Caf. [within.] Cry, Trojans!
Heft. It is Caffandra.
Enter Caffandra, raving.
Caf. Cry, Trojans, cry! lend me ten thousand eyes, And I will fill them with prophetic tears. Heft. Peace, fifter, peace.
Caf. Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled elders,
Soft infancy, that nothing canft but cry,
Add to my clamours! let us pay betimes
A moiety of that mass of moan to come.
Cry, Trojans, cry! practise your eyes with tears;
Troy muft not be, nor goodly Ilion stand;
Our fire-brand brother, Paris, burns us all.
Cry, Trojans, cry! a Helen and a woe;
Cry, cry! Troy burns, or else let Helen go. (Exit.
Helt. Now, youthful Troilus, do not these high
Of divination in our fister work
Some touches of remorse? Or is your blood
So madly hot that no difcourse of reafon,
Nor fear of bad fuccess in a bad cause,
Can qualify the fame?
Troi. Why, brother Hector,
* We may not think the justness of each act
Such and no other than event doth form it;
Nor once deject the courage of our minds,
Because Caffandra's mad; her brain-fick raptures
Cannot 2 distaste the goodness of a quarrel,
Which hath our feveral honours all engag'd
To make it gracious. For my private part
I am no more touch'd than all Priam's fons ;
And Jove forbid there should be done amongst us
Such things, as would offend the weakest spleen
To fight for and maintain !
- distaste-] Corrupt; change to a worse state. JOHNS.
Par. Elfe might the world convince of levity
As well my undertakings, as your counsels :
But I atteft the gods, your full confent
Gave wings to my propenfion, and cut off
All fears attending on so dire a project.
For what, alas, can these my single arms ?
What propugnation is in one man's valour,
To stand the push and enmity of those
This quarrel would excite? Yet, I proteft,
Were I alone to pass the difficulties,
And had as ample power, as I have will,
Paris should ne'er retract what he hath done,
Nor faint in the pursuit.
Like one befotted on your sweet delights :
You have the honey still, but these the gall;
So, to be valiant, is no praise at all.
Par. Sir, I propose not merely to myself
The pleasures such a beauty brings with it;
But I would have the foil of her fair rape
Wip'd off, in honourable keeping her.
What treason were it to the ransack'd queen,
Disgrace to your great worths, and shame to me,
Now to deliver her possession up,
On terms of base compulsion ? can it be,
That fo degenerate a strain as this,
Should once fet footing in your generous bosoms ?
There's not the meanest spirit on our party,
Without a heart to dare, or fword to draw,
When Helen is defended; nor none so noble,
Whose life were ill bestow'd, or death unfam'd,
Where Helen is the subject. Then, I fay,
Well may we fight for her, whom, we know well,
The world's large spaces cannot parallel.
Heft. Paris and Troilus, you have both faid well;
And on the cause and question now in hand
Have gloz'd, but fuperficially; not much
Unlike young men, whom Ariftotle thought
Unfit to hear moral philosophy.
The reasons you alledge do more conduce
To the hot paffion of distemper'd blood
Than to make up a free determination
'Twixt right and wrong; for pleasure and revenge
Have ears more deaf than adders to the voice
Of any true decision. Nature craves
All dues be render'd to their owners; now
What nearer debt in all humanity,
Than wife is to the husband? If this law
Of nature be corrupted through affection,
And that great minds, of partial indulgence
To their 3 benummed wills, refift the fame,
4 There is a law in each well-ordered nation
To curb those raging appetites that are
Moft disobedient and refractory.
If Helen then be wife to Sparta's king-
As it is known she is these moral laws
Of nature, and of nations, speak aloud
To have her back return'd:-thus to perfift
In doing wrong, extenuates not wrong,
But makes it much more heavy. Hector's opinion
5 Is this in way of truth; yet ne'ertheless,
My fprightly brethren, I propend to you
In resolution to keep Helen still;
For 'tis a cause that hath no mean dependance
Upon our joint and feveral dignities.
Troi. Why, there you touch'd the life of our design:
Were it not glory that we more affected
benummed wills, -) That is, inflexible, immoveable, no longer obedient to superior direction. JOHNSON. + There is a law) What the law does in every nation between individuals, justice ought to do between nations.
$ Is this in way of truth;] Though confidering truth and juflice in this question, this is my opinion; yet as a question of honour, I think on it as you. JOHNSON.
Than the performance of our heaving spleens,
I would not wish a drop of Trojan blood
Spent more in her defence. But, worthy Hector,
She is a theme of honour and renown;
A spur to valiant and magnanimous deeds;
Whose present courage may beat down our foes,
And fame, in time to come, canonize us.
For, I prefume, brave Hector would not lose
So rich advantage of a promis'd glory,
As smiles upon the forehead of this action,
For the wide world's revenue,
You valiant offspring of great Priamus.
I have a roifting challenge fent amongst
The dull and factious nobles of the Greeks,
Will strike amazement to their drowsy spirits.
I was advertis'd their great general flept,
Whilft 7 emulation in the army crept;
This, I prefume, will wake him.
SCENE
Achilles tent.
Enter Therfites.
How now, Thersites? what, loft in the labyrinth of thy fury? Shall the elephant Ajax carry it thus? he beats me, and I rail at him. O worthy fatisfaction! 'would it were otherwise, that I could beat him, whilft he rail'd at me, 'Sfoot, I'll learn to conjure and raise devils, but I'll fee some issue of my fpiteful execrations. Then there's Achilles, a rare engineer. If Troy be not taken till these two undermine it, the walls will stand till they fall of themselves. O thou
- the performance of our beaving spleens,] The execution of spite and resentment. JOHNSON. 1-emulation-] That is, envy, factious contention. JOHNS,
great thunder-darter of Olympus, forget that thou art Jove the king of gods; and, Mercury, lose all the ierpentine craft of thy Caduceus; if thou take. not that little, little, less-than-little wit from them that they have! which short-arm'd ignorance itself knows is so abundant scarce, it will not in circumvention deliver a fly from a spider, & without drawing the maffy iron and cutting the web. After this, the vengeance on the whole camp! or rather the 9 boneache! for that, methinks, is the curse dependant on those that war for a placket. I have faid my prayers, and devil Envy say Amen. What ho! my lord Achilles!
Patr. Who's there? Thersites? Good Thersites, come in and rail.
Ther. If I could have remember'd a gilt counterfeit, thou couldst not have flipp'd out of my contemplation: but it is no matter, Thyself upon thyself! The common curse of mankind, folly and ignorance, be thine in great revenue! heaven bless thee from a tutor, and difcipline come not near thee! Let thy blood be thy direction 'till thy death, then if she, that lays thee out, fays-thou art a fair corse, I'll be fworn and fworn upon't, she never shrowded any but Lazars. Amen. Where's Achilles ?
Patr. What, art thou devout? wast thou in prayer? Ther. Ay; the heavens hear me!
Patr. Thersites, my lord.
- without drawing the massy irons-) That is, without drawing their fowords to cut the web. They use no means but those of violence. JOHNSON.
- the bone-ache!) In the quarto, the Neapolitan bone
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