Enter Agamemnon, Ulyses, Neftor, Diomedes, and Ajax.

Achil. Patroclus, I'll speak with no body:-Come in with me, Thersites.

[Exit. Ther. Here is such patchery, such juggling, and such knavery! * all the argument is—a cuckold, and a whore; A good quarrel, to draw emulous factions, and bleed to death upon. Now the dry "ferpigo on the subject ! and war, and lechery, confound all!

[Exit. Aga. Where is Achilles ? Patr. Within his tent; but ill-dispos'd, my lord."

Aga. Let it be known to him, that we are here.
He sent us messengers; and we m lay by
Our appertainments, visiting of him:
Let him be told so; left, perchance, he think
We dare not " move the question of our place,
Or know not what we are.
Patr. I shall so say to him.

[Exit. Ulys. We saw him at the opening of his tent; He is not sick.

Ajax. Yes, lion-sick, sick of a proud heart : you may call it melancholy, if you will favour the man; but, by my head, 'tis pride: But why, why ? let him shew us a cause.-A word, my lord.

[To Agamemnon. Nest. What moves Ajax thus ° to bay at him? Ulys. Achilles hath inveigled his fool from him. Neft. Who? Thersites? Ulys. He.

Neft. Then will Ajax lack matter, if he have lost his argument.

* all the argument)-the whole matter in controversy. * Serpigo]-tetter.

m lay by]-wave all ceremony. n move the question of our place,]-inlift on our prerogative. to bay]-to bark.

Ulyf

Ulyf. No; you fee, hé is his argument, that has his argument; Achilles.

Neft. All the better; their fraction is more our wish, than their faction: But it was a strong composure, a fool could disunite.

Ulyl. The amity, that wisdom knits not, folly may easily untye. Here comes Patroclus,

Re-enter Patroclus.

Neft. No Achilles with him.

Ulyf. The elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy; His legs are for necessity, not for flexure.

Patr. Achilles bids me say—he is much forry,
If any thing more than your sport and pleasure
Did move your greatness, and this 9 noble state,
To call on him; he hopes, it is no other,
But, for your health and your digestion fake,
An after-dinner's breath.

Agam. Hear you, Patroclus ;
We are too well acquainted with these answers :
But his evasion, wing'd thus swift with scorn,
Cannot out-fly our apprehensions.
Much' attribute he hath : and much the reason
Why we ascribe it to him: yet all his virtues,-
* Not virtuously on his own part beheld, -
Do, in our eyes, begin to lose their gloss;
Yea, like fair fruit in an unwholesome dish,
Are like to rot untasted. Go and tell him,
We come to speak to him : And you shall not sin,
If you do fay-we think him over-proud,

? composure,)-connection, bond of friendship.
9 noble fitate, ]setinue, train of attendants. attribute]-merit.

s Net virtuously, &c. )-Appearing to disadvantage under his haughty demeanour-upbeld. VOL. III,

E

And

And ' under-honest; in self-assumption greater,
Than in the note of judgment; and worthier than himself,
Here tend the favage strangeness he puts on;
Disguise the holy strength of their command,
And " under-write in an observing kind
His humourous predominance ; yea, watch
His pettish W lunes, his ebbs, his flows, as if
* The passage and whole carriage of this action
Rode on his tide. Go, tell him this ; and add,
That, if he over-hold his price so much,
We'll none of him ; but let him, like an engine
Not portable, lie under this report-
Bring action hither, this cannot go to war :
A stirring dwarf we do " allowance give
Before a Neeping giant:- Tell him to.

Patr. I shall; and bring his answer presently. [Exit.

Aga. In ? second voice we'll not be satisfied,
We come to speak with him.-Ulysses, enter you.

[Exit Ulyses.
Ajax. What is he more than another?
Aga. No more than what he thinks he is.
Ajax. Is he so much? Do you not think, he thinks

himself
A better man than I?

Aga. No question.
Ajax. Will you a subscribe his thought, and fay—he is?
Aga. No, noble Ajax ; you are as strong, as valiant,

* under-honeft ; &c.]-somewhat partial, assuming more consequence than juftly belongs to him. u under-write]-obsequiously give way to his petulant humours. lunes, ]-freaks, fts of frenzy.

Merry Wives of Windsor, Vol. I. p. 235. * The pasage, &c.)-the fate of this expedition depended entirely on his concurrence.

y allowance give]-approve, prefer. z fecond voice]-an answer by proxy. a fublcribe]-affirm.

As

As wise, and no less noble, much more gentle,
And altogether more tractable.

Ajax. Why should a man be proud ?
How doth pride grow? I know not what pride is.

Aga. Your mind's the clearer, Ajax, and your virtues
The fairer. He that's proud, eats up himself:
Pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his
Own chronicle; and whate'er praises itself
But in the deed, devours the deed i’ the praise.

Ajax. I do hate a proud man, as I hate the engendering of toads.

Neft. [Afide.] And yet he loves himself; Is it not Atrange?

Re-enter Ulysses.
Ull. Achilles will not to the field to-morrow.
Age. What's his excuse?

Ulys. He doth rely on none;
* But carries on the stream of his dispose,
Without observance or respect of any,
In will peculiar and in self admission.

Aga. Why will he not, upon our fair request, * Untent his person, and share the air with us?

Ulys. Things small as nothing, for request's fake only, He makes important: * Poffest he is with greatness ; And speaks not to himself, but with a pride That quarrels at self-breath: imagin'd worth Holds in his blood such swoln and hot discourse, That, 'twixt his mental and his active parts, * Kingdom'd Achilles in commotion rages,

But carries on the stream of bis dispose, &c.]—But pursues the bent of his inclination with wilfulness and self conceit.

Untent his perfon, ]-Come forth from his tent, • Polef]-Bewitched.

• Kingdom'd Achilles, &c.]—The mighty system of Acbilles, like a fate embroiled in a civil war.

And batters down himself: What should I say?
He is ' so plaguy proud, that the death tokens of it
Cry-No recovery.

Aga. Let Ajax go to him.-
Dear lord; go you and greet him in his tent:
'Tis said, he holds you well; and will be led,
At your request, a little from himself.

Ulys. O Agamemnon, let it not be so !.
We'll consecrate the steps that Ajax makes,
When they go from Achilles : Shall the proud lord,
That baftes his arrogance with his own seam;
And never suffers matter of the world
Enter his thoughts, - save such as do revolve
And "ruminate himself,-- hall he be worshipp'd
Of that we hold an idol more than he ?
No, this thrice-worthy and right-valiant lord
Must not fo ' ftale his palm, nobly acquir’d;
Nor, by my will, * assubjugate his mierit,
As amply titled as Achilles is,
By going to Achilles :
That were to enlard his fat-already pride ;
And add more coals to Cancer, when he burns
With entertaining great Hyperion.
This lord go to him! Jupiter forbid;
And say in thunder-Achilles, go to him.

Neft. O, this is well; 'he rubs the vein of him. [ Aside.
Dio. And how his filence drinks up this applause !

[ Afide. Ajax. If I go to him, with my armed fist I'll " pash him o'er the face.

so plaguy proud,]— so deeply infected with the plague of pride, that the spots declare him incurable.

& seam ; ]-fat, grease. h ruminate)-dwell upon. i pale)-debase, vilify.

afubjugate)---so far reduce, stoop below his character. I be rubs tbe vein of bim.)-tickles Ajax. m pah-strike, smite.

Aga.