With thofe of nobler bulk!
But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis, and anon, behold,
The ftrong-ribb'd bark thro' liquid mountains cuts,
Bounding between the two moift elements,
Like Perfeus' horfe: 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 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 rouz'd with rage, with rage doth fympathize,
And with an accent tun'd in self-fame key
Replies to chiding fortune. *
Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece,
Heart of our numbers, foul, and only fpirit,
In whom the tempers and the minds of all
Should be fhut up: hear what Ulyes fpeaks.
Befides th' applause and approbation
The which, moft mighty for thy place and fway,
[To Agamemnon. And thou, most rev'rend for thy ftrecht-out life, [To Neft.
I give to both your fpeeches, which were fuch
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece
Should hold up high in brafs; 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
(Though great and wife) to hear Ulyffes fpeak.
Aga. Speak, Prince of Ithaca: we lefs expect
That matter needlefs, of importless burden,
• It is faid of the Tyger, that in storms and high winds he rages and roars most furiously.
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,
When rank Therfites opes his maftiff jaws,
We fhall hear mufick, wit, and oracle.
Ulyf. Troy, yet upon her bafis, had been down,
And the great Hector's fword had lack'd a master,
But for thefe inftances.
The fpecialty of rule hath been neglected;
And look how many Grecian tents do ftand
Upon this plain, fo many hollow factions.
When that the general is not like the hive,
To which the foragers fhall all repair,
What honey is expected? degree being vizarded,
Th' unworthieft fhews as fairly in the mask.
The heav'ns themselves, the planets, and this center,
Obferve degree, priority and place,
Infifture, course, proportion, feason, form,
Office and cuftom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet Sol
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
Amidft the reft, whofe 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 deracinate
The unity and married calm of ftates
Quite from their fixure ! when degree is fhaken, (Which is the ladder to all high defigns)
Then enterprize 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, lawrels,
But by degree, ftand in authentick place?
Take but degree away, untune that firing,
And hark what difcord follows; each thing meets
In meer oppugnancy. The bounded waters
Would lift their bosoms higher than the shores,
And make a fop of all this folid globe:
Strength would be lord of imbecillity,
And the rude fon would ftrike his father dead:
Force would be right; or rather, right and wrong,
Between whose endless jar justice prefides,
Would lose their names, and fo would justice too.
Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite,
And appetite an univerfal wolf,
So doubly feconded with will and power
Muft make perforce an univerfal prey,
And laft eat up it felf. Great Agamemnon!
This chaos, when degree is fuffocate,
Follows the choaking;
And this neglection of degree is it,
That by a pace goes backward, in a purpose
It hath to climb. The General's difdain'd
By him one ftep 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 bloodless 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.
Neft. Moft wifely hath Ulyffes here discover'd
The fever, whereof all our power is fick.
Aga. The nature of the fickness found, Ulyffes,
What is the remedy?
Ulyf. The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns The finew and the fore-hand of our hoft,
Having his ear full of his airy fame,
Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent
Lyes mocking our defigns. With him Patroclus,
Upon a lazy bed, the live-long day
And with ridiculous and aukward action
(Which, flanderer, he imitation calls)
Sometimes, great Agamemnon,
0 3
Thy topless deputation he puts on;
And like a frutting-player, whofe conceit
Lyes in his ham-ftring, and doth think it rich
To hear the wooden dialogue and found
"Twixt his firetch'd footing and the scaffoldage,
Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrefted seeming
He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks,
'Tis like a chime a mending; with terms unfquar'd ;
Which from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropt
Would feem hyperboles. At this fufty stuff
The large Achilles, on his preft-bed lolling,
From his deep cheft laughs out a loud applaufe:
Cries, excellent! 'tis Agamemnon just!
Now play me Neftorbum, and stroke thy beard,
As be, being 'dreft 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!
'Tis Neftor right! now play bim me, Patroclus,
Arming to anfer in a night-alarm:
And then, forfooth, the faint defects of age
Must be the fcene of mirth, to cough and fpit,
And with a palfie fumbling on his gorget,
Shake in and out the rivet- -at this fport,
Sir Valour dies; cries, O!-enough, Patroclus-
Or, give me ribs of feel, I fhall split all
In pleasure of my spleen. And in this fashion
All our abilities, gifts, natures, fhapes,
Sev'rals and gen'rals though of grace exact,
Atchievements, plots, orders, preventions,
Excitements to the field, or fpeech for truce,
Succefs or lofs, what is, or is not, ferves
As ftuff for these two to make paradoxes.
Neft. And in the imitation of these twain,
(Whom, as Ulyffes fays, opinion crowns
With an imperial voice) many are infect:
Ajax is grown felf-will'd, and bears his head
In fuch a rein, in full as proud a place,
As broad Achilles; keeps his tent like him;
Makes factious feafts, rails on our ftate of war,
Bold as an oracle; and fets Therfites
(A flave whose gall coins flanders like a mint)
To match us in comparisons with dirt,
To weaken and difcredit our expofure,
How hard foever rounded in with danger.
Ulyf. They tax our policy, and call it cowardife,
Count wisdom as no member of the war,
Fore-ftall our prescience, and esteem no act
But that of hand: the ftill and mental parts,
That do contrive how many hands fhall strike
When fitness calls them on, and know, by measure
Of their obfervant toil, the enemies weight;
Why, this hath not a finger's dignity;
They call this bed-work mapp'ry, closet-war:
So that the ram that batters down the wall,
For the great swing and rudeness of his poize,
They place before his hand that made the engine;
Or those that with the fineness of their fouls
By reafon guide its execution.
Neft. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horfe
Makes many Thetis' fons.
Aga. What trumpet? look, Menelaus.
Aga. What would you 'fore our tent?
Ene. Is this great Agamemnon's tent, I pray you?
Ene. May one that is a herald and a Prince,
Do a fair meffage to his kingly ears?
Aga. With furety ftronger than Achilles' arm,
'Fore all the Greekifh heads, which with one voice
Call Agamemnon head and General.
Ene. Fair leave, and large fecurity.
A ftranger to those most imperial looks
Know them from eyes of other mortals?
Aga. How?
Ene. I afk, that I might waken reverence,
And bid the cheek be ready with a blush
Modeft as morning, when the coldly eyes
The youthful Phoebus:
|