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 mov'd
you:

A woman impudent and mannish grown
Is not more loath'd 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.

ACHIL. I see my reputation is at stake;
My fame is shrewdly gor'd.

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 we sit idly in the sun.
ACHIL. Go call Thersites hither, sweet Patro-
clus:

I'll send the fool to Ajax, and desire him
To invite the Trojan lords after the combat,
To see us here unarm'd: I have a woman's longing,
An appetite that I am sick withal,

To see great Hector in his weeds of peace;
To talk with him, and to behold his visage,
Even to my full of view.-A labour sav'd!

Enter THERSITES.

THER. A Wonder! ACHIL. What?

THER. Ajax goes up and down the field, asking for himself.

ACHIL. How so?

THER. He must fight singly to-morrow with Hector; and is so prophetically proud of an heroical cudgelling, that he raves in saying nothing. ACHIL. How can that be?

THER. Why, he stalks up and down like a peacock,- -a stride and a stand: ruminates, like an hostess 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 not show without knocking. The man's undone for ever; for if Hector break not his neck i'the combat, he'll break 't himself in vain-glory. He knows not me: I said, Good morrow, Ajax; and he replies, Thanks, Agamemnon. What think you of this 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.

ACHIL. Thou must be my ambassador to him, Thersites.

THER. 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 maket demands to me, you shall see the Pageant of Ajax.

ACHIL. 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, and most illustrious, six-or-seven-timeshonoured captain-general of the Grecian army, Agamemnon, &c. Do this.

PATR. Jove bless great Ajax!

THER. Hum!

(*) First folio, her Iland.

(+) First folio, ayrie ayre.

(*) First folio, his.

(t) First folio inserts, his.

Witness the process of your speech, wherein* You told how Diomed, in a whole week by days, Did haunt you in the field.

ENE. Health to you, valiant sir, During all question of the gentle truce: But when I meet you arm'd, as black defiance, As heart can think or courage execute.

Dro. The one and other Diomed embraces. Our bloods are now in calm; and, so long, health: But when contention and occasion meet, By Jove, I'll play the hunter for thy life, With all my force," pursuit, and policy. ANE. And thou shalt hunt a lion, that will fly

(*) First folio, within.

had force and knowledge More than was ever man's;"

proposes in the above case to read,"With all my fierce pursuit," &c.

and in the other,

"had sense and knowledge."

With his face backward.—In humane gentleness,
Welcome to Troy! now, by Anchises' life,
Welcome, indeed! By Venus' hand I swear,
No man alive can love, in such a sort,
The thing he means to kill, more excellently!
DIO. We sympathize:-Jove, let Æneas live,
If to my sword his fate be not the glory,
A thousand complete courses of the sun!
But, in mine emulous honour, let him die,
With every joint a wound, and that to-morrow!
ENE. We know each other well.

worse.

Dro. We do; and long to know each other [ing, PAR. This is the most despiteful* gentle greetThe noblest hateful love, that e'er I heard of.What business, lord, so early?

ENE. I was sent for to the king; but why, I know not. [this Greek

PAR. His purpose meets you: 'twas to bring To Calchas' house; and there to render him, For the enfreed Antenor, the fair Cressid: Let's have your company; or, if you please, Haste there before us: I constantly do think, (Or, rather, call my thought a certain knowledge) My brother Troilus lodges there to-night; Rouse him, and give him note of our approach, With the whole quality wherefore: † I fear, We shall be much unwelcome.

ENE. That I assure you; Troilus had rather Troy were borne to Greece, Than Cressid borne from Troy. PAR.

There is no help;

The bitter disposition of the time
Will have it so. On, lord; we'll follow you.
ENE. Good morrow, all.
PAR. And tell me, noble Diomed-'faith, tell

He merits well to have her, that doth seek her
(Not making any scruple of her soilure)
With such a hell of pain and world of charge;
And you as well to keep her, that defend her
(Not palating the taste of her dishonour)
With such a costly loss of wealth and friends:
He, like a puling cuckold, would drink up
The lees and dregs of a flat tamed piece;
You, like a lecher, out of whorish loins
Are pleas'd to breed out your inheritors:
Both merits pois'd, each weighs nor less nor more;
But he as he, the heavier for a whore.

PAR. You are too bitter to your countrywoman.
Dio. She's bitter to her country. Hear me,
Paris,-

For every false drop in her bawdy veins
A Grecian's life hath sunk; for every scruple
Of her contaminated carrion weight,

A Trojan hath been slain : since she could speak,
She hath not given so many good words breath,
As for her Greeks and Trojans suffer'd death.
PAR. Fair Diomed, you do as chapmen do,
Dispraise the thing that you desire to buy:
But we in silence hold this virtue well,—
We'll not commend what we intend to sell.a
Here lies our way.

SCENE II.-The same.

[Exeunt.

Court before the

CRES. Then, sweet my lord, I'll call mine uncle He shall unbolt the gates.

TROIL.
Trouble him not;
To bed, to bed sleep kill those pretty eyes,
And give as soft attachment to thy senses,
As infants' empty of all thought!
CRES.

Good morrow then. TROIL. I pr'ythee now, to bed.

CRES. Are you a-weary of me? TROIL. O, Cressida! but that the busy day, Wak'd by the lark, hath rous'd the ribald crows, And dreaming night will hide our joys* no longer, I would not from thee. CRES. Night hath been too brief. TROIL. Beshrew the witch! with venomous wights she stays,

As tediously as hell; but flies the grasps of love, With wings more momentary-swift than thought. You will catch cold, and curse me.

(*) First folio, eyes. and Mr. Collier's annotator,

(†) First folio, hidiously.

"We'll but commend what we intend to sell." The former, in all probability, is what the poet wrote.

You bring me to do, and then you flout me too. PAN. To do what? to do what?-let her say what-what have I brought you to do?

CRES. Come, come; beshrew your heart! you'll ne'er be good,

Nor suffer others.

PAN. Ha, ha! Alas, poor wretch! ah poor capocchio-hast not slept to-night? would he not, a naughty man, let it sleep? a bugbear take him! (1) [Knocking.

aah poor capocchio-] The old text has, "a poor chipochia.” Capocchio" is an Italian word, signifying simpleton, innocent, and the like.