Thou subject-eating king! Base spirits thou govern’st, or this wrong had been the last foul thing Thou ever author’dst; yet I vow, and by a great oath swear, Ev’n by this sceptre, that, as this never again shall bear[2] Green leaves or branches, nor increase with any growth his size, Nor did since first it left the hills, and had his faculties And ornaments bereft with iron; which now to other end Judges of Greece bear, and their laws, receiv’d from Jove, defend; (For which my oath to thee is great); so, whensoever need Shall burn with thirst of me thy host, no pray’rs shall ever breed Affection in me to their aid, though well-deserved woes Afflict thee for them, when to death man-slaught’ring Hector throws Whole troops of them, and thou torment’st thy vex’d mind with conceit Of thy rude rage now, and his wrong that most deserv’d the right Of all thy army.” Thus, he threw his sceptre ’gainst the ground, With golden studs stuck, and took seat. Atrides’ breast was drown’d In rising choler. Up to both sweet-spoken Nestor stood, The cunning Pylian orator, whose tongue pour’d forth a flood Of more-than-honey-sweet discourse; two ages were increas’d Of divers-languag’d men, all born in his time and deceas’d, In sacred Pylos, where he reign’d amongst the third-ag’d men He, well-seen in the world, advis’d, and thus express’d it then: “O Gods! Our Greek earth will be drown’d in just tears; rapeful Troy, Her king, and all his sons, will make as just a mock, and joy, Of these disjunctions; if of you, that all our host excel In counsel and in skill of fight, they hear this. Come, repel These young men’s passions. Y’ are not both, put both your years in one, So old as I. I liv’d long since, and was companion With men superior to you both, who yet would ever hear My counsels with respect. My eyes yet never witness were, Nor ever will be, of such men as then delighted them; Pirithous, Exadius, and god-like Polypheme, Cæneus, and Dryas prince of men, Ægean Theseüs, A man like heav’n’s immortals form’d; all, all most vigorous, Of all men that ev’n those days: bred; most vig’rous men, and fought With beasts most vig’rous, mountain beasts, (for men in strength were nought Match’d with their forces) fought with them, and bravely fought them down Yet ev’n with these men I convers’d, being call’d to the renown Of their societies, by their suits, from Pylos far, to fight In th’ Apian kingdom; and I fought, to a degree of might That help’d ev’n their mights, against such as no man now would dare To meet in conflict; yet ev’n these my counsels still would hear, And with obedience crown my words. Give you such palm to them; ’Tis better than to wreath your wraths. Atrides, give not stream To all thy pow’r, nor force his prise, but yield her still his own, As all men else do. Nor do thou encounter with thy crown, Great son of Peleus, since no king that ever Jove allow’d Grace of a sceptre equals him. Suppose thy nerves endow’d