Achil. What, am I poor of late?
'Tis certain, greatness, once fall'n out with fortune, 75
Must fall out with men too: what the declined is,
He shall as soon read in the eyes of others
As feel in his own fall: for men, like butterflies,
Show not their mealy wings but to the summer,
And not a man, for being simply man,[1707] 80
Hath any honour, but honour for those honours[1708]
That are without him, as place, riches, and favour,[1709]
Prizes of accident as oft as merit:
Which when they fall, as being slippery standers,
The love that lean'd on them as slippery too,[1710] 85
Do one pluck down another and together[1711][1712]
Die in the fall. But 'tis not so with me:[1712]
Fortune and I are friends: I do enjoy
At ample point all that I did possess,
Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out 90
Something not worth in me such rich beholding[1713]
As they have often given. Here is Ulysses:
I'll interrupt his reading.[1714]
How now, Ulysses![1714]
Ulyss. Now, great Thetis' son![1715]
Achil. What are you reading?
Ulyss. A strange fellow here 95
Writes me: 'That man, how dearly ever parted,
How much in having, or without or in,
Cannot make boast to have that which he hath,
Nor feels not what he owes, but by reflection;
As when his virtues shining upon others[1716] 100
Heat them, and they retort that heat again
To the first giver.'[1717]
Achil. This is not strange, Ulysses.
The beauty that is borne here in the face[1718]
The bearer knows not, but commends itself[1719]
To others' eyes: nor doth the eye itself,[1720] 105
That most pure spirit of sense, behold itself,[1720]
Not going from itself; but eye to eye opposed[1721]
Salutes each other with each other's form:[1722]
For speculation turns not to itself,
Till it hath travell'd and is married there[1723] 110
Where it may see itself. This is not strange at all.[1724]
Ulyss. I do not strain at the position—[1725]
It is familiar—but at the author's drift;[1726]
Who in his circumstance expressly proves
That no man is the lord of any thing,[1727] 115
Though in and of him there be much consisting,[1728]
Till he communicate his parts to others;
Nor doth he of himself know them for aught
Till he behold them formed in the applause[1729]
Where they're extended; who, like an arch, reverberates[1730] 120
The voice again; or, like a gate of steel
Fronting the sun, receives and renders back
His figure and his heat. I was much rapt in this;[1731]
And apprehended here immediately[1731][1732]
The unknown Ajax.[1731][1733] 125
Heavens, what a man is there! a very horse;[1731][1733]
That has he knows not what. Nature, what things there are,[1731][1733][1734]
Most abject in regard and dear in use![1731][1733][1735]
What things again most dear in the esteem[1733]
And poor in worth! Now shall we see to-morrow—[1733][1736] 130
An act that very chance doth throw upon him—[1733][1736][1737]
Ajax renown'd. O heavens, what some men do,[1733][1736][1738]
While some men leave to do![1733][1739]
How some men creep in skittish fortune's hall,[1739][1740]
While others play the idiots in her eyes![1739] 135
How one man eats into another's pride,
While pride is fasting in his wantonness![1741]
To see these Grecian lords! Why, even already
They clap the lubber Ajax on the shoulder,
As if his foot were on brave Hector's breast[1742] 140
And great Troy shrieking.[1743]
Achil. I do believe it; for they pass'd by me[1744][1745]
As misers do by beggars, neither gave to me[1744]
Good word nor look: what, are my deeds forgot?[1744][1746]
Ulyss. Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back 145
Wherein he puts alms for oblivion,
A great-sized monster of ingratitudes:[1747]
Those scraps are good deeds past, which are devour'd[1748]
As fast as they are made, forgot as soon[1748]
As done: perseverance, dear my lord,[1748][1749][1750] 150
Keeps honour bright: to have done, is to hang[1749]
Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail[1751]
In monumental mockery. Take the instant way;[1752]
For honour travels in a strait so narrow,
Where one but goes abreast: keep then the path;[1753] 155
For emulation hath a thousand sons
That one by one pursue: if you give way,
Or hedge aside from the direct forthright,[1754]
Like to an enter'd tide they all rush by
And leave you hindmost:[1755][1756][1757] 160
Or, like a gallant horse fall'n in first rank,[1755][1756][1757][1758]
Lie there for pavement to the abject rear,[1755][1756][1759][1760][1761]
O'er-run and trampled on: then what they do in present,[1755][1756][1760]
Though less than yours in past, must o'ertop yours;[1755][1762]
For time is like a fashionable host[1755] 165
That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand,[1755]
And with his arms outstretch'd, as he would fly,[1755][1763]
Grasps in the comer: welcome ever smiles,[1755][1764]
And farewell goes out sighing. O, let not virtue seek[1755][1765][1766]
Remuneration for the thing it was;[1755][1766][1767] 170
For beauty, wit,[1755][1767]
High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service,[1755][1768]
Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all[1755][1769]
To envious and calumniating time.
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin; 175
That all with one consent praise new-born gawds,
Though they are made and moulded of things past,
And give to dust that is a little gilt[1770][1771]
More laud than gilt o'er-dusted.[1770][1772]
The present eye praises the present object: 180
Then marvel not, thou great and complete man,
That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax;[1773]
Since things in motion sooner catch the eye[1774]
Than what not stirs. The cry went once on thee,[1775]
And still it might, and yet it may again, 185
If thou wouldst not entomb thyself alive
And case thy reputation in thy tent,
Whose glorious deeds, but in these fields of late,
Made emulous missions 'mongst the gods themselves,[1776]
And drave great Mars to faction.
Achil. Of this my privacy[1777] 190
I have strong reasons.
Ulyss. But 'gainst your privacy[1778]
The reasons are more potent and heroical:
'Tis known, Achilles, that you are in love
With one of Priam's daughters.