“That Philoctetes is on Lemnos left, Wounded, forlorn, of human aid bereft, Is not my crime, or not my crime alone; Defend your justice, for the fact’s your own: ’Tis true, the advice was mine; that staying there He might his weary limbs with rest repair, From a long voyage free, and from a long war. He took the counsel, and he lives at least; The event declares I counsell’d for the best: Though faith is all in ministers of state; For who can promise to be fortunate? Now since his arrows are the fate of Troy, Do not my wit, or weak address employ: Send Ajax there, with his persuasive sense, To mollify the man, and draw him thence: But Xanthus shall run backward; Ida stand A leafless mountain; and the Grecian band Shall fight for Troy; if, when my counsel fail, The wit of heavy Ajax shall prevail.
“Hard Philoctetes, exercise thy spleen Against thy fellows, and the king of men; Curse my devoted head above the rest, And wish in arms to meet rue breast to breast: Yet I the dangerous task will undertake, And either die myself, or bring thee back.
“Nor doubt the same success, as when before The Phrygian prophet to these tents I bore, Surprised by night, and forced him to declare In what was placed the fortune of the war, Heaven’s dark decrees, and answers to display, And how to take the town, and where the secret lay: Yet this I compass’d, and from Troy convey’d The fatal image of their guardian maid: That work was mine; for Pallas, though our friend, Yet while she was in Troy, did Troy defend. Now what has Ajax done, or what design’d? A noisy nothing, and an empty wind. If he be what he promises in show, Why was I sent, and why fear’d he to go? Our boasting champion thought the task not light To pass the guards, commit himself to night; Not only through a hostile town to pass, But scale, with steep ascent, the sacred place; With wandering steps to search the citadel, And from the priests their patroness to steal: Then through surrounding foes to force my way, And bear in triumph home the heavenly prey; Which had I not, Ajax in vain had held, Before that monstrous bulk his sevenfold shield.
“Why point’st thou to my partner of the war? Tydides had indeed a worthy share In all my toil and praise; but when thy might Our ships protected, didst thou singly fight? All join’d, and thou of many wert but one: I ask’d no friend, nor had, but him alone: Who had he not been well assured, that art And conduct were of war the better part, And more avail’d than strength, my valiant friend Had urged a better right than Ajax can pretend: As good at least Eurypylus may claim, And the more moderate Ajax of the name: The Cretan king, and his brave charioteer, And Menelaus bold with sword and spear: All these had been my rivals in the shield, And yet all these to my pretensions yield. Thy boisterous hands are then of use, when I With this directing head those hands apply. Brawn without brain is thine: my prudent care Foresees, provides, administers the war. Thy province is to fight; but when shall be The time to fight, the king consults with me: No dram of judgment with thy force is join’d: Thy body is of profit, and my mind.
By how much more the ship her safety owes To him who steers, than him that only rows; By how much more the captain merits praise, Than he who fights, and fighting but obeys; By so much greater is my worth than thine, Who canst but execute what I design. What gain’st thou brutal man, if I confess Thy strength superior, when thy wit is less? Mind is the man: I claim my whole desert, From the mind’s vigour, and the immortal part.
That night to conquer Troy I might be said, When Troy was liable to conquest made.