SCENE III. The Grecian camp. Before Agamemnon's tent. Troilus and Cressida  Shakespeare homepage  |  Troiles and Cressida  | Act 1, Scene 3 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE III. The Grecian camp. Before Agamemnon's tent. 

 Sennet. Enter AGAMEMNON, NESTOR, ULYSSES, MENELAUS, and others  AGAMEMNON  Princes, 

 What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks? 

 The ample proposition that hope makes 

 In all designs begun on earth below 

 Fails in the promised largeness: cheques and disasters 

 Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd, 

 As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap, 

 Infect the sound pine and divert 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 affined 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 roused with rage with rage doth sympathize, 

 And with an accent tuned in selfsame 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 To 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 experienced 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, 

 The 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 enthroned and sphered 

 Amidst the other; whose medicinable eye 

 Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil, 

 And posts, like the commandment of a king, 

 Sans cheque 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 fixure! O, when degree is shaked, 

 Which is the ladder to all high designs, 

 Then enterprise is sick! How could communities, 

 Degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities, 

 Peaceful commerce from dividable shores, 

 The primogenitive and due of birth, 

 Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels, 

 But by degree, stand in authentic place? 

 Take but degree away, untune that string, 

 And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets 

 In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters 

 Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores 

 And make a sop of all this solid globe: 

 Strength should be lord of imbecility, 

 And the rude son should strike his father dead: 

 Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong, 

 Between whose endless jar justice resides, 

 Should lose their names, and so should justice too. 

 Then every thing includes itself in power, 

 Power into will, will into appetite; 

 And appetite, an universal wolf, 

 So doubly seconded with will and power, 

 Must make perforce an universal prey, 

 And last eat up himself. Great Agamemnon, 

 This chaos, when degree is suffocate, 

 Follows the choking. 

 And this neglection of degree it is 

 That by a pace goes backward, with 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; so every step, 

 Exampled by the first pace that is sick 

 Of his superior, grows to an envious fever 

 Of pale and bloodless emulation: 

 And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot, 

 Not her own sinews. To end a tale of length, 

 Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength. 

 NESTOR  Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover'd 

 The fever whereof all our power is sick. 

 AGAMEMNON  The nature of the sickness found, Ulysses, 

 What is the remedy? 

 ULYSSES  The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns 

 The sinew and the forehand of our host, 

 Having his ear full of his airy fame, 

 Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent 

 Lies mocking our designs: with him Patroclus 

 Upon a lazy bed the livelong day 

 Breaks scurril jests; 

 And with ridiculous and awkward action, 

 Which, slanderer, he imitation calls, 

 He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon, 

 Thy topless deputation he puts on, 

 And, like a strutting player, whose conceit 

 Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich 

 To hear the wooden dialogue and sound 

 'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage,-- 

 Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrested seeming 

 He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks, 

 'Tis like a chime a-mending; with terms unsquared, 

 Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropp'd 

 Would seem hyperboles. At this fusty stuff 

 The large Achilles, on his press'd bed lolling, 

 From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause; 

 Cries 'Excellent! 'tis Agamemnon just. 

 Now play me Nestor; hem, and stroke thy beard, 

 As he being drest to some oration.' 

 That's done, as near as the extremest ends 

 Of parallels, as like as Vulcan and his wife: 

 Yet god Achilles still cries 'Excellent! 

 'Tis Nestor right. Now play him me, Patroclus, 

 Arming to answer in a night alarm.' 

 And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age 

 Must be the scene of mirth; to cough and spit, 

 And, with a palsy-fumbling on his gorget, 

 Shake in and out the rivet: and at this sport 

 Sir Valour dies; cries 'O, enough, Patroclus; 

 Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all 

 In pleasure of my spleen.' And in this fashion, 

 All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, 

 Severals and generals of grace exact, 

 Achievements, plots, orders, preventions, 

 Excitements to the field, or speech for truce, 

 Success or loss, what is or is not, serves 

 As stuff for these two to make paradoxes. 

 NESTOR  And in the imitation of these twain-- 

 Who, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns 

 With an imperial voice--many are infect. 

 Ajax is grown self-will'd, and bears his head 

 In such a rein, in full as proud a place 

 As broad Achilles; keeps his tent like him; 

 Makes factious feasts; rails on our state of war, 

 Bold as an oracle, and sets Thersites, 

 A slave whose gall coins slanders like a mint, 

 To match us in comparisons with dirt, 

 To weaken and discredit our exposure, 

 How rank soever rounded in with danger. 

 ULYSSES  They tax our policy, and call it cowardice, 

 Count wisdom as no member of the war, 

 Forestall prescience, and esteem no act 

 But that of hand: the still and mental parts, 

 That do contrive how many hands shall strike, 

 When fitness calls them on, and know by measure 

 Of their observant toil the enemies' weight,-- 

 Why, this hath not a finger's dignity: 

 They call this bed-work, mappery, closet-war; 

 So that the ram that batters down the wall, 

 For the great swing and rudeness of his poise, 

 They place before his hand that made the engine, 

 Or those that with the fineness of their souls 

 By reason guide his execution. 

 NESTOR  Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse 

 Makes many Thetis' sons. 



 A tucket  AGAMEMNON  What trumpet? look, Menelaus. 

 MENELAUS  From Troy. 



 Enter AENEAS  AGAMEMNON  What would you 'fore our tent? 

 AENEAS  Is this great Agamemnon's tent, I pray you? 

 AGAMEMNON  Even this. 

 AENEAS  May one, that is a herald and a prince, 

 Do a fair message to his kingly ears? 

 AGAMEMNON  With surety stronger than Achilles' arm 

 'Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice 

 Call Agamemnon head and general. 

 AENEAS  Fair leave and large security. How may 

 A stranger to those most imperial looks 

 Know them from eyes of other mortals? 

 AGAMEMNON  How! 

 AENEAS  Ay; 

 I ask, that I might waken reverence, 

 And bid the cheek be ready with a blush 

 Modest as morning when she coldly eyes 

 The youthful Phoebus: 

 Which is that god in office, guiding men? 

 Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon? 

 AGAMEMNON  This Trojan scorns us; or the men of Troy 

 Are ceremonious courtiers. 

 AENEAS  Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm'd, 

 As bending angels; that's their fame in peace: 

 But when they would seem soldiers, they have galls, 

 Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, 

 Jove's accord, 

 Nothing so full of heart. But peace, AEneas, 

 Peace, Trojan; lay thy finger on thy lips! 

 The worthiness of praise distains his worth, 

 If that the praised himself bring the praise forth: 

 But what the repining enemy commends, 

 That breath fame blows; that praise, sole sure, 

 transcends. 

 AGAMEMNON  Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself AEneas? 

 AENEAS  Ay, Greek, that is my name. 

 AGAMEMNON  What's your affair I pray you? 

 AENEAS  Sir, pardon; 'tis for Agamemnon's ears. 

 AGAMEMNON  He hears naught privately that comes from Troy. 

 AENEAS  Nor I from Troy come not to whisper him: 

 I bring a trumpet to awake his ear, 

 To set his sense on the attentive bent, 

 And then to speak. 

 AGAMEMNON  Speak frankly as the wind; 

 It is not Agamemnon's sleeping hour: 

 That thou shalt know. Trojan, he is awake, 

 He tells thee so himself. 

 AENEAS  Trumpet, blow loud, 

 Send thy brass voice through all these lazy tents; 

 And every Greek of mettle, let him know, 

 What Troy means fairly shall be spoke aloud. 



 Trumpet sounds  We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy 

 A prince call'd Hector,--Priam is his father,-- 

 Who in this dull and long-continued truce 

 Is rusty grown: he bade me take a trumpet, 

 And to this purpose speak. Kings, princes, lords! 

 If there be one among the fair'st of Greece 

 That holds his honour higher than his ease, 

 That seeks his praise more than he fears his peril, 

 That knows his valour, and knows not his fear, 

 That loves his mistress more than in confession, 

 With truant vows to her own lips he loves, 

 And dare avow her beauty and her worth 

 In other arms than hers,--to him this challenge. 

 Hector, in view of Trojans and of Greeks, 

 Shall make it good, or do his best to do it, 

 He hath a lady, wiser, fairer, truer, 

 Than ever Greek did compass in his arms, 

 And will to-morrow with his trumpet call 

 Midway between your tents and walls of Troy, 

 To rouse a Grecian that is true in love: 

 If any come, Hector shall honour him; 

 If none, he'll say in Troy when he retires, 

 The Grecian dames are sunburnt and not worth 

 The splinter of a lance. Even so much. 

 AGAMEMNON  This shall be told our lovers, Lord AEneas; 

 If none of them have soul in such a kind, 

 We left them all at home: but we are soldiers; 

 And may that soldier a mere recreant prove, 

 That means not, hath not, or is not in love! 

 If then one is, or hath, or means to be, 

 That one meets Hector; if none else, I am he. 

 NESTOR  Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man 

 When Hector's grandsire suck'd: he is old now; 

 But if there be not in our Grecian host 

 One noble man that hath one spark of fire, 

 To answer for his love, tell him from me 

 I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver 

 And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn, 

 And meeting him will tell him that my lady 

 Was fairer than his grandam and as chaste 

 As may be in the world: his youth in flood, 

 I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood. 

 AENEAS  Now heavens forbid such scarcity of youth! 

 ULYSSES  Amen. 

 AGAMEMNON  Fair Lord AEneas, let me touch your hand; 

 To our pavilion shall I lead you, sir. 

 Achilles shall have word of this intent; 

 So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent: 

 Yourself shall feast with us before you go 

 And find the welcome of a noble foe. 



 Exeunt all but ULYSSES and NESTOR  ULYSSES  Nestor! 

 NESTOR  What says Ulysses? 

 ULYSSES  I have a young conception in my brain; 

 Be you my time to bring it to some shape. 

 NESTOR  What is't? 

 ULYSSES  This 'tis: 

 Blunt wedges rive hard knots: the seeded pride 

 That hath to this maturity blown up 

 In rank Achilles must or now be cropp'd, 

 Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil, 

 To overbulk us all. 

 NESTOR  Well, and how? 

 ULYSSES  This challenge that the gallant Hector sends, 

 However it is spread in general name, 

 Relates in purpose only to Achilles. 

 NESTOR  The purpose is perspicuous even as substance, 

 Whose grossness little characters sum up: 

 And, in the publication, make no strain, 

 But that Achilles, were his brain as barren 

 As banks of Libya,--though, Apollo knows, 

 'Tis dry enough,--will, with great speed of judgment, 

 Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose 

 Pointing on him. 

 ULYSSES  And wake him to the answer, think you? 

 NESTOR  Yes, 'tis most meet: whom may you else oppose, 

 That can from Hector bring his honour off, 

 If not Achilles? Though't be a sportful combat, 

 Yet in the trial much opinion dwells; 

 For here the Trojans taste our dear'st repute 

 With their finest palate: and trust to me, Ulysses, 

 Our imputation shall be oddly poised 

 In this wild action; for the success, 

 Although particular, shall give a scantling 

 Of good or bad unto the general; 

 And in such indexes, although small pricks 

 To their subsequent volumes, there is seen 

 The baby figure of the giant mass 

 Of things to come at large. It is supposed 

 He that meets Hector issues from our choice 

 And choice, being mutual act of all our souls, 

 Makes merit her election, and doth boil, 

 As 'twere from us all, a man distill'd 

 Out of our virtues; who miscarrying, 

 What heart receives from hence the conquering part, 

 To steel a strong opinion to themselves? 

 Which entertain'd, limbs are his instruments, 

 In no less working than are swords and bows 

 Directive by the limbs. 

 ULYSSES  Give pardon to my speech: 

 Therefore 'tis meet Achilles meet not Hector. 

 Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares, 

 And think, perchance, they'll sell; if not, 

 The lustre of the better yet to show, 

 Shall show the better. Do not consent 

 That ever Hector and Achilles meet; 

 For both our honour and our shame in this 

 Are dogg'd with two strange followers. 

 NESTOR  I see them not with my old eyes: what are they? 

 ULYSSES  What glory our Achilles shares from Hector, 

 Were he not proud, we all should share with him: 

 But he already is too insolent; 

 A nd we were better parch in Afric sun 

 Than in the pride and salt scorn of his eyes, 

 Should he 'scape Hector fair: if he were foil'd, 

 Why then, we did our main opinion crush 

 In taint of our best man. No, make a lottery; 

 And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw 

 The sort to fight with Hector: among ourselves 

 Give him allowance for the better man; 

 For that will physic the great Myrmidon 

 Who broils in loud applause, and make him fall 

 His crest that prouder than blue Iris bends. 

 If the dull brainless Ajax come safe off, 

 We'll dress him up in voices: if he fail, 

 Yet go we under our opinion still 

 That we have better men. But, hit or miss, 

 Our project's life this shape of sense assumes: 

 Ajax employ'd plucks down Achilles' plumes. 

 NESTOR  Ulysses, 

 Now I begin to relish thy advice; 

 And I will give a taste of it forthwith 

 To Agamemnon: go we to him straight. 

 Two curs shall tame each other: pride alone 

 Must tarre the mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone. 



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