SCENE III.

The Grecian Camp.

Enter AGAMEMNON; ULYSSES, DIOMEDES, NESTOR, AJAX, MENELAUS, and CALCHAS.

Cal. Now, princes, for the service I have done you, The advantage of the time prompts me aloud To call for recompense. Appear it to your mind, That, through the sight I bear in things, to Jove I have abandon'd Troy, left my possession, Incurr'd a traitor's name; expos'd myself, From certain and possess'd conveniences, To doubtful fortunes; séquest'ring me from all That time, acquaintance, custom, and condition, Made tame and most familiar to my nature; And here, to do you service, am become As new into the world, strange, unacquainted: I do beseech you, as in way of taste,

To give me now a little benefit,

Out of those many register'd in promise,
Which, you say, live to come in my behalf,

Agam. What would'st thou of us, Trojan? make, demand.

Cal. You have a Trojan prisoner, call'd Antenor, Yesterday took; Troy holds hin very dear. Oft have you, (often have you thanks therefore,) Desir'd my Cressid in right great exchange, Whom Troy hath still denied: But this Antenor, I know, is such a wrest' in their affairs, That their negotiations all must slack, Wanting his manage; and they will almost Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam,

such a wrest] Wrest is an instrument for tuning the harp by drawing up the strings.

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.

6

Agam.
Let Diomedes bear him,
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
Be answer'd in his challenge: Ajax is ready.

Dio. This shall I undertake; and 'tis a burden Which I am proud to bear.

[Exeunt DIOMEDES and CALCHAS.

Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS, before their Tent.

Ulyss. Achilles stands i'the entrance of his tent :— Please it our general to pass strangely by him, As if he were forgot; and, princes all,

Lay negligent and loose regard upon him :

I will come last: "Tis like, he'll question me, Why such unplausive eyes are bent, why turn'd on him :

If so, I have derision med'cinable,

To use between your strangeness and his pride,
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
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.

6 In most accepted pain.] i. e. Her presence, says Calchas, shall strike off, or recompense the service I have done, even in those labours which were most accepted. JOHNSON.

Achil. What, comes the general to speak with me? 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.

Nest. Nothing, my lord.

Agam.

Achil.

The better.

No.

[Exeunt AGAMEMNON and NEStor. Good day, good day.

Men. How do you? how do you?

[Exit MENELAUS.

What, does the cuckold scorn me?

Good morrow, Ajax.

Ajax.

Ha?

Achil. Good morrow.

Ajax.

Ay, and good next day too.

[Exit AJAX.

Achil. What mean these fellows? Know they not

Achilles?

Patr. They pass by strangely: they were us'd to bend,

To send their smiles before them to Achilles ;
To come as humbly, as they us'd to creep

To holy altars.

Achil.

What, am I poor of late?

"Tis certain, greatness, once fallen out with fortune,
Must fall out with men too: What the declin'd 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,

Hath any honour; but honour for those honours
That are without him, as place, riches, favour,
Prizes of accident as oft as merit:

Which when they fall, as being slippery standers,
LL

VOL. VI.

The love that lean'd on them as slippery too,
Do one pluck down another, and together
Die in the fall. But 'tis not so with me:
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
Something not worth in me such rich beholding
As they have often given.

I'll interrupt his reading.

How now, Ulysses?

Ulyss.

Here is Ulysses;

Now, great Thetis' son?

Achil. What are you reading? Ulyss. A strange fellow here Writes me, That man-how dearly ever parted,7 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 Heat them, and they retort that heat again To the first giver.

Achil.

This is not strange, Ulysses.

The beauty that is borne here in the face
The bearer knows not, but commends itself
To others' eyes nor doth the eye itself
(That most pure spirit of sense,) behold itself,
Not going from itself; but eye to eye oppos'd

Salutes each other with each other's form.
For speculation turns not to itself,

Till it hath travell'd, and is married there
Where it may see itself: this is not strange at all.
Ulyss. I do not strain at the position,
It is familiar; but at the author's drift:
Who, in his circumstance, expressly proves

7

7

how dearly ever parted,] However excellently endowed, with however dear or precious parts enriched or adorned.

8 in his circumstance,] In the detail or circumduction of his argument.

That no man is the lord of any thing,

(Though in and of him there be much consisting,) Till he communicate his parts to others:

Nor doth he of himself know them for aught
Till he behold them form'd in the applause
Where they are extended; which, like an arch, re-
verberates

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;
And apprehended here immediately

The unknown Ajax."

Heavens, what a man is there! a very horse; That has he knows not what. Nature, what things there are,

Most abject in regard, and dear in use!

What things again most dear in the esteem,
And poor in worth! Now shall we see to-morrow,
An act that very chance doth throw upon him,
Ajax renown'd. O heavens, what some men do,
While some men leave to do!

How some men creep in skittish fortune's hall,
Whiles others play the idiots in her eyes!
How one man eats into another's pride,
While pride is fasting in his wantonness!
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,
And great Troy shrinking.

Achil. I do believe it: for they pass'd by me,
As misers do by beggars; neither gave to me
Good word, nor look: What, are my deeds forgot?
Ulyss. Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back,
Wherein he puts alms for oblivion,

A great-sized monster of ingratitudes :

9 —

The unknown Ajax,] Ajax, who has abilities, which were never brought into view or use. JOHNSON.