He brought a Grecian queen, whofe youth and freshness
Wrinkles Apollo's, and makes pale the morning.
Why keep we her? the Grecians keep our aunt:
Is the worth keeping? why, fhe is a pearl,
Whose price hath launch'd above a thousand ships,
And turn'd crown'd kings to merchants.

If you'll avouch, 'twas wisdom Paris went,
(As you must needs, for you all cry'd-Go, go)
If you'll confefs, he brought home noble prize,
(As you must needs, for you all clapp'd your hands,
And cry'd-Ineftimable!) why do you now
The iffue of your proper wifdoms' rate;
And do a deed that fortune never did,
Beggar the estimation which you priz'd
Richer than fea and land? O theft most base;
That we have stolen what we do fear to keep!
'Base thieves, unworthy of a thing so stolen,
That 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 fifter, I do know her voice.
Caf. [within] Cry, Trojans !

Helt. It is Caffandra.

Enter Caffandra, raving.

Caf. Cry, Trojans, cry! lend me ten thousand eyes, And I will fill them with prophetic tears.

Het. Peace, fifter, peace.

Caf. Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled elders, Soft infancy, that nothing can'ft but cry,

irate ;]-censure.

* Beggar the estimation]-Withdraw your favourable opinion from one, whom fortune hath never dealt unkindly by, nor hitherto fhewn eyen a fingle flight.

But.

Add

Add to my clamours! let us pay betimes.
A moiety of that mafs of moan to come.
Cry, Trojans, cry! practife your eyes with tears!
Troy must not be, nor goodly Ilion ftand!

m

Our fire-brand brother, Paris, burns us all.
Cry, Trojans, cry! a Helen, and a woe :

Cry, cry! Troy burns, or elfe let Helen go.

[Exit. Hect. Now, youthful Troilus, do not these high strains Of divination in our fifter work

Some touches of remorfe? or is

your blood

So madly hot, that no difcourfe 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,
Because Caffandra's mad; her brain-fick raptures
Cannot distaste the goodness of a quarrel,

n

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 would offend the weakest spleen
To fight for and maintain !

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

mfire-brand brother,]-alluding to Hecuba's dream, when with child

of Paris, that he was delivered of a fire brand, which was conftrued to forebode the deftruction of Troy through his means.

n

diftafte]-impair.

touch'd]-affected.

Pthe weakest Spleen]-the moft fcrupulous delicacy. 9 propenfion]-inclination.

All

!

All fears attending on fo dire a project.
For what, alas, can thefe my fingle arms?
What' propugnation is in one man's valour,
To ftand the push 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 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 fuch 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 ranfack'd queen,
Difgrace to your great worths, and fhame to me,
Now to deliver her poffeffion up,

On terms of bafe compulfion? can it be,

t

That so degenerate a strain as this,

Should once fet footing in your generous bofoms?
There's not the meaneft fpirit on our party,

Without a heart to dare, or fword to draw,
When Helen is defended; nor none fo noble,
Whofe life were ill bestow'd, or death unfam'd,
Where Helen is the fubject: then, I fay,

Well may we fight for her, whom, we know well,
The world's large spaces cannot parallel.

Helt. Paris, and Troilus, you have both faid well;
And on the caufe and question now in hand

propugnation]-defence.

a frain]-a fentiment.

to pass]-to fuftain.

Have "gloz'd, but fuperficially; not much
Unlike young men, whom Ariftotle thought
Unfit to hear moral philofophy:

The reasons, you alledge, do more conduce
To the hot paffion of diftemper'd blood,

Than to make

W

up w 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 those raging appetites that are
Most disobedient and refractory.
If Helen then be wife to Sparta's king,
As it is known fhe is,-thefe 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
Is this, in way of truth: yet, ne'ertheless,

My sprightly brethren, I propend to you

In refolution, to keep Helen ftill;

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 defign: Were it not glory that we more affected

in way of truth:]-in point of ftrict juftice; yet, when viewed as a queftion of honour, Iconcur with you that vote for keeping Helen.

Than

That 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 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 lose
So rich advantage of a promis'd glory,
As fmiles upon the forehead of this action,
For the wide world's revenue.

Helt. I am yours,

You valiant offspring of great Priamus.-
I have a roifting challenge fent amongst
The dull and factious nobles of the Greeks,
Will ftrike amazement to their drowzy fpirits:
I was advertis'd, their great general flept,

How now, Therfites? 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

the performance of our beaving spleens,]-the gratification of our refentment. ba roifting]-a bluftering.

emulation]-fedition, difcord.

fee