Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS, before their Tent. 2 Ulyss. 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 med'cinable, To use between your strangeness and his pride, Achil. What, comes the general to speak with me? You know my mind, I'll fight no more 'gainst Troy. Agam. What says Achilles? would he ought with us? Nest. Would you, my lord, aught with the general? Achil. No. [Exeunt AGAMEMNON and NESTOR. Good day, good day. 2 Shyly. Achil. What mean these fellows? Know they not Patr. They pass by strangely: they were us'd to bend, To send their smiles before them to Achilles ; Achil. What, am I poor of late? 'Tis certain, greatness, once fallen out with fortune, Hath any honour; but honour for those honours 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? Ulyss. Now, great Thetis' son? Achil. What are you reading? A strange fellow here Writes me, That man-how dearly ever parted, 3 Cannot make boast to have that which he hath, Achil. This is not strange, Ulysses. Till it hath travell'd, and is married there 4 Who, in his circumstance, expressly proves→→→ (Though in and of him there be much consisting,) Till he communicate his parts to others: 3 Excellently endowed. 4 Detail of argument. Nor doth he of himself know them for aught The voice again; or like a gate of steel The unknown Ajax. 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 in worth! Now shall we see to-morrow, poor An act that very chance doth throw upon him, Ajax renown'd. O heavens, what some men do, While some men leave to do! How some men creep in skittish fortune's hall, Achil. I do believe it: for they pass'd by me, Wherein he puts alms for oblivion, A great-sized monster of ingratitudes : Those scraps are good deeds past: which are devour'd As done Perséverance, dear my lord, In monumental mockery. Take the instant way; That one by one pursue: If you give way, Or, like a gallant horse fallen in first rank, present, Though less than yours in past, must o'ertop yours: For time is like a fashionable host, That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand; And with his arms out-stretch'd, as he would fly, Grasps-in the comer: Welcome ever smiles, And farewell goes out sighing. O, let not virtue seek Remuneration for the thing it was; For beauty, wit, High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service, To envious and calumniating time. One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,-. That all, with one consent, praise new-born gawds, Though they are made and moulded of things past; 5 New fashion'd toys. |