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To answer for his love, tell him from me,-
I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver,
And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn;
And, meeting him, will tell him that my lady
Was fairer than his grandame, and as chaste
As may be in the world: his youth in flood,
I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood.
ENE. Now heavens forbid such scarcity of
youth! a

ULYSS. Amen.

AGAM. Fair lord Æneas, let me touch your hand;

To our pavilion shall I lead you, sir.*
Achilles shall have word of this intent;

So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent:
Yourself shall feast with us before you go,
And find the welcome of a noble foe.

[Exeunt all except ULYSSES and NESTOR. ULYSS. Nestor,

NEST. What says Ulysses?

ULYSS. I have a young conception in my brain, Be you my time to bring it to some shape. NEST. What is't?

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That can from Hector bring his honour* off,
If not Achilles? Though't be a sportful combat,
Yet in this trial much opinion dwells;
For here the Trojans taste our dear'st repute
With their fin'st palate and trust to me,
Ulysses,

c

Our imputation shall be oddly pois'd
In this wild action; for the success,
Although particular, shall give a scantling
Of good or bad unto the general;
And in such indexes, although small pricks
To their subséquent volumes, there is seen
The baby figure of the giant mass

Of things to come at large. It is suppos'd,
He that meets Hector issues from our choice;
And choice, being mutual act of all our souls,
Makes merit her election; and doth boil,
As 't were from forth us all, a man distill'd
Out of our virtues; who miscarrying,

What heart receives from hence the conquering part,

To steel a strong opinion to themselves?
Which entertain'd, limbs are + his instruments,
In no less working than are swords and bows
Directive by the limbs.

ULYSS.
Give pardon to my speech;-
Therefore 'tis meet Achilles meet not Hector.
Let us,
like merchants, show our foulest wares,
And think, perchance, they'll sell; if not,
The lustre of the better yet to show,
Shall show the better. Do not consent
That ever Hector and Achilles meet;

For both our honour and our shame in this
Are dogg'd with two strange followers.
NEST. I see them not with my old eyes: what

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The lustre of the better yet to show,
Shall show the better.]

So the folio: the quarto reads,—

The lustre of the better shall exceed, By showing the worse first.

f The sort-] That is, the lot.

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Enter AJAX and THERSITES.(1)

AJAX. Thersites,

THER. The plague of Greece upon thee, thou mongrel beef-witted lord!

AJAX. Speak then, thou vinewedst" leaven,

THER. Agamemnon-how if he had boils, speak: I will beat thee into handsomeness.

full, all over, generally?—

AJAX. Thersites,

THER. And those boils did run ?-Say so,

did not the general run then?* were not that a botchy core?

AJAX. Dog,

THER. Then would come some matter from him; I see none now.

AJAX. Thou bitch-wolf's son, canst thou not hear? Feel, then. [Strikes him.

(*) First folio omits, then.

s-a botchy core?-] Query, "a botchy cur"?

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a

AJAX. Do not, porcupine, do not; my fingers itch.

THER. I would thou didst itch from head to foot, and I had the scratching of thee; I would make thee the loathsomest scab in Greece. When thou art forth in the incursions, thou strikest as slow as another."

AJAX. I say, the proclamation,

THER. Thou grumblest and railest every hour on Achilles; and thou art as full of envy at his greatness as Cerberus is at Proserpina's beauty, ay, that thou barkest at him.

AJAX. Mistress Thersites !

THER. Thou shouldst strike him.
AJAX. Cobloaf !

THER. He would pun thee into shivers with his fist, as a sailor breaks a biscuit.

AJAX. You whoreson cur!

THER. Do, do!

c

[Beating him.

AJAX. Thou stool for a witch! THER. Ay, do, do; thou sodden-witted lord! thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows; an assinego may tutor thee. Thou scurvyvaliant ass! thou art here but to thrash Trojans ; and thou art bought and sold among those of any wit, like a Barbarian slave. If thou use to beat me, I will begin at thy heel, and tell what thou art by inches, thou thing of no bowels, thou! AJAX. You dog!

THER. You scurvy lord!

AJAX. You cur!

[Beating him.

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PATR. Good words, Thersites.

ACHIL. What's the quarrel?

AJAX. I bade the vile owl go learn me the tenour of the proclamation, and he rails upon me. THER. I serve thee not.

AJAX. Well, go to, go to.

THER. I serve here voluntary.

ACHIL. Your last service was sufferance, 't was not voluntary, no man is beaten voluntary: Ajax was here the voluntary, and you as under an impress.

THER. Even so ??—a great deal of your wit, too, lies in your sinews, or else there be liars. Hector shall have a great catch, if he knock out either of your brains; 'a* were as good crack a fusty nut with no kernel.

ACHIL. What, with me too, Thersites ?

THER. There's Ulysses and old Nestor,-whose wit was mouldy ere your + grandsires had nails on their toes,-yoke you like draught oxen, and make you plough up the wars.

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In hot digestion of this cormorant war,—
Shall be struck off:-Hector, what say you
HECT. Though no man lesser fears the Greeks
than I

As far as toucheth‡ my particular,

Yet, dread Priam,

There is no lady of more softer bowels,
More spongy to suck in the sense of fear,
More ready to cry out-Who knows what follows?
Than Hector is. The wound of peace is surety,
Surety secure; but modest doubt is call'd
The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches
To the bottom of the worst. Let Helen go:
Since the first sword was drawn about this question,
Every tithe soul, 'mongst many thousand dismes,"
Hath been as dear as Helen,-I mean, of ours:

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If we have lost so many tenths of ours,
To guard a thing not ours, nor worth to us,
Had it our name, the value of one ten,
What merit's in that reason which denies
The yielding of her up?

TROIL.
Fie, fie, my brother!
Weigh you the worth and honour of a king,
So great as our dread father, in a scale
Of common ounces? will you with counters sum
The past-proportion of his infinite?
And buckle-in a waist most fathomless
With spans and inches so diminutive
As fears and reasons? fie, for godly shame!
HEL. No marvel, though you bite so sharp at

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The holding.

TROIL. What's aught, but as 'tis valued? HECT. But value dwells not in particular will; It holds his estimate and dignity As well wherein 'tis precious of itself As in the prizer; 'tis mad† idolatry, To make the service greater than the god; And the will dotes, that is attributive To what infectiously itself affects, Without some image of the affected merit. TROIL. I take to-day a wife, and my election Is led on in the conduct of my will; My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears, Two traded pilots 'twixt the dangerous shores

once.

(*) First folio, hard.

(†) First folio, made. (1) First folio, inclineable. See note (e), p. 144, Vol. II.

d And fly like chidden Mercury, &c.] This and the following line are transposed in the folio.

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