As true as Troilus fhall crown up the verse, Cre. Prophet may you be! If I be falfe, or fwerve a hair from truth, Yea, let them fay, to stick the heart of falsehood, Pan. Go to, a bargain made: feal it, feal it, I'll be the witnefs.Here I hold your hand; here my coufin's; if ever you prove falfe to one another, fince I have taken fuch pains to bring you together, let all pitiful Goers-between be call'd to the world's end after my name; call them all Pandars: let all constant men be Troilus's, all falfe women Creffida's, and all brokersbetween Pandars: fay, Amen. Troi. Amen. Cre. Amen. Pan. Amen. Whereupon I will fhew you a bedchamber; which bed, becaufe it fhall not speak of your pretty encounters, prefs it to death: away. And Cupid grant all tongue-ty'd maidens here, Bed, chamber, and Pandar to provide this Geer! [Exeunt. VOL. VII. E SCENE SCENE changes to the Grecian Camp. Enter Agamemnon, Ulyffes, Diomedes, Neftor, Ajax, Menelaus, and Calchas. Cal. OW, Princes, for the fervice I have done you, Th' advantage of the time prompts me aloud To call for recompenfe: appear it to you, (28) That, through the fight I bear in things to come, I have abandon'd Troy, left my poffeffion, Incurr'd a traitor's name, expos'd my self, From certain and poffeft conveniences, To doubtful fortunes; fequeftred from all That time, acquaintance, custom, and condition, Made tame and most familiar to my nature : And here, to do you fervice, am become As new into the world, ftrange, unacquainted. I do befeech you, as in way of taste, To give me now a little benefit, Out of thofe many regiftred in promise, Which, you fay, live to come in my behalf. Aga. What wouldst thou of us, Trojan? make demand. Cal. You have a Trojan prifoner, call'd Antenor, (28) appear it to you, That, through the Sight I bear in Things to come, I have abandon'd Troy,] Calchas is here preffing for fome Reward from the Grecian Princes, for his having come over to them: But does it in any kind add to his Merit with them, to fay, "Gentlemen, by my "Power of Prescience I found my Country must be fubdued and ruin'd; «and therefore I have left House and Home in Time to [save myself, 66 and] come and ferve you."—And yet this is the Drift and Hinge upon which his Argument turns, and his Hopes and Pretence for Recompenfe are form'd. I own, the Motives of his Oratory feem to me fomewhat perverfe and unartful: nor do I know how to reconcile it, unless our Poet purposely intended to make Calchas act the Part of a true Prieft; and fo from Motives of Self-Interest infinuate the Merit of Service. 2 Defir'd Defir'd my Creffid in right-great exchange, Aga. Let Diomedes bear him, And bring us Crefid hither: Calchas fhall have Enter Achilles and Patroclus, before their Tent. To use between your strangeness and his pride, It may do good: Pride hath no other glass [Exit. Achil. What, comes the General to fpeak with me? You know my mind. I'll fight no more 'gainst Troy. Aga. What fays Achilles? would he ought with us? E 2 *Neft, Neft. Would you, my lord, ought with the General? Neft. Nothing, my lord. Aga. The better. Achil. Good day, good day. Men. How do you? how do you? Achil. What, does the cuckold scorn me? Ajax. How now, Patroclus? Achil. Good morrow, Ajax. Ajax. Ha? Achil. Good morrow. Ajax. Ay, and good next day too. [Exe. Achil. What mean these fellows? know they not Patr. They pafs by ftrangely: they were us'd to bend, To fend their fmiles before them to Achilles, To come as humbly as they us'd to creep Achil. What, am I poor of late? 'Tis certain, Greatnefs, once fall'n out with fortune, As feel in his own Fall: for men, like butter-flies, Hath honour, but is honour'd by those honours At ample point all that I did poffefs, Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out As they have often giv'n. Here is Ulyffes. I'll interrupt his Reading.Now, Ulyffes? Achil. What are you Reading? Ulf. Uly. A ftrange fellow here Writes me, that Man, how dearly ever parted, Achil. This is not ftrange, Ulyffes. The beauty that is borne here in the face Salute each other with each other's form. Where they're extended; which, like an arch, reverb'rates The voice again; or, like a gate of steel Fronting the Sun, receives and renders back His figure and his heat. I was much wrapt in this, The unknown Ajax Heav'ns! what a man is there? a very horse, That has he knows not what. there are, Nature! what Things Moft abject in regard, and dear in ufe? What things again moft dear in the esteem, E 3 While |