Act 1, Scene 3

The Grecian camp. Before AGAMEMNON'S tent

[Sennet. Enter AGAMEMNON, NESTOR, ULYSSES, DIOMEDES, MENELAUS, and others.]
Agamemnon
414 Princes,
415 What grief hath set these jaundies o'er your cheeks?
416 The ample proposition that hope makes
417 In all designs begun on earth below
418 Fails in the promis'd largeness; checks and disasters
419 Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd,
420 As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap,
421 Infects the sound pine, and diverts his grain
422 Tortive and errant from his course of growth.
423 Nor, princes, is it matter new to us
424 That we come short of our suppose so far
425 That after seven years' siege yet Troy walls stand;
426 Sith every action that hath gone before,
427 Whereof we have record, trial did draw
428 Bias and thwart, not answering the aim,
429 And that unbodied figure of the thought
430 That gave't surmised shape. Why then, you princes,
431 Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works
432 And call them shames, which are, indeed, nought else
433 But the protractive trials of great Jove
434 To find persistive constancy in men;
435 The fineness of which metal is not found
436 In fortune's love? For then the bold and coward,
437 The wise and fool, the artist and unread,
438 The hard and soft, seem all affin'd and kin.
439 But in the wind and tempest of her frown
440 Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan,
441 Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
442 And what hath mass or matter by itself
443 Lies rich in virtue and unmingled.
Nestor
444 With due observance of thy godlike seat,
445 Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply
446 Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance
447 Lies the true proof of men. The sea being smooth,
448 How many shallow bauble boats dare sail
449 Upon her patient breast, making their way
450 With those of nobler bulk!
451 But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
452 The gentle Thetis, and anon behold
453 The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut,
454 Bounding between the two moist elements
455 Like Perseus' horse. Where's then the saucy boat,
456 Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now
457 Co-rivall'd greatness? Either to harbour fled
458 Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so
459 Doth valour's show and valour's worth divide
460 In storms of fortune; for in her ray and brightness
461 The herd hath more annoyance by the breeze
462 Than by the tiger; but when the splitting wind
463 Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks,
464 And flies fled under shade—why, then the thing of courage
465 As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathise,
466 And with an accent tun'd in self-same key
467 Retorts to chiding fortune.
Ulysses
468 Agamemnon,
469 Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece,
470 Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit
471 In whom the tempers and the minds of all
472 Should be shut up—hear what Ulysses speaks.
473 Besides the applause and approbation
474 The which,
[To AGAMEMNON]
Ulysses
475 most mighty, for thy place and sway,
[To NESTOR]
Ulysses
476 And, thou most reverend, for thy stretch'd-out life,
477 I give to both your speeches—which were such
478 As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece
479 Should hold up high in brass; and such again
480 As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver,
481 Should with a bond of air, strong as the axle-tree
482 On which heaven rides, knit all the Greekish ears
483 To his experienc'd tongue—yet let it please both,
484 Thou great, and wise, to hear Ulysses speak.
Agamemnon
485 Speak, Prince of Ithaca; and be't of less expect
486 That matter needless, of importless burden,
487 Divide thy lips than we are confident,
488 When rank Thersites opes his mastic jaws,
489 We shall hear music, wit, and oracle.
Ulysses
490 Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down,
491 And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master,
492 But for these instances:
493 The specialty of rule hath been neglected;
494 And look how many Grecian tents do stand
495 Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions.
496 When that the general is not like the hive,
497 To whom the foragers shall all repair,
498 What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,
499 Th' unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask.
500 The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre,
501 Observe degree, priority, and place,
502 Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
503 Office, and custom, in all line of order;
504 And therefore is the glorious planet Sol
505 In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
506 Amidst the other, whose med'cinable eye
507 Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,
508 And posts, like the commandment of a king,
509 Sans check, to good and bad. But when the planets
510 In evil mixture to disorder wander,
511 What plagues and what portents, what mutiny,
512 What raging of the sea, shaking of earth,
513 Commotion in the winds! Frights, changes, horrors,
514 Divert and crack, rend and deracinate,
515 The unity and married calm of states
516 Quite from their fixture! O, when degree is shak'd,
517 Which is the ladder of all high designs,
518 The enterprise is sick! How could communities,
519 Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,
520 Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
521 The primogenity and due of birth,
522 Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
523 But by degree, stand in authentic place?
524 Take but degree away, untune that string,
525 And hark what discord follows! Each thing melts
526 In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters
527 Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores,
528 And make a sop of all this solid globe;
529 Strength should be lord of imbecility,
530 And the rude son should strike his father dead;
531 Force should be right; or, rather, right and wrong—
532 Between whose endless jar justice resides—
533 Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
534 Then everything includes itself in power,
535 Power into will, will into appetite;
536 And appetite, an universal wolf,
537 So doubly seconded with will and power,
538 Must make perforce an universal prey,
539 And last eat up himself. Great Agamemnon,
540 This chaos, when degree is suffocate,
541 Follows the choking.
542 And this neglection of degree it is
543 That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose
544 It hath to climb. The general's disdain'd
545 By him one step below, he by the next,
546 That next by him beneath; so ever step,
547 Exampl'd by the first pace that is sick
548 Of his superior, grows to an envious fever
549 Of pale and bloodless emulation.
550 And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,
551 Not her own sinews. To end a tale of length,
552 Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength.
Nestor
553 Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover'd
554 The fever whereof all our power is sick.
Agamemnon
555 The nature of the sickness found, Ulysses,
556 What is the remedy?
Ulysses
557 The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns
558 The sinew and the forehand of our host,
559 Having his ear full of his airy fame,
560 Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent
561 Lies mocking our designs; with him Patroclus
562 Upon a lazy bed the livelong day
563 Breaks scurril jests;
564 And with ridiculous and awkward action—
565 Which, slanderer, he imitation calls—
566 He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon,
567 Thy topless deputation he puts on;
568 And like a strutting player whose conceit
569 Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich
570 To hear the wooden dialogue and sound
571 'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage—
572 Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrested seeming
573 He acts thy greatness in; and when he speaks
574 'Tis like a chime a-mending; with terms unsquar'd,
575 Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropp'd,
576 Would seem hyperboles. At this fusty stuff
577 The large Achilles, on his press'd bed lolling,
578 From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause;
579 Cries 'Excellent! 'tis Agamemnon just.
580 Now play me Nestor; hem, and stroke thy beard,
581 As he being drest to some oration.'
582 That's done—as near as the extremest ends
583 Of parallels, as like Vulcan and his wife;
584 Yet god Achilles still cries 'Excellent!
585 'Tis Nestor right. Now play him me, Patroclus,
586 Arming to answer in a night alarm.'
587 And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age
588 Must be the scene of mirth: to cough and spit
589 And, with a palsy-fumbling on his gorget,
590 Shake in and out the rivet. And at this sport
591 Sir Valour dies; cries 'O, enough, Patroclus;
592 Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all
593 In pleasure of my spleen.' And in this fashion
594 All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,
595 Severals and generals of grace exact,
596 Achievements, plots, orders, preventions,
597 Excitements to the field or speech for truce,
598 Success or loss, what is or is not, serves
599 As stuff for these two to make paradoxes.
Nestor
600 And in the imitation of these twain—
601 Who, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns
602 With an imperial voice—many are infect.
603 Ajax is grown self-will'd and bears his head
604 In such a rein, in full as proud a place
605 As broad Achilles; keeps his tent like him;
606 Makes factious feasts; rails on our state of war
607 Bold as an oracle, and sets Thersites,
608 A slave whose gall coins slanders like a mint,
609 To match us in comparisons with dirt,
610 To weaken and discredit our exposure,
611 How rank soever rounded in with danger.
Ulysses
612 They tax our policy and call it cowardice,
613 Count wisdom as no member of the war,
614 Forestall prescience, and esteem no act
615 But that of hand. The still and mental parts
616 That do contrive how many hands shall strike
617 When fitness calls them on, and know, by measure
618 Of their observant toil, the enemies' weight—
619 Why, this hath not a finger's dignity:
620 They call this bed-work, mapp'ry, closet-war;
621 So that the ram that batters down the wall,
622 For the great swinge and rudeness of his poise,
623 They place before his hand that made the engine,
624 Or those that with the fineness of their souls
625 By reason guide his execution.
Nestor
626 Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse
627 Makes many Thetis' sons.
[Tucket.]
Agamemnon
628 What trumpet? Look, Menelaus.
Menelaus
629 From Troy.
[Enter AENEAS.]
Agamemnon
630 What would you fore our tent?
Aeneas
631 Is this great Agamemnon's tent, I pray you?
Agamemnon
632 Even this.
Aeneas
633 May one that is a herald and a prince
634 Do a fair message to his kingly eyes?
Agamemnon
635 With surety stronger than Achilles' an
636 Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice
637 Call Agamemnon head and general.
Aeneas
638 Fair leave and large security. How may
639 A stranger to those most imperial looks
640 Know them from eyes of other mortals?
Agamemnon
641 How?
Aeneas
642 Ay;
643 I ask, that I might waken reverence,
644 And bid the cheek be ready with a blush
645 Modest as Morning when she coldly eyes
646 The youthful Phoebus.
647 Which is that god in office, guiding men?
648 Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon?
Agamemnon
649 This Troyan scorns us, or the men of Troy
650 Are ceremonious courtiers.
Aeneas
651 Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm'd,
652 As bending angels; that's their fame in peace.
653 But when they would seem soldiers, they have galls,
654 Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, Jove's accord,
655 Nothing so full of heart. But peace, Aeneas,
656 Peace, Troyan; lay thy finger on thy lips.
657 The worthiness of praise distains his worth,
658 If that the prais'd himself bring the praise forth;
659 But what the repining enemy commends,
660 That breath fame blows; that praise, sole pure, transcends.
Agamemnon
661 Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself Aeneas?
Aeneas
662 Ay, Greek, that is my name.
Agamemnon
663 What's your affair, I pray you?
Aeneas
664 Sir, pardon; 'tis for Agamemnon's ears.
Agamemnon
665 He hears nought privately that comes from Troy.
Aeneas
666 Nor I from Troy come not to whisper with him;
667 I bring a trumpet to awake his ear,
668 To set his sense on the attentive bent,
669 And then to speak.
Agamemnon
670 Speak frankly as the wind;
671 It is not Agamemnon's sleeping hour.
672 That thou shalt know, Troyan, he is awake,
673 He tells thee so himself.
Aeneas
674 Trumpet, blow loud,
675 Send thy brass voice through all these lazy tents;
676 And every Greek of mettle, let him know
677 What Troy means fairly shall be spoke aloud.
[Sound trumpet.]
Aeneas
678 We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy
679 A prince called Hector-Priam is his father—
680 Who in this dull and long-continued truce
681 Is resty grown; he bade me take a trumpet
682 And to this purpose speak: Kings, princes, lords!
683 If there be one among the fair'st of Greece
684 That holds his honour higher than his ease,
685 That seeks his praise more than he fears his peril,
686 That knows his valour and knows not his fear,
687 That loves his mistress more than in confession
688 With truant vows to her own lips he loves,
689 And dare avow her beauty and her worth
690 In other arms than hers-to him this challenge.
691 Hector, in view of Troyans and of Greeks,
692 Shall make it good or do his best to do it:
693 He hath a lady wiser, fairer, truer,
694 Than ever Greek did couple in his arms;
695 And will to-morrow with his trumpet call
696 Mid-way between your tents and walls of Troy
697 To rouse a Grecian that is true in love.
698 If any come, Hector shall honour him;
699 If none, he'll say in Troy, when he retires,
700 The Grecian dames are sunburnt and not worth
701 The splinter of a lance. Even so much.
Agamemnon
702 This shall be told our lovers, Lord Aeneas.
703 If none of them have soul in such a kind,
704 We left them all at home. But we are soldiers;
705 And may that soldier a mere recreant prove
706 That means not, hath not, or is not in love.
707 If then one is, or hath, or means to be,
708 That one meets Hector; if none else, I am he.
Nestor
709 Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man
710 When Hector's grandsire suck'd. He is old now;
711 But if there be not in our Grecian mould
712 One noble man that hath one spark of fire
713 To answer for his love, tell him from me
714 I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver,
715 And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn,
716 And, meeting him, will tell him that my lady
717 Was fairer than his grandame, and as chaste
718 As may be in the world. His youth in flood,
719 I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood.
Aeneas
720 Now heavens forfend such scarcity of youth!
Ulysses
721 Amen.
Agamemnon
722 Fair Lord Aeneas, let me touch your hand;
723 To our pavilion shall I lead you, first.
724 Achilles shall have word of this intent;
725 So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent.
726 Yourself shall feast with us before you go,
727 And find the welcome of a noble foe.
[Exeunt all but ULYSSES and NESTOR.]
Ulysses
728 Nestor!
Nestor
729 What says Ulysses?
Ulysses
730 I have a young conception in my brain;
731 Be you my time to bring it to some shape.
Nestor
732 What is't?
Ulysses
733 This 'tis:
734 Blunt wedges rive hard knots. The seeded pride
735 That hath to this maturity blown up
736 In rank Achilles must or now be cropp'd
737 Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil
738 To overbulk us all.
Nestor
739 Well, and how?
Ulysses
740 This challenge that the gallant Hector sends,
741 However it is spread in general name,
742 Relates in purpose only to Achilles.
Nestor
743 True. The purpose is perspicuous even as substance
744 Whose grossness little characters sum up;
745 And, in the publication, make no strain
746 But that Achilles, were his brain as barren
747 As banks of Libya—though, Apollo knows,
748 'Tis dry enough—will with great speed of judgment,
749 Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose
750 Pointing on him.
Ulysses
751 And wake him to the answer, think you?
Nestor
752 Why, 'tis most meet. Who may you else oppose
753 That can from Hector bring those honours off,
754 If not Achilles? Though 't be a sportful combat,
755 Yet in this trial much opinion dwells
756 For here the Troyans taste our dear'st repute
757 With their fin'st palate; and trust to me, Ulysses,
758 Our imputation shall be oddly pois'd
759 In this vile action; for the success,
760 Although particular, shall give a scantling
761 Of good or bad unto the general;
762 And in such indexes, although small pricks
763 To their subsequent volumes, there is seen
764 The baby figure of the giant mas
765 Of things to come at large. It is suppos'd
766 He that meets Hector issues from our choice;
767 And choice, being mutual act of all our souls,
768 Makes merit her election, and doth boil,
769 As 'twere from forth us all, a man distill'd
770 Out of our virtues; who miscarrying,
771 What heart receives from hence a conquering part,
772 To steel a strong opinion to themselves?
773 Which entertain'd, limbs are his instruments,
774 In no less working than are swords and bows
775 Directive by the limbs.
Ulysses
776 Give pardon to my speech.
777 Therefore 'tis meet Achilles meet not Hector.
778 Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares
779 And think perchance they'll sell; if not, the lustre
780 Of the better yet to show shall show the better,
781 By showing the worst first. Do not consent
782 That ever Hector and Achilles meet;
783 For both our honour and our shame in this
784 Are dogg'd with two strange followers.
Nestor
785 I see them not with my old eyes. What are they?
Ulysses
786 What glory our Achilles shares from Hector,
787 Were he not proud, we all should wear with him;
788 But he already is too insolent;
789 And it were better parch in Afric sun
790 Than in the pride and salt scorn of his eyes,
791 Should he scape Hector fair. If he were foil'd,
792 Why, then we do our main opinion crush
793 In taint of our best man. No, make a lott'ry;
794 And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw
795 The sort to fight with Hector. Among ourselves
796 Give him allowance for the better man;
797 For that will physic the great Myrmidon,
798 Who broils in loud applause, and make him fall
799 His crest, that prouder than blue Iris bends.
800 If the dull brainless Ajax come safe off,
801 We'll dress him up in voices; if he fail,
802 Yet go we under our opinion still
803 That we have better men. But, hit or miss,
804 Our project's life this shape of sense assumes—
805 Ajax employ'd plucks down Achilles' plumes.
Nestor
806 Now, Ulysses, I begin to relish thy advice;
807 And I will give a taste thereof forthwith
808 To Agamemnon. Go we to him straight.
809 Two curs shall tame each other: pride alone
810 Must tarre the mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone.
[Exeunt.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 415archaic vocab
“What grief hath set these jaundies o'er your cheeks”
'Jaundies' (jaundice) is a yellowing of the skin caused by liver disease, taken in Shakespeare's time as a sign of melancholy, envy, or illness. Agamemnon reads the princes' downcast faces as a symptom of sickness — figuratively, of a military campaign gone wrong.
TLN 425historical topical
“after seven years' siege yet Troy walls stand”
Homer's Iliad is set in the tenth and final year of the Trojan War, but by Shakespeare's day the legend of a ten-year siege was sometimes compressed to seven — as here — in various retellings. The play begins in the war's middle, after years of stalemate, deliberately skipping the heroic early campaigns.
historical The matter of Troy and its tangled sources
TLN 433archaic vocab
“protractive trials of great Jove”
'Protractive' means prolonging or stretching out. Agamemnon argues that the Greeks' repeated failures are not shameful setbacks but extended tests sent by Jove (Jupiter, king of the gods) to find which men have real constancy. He turns the stalled siege into a theological lesson.
TLN 437archaic vocab
“the artist and unread, The hard and soft, seem all affin'd and kin”
'Artist' here means a person skilled in the liberal arts (educated), contrasted with 'unread' (unlearned). 'Affin'd' means related by affinity or bound together. Agamemnon is saying that in Fortune's favour, the skilled and the ignorant, the brave and the timid, all look alike — only adversity reveals the difference.
TLN 440rhetorical device
“Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan, Puffing at all, winnows the light away”
Winnowing was the process of separating grain from chaff by tossing it in the air so the wind blew the lighter chaff away, leaving the heavier grain behind. Agamemnon uses this agricultural image to say adversity (Fortune's 'frown') acts like a great fan, blowing away those of no substance and leaving behind those of genuine worth.
TLN 451classical allusion
“ruffian Boreas once enrage The gentle Thetis”
Boreas was the Greek god of the north wind, here called 'ruffian' for its violence. Thetis was a sea-goddess, mother of Achilles, whose name is used here for the sea itself. Nestor's image: when the north wind whips the calm sea into storm, only the strongest ships survive — the small 'bauble boats' flee or drown.
TLN 455classical allusion
“Like Perseus' horse”
Perseus's horse is Pegasus, the winged horse that sprang from the blood of the gorgon Medusa when Perseus cut off her head. Pegasus leaping between sea and air perfectly captures Nestor's image of a sturdy ship bounding through storm-waves. Shakespeare sometimes attributes Pegasus to Perseus rather than the more usual Bellerophon, following a conflation common in the period.
TLN 458archaic vocab
“made a toast for Neptune”
'A toast for Neptune' means that the weak ship became a piece of sodden wreckage swallowed by the sea. A 'toast' was a piece of bread soaked in liquid — the image is grimly comic: the puny boat, unable to ride the storm, is simply absorbed into the ocean like bread soaking up wine. Neptune was the Roman god of the sea.
TLN 493archaic vocab
“The specialty of rule hath been neglected”
'Specialty of rule' means the particular prerogatives and obligations of command — the specific rights and duties that belong to a commander-in-chief. Ulysses's diagnosis of why the siege is failing: because hierarchy and proper authority have been ignored.
TLN 498archaic vocab
“Degree being vizarded, Th' unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask”
'Vizarded' means masked or disguised. When rank and hierarchy (degree) are concealed under a mask, the least worthy person looks just as good as the best. Ulysses is arguing that without visible distinctions of rank, the incompetent appear equal to the capable.
TLN 500historical topical
“The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre”
This is Ulysses's famous 'degree' speech: he argues that the entire universe operates on a principle of fixed hierarchy — the sun presides over the planets, which follow ranked orbits — and that any disruption of this cosmic order produces catastrophe on earth. The speech expresses a widespread Elizabethan idea that social hierarchy mirrors and is guaranteed by the structure of the cosmos.
historical The great chain of being (order and degree)
TLN 514archaic vocab
“Divert and crack, rend and deracinate”
'Deracinate' means to uproot — literally to pull up by the roots (from Latin radix, root). When cosmic order breaks down, Ulysses says, everything is torn from its foundation. The word was new enough in 1602 to carry a slightly foreign, technical flavor.
TLN 521archaic vocab
“The primogenity and due of birth”
'Primogenity' means the right of inheritance belonging to the firstborn child — primogeniture. Ulysses lists it among the things maintained only by the principle of degree: remove hierarchy and even the eldest child's birthright would be meaningless.
TLN 524rhetorical device
“Take but degree away, untune that string, And hark what discord follows”
Ulysses uses the image of a musical string to argue that degree (social hierarchy) is what keeps society in tune. Remove it, and instead of music you get noise — 'discord.' The metaphor works because the spheres were believed to produce actual music (the 'music of the spheres') as they orbited, so untuning cosmic order and untuning a lute are the same act at different scales.
historical The great chain of being (order and degree)
TLN 529archaic vocab
“Strength should be lord of imbecility, And the rude son should strike his father dead”
'Imbecility' here means physical weakness or feebleness — not mental incapacity (its modern primary sense). Ulysses is describing a world without hierarchy: the strong will dominate the weak, and even family bonds (son striking father) will be destroyed.
TLN 536rhetorical device
“appetite, an universal wolf, So doubly seconded with will and power, Must make perforce an universal prey, And last eat up himself”
Ulysses describes unchecked desire as a wolf that devours everything — and finally consumes itself. Without hierarchy to restrain it, appetite (desire, greed) becomes self-destructive: once the wolf has eaten all external prey, it has nothing left but itself. This is the play's darkest political image: a world without order ends in universal self-destruction.
TLN 549archaic vocab
“Of pale and bloodless emulation”
'Emulation' in the Elizabethan period most often meant envious rivalry — the urge to match or outdo a superior, accompanied by resentment. 'Pale and bloodless' emulation is envy drained of life, a cold fever of jealousy. Ulysses says this infection spreads down the chain of command, making every officer secretly resent the one above him.
TLN 557historical topical
“The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns The sinew and the forehand of our host”
Ulysses now identifies the root cause: Achilles, the greatest Greek warrior, is lying in his tent with Patroclus, refusing to fight and mocking the other leaders. This directly echoes the Iliad's opening: the entire poem turns on 'the wrath of Achilles' and his withdrawal from battle. Shakespeare's version makes the withdrawal pettier and more spiteful than Homer's.
classical Achilles, Patroclus, and the wrath of Achilles
TLN 566archaic vocab
“He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon, Thy topless deputation he puts on”
'Pageants us' means Patroclus acts out parodies of the Greek leaders as if performing a pageant or show. 'Topless deputation' means Agamemnon's supreme authority — 'topless' because it stands at the very top of the hierarchy, with nothing above it. Patroclus mimics Agamemnon strutting about with this supreme rank.
TLN 575classical allusion
“from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropp'd”
Typhon (or Typhoeus) was the monstrous giant of Greek myth, son of Gaia and Tartarus, who made war on the gods and was described as having a hundred serpent heads each uttering different roaring sounds. His 'tongue' was associated with elemental noise. Ulysses says that Patroclus's bombastic words, even if they fell from Typhon's roaring mouth, would still count as hyperbole.
TLN 583classical allusion
“as like Vulcan and his wife”
Vulcan (Roman Hephaestus) was the lame blacksmith-god, famously mismatched with his beautiful wife Venus, the goddess of love. The couple were a byword for an ill-suited pair — the ugliest god married to the most beautiful goddess. Ulysses is saying that Patroclus's imitation of Nestor is about as similar to the original as Vulcan is to his wife: completely unlike.
TLN 589archaic vocab
“with a palsy-fumbling on his gorget”
A gorget was a piece of armour protecting the throat, consisting of overlapping metal plates fastened with rivets. Patroclus mimes old Nestor shaking with palsy (a trembling disease) as he fumbles to buckle his gorget during a night alarm — exaggerating the old man's age and infirmity for Achilles's entertainment.
TLN 593archaic vocab
“In pleasure of my spleen”
In humoral medicine the spleen was the seat of laughter as well as melancholy and anger. 'Pleasure of my spleen' means convulsive, helpless laughter — Achilles says he will split apart with laughing. The phrase is slightly self-mocking: 'spleen-laughter' was thought a lower, more bodily form of mirth than proper reason.
TLN 608rhetorical device
“A slave whose gall coins slanders like a mint”
Nestor calls Thersites 'a slave whose gall [bile, venom] coins slanders like a mint' — the bitterness of Thersites's humor produces slanders with the mechanical, continuous productivity of a coin-press. 'Gall' was the Elizabethan term for bile, the bitter humor associated with anger and malice. The image is also an accusation: slanders are counterfeit 'coins,' not true currency.
TLN 620archaic vocab
“They call this bed-work, mapp'ry, closet-war”
'Bed-work' and 'closet-war' are contemptuous terms for strategic planning done indoors (in bed, or in a private closet) rather than on the battlefield. 'Mapp'ry' means map-making or the study of maps — armchair strategy. Achilles and Ajax mock those who plan instead of fight, valuing physical action above intelligence.
TLN 622archaic vocab
“For the great swinge and rudeness of his poise”
'Swinge' means the swinging force or sweep of a blow. 'Poise' means weight. Ulysses is saying that the ram (a siege engine used to batter walls) is valued for its brute physical force and weight — but those who built it or guide it with strategic reason deserve more credit. The observation reinforces his argument that the Greek camp wrongly prizes brawn over mind.
TLN 644classical allusion
“bid the cheek be ready with a blush Modest as Morning when she coldly eyes The youthful Phoebus”
Aeneas asks Agamemnon to blush with deference as modestly as the dawn ('Morning') when it first looks at the rising sun (Phoebus). Phoebus (Apollo) was the sun-god; the dawn-goddess Eos or Aurora approaches him each morning. Aeneas is being elaborately, teasingly courtly — making the most extravagant compliment before pretending not to know which Greek is the general.
TLN 654archaic vocab
“and, Jove's accord, Nothing so full of heart”
'Jove's accord' is an oath or exclamation — 'by Jove's agreement' or simply 'by Jove!' Aeneas is praising Trojan soldiers: when they choose to fight, they are, by heaven, as full of courage as any. The phrase also has the force of divine sanction: Jove (Jupiter) confirms their bravery.
TLN 657archaic vocab
“The worthiness of praise distains his worth”
'Distains' means stains, taints, or discolors. Aeneas is making a chivalric point: when a man praises himself, that very praise taints or diminishes the real worth it claims. Only praise from an enemy is 'sole pure' — undiluted and true. The sentiment encapsulates the courtly ideal that true valor needs no self-advertisement.
TLN 680archaic vocab
“this dull and long-continued truce Is resty grown”
'Resty' means restive — restless through long inaction, or sluggish and reluctant to move (said of a horse that refuses to go forward). Aeneas says Hector has grown impatient and restless during the truce. The word catches the play's larger mood: heroes and war alike have gone stale in a siege that has dragged on too long.
TLN 687syntax grammar
“loves his mistress more than in confession With truant vows to her own lips he loves”
The syntax is compressed: 'loves his mistress more than in confession — with vows he has broken, delivered only to her own lips — he says he loves her.' In other words, Hector's challenge is for a knight who loves his lady in deeds, not just in private vows made directly to her. The challenge requires a man who backs his love with action — combat in her honor.
TLN 700historical topical
“The Grecian dames are sunburnt and not worth The splinter of a lance”
In Elizabethan culture a sunburnt complexion was a mark of low social status — outdoor labor, poverty — while pale skin was prized as a sign of beauty and breeding. Hector's taunt, relayed by Aeneas, is that if no Greek champion answers the challenge, it means no Greek woman is beautiful enough to be worth fighting for.
TLN 709historical topical
“one that was a man When Hector's grandsire suck'd”
Nestor boasts he was already a grown man when Hector's grandfather (Laomedon, Priam's father) was still an infant. Nestor was traditionally the oldest of the Greek leaders, famous for long experience and for citing events of generations past. His extreme age — and his relish for it — is a running joke in the Iliad and in this play.
classical The Greek and Trojan heroes
TLN 714archaic vocab
“I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver, And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn”
A 'beaver' was the visor or lower face-guard of a helmet; a 'vantbrace' (or vambrace) was armour covering the forearm. 'Brawn' here means muscle or the muscular part of the arm. Nestor is theatrically promising to strap on his armour and fight Hector himself if no younger Greek will step up.
TLN 730rhetorical device
“I have a young conception in my brain; Be you my time to bring it to some shape”
Ulysses uses the extended metaphor of pregnancy: his scheme is a 'young conception' (a newly formed idea), and he asks Nestor to be 'my time' — the time of gestation, the months needed to bring the plan to birth. The image frames political scheming as a kind of bodily, creative process.
TLN 734rhetorical device
“The seeded pride That hath to this maturity blown up In rank Achilles must or now be cropp'd”
Ulysses shifts from the pregnancy metaphor to an agricultural one: Achilles's pride is 'seeded' (gone to seed, overripe), has 'blown up' (bloomed, like a plant in flower), and must be 'cropp'd' (cut back, like a plant pruned) before it seeds further arrogance. 'Rank' means both high in rank and overgrown, offensive — playing on both senses.
TLN 743archaic vocab
“The purpose is perspicuous even as substance Whose grossness little characters sum up”
'Perspicuous' means clear, transparent, easily understood. 'Grossness' means bulk or magnitude. 'Little characters' means small written figures — as in arithmetic, where small numerals can represent enormous quantities. Nestor agrees that Hector's challenge obviously targets Achilles specifically, even if it is written in general terms.
TLN 760archaic vocab
“shall give a scantling Of good or bad unto the general”
'Scantling' means a sample, a small specimen, or a measure taken from a larger whole — like a small piece cut off to show the quality of timber. Nestor argues that the outcome of this one combat (a 'particular') will serve as a scantling — a sample or indicator — of the Greek army's overall quality and reputation.
TLN 778rhetorical device
“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”
Ulysses proposes a merchant's trick: show the worst goods first, so the better ones look even more attractive by comparison. His plan is to send Ajax (the 'foulest ware') to fight Hector, keeping Achilles in reserve. Whatever happens, the Greeks profit — and Achilles, wounded in his pride, may be stirred to action.
TLN 797classical allusion
“physic the great Myrmidon, Who broils in loud applause, and make him fall His crest, that prouder than blue Iris bends”
The 'Myrmidon' is Achilles — his followers, the Myrmidons, take their name from the Greek word for ants (myrmex), said to be the soldiers Jove made for Achilles's ancestor. 'Physic' means to cure or purge. 'Iris' is the rainbow goddess; Achilles's pride is compared to a rainbow arching proudly across the sky — a beautiful but momentary display. Ulysses will use Ajax as medicine to cure Achilles's swollen pride.
classical Achilles, Patroclus, and the wrath of Achilles
TLN 809archaic vocab
“Two curs shall tame each other: pride alone Must tarre the mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone”
'Tarre' means to set on or incite, especially to set dogs to fight. A 'mastiff' was a large, powerful fighting dog. Nestor closes the scene with a cynical proverb: Ajax and Achilles are two rough fighting dogs ('curs'), and pride is the bone that will set them against each other. The scheme is not noble strategy but animal management.