Puslapio vaizdai
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As true as Troilus fhall crown up the verse,
And fanctifie the numbers.

Cre. Prophet may you be!

If I be falfe, or fwerve a hair from truth,
When time is old and hath forgot it felf,
When water-drops have worn the ftones of Troy,
And blind Oblivion swallow'd Cities up,
And mighty States characterlefs are grated
To dufty Nothing; yet let Memory,
From falfe to falfe, among falfe maids in love,
Upbraid my falfehood! when they've said, as falfe
As air, as water, as wind, as fandy earth;
As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf;
Pard to the hind, or ftep-dame to her fon;

Yea, let them fay, to stick the heart of falsehood,
As falfe as Crefid.-

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.

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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,
Yesterday took: Troy holds him very dear.
Oft have you (often have you thanks therefore ;)

(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,

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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,
Whom Troy hath ftill deny'd: but this Antenor,
I know, is fuch a wreft in their affairs,
That their negociations all muft flack,
Wanting his Manage; and they will almoft
Give us a Prince o' th' blood, a fon of Priam,
In Change of him. Let him be fent, great Princes,
And he shall buy my daughter: and her prefence
Shall quite ftrike off all fervice I have done,
In most accepted pain.

Aga. Let Diomedes bear him,

And bring us Crefid hither: Calchas fhall have
What he requests of us. Good Diomede,
Furnish you fairly for this enterchange;
Withall, bring word, if Hector will to morrow.
Be answer'd in his Challenge. Ajax is ready.
Dio. This fhall I undertake, and 'tis a burthen
Which I am proud to bear.

Enter Achilles and Patroclus, before their Tent.
Ulyf. Achilles ftands i'th' entrance of his Tent,
Please it our General to pafs ftrangely by him,
As if he were forgot; and, Princes all,
Lay negligent and loose regard upon him:
I will come laft; 'tis like, he'll queftion me,
Why fuch unplaufive eyes are bent on him?
If fo, I have decifion medicinable

To use between your strangeness and his pride,
Which his own will fhall have defire to drink.

It

may do good: Pride hath no other glass
To fhew it self, but pride; for fupple knees
Feed arrogance, and are the proud man's fees.
Aga. We'll execute your purpose, and put on
A form of strangenefs as we pafs along;
So do each lord; and either greet him not,
Or else disdainfully, which fhall fhake him more
Than if not look'd on. I will lead the way.

[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?
Achil. No.

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
Achilles?

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
To holy altars.

Achil. What, am I poor of late?

'Tis certain, Greatnefs, once fall'n out with fortune,
Muft fall out with men too: what the declin'd is,
He fhall as foon read in the eyes of others,

As feel in his own Fall: for men, like butter-flies,
Shew not their mealy wings but to the fummer;
And not a man, for being fimply man,

Hath honour, but is honour'd by those honours
That are without him; as place, riches, favour,
Prizes of accident as oft as merit:
Which when they fall, (as being flipp❜ry standers)
The love that lean'd on them, as flipp'ry too,
Doth one pluck down another, and together
Dye in the Fall. But 'tis not fo with me:
Fortune and I are friends; I do enjoy

At ample point all that I did poffefs,

Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out
Something in me not worth that rich beholding,

As they have often giv'n. Here is Ulyffes.

I'll interrupt his Reading.Now, Ulyffes?
Uly. Now, Thetis' fon!

Achil. What are you Reading?

Ulf.

Uly. A ftrange fellow here

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 fhining upon others
Heat them, and they retort that heat again
To the first giver.

Achil. This is not ftrange, Ulyffes.

The beauty that is borne here in the face
The bearer knows not, but commends it felf
To others eyes: nor doth the eye it felf'
(That most pure spirit of fenfe) behold it self
Not going from it felf; but eyes oppos'd

Salute each other with each other's form.
For fpeculation turns not to it felf,
'Till it hath travell'd, and is marry'd there
Where it may fee its felf; this is not strange.
Uly. I do not ftrain at the pofition,
It is familiar; but the author's drift;
Who, in his circumftance, exprefly proves
That no man is the lord of any thing,
(Tho' in, and of, him there is much confifting)
'Till he communicate his parts to others;
Nor doth he of himself know them for ought,
'Till he behold them formed in th' applause

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,
And apprehended here immediately

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,
And poor in worth? Now fhall we fee to morrow
An Act, that very Chance doth throw upon him:
Ajax renown'd! Oh heav'ns, what fome men do,

E 3

While

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