_Ach._ Beardless—and smooth of face as tongue: In voice Gentle, but sturdy of body: ruddy locks, And restless eye .. Ulysses!
_Ach._ I knew that thou wert here, but looked to meet thee1075 Without disguises, as an honest man.
_Ul._ Thou needest a mirror, lady, for thyself.
_Ach._ (_suddenly casts off his long robe and appears in shining armour, still holding the sword_).
_Ul._ If I be not, ’Tis shame to thee, the cause of my disguise.
_Ach._ I own thee not. I knew thee for a prince, But seeing thee so vilely disfigured...
_Ul._ Stay! 1081 We both have used disguise: I call for judgment Upon the motive. Mine I donned for valour, And care for thy renown; thine was for fear.
_Ach._ Fear! By the gods: take up thy beard again, And thy mock dotage shield thee.
_Ul._ Nay, Achilles; If I spake wrong I will recall the word.
_Ach._ Thou didst unutterably lie. Recall it.
_Ul._ Wilt thou then sail to Aulis in my ship?
_Ach._ I can sail thither and not sail with thee.
_Ach._ I answer not to thee Because thou questionest me: but since I know What will be, and hear thee in ignorance Slander fair names, I tell thee that Achilles Will come to Aulis.
_Ul._ Wherefore now so long 1095 Hast thou denied thyself to thy renown?
_Ach._ Thou saidst for fear; nor hast recalled the word.
_Ul._ ’Twas first thy taunt which drew my mind from me: But, if it wrong thee, I recall the word.
_Ach._ I think thou hast judged me by thyself, Ulysses. When thou wast summoned to the war,—who wert Not free to choose as I, but bound by oath To Menelaus to help him,—what didst thou? Why thou didst feign; and looking for disguise Thy wit persuaded thee that they who knew thee Would never deem that thou wouldst willingly Make mock of that: so thou didst put on madness, Babbling and scrabbling even before thy friends: And hadst been slavering on thy native rocks Unto this day, had not one fellow there 1110 Lightly unravelled thee, and in the furrow, Which thou with dumb delusion, morn and eve, Didst plough in the sea sand (that was thy trick), He placed thy new-born babe. That thou brok’st down Then in thine acting, that thou drav’st not on The share thro’ thine own flesh, is the best praise I have to give thee.
_Ul._ Distinguish! if I feigned, ’Twas that I had a child and wife, whose ties Of tenderness I am not ashamed to own.