The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 6 of 9]

Agam. Princes,[1085]
What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks?[1086]
The ample proposition that hope makes [1087]
In all designs begun on earth below
Fails in the promised largeness: checks and disasters 5
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 [1088]
Tortive and errant from his course of growth.
Nor, princes, is it matter new to us 10
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,[1089]
Whereof we have record, trial did draw
Bias and thwart, not answering the aim 15
And that unbodied figure of the thought
That gave't surmised shape. Why then, you princes,
Do you with checks abash'd behold our works,[1090]
And call them shames? which are indeed nought else [1091]
But the protractive trials of great Jove 20
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 affined and kin: 25
But in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction with a broad and powerful fan [1092]
Puffing at all winnows the light away,
And what hath mass or matter, by itself [1093]
Lies rich in virtue and unmingled. 30

Nest. With due observance of thy godlike seat,[1094]
Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply [1095]
Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance [1096]
Lies the true proof of men: the sea being smooth,
How many shallow bauble boats dare sail 35
Upon her patient breast, making their way [1097]
With those of nobler bulk![1098]
But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis, and anon behold
The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut,[1099] 40
Bounding between the two moist elements,
Like Perseus' horse: where's then the saucy boat,
Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now
Co-rivall'd greatness? either to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so [1100] 45
Doth valour's show and valour's worth divide
In storms of fortune: for in her ray and brightness [1101]
The herd hath more annoyance by the breese [1102]
Than by the tiger; but when the splitting wind [1103]
Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks,[1103] 50
And flies fled under shade, why then the thing of courage [1104]
As roused with rage with rage doth sympathize,
And with an accent tuned in selfsame key [1105]
Retorts to chiding fortune.[1106]

Ulyss. Agamemnon,
Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece,[1107] 55
Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit,[1108]
In whom the tempers and the minds of all
Should be shut up, hear what Ulysses speaks.
Besides the applause and approbation
The which, [To Agamemnon] most mighty for thy place and sway,[1109]60
[To Nestor] And thou most reverend for thy stretch'd-out life,[1110]
I give to both your speeches, which were such
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece [1111]
Should hold up high in brass, and such again
As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver,[1112] 65
Should with a bond of air, strong as the axletree[1112]
On which heaven rides, knit all the Greekish ears [1113]
To his experienced tongue, yet let it please both,[1114]
Thou great, and wise, to hear Ulysses speak.[1115]

Agam. Speak, Prince of Ithaca; and be't of less expect [1116][1117] 70
That matter needless, of importless burthen,[1116]
Divide thy lips, than we are confident,[1116][1118]
When rank Thersites opes his mastic jaws,[1116][1119]
We shall hear music, wit and oracle.[1116]

Ulyss. Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down,[1116][1120] 75
And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master,
But for these instances.[1121]
The specialty of rule hath been neglected:
And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand [1122]
Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions.[1122][1123] 80
When that the general is not like the hive [1124]
To whom the foragers shall all repair,[1125]
What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,
The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask.[1126]
The heavens themselves, the planets and this centre, 85
Observe degree, priority and place,
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,[1127]
Office and custom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet Sol
In noble eminence enthroned and sphered 90
Amidst the other; whose medicinable eye [1128]
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,[1129]
And posts like the commandment of a king,
Sans check to good and bad: but when the planets
In evil mixture to disorder wander, 95
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 [1130] 100
Quite from their fixure! O, when degree is shaked,[1131]
Which is the ladder to all high designs,[1132]
The enterprise is sick! How could communities,[1133]
Degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores, 105
The primogenitive and due of birth,[1134]
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets [1135] 110
In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores,[1136]
And make a sop of all this solid globe:
Strength should be lord of imbecility,[1137]
And the rude son should strike his father dead:[1137] 115
Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong,[1137]
Between whose endless jar justice resides,[1138]
Should lose their names, and so should justice too.[1136][1137][1139]
Then every thing includes itself in power,[1140]
Power into will, will into appetite; 120
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,[1141]
This chaos, when degree is suffocate, 125
Follows the choking.[1142]
And this neglection of degree it is [1143]
That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose [1144][1145]
It hath to climb. The general's disdain'd[1144]
By him one step below; he by the next; 130
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, 135
Not her own sinews. To end a tale of length,
Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength.[1146]

Nest. Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover'd
The fever whereof all our power is sick.

Agam. The nature of the sickness found, Ulysses, 140
What is the remedy?

Ulyss. The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns
The sinew and the forehand of our host,[1147]
Having his ear full of his airy fame,
Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent 145
Lies mocking our designs: with him, Patroclus,
Upon a lazy bed, the livelong day
Breaks scurril jests;[1148]
And with ridiculous and awkward action,[1149]
Which, slanderer, he imitation calls, 150
He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon,[1150]
Thy topless deputation he puts on;[1151]
And, like a strutting player, whose conceit
Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich
To hear the wooden dialogue and sound 155
'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage,[1152]
Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrested seeming [1153]
He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks,
'Tis like a chime a-mending; with terms unsquared,[1154]
Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropp'd, 160
Would seem hyperboles. At this fusty stuff,[1155]
The large Achilles, on his press'd bed lolling,[1156]
From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause;
Cries 'Excellent! 'tis Agamemnon just.[1157]
Now play me Nestor; hem, and stroke thy beard,[1158] 165
As he being dress'd to some oration.'[1159]
That's done; as near as the extremest ends
Of parallels, as like as Vulcan and his wife:[1160]
Yet god Achilles still cries 'Excellent![1161]
'Tis Nestor right. Now play him me, Patroclus, 170
Arming to answer in a night alarm.'
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,[1162]
Shake in and out the rivet: and at this sport [1163] 175
Sir Valour dies; cries 'O, enough, Patroclus;
Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all [1164]
In pleasure of my spleen.' And in this fashion,
All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,
Severals and generals of grace exact,[1165] 180
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.[1166]

Nest. And in the imitation of these twain, 185
Who, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns [1167]
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 [1168]
As broad Achilles; keeps his tent like him;[1169] 190
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,[1170] 195
How rank soever rounded in with danger.[1171]

Ulyss. They tax our policy and call it cowardice,
Count wisdom as no member of the war,
Forestall prescience and esteem no act [1172]
But that of hand: the still and mental parts 200
That do contrive how many hands shall strike
When fitness calls them on, and know by measure [1173][1174]
Of their observant toil the enemies' weight—[1173][1175]
Why, this hath not a finger's dignity:
They call this bed-work, mappery, closet-war;[1176] 205
So that the ram that batters down the wall,
For the great swing and rudeness of his poise,
They place before his hand that made the engine,
Or those that with the fineness of their souls [1177]
By reason guide his execution.[1178] 210

Nest. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse
Makes many Thetis' sons. [Tucket.[1179]

Agam. What trumpet? look, Menelaus.[1180]

Men. From Troy.

Scene III. The Grecian camp. Before Agamemnon's tent.