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As amply titled as Achilles is,

By going to Achilles:

That were to enlard his fat already pride;
And add more coals to Cancer,* when he burns
With entertaining great Hyperion.

This lord go to him! Jupiter forbid;

And say in thunder-Achilles, go to him.

Nest. O, this is well; he rubs the vein of him.

[Aside.

Dio. And how his silence drinks up this applause!

[Aside.

Ajax. If I go to him, with my arm'd fist I'll pasht

him

Over the face.

Agam.

O, no, you shall not go.

[pride.

Ajax. An he be proud with me, I'll pheeze‡ his Let me go to him.

Ulyss. Not for the worth that hangs upon our quarrel.

Ajax. A paltry, insolent fellow,

Nest.

Himself!

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Ajax.

How he describes

[Aside.

The raven

[Aside.

I will let his humours blood.

Agam. He'll be physician, that should be the

patient.

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[Aside.

Wit would be out of fashion.

[Aside.

Ajax. He should not bear it so,

He should eat swords first: Shall pride carry it?
Nest. An 'twould, you'd carry half.

[Aside.

*The sign in the Zodiac into which the sun enters

June 21.

"And Cancer reddens with the solar blaze."

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Ulyss.

He'd have ten shares.

[Aside.

Ajax. I'll knead him, I will make him supple:Nest. He's not yet thorough warm: force* him with praises:

Pour in, pour in; his ambition is dry.

[Aside. Ulyss. My lord, you feed too much on this dislike. [To AGAMEMNON.

Nest. O noble general, do not do so.

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Dio. You must prepare to fight without Achilles.
Ulyss. Why, 'tis this naming of him does him

harm.

Here is a man-But 'tis before his face;

I will be silent.

Nest.

Wherefore should you so? He is not emulous,† as Achilles is.

Ulyss. Know the whole world, he is as valiant. Ajax. A whoreson dog, that shall palter‡ thus with

us!

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Ay, or surly borne?

Dio. Or covetous of praise?

Ulyss.

Dio. Or strange, or self-affected?

Ulyss. Thank the heavens, lord, thou art of sweet

composure;

Praise him that got thee, she that gave thee suck:

Fam❜d be thy tutor, and thy parts of nature

Thrice fam❜d beyond all erudition:

But he that disciplin'd thy arms to fight,
Let Mars divide eternity in twain,
And give him half; and, for thy vigour
Bull-bearing Milo his addition§ yield

To sinewy Ajax. I will not praise thy wisdom
Which, like a bourn,|| a pale, a shore, confines
Thy spacious and dilated parts: Here's Nestor,-
Instructed by the antiquary times.

† Envious.

* Stuff.
Stream, rivulet.

+ Trifle.

§ Titles

He must, he is, he cannot but be wise;-
But pardon, father Nestor, were your days
As green as Ajax', and your brain so temper'd,
You should not have the eminence of him,
But be as Ajax.

Ajax.

Nest. Ay, my good son.

Dio.

Shall I call you

father?

Be rul'd by him, lord Ajax.

Ulyss. There is no tarrying here; the hart Achilles Keeps thicket. Please it our great general To call together all his state of war;

Fresh kings are come to Troy; To-morrow,

We must with all our main of power stand fast: And here's a lord,-come knights from east to west, And cull their flower, Ajax shall cope the best. Agam. Go we to council. Let Achilles sleep; Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks draw deep.

ACT III.

AN EXPECTING LOVER.

No, Pandarus, I stalk about her door,
Like a strange soul upon the Stygian banks,
Staying for waftage. O, be thou my Charon,
And give me swift transportance to those fields,
Where I may wallow in the lily-buds

Propos'd for the deserver! O gentle Pandarus,
From Cupid's shoulder pluck his painted wings,
And fly with me to Cressid!

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I am giddy; expectation whirls me round.
The imaginary relish is so sweet

That enchants my sense: What will it be,
When that the wat'ry palate tastes indeed
Love's thrice-reputed nectar? death, I fear me:
Swooning destruction; or some joy too fine,
Too subtle-potent, tun'd too sharp in sweetness,
For the capacity of my ruder powers:
I fear it much: and I do fear besides,
That I shall lose distinction in my joys;

1

As doth a battle, when they charge on heaps
The enemy flying.

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Even such a passion doth embrace my bosom.
My heart beats thicker than a feverous pulse;
And all my powers do their bestowing lose,
Like vassalage at unawares encount'ring
eye of majesty.

The

CONSTANCY IN LOVE PROTESTED.

Tro. True swains in love shall, in the world to

come,

Approve their truths by Troilus: when their rhymes,
Full of protest, of oath, and big compare,*
Want similes, truth tir'd with iteration.-
As true as steel, as plantage to the moon,
As sun to day, as turtle to her mate,
As iron to adamant, as earth to the centre,-
Yet, after all comparisons of truth,

As truth's authentic author to be cited,

As true as Troilus shall crown upt the verse,
And sanctify the numbers.

Cres.

Prophet may you be!
If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth,
When time is old and hath forgot itself,

When waterdrops have worn the stones of Troy,
And blind oblivion swallow'd cities up,

And mighty states characterless are grated

To dusty nothing; yet let memory,

From false to false, among false maids in love,
Upbraid my falsehood! when they have said—as
false

As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth,
As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf,
'ard to the hind, or stepdame to her son;

Tea, let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood,
As false as Cressid.

PRIDE CURES PRIDE.

Pride hath no other glass.

To show itself, but pride; for supple knees
Need arrogance, and are the proud man's fees.

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GREATNESS CONTEMPTIBLE WHEN ON THE DECLINE.

'Tis certain, greatness, once fallen out with for
tune,

Must fall out with men too: What the declin'd is,
He shall as soon read in the eyes of others,
As feel in his own fall: for men, like butterflies,
Show not their mealy wings but to the summer:
And not a man, for being simply man,

Hath any honour; but honour for those honours
That are without him, as place, riches, favour,
Prizes of accident as oft as merit:

Which when they fall, as being slippery standers,
The love that lean'd on them as slippery too:

Do one pluck down another, and together

Die in the fall.

HONOUR MUST BE ACTIVE TO PRESERVE ITS
LUSTRE.

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 de

vour'd

As fast as they are made, forgot as soon

As done: Preservance, 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 as 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 fallen in first rank,

Lie there for pavement to the abject rear, [present
O'er-run and trampled on: Then what they do ir
Though less then yours in past, must o'ertop yours:
For time is like a fashionable host,

That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand,

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