Something not worth in me such rich beholding
As they have often given. Here is Ulysses:

I'll interrupt his reading.

How now, Ulysses!

Ulyss.

Now, great Thetis' son!

Achil. What are you reading?

Ulyss.
A strange 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 shining upon others
Heat them and they retort that heat again
To the first giver.'

Achil

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 opposed
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.

Ulyss. 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;

96. dearly parted, amply endowed.

109. speculation, vision.

IIO. mirror'd; so Singer MS. and Collier MS. for Q Ff married.

100

110

114. circumstance, detailed explanation.

116. However substantial his powers and possessions may be. In and of him corresponds to the distinction drawn in v. 97.

Nor doth he of himself know them for aught
Till he behold them form'd in the applause

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 wrapt in

this;

And apprehended here immediately

The unknown Ajax.

Heavens, what a man is there! a very horse,

That has he knows not what.

there are

Nature, what things

Most abject in regard and dear in use!

What things again most dear in the esteem

120

And poor in worth! Now shall we see to-morrow— 130
An act that very chance doth throw upon him—
Ajax renown'd.

do,

O heavens, what some men

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 cats 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 shrieking.

Achil. I do believe it; for they pass'd by me
As misers do by beggars, neither gave to me
Good word nor look: what, are my deeds forgot?

120. who, i.e. the applause. 125. unknown, i.e. not communicating his parts to others.' 128. regard, estimation. 135. play the idiots in her

140

eyes, bask foolishly in her favour.

137. fasting, i.e. haughtily resting on his laurels. F1 substitutes feasting, which is only superficially plausible.

Ulyss. 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 devour'd

As fast as they are made, forgot as soon

As done perséverance, dear my lord,

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

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

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;

Or, like a gallant horse fall'n in first rank,
Lie there for pavement to the abject rear,
O'er-run 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,
And farewell goes out sighing. O, let not virtue
seek

Remuneration for the thing it was;

145. Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back, etc. The ballad of Poor Robin's Dream in the Bagford collection has a woodcut of Time with scythe and hour-glass and a wallet at his back, which a friend is

emptying.

150

160

170

153. monumental, memorial. 155. one but, only one. 158. forthright, straight path. 161-163. Or... trampled on. This comparison is found only in Ff.

For beauty, wit,

High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service,
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,
Though they are made and moulded of things past,
And give to dust that is a little gilt

More laud than gilt o'er-dusted.

The present eye praises the present object:
Then marvel not, thou great and cómplete man,
That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax ;
Since things in motion sooner catch the eye
Than what not stirs. 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 late,
Made emulous missions 'mongst the gods them-

selves

And drave great Mars to faction.

Achil.

I have strong reasons.

Ulyss.

180

Of this my privacy 190

But 'gainst your privacy

The reasons are more potent and heroical: 'Tis known, Achilles, that you are in love With one of Priam's daughters.

Achil.

Ulyss. Is that a wonder?

Ha! known!

The providence that's in a watchful state
Knows almost every grain of Plutus' gold,

175. One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. All men are related in the possession of one inborn trait, viz. the readiness to be caught by the illusion of novelty.

189. emulous, envious.

197. Plutus'. F1 reads Plutoes, which Shakespeare possibly wrote. In Jul. Cæs. iv. 3. 102 the same error occurs.

Finds bottom in the uncomprehensive deeps,
Keeps place with thought and almost, like the gods,
Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles.
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 commérce that you have had with Troy
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,
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.

[Exit.

Patr. 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 condemn'd for this;
They think my little stomach to the war
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,
And, like a dew-drop from the lion's mane,
Be shook to air.

Achil

Shall Ajax fight with Hector?

Patr. Ay, and perhaps receive much honour by

him.

198. uncomprehensive, be

yond the reach of thought. Shelley would have said 'unimaginable.'

200. cradles, probably tri

syllabic

crad-1-es.

201. relation, report.

200

210

220

218. an effeminate man in time of action, i. e. a man effeminate in time, etc.