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Pan. You are fuch another.

Enter Boy.

Boy. Sir, my Lord would inftantly speak with you,

Pan. Where?

Boy. At your own house, there he unarms him. Pan. Good boy, tell him I come; I doubt he be hurt. Fare ye well, good niece.

Cre. Adieu, uncle.

Pan. I'll be with you, niece, by and by.

Gre. To bring, uncle

Pan. Ay, a token from Troilus.

Gre. By the fame token, you are a bawd [Exit Pan.
Words, vows, gifts, tears, and Love's full facrifice,
He offers in another's enterprite :

But more in Troilus thousand-fold I see,
Than in the glafs of Pandar's praise may be;
Yet hold I off. Women are angels wooing;
Things won are done; the foul's joy lies in doing:
That the belov d knows nought that knows not this ;
Men prize the thing ungain 'd more than it is.
That the was never yet, that ever knew
Love got, fo fweet, as when defire did sue :
Atchievement is, Command; ungain'd, Befeech.
Therefore this maxim out of love i teach;

That though my heart's content firm love doth bear,
Nothing of that shall from miñe eyes appear.

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[Exit.

Changes to Agamemnon's tent in the Grecian camp.

Trumpets. Enter Agamemnon, Neftor, Ulyffes, Dio. medes, Menelaus, with others.

Agam. Princes,

What grief hath fet the jaundice on your cheeks?
The ample propofition that Hope makes

In all defigns begun on earth below,

Fails in the promis'd largenefs: checks and difafters
Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd;
As knots, by the conflux of meeting fap,.

• content, for capacity.

Infect the found pine, and divert his grain

Tortive and errant from his course of growth.
Nor, Princes, is it matter new to us,

That we come fhort of our fuppofe so far,

That after fev'n years' fiege, yet Troy walls ftand;
Sith every action that hath gone before,
Whereof we have record, trial did draw
Bias and thwart; not anfwering the aim,
And that unbodied figure of the thought

That gave't furmifed fhape. Why then, you Princes,
Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works!
And think them fhame, which are indeed nought elf
But the protractive trials of great Jove,

To find perfiftive conftancy in men?

The fineness of which metal is not found

In Fortune's love; for there the bold and coward,
The wife and fool, the artist and unread,

The hard and foft, feem all affin'd, and kin;
But in the wind and tempeft 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.

Neft. With due obfervance of thy goodly feat,
Great Agamemnon, Neftor fhall fupply

Thy latest words. In the reproof of Chance
Lies the true proof of men: the sea being smooth,
How many fhallow bauble boats dare fail

Upon her patient breaft, making their way

With thofe of nobler bulk?

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage

The gentle Thetis, and anon, behold,

The trong ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cute?

Bounding between the two moift elements,

Like Perfeus' horfe: where's then the faucy boat,
Whose weak untimber'd fides but even now

Co-rival'd greatnefs? or to harbour fled,

Or made a toaft for Neptune Even fo
Doth valour's fhew and valour's worth divide

In ftorms of Fortune. For in her ray and brightness
The herd hath more annoyance by the brize

Than by the tyger: but when splitting winds

Make flexible the knees of knotted oaks,

And flies get under fhade; the thing of courage,
As rous'd with rage, with rage doth fympathize;
And, with an accent tun'd in self-same key,
Returns to chiding Fortune *.

Uly. Agamemnon,

Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece,
Heart of our numbers, foul, and only spirit,
In whom the tempers and the minds of all
Should be fhut up; hear what Ulyffes fpeaks..
Befides th' applause and approbation
The which, moft mighty for thy place and fway,
[To Agamemnon.
And thou most rev'rend for thy ftretch'd-out life,

[To Neftor.

I give to both your fpeeches; which were fuch,
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece
Should hold up high in brafs; and fuch again,
As venerable Neftor (hatch'd in filver)

Should with a bond of air, strong as the axle-tree
On which heav'n rides, knit all the Grecians' ears
To his experienc'd tongue; yet let it please both
(Thou great, and wife) to hear Ulyffes fpeak.
Aga. Speak, Prince of Ithaca: we lefs expect,
That matter needlefs, of importless burthen,
Divide thy lips, than we are confident,
When rank Therfites opes his mastiff jaws,
We fhall hear mufic, wit, and oracle.

Uly. Troy, yet upon her bafis, had been down, And the great Hector's fword hath lack'd a master, But for thefe inftances.

The fpeciality of rule hath been neglected;

And, look, how many Grecian tents do ftand
Hollow upon this plain, fo many hollow factions.
When that the General not likes the hive,
To whom the foragers fhall all repair,

What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,
Th' unworthieft fhews as fairly in the mask.

The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre,
Obferve degree, priority, and place,

i.e. It is faid of the tyger, that in ftorms and high winds he rages and roars most furiously.

Infiture, courfe, proportion, feafon, form,
Office and cufton, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet Sol
In noble eminence inthron'd and fpher'd
Amidt the rest, whose med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill afpects of planets evil,
And pofts like the commandment of a King,

Sans check, to good and bad. But when the planets
In evil mixture to diforder wander,

What plagues, and what portents, what mutiny?
What raging of the fea? fhaking of earth?
Commotion in the winds? frights, changes, horrors,
Divert and crack, rend and deracinatë
The unity and married calm of states

Quite from their fixure? Oh, when Degree is fhaken, (Which is the ladder to all high defigus),

Then enterprife is fick. How could communities,
Degrees in fchools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable fhores,
The primogeniture, and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, fcepters, laurels,
(But by degree), ftand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And hark what difcord follows; each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy. The bounded waters
Would lift their bofoms higher than the thores,
And make a fop of all this fold globe:
Strength would be lord of Imbecillity,

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And the rude fon would ftrike his father dead:

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Force would be right; or rather right and wrong

(Between whofe endleTs jar Juftice prefides)

Would lofe their names, and fo would Justice too
Then every thing includes itfelf in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;

'And appetite (an univerfal wolf,

So doubly feconded with will and power)
Muft make perforce an universal prey,
And lalt eat up itfelf. Great Agamemnon!
This chaos, when Degree is fuffocate,
Follows the choking:

And this neglection of Degree is it,

That by a pace goes backward, in a purpose

VOL VII.

A a

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It hath to climb.

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The General's difdain'd
By him one step below; he by the next;
That next, by him beneath: fo every step,
Exampled by the firft pace that is fick

Of his fuperior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodlefs emulation.

And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,
Not her own finews. To end a tale of length,
Troy in our weakness lives, not in her strength.
Nefi. Moft wifely hath Ulyffes here difcover'd
The fever, whereof all our power is fick.

Aga. The nature of the ficknefs found, Ulyffes,
What is the remedy?

Ul. "The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns "The finew and the forehand of our hoft,

"Having his ear full of his airy fame,

"Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent

"Lies mocking our defigns.

With him, Patroclus,

"Upon a lazy bed, the live-long day

"Breaks fcurril jefts;

"And with ridiculous and aukward action

"(Which, flanderer, he imitation calls)

"He pageants us. Sometimes, great Agamemnon,
Thy ftoplefs deputation he puts on;

"And, like a strutting player, (whose conceit
"Lies in his ham-ftring and doth think it rich
"To hear the wooden dialogue and found

'Twixt his ftretch'd footing and the fcaffoldage),
"Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrefted feeming
"He acts thy greatnefs in: and when he speaks,
"'Tis like a chime a-mending: with terms unfquar'd:
"Which, from the tongue of roaring Tiphon dropt,
"Would feem hyperboles. At this fufty stuff

The large Achilles, on his prefs'd-bed lolling, "From his deep cheft laughs out a loud applaufe; Cries Excellent!- 'tis Agamemnon juft"Now play me Neftor hum, and stroke thy beard, "As he, being drefs'd to fome oration.

"That's done as near as the extremeft ends

"Of parallels; as like as Vulcan and his wife;
Yet good Achilles ftill cries, Excellent!

66

i.e. unlimited.

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