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CH.
Menelaues, make not thy philosophy
A platform whence to insult the valiant dead.

TEU.
I nevermore will marvel, sirs, when one
Of humblest parentage is prone to sin,
Since those reputed men of noble strain
Stoop to such phrase of prating frowardness.
Come, tell it o’er again,–said you ye brought
My brother bound to aid you with his power?
Sailed he not forth of his own sovereign will?
Where is thy voucher of command o’er him?
Where of thy right o’er those that followed him?
Sparta, not we, shall buckle to thy sway.
‘Twas written nowhere in the bond of rule
That thou shouldst check him rather than he thee.
Thou sailedst under orders, not in charge
Of all, much less of Aias. Then pursue
Thy limited direction, and chastise,
In haughty phrase, the men who fear thy nod.
But I will bury Aias, whether thou
Or the other general give consent or no.
‘Tis not for me to tremble at your word.
Not to reclaim thy wife, like those poor souls
Thou flll’st with labour, issued this man forth,
But caring for his oath, and not for thee,
Or any other nobody. Then come
With heralds all arow, and bring the man
Called king of men with thee! For thy sole noise
I budge not, wert thou twenty times thy name.

CH.
The sufferer should not bear a bitter tongue.
Hard words, how just soe’er, will leave their sting.

MEN.
Our bowman carries no small pride, I see.

TEU.
No mere mechanic’s menial craft is mine.

MEN.
How wouldst thou vaunt it hadst thou but a shield!

TEU.
Unarmed I fear not thee in panoply.

MEN.
Redoubted is the wrath lives on thy tongue.

TEU.
Whose cause is just hath licence to be proud.

MEN.
Just, that my murderer have a peaceful end?

TEU.
Thy murderer? Strange, to have been slain and live!

MEN.
Yea, through Heaven’s mercy. By his will, I am dead.

TEU.
If Heaven have saved thee, give the Gods their due.

MEN.
Am I the man to spurn at Heaven’s command?

TEU.
Thou dost, to come and frustrate burial.

MEN.
Honour forbids to yield my foe a tomb.

TEU.
And Aias was thy foeman? Where and when?

MEN.
Hate lived between us; that thou know’st full well.

TEU.
For thy proved knavery, coining votes i’ the court

MEN.
The judges voted. He ne’er lost through me.

TEU.
Guilt hiding guile wears often fairest front.

MEN.
I know whom pain shall harass for that word.

TEU.
Not without giving equal pain, ’tis clear.

MEN.
No more, but this. No burial for this man!

TEU.
Yea, this much more. He shall have instant burial.

MEN.
I have seen ere now a man of doughty tongue
Urge sailors in foul weather to unmoor,
Who, caught in the sea-misery by and by,
Lay voiceless, muffled in his cloak, and suffered
Who would of the sailors over trample him
Even so methinks thy truculent mouth ere long
Shall quench its outcry, when this little cloud
Breaks forth on thee with the full tempest’s might.