TROILUS & CRESSIDA. William Shakespeare

       Why ‘tis this naming of him does him harm.

       Here is a man-but ‘tis before his face;

       I will be silent.

       NESTOR.

       Wherefore should you so?

       He is not emulous, as Achilles is.

       ULYSSES.

       Know the whole world, he is as valiant.

       AJAX.

       A whoreson dog, that shall palter with us thus!

       Would he were a Troyan!

       NESTOR.

       What a vice were it in Ajax now—

       ULYSSES.

       If he were proud.

       DIOMEDES.

       Or covetous of praise.

       ULYSSES.

       Ay, or surly borne.

       DIOMEDES.

       Or strange, or self-affected.

       ULYSSES.

       Thank the heavens, lord, thou art of sweet composure

       Praise him that gat thee, she that gave thee suck;

       Fam’d be thy tutor, and thy parts of nature

       Thrice-fam’d beyond, beyond all erudition;

       But he that disciplin’d thine arms to fight—

       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

       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 temper’d,

       You should not have the eminence of him,

       But be as Ajax.

       AJAX.

       Shall I call you father?

       NESTOR.

       Ay, my good son.

       DIOMEDES.

       Be rul’d by him, Lord Ajax.

       ULYSSES.

       There is no tarrying here; the hart Achilles

       Keeps thicket. Please it our great general

       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.

       AGAMEMNON.

       Go we to council. Let Achilles sleep.

       Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks draw deep.

       [Exeunt.]