And what hath mass or matter by itself,
Lyes rich in virtue, and unmingled.

Neft. With due obfervance of thy godlike feat,
Great Agamemnon, Neftor fhall apply

Thy laten words. In the reproof of chance
Lyes the true proof of men: the fea being fmooth,
How many fhallow bauble boats dare fail

Upon her patient breaft, making their way
With those of nobler bulk?

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis, and anon, behold

The Itrong-ribb'd bark thro' liquid mountains cut,-
Bounding between the two moift elements,
Like Perfeus' horfe: Where's then the faucy boat,,
Whose weak untimber'd fides but even now
Co-rival'd greatnefs? or to harbour fled,
Or made a toaft for Neptune. Even fo
Doth valour's fhew and valour's worth divide
In forms of fortune; for in her ray and brightness,
The herd hath more annoyance by the brize
Than by the tiger; but when splitting winds
Make flexible the knees of knotted oaks,

And flies get under fhade, why then the thing of courage *,

As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize,And, with an accent tun'd in felf-fame key, Returns to chiding fortune.

Uly. Agamemnon,

Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece,
Heart of our numbers, foul, and only spirit,
In whom the tempers and the minds of all
Should be fhut up, hear what Ulyffes speaks.
Befides th' applaufe and approbation

The which, moft mighty for thy place and fway,
[To Agamemnon.
And thou, most rev'rend for thy stretch'd-out life,
[To Neftor.
I give to both your speeches; which were fuch,,
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece

It is faid of the tiger, that in ftorms and high winds"> he rages and roars most turiously. Hanmer.

Should hold up high in brafs; and such again,
As venerable Neftor hatch'd† in silver,

Should with a bond of air, firong as the axle-tree On which heav'n rides, knit all the Grecians' ears To his experienc'd tongue: yet let it please both Thou great and wife, to hear Ulyffes fpeak.

Agam, Speak, prince of Ithaca, and be't of lefs That matter needlefs, of importlets burden, [expect Divide thy lips; than we are confident,

When rank Therfites opes his mastiff jaws,
We fhall hear mufic, wit, and oracle.

Uly. Troy, yet upon her bafis, had been down, And the great Hector's fword had lack'd a matter, But for these instances.

The fpecialty of rule hath been neglected;
And, look, how many Grecian tents do ftand
Hollow upon this plain, fo many hollow factions.
When that the General is not like the hive,
To whom the foragers fhall all repair,

What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,,
Th' unworthieft fhews as fairly in the mask.
The heav'ns themselves, the planets, and this centres.
Obferve degree, priority, and place,
Infifture, courfe, proportion, featon, form,
Office and cuftom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet Sol
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
Amidst the rest, whole 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 fea, fhaking 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? Oh when degree is shaken, Which is the ladder to all high designs,

That is, adorned with filver, in allufion to his white locks of hair. Revijal

The enterprize is fick. How could communities,
Degrees in fchools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable fhores,
The primogeniture, and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crown, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And hark what difcord follows; each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy. The bounded waters
Should lift their bofoms higher than the fhores,
And make a fop of all this folid globe;
Strength fhould be lord of imbecillity,

́And the rude son should strike his father dead :
Force fhould be right; or rather, right and wrong,
Between whofe endless jar Juftice refides,
Should lofe their names, and fo fhould Juftice too
Then every thing include itfelf in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite, an univerfal wolf,

So doubly feconded with will and power,
Must make perforce an univerfal prey,
And laft eat up itself. Great Agamemnon!
This chaos, when degree is fuffocate,
Follows the choaking:

And this neglection of degree is it,

That by a pace goes backward, with a pu pofe
It hath to climb. The General's disdain'd
By him one step below; he, by the next;
That next, by him beneath; fo every step,
Exampled by the first pace that is fick
Of his fuperior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodlefs emulation.

And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,
Not her own finews. To end a tale of length,
Troy in our weakness lives, not in her ftrength.
Neft. Moft wifely hath Ulyffes here difcover'd
The fever whereof all our power is fick.

Agam. The nature of the fickness found, Ulyffes,What is the remedy?

Uly. The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns The finew and the forehand of our hoft, Having his ear full of his airy fame,

A

Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent? Sof Lyes mocking our defigns. With him Patroclus, Upon a lazy bed, the live-long day

Breaks fcurril jefts;

And with ridiculous and aukward action,
Which, flanderer, he imitation calls,

He pageants us. Sometimes, great Agamemnon,
Thy toplets deputation he puts on;

*

And, like a ftrutting player, whofe conceit
Lyes in his hamstring, and doth think it rich
To hear the wooden dialect and found

'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the fcaffoldage,
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 unfquar'd;
Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon drop'd,
Would feem hyperboles. At this fufty stuff
The large Achilles, on his prefs'd-bed lolling,
From his deep cheft laughs out a loud applaufe:
Cries-Excellent!-'tis Agamemnon juft

Now play me Neftor-hum, and stroke thy beard,
As he, being 'drest to some oration.

That's done- -as near as the extremeft ends
Of parallels; as like as Vulcan and his wife:
Yet good Achilles ftill cries, Excellent!
Tis Neftor right! Now play him me, Patroclus,
Arming to anfwer in a night alarm.

And, then, forfooth, the faint defects of age
Must be the scene of mirth, to cough and fpit,
And with a palfy fumbling on his gorget,
Shake in and out the rivet and at this fport,
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, fhapes,
Severals and generals of grace exact †,
Atchievements, plots, orders, preventions,

Topless means, what hath nothing a top of or above it, that is, fupreme. Revijal.

+ Severals and generals of grace, exacts; i. e. exactments, public taxes and contributions for carrying on the war.

Warburton.

Excitements to the field, or fpeech for truce,
Succefs or lofs, what is or is not, ferves
As ftuff for these two to make paradoxes.
Neft. And in the imitation of these twain,
Whom, as Ulyffes fays, opinion crowns
With an imperial voice, many are infect :
Ajax is grown felf-will'd, and bears his head
In fuch a rein. in full as proud a place

As broad Achilles, and keeps his tent like him;
Makes factious feafts, rails on our ftate of war,
Bold as an oracle; and fets Therfites,

A fave, whofe gall coins flanders like a mint,
To match us in comparisons with dirt;

To weaken and discredit our exposure,
How rank foever rounded in with danger.

Ul They tax our policy, and call it cowardise,
Count wisdom as no member of the war;
Forestall our prefcience, and esteem no act
But that of hand: the ftill and mental parts,
That do contrive how many hands fhall strike,
When fitnes call them on, and know by measure
Of their obfervant toil the enemies' weight* ;
Why, this hath not a finger's dignity;

They call this bed-work, mapp'ry, closet war :
So that the ram that batters down the wall,
For the great swing and rudeness of his poize,
They place before his hand that made the engine,
Or thofe that with the fineness of their fouls
By reafon guide his execution.

Neft. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horfe Makes many Thetis' fons.

[Tucket founds.

Agam. What trumpet? look, Menelaus.

Men. From Troy.

I think it were better to read,

and know the measure,

By their obfervant toil, of th' enemies' weight. Johns.