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Richer than sea and land? O theft most base;
That we have stolen what we do fear to keep!
But, thieves, unworthy of a thing so stolen,
That in their country did them that disgrace,
We fear to warrant in our native place!

Cas. [within] Cry, Trojans, cry!

Pri.

What noise? what shriek is this?

Tro. 'Tis our mad sister, I do know her voice.
Cas. [within] Cry, Trojans!

Hect. It is Cassandra.

Enter CASSANDRA, raving.6

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

Hect. Peace, sister, peace.

Cas. Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled elders," Soft infancy, that nothing canst 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 must not be, nor goodly Ilion stand;3

5 But, thieves,] Sir T. Hanmer reads-Base thieves,

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That did, in the next line, means-that which did. Malone. 6 Enter Cassandra, raving] This circumstance also is from the third Book of Lydgate's Auncient Historie, &c. 1555:

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"This was the noise and the pyteous crye
"Of Cassandra that so dredefully

"She gan to make aboute in euery strete
"Through y towne" &c.

Steevens.

- wrinkled elders,] So the quarto. Folio-wrinkled old. Malone.

Elders, the erroneous reading of the quarto, would seem to have been properly corrected in the copy whence the first folio was printed; but it is a rule with printers, whenever they meet with a strange word in a manuscript, to give the nearest word to it they are acquainted with; a liberty which has been not very sparingly exercised in all the old editions of our author's plays. There cannot be a question that he wrote:

mid-age and wrinkled eld.

So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor:

"The superstitious idle-headed eld."

Again, in Measure for Measure:

"Doth beg the alms of palsied eld." Ritson.

& Troy must not be, nor goodly Ilion stand;] See p. 18, n. 4, and

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.

Hect. Now, youthful Troilus, do not these high strains

Of divination in our sister work

Some touches of remorse? or is your blood
So madly hot, that no discourse of reason,
Nor fear of bad success in a bad cause,

Can qualify the same?

Tro.

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 Cassandra 's mad; her brain-sick raptures
Cannot distaste the goodness of a quarrel,
Which hath our several honours all engag'd
To make it gracious. For my private part,
I am no more touch'd than all Priam's sons:
And Jove forbid, there should be done amongst us
Such things as might offend the weakest spleen
To fight for and maintain!

3

Par. Else might the world convince of levity 3
As well my undertakings, as your counsels:
But I attest the gods, your full consent
Gave wings to my propension, and cut off

p. 23, n. 8. This line unavoidably reminds us of another in the second book of the Eneid:

66

Trojaque nunc stares, Priamique arx alta maneres."

Steevens.

9 Our fire-brand brother,] Hecuba, when pregnant with Paris, dreamed she should be delivered of a burning torch:

11

66

-et face prægnans

"Cisseis regina Parin creat." Æneid X, 705. Steevens.

- distaste —] Corrupt; change to a worse state. Johnson. 2 To make it gracious.] i. e. to set it off; to show it to advantage. So, in Marston's Malcontent, 1604: “— he is most exquisite, &c. in sleeking of skinnes, blushing of cheeks, &c. that ever made an ould lady gracious by torch-light." Steevens.

3

-convince of levity-] This word, which our author frequently employs in the obsolete sense of-to overpower, subdue, seems, in the present instance, to signify-convict, or subject to the charge of levity. Steevens.

4

your full consent-] Your unanimous approbation. See p. 68, n. 1. Malone.

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 protest,
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.

Pri.
Paris, you speak
Like one besotted 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 soil 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 so degenerate a strain as this,

Should once set footing in your generous bosoms?
There's not the meanest spirit on our party,
Without a heart to dare, or sword 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 say,
Well may we fight for her, whom, we know well,
The world's large spaces cannot parallel.

Hect. Paris, and Troilus, you have both said well;
And on the cause and question now in hand
Have gloz'd, but superficially; not much

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her fair rape-] Rape, in our author's time, commonly signified the carrying away of a female. Malone.

It has always borne that, as one of its significations; raptus Helene (without any idea of personal violence) being constantly rendered-the rape of Helen. Steevens.

6 Have gloz'd,] So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, Book III, viii, 14: could well his glozing speeches frame."

66

To gloze, in this instance, means to insinuate; but, in Shakspeare, to comment. So, in King Henry V:

"Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze

"To be the realm of France." Steevens.

Unlike young men, whom Aristotle thought
Unfit to hear moral philosophy:

The reasons, you allege, do more conduce
To the hot passion 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 benumbed wills, resist the same;
There is a law2 in each well-order'd nation,
To curb those raging appetites that are
Most disobedient and refractory.

71

Aristotle-] Let it be remembered, as often as Shakspeare's anachronisms occur, that errors in computing time were very frequent in those ancient romances which seem to have formed the greater part of his library. I may add, that even classick authors are not exempt from such mistakes. In the fifth Book of Statius's Thebaid, Amphiaraus talks of the fates of Nestor and Priam, neither of whom died till long after him. If on this occasion, somewhat should be attributed to his augural profession, yet if he could so freely mention, nay, even quote as examples to the whole army, things that would not happen till the next age, they must all have been prophets as well as himself, or they could not have understood him.

Hector's mention of Aristotle, however, (during our ancient propensity to quote the authorities of the learned on every occasion) is not more absurd than the following circumstances in The Dialoges of Creatures Moralysed, bl. 1. no date, (a book which Shakspeare might have seen) where we find God Almighty quoting Cato. See Dial. IV. I may add, on this subject, that during an altercation between Noah and his Wife, in one of the Chester Whitsun Playes, the Lady swears by-Christ and Saint John.

Steevens.

3 more deaf than adders -] See Vol. X, p. 197, n. 3.

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1

Steevens.

of partial indulgence—] i. e. through partial indulgence.

M. Mason.

benumbed wills,] That is, inflexible, immoveable, no

longer obedient to superior direction. Johnson.

2 There is a law-] What the law does in every nation between individuals, justice ought to do between nations. Johnson.

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 persist
In doing wrong, extenuates not wrong,
But makes it much more heavy. Hector's opinion
Is this, in way of truth:3 yet, ne'ertheless,

My spritely brethren, I propend to you

In resolution to keep Helen still;

For 'tis a cause that hath no mean dependance

Upon our joint and several dignities.

Tro. Why, there you touch'd the life of our design: Were it not glory that we more affected

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:5
For, I presume, 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.

Hect.

I am yours,
You valiant offspring of great Priamus.-
I have a roisting challenge sent amongst
The dull and factious nobles of the Greeks,
Will strike amazement to their drowsy spirits:
I was advértis'd, their great general slept,
Whilst emulation in the army crept;
This, I presume, will wake him.

[Exeunt.

3 Is this, in way of truth:] Though considering truth and justice in this question, this is my opinion; yet as a question of honour, I think on it as you. Johnson.

4

the performance of our heaving spleens,] The execution of spite and resentment. Johnson.

5 -

canonize us:] The hope of being registered as a saint, is rather out of its place at so early a period, as this of the Trojan war. Steevens.

6

emulation -] That is, envy, factious contention. Johnson. Emulation is now never used in an ill sense; but Shakspeare meant to employ it so. He has used the same with more proVOL. XII.

H

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