SCENE III.-The Grecian Camp,

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

CALCHAS. Now, princes, for the service I have done you,

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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 come,
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; sequestering from me alla
That time, acquaintance, custom, and condition
Made tame and most familiar to my nature;
And here, to do you service, have 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.

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AGAMEMNON. What wouldst thou of us, Trojan ? make demand.

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CALCHAS. You have a Trojan prisoner, call'd Antenor, Yesterday took: Troy holds him very dear. Oft have you often have you thanks thereforeDesir'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, wi Wanting his manage; and they will almost Tabor Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam, 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.

AGAMEMNON.

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 :

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Withal bring word if Hector will to-morrow
Be answer'd in his challenge: Ajax is ready.

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DIOMEDES. This shall I undertake; and 'tis a burden Which I am proud to bear. [Exeunt DIOMEDES and CALCHAS.

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Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS, before their tent. ULYSSES. Achilles stands in 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 on him :** If so, I have derision med'cinable

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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 poor man's fees.
AGAMEMNON. 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.

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ACHILLES. What! comes the general to speak with me?

You know my mind; I'll fight no more 'gainst Troy. AGAMEMNON. What says Achilles? would he aught with us?

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NESTOR. Would you, my lord, aught with the general?

ACHILLES. No.

NESTOR. Nothing, my lord.
AGAMEMNON. The better.

[Exeunt AGAMEMNON and NESTOR.

ACHILLES. Good day, good day.

MENELAUS. How do you? how do you?

ACHILLES. What! does the cuckold scorn me?

AJAX. How now, Patroclus?

ACHILLES. Good morrow, Ajax.

[Exit.

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AJAX. Ha?

ACHILLES. Good morrow.

AJAX. Ay, and good next day too.

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[Exit.

ACHILLES. What mean these fellows? Know they not Achilles ?

PATROCLUS. 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.

ACHILLES.

What am I poor of late?

'Tis certain, greatness, once fall'n out with fortune, Must fall out with men too: what the declin❜d is He shall as soon read in the eyes of others

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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,

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

Which when they fall, as being slippery standers,
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!

ULYSSES.

ACHILLES.

ULYSSES.

Writes me,

Here is Ulysses:

Now, great Thetis' son!
What are you reading ?

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A strange fellow here

'That man, how dearly ever parted,
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

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Heat them, and they retort that heat again
To the first giver.'

ACHILLES.

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 mirror'd there

Where it may see itself. This is not strange at all.
ULYSSES. I do not strain at the position,

It is familiar, but at the author's drift;
Who in his circumstance expressly proves
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

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Where they're extended; who, like an arch, rever

berates

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,

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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.

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ACHILLES. I do believe it; for they pass'd by me As misers do by beggars, neither gave to me Good word or look: what! are my deeds forgot? ULYSSES. Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back, Wherein he puts alms for oblivion,

A great-siz'd monster of ingratitudes :

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Those scraps are good deeds past; which are devour'd As fast as they are made, forgot as soon

As done perseverance, dear my lord,

Keeps honour bright: to have done, is to hang
Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail

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In monumental mockery. Take the instant way;
For honour travels in a strait so narrow

Where one but goes abreast: keep, then, the path;
For emulation hath a thousand sons

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That one by one pursue: if you give way,

Or hedge aside from the direct forthright,

Like to an enter'd tide they all rush by
And leave you hindmost;

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Or, like a gallant horse fall'n in first rank,
Lie there for pavement to the abject rear,

O'errun and trampled on : then what they do in present,

Though less than yours in past, must o'ertop yours;
For time is like a fashionable host,

That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand,
And with his arms outstretch'd, as he would fly,
Grasps in the comer: welcome ever smiles,

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And farewell goes out sighing. O! let not virtue seek Remuneration for the thing it was;

For beauty, wit,

High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service,

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Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all

To envious and calumniating time.

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,

That all with one consent praise new-born gawds,

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