Troilus and Cressida | Page 8

MENELAUS, and others.]
AGAMEMNON. Princes, What grief hath set these jaundies o'er your
cheeks? The ample proposition that hope makes In all designs begun on
earth below Fails in the promis'd largeness; checks and disasters Grow
in the veins of actions highest rear'd, As knots, by the conflux of
meeting sap, Infects the sound pine, and diverts his grain Tortive and
errant from his course of growth. Nor, princes, is it matter new to us
That we come short of our suppose so far That after seven years' siege
yet Troy walls stand; Sith every action that hath gone before, Whereof
we have record, trial did draw Bias and thwart, not answering the aim,
And that unbodied figure of the thought That gave't surmised shape.
Why then, you princes, Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works
And call them shames, which are, indeed, nought else But the
protractive trials of great Jove To find persistive constancy in men; The
fineness of which metal is not found In fortune's love? For then the
bold and coward, The wise and fool, the artist and unread, The hard and
soft, seem all affin'd and kin. But in the wind and tempest of her frown
Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan, Puffing at all, winnows the
light away; And what hath mass or matter by itself Lies rich in virtue
and unmingled.
NESTOR. With due observance of thy godlike seat, Great Agamemnon,
Nestor shall apply Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance Lies the
true proof of men. The sea being smooth, How many shallow bauble
boats dare sail Upon her patient breast, making their way With those of
nobler bulk! But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage The gentle Thetis,
and anon behold The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut,
Bounding between the two moist elements Like Perseus' horse. Where's

then the saucy boat, Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now
Co-rivall'd greatness? Either to harbour fled Or made a toast for
Neptune. Even so Doth valour's show and valour's worth divide In
storms of fortune; for in her ray and brightness The herd hath more
annoyance by the breeze Than by the tiger; but when the splitting wind
Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks, And flies fled under
shade--why, then the thing of courage As rous'd with rage, with rage
doth sympathise, And with an accent tun'd in self-same key Retorts to
chiding fortune.
ULYSSES. Agamemnon, Thou great commander, nerve and bone of
Greece, Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit In whom the
tempers and the minds of all Should be shut up--hear what Ulysses
speaks. Besides the applause and approbation The which,
[To AGAMEMNON]
most mighty, for thy place and sway,
[To NESTOR]
And, thou most reverend, for thy stretch'd-out life, I give to both your
speeches--which were such As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece
Should hold up high in brass; and such again As venerable Nestor,
hatch'd in silver, Should with a bond of air, strong as the axle-tree On
which heaven rides, knit all the Greekish ears To his experienc'd
tongue--yet let it please both, Thou great, and wise, to hear Ulysses
speak.
AGAMEMNON. Speak, Prince of Ithaca; and be't of less expect That
matter needless, of importless burden, Divide thy lips than we are
confident, When rank Thersites opes his mastic jaws, We shall hear
music, wit, and oracle.
ULYSSES. Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down, And the great
Hector's sword had lack'd a master, But for these instances: The
specialty of rule hath been neglected; And look how many Grecian
tents do stand Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions. When
that the general is not like the hive, To whom the foragers shall all
repair, What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded, Th'
unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask. The heavens themselves, the
planets, and this centre, Observe degree, priority, and place, Insisture,
course, proportion, season, form, Office, and custom, in all line of order;
And therefore is the glorious planet Sol In noble eminence enthron'd

and spher'd Amidst the other, whose med'cinable eye Corrects the ill
aspects of planets evil, And posts, 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, shaking 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 fixture! O, when degree is
shak'd, Which is the ladder of all high designs, The enterprise is sick!
How could communities, Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores, The primogenity and due of
birth, Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres,