Cal. Now, princes, for the service I have done you,[1682]
The advantage of the time prompts me aloud
To call for recompense. Appear it to your mind[1683]
That, through the sight I bear in things to love,[1684]
I have abandon'd Troy, left my possession,[1685] 5
Incurr'd a traitor's name; exposed myself,
From certain and possess'd conveniences,
To doubtful fortunes; sequestering from me all[1686]
That time, acquaintance, custom and condition
Made tame and most familiar to my nature, 10
And here, to do you service, am become
As new into the world, strange, unacquainted:[1687]
I do beseech you, as in way of taste,
To give me now a little benefit,
Out of those many register'd in promise, 15
Which, you say, live to come in my behalf.
Agam. What wouldst thou of us, Trojan? make demand.
Cal. You have a Trojan prisoner, call'd Antenor,
Yesterday took: Troy holds him very dear.
Oft have you—often have you thanks therefore— 20
Desired my Cressid in right great exchange,
Whom Troy hath still denied: but this Antenor,
I know, is such a wrest in their affairs[1688]
That their negotiations all must slack,
Wanting his manage; and they will almost[1689] 25
Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam,[1690]
In change of him: let him be sent, great princes,
And he shall buy my daughter; and her presence
Shall quite strike off all service I have done,
In most accepted pain.
Agam. Let Diomedes bear him,[1691] 30
And bring us Cressid hither: Calchas shall have
What he requests of us. Good Diomed,
Furnish you fairly for this interchange:
Withal, bring word if Hector will to-morrow[1692]
Be answer'd in his challenge: Ajax is ready. 35
Dio. This shall I undertake; and 'tis a burthen
Which I am proud to bear. [Exeunt Diomedes and Calchas.
Ulyss. Achilles stands i' the entrance of his tent:
Please it our general pass strangely by him,[1694]
As if he were forgot; and, princes all, 40
Lay negligent and loose regard upon him:
I will come last. 'Tis like he'll question me
Why such unplausive eyes are bent on him:[1695]
If so, I have derision medicinable,[1696]
To use between your strangeness and his pride,[1697] 45
Which his own will shall have desire to drink.
It may do good: pride hath no other glass
To show itself but pride, for supple knees
Feed arrogance and are the proud man's fees.
Agam. We'll execute your purpose and put on 50
A form of strangeness as we pass along;
So do each lord, and either greet him not
Or else disdainfully, which shall shake him more
Than if not look'd on. I will lead the way.
Achil. What, comes the general to speak with me? 55
You know my mind; I'll fight no more 'gainst Troy.
Agam. What says Achilles? would he aught with us?
Nest. Would you, my lord, aught with the general?
Achil. No.
Nest. Nothing, my lord. 60
Agam. The better. [Exeunt Agamemnon and Nestor.[1698]
Achil. Good day, good day.
Men. How do you? how do you? [Exit.[1699]
Achil. What, does the cuckold scorn me?
Ajax. How now, Patroclus! 65
Achil. Good morrow, Ajax.
Ajax. Ay, and good next day too. [Exit.[1702]
Achil. What mean these fellows? Know they not Achilles?[1703] 70
Patr. They pass by strangely: they were used to bend,[1704]
To send their smiles before them to Achilles,
To come as humbly as they used to creep[1705][1706]
To holy altars.[1705]
Achil. What, am I poor of late?
'Tis certain, greatness, once fall'n out with fortune, 75
Must fall out with men too: what the declined is,
He shall as soon read in the eyes of others
As feel in his own fall: for men, like butterflies,
Show not their mealy wings but to the summer,
And not a man, for being simply man,[1707] 80
Hath any honour, but honour for those honours[1708]
That are without him, as place, riches, and favour,[1709]
Prizes of accident as oft as merit:
Which when they fall, as being slippery standers,
The love that lean'd on them as slippery too,[1710] 85
Do one pluck down another and together[1711][1712]
Die in the fall. But 'tis not so with me:[1712]
Fortune and I are friends: I do enjoy
At ample point all that I did possess,
Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out 90
Something not worth in me such rich beholding[1713]
As they have often given. Here is Ulysses:
I'll interrupt his reading.[1714]
How now, Ulysses![1714]
Ulyss. Now, great Thetis' son![1715]
Achil. What are you reading?
Ulyss. A strange fellow here 95
Writes me: 'That man, how dearly ever parted,
How much in having, or without or in,
Cannot make boast to have that which he hath,
Nor feels not what he owes, but by reflection;
As when his virtues shining upon others[1716] 100
Heat them, and they retort that heat again
To the first giver.'[1717]
Achil. This is not strange, Ulysses.
The beauty that is borne here in the face[1718]
The bearer knows not, but commends itself[1719]
To others' eyes: nor doth the eye itself,[1720] 105
That most pure spirit of sense, behold itself,[1720]
Not going from itself; but eye to eye opposed[1721]
Salutes each other with each other's form:[1722]
For speculation turns not to itself,
Till it hath travell'd and is married there[1723] 110
Where it may see itself. This is not strange at all.[1724]
Ulyss. I do not strain at the position—[1725]
It is familiar—but at the author's drift;[1726]
Who in his circumstance expressly proves
That no man is the lord of any thing,[1727] 115
Though in and of him there be much consisting,[1728]
Till he communicate his parts to others;
Nor doth he of himself know them for aught
Till he behold them formed in the applause[1729]
Where they're extended; who, like an arch, reverberates[1730] 120
The voice again; or, like a gate of steel
Fronting the sun, receives and renders back
His figure and his heat. I was much rapt in this;[1731]
And apprehended here immediately[1731][1732]
The unknown Ajax.[1731][1733] 125
Heavens, what a man is there! a very horse;[1731][1733]
That has he knows not what. Nature, what things there are,[1731][1733][1734]
Most abject in regard and dear in use![1731][1733][1735]
What things again most dear in the esteem[1733]
And poor in worth! Now shall we see to-morrow—[1733][1736] 130
An act that very chance doth throw upon him—[1733][1736][1737]
Ajax renown'd. O heavens, what some men do,[1733][1736][1738]
While some men leave to do![1733][1739]
How some men creep in skittish fortune's hall,[1739][1740]
While others play the idiots in her eyes![1739] 135
How one man eats into another's pride,
While pride is fasting in his wantonness![1741]
To see these Grecian lords! Why, even already
They clap the lubber Ajax on the shoulder,
As if his foot were on brave Hector's breast[1742] 140
And great Troy shrieking.[1743]
Achil. I do believe it; for they pass'd by me[1744][1745]
As misers do by beggars, neither gave to me[1744]
Good word nor look: what, are my deeds forgot?[1744][1746]
Ulyss. Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back 145
Wherein he puts alms for oblivion,
A great-sized monster of ingratitudes:[1747]
Those scraps are good deeds past, which are devour'd[1748]
As fast as they are made, forgot as soon[1748]
As done: perseverance, dear my lord,[1748][1749][1750] 150
Keeps honour bright: to have done, is to hang[1749]
Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail[1751]
In monumental mockery. Take the instant way;[1752]
For honour travels in a strait so narrow,
Where one but goes abreast: keep then the path;[1753] 155
For emulation hath a thousand sons
That one by one pursue: if you give way,
Or hedge aside from the direct forthright,[1754]
Like to an enter'd tide they all rush by
And leave you hindmost:[1755][1756][1757] 160
Or, like a gallant horse fall'n in first rank,[1755][1756][1757][1758]
Lie there for pavement to the abject rear,[1755][1756][1759][1760][1761]
O'er-run and trampled on: then what they do in present,[1755][1756][1760]
Though less than yours in past, must o'ertop yours;[1755][1762]
For time is like a fashionable host[1755] 165
That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand,[1755]
And with his arms outstretch'd, as he would fly,[1755][1763]
Grasps in the comer: welcome ever smiles,[1755][1764]
And farewell goes out sighing. O, let not virtue seek[1755][1765][1766]
Remuneration for the thing it was;[1755][1766][1767] 170
For beauty, wit,[1755][1767]
High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service,[1755][1768]
Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all[1755][1769]
To envious and calumniating time.
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin; 175
That all with one consent praise new-born gawds,
Though they are made and moulded of things past,
And give to dust that is a little gilt[1770][1771]
More laud than gilt o'er-dusted.[1770][1772]
The present eye praises the present object: 180
Then marvel not, thou great and complete man,
That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax;[1773]
Since things in motion sooner catch the eye[1774]
Than what not stirs. The cry went once on thee,[1775]
And still it might, and yet it may again, 185
If thou wouldst not entomb thyself alive
And case thy reputation in thy tent,
Whose glorious deeds, but in these fields of late,
Made emulous missions 'mongst the gods themselves,[1776]
And drave great Mars to faction.
Achil. Of this my privacy[1777] 190
I have strong reasons.
Ulyss. But 'gainst your privacy[1778]
The reasons are more potent and heroical:
'Tis known, Achilles, that you are in love
With one of Priam's daughters.
Ulyss. Is that a wonder? 195
The providence that's in a watchful state
Knows almost every grain of Plutus' gold,[1780]
Finds bottom in the uncomprehensive deeps,[1781]
Keeps place with thought and almost like the gods[1782][1783]
Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles.[1782][1784] 200
There is a mystery, with whom relation[1785]
Durst never meddle, in the soul of state;
Which hath an operation more divine
Than breath or pen can give expressure to:[1786]
All the commerce that you have had with Troy 205
As perfectly is ours as yours, my lord;
And better would it fit Achilles much
To throw down Hector than Polyxena:
But it must grieve young Pyrrhus now at home,
When fame shall in our islands sound her trump;[1787] 210
And all the Greekish girls shall tripping sing
'Great Hector's sister did Achilles win,
But our great Ajax bravely beat down him.'[1788]
Farewell, my lord: I as your lover speak;
The fool slides o'er the ice that you should break. [Exit.[1789]215
Patr. To this effect, Achilles, have I moved you:[1790]
A woman impudent and mannish grown
Is not more loathed than an effeminate man
In time of action. I stand condemn'd for this;[1791]
They think my little stomach to the war 220
And your great love to me restrains you thus:
Sweet, rouse yourself, and the weak wanton Cupid[1792]
Shall from your neck unloose his amorous fold,[1793]
And, like a dew-drop from the lion's mane,[1794]
Be shook to air.[1795]
Achil. Shall Ajax fight with Hector? 225
Patr. Ay, and perhaps receive much honour by him.
Achil. I see my reputation is at stake;
My fame is shrewdly gored.[1796]
Patr. O, then, beware;
Those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves:
Omission to do what is necessary 230
Seals a commission to a blank of danger;
And danger, like an ague, subtly taints
Even then when we sit idly in the sun.[1797]
Achil. Go call Thersites hither, sweet Patroclus:
I'll send the fool to Ajax and desire him 235
To invite the Trojan lords after the combat
To see us here unarm'd: I have a woman's longing,[1798]
An appetite that I am sick withal,
To see great Hector in his weeds of peace;[1799]
To talk with him, and to behold his visage, 240
Even to my full of view.—A labour saved!