Page 2783 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

As, Agamemnon, every hand of Greece
Should hold up high in brass; and such again
As venerable Nestor, hatched in silver, [65]
Should with a bond of air, strong as the axletree

On which the heavens ride, knit all Greeks’ ears
To his experienced tongue − yet let it please both,
Thou great, and wise, to hear Ulysses speak.

AGAMEMNON
Speak, Prince of Ithaca; and be’t of less expect [70]

That matter needless, of importless burden,
Divide thy lips than we are confident
When rank Thersites opes his mastic jaws
We shall hear music, wit, and oracle.

ULYSSES
Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down, [75]

And the great Hector’s sword had lacked a master,
But for these instances:
The specialty of rule hath been neglected,
And look how many Grecian tents do stand

Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions. [80]
When that the general is not like the hive
To whom the foragers shall all repair,
What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,

Th’unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask.
The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre [85]
Observe degree, priority, and place,
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,

Office, and custom, in all line of order.
And therefore is the glorious planet Sol
In noble eminence enthroned and sphered [90]
Amidst the other; whose 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, [95]

What plagues and what portents, what mutiny,