Hect. But value dwells not in particular will;
It holds its estimate and dignity
As well wherein 'tis precious of itself,
As in the prizer: 'tis mad idolatry,
To make the fervice greater than the God;
And the Will dotes, that is inclinable
To what infectiously itself affects,
Without fome image of th' affected merit.
Troi. I take to-day a wife, and my election
Is led on in the conduct of my will;
My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears,
Two traded pilots 'twixt the dangerous fhores
Of Will and Judgment; how may I avoid
(Although my Will diftafte what is elected)
The wife I chufe there can be no evafion
To blench from this, and to stand firm by honour.
We turn not back the filks upon the merchant,
When we have spoil'd thein; nor th' remainder viands
'We do not throw in unrefpective place,
Because we now are full. It was thought meet,
Paris fhould do fome vengeance on the Greeks:
Your breath of full confent bellied his fails;
The feas and winds (old wranglers) took a truce,
And did him fervice: he touch'd the Ports defir'd ;
And, for an old aunt, whom the Greeks held captive,
He brought a Grecian Queen, whose youth and freshness
Wrinkles Apollo's, and makes ftale the morning.
Why keep we her? the Grecians keep our aunt:
Is fhe worth keeping? why, fhe is a pearl,
Whofe price hath lanch'd above a thousand ships,
And turn'd crown'd Kings to merchants-
If you'll avouch, 'twas wisdom Paris went,
(As you muft needs, for you all cry'd, go, go :)
If you'll confefs, he brought home noble prize,
(As muft needs, for all clap'd your hands,
And cry'd, ineftimable !) why do you now
The iffue of your proper wisdoms rate,
And do a deed that fortune never did,
Beggar that eftimation which you priz'd
Richer than fea and land? O theft moft bafe!
That we have ftoll'n what we do fear to keep!
But thieves, unworthy of a thing fo ftoll'n,
Who in their country did them that difgrace,
We fear to warrant in our native place!
Caf. [within.] Cry, Trojans, cry!
Pri. What noife? what fhriek is this?
Troi. 'Tis our mad fister, I do know her voice.
Caf. [within.] Cry, Trojans !
Enter Caffandra, with her hair about her ears.
Caf. Cry, Trojans, cry; lend me ten thousand eyes, And I will fill them with prophetick tears.
Hect. Peace, fifter, peace.
Caf. Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled old, Soft infancy, that nothing can but cry, Add to my clamour! let us pay betimes A moiety of that mafs of moan to come: Cry, Trojans, cry; practife your eyes with tears. Troy muft not be, nor goodly Ilion stand: Out fire-brand brother, Paris, burns us all. Cry, Trojans, cry! a Helen and a woe; Cry, cry, Trop burns, or elfe let Helen go.
Het. Now, youthful Troilus, do not thefe high trains
Of Divination in our fifter work
Some touches of remorfe? Or is your blood
So madly hot, that no difcourse of reason,
Nor fear of bad fuccefs in a bad cause,
Can qualify the fame ?
Troi. Why, brother Hector,
We may not think the juftnefs of each act
Such and no other than event doth form it;
Nor once deject the courage of our minds,
Becaufe Caffandra's mad; her brain-fick raptures
Cannot diftaste 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 fhould be done amongst us.
Such things, as might offend the weakeft fpleen
To fight for and maintain.
Par. Elfe might the world convince of levity
As well my undertakings, as your counfels :
But I atteft the Gods, your full confent
Gave wings to my propenfion, and cut off
All fears attending on fo dire a project.
For what, alas, can these my fingle arms?
What propugnation is in one man's valour,
To ftand the pufh and enmity of those
This quarrel would excite? yet I protest,
Were I alone to pass the difficulties,
And had as ample Power, as I have Will,
Paris fhould ne'er retract what he hath done,
Nor faint in the purfuit.
Pri. Paris, you speak
Like one befotted on your fweet delights;
You have the honey ftill, but these the gall;
So, to be valiant, is no praise at all.
Par. Sir, I propose not merely to myself
The pleasures fuch a Beauty brings with it:
But I would have the foil of her fair rape
Wip'd off, in honourable keeping her.
What treafon were it to the ranfack'd Queen,
Difgrace to your great worths, and fhame to me,
Now to deliver her poffeffion up,
On terms of base compulfion? can it be,
That fo degenerate a strain, as this,
Should once fet footing in your generous bofoms?
There's not the meanest spirit on our party,
Without a heart to dare, or fword to draw,
When Helen is defended: none fo noble,
Whofe life were ill bestow'd, or death unfam'd,
When Helen is the subject. Then, I fay,
Well may we fight for her, whom, we know well,
The world's large fpaces cannot parallel.
Hect. Paris and Troilus, you have both faid well: (11)
(11) Paris and Troilus, you have both faid well;
And on the Cause and Question now in band
Have glofs'd, but fuperficially.] I can never think that the Poet
But 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 philofophy.
The reafons, you alledge, do more conduce
To the hot paffion of diftemper'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 decifion. 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 benummed wills, refift the fame;
There is a law in each well-order'd nation,
To curb thofe raging appetites that are
Moft difobedient and refractory.
If Helen then be wife to Sparta's King,
(As, it is known, fhe is) these moral laws
Of Nature, and of Nation, 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
Is this in way of truth; yet ne'ertheless,
My fprightly brethren, I propend to you
In refolution to keep Helen ftill;
For 'tis a caufe that hath no mean dependance
Upon our joint and feveral dignities.
Troi. Why, there you touch'd the life of our defign;
Were it not glory that we more affected
Than the performance of our heaving spleens,
I would not wish a drop of Trojan blood
exprefs'd himself thus: 'Tis abfurd to fay, that People have talked well, and yet but fuperficially at the fame Time. I have ventured to fubftitute a Disjunctive instead of the Copulative, by which we gain this commodious Senfe: "You have argued very well in the general, but have gloz'd too fuperficially upon the particular "Queftion in Debate."
Spent more in her defence. But, worthy Hector,
She is a theam of honour and renown;
A fpur to valiant and magnanimous deeds;
Whose prefent courage may beat down our foes,
And Fame, in time to come, canonize us.
For, I prefume, brave Hector would not lofe
So rich advantage of a promis'd glory,
As fmiles upon the forehead of this action,
For the wide world's revenue.
You valiant off-fpring of great Priamus.
I have a roifting challenge fent amongst
The dull and factious nobles of the Greeks,
Will ftrike amazement to their drowsy spirits.
I was advertis'd, their great General flept,
Whilft emulation in the army crept:
This, I prefume, will wake him.
SCENE, before Achilles's Tent, in the Grecian Camp.
OW now, Therfites? what, loft in the labyrinth of thy fury? fhall the elephant Ajax carry it thus ? he beats me, and I rail at him: O worthy fatisfaction! 'would, it were otherwife; that I could beat him, whilst he rail'd at me: 'sfoot, I'll learn to conjure and raise devils, but I'll fee fome iffue 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 great thunder-darter of Olympus, forget that thou art Jove the King of Gods; and, Mercury, lofe all the ferpentine craft of thy Caduceus, if thou take not that little, little, lefs than little wit from them that they have; which fhort-arm'd ignorance itself knows is fo abundant scarce, it will not in circumvention deliver a fly from a fpider, without drawing the massy irons and cutting the web. After this, the vengeance on the whole camp! or rather the bone-ach, for that, me
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