<SPEECH 1><ACT 1><SCENE 3><13%>
<NESTOR>	<14%>
	With due observance of thy god-like seat,
	Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply
	Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance
	Lies the true proof of men: the sea being smooth,
	How many shallow bauble boats dare sail
	Upon her patient breast, making their way
	With those of nobler bulk!
	But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
	The gentle Thetis, and anon behold
	The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut,
	Bounding between the two moist elements,
	Like Perseus' horse: where's then the saucy boat
	Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now
	Co-rivall'd greatness? either to harbour fled,
	Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so
	Doth valour's show and valour's worth divide
	In storms of fortune; for in her ray and brightness
	The herd hath more annoyance by the breese
	Than by the tiger; but when the splitting wind
	Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks,
	And flies fled under shade, why then the thing of courage,
	As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize,
	And with an accent tun'd in self-same key,
	Retorts to chiding fortune.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 2><ACT 1><SCENE 3><16%>
<NESTOR>	<16%>
	Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover'd
	The fever whereof all our power is sick.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 3><ACT 1><SCENE 3><17%>
<NESTOR>	<18%>
	And in the imitation of these twain—
	Whom, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns
	With an imperial voice—many are infect.
	Ajax is grown self-will'd, and bears his head
	In such a rein, in full as proud a place
	As broad Achilles; keeps his tent like him;
	Makes factious feasts; rails on our state of war,
	Bold as an oracle, and sets Thersites—
	A slave whose gall coins slanders like a mint—
	To match us in comparison with dirt;
	To weaken and discredit our exposure,
	How rank soever rounded in with danger.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 4><ACT 1><SCENE 3><18%>
<NESTOR>	<18%>
	Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse
	Makes many Thetis' sons.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 5><ACT 1><SCENE 3><20%>
<NESTOR>	<21%>
	Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man
	When Hector's grandsire suck'd: he is old now;
	But if there be not in our Grecian host
	One noble man that hath one spark of fire
	To answer for his love, tell him from me,
	I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver,
	And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn;
	And, meeting him, will tell him that my lady
	Was fairer than his grandam, and as chaste
	As may be in the world: his youth in flood,
	I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 6><ACT 1><SCENE 3><20%>
<NESTOR>	<21%>
	What says Ulysses?
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 7><ACT 1><SCENE 3><21%>
<NESTOR>	<21%>
	What is't?
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 8><ACT 1><SCENE 3><21%>
<NESTOR>	<21%>
	Well, and how?
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 9><ACT 1><SCENE 3><21%>
<NESTOR>	<22%>
	The purpose is perspicuous even as substance
	Whose grossness little characters sum up:
	And, in the publication, make no strain,
	But that Achilles, were his brain as barren
	As banks of Libya,—though, Apollo knows,
	'Tis dry enough,—will with great speed of judgment,
	Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose
	Pointing on him.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 10><ACT 1><SCENE 3><21%>
<NESTOR>	<22%>
	Yes, 'tis most meet: whom may you else oppose,
	That can from Hector bring those honours off,
	If not Achilles? Though't be a sportful combat,
	Yet in the trial much opinion dwells;
	For here the Trojans taste our dear'st repute
	With their fin'st palate: and trust to me, Ulysses,
	Our imputation shall be oddly pois'd
	In this wild action; for the success,
	Although particular, shall give a scantling
	Of good or bad unto the general;
	And in such indexes, although small pricks
	To their subsequent volumes, there is seen
	The baby figure of the giant mass
	Of things to come at large. It is suppos'd
	He that meets Hector issues from our choice;
	And choice, being mutual act of all our souls,
	Makes merit her election, and doth boil,
	As 'twere from forth us all, a man distill'd
	Out of our virtues; who miscarrying,
	What heart receives from bence the conquering part,
	To steel a strong opinion to themselves?
	Which entertain'd, limbs are his instruments,
	In no less working than are swords and bows
	Directive by the limbs.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 11><ACT 1><SCENE 3><22%>
<NESTOR>	<23%>
	I see them not with my old eyes: what are they?
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 12><ACT 1><SCENE 3><22%>
<NESTOR>	<23%>
	Ulysses,
	Now I begin to relish thy advice;
	And I will give a taste of it forthwith
	To Agamemnon: go we to him straight.
	Two curs shall tame each other: pride alone
	Must tarre the mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone.
<STAGE DIR>
<Exeunt.>
</STAGE DIR>
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 13><ACT 2><SCENE 3><35%>
<NESTOR>	<36%>
	What moves Ajax thus to bay at him?
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 14><ACT 2><SCENE 3><35%>
<NESTOR>	<36%>
	Who, Thersites?
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 15><ACT 2><SCENE 3><35%>
<NESTOR>	<36%>
	Then will Ajax lack matter, if he have lost his argument.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 16><ACT 2><SCENE 3><35%>
<NESTOR>	<36%>
	All the better; their fraction is more our wish than their faction: but it was a strong composure a fool could disunite.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 17><ACT 2><SCENE 3><35%>
<NESTOR>	<36%>
	No Achilles with him.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 18><ACT 2><SCENE 3><36%>
<NESTOR>	<37%>
<STAGE DIR>
<Aside.>
</STAGE DIR> Yet he loves himself: is't not strange?

</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 19><ACT 2><SCENE 3><38%>
<NESTOR>	<39%>
<STAGE DIR>
<Aside.>
</STAGE DIR> O! this is well; he rubs the vein of him.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 20><ACT 2><SCENE 3><38%>
<NESTOR>	<39%>
<STAGE DIR>
<Aside.>
</STAGE DIR> How he describes himself!
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 21><ACT 2><SCENE 3><38%>
<NESTOR>	<39%>
<STAGE DIR>
<Aside.>
</STAGE DIR> An't would, you'd carry half.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 22><ACT 2><SCENE 3><38%>
<NESTOR>	<39%>
<STAGE DIR>
<Aside.>
</STAGE DIR> He's not yet through warm: force him with praises: pour in, pour in; his ambition is dry.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 23><ACT 2><SCENE 3><39%>
<NESTOR>	<39%>
	Our noble general, do not do so.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 24><ACT 2><SCENE 3><39%>
<NESTOR>	<40%>
	Wherefore should you so?
	He is not emulous, as Achilles is.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 25><ACT 2><SCENE 3><39%>
<NESTOR>	<40%>
	What a vice were it in Ajax now,—
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 26><ACT 3><SCENE 3><52%>
<NESTOR>	<53%>
	Would you, my lord, aught with the general?
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 27><ACT 3><SCENE 3><52%>
<NESTOR>	<53%>
	Nothing, my lord.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 28><ACT 4><SCENE 5><70%>
<NESTOR>	<71%>
	Our general doth salute you with a kiss.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 29><ACT 4><SCENE 5><70%>
<NESTOR>	<71%>
	And very courtly counsel: I'll begin.
	So much for Nestor.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 30><ACT 4><SCENE 5><71%>
<NESTOR>	<72%>
	A woman of quick sense.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 31><ACT 4><SCENE 5><73%>
<NESTOR>	<74%>
	Now, Ajax, hold thine own!
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 32><ACT 4><SCENE 5><75%>
<NESTOR>	<76%>
	I have, thou gallant Trojan, seen thee oft,
	Labouring for destiny, make cruel way
	Through ranks of Greekish youth: and I have seen thee,
	As hot as Perseus, spur thy Phrygian steed,
	Despising many forfeits and subduements,
	When thou hast hung thy advanc'd sword i' th' air,
	Not letting it decline on the declin'd;
	That I have said to some my standers-by,
	'Lo! Jupiter is yonder, dealing life!'
	And I have seen thee pause and take thy breath,
	When that a ring of Greeks have hemm'd thee in,
	Like an Olympian wrestling: this have I seen;
	But this thy countenance, still lock'd in steel,
	I never saw till now. I knew thy grandsire,
	And once fought with him: he was a soldier good;
	But, by great Mars, the captain of us all,
	Never like thee. Let an old man embrace thee;
	And, worthy warrior, welcome to our tents.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 33><ACT 4><SCENE 5><76%>
<NESTOR>	<76%>
	I would my arms could match thee in contention,
	As they contend with thee in courtesy.
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 34><ACT 4><SCENE 5><76%>
<NESTOR>	<77%>
	Ha!
	By this white beard, I'd fight with thee to-morrow.
	Well, welcome, welcome! I have seen the time.—
</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 35><ACT 5><SCENE 5><93%>
<NESTOR>	<94%>
	Go, bear Patroclus' body to Achilles;
	And bid the snail-pac'd Ajax arm for shame.
	There is a thousand Hectors in the field:
	Now here he fights on Galathe his horse,
	And there lacks work; anon he's there afoot,
	And there they fly or die, like scaled sculls
	Before the belching whale; then is he yonder,
	And there the strawy Greeks, ripe for his edge,
	Fall down before him, like the mower's swath:
	Here, there, and everywhere, he leaves and takes,
	Dexterity so obeying appetite
	That what he will he does; and does so much
	That proof is called impossibility.

</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 36><ACT 5><SCENE 5><94%>
<NESTOR>	<95%>
	So, so, we draw together.

</NESTOR>

<SPEECH 37><ACT 5><SCENE 9><98%>
<NESTOR>	<98%>
	Peace, drums!
<STAGE DIR>
<Within.>
</STAGE DIR> Achilles!
	Achilles! Hector's slain! Achilles!
</NESTOR>

