Beguile the mind Of Philoctetes by thy wily words. When he asks who thou art, and whence, reply Achilles' son; no lie is needed here. But say thou'rt sailing homeward, having left The Achaean host in mortal enmity, Since, when their prayers had drawn thee from thy home, They having no hope else of taking Troy, They did refuse the arms Achilles bore To the right heir, when he demanded them, And gave them to Ulysses, heaping all The foul reproaches that thou wilt on me, For they'll not hurt me. If thou dost this not, Thou wilt bring woe on the whole Argive host, For if we fail yon archer's bow to win, Thou ne'er shalt conquer the Dardanian land. That thou canst safely and with confidence Approach him, while I cannot, this will prove: Thou didst not sail constrained by any oath, Nor by compulsion, nor in the first fleet; But I can nothing of all this deny. Me if, still master of his arms, he sees, I am undone, and shall undo thee too. Thy task, then, is out of his hands to steal By subtlety, the unconquerable bow. Well do I know thy nature is not formed For falsehood, nor for treacherous device, But still success is sweet; stretch but a point, To-morrow we'll return to righteousness. For a small part of one brief day consent To play the knave, then to the end of life Be virtue's paragon and cynosure. NEOPTOLEMUS. Son of Laertes, what my ears abhor To hear, my hand abhors to execute. So was it, as they tell me, with my sire. To take the man by force and not by guile I am prepared: he is alone and lame, While we are many: he would strive in vain. Commissioned as I am to second thee, I must be loyal, but would rather lose With honour, than dishonourably win. ULYSSES. Son of a glorious sire, myself in youth Was ready with my hand, and slow of tongue. Experience has taught me that the tongue Is a man's leading member, not his hand. NEOPTOLEMUS. What is it thou dost bid me do but lie? ULYSSES. I bid thee Philoctetes circumvent. NEOPTOLEMUS. Will not persuasion work as well as guile? ULYSSES. He will not yield, and force him thou canst not. NEOPTOLEMUS. Has he such might as to defy us all? ULYSSES. He has the unerring arrows winged with death. NEOPTOLEMUS. Is it not safe e'en to encounter him? ULYSSES. Only if thou canst snare him as I say. NEOPTOLEMUS. Seems it not shameful to thee thus to lie? ULYSSES. No, if the lie alone can do our work. NEOPTOLEMUS. How look him in the face and say such things? ULYSSES. With gain in view our scruples must give way. NEOPTOLEMUS. Suppose him brought to Troy, what gain to me? ULYSSES. Troy can be taken only by his bow. NEOPTOLEMUS. I, then, am not to be her conqueror. ULYSSES. Not by thyself, nor without thee the bow. NEOPTOLEMUS. If so it be, the bow must be secured. ULYSSES. Secure it and a double meed is thine. NEOPTOLEMUS. Prove this to me, and I will do thy will. ULYSSES. Thou wilt be hailed at once as wise and brave. NEOPTOLEMUS.