That their negotiations all must slack, In change of him. Let him be sent, great princes, And he shall buy my daughter; and her presence Shall quite strike off all service I have done, In most accepted pain.1 Aga. Let Diomedes bear him, And bring us Cressid hither: Calchas shall have What he requests of us. Good Diomed, Furnish you fairly for this interchange : Withal, bring word, if Hector will to-morrow [Exeunt Diomedes and Calchas. Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUs, before their tent. Ulys. Achilles stands i' the entrance of his tent.Please it our general to pass strangely by him, As if he were forgot;—and, princes all, Lay negligent and loose regard upon him: I will come last. "Tis like, he 'll question me, Why such unplausive eyes are bent, why turn'd on him : If so, I have derision medicinable, To use between your strangeness and his pride, 1 i. e. even in those labors which were most accepted. Which his own will shall have desire to drink, Ach. What, comes the general to speak with me? You know my mind; I'll fight no more 'gainst Troy. Aga. What says Achilles? Would he aught with us? Nes. Would you, my lord, aught with the general? Ach. No. Nes. Nothing, my lord. Aga. The better. Ach. Good day, good day. [Exeunt Agamemnon and Nestor. [Exit Menelaus. Men. How do you? how do you? Ach. What, does the cuckold scorn me? Ajax. How now, Patroclus? Ach. Good morrow, Ajax. Ajax. Ha? Ach. Good morrow. Ajax. Ay, and good next day too. [Exit Ajax. Ach. What mean these fellows? know they not Achilles? Pat. They pass by strangely: they were used to bend, To send their smiles before them to Achilles ; To come as humbly, as they used to creep Must fall out with men too. What the declined is, Hath any honor; but honor for those honors Which when they fall, as being slippery standers, At ample point all that I did possess, Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out Something not worth in me such rich beholding As they have often given. Here is Ulysses; I'll interrupt his reading. How now, Ulysses? Ulys. Ach. What are you reading? Ulys. Now, great Thetis' son? A strange fellow here Writes me, -that man, how dearly ever parted,1 Cannot make boast to have that which he hath, Ach. For speculation turns not to itself, Till it hath travell'd, and is married there Where it may see itself. This is not strange at all. It is familiar; but at the author's drift: (Though in and of him there be much consisting) Till he communicate his parts to others: Where they are extended; which, like an arch, reverberates 1 However excellently endowed. The voice again; or, like a gate of steel Fronting the sun, receives and renders back His figure and his heat. I was much rapt in this; And apprehended here immediately The unknown Ajax.1 Heavens, what a man is there! a very horse, That has he knows not what. Nature, what things there are, Most abject in regard, and dear in use!" What things again most dear in the esteem, And poor in worth! Now shall we see to-morrow, While some men leave to do! How some men creep in skittish Fortune's hall, Ach. I do believe it: for they pass'd by me, Ajax, who has abilities, which were never brought into view or use. |