ABSTRACT
Agamemnon's 'protractive [military] trials' (I.iii.20) are recalled in his own speech's 'protractive' rhetorical 'trials'. Recurrent victims of confusion, Greek leaders clumsily utter (like Dull, Quince, Dogberry, the Hostess, Shallow or Elbow) the opposite of their apparent intentions: 'Bias and thwart, not answering the aim' (I.iii.15). In turn, the dotard Nestor damns his monarch's oration with loud praise.
