Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Of will and judgment: how may I avoid,
Although my will distaste what it elected,
The wife I chose? there can be no evasion
To blench from this, and to stand firm by honour:
We turn not back the silks upon the merchant,
When we have soil'd them; nor the remainder
viands

We do not throw in unrespective sieve t
Because we now are full. It was thought meet,
Paris should do some vengeance on the Greeks:
Your breath of full consent bellied his sails;
The seas and winds (old wranglers) took a truce,
And did him service: he touch'd the ports desir'd;
And, for an old aunt, whom the Greeks held
captive,

He brought a Grecian queen, whose youth and freshness

Wrinkles Apollo's, and makes staleb the morning. Why keep we her? the Grecians keep our aunt: Is she worth keeping? why, she is a pearl,

[blocks in formation]

Whose price hath launch'd above a thousand ships,
And turn'd crown'd kings to merchants.
If you'll avouch 'twas wisdom Paris went,
(As you must needs, for you all cried-Go, go !)
If you'll confess he brought home noble prize,
(As you must needs, for you all clapp'd your hands,
And cried-Inestimable!) why do you now
The issue of your proper wisdoms rate,
And do a deed that fortune never did,-
Beggar the estimation which you priz'd
Richer than sea and land? O, theft most base,
That we have stol'n what we do fear to keep!
But, thieves, unworthy of a thing so stol'n,
That in their country did them that disgrace,
We fear to warrant in our native place!
CAS. [Without.] Cry, Trojans, cry!

PRI.

What noise? what shriek is this? TROIL. 'Tis our mad sister, I do know her voice. CAS. [Without.] Cry, Trojans !

HECT. It is Cassandra.

bmakes stale the morning.] The quarto reads,-"makes pule the morning," &c.

[merged small][ocr errors]

Enter CASSANDRA, raving.(2)

CAS. Cry, Trojans, cry! lend me ten thousand

eyes,

And I will fill them with prophetic tears.

HECT. Peace, sister, peace!

CAS. Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled eld,

Soft infancy, that nothing canst* but cry,
Add to my clamour! let us pay betimes
A moiety of that mass of moan to come.
Cry, Trojans, cry! practise your eyes with tears!
Troy must not be, nor goodly Ilion stand;
Our fire-brand brother, Paris, burns us all.
Cry, Trojans, cry! a Helen and a woe!
Cry, cry! Troy burns, or else let Helen go.

[Exit.

HECT. Now, youthful Troilus, do not these high strains

Of divination in our sister work

Some touches of remorse? or is your blood
So madly hot, that no discourse of reason,
Nor fear of bad success in a bad cause,

Can qualify the same?

TROIL.

Why, brother Hector, We may not think the justness of each act Such and no other than event doth form it; Nor once deject the courage of our minds, Because Cassandra's mad; her brain-sick raptures Cannot distaste the goodness of a quarrel, Which hath our several honours all engag'd To make it gracious. For my private part, I am no more touch'd than all Priam's sons : And Jove forbid there should be done amongst us Such things as might offend the weakest spleen To fight for and maintain !

PAR. Else might the world convince of levity As well my undertakings as your counsels : But I attest the gods, your full consent Gave wings to my propension, and cut off All fears attending on so dire a project. For what, alas, can these my single arms? What propugnation is in one man's valour, To stand the push and enmity of those This quarrel would excite? Yet, I protest, Were I alone to pass the difficulties, And had as ample power as I have will, Paris should ne'er retract what he hath done, Nor faint in the pursuit.

[blocks in formation]

Paris, you speak

PRI.
Like one besotted on your sweet delights:
You have the honey still, but these the gall;
So to be valiant is no praise at all.

PAR. Sir, I propose not merely to myself
The pleasures such a beauty brings with it;
But I would have the soil of her fair rape
Wip'd off, in honourable keeping her.
What treason were it to the ransack'd queen,
Disgrace to your great worths, and shame to me,
Now to deliver her possession up

On terms of base compulsion! Can it be
That so degenerate a strain as this,

Should once set footing in your generous bosoms?
There's not the meanest spirit on our party,
Without a heart to dare, or sword to draw,
When Helen is defended; nor none so noble,
Whose life were ill bestow'd, or death unfam'd,
Where Helen is the subject: then, I say,
Well may we fight for her, whom, we know well,
The world's large spaces cannot parallel.

HECT. Paris, and Troilus, you have both said
well;

And on the cause and question now in hand
Have gloz'd,—but superficially; not much
Unlike young men, whom Aristotle thought
Unfit to hear moral philosophy:

The reasons you allege do more conduce
To the hot passion of distemper'd blood,
Than to make up a free determination
"Twixt right and wrong; for pleasure and revenge
Have ears more deaf than adders to the voice
Of any true decision. Nature craves
All dues be render'd to their owners; now,
What nearer debt in all humanity,
Than wife is to the husband? If this law
Of nature be corrupted through affection;
And that great minds, of partial indulgence
To their benumbed wills, resist the same;
There is a law in each well-order'd nation,
To curb those raging appetites that are
Most disobedient and refractory.

If Helen, then, be wife to Sparta's king,-
As it is known she is,-these moral laws
Of nature and of nations* speak aloud
To have her back return'd: thus to persist
In doing wrong extenuates not wrong,
But makes it much more heavy. Hector's opinion
Is this, in way of truth: yet, ne'ertheless,

[blocks in formation]
[graphic]

My spritely brethren, I propend to you

In resolution to keep Helen still;

For 'tis a cause that hath no mean dependance
Upon our joint and several dignities.

TROIL. Why, there you touch'd the life of our
design:

Were it not glory that we more affected
Than the performance of our heaving spleens,
I would not wish a drop of Trojan blood
Spent more in her defence. But, worthy Hector,
She is a theme of honour and renown;
A spur to valiant and magnanimous deeds;
Whose present courage may beat down our foes,
And fame in time to come canónize us :
For, I presume, brave Hector would not lose
So rich advantage of a promis'd glory,
As smiles upon the forehead of this action,
For the wide world's revénue.

[blocks in formation]

O, worthy satisfaction! would it were otherwise; that I could beat him, whilst he railed at me: 'sfoot, I'll learn to conjure and raise devils, but I'll see some issue of my spiteful execrations. Then there's Achilles,-a rare enginer. If Troy be not taken till these two undermine it, the walls will stand till they fall of themselves. O, thou great thunder-darter of Olympus, forget that thou art Jove, the king of gods; and, Mercury, lose all the serpentine craft of thy caduceus; if ye* take not that little-little less-than-little wit from them that they have! which short-armed ignorance itself knows is so abundant scarce, it will not in circumvention deliver a fly from a spider, without drawing their massy irons and cutting the web. After this, the vengeance on the whole camp! or, rather, the bone-ache! for that, methinks, is the curse dependant on those that war for a placket. I have said my prayers; and devil envy, say Amen.What, ho! my lord Achilles !

Enter PATROCLUS.

PATR. Who's there? Thersites! Good Thersites, come in and rail.

a

THER. If I could have remembered a gilt counterfeit, thou wouldst not have slipped out of my contemplation: but it is no matter; thyself upon thyself! The common curse of mankind, folly and ignorance, be thine in great revenue, heaven bless thee from a tutor, and discipline come not near thee! Let thy blood be thy direction till thy death! then if she that lays thee out says thou art a fair corse, I'll be sworn and sworn upon't, she never shrouded any but lazars. Amen.-Where's Achilles?

PATR. What, art thou devout? wast thou in ‡ prayer?

THER. Ay; the heavens hear me !

Enter ACHILLES.

ACHIL. Who's there?

PATR. Thersites, my lord.

ACHIL. Where, where?-Art thou come? Why, my cheese, my digestion, why hast thou not served thyself in to my table so many meals? Come,-— what's Agamemnon?

(*) First folio, thou.

(+) First folio, the. (1) First folio inserts, a.

a If I could have remembered a gilt counterfeit, thou wouldst not have slipped out of my contemplation:] A similar play on slip and counterfeit, the cant names for false pieces of money, occurs in "Romeo and Juliet:" see note (b), p. 179, Vol. I. By "contemplation," he refers to his previous devout imprecations. b of the prover.-] The folio reads, to the creator. c- - patchery,-] "Patchery" meant roguery, villany; not folly, as Mr. Collier persists in explaining it.

[blocks in formation]

THER. Thy knower, Patroclus: then tell me, Patroclus, what art thou?

PATR. Thou mayst tell that knowest.
ACHIL. O, tell, tell.

THER. I'll decline the whole question :-Agamemnon commands Achilles; Achilles is my lord; I am Patroclus' knower; and Patroclus is a fool. PATR. You rascal !

THER. Peace, fool! I have not done.

ACHIL. He is a privileged man.- Proceed, Thersites.

THER. Agamemnon is a fool; Achilles is a fool; Thersites is a fool; and, as aforesaid, Patroclus is a fool.

ACHIL. Derive this; come.

THER. Agamemnon is a fool to offer to command Achilles; Achilles is a fool to be commanded of Agamemnon; Thersites is a fool to serve such a fool; and Patroclus is a fool positive.

PATR. Why am I a fool?

THER. Make that demand of the prover."-It suffices me thou art. Look you, who comes here?

ACHIL. Patroclus, I'll speak with nobody.Come in with me, Thersites.

c

[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 serpigo on the subject! and war and lechery confound all! [Exit.

[blocks in formation]

ULYSS. We saw him at the opening of his tent : He is not sick.

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

[Takes AGAMEMNON aside. NEST. What moves Ajax thus to bay at him? ULYSS. Achilles hath inveigled his fool from him. NEST. Who? Thersites?

ULYSS. He.

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

ULYSS. No; you see, he is his argument that has his argument,-Achilles.

NEST. All the better; their fraction is more our wish than their faction: but it was a strong composure a fool could disunite."

ULYSS. The amity that wisdom knits not, folly may easily untie.-Here comes Patroclus.

NEST. NO Achilles with him.

ULYSS. The elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy: his legs are legs for necessity, not for flexure.+

Re-enter PATROCLUS.

PATR. Achilles bids me say, he is much sorry, If any thing more than your sport and pleasure Did move your greatness and this noble state To call upon him; he hopes it is no other But, for your health and your digestion sake, 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 outfly 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 came to speak with him : and you shall not sin,
If you do say we think him over-proud
And under-honest; in self-assumption greater
Than in the note of judgment; and worthier than

himself

[blocks in formation]

His pettish 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 overhold 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 sleeping giant :-tell him so.

PATR. I shall; and bring his answer presently.

[Exit. AGAM. In second voice we 'll not be satisfied; We come to speak with him.-Ulysses, enter you. [Exit ULYSSES.

AJAX. What is he more than another? AGAM. 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 am?

AGAM. No question.

AJAX. Will you subscribe his thought, and say he is?

AGAM. No, noble Ajax; you are as strong, as valiant, as wise, 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.*

AGAM. Your mind's the clearer, Ajax, and your virtues the fairer. He that is proud eats up himself: pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle; and whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise.

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

NEST. [Aside.] Yet he loves himself: is't not strange?

Re-enter ULYSSES.

ULYSS. Achilles will not to the field to-morrow. AGAM. What's his excuse?

ULYSS. 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. AGAM. Why will he not, upon our fair request, Untent his person, and share the air with us? ULYSS. Things small as nothing, for request's sake only, [ness; He makes important: possess'd he is with greatAnd 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,

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »