Imatges de pàgina
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fend my wiles; upon my fecrefie, to defend mine honefty; my mask to defend my beauty, and you to defend all thefe; and at all these wards I lye, at a thousand watches.

Pan. Say one of your watches.

Cre. Nay I'll watch you for that, and that's one of the chiefeft of them too; if I cannot ward what I would not have hit, I can watch you for telling how I took the blow, unless it fwell past hiding, and then it is past watching.

Pan. You are fuch another.

Enter Boy.

Boy. Sir, my lord would instantly 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 neice.

Cre. Adieu, uncle.

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

Cre. To bring, uncle---

Pan. Ay, a token from Troilus.

Cre. By the fame token, you are a bawd.

Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full facrifice,
He offers in another's enterprize:

But more in Troilus thousand fold I fee,

Than in the glass of Pandar's praise may be.

Yet hold I off. Women are angels wooing,
Things won are done, the foul's joy lyes in doing:
That the 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, fo fweet, as when defire did fue:
Atchievement is command; ungain'd, beseech.
Therefore this maxim out of love I teach;

C 2

Thefe neceffary words added from the first quarto edition.

[Exit Pan.

That

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

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[Exit.

Trumpets. Enter Agamemnon, Neftor, Ulyffes, Diomedes,

Agam.

Menelaus, with others.

RINCES;

PR

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What grief hath fet the jaundise on your cheeks?

The ample propofition 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:

As knots by the conflux of meeting sap
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 short of our suppose so far,
That after sev'n years siege, yet Troy walls stand;
Sith every action that hath gone before,
Whereof we have record, tryal did draw
Bias and thwart; not anfwering the aim,
And that unbodied figure of the thought

That gave't furmised shape. Why then, you princes,
Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works?

And think them fhame, which are, indeed, nought elfe
But the protractive tryals of great Jove,

To find perfiftive conftancy in men?
The fineness of which metal is not found

In fortune's love; for then, the bold and coward,
The wife and fool, the artift and unread,

The

The hard and foft, seem 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 it self,
Lies rich in virtue, and unmingled.

b

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

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

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis, and anon behold

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

Like Perfeus' horse: Where's then the fawcy boat,
Whose weak untimber'd fides but even now
Co-rival'd Greatness? or to harbour fled,
Or made a toast 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 shade; the thing of courage,
As rowz'd with rage, with rage doth fympathize,
And with an accent tun'd in felf-fame key,

• Returns to chiding fortune.

Ulyf. Agamemnon,

Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece,
Heart of our numbers, foul, and only spirit,

b loud.

c retires.

2

In

In whom the tempers and the minds of all

Should be fhut up: hear what Ulyffes fpeaks.

Befides th' applause and approbation

The which, most mighty, for thy place and sway,

And thou, most rev'rend for thy stretcht-out life,

I give to both your fpeeches, which were such

As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece
Should hold up high in brass; and such again
As venerable Neftor (hatch'd in filver)

Should with a bond of air, ftrong as the axle-tree-
On which heav'n rides, knit all the Grecian 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 shall hear mufick, wit, and oracle.

Ulys. Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down,
And the great Hector's fword had lack'd a master,
But for thefe inftances.

The specialty of rule hath been neglected;
And look how many Grecian tents do ftand

Hollow upon
this plain, so many hollow factions.
When that the general is not like the hive,
To whom the foragers fhall all repair,

What honey is expected? degree being vizarded,

Th' unworthiest fhews as fairly in the mask.

The heav'ns themselves, the planets, and this center,
Observe degree, priority and place,

Infifture, course, proportion, season, form,

Office and cuftom, in all line of order:

And therefore is the glorious planet Sol

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In noble eminence enthron'd and fphear'd

Amidst the rest, whofe med'cinable eye

Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,

And posts like the command❜ment 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 fixture? when degree is fhaken,
(Which is the ladder to all high defigns)

The enterprize is fick. How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable fhores,
The primogeniture, and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, fcepters, lawrels,
(But by degree) stand in authentick place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And hark what difcord follows; each thing meets
In meer oppugnancy. The bounded waters
Would lift their bofoms higher than the shores,
And make a fop of all this folid globe:
Strength would be lord of imbecility,

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And the rude fon would strike his father dead:

Force would be right; or rather, right and wrong

(Between whofe endless jar justice refides) Would lofe their names, and fo would justice too. Then every thing includes it felf in power, 'Power into will, will into appetite, And appetite (an universal wolf,

So doubly feconded with will and power)

• Muft

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