Than to make up a free determination

Twixt right and wrong; For pleasure, and revenge,
Have ears more deaf than adders to the voice
Of any true decision. Nature craves,
All dues be render'd to their owners; Now
What nearer debt in all humanity,
Than wife is to the husband? if this law
Of nature be corrupted through affection;
And that great minds, of 11 partial indulgence
To their benumbed wills, resist the same;
There is a law in each well-order'd nation,
To curb those raging appetites that are
Most disobedient and refractory.
If Helen, then, be wife to Sparta's king,-
As it is known she is,-these moral laws
Of nature, and of nations, speak aloud
To have her back return'd: Thus to persist
But makes it much more heavy. Hector's opinion
In doing wrong, extenuates not wrong,
Is this, in way of truth: yet, ne'ertheless,
My spritely brethren, I propend12 to you
In resolution to keep Helen still;

For 'tis a cause that hath no mean dependance
Upon our joint and several dignities.

Tro. Why, there you touch'd the life of our
design:

Were it not glory that we more affected
Than the performance of our heaving spleens,
I would not wish a drop of Trojan blood
Spent 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:13
For I presume, brave Hector would not lose
So rich advantage of a promis'd glory,
As smiles upon the forehead of this action,
For the wide world's revenue.
Hect.

I am yours,

10 We may be amused at Hector's mention of Aristotle, but Let it be remembered (says Steevens) as often as Shakspeare's anachronisms occur, that errors in computing time were very frequent in those ancient romances which seem to have formed the greater part of his library. These old writers perhaps did not think an attention to chronology any part of the duty of a wri

5 i. e. to make it graceful, to grace it, to set it off. 6 To convince and to convict were synonymous with our ancestors. The word was also used for to overcome, and will generally be found in Shakspeare with that signification. See Baret's Alvearie, C. 1244.

7 Consent is agreement, accord, approbation. 8 Rape and ravishment anciently signified only seizing or carrying away. Indeed the Rape of Helen is merely Raptus Helena, without any idea of personal violence.

9 Gloz'd here means commented. See King Henry V. Act i. Sc. 2.

and distinguished writers of the present age, in his ad. mirable historical novels, blends circumstances of varitogether who were not contemporaries; yet his lan ous periods, and exhibits persons on the stage of action guage, manners, and costume are in admirable keeping 11 Through.

12 Incline to, as a question of honour.

13 The hope of being registered as a saint is rather out of its place at so early a period as this of the Trojan war,' says Steevens. It is not so meant, the expression must not be taken literay; it merely means be inminibus' is rendered by old translators, 'to be cano scribed among the heroes or demigods.' 'Ascribi nunized, or made a saint.'

SCENE III. The Grecian Camp. Before Achilles' Tent. Enter THERSITES.

Ther. 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 railed 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 othy Caduceus ;3 if ye take not that little little less-than-little wit from them that they have! which short-armed 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 bone-ache! for that, methinks, is the curse dependant on those that war for a placket. I have said my prayers; and devil, envy, say Amen. What, ho! my lord Achilles !

Enter PATROCLUS.

Patr. Who's there? Thersites? Good Thersites, come in and rail.

Ther. If I could have remembered a gilt counterfeit, thou wouldst not have slipped 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?

Patr. What, art thou devout? wast thou in prayer?

Ther. Ay; The heavens hear me !
Enter ACHILLES.

Achil. Who's there?

Patr. Thersites, my lord.

Achil. Where, 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?

Ther. Thy commander, Achilles :-Then tell me, Patroclus, what's Achilles?

Patr. Thy lord, Thersites; Then tell me, I pray thee, what's thyself?

Ther. Thy knower, Patroclus; Then tell me, Patroclus, what art thou?

Patr. Thou mayest tell, that knowest,

1 Blustering.

Ther. Agamemnon is a fool; Achilles is a fool: Thersites is a fool; and, as aforesaid, Patroclus is a fool.

Achil. Derive this; come.

Ther. 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 Patroclus is a fool positive. Patr. Why am I a fool?

Ther. Make that demand of the prover.-It sut fices me, thou art. Look you, who comes here! Enter AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES, NESTOR, DIO

MEDES, and AJAX. Achil. Patroclus, I'll speak with nobody :-Come in with me, Thersites. [Exit.

Ther. Here is such patchery, such juggling, and such knavery! all the argument is, a cuckold and a whore; a good quarrel, to draw emulous" factions, and bleed to death upon! Now the dry serpigo1o on the subject! and war, and lechery, confound all!

Agam. Where is Achilles?

[Exit.

Patr. Within his tent: but ill dispos'd, my lord. Agam. Let it be known to him, that we are here. He shent11 our messengers; and we lay by Our appertainments, visiting of him: Let him be told so; lest, perchance, he think, We dare not move the question of our place, Or know not what we are. Patr.

I shall say so to him. [Exit. Ulyss. We saw him at the opening of his tent; He is not sick.

Ajaz. 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.

[Takes AGAMEMNON aside.

Nest. What moves Ajax thus to bay at him?
Ulyss. Achilles hath inveigled his fool from him.
Nest. Who? Thersites?
Ulyss. He.

Nest. Then will Ajax lack matter, if he have lost his argument.

Ulyss. No; you see he is his argument, that has his argument; Achilles.

Nest. All the better; their fraction is more our wish, than their faction: But it was a strong com posure,12 a fool could disunite.

Ulyss. The amity that wisdom knits not, folly may easily untie. Here comes Patroclus. Re-enter PATROCLUS.

Nest. No Achilles with him.

Ulyss. The elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy: his legs are legs for necessity, not for flexure.13

Greene's Thieves falling out, true Men come by their Goods.

6 Thy blood means thy passions, thy natural propen

devour, and travaile to do as well as another: emulatio

is such kinde of envy.'

3 The ward of Mercury is wreathed with serpents. So Martial, lib. vii. epig. lxxiv. :

Cyllenes cœlique decus! facunde minister
Aurea cui torto virga dracone viret."

4 In the quarto the Neapolitan bone-ache!' 5 To understand this joke it should be known that counterfeit and slip were synonymous:- And therefore he went out and got him certain slips, which are counterfeit pieces of money, being brasse, and covered over with silver, which the common people call slips.'

Patr. Achilles bids me say-he is much sorry, If any thing more than your sport and pleasure Did move your greatness, and this noble state' To call upon him; he hopes, it is no other, But, for your health and your digestion sake, An after-dinner's breath.2

Agam.
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 reason
Why 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 him,
We come to speak with him: And you shall not sin,
If you do say we think him over-proud,
And under-honest; in self-assumption greater
Than in the note of judgment; and worthier than
himself

Here tend the savage strangeness he puts on;
Disguise the holy strength of their command,
And underwrite in an observing kind
His humorous predominance; yea, watch
His pettish lunes,' his ebbs, his flows, as if
The passage and whole carriage of this action
Rode on his tide. Go, tell him this; and add,
That, if he overhold his price so much,
We'll none of him; but let him, like an engine
Not portable, lie under this report-
Bring action hither, this cannot go to war:
A stirring dwarf we do allowance give
Before a sleeping giant :-Tell him so.

Patr. I shall; and bring his answer presently.

[Exit.

Agam. In second voice we'll not be satisfied, We come to speak with him.-Ulysses, enter.

[Exit ULYSSES.

Ajax. What is he more than another?
Agam. No more than what he thinks he is.
Ajar. Is he so much? Do you not think, he

thinks himself a better man than I am?

Agam. No question.

Ajax. Will you subscribe his thought, and say

--he is?

Agam. No, noble Ajax; you are as strong, as valiant, as wise, no less noble, much more gentle, and altogether more tractable.

Ajar. Why should a man be proud? How doth pride grow? I know not what pride is.

Agam. Your mind's 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.?

1 This stately train of attending nobles.

2 Breath for breathing; i. e. exercise, relaxation. 'It is the breathing time of the day with me.' 3 i. e. attend upon the brutish distant arrogance or rude haughtiness he assumes. Thus in Proverbs, xxi. 8: The way of man is froward and strange.'

4 To underwrite is synonymous with to subscribe, which is used by Shakspeare in several places for to yield, to submit.

5 Fitful lunacies. The quarto reads:

His course and time, his ebbs and flows, and if The passage and whole stream of his commencement Rode on his tide.'

6 Allowance is approbation.

7 We have this sentiment before in Act i. Sc. 3:The worthiness of praise disdains his worth, If that the prais'd himself the praise bring forth.' Malone has cited a passage from Coriolanus in both instances, which has nothing in it of similar sentiment, and which he could neither comprehend nor explain. See Coriolanus, Act iv. Sc. 7.

8 See Goldsmith's History of the Earth and Animated Nature.

ness;

And speaks not to himself, but with a pride
Holds in his blood such swoln and hot discourse,
That quarrels at self-breath: imagin'd worth
That, 'twixt his mental and his active parts,
Kingdom'd Achilles in commotion rages,
And batters down himself: What should I say?
He is so plaguy proud, that the death tokens1 o j
Cry No recovery.

Agam.
Let Ajax go to him.—
Dear lord, go you and greet him in his tent:
'Tis said, he holds you well: and will be led,
At your request, a little from himself.

Ulyss. O Agamemnon, let it not be so!
We'll consecrate the steps that Ajax makes
When they go from Achilles; Shall the proud lord.
That bastes his arrogance with his own seam;"
And never suffers matter of the world
Enter his thoughts,-save such as do revolve
And ruminate himself,-shall he be worshipp'd

Of that we hold an idol more than he?
No, this thrice worthy and right valiant lord
Must not so stale his palm, nobly acquir'd;
Nor, by my will, assubjugate his merit,
By going to Achilles:
As amply titled as Achilles is,

That were to enlard his fat-already pride;
And add more coals to Cancer, 12 when he burns
With entertaining great Hyperion.
This lord go to him! Jupiter forbid,
And say in thunder-Achilles, go to him.
Nest. O, this is well; he rubs the vein of him.
[Aside.
Dio. And how his silence drinks up this applause'

Aside.

Ajax. If I go to him, with my arm'd fist I'll Over the face. pash him

Agam. O, no, you shall not go.

Ajar. An he be proud with me, I'll pheeze1 his pride:

Let me go to him.

Ulyss. Not for the worth that hangs upon our

13 Scyphus ei impactus est.

Thomson. Baret.

'He was pashed over the pate with a pot.' The word is used twice by Massinger in his Virgin Martyr; and Mr. Gifford has adduced an instance from Dryden; he justly observes, it is to be regretted that the word is now obsolete, as we have none that can ade quately supply its place. To dash signifying to throw one thing with violence against another; to pash is to strike a thing with such force as to crush it to pieces. 11 See note on the Induction to the Taming of the Shrew.

15 Not for the value of that for which we are fighting

Ajax. I'll knead him, I will make him supple:Nest. He's not yet thorough warm: force him with praises:

Pour in, pour in; his ambition is dry. [Aside.
Ulyss. My lord, you feed too much on this dislike.
[To AGAMEMNON.
Nest. O noble general, do not do so.
Dio. You must prepare to fight without Achilles.
Ulyss. Why, 'tis this naming of him does him
harm.

Here is a man-But 'tis before his face;
I will be silent.

Nest.

Wherefore should you so?

He is not emulous, as Achilles is.

Ulyss. Know the whole world, he is as valiant.

Ajax. A whoreson dog, that shall palter thus

with us!

Ulyss.

What a vice

If he were proud?

Dio. Or covetous of praise?
Ulyss

Ay, or surly borne ?
Dio. Or strange, or self-affected?
Ulyss. Thank the heavens, lord, thou art of
sweet composure;

Praise him that got thee, she that gave thee suck:
Fam'd be thy tutor, and thy parts of nature
Thrice-fam'd, beyond all erudition :5

But he that disciplin'd thy arms to fight,
Let Mars divide eternity in twain,
And give him half: and, for thy vigour,
Bull-bearing Milo his addition yield

To sinewy Ajax. I will not praise thy wisdom,
Which, like a bourn," pale, a shore, confines
Thy 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 days

As 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?

Nest. Ay, my good son. Dio.

Be rul'd by him, lord Ajax. Ulyss. There is no tarrying here; the hart Achilles Keeps thicket. Please it our great general To call together all his state of war; Fresh kings are come to Troy: To-morrow, We must with all our main of power stand fast:

1 There is a curious collection of Epigrams, Satires, &c. printed in 1600, with this quaint title :- The Let ting of Humours Blood in the Head Vaine. A small reimpression was made at Edinburgh in 1815, with a preface and notes by Sir Walter Scott.

2 Force him, that is stuff him: farcir, Fr. In another place of this play we have malice forced with wit. 3 See the preceding scene.

4 To palter is to shuffle, equivocate.

5 The quarto reads :--

'Thrice fam'd beyond all thy erudition."

6 i. e. yield his titles, his celebrity for strength. See Act i. Sc. 2.

7 A bourn is a boundary, and sometimes a rivulet, W

SCENE I. Troy. A Room in Priam's Palace. Enter PANDARUS and a Servant.

Pan. Friend! you! pray you, a word: Do not you follow the young lord Paris?

Serv. Ay, sir, when he goes before me.
Pan. You do depend upon him, I mean?
Serv. Sir, I do depend upon the lord.

Pan. You do depend upon a noble gentleman; must needs praise him.

Serv. The lord be praised!

Pan. You know me, do you not?

Serv. 'Faith, sir, superficially.

Pan. Friend, know me better; I am the Lord Pandarus.

Serv. I hope, I shall know your honour better." Pan. I do desire it.

Serv. You are in the state of grace.

[Music within. Pan. Grace! not so, friend! honour and lordship are my titles:-What music is this?

Serv. I do but partly know, sir; it is music in parts.

Pan. Know you the musicians?

Serv. Wholly, sir.

Pan. Who play they to?

Serv. To the hearers, sir.

Pan. At whose pleasure, friend?

Serv. At mine, sir, and theirs that love music.

Pan. Command, I mean, friend.

Serv. Who shall I command, sir?

Pan. Friend, we understand not one another; I am too courtly, and thou art too cunning: At whose request do these men play?

Serv. That's to't, indeed, sir: Marry, sir, at the request of Paris, my lord, who is there in person; with him, the mortal Venus, the heart-blood of beauty, love's invisible soul,

Pan. Who, my cousin Cressida?

Serv. No, sir, Helen: Could you not find out that by her attributes?

Pan. It should seem, fellow, that thou hast not seen the lady Cressida. I come to speak with Paris from the Prince Troilus: I will make a complimental assault upon him, for my business seeths. Serv. Sodden business! there's a stewed phrase, indeed!

Enter PARIS and HELEN, attended.

Pan. Fair be to you, my lord, and to all this fair company! fair desires, in all fair measure, fairly guide them! especially to you, fair queen! fair thoughts be your fair pillow!

Helen. Dear lord, you are full of fair words. Pan. You speak your fair pleasure, sweet queen.Fair prince, here is good broken music.

Par. You have broke it, cousin: and, by my life, you shall make it whole again; you shall piece it out with a piece of your performance :-Nell, he is full of harmony.

Pan. Truly, lady, no.

dividing one place from another. As in the line of the old ballad Edgar sings in Lear, Act iii. Sc. 6:

Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me.'

8 Shakspeare probably had a custom prevalent about his own time in his thoughts. Ben Jonson had many who called themselves his sons. Cotton dedicates his

book on Angling to his father Walton; and Ashmole, in his Diary observes, April 3, Mr. William Backhouse of Swallowfield, in com. Berks, caused me to call him father thenceforward.'

9 The servant means to quibble. He hopes Pandarus will become a better man than he is at present. In his next speech he chooses to understand Pandarus as if he had said he wished to grow better; and hence the servant affirms that he is in the state of grace.