Be not thou bent to see our plights to these extremes descend, Ere thou assist us; be not so by thy ill angel turn’d From thine own honour. It were shame to see our navy burn’d, And then come with thy timeless aid. For offer’d presents, come, And all the Greeks will honour thee, as of celestial room. But if without these gifts thou fight, forc’d by thy private woe, Thou wilt be nothing so renown’d, though thou repel the foe.” Achilles answer’d the last part of this oration thus: “Phœnix, renown’d and reverend, the honours urg’d on us We need not, Jove doth honour me, and to my safety sees, And will, whiles I retain a spirit, or can command my knees. Then do not thou with tears and woes impassion my affects, Becoming gracious to my foe. Nor fits it the respects Of thy vow’d love to honour him that hath dishonour’d me, Lest such loose kindness lose his heart that yet is firm to thee. It were thy praise to hurt with me the hurter of my state, Since half my honour and my realm thou mayst participate. Let these lords then return th’ event, and do thou here repose, And, when dark sleep breaks with the day, our counsels shall disclose The course of our return or stay.” This said, he with his eye Made to his friend a covert sign, to hasten instantly A good soft bed, that the old prince, soon as the peers were gone, Might take his rest; when, soldier-like, brave Ajax Telamon Spake to Ulysses, as with thought Achilles was not worth The high direction of his speech, that stood so sternly forth Unmov’d with th’ other orators, and spake, not to appease Pelides’ wrath, but to depart. His arguments were these: “High-issu’d Laertiades, let us insist no more On his persuasion. I perceive the world would end before Our speeches end in this affair. We must with utmost haste Return his answer, though but bad. The peers are elsewhere plac’d, And will not rise till we return. Great Thetis’ son hath stor’d Proud wrath within him, as his wealth, and will not be implor’d, Rude that he is, nor his friends’ love respects, do what they can, Wherein past all, we honour’d him. O unremorseful man! Another for his brother slain, another for his son, Accepts of satisfaction; and he the deed hath done Lives in belov’d society long after his amends, To which his foe’s high heart, for gifts, with patience condescends; But thee a wild and cruel spirit the Gods for plague have giv’n, And for one girl, of whose fair sex we come to offer sev’n, The most exempt for excellence, and many a better prise. Then put a sweet mind in thy breast, respect thy own allies, Though others make thee not remiss. A multitude we are, Sprung of thy royal family, and our supremest care Is to be most familiar, and hold most love with thee Of all the Greeks, how great an host soever here there be.” He answer’d: “Noble Telamon, prince of our soldiers here, Out of thy heart I know thou speak’st, and as thou hold’st me dear; But still as often as I think, how rudely I was us’d,