Pan. Ay, a token from Troilus.

Cres. By the same token-you are a bawd.

[Exit PANDARUS. Words, vows, griefs, tears, and love's full sacrifice, He offers in another's enterprize:

But more in Troilus thousand fold I see
Than in the glass of Pandar's praise may be;
Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing:
Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing:
That she belov'd knows nought, that knows not

this,

Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is:
That she was never yet, that ever knew
Love got so sweet, as when desire did sue:
Therefore this maxim out of love I teach,-
Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech:5
Then though my heart's content firm love doth bear,
Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear. [Exit.

SCENE III.

The Grecian Camp. Before Agamemnon's Tent. Trumpets. Enter AGAMEMNON, NESTOR, ULYSSES, MENELAUS, and Others.

Agam. Princes,

What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks? The ample proposition, that hope makes

In all designs begun on earth below,

Fails in the promis'd largeness: checks and disasters Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd;

5 Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech :] The meaning of this obscure line seems to be" Men, after possession, become our commanders: before it, they are our suppliants." my heart's content -] Content for capacity, or perhaps

6

for consent.

As knots, by the conflúx of meeting sap,
Infect the sound 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' siege, yet Troy walls stand;
Sith every action that hath gone before,
Whereof we have record, trial did draw
Bias and thwart, not answering the aim,
And that unbodied figure of the thought

That gav't surmised shape. Why then, you princes,
Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works;
And think them shames, which are, indeed, nought
else

But the protractive trials of great Jove,
To find persistive constancy in men ?
The fineness of which metal is not found

In fortune's love: for then, the bold and coward,
The wise and fool, the artist and unread,

The hard and soft, seem all affin'd' and kin:
But, in the wind and tempest 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.

Nest. With due observance of thy godlike seat, Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply

Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance
Lies the true proof of men: the sea being smooth,
How many shallow bauble boats dare sail

Upon her patient breast, making their way
With those of nobler bulk?

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage

7affin'd] i. e. joined by affinity.

8

Nestor shall apply-] Perhaps Nestor means, that he will attend particularly to, and consider, Agamemnon's latest words.

The gentle Thetis, and, anon, behold

The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut,
Bounding between the two moist elements,

Like Perseus' horse: Where's then the saucy boat,
Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now
Co-rival'd greatness? either to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so
Doth valour's show, and valour's worth, divide,
In storms of fortune: For, in her ray and brightness,
The herd hath more annoyance by the brize,'
Than by the tiger; but when the splitting wind
Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks,

And flies fled under shade,' Why, then, the thing of
2
courage,

As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize,
And, with an accent turn'd in self-same key,

Returns to chiding3 fortune.

Ulyss.

Agamemnon,

Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece,
Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit,
In whom the tempers and the minds of all
Should be shut up,-hear what Ulysses speaks.
Besides the applause and approbation

The which,-most mighty for thy place and sway,-
[To AGAMEMNON.
And thou most reverend for thy stretch'd-out life,—
[TO NESTOR.
I give to both your speeches,-which were such,
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece
Should hold up high in brass; and such again,
As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver,

9 by the brize,] The brize is the gad or horse-fly. And flies fled under shade,] i. e. And flies are fled under shade.

the thing of courage,] It is said of the tiger, that in storms and high winds he rages and roars most furiously. 3 Returns to chiding-] Chiding is noisy, clamorous.

Should with a bond of air (strong as the axletree
On which heaven rides,) knit all the Greekish ears
To his experienc'd tongue,-yet let it please both,-
Thou great, and wise, to hear Ulysses speak.
Agam. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be't of less
5
expect,

That matter needless, of importless burden,
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,
When rank Thersites opes his mastiff jaws,
We shall hear musick, wit, and oracle.

Ulyss. Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down, And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master, But for these instances.

The specialty 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,"

4 speeches,-which were such,

As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece
Should hold up high in brass; and suck again,
As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver,
Should with a bond of air-

knit all the Greekish ears

To his experienc'd tongue,] Ulysses begins his oration with praising those who had spoken before him, and marks the cha racteristick excellencies of their different eloquence,—strength, and sweetness, which he expresses by the different metals on which he recommends them to be engraven for the instruction of posterity. The speech of Agamemnon is such that it ought to be engraven in brass, and the tablet held up by him on the one side, and Greece on the other, to show the union of their opinion. And Nestor ought to be exhibited in silver, uniting all his audience in one mind by his soft and gentle elocution. Brass is the common emblem of strength, and silver of gentleness. We call a soft voice a silver voice, and a persuasive tongue a silver tongue. To hatch is a term of art for a particular method of engraving. Hacher, to cut, Fr. The Commentators differ in some respects from this explanation.

S expect-] Expect for expectation.

6 The specialty of rule-] The particular rights of supreme authority.

To whom the foragers shall all repair,

What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,
The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask.
The heavens themselves, the planets, and this
center,8

Observe degree, priority, and place,
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
Office, and custom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol,
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
Amidst the other; whose med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,
And posts, like the commandment of a king,
Sans check, to good and bad: But, when the planets,
In evil mixture, to disorder wander,

What plagues, and what portents? what mutiny?
What raging of the sea? shaking of earth?
Commotion in the winds? frights, 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 of all high designs,

The enterprize is sick! How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,'
Peaceful commérce from dividable shores,*

7 When that the general is not like the hive,] The meaning is,When the general is not to the army like the hive to the bees, the repository of the stock of every individual, that to which each particular resorts with whatever he has collected for the good of the whole, what honey is expected? what hope of advantage? The sense is clear, the expression is confused. JOHNSON.

8 the planets, and this center,] By this center, Ulysses means the earth itself, not the center of the earth. According to the system of Ptolemy, the earth is the center round which the planets move.

1

9 deracinate] i. e. force up by the roots.

brotherhoods in cities,] Corporations, companies, con

fraternities.

2- dividable shores,] i. e. divided.