_Nest._ Would you, my lord, aught with the general?
_Achil._ What, does the cuckold scorn me!
_Ajax._ Ay; and good next day too. [_Exeunt all but_ ACHILLES _and_ PATROCLUS.
_Achil._ What mean these fellows? know they not Achilles?
_Patro._ They pass by strangely; they were used to bow, And send their smiles before them to Achilles; To come as humbly as they used to creep To holy altars.
_Achil._ Am I poor of late? 'Tis certain, greatness, once fallen out with fortune, 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.
_Patro._ 'Tis known you are in love with Hector's sister, And therefore will not fight; and your not fighting Draws on you this contempt. I oft have told you, A woman, impudent and mannish grown, Is not more loathed than an effeminate man, In time of action: I am condemned for this: They think my little appetite to war Deads all the fire in you; but rouse yourself, And love shall from your neck unloose his folds; Or, like a dew-drop from a lion's mane, Be shaken into air.
_Patro._ Yes, and perhaps shall gain much honour by him.
_Achil._ I see my reputation is at stake.
_Patro._ O then beware; those wounds heal ill, that men Have given themselves, because they give them deepest.
_Achil._ I'll do something; But what I know not yet.--No more; our champion.
_Re-enter_ AJAX, AGAMEMNON, MENELAUS, ULYSSES, NESTOR, DIOMEDE, _Trumpet._
_Agam._ Here art thou, daring combat, valiant Ajax. Give, with thy trumpet, a loud note to Troy, Thou noble champion, that the sounding air May pierce the ears of the great challenger, And call him hither.
_Ajax._ Trumpet, take that purse: Now crack thy lungs, and split the sounding brass; Thou blow'st for Hector. [_Trumpet sounds, and is answered from within._
_Enter_ HECTOR, ÆNEAS, _and other Trojans._
_Æn._ [_Coming to the Greeks._] Health to the Grecian lords:--What shall be done To him that shall be vanquished? or do you purpose A victor should be known? will you, the knights Shall to the edge of all extremity Pursue each other, or shall be divided By any voice or order of the field? Hector bade ask.