Troilus and Cressida (Quarto 1, 1609)
Peer Reviewed
The history
¶But by degree stand in authentique place:
¶Take but degree away, vntune that string,
¶And harke what discord followes, each thing melts
570In meere oppugnancie: the bounded waters
¶Strength should be Lord of imbecilitie,
575Force should be right or rather right and wrong,
¶Then euery thing include it selfe in power,
¶Power into will, will into appetite,
580And appetite an vniuersall Woolfe,
¶(So doubly seconded with will and power)
¶Great Agamemnon,
585This chaos when degree is suffocate,
¶Followes the choaking,
¶And this neglection of degree it is,
¶That by a pace goes backward with a purpose
¶It hath to clime. The generalls disdaind,
590By him one step below, he by the next,
¶Of his superior, growes to an enuious feauer
595And 'tis this feauer that keepes Troy on foote,
¶Not her owne sinnews. To end a tale of length,
¶The feuer whereof all our power is sick.
¶What is the remedie?
¶Ulisses. The great Achilles whom opinion crownes,
¶Hauing his eare full of his ayrie fame,
Growes
