Pan. That's true; make no question of that.! One and fifty hairs, quoth he, and one white: That white hair is my father, and all the rest are his sons. Jupiter! quoth she, which of these hairs is Paris my husband? The forked one, quoth he; pluck it out, and give it him. But, there was such laughing; and Helen so blushed, and Paris so chafed, and all the rest so laughed, that it passed. Cres. So let it now; for it has been a great while going by. [day; think on't. Pan. Well, cousin, I told you a thing yesterCres. So I do.
Pan. I'll be sworn, 'tis true; he will weep you, an 'twere a man born in April.
Cres. And I'll spring up in his tears, an'twere a nettle against May. [A Retreat sounded. Pan. Hark, they are coming from the field: Shall we stand up here, and see them, as they pass toward Ilium? good niece, do; sweet niece Cressida.
![[blocks in formation]](https://books.google.hu/books/content?id=6YBK0UvA7xoC&hl=hu&output=html_text&pg=PA562&img=1&zoom=3&q=editions:HARVARD32044043849819&cds=1&sig=ACfU3U1uzyqX0EtZ6_vAtdp8bLjFxXTJrQ&edge=0&edge=stretch&ci=95,478,432,490)
Cres. What sneaking fellow comes yonder? TROILUS passes over.
Pan. Where? yonder? that's Deiphobus: "Tis Troilus! there's a man, niece!-Hem!-Brave Troilus! the prince of chivalry!
Cres, Peace, for shame, peace!
Pan. Mark him; Note him;-O brave Troilus-look well upon him, niece; look you, how his sword is bloodied, and his helm more hacked than Hector's: And how he looks, and how he goes!-0 admirable youth! he ne'er saw three and twenty. Go thy way, Troilus, go thy way; had I a sister were a grace, or a daughter a goddess, he should take his choice O admirable man! Paris ?-Paris is dirt to him; and, I warrant, Helen, to change, would give an eye to boot.
Forces pass over the stage. Cres. Here come more.
Pun. Asses, fools, dolts! chaff and bran, chaff die i' the eyes of Troilus. Ne'er look, ne'er and bran! porridge after meat! I could live and look; the eagles are gone; crows and daws,
crows and daws! I had rather be such a man as Troilus, than Agamemnon and all Greece.
Cres. There is among the Greeks, Achilles; a better man than Troilus. [camel.
Pun. Achilles? a drayman, a porter, a very Cres. Well, well.
Pan. Well, well?-Why, have you any discretion? have you any eyes? Do you know what a man is? Is not birth, beauty, good shape discourse, manhood, learning, gentleness, vir tue, youth, liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that season a man?
Cres. Ay, a minced man: and then to be baked with no date in the pie,-for then the man's date is ont.
Pan. You are such a woman! one knows not at what ward you lie.
Cres. Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon my wit to defend my wiles; and upon my secrecy, to defend mine honesty; my mask, to defend my beauty; and you, to defend all these : and at all these wards Ilie, at a thousand watches. Pan. Say one of your watches.
Cres. Nay, I'll watch you for that; and that's one of the chiefest of them too; if I cannot
for telling how I took the blow; unless it swell past hiding, and then it is past watching. Pan. You are such another!
Pan. Is'a not? It does a man's heart good-ward what I would not have hit, I can watch you Look you what hacks are on his helmet? look you yonder, do you see? look you there! There's no jesting: there's laying on; take't off who will, as they say: there be hacks! Cres. Be those with swords?
Pun. Swords? any thing, he cares not: an the devil come to him, it's all one: By god's lid, it does one's heart good:-Yonder comes Paris, yonder comes Paris: look ye yonder, niece; Is't not a gallant man too, is't not?— Why, this is brave now.-Who said he came hurt home to-day? he's not hurt: why this will do Helen's heart good now, Ha! would I could see Troilus now!-you shall see Troilus anon. Cres. Who's that?
HELENUS passes over. Pan. That's Helenus,-I marvel where Troilus is:-That's Helenus;-I think he went not forth to day-That's Helenus.
Cres. Can Helenus fight, uncle?
Pan. Helenus? no:-yes, he'll fight indifferent well:-I marvel, where Troilus is!-Hark; do you not hear the people cry, Troilus?-Helenus is a priest.
Boy. Sir, my lord would instantly speak with Pan. Where? [you.
Boy. At your own house; there he unarms him. Pan. Good boy, tell him I come: [Exit Boy. doubt he be hurt.-Fare ye well, good niece. Cres. Adieu, uncle.
Pan. I'll be with you, niece, by and by.
Cres. To bring, uncle,-
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 sa-
He offers in another's enterprise: [critice,
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 sne: Therefore this maxim out of love I teach,Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech: Then though my heart's content firm love doth bear,
Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear. [Exit.
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, [disasters
Fails in the promis'd largeness; checks and
Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd:
As knots, by the conflux 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'st 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 afin'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
The gentle Thetis, and, anon, behold
The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid moun-
tains 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 courage,
As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathise,
And, with an accent tun'd in self-same key,
Returns to chiding fortune.
Vlyss.
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
[To AGAMEMNON.
And thou most reverend for thy strech'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,
Should with a bond of air (strong as the axletree
On which heaven rides) knit all the Greekish
[both,-
To his experienc'd tongue,-yet let it please
Thou great and wise,-to hear Ulysses speak.
Agam. Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be't of
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
But for these instances.
[master,
The speciality 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 shall all repair,
What honey is expected? Degree being visarded,
The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask.
The heavens themselves, the planets, and this
Observe, degree, priority, and place, [centre,
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
In evil mixture, to disorder wander, planets,
What plagues, and what portents? what mutiny?
What raging of the sea? shaking of earth?
Commotion in the winds? frights, changes,
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate
The unity and married calm of states [shak'd,
Quite from their fixture? O, when degree is
Which is the ladder of all high designs,
The enterprise is sick! 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, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentick place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows! each thing
meets
In mere oppugnancy: The bounded waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores,
And make a sop of all this solid globe:
Strength should be lord of imbecility,
And the rude son should strike his father dead
Force should be right; or rather right and wrong
(Between whose endless jar justice resides),
Should lose their names, and so should justice
Theu every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite, an universal wolf,
So doubly seconded with will and power
Must make perforce an universal prey,
And, last, eat up himself. Great Agamemnon,
This chaos, when degree is suffocate,
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: so every step,
Exampled by the first pace that is sick
Of his superior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodless emulation;
And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,
Not her own sinews. To end a tale of length,
Troyin our weakness stands, not in her strength.
Nest. Most wiselyhath Ulysses here discover'd
The fever whereof all our power is sick.
Agam. The nature of the sickness found,
What is the remedy?
[Ulysses,
Ulyss. The great Achilles,-whom opinion
The sinew and the forehand of our host,-
Having his ear full of his airy fame,
Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent
Lies mocking our designs: With him, Patroclus,
Upon a lazy bed the livelong day
Breaks scurril jests;
And with ridiculous and awkward action
(Which, slanderer, he imitation calls)
How rank soever rounded in with danger.
Ulyss. They tax our policy, and call it cow-
ardice;
Count wisdom as no member of the war;
Forestall prescience, and esteem no act
But that of hand: the still and mental parts,---
That do contrive how many hands shall strike,
When fitness calls them on; and know by
Of their observant toil, the enemies' weight,--
Why, this hath not a finger's dignity:
They call this-bed-work, mappery, closet-war:
So that the ram, that batters down the wall,
For the great swing and rudeness of his poise,
Theyplace before his hand that made the engine;
Or those, that with the fineness of their souls
By reason guide his execution.
Nest. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse
Makes many Thetis' sons. [Trumpet sounds.
Agam. What trumpet? look, Menelaus.
Enter ENEAS.
Great Agamemnon's tent, I pray?
Agam.
Ene. May one, that is a herald and a prince,
Do a fair message to his kingly ears?
Agam. With surety stronger than Achilles' arm 'Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one Call Agamemnon head and general. [voice
Ene. Fair leave, and large security. How may
A stranger to those most imperial looks
Know them from eyes of other mortals?
Agam.
He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon,
Thy topless deputation he puts on;
And like a strutting player,-whose conceit
Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich
To hear the wooden dialogue and sound
'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage,
Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrested seeming
He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks,
'Tis like a chime a mending; with terms un-I
squar'd,
[dropp'd,
Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon
Would seem hyperboles. At this fusty stuff,
The large Achilles, on his press'd bed lolling,
From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause;
Cries-Excellent!-'tis Agamemnon just.-
Now play me Nestor;-hem, and stroke thy beard,
As he, being drest to some oration.
That's done;-as near as the extremest ends
Of parallels; as like as Vulcan and his wife:
Yet good Achilles still cries, Excellent!
'Tis Nestor right! Now play him me, Patroclus,
Arming to answer in a night alarm.
ask, that I might waken reverence,
And bid the cheek be ready with a blush
Modest as morning when she coldly eyes
The youthful Pho bus:
Which is that god in office, guiding men?
Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon?
Agam. This Trojan scorns us; or the men of
Are ceremonious courtiers.
Ene. Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm'd,
As bending angels; that's their fame in peace:
But when they would seem soldiers, they have
galls,
[Jove's accord :---
Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and,
Nothing so full of heart. But peace, Æneas,
Peace, Trojan; lay thy finger on thy lips!
The worthiness of praise distains his worth,
If that the prais'd himself bring the praise forth:
But what the repining enemy commends,
And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age
Must be the scene of mirth; to cough, and spit,
And, with a palsy-fumbling on his gorget,
Shake in and out the rivet:-and at this sport
Sir Valour dies; cries, O! enough, Patroclus;—That breath fame blows; that praise, sole pure,
Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all
In pleasure of my spleen. And in this fashion,
All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,
Severals and generals of grace exact,
Achievements, plots, orders, preventions,
Excitements to the field, or speech for truce,
Success, or loss, what is, or is not, serves
As stuff for these two to make paradoxes.
Nest. And in the imitation of these twain
(Whom, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns
With an imperial voice) many are infect.
Ajax is grown self-will'd; and bears his head
In such a rein, in full as proud a place
As broad Achilles: keeps his tent like him:
Makes factious feasts; rails on our state of war,
Bold as an oracle: and sets Thersites
(A slave, whose gall coins slanders like a mint)
To match us in comparisons with dirt;
To weaken and discredit our exposure,
transcends. [Eneas? Agom. Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself Ane. Ay, Greek, that is my name. Agam. What's your affair, I pray you? Ene. Sir, pardon; 'tis for Agamemnon's ears. Agam. He hears nought privately that comes
What Troy means fairly, shall be spoke aloud.
[Trumpet sounds.
We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy
A prince call'd Hector (Priam is his father),
Who in this dull and long continued truce
Is rusty grown; he bade me take a trumpet,
And to this purpose speak. Kings, princes, lords!
If there be one among the fairest of Greece,
That holds his honour higher than his ease;
That seeks his praise more than he fears his peril;
That knows his valour, and knows not his fear;
That loves his mistress more than in confession
(With truant vows to her own lips he loves),
And dare avow her beauty and her worth,
In other arms than hers,-to him this challenge,
Hector, in view of Trojans and of Greeks,
Shall make it good, or do his best to do it,
He hath a lady, wiser, fairer, truer,
Than ever Greek did compass in his arms;
And will to-morrow with his trumpet call,
Midway between your tents and walls of Troy,
To rouse a Grecian that is true in love:
If any come, Hector shall honour him;
If none, he'll say in Troy, when he retires,
The Grecian dames are sun-burn'd, and not
worth
The splinter of a lance. Even so much.
'Tis dry enough,-will with great speed of judg Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose [ment, Pointing on him.
Ulyss. And wake him to the answer, think
Nest.
Yes,
It is most meet; Whom may you else oppose.
That can from Hector bring those honours off,
If not Achilles? Though 't be a sportful combat,
Yet in the trial much opinion dwells;
For here the Trojans taste our dear'st repute
With their fin'st palate:And trust to me, Ulysses,
Our imputation shall be oddly pois'd
In this wild action: for the success,
Although particular, shall give a scantling
Of good or bad unto the general;
And in such indexes, although small pricks
To their subsequent volumes, there is seen
The baby figure of the giant mass
Of things to come at large. It is suppos'd.
He, that meets Hector, issues from our choice:
And choice, being mutual act of all our souls,
Makes merit her election; and doth boil,
As 'twere from forth us all, a man distill'd
Out of our virtues; Who miscarrying, [part,
What heart receives from hence a conquering
To steel a strong opinion to themselves?
Which entertain'd, limbs are his instruments,
Agam. This shall be told our lovers, lord In no less working than are swords and bows
Æneas:
If none of them have soul in such a kind,
We left them all at home: But we are soldiers:
And may that soldier a mere recreant prove,
That means not, hath not, or is not in love!
If then one is, or hath, or means to be,
That one meets Hector; if none else, I am he.
Nest. Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man
When Hector's grandsire suck'd: Heis old now;
But, if there be not in our Grecian host
One noble man, that hath one spark of fire
To answer for his love, Tell him from me,-
I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver,
And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn;
And, meeting him, will tell him that my lady
Was fairer than his grandame, and as chaste
As may be in the world: His youth in flood,
I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood.
Ene. Now heaven forbid such scarcity of
Ulyss. Amen.
[youth!
Agam. Fair lord Eneas, let me touch your
To our pavilion shall I lead you, sir. [hand;
Achilles shall have word of this intent;
So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent;
Yourself shall feast with us before you go,
And find the welcome of a noble foe.
[Exeunt all but ULYSSES and NESTOR. Ulyss. Nestor,
Nest. What says Ulysses?
Ulyss. I have a young conception in my brain,
Be you my time to bring it to some shape.
Nest. What is't?
Ulyss. This 'tis :
Blunt wedges rive hard knots: The seeded pride
That hath to this maturity blown up
In rank Achilles, must or now be cropp'd,
Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil,
To overbulk us all.
Nest.
Well, and how? [sends,
Ulyss. This challenge that the gallant Hector
However it is spread in general name,
Relates in purpose only to Achilles. [stance,
Nest. The purpose is perspicuous even as sub-
Whose grossness little characters sum up:
And in the publication make no strain,
But that Achilles, were his brain as barren
As banks of Libya,-though Apollo knows,
Ulyss. Give pardon to my speech:-
Therefore 'tis meet, Achilles meet not Hector.
Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares
And think, perchance, they'll sell; if not,
The lustre of the better shall exceed,
By showing the worse first. Do not consent,
That ever Hector and Achilles meet;
For both our honour and our shame, in this,
Are dogg'd with two strange followers.
Nest. I see them not with my old eyes; what
are they?
[Hector,
Ulyss. What glory our Achilles shares from
Were he not proud, we all should share with him:
But he already is too insolent;
And we were better parch in Africk sun,
Than in the pride and salt scorn of his eyes,
Should he 'scape Hector fair: if he were foil'd,
Why, then we did our main opinion crush
In taint of our best man. No, make a lottery;
And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw
The sort to fight with Hector: Among ourselves,
Give him allowance for the better man,
For that will physick the great Myrmidon,
Who broils in loud applause; and make him fall
His crest, that prouder than blue Iris bends.
If the dull brainless Ajax come safe off,
We'll dress him up in voices; If he fail,
Yet go we under our opinion still
That we have better men. But, hit or miss,
Our project's life this shape of sense assumes,-
Ajax, employ'd, plucks down Achilles' plumes.
Nest. Ulysses,
Now I begin to relish thy advice;
And I will give a taste of it forthwith
To Agamemnon: go we to him straight.
Two curs shall tame each other: Pride alone
Must tarre the mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone.
[Exeunt.
SCENE I. Another part of the Grecian Camp.
Enter AJAX and THERSITES.
Ajax. Thersites,-- [all over, generally?
Ther. Agamemnon-how if he had boils? full
Ajax. Thersites, and his pia mater is not worth the ninth part of Ther. And those boils did run?-Say so,-did a sparrow. This, lord Achilles, Ajax,-who not the general run then? were not that a botchy wears his wit in his belly, and his guts in his Ajax. Dog, [core? head, I'll tell you what I say of him.
Ther. Then would come some matter from him; I see none now.
Ajax. Thou bitch-wolf's son, canst thou not Feel then. [Strikes him. Ther. The plague of Greece upon thee, thou mongrel beef-witted lord!
Ajax. Speak then, thou unsalted leaven, speak! I will beat thee into handsomeness.
Ther. 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!
Ajar. Toads-stool, learn me the proclamation. Ther. Dost thou think, I have no sense, thou strikest me thus?
Ajax. The proclamation,-
Ther. Thou art proclaimed a fool, I think. Ajaz. Do not, porcupine, do not; my fingers itch.
Ther. 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 thon art forth in the incursions, thou strikest as slow as another.
Ajax. I say, the proclamation,—— Ther. 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 barkest at him.
Ajax. Mistress Thersites !
Ther. Thou shouldst strike him.
Ajax. Cobloaf!
Ther. He would pun thee into shivers with his fist, as a sailor breaks a biscuit. Ajax. You whoreson cur!
Ajax. Thon stool for a witch!
Ther. Ay, do, do; thou sodden-witted lord! thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows: an assinico may tutor thee: Thou scurvy valiant ass! thou art here put 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!
Thr. You scurvy lord! Ajax. You cur!
Ther. Mars his idiot! do, rudeness; do, camel; do, do.
Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS. Achil. Why, how now, Ajax? wherefore do you thus?
How, now, Thersites? what's the matter, man?
Ther. You see him there, do you?
Achil. Ay; what's the matter?
Ther. Nay, look upon him.
Achil. So I do; what's the matter?
Ther. Nay, but regard him well.
Achi. Well, why I do so.
Ther. But yet you look not well upon him: for, whosoever you take him to be, he is Ajax. Achil. I know that, fool.
Ther. Ay, but that fool knows not himself. Ajax. Therefore I beat thee,
Ther. Lo, lo, lo, lo, what modicums of wit he utters! his evasions have ears thus long. I have bobbed his brain, more than he has beat my bones: I will buy nine sparrows for a penny,
Achil. What?
Ther. I say, this Ajax
Achil. Nay, good Ajax.
[AJAX offers to strike him, ACHILLES interposes. Ther. Has not so much witAchil. Nay, I must hold you.
Ther, As will stop the eye of Helen's needle, for whom he comes to fight.
Ther. 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-
Achil. Will you set your wit to a fool's?
Ther. No, I warrant you: for a fool's will
Patr. Good words, Thersites, [shame it.
Achil. What's the quarrel?
Ajax. I bade the vile owl, go learn me the tenour of the proclamation, and he rails upon me. Ther. I serve thee not.
Ajax. Well, go to, go to.
Ther. I serve here voluntary.
Achil. Your last service was sufferance, 'twas not voluntary; no man is beaten voluntary: Ajax was here the voluntary, and you as under an impress.
Ther. Even so?-a great deal of your wit too lies in your sinews, or else there be liars, Hector shall have a great catch, if he knock out either of your brains; a' were as good crack a fusty nut with no kernel.
Achil. What, with me too, Thersites?
Ther. 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.
Achil. What, what? [Ajax! to! Ther. Yes, good sooth; To, Achilles! to, Ajax. I shall cut out your tongue. Ther. 'Tis no matter; I shall speak as much as thou afterwards,
Patr. No more words, Thersites; peace. Ther. I will hold my peace when Achilles' brach bids me, shall I?
Achil. There's for you, Patroclus.
Ther. I will see you hanged, 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.
Patr. A good riddance.
Achil. Marry this, sir, is proclaimed through
That Hector, by the first hour of the sun,
Will, with a trumpet, 'twixt our tents and Troy,
To-morrow morning call some knight to arms,
That hath a stomach; and such a one, that dare
Maintain-I know not what; 'tis trash; Farewell.
Ajax. Farewell. Who shall answer him?
Achil. I know not, it is put to lottery: other-
He knew his man.
[wise, Ajax. O, meaning you :-I'll go learn more of it. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Troy. A Room in Priam's Palace. Enter PRIAM, HECTOR, TROILUS, PARIS, and HELENUS.
Pri. After so many hours, lives, specches
|