Page 2821 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

ULYSSES

Thank the heavens, lord, thou art of sweet composure;
Praise him that got thee, she that gave thee suck.
Famed be thy tutor, and thy parts of nature

Thrice-famed beyond, beyond all erudition;
But he that disciplined thine arms to fight, [240]
Let Mars divide eternity in twain,
And give him half; and for thy vigour,
Bull-bearing Milo his addition yield

To sinewy Ajax. I will not praise thy wisdom,
Which, like a bourn, a pale, a shore, confines [245]
Thy spacious and dilated parts. Here’s Nestor,

Instructed by the antiquary times;
He must, he is, he cannot but be wise −
But pardon, father Nestor, were your days
As green as Ajax’, and your brain so tempered, [250]
You should not have the eminence of him,

But be as Ajax.

AJAX
(to Nestor) Shall I call you father?

NESTOR
Ay, my good son.

DIOMEDES
Be ruled by him, Lord Ajax.

ULYSSES
There is no tarrying here; the hart Achilles

Keeps thicket. Please it our great general [255]
To call together all his state of war;
Fresh kings are come to Troy. Tomorrow
We must with all our main of power stand fast,
And here’s a lord − come knights from east to west,

And cull their flower, Ajax shall cope the best. [260]

AGAMEMNON