Achil. What?

Ther. I say, this Ajax

[interposes.)

Achil. Nay, good Ajax. (Ajax offers to strike him, but Achilles

Achil. Nay, I must hold you.

Ther. As will stop the eye of Helen's needle, for whom he comes to fight.

Achil. Peace, fool.

Ther. I would have peace and quietness, but the fool will not he there; that he; look you there.

Aja. O thou rascal cur, I shall

Achil. Will you set your wit to a fool's?

Ther. No, I warrant you, for a fool's will shame it.

Patr. Good words Thersites.

Achil. What's the quarrel?

Ajax. I bade the vile owl, go learn me the tenor 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

moldy, ere your grandsires had nails on their toes, — yoke you

like draught oxen, and make you plow up the wars.

Achil. What, what?

Ther. Yes, good sooth; to, Achilles! to, Ajax! to!

Ajax. I shall cut out your tongue.

Ther. 'T is no matter; I shall speak as much as thou afterward. Patr. No more words, Thersites; peace!

Ther. I will hold my peace when Achilles' brach bids me, shall I ?

Achil. There's for you, Patroclus.

Ther. I will see you hanged, like clotpoles ere I come any more to your tents; I will keep where there is wit stirring, and leave the faction of fools.

Patr. A good riddance.

(Exit.)

Achil. Marry, this, sir, is proclaimed through all our host: That Hector, by the first hour of the sun,

Will, with a trumpet, 'twixt our tents and Troy,
To-morrow morning, call some knight to arms,
That hath a stomach; and such a one, that dare
Maintain I know not what; 't is trash, farewell.
Ajax. Farewell. Who shall answer?

Achil. I know not, it is put to lottery; otherwise,
He knew his man.

Ajax. Oh, meaning you:- I'll go learn more of it.

SHAKSPEARE

ACHILLES' MESSAGE.

ACHILLES -PATROCLUS-THERSITES.

Patr. To this effect, Achilles, have I moved you:
A woman impudent and mannish grown

Is not more loathed than an effeminate man
In time of action. I stand condemned 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 honor by hira.
Achil. I see, my reputation is at stake;

My fame is shrewdly gored.

Patr.

O, then beware;

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 Patroclus:

I'll send the fool to Ajax, and desire him

To invite the Trojan lords, after the combat,

To see us here unarmed: 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 view. A labor saved!
Ther. A wonder!

(Enter Thersites )

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 cudgeling, 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 his head, an 't would out; and so there is; but it lies as coldly in him as fire in a flint which will not show with knocking. The man's undone for ever; for if Hector break not his neck i' the combat, he'll break it himself in vainglory. 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 is 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 embassador to him, Thersites.

Ther. Who? I? why, he 'll answer nobody; he professes not answering; speaking is for beggars; he wears his tongue in his arms. I will put on his presence; let Patroclus make 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 victorious Hector to come unarmed to my tent; and to procure safe-conduct for his person, of the magnanimous, and most illustrious, six-or-seven-times honored, captain-general of the Grecian army, Agamemnon Do this.

Patr. Jove bless great Ajax.

Ther. Humph!

Patr. I come from the worthy Achilles,

Ther. Ha!

Patr. Who most humbly desires you to invite Hector to his tent!

Ther. Humph!

Patr. And to procure safe-conduct from Agamemnon.

Ther. Agamemnon?

Patr. Ay, my lord.

Ther. Ha!

Patr. What say you to 't?

Ther. God be wi' you, with all my heart.

Patr. Your answer, sir.

Ther. If to-morrow be a fair day, by eleven o'clock it will go one way or other; howsoever, he shall pay for me ere he has me. Patr. Your answer, sir.

Ther. Fare you well, with all my heart.

Achil. Why, but he is not in this tune, is he?

Ther. No, but he 's out o' tune thus. What music will be in him when Hector has knocked out his brains, I know not; but, I am sure, none unless the fiddler Apollo get his sinews to

make catlings on.

Achil. Come, thou shalt bear a letter to him straight.

Ther. Let me bear another to his horse; for that's the more capable creature.

Achil. My mind is troubled, like a fountain stirred;

And I myself see not the bottom of it.

Ther. Would the fountain of your mind were clear again, that

I might water an ass at it! I had rather be a tick in a sheep, than such a valiant ignorance.

SHAKSPEARE

Kent.

BANISHMENT OF THE DUKE OF KENT.

LEAR KENT.

Royal Lear,

Whom I have ever honored as my king,

Loved as my father, as my master followed,

As my great patron thought on in my prayers,

Lear. The bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft.
Kent. Let it fall rather, though the fork invade

The region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly

When Lear is mad. What wouldst thou do, old man?
Think'st thou, that duty shall have dread to speak,
When power to flattery bows? To plainness honor's bound,
When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom;
And, in thy best consideration, check

This hideous rashness: answer my life my judgment;
Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least;

Nor are those empty-hearted, whose low sound
Reverbs no hollowness.

Lear.

Kent, on thy life, no more,

Kent. My life I never held but as a pawn
To wage against thine enemies; nor fear to lose it,

Thy safety being the motive.

Lear.

Out of my sight!

Kent. See better, Lear, and let me still remain The true blank of thine eye.

Lear. Now, by Apollo,

Kent.

Now, by Apollo, king,

Thou swear'st thy gods in vain.

Lear. (Laying his hand on his sword.) O vassal! miscreant !
Kent. Do;

Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow

Upon the foul disease. Revoke thy gift;

Or, whilst I can vent clamor from my throat,
I'll tell thee, thou dost evil.

Lear.

On thine allegiance hear me !

Hear me, recreant !

Since thou hast sought to make us break our vow,
(Which we durst never yet,) and, with strained pride,
To come betwixt our sentence and our power;
(Which nor our nature nor our place can bear;)
Our potency make good, take thy reward.
Five days we do allot thee, for provision
To shield thee from diseases of the world,
And, on the sixth, to turn thy hated back
Upon our kingdom: if, on the tenth day following,
Thy banished trunk be found in our dominions,
The moment is thy death. Away! by Jupiter,
This shall not be revoked.

Kent. Fare thee well, king: since thus thou wilt appear, Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here.

The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid, (To Cordelia.) That justly think'st, and hast most rightly said!

And your large speeches may your deeds approve,

(To Regan and Goneril.)

That good effects may spring from deeds of love.
Thus Kent, O princes, bids you all adieu;
He'll shape his old course in a country new.

SHAKSPEARE.

THE FOOL'S REMONSTRANCE.

LEAR KENT FOOL GENTLEMAN.

Lear. Go you before to Gloster with these letters: acquaint my daughter no further with anything you know, than comes from her demand out of the letter. If your diligence be not speedy, I shall be there before you.