Troilus And Cressida

1 Sennet. Enter Agamemnon, Nestor, Ulysses, Diomedes, Menelaus and
2 others.
3 AGAMEMNON.
4 Princes,
5 What grief hath set these jaundies o’er your cheeks?
6 The ample proposition that hope makes
7 In all designs begun on earth below
8 Fails in the promis’d largeness; checks and disasters
9 Grow in the veins of actions highest rear’d,
10 As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap,
11 Infects the sound pine, and diverts his grain
12 Tortive and errant from his course of growth.
13 Nor, princes, is it matter new to us
14 That we come short of our suppose so far
15 That after seven years’ siege yet Troy walls stand;
16 Sith every action that hath gone before,
17 Whereof we have record, trial did draw
18 Bias and thwart, not answering the aim,
19 And that unbodied figure of the thought
20 That gave’t surmised shape. Why then, you princes,
21 Do you with cheeks abash’d behold our works
22 And call them shames, which are, indeed, naught else
23 But the protractive trials of great Jove
24 To find persistive constancy in men;
25 The fineness of which metal is not found
26 In fortune’s love? For then the bold and coward,
27 The wise and fool, the artist and unread,
28 The hard and soft, seem all affin’d and kin.
29 But in the wind and tempest of her frown
30 Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan,
31 Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
32 And what hath mass or matter by itself
33 Lies rich in virtue and unmingled.
34 NESTOR.
35 With due observance of thy godlike seat,
36 Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply
37 Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance
38 Lies the true proof of men. The sea being smooth,
39 How many shallow bauble boats dare sail
40 Upon her patient breast, making their way
41 With those of nobler bulk!
42 But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
43 The gentle Thetis, and anon behold
44 The strong-ribb’d bark through liquid mountains cut,
45 Bounding between the two moist elements
46 Like Perseus’ horse. Where’s then the saucy boat,
47 Whose weak untimber’d sides but even now
48 Co-rivall’d greatness? Either to harbour fled
49 Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so
50 Doth valour’s show and valour’s worth divide
51 In storms of fortune; for in her ray and brightness
52 The herd hath more annoyance by the breeze
53 Than by the tiger; but when the splitting wind
54 Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks,
55 And flies fled under shade—why, then the thing of courage,
56 As rous’d with rage, with rage doth sympathise,
57 And with an accent tun’d in self-same key
58 Retorts to chiding fortune.
59 ULYSSES.
60 Agamemnon,
61 Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece,
62 Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit
63 In whom the tempers and the minds of all
64 Should be shut up—hear what Ulysses speaks.
65 Besides th’applause and approbation
66 The which, [_To Agamemnon_] most mighty, for thy place and sway,
67 [_To Nestor_] And, thou most reverend, for thy stretch’d-out life,
68 I give to both your speeches—which were such
69 As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece
70 Should hold up high in brass; and such again
71 As venerable Nestor, hatch’d in silver,
72 Should with a bond of air, strong as the axle-tree
73 On which heaven rides, knit all the Greekish ears
74 To his experienc’d tongue—yet let it please both,
75 Thou great, and wise, to hear Ulysses speak.
76 AGAMEMNON.
77 Speak, Prince of Ithaca; and be’t of less expect
78 That matter needless, of importless burden,
79 Divide thy lips than we are confident,
80 When rank Thersites opes his mastic jaws,
81 We shall hear music, wit, and oracle.
82 ULYSSES.
83 Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down,
84 And the great Hector’s sword had lack’d a master,
85 But for these instances:
86 The specialty of rule hath been neglected;
87 And look how many Grecian tents do stand
88 Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions.
89 When that the general is not like the hive,
90 To whom the foragers shall all repair,
91 What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,
92 Th’unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask.
93 The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre,
94 Observe degree, priority, and place,
95 Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
96 Office, and custom, in all line of order;
97 And therefore is the glorious planet Sol
98 In noble eminence enthron’d and spher’d
99 Amidst the other, whose med’cinable eye
100 Corrects the influence of evil planets,
101 And posts, like the commandment of a king,
102 Sans check, to good and bad. But when the planets
103 In evil mixture to disorder wander,
104 What plagues and what portents, what mutiny,
105 What raging of the sea, shaking of earth,
106 Commotion in the winds! Frights, changes, horrors,
107 Divert and crack, rend and deracinate,
108 The unity and married calm of states
109 Quite from their fixture! O, when degree is shak’d,
110 Which is the ladder of all high designs,
111 The enterprise is sick! How could communities,
112 Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,
113 Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
114 The primogenity and due of birth,
115 Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
116 But by degree stand in authentic place?
117 Take but degree away, untune that string,
118 And hark what discord follows! Each thing melts
119 In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters
120 Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores,
121 And make a sop of all this solid globe;
122 Strength should be lord of imbecility,
123 And the rude son should strike his father dead;
124 Force should be right; or, rather, right and wrong—
125 Between whose endless jar justice resides—
126 Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
127 Then everything includes itself in power,
128 Power into will, will into appetite;
129 And appetite, an universal wolf,
130 So doubly seconded with will and power,
131 Must make perforce an universal prey,
132 And last eat up himself. Great Agamemnon,
133 This chaos, when degree is suffocate,
134 Follows the choking.
135 And this neglection of degree it is
136 That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose
137 It hath to climb. The general’s disdain’d
138 By him one step below, he by the next,
139 That next by him beneath; so every step,
140 Exampl’d by the first pace that is sick
141 Of his superior, grows to an envious fever
142 Of pale and bloodless emulation.
143 And ’tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,
144 Not her own sinews. To end a tale of length,
145 Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength.
146 NESTOR.
147 Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover’d
148 The fever whereof all our power is sick.
149 AGAMEMNON.
150 The nature of the sickness found, Ulysses,
151 What is the remedy?
152 ULYSSES.
153 The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns
154 The sinew and the forehand of our host,
155 Having his ear full of his airy fame,
156 Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent
157 Lies mocking our designs; with him Patroclus
158 Upon a lazy bed the livelong day
159 Breaks scurril jests;
160 And with ridiculous and awkward action—
161 Which, slanderer, he imitation calls—
162 He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon,
163 Thy topless deputation he puts on;
164 And like a strutting player whose conceit
165 Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich
166 To hear the wooden dialogue and sound
167 ’Twixt his stretch’d footing and the scaffoldage—
168 Such to-be-pitied and o’er-wrested seeming
169 He acts thy greatness in; and when he speaks
170 ’Tis like a chime a-mending; with terms unsquar’d,
171 Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropp’d,
172 Would seem hyperboles. At this fusty stuff
173 The large Achilles, on his press’d bed lolling,
174 From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause;
175 Cries ‘Excellent! ’Tis Agamemnon right!
176 Now play me Nestor; hem, and stroke thy beard,
177 As he being drest to some oration.’
178 That’s done—as near as the extremest ends
179 Of parallels, as like as Vulcan and his wife;
180 Yet god Achilles still cries ‘Excellent!
181 ’Tis Nestor right. Now play him me, Patroclus,
182 Arming to answer in a night alarm.’
183 And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age
184 Must be the scene of mirth: to cough and spit
185 And, with a palsy fumbling on his gorget,
186 Shake in and out the rivet. And at this sport
187 Sir Valour dies; cries ‘O, enough, Patroclus;
188 Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all
189 In pleasure of my spleen.’ And in this fashion
190 All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,
191 Severals and generals of grace exact,
192 Achievements, plots, orders, preventions,
193 Excitements to the field or speech for truce,
194 Success or loss, what is or is not, serves
195 As stuff for these two to make paradoxes.
196 NESTOR.
197 And in the imitation of these twain—
198 Who, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns
199 With an imperial voice—many are infect.
200 Ajax is grown self-will’d and bears his head
201 In such a rein, in full as proud a place
202 As broad Achilles; keeps his tent like him;
203 Makes factious feasts; rails on our state of war
204 Bold as an oracle, and sets Thersites,
205 A slave whose gall coins slanders like a mint,
206 To match us in comparisons with dirt,
207 To weaken and discredit our exposure,
208 How rank soever rounded in with danger.
209 ULYSSES.
210 They tax our policy and call it cowardice,
211 Count wisdom as no member of the war,
212 Forestall prescience, and esteem no act
213 But that of hand. The still and mental parts
214 That do contrive how many hands shall strike
215 When fitness calls them on, and know, by measure
216 Of their observant toil, the enemies’ weight—
217 Why, this hath not a finger’s dignity:
218 They call this bed-work, mapp’ry, closet-war;
219 So that the ram that batters down the wall,
220 For the great swinge and rudeness of his poise,
221 They place before his hand that made the engine,
222 Or those that with the fineness of their souls
223 By reason guide his execution.
224 NESTOR.
225 Let this be granted, and Achilles’ horse
226 Makes many Thetis’ sons.
227 [_Tucket_.]
228 AGAMEMNON.
229 What trumpet? Look, Menelaus.
230 MENELAUS.
231 From Troy.
232 Enter Aeneas.
233 AGAMEMNON.
234 What would you fore our tent?
235 AENEAS.
236 Is this great Agamemnon’s tent, I pray you?
237 AGAMEMNON.
238 Even this.
239 AENEAS.
240 May one that is a herald and a prince
241 Do a fair message to his kingly eyes?
242 AGAMEMNON.
243 With surety stronger than Achilles’ arm
244 Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice
245 Call Agamemnon head and general.
246 AENEAS.
247 Fair leave and large security. How may
248 A stranger to those most imperial looks
249 Know them from eyes of other mortals?
250 AGAMEMNON.
251 How?
252 AENEAS.
253 Ay;
254 I ask, that I might waken reverence,
255 And bid the cheek be ready with a blush
256 Modest as morning when she coldly eyes
257 The youthful Phoebus.
258 Which is that god in office, guiding men?
259 Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon?
260 AGAMEMNON.
261 This Trojan scorns us, or the men of Troy
262 Are ceremonious courtiers.
263 AENEAS.
264 Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm’d,
265 As bending angels; that’s their fame in peace.
266 But when they would seem soldiers, they have galls,
267 Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, Jove’s accord,
268 Nothing so full of heart. But peace, Aeneas,
269 Peace, Trojan; lay thy finger on thy lips.
270 The worthiness of praise distains his worth,
271 If that the prais’d himself bring the praise forth;
272 But what the repining enemy commends,
273 That breath fame blows; that praise, sole pure, transcends.
274 AGAMEMNON.
275 Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself Aeneas?
276 AENEAS.
277 Ay, Greek, that is my name.
278 AGAMEMNON.
279 What’s your affairs, I pray you?
280 AENEAS.
281 Sir, pardon; ’tis for Agamemnon’s ears.
282 AGAMEMNON
283 He hears naught privately that comes from Troy.
284 AENEAS.
285 Nor I from Troy come not to whisper with him;
286 I bring a trumpet to awake his ear,
287 To set his sense on the attentive bent,
288 And then to speak.
289 AGAMEMNON.
290 Speak frankly as the wind;
291 It is not Agamemnon’s sleeping hour.
292 That thou shalt know, Trojan, he is awake,
293 He tells thee so himself.
294 AENEAS.
295 Trumpet, blow loud,
296 Send thy brass voice through all these lazy tents;
297 And every Greek of mettle, let him know
298 What Troy means fairly shall be spoke aloud.
299 [_Sound trumpet_.]
300 We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy
301 A prince called Hector—Priam is his father—
302 Who in this dull and long-continued truce
303 Is resty grown; he bade me take a trumpet
304 And to this purpose speak: Kings, princes, lords!
305 If there be one among the fair’st of Greece
306 That holds his honour higher than his ease,
307 That feeds his praise more than he fears his peril,
308 That knows his valour and knows not his fear,
309 That loves his mistress more than in confession
310 With truant vows to her own lips he loves,
311 And dare avow her beauty and her worth
312 In other arms than hers—to him this challenge.
313 Hector, in view of Trojans and of Greeks,
314 Shall make it good or do his best to do it:
315 He hath a lady wiser, fairer, truer,
316 Than ever Greek did couple in his arms;
317 And will tomorrow with his trumpet call
318 Mid-way between your tents and walls of Troy
319 To rouse a Grecian that is true in love.
320 If any come, Hector shall honour him;
321 If none, he’ll say in Troy, when he retires,
322 The Grecian dames are sunburnt and not worth
323 The splinter of a lance. Even so much.
324 AGAMEMNON.
325 This shall be told our lovers, Lord Aeneas.
326 If none of them have soul in such a kind,
327 We left them all at home. But we are soldiers;
328 And may that soldier a mere recreant prove
329 That means not, hath not, or is not in love.
330 If then one is, or hath, or means to be,
331 That one meets Hector; if none else, I am he.
332 NESTOR.
333 Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man
334 When Hector’s grandsire suck’d. He is old now;
335 But if there be not in our Grecian host
336 A noble man that hath one spark of fire
337 To answer for his love, tell him from me
338 I’ll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver,
339 And in my vambrace put this wither’d brawns,
340 And meeting him, will tell him that my lady
341 Was fairer than his grandam, and as chaste
342 As may be in the world. His youth in flood,
343 I’ll prove this troth with my three drops of blood.
344 AENEAS.
345 Now heavens forfend such scarcity of youth!
346 ULYSSES.
347 Amen.
348 AGAMEMNON.
349 Fair Lord Aeneas, let me touch your hand;
350 To our pavilion shall I lead you, sir.
351 Achilles shall have word of this intent;
352 So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent.
353 Yourself shall feast with us before you go,
354 And find the welcome of a noble foe.
355 [_Exeunt all but Ulysses and Nestor_.]
356 ULYSSES.
357 Nestor!
358 NESTOR.
359 What says Ulysses?
360 ULYSSES.
361 I have a young conception in my brain;
362 Be you my time to bring it to some shape.
363 NESTOR.
364 What is’t?
365 ULYSSES.
366 This ’tis:
367 Blunt wedges rive hard knots. The seeded pride
368 That hath to this maturity blown up
369 In rank Achilles must or now be cropp’d
370 Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil
371 To overbulk us all.
372 NESTOR.
373 Well, and how?
374 ULYSSES.
375 This challenge that the gallant Hector sends,
376 However it is spread in general name,
377 Relates in purpose only to Achilles.
378 NESTOR.
379 True. The purpose is perspicuous even as substance
380 Whose grossness little characters sum up;
381 And, in the publication, make no strain
382 But that Achilles, were his brain as barren
383 As banks of Libya—though, Apollo knows,
384 ’Tis dry enough—will with great speed of judgement,
385 Ay, with celerity, find Hector’s purpose
386 Pointing on him.
387 ULYSSES.
388 And wake him to the answer, think you?
389 NESTOR.
390 Why, ’tis most meet. Who may you else oppose
391 That can from Hector bring those honours off,
392 If not Achilles? Though ’t be a sportful combat,
393 Yet in this trial much opinion dwells
394 For here the Trojans taste our dear’st repute
395 With their fin’st palate; and trust to me, Ulysses,
396 Our imputation shall be oddly pois’d
397 In this vile action; for the success,
398 Although particular, shall give a scantling
399 Of good or bad unto the general;
400 And in such indexes, although small pricks
401 To their subsequent volumes, there is seen
402 The baby figure of the giant mass
403 Of things to come at large. It is suppos’d
404 He that meets Hector issues from our choice;
405 And choice, being mutual act of all our souls,
406 Makes merit her election, and doth boil,
407 As ’twere from forth us all, a man distill’d
408 Out of our virtues; who miscarrying,
409 What heart receives from hence a conquering part,
410 To steel a strong opinion to themselves?
411 Which entertain’d, limbs are his instruments,
412 In no less working than are swords and bows
413 Directive by the limbs.
414 ULYSSES.
415 Give pardon to my speech. Therefore ’tis meet
416 Achilles meet not Hector. Let us, like merchants,
417 First show foul wares, and think perchance they’ll sell;
418 If not, the lustre of the better shall exceed
419 By showing the worse first. Do not consent
420 That ever Hector and Achilles meet;
421 For both our honour and our shame in this
422 Are dogg’d with two strange followers.
423 NESTOR.
424 I see them not with my old eyes. What are they?
425 ULYSSES.
426 What glory our Achilles shares from Hector,
427 Were he not proud, we all should share with him;
428 But he already is too insolent;
429 And it were better parch in Afric sun
430 Than in the pride and salt scorn of his eyes,
431 Should he scape Hector fair. If he were foil’d,
432 Why, then we do our main opinion crush
433 In taint of our best man. No, make a lott’ry;
434 And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw
435 The sort to fight with Hector. Among ourselves
436 Give him allowance for the better man;
437 For that will physic the great Myrmidon,
438 Who broils in loud applause, and make him fall
439 His crest, that prouder than blue Iris bends.
440 If the dull brainless Ajax come safe off,
441 We’ll dress him up in voices; if he fail,
442 Yet go we under our opinion still
443 That we have better men. But, hit or miss,
444 Our project’s life this shape of sense assumes—
445 Ajax employ’d plucks down Achilles’ plumes.
446 NESTOR.
447 Now, Ulysses, I begin to relish thy advice;
448 And I will give a taste thereof forthwith
449 To Agamemnon. Go we to him straight.
450 Two curs shall tame each other: pride alone
451 Must tarre the mastiffs on, as ’twere their bone.
452 [_Exeunt_.]