⟨Flourish.⟩ Enter Ulysses, Diomedes, Nestor,
Agamemnon, Calchas, ⟨Menelaus,⟩ ⌜and Ajax.⌝CALCHAS Now, princes, for the service I have done ⟨you,⟩ Th’ advantage of the time prompts me aloud To call for recompense. Appear it to ⟨your⟩ mind
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That, through the sight I bear in things to ⌜come,⌝5 I have abandoned Troy, left my ⌜possessions,⌝ Incurred a traitor’s name, exposed myself, From certain and possessed conveniences, To doubtful fortunes, sequest’ring from me all That time, acquaintance, custom, and condition10 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 benefit15 Out of those many regist’red in promise, Which you say live to come in my behalf.AGAMEMNON What wouldst thou of us, Trojan, make demand?CALCHAS You have a Trojan prisoner called Antenor Yesterday took. Troy holds him very dear.20 Oft have you—often have you thanks therefor— Desired 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,25 Wanting his manage; and they will almost 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 done30 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.35 Withal, bring word if Hector will tomorrow Be answered 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.He exits ⌜with Calchas.⌝Achilles and Patroclus stand in their tent.ULYSSES Achilles stands i’ th’ entrance of his tent.40 Please it our General 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 turned on45 him. If so, I have derision medicinable 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 glass50 To show itself but pride, for supple knees Feed arrogance and are the proud 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 not55 Or else disdainfully, which shall shake him more Than if not looked on. I will lead the way.⌜They pass before Achilles and Patroclus. Ulysses
remains in place, reading.⌝ACHILLES What, comes the General to speak with me? You know my mind: I’ll fight no more ’gainst Troy.AGAMEMNON, ⌜to Nestor⌝ What says Achilles? Would he aught with us?NESTOR, ⌜to Achilles⌝ 60 Would you, my lord, aught with the General?ACHILLES No.
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NESTOR Nothing, my lord.AGAMEMNON The better.⌜Agamemnon and Nestor exit.⌝ACHILLES, ⌜to Menelaus⌝ Good day, good day.MENELAUS 65How do you? How do you?⌜He exits.⌝ACHILLES What, does the cuckold scorn me?AJAX How now, Patroclus?ACHILLES Good morrow, Ajax.AJAX Ha?ACHILLES 70Good morrow.AJAX Ay, and good next day too.⌜He exits.⌝ACHILLES What mean these fellows? Know they not Achilles?PATROCLUS They pass by strangely. They were used to bend, To send their smiles before them to Achilles,75 To come as humbly as they ⌜use⌝ 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 declined is80 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 honor, but honor for those honors85 That are without him—as place, riches, and favor, Prizes of accident as oft as merit, Which, when they fall, as being slippery slanders, The love that leaned on them, as slippery too, Doth one pluck down another and together90 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
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95 As they have often given. Here is Ulysses. I’ll interrupt his reading.—How now, Ulysses?ULYSSES Now, great Thetis’ son—ACHILLES What are you reading?ULYSSES A strange fellow here100 Writes me 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,105 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 itself110 [To others’ eyes; nor doth the eye itself, That most pure spirit of sense, behold itself,] Not going from itself, but eye to eye opposed Salutes each other with each other’s form. For speculation turns not to itself115 Till it hath traveled and is ⌜mirrored⌝ 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 proves120 That no man is the lord of anything— 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 formed in the applause125 Where they’re extended; who, like an arch, reverb’rate 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
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130 Th’ 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 esteem135 And poor in worth! Now shall we see tomorrow— An act that very chance doth throw upon him— Ajax renowned. O, heavens, what some men do While some men leave to do! How some men creep in skittish Fortune’s hall,140 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 shoulder145 As if his foot were on brave Hector’s breast And great Troy shrieking.ACHILLES I do believe it, for they passed by me As misers do by beggars, neither gave to me Good word nor look. What, are my deeds forgot?ULYSSES 150 Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back Wherein he puts alms for oblivion, A great-sized monster of ingratitudes. Those scraps are good deeds past, which are devoured As fast as they are made, forgot as soon155 As done. Perseverance, dear my lord, Keeps honor bright. To have done is to hang Quite out of fashion like a rusty ⌜mail⌝ In monumental mock’ry. Take the instant way, For honor travels in a strait so narrow160 Where one but goes abreast. Keep, then, the path, For Emulation hath a thousand sons That one by one pursue. If you give way Or turn aside from the direct forthright,
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Like to an entered tide they all rush by165 And leave you ⟨hindmost; 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,170 Though less than yours in ⟨past,⟩ must o’ertop yours; For Time is like a fashionable host That slightly shakes his parting guest by th’ hand And, with his arms outstretched as he would fly, Grasps in the comer. Welcome ever smiles,175 And Farewell goes out sighing. Let not virtue seek Remuneration for the thing it was, For beauty, wit, High birth, vigor of bone, desert in service, Love, friendship, charity are subjects all180 To envious and calumniating Time. One touch of nature makes the whole world kin, That all, with one consent, praise newborn gauds, Though they are made and molded of things past, And ⌜give⌝ to dust that is a little gilt185 More laud than gilt o’erdusted. The present eye praises the present object. Then marvel not, thou great and complete man, That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax, Since things in motion sooner catch the eye190 ⟨Than⟩ what stirs not. The cry went once on thee, And still it might, and yet it may again, If thou wouldst not entomb thyself alive And case thy reputation in thy tent, Whose glorious deeds but in these fields of late195 Made emulous missions ’mongst the gods themselves And drave great Mars to faction.ACHILLES Of this my privacy, I have strong reasons.ULYSSES But ’gainst your privacy
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200 The reasons are more potent and heroical. ’Tis known, Achilles, that you are in love With one of Priam’s daughters.ACHILLES Ha? Known?ULYSSES Is that a wonder?205 The providence that’s in a watchful state Knows almost every ⟨grain of Pluto’s gold,⟩ Finds bottom in the uncomprehensive ⌜deep,⌝ Keeps place with thought and almost, like the gods, Do thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles.210 There is a mystery—with whom relation Durst never meddle—in the soul of state, Which hath an operation more divine Than breath or pen can give expressure to. All the commerce that you have had with Troy215 As perfectly is ours as yours, my lord; And better would it fit Achilles much To throw down Hector than Polyxena. But it must grieve young Pyrrhus now at home When Fame shall in our islands sound her trump,220 And all the Greekish girls shall tripping sing “Great Hector’s sister did Achilles win, But our great Ajax bravely beat down him.” Farewell, my lord. I as your lover speak. The fool slides o’er the ice that you should break.⌜He exits.⌝PATROCLUS 225 To this effect, Achilles, have I moved you. A woman impudent and mannish grown Is not more loathed than an effeminate man In time of action. I stand condemned for this. They think my little stomach to the war,230 And your great love to me, restrains you thus. Sweet, rouse yourself, and the weak wanton Cupid Shall from your neck unloose his amorous fold
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And, like ⟨a⟩ dewdrop from the lion’s mane, Be shook to air.ACHILLES 235 Shall Ajax fight with Hector?PATROCLUS Ay, and perhaps receive much honor by him.ACHILLES I see my reputation is at stake; My fame is shrewdly gored.PATROCLUS O, then, beware!240 Those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves. Omission to do what is necessary Seals a commission to a blank of danger, And danger, like an ague, subtly taints Even then when they sit idly in the sun.ACHILLES 245 Go call Thersites hither, sweet Patroclus. I’ll send the fool to Ajax and desire him T’ invite the Trojan lords after the combat To see us here unarmed. I have a woman’s longing, An appetite that I am sick withal,250 To see great Hector in his weeds of peace, To talk with him, and to behold his visage, Even to my full of view.Enter Thersites. A labor saved.THERSITES A wonder!ACHILLES 255What?THERSITES Ajax goes up and down the field, asking for himself.ACHILLES How so?THERSITES He must fight singly tomorrow with Hector260 and is so prophetically proud of an heroical cudgeling that he raves in saying nothing.ACHILLES How can that be?
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THERSITES Why, he stalks up and down like a peacock— a stride and a stand; ruminates like an hostess265 that hath no arithmetic but her brain to set down her reckoning; bites his lip with a politic regard, as who should say “There were wit in this head an ’twould out”—and so there is, but it lies as coldly in him as fire in a flint, which will not270 show without knocking. The man’s undone forever, for if Hector break not his neck i’ th’ combat, he’ll break ’t himself in vainglory. He knows not me. I said “Good morrow, Ajax,” and he replies “Thanks, Agamemnon.” What think you of this275 man that takes me for the General? He’s grown a very land-fish, languageless, a monster. A plague of opinion! A man may wear it on both sides, like a leather jerkin.ACHILLES Thou must be my ambassador ⟨to him,⟩280 Thersites.THERSITES Who, I? Why, he’ll answer nobody. He professes not answering; speaking is for beggars; he wears his tongue in ’s arms. I will put on his presence. Let Patroclus make ⟨his⟩ demands to me. You285 shall see the pageant of Ajax.ACHILLES To him, Patroclus. Tell him I humbly desire the valiant Ajax to invite the ⟨most⟩ valorous Hector to come unarmed to my tent, and to procure safe-conduct for his person of the magnanimous and290 most illustrious, six-or-seven-times-honored captain general of the ⟨Grecian⟩ army, Agamemnon, ⟨et cetera.⟩ Do this.PATROCLUS, ⌜to Thersites, who is playing Ajax⌝ Jove bless great Ajax.THERSITES 295Hum!PATROCLUS I come from the worthy Achilles—THERSITES Ha?
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PATROCLUS Who most humbly desires you to invite Hector to his tent—THERSITES 300Hum!PATROCLUS And to procure safe-conduct from Agamemnon.THERSITES Agamemnon?PATROCLUS Ay, my lord.THERSITES 305Ha!PATROCLUS What say you to ’t?THERSITES God b’ wi’ you, with all my heart.PATROCLUS Your answer, sir.THERSITES If tomorrow be a fair day, by eleven of the310 clock it will go one way or other. Howsoever, he shall pay for me ere he has me.PATROCLUS Your answer, sir.THERSITES Fare you well with all my heart.⌜He pretends to exit.⌝ACHILLES Why, but he is not in this tune, is he?THERSITES 315No, but ⟨he’s⟩ out of tune thus. What music will be in him when Hector has knocked out his brains I know not. But I am sure none, unless the fiddler Apollo get his sinews to make catlings on.ACHILLES Come, thou shalt bear a letter to him320 straight.THERSITES Let me bear another to his horse, for that’s the more capable creature.ACHILLES My mind is troubled, like a fountain stirred, And I myself see not the bottom of it.⌜Achilles and Patroclus exit.⌝THERSITES 325Would the fountain of your mind were clear again, that I might water an ass at it. I had rather be a tick in a sheep than such a valiant ignorance.⌜He exits.⌝
