| ACT I SCENE III | The Grecian camp. Before Agamemnon's tent. | |
| [
Sennet. Enter AGAMEMNON, NESTOR, ULYSSES,
MENELAUS, and others
] |
| AGAMEMNON | Princes, |
| What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks? |
| The ample proposition that hope makes |
| In all designs begun on earth below |
| Fails in the promised largeness: cheques and disasters | 5 |
| Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd, |
| As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap, |
| Infect the sound pine and divert his grain |
| Tortive and errant from his course of growth. |
| Nor, princes, is it matter new to us | 10 |
| That we come short of our suppose so far |
| That after seven years' siege yet Troy walls stand; |
| Sith every action that hath gone before, |
| Whereof we have record, trial did draw |
| Bias and thwart, not answering the aim, | 15 |
| And that unbodied figure of the thought |
| That gave't surmised shape. Why then, you princes, |
| Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works, |
| And call them shames? which are indeed nought else |
| But the protractive trials of great Jove | 20 |
| To find persistive constancy in men: |
| The fineness of which metal is not found |
| In fortune's love; for then the bold and coward, |
| The wise and fool, the artist and unread, |
| The hard and soft seem all affined and kin: | 25 |
| But, in the wind and tempest 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. | 30 |
| NESTOR | With due observance of thy godlike seat, |
| Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall 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 sail | 35 |
| Upon her patient breast, making their way |
| With those of nobler bulk! |
| But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage |
| The gentle Thetis, and anon behold |
| The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut, | 40 |
| Bounding between the two moist elements, |
| Like Perseus' horse: where's then the saucy boat |
| Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now |
| Co-rivall'd greatness? Either to harbour fled, |
| Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so | 45 |
| Doth valour's show and valour's worth divide |
| In storms of fortune; for in her ray and brightness |
| The herd hath more annoyance by the breeze |
| Than by the tiger; but when the splitting wind |
| Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks, | 50 |
| And flies fled under shade, why, then the thing of courage |
| As roused with rage with rage doth sympathize, |
| And with an accent tuned in selfsame key |
| Retorts to chiding fortune. |
| ULYSSES | Agamemnon, | 55 |
| Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece, |
| Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit. |
| In whom the tempers and the minds of all |
| Should be shut up, hear what Ulysses speaks. |
| Besides the applause and approbation To which, | 60 |
[To AGAMEMNON] |
| most mighty for thy place and sway, |
[To NESTOR] |
| And thou most reverend for thy stretch'd-out life |
| I give to both your speeches, which were such |
| As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece |
| Should hold up high in brass, and such again | 65 |
| As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver, |
| Should with a bond of air, strong as the axle-tree |
| On which heaven rides, knit all the Greekish ears |
| To his experienced tongue, yet let it please both, |
| Thou great, and wise, to hear Ulysses speak. | 70 |
| AGAMEMNON | Speak, prince of Ithaca; and be't of less expect |
| That matter needless, of importless burden, |
| Divide thy lips, than we are confident, |
| When rank Thersites opes his mastic jaws, |
| We shall hear music, wit and oracle. | 75 |
| ULYSSES | Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down, |
| And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master, |
| But for these instances. |
| The specialty of rule hath been neglected: |
| And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand | 80 |
| Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions. |
| When that the general is not like the hive |
| To whom the foragers shall all repair, |
| What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded, |
| The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask. | 85 |
| The heavens themselves, the planets and this centre |
| Observe degree, priority and place, |
| Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, |
| Office and custom, in all line of order; |
| And therefore is the glorious planet Sol | 90 |
| In noble eminence enthroned and sphered |
| Amidst the other; whose medicinable eye |
| Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil, |
| And posts, like the commandment of a king, |
| Sans cheque to good and bad: but when the planets | 95 |
| 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 | 100 |
| The unity and married calm of states |
| Quite from their fixure! O, when degree is shaked, |
| Which is the ladder to all high designs, |
| Then enterprise is sick! How could communities, |
| Degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities, | 105 |
| Peaceful commerce from dividable shores, |
| The primogenitive and due of birth, |
| Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels, |
| But by degree, stand in authentic place? |
| Take but degree away, untune that string, | 110 |
| And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets |
| In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters |
| Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores |
| And make a sop of all this solid globe: |
| Strength should be lord of imbecility, | 115 |
| And the rude son should strike his father dead: |
| Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong, |
| Between whose endless jar justice resides, |
| Should lose their names, and so should justice too. |
| Then every thing includes itself in power, | 120 |
| Power into will, will into appetite; |
| And appetite, an universal wolf, |
| So doubly seconded with will and power, |
| Must make perforce an universal prey, |
| And last eat up himself. Great Agamemnon, | 125 |
| This chaos, when degree is suffocate, |
| Follows the choking. |
| And this neglection of degree it is |
| That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose |
| It hath to climb. The general's disdain'd | 130 |
| By him one step below, he by the next, |
| That next by him beneath; so every step, |
| Exampled by the first pace that is sick |
| Of his superior, grows to an envious fever |
| Of pale and bloodless emulation: | 135 |
| And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot, |
| Not her own sinews. To end a tale of length, |
| Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength. |
| NESTOR | Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover'd |
| The fever whereof all our power is sick. | 140 |
| AGAMEMNON | The nature of the sickness found, Ulysses, |
| What is the remedy? |
| ULYSSES | The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns |
| The sinew and the forehand of our host, |
| Having his ear full of his airy fame, | 145 |
| Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent |
| Lies mocking our designs: with him Patroclus |
| Upon a lazy bed the livelong day |
| Breaks scurril jests; |
| And with ridiculous and awkward action, | 150 |
| Which, slanderer, he imitation calls, |
| He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon, |
| Thy topless deputation he puts on, |
| And, like a strutting player, whose conceit |
| Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich | 155 |
| To hear the wooden dialogue and sound |
| 'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage,-- |
| Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrested seeming |
| He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks, |
| 'Tis like a chime a-mending; with terms unsquared, | 160 |
| Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropp'd |
| Would seem hyperboles. At this fusty stuff |
| The large Achilles, on his press'd bed lolling, |
| From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause; |
| Cries 'Excellent! 'tis Agamemnon just. | 165 |
| Now play me Nestor; hem, and stroke thy beard, |
| As he being drest to some oration.' |
| That's done, as near as the extremest ends |
| Of parallels, as like as Vulcan and his wife: |
| Yet god Achilles still cries 'Excellent! | 170 |
| 'Tis Nestor right. Now play him me, Patroclus, |
| Arming to answer in a night alarm.' |
| And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age |
| Must be the scene of mirth; to cough and spit, |
| And, with a palsy-fumbling on his gorget, | 175 |
| Shake in and out the rivet: and at this sport |
| Sir Valour dies; cries 'O, enough, Patroclus; |
| Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all |
| In pleasure of my spleen.' And in this fashion, |
| All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, | 180 |
| Severals and generals of grace exact, |
| Achievements, plots, orders, preventions, |
| Excitements to the field, or speech for truce, |
| Success or loss, what is or is not, serves |
| As stuff for these two to make paradoxes. | 185 |
| NESTOR | And in the imitation of these twain-- |
| Who, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns |
| With an imperial voice--many are infect. |
| Ajax is grown self-will'd, and bears his head |
| In such a rein, in full as proud a place | 190 |
| As broad Achilles; keeps his tent like him; |
| Makes factious feasts; rails on our state of war, |
| Bold as an oracle, and sets Thersites, |
| A slave whose gall coins slanders like a mint, |
| To match us in comparisons with dirt, | 195 |
| To weaken and discredit our exposure, |
| How rank soever rounded in with danger. |
| ULYSSES | They tax our policy, and call it cowardice, |
| Count wisdom as no member of the war, |
| Forestall prescience, and esteem no act | 200 |
| But that of hand: the still and mental parts, |
| That do contrive how many hands shall strike, |
| When fitness calls them on, and know by measure |
| Of their observant toil the enemies' weight,-- |
| Why, this hath not a finger's dignity: | 205 |
| They call this bed-work, mappery, closet-war; |
| So that the ram that batters down the wall, |
| For the great swing and rudeness of his poise, |
| They place before his hand that made the engine, |
| Or those that with the fineness of their souls | 210 |
| By reason guide his execution. |
| NESTOR | Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse |
| Makes many Thetis' sons. |
| [A tucket] |
| AGAMEMNON | What trumpet? look, Menelaus. |
| MENELAUS | From Troy. | 215 |
| [Enter AENEAS] |
| AGAMEMNON | What would you 'fore our tent? |
| AENEAS | Is this great Agamemnon's tent, I pray you? |
| AGAMEMNON | Even this. |
| AENEAS | May one, that is a herald and a prince, |
| Do a fair message to his kingly ears? | 220 |
| AGAMEMNON | With surety stronger than Achilles' arm |
| 'Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice |
| Call Agamemnon head and general. |
| AENEAS | Fair leave and large security. How may |
| A stranger to those most imperial looks | 225 |
| Know them from eyes of other mortals? |
| AGAMEMNON | How! |
| AENEAS | Ay; |
| I ask, that I might waken reverence, |
| And bid the cheek be ready with a blush | 230 |
| Modest as morning when she coldly eyes |
| The youthful Phoebus: |
| Which is that god in office, guiding men? |
| Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon? |
| AGAMEMNON | This Trojan scorns us; or the men of Troy | 235 |
| Are ceremonious courtiers. |
| AENEAS | Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm'd, |
| As bending angels; that's their fame in peace: |
| But when they would seem soldiers, they have galls, |
| Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, | 240 |
| Jove's accord, |
| Nothing so full of heart. But peace, AEneas, |
| Peace, Trojan; lay thy finger on thy lips! |
| The worthiness of praise distains his worth, |
| If that the praised himself bring the praise forth: | 245 |
| But what the repining enemy commends, |
| That breath fame blows; that praise, sole sure, |
| transcends. |
| AGAMEMNON | Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself AEneas? |
| AENEAS | Ay, Greek, that is my name. | 250 |
| AGAMEMNON | What's your affair I pray you? |
| AENEAS | Sir, pardon; 'tis for Agamemnon's ears. |
| AGAMEMNON | He hears naught privately that comes from Troy. |
| AENEAS | Nor I from Troy come not to whisper him: |
| I bring a trumpet to awake his ear, | 255 |
| To set his sense on the attentive bent, |
| And then to speak. |
| AGAMEMNON | Speak frankly as the wind; |
| It is not Agamemnon's sleeping hour: |
| That thou shalt know. Trojan, he is awake, | 260 |
| He tells thee so himself. |
| AENEAS | Trumpet, blow loud, |
| Send thy brass voice through all these lazy tents; |
| And every Greek of mettle, let him know, |
| What Troy means fairly shall be spoke aloud. | 265 |
[Trumpet sounds] |
| We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy |
| A prince call'd Hector,--Priam is his father,-- |
| Who in this dull and long-continued truce |
| Is rusty grown: he bade me take a trumpet, |
| And to this purpose speak. Kings, princes, lords! | 270 |
| If there be one among the fair'st of Greece |
| That holds his honour higher than his ease, |
| That seeks his praise more than he fears his peril, |
| That knows his valour, and knows not his fear, |
| That loves his mistress more than in confession, | 275 |
| With truant vows to her own lips he loves, |
| And dare avow her beauty and her worth |
| In other arms than hers,--to him this challenge. |
| Hector, in view of Trojans and of Greeks, |
| Shall make it good, or do his best to do it, | 280 |
| He hath a lady, wiser, fairer, truer, |
| Than ever Greek did compass in his arms, |
| And will to-morrow with his trumpet call |
| Midway between your tents and walls of Troy, |
| To rouse a Grecian that is true in love: | 285 |
| If any come, Hector shall honour him; |
| If none, he'll say in Troy when he retires, |
| The Grecian dames are sunburnt and not worth |
| The splinter of a lance. Even so much. |
| AGAMEMNON | This shall be told our lovers, Lord AEneas; | 290 |
| If none of them have soul in such a kind, |
| We left them all at home: but we are soldiers; |
| And may that soldier a mere recreant prove, |
| That means not, hath not, or is not in love! |
| If then one is, or hath, or means to be, | 295 |
| That one meets Hector; if none else, I am he. |
| NESTOR | Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man |
| When Hector's grandsire suck'd: he is old now; |
| But if there be not in our Grecian host |
| One noble man that hath one spark of fire, | 300 |
| To answer for his love, tell him from me |
| I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver |
| And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn, |
| And meeting him will tell him that my lady |
| Was fairer than his grandam and as chaste | 305 |
| As may be in the world: his youth in flood, |
| I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood. |
| AENEAS | Now heavens forbid such scarcity of youth! |
| ULYSSES | Amen. |
| AGAMEMNON | Fair Lord AEneas, let me touch your hand; | 310 |
| To our pavilion shall I lead you, sir. |
| Achilles shall have word of this intent; |
| So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent: |
| Yourself shall feast with us before you go |
| And find the welcome of a noble foe. | 315 |
| [Exeunt all but ULYSSES and NESTOR] |
| ULYSSES | Nestor! |
| NESTOR | What says Ulysses? |
| ULYSSES | I have a young conception in my brain; |
| Be you my time to bring it to some shape. |
| NESTOR | What is't? | 320 |
| ULYSSES | This 'tis: |
| Blunt wedges rive hard knots: the seeded pride |
| That hath to this maturity blown up |
| In rank Achilles must or now be cropp'd, |
| Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil, | 325 |
| To overbulk us all. |
| NESTOR | Well, and how? |
| ULYSSES | This challenge that the gallant Hector sends, |
| However it is spread in general name, |
| Relates in purpose only to Achilles. | 330 |
| NESTOR | The purpose is perspicuous even as substance, |
| Whose grossness little characters sum up: |
| And, in the publication, make no strain, |
| But that Achilles, were his brain as barren |
| As banks of Libya,--though, Apollo knows, | 335 |
| 'Tis dry enough,--will, with great speed of judgment, |
| Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose |
| Pointing on him. |
| ULYSSES | And wake him to the answer, think you? |
| NESTOR | Yes, 'tis most meet: whom may you else oppose, | 340 |
| That can from Hector bring his honour off, |
| If not Achilles? Though't be a sportful combat, |
| Yet in the trial much opinion dwells; |
| For here the Trojans taste our dear'st repute |
| With their finest palate: and trust to me, Ulysses, | 345 |
| Our imputation shall be oddly poised |
| In this wild action; for the success, |
| Although particular, shall give a scantling |
| Of good or bad unto the general; |
| And in such indexes, although small pricks | 350 |
| To their subsequent volumes, there is seen |
| The baby figure of the giant mass |
| Of things to come at large. It is supposed |
| He that meets Hector issues from our choice |
| And choice, being mutual act of all our souls, | 355 |
| Makes merit her election, and doth boil, |
| As 'twere from us all, a man distill'd |
| Out of our virtues; who miscarrying, |
| What heart receives from hence the conquering part, |
| To steel a strong opinion to themselves? | 360 |
| Which entertain'd, limbs are his instruments, |
| In no less working than are swords and bows |
| Directive by the limbs. |
| ULYSSES | Give pardon to my speech: |
| Therefore 'tis meet Achilles meet not Hector. | 365 |
| Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares, |
| And think, perchance, they'll sell; if not, |
| The lustre of the better yet to show, |
| Shall show the better. Do not consent |
| That ever Hector and Achilles meet; | 370 |
| For both our honour and our shame in this |
| Are dogg'd with two strange followers. |
| NESTOR | I see them not with my old eyes: what are they? |
| ULYSSES | What glory our Achilles shares from Hector, |
| Were he not proud, we all should share with him: | 375 |
| But he already is too insolent; |
| And we were better parch in Afric sun |
| Than in the pride and salt scorn of his eyes, |
| Should he 'scape Hector fair: if he were foil'd, |
| Why then, we did our main opinion crush | 380 |
| In taint of our best man. No, make a lottery; |
| And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw |
| The sort to fight with Hector: among ourselves |
| Give him allowance for the better man; |
| For that will physic the great Myrmidon | 385 |
| Who broils in loud applause, and make him fall |
| His crest that prouder than blue Iris bends. |
| If the dull brainless Ajax come safe off, |
| We'll dress him up in voices: if he fail, |
| Yet go we under our opinion still | 390 |
| That we have better men. But, hit or miss, |
| Our project's life this shape of sense assumes: |
| Ajax employ'd plucks down Achilles' plumes. |
| NESTOR | Ulysses, |
| Now I begin to relish thy advice; | 395 |
| And I will give a taste of it forthwith |
| To Agamemnon: go we to him straight. |
| Two curs shall tame each other: pride alone |
| Must tarre the mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone. |
| [Exeunt] |
Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida: Scenes and Commentary