There may just possibly be an allusion here to the ‘Islands Voyage’ and other poorly managed expeditions against the Spanish West Indies, then fairly recent.
Nestor has also a sharp word for Thersites the professional pessimist:—
‘A slave whose gall coins slanders like a mint.’
We cannot all be as wise as Nestor; but we can at least refuse to lend our ears to Thersites.
In this connexion we may note some lines given to the Messenger at the opening of ‘King Henry VI.,’ which may have been touched by Shakespeare’s revising hand, though I would not vouch for it:—
‘Amongst the soldiers this is muttered,
That here you maintain several factions,
And while a field should be dispatch’d and fought,
You are disputing of your generals:
One would have lingering wars with little cost;