Returns to chiding fortune.

Uly. Agamemnon,

Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece,
Heart of our numbers, foul, and only spirit,
In whom the tempers and the minds of all
Should be shut up: hear, what Ulyffes fpeaks.
Befides th' applause and approbation

The which, moft mighty for thy place and fway, [To Aga.
And thou, most rev'rend for thy ftretcht-out life, [To Neft.
I give to both your fpeeches; which were such,
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece

Should hold up high in brafs; and fuch again,
As venerable Neftor (hatch'd in filver)

Should with a bond of air, strong as the axle-tree
On which heav'n rides, knit all the Grecians' ears
To his experienc'd tongue: yet let it please both
(Thou great, and wife) to hear Ulysses speak.

Agam. Speak, Prince of Ithaca: we lefs expect,
That matter needlefs, of importless burden,
Divide thy lips; than we are confident,
When rank Therfites opes his maftiff jaws,
We fhall hear mufick, wit, and oracle.

Uly Troy, yet upon her bafis, had been down,
And the great Hector's fword had lack'd a master,
But for thefe instances.

The fpeciality of Rule hath been neglected;
And, look, how many Grecian Tents do ftand
Hollow upon this Plain, fo many hollow factions.
When that the General is not like the hive,
To whom the Foragers fhall all repair,

What honey is expected? degree being vizarded,
Th' unworthieft fhews as fairly in the mask.

The heav'ns themfelves, the planets, and this center,
Obferve degree, priority and place,

Infifture, courfe, proportion, feafon, form,
Office and cuftom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet Sol
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
Amidst the reft, whofe med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,

And

And pofts like the commandment of a King,
Sans check, to good and bad. But when the planets
In evil mixture to disorder wander,

What plagues, and what portents, what mutiny?
What raging of the Sea? fhaking of earth?
Commotion in the winds? frights, changes, horrors,
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate

The unity and married calm of states

Quite from their fixure? Oh, when degree is fhaken, (Which is the ladder to all high defigns)

The enterprize is fick. How could communities,
Degrees in fchools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogeniture, and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, fcepters, lawrels,
(But by degree) ftand in authentick place?
Take but degree away, untune that ftring,
And hark what difcord follows; each thing meets
In meer oppugnancy. The bounded waters
Would lift their bofoms higher than the shores,
And make a fop of all this folid Globe :
Strength would be Lord of imbecillity,

And the rude fon would ftrike his father dead:
Force would be Right; or rather, Right and Wrong

(Between whose endless jar Juftice refides)

Would lose their names, and fo would Justice too.

Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;

And appetite (an univerfal wolf,

So doubly feconded with will and power)
Must make perforce an univerfal prey,
And laft eat up itself. Great Agamemnon!
This Chaos, when degree is fuffocate,
Follows the choaking:

And this neglection of degree is it,

That by a pace goes backward, in a purpose
It hath to climb. The General's disdain'd
By him one step below; he, by the next;
That next, by him beneath: fo every step,
Exampled by the first pace that is fick

Of

Of his Superior, grow to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodless emulation.

And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,
Not her own finews. To end a Tale of length,
Troy in our weakness lives, not in her ftrength.
Neft. Moft wifely hath Ulyffes here discover'd
The fever, whereof all out power is fick.

Agam. The nature of the fickness found, Ulyffes,
What is the remedy?

Uly. The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns
The finew and the fore-hand of our Hoft,
Having his ear full of his airy fame,

Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent
Lies mocking our defigns. With him, Patroclus,
Upon a lazy bed, the live-long day

Breaks fcurril jefts;

And with ridiculous and aukward action
(Which, flanderer, he imitation calls)

He pageants us. Sometimes, great Agamemnon,
Thy topless Deputation he puts on;

And, like a ftrutting Player, (whofe conceit
Lies in his ham-ftring, and doth think it rich
To hear the wooden dialogue and found
"Twixt his ftretch'd footing and the scaffoldage)
Such to-be-pitïed and o'er-wrefted Seeming
He acts thy Greatness in: and when he speaks,
'Tis like a chime a mending; with terms unfquar'd:
Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropt,
Would feem hyperboles. At this fufty stuff
The large Achilles, on his preft-bed lolling,
From his deep cheft laughs out a loud applause :
Cries- -excellent!- 'tis Agamemnon just—
Now play me Neftcrhum, and ftroke thy beard,
As he, being dreft to fome oration.
That's done-

as near as the extremeft ends
Of parallels; as like, as Vulcan and his wife :
Yet good Achilles ftill cries, excellent!
'Tis Neftor right! now play him me, Patroclus,
Arming to anfwer in a night alarm :

And, then forfooth, the faint defects of age

Muft

Must be the scene of mirth, to cough and spit,
And with a palfy fumbling on his gorget,
Shake in and out the rivet
Sir Valour dies; cries "O!

and at this fport,

enough, Patroclus
Or" give me ribs of fteel, I shall split all
"In pleasure of my fpleen."

And, in this fashion,
All our abilities, gifts, natures, fhapes,
Severals and generals of grace exact,
Atchievements, plots, orders, preventions,
Excitements to the field, or speech for truce,
Succefs or lofs, what is, or is not, ferves
As ftuff for these two to make paradoxes.
Neft. And in the imitation of these twain,
(Whom, as Ulyffes fays, opinion crowns
With an imperial voice) many are infect:
Ajax is grown felf-will'd, and bears his head
In fuch a rein, in full as proud a pace,

As broad Achilles; and keeps his tent like him;
Makes factious feafts, rails on our flate of war,
Bold as an Oracle; and fets Therfites

(A flave, whofe gall coins flanders like a mint)
To match us in comparisons with dirt;
To weaken and difcredit our exposure,
How hard foever rounded in with danger.

Uly. They tax our policy, and call it cowardife,
Count wisdom as no member of the war;
Fore-ftall our prescience, and esteem no A&t
But that of hand: The still and mental parts,
That do contrive how many hands fhall ftrike,
When fitness call them on, and know by measure
Of their obfervant toil the enemies' weight;
Why, this hath not a finger's dignity;
They call this bed-work Mapp'ry, closet war: (6)

(6) They call this bed-work, mapp'ry, clofet War,] The Poet in my Opinion would fay, This is planning out Action and War, as a Man might do on his Pillow, and in his Clofet. If fo, bedwork must be the Epithet to Mappery, as clofet is to War: and therefore I have expung'd the Comma, which feparated the First from its Subftantive. So Guiderius, in Cymbeline, fpeaking of an unactive Life, fays it is

A cell of Ignorance; travelling a-bed,

So

So that the ram, that batters down the wall,
For the great fwing and rudeness of his poize,
They place before his hand that made the engine;
Or those, that with the fineness of their fouls
By reafon guide his execution.

Neft. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horfe
Makes many Thetis' fons.

Aga. What trumpet? look, Menelaus.
Men. From Troy.

Enter Æneas.

Aga. What would you 'fore our tent ?

[Tucket founds.

Ene. Is this great Agamemnon's tent, I pray you ? Aga Even this.

Ene. May one, that is a Herald and a Prince, Do a fair meffage to his kingly ears?

Aga. With furety stronger than Achilles' arm,

'Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice Call Agamemnon Head and General.

Ene. Fair leave, and large fecurity. How may

A ftranger to those most imperial looks
Know them from eyes of other mortals ?
Aga. How?

Ene. I ask, that I might waken Reverence,
And bid the cheek be ready with a blush
Modeft as morning, when she coldly eyes
The youthful Phabus:

Which is that God in office, guiding men ?
Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon?

Aga. This Trojan scorns us, or the men of Troy
Are ceremonious courtiers.

Ene. Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm'd, As bending Angels; that's their fame in peace: But when they would feem foldiers, they have galls, (7)

Good

(7) But when they would feem Soldiers, they have Galls, Good Arms, ftrong Joints, true Swords, and Jove's Accord, Nothing fo full of heart.] Can the Poet be fuppos'd to mean that the Trojans had Jove's Accord whenever they would feem Soldiers? No; certainly, he would intimate that nothing was fo full of Heart as they, when that God did but fhew himself on their Side. This VOL. VII. Р

Cir