Than Hector is. The wound of peace is Surety, (18).
Surety fecure; but modeft Doubt is call'd
The beacon of the wife; the tent that fearches
To th' bottom of the worst. Let Helen go.
Since the first sword was drawn about this question,
Ev'ry tithe foul 'mongst many thousand difmes
Hath been as dear as Helen. I mean, of ours.
If we have loft fo many tenths of ours
To guard a thing not ours, not worth to us
(Had it our name) the value of one ten;
What merit's in that reafon which denies
The yielding of her up?

Troi. Fy, fy, my brother:

Weigh you the worth and honour of a King
(So great as our dread father) in a scale

Of common ounces? will you with counters fum
The vaft proportion of his infinite?

And buckle in a waste most fathomlefs,

With spans and inches fo diminutive

As fears and reasons? fy, for godly shame!

Hel. No marvel, though you bite fo fharp at reasons, You are fo empty of them. Should not our father Bear the great fway of his affairs with reafons ; Because your speech hath none, that tells him fo?

Troi. You are for dreams and flumbers, brother priest, You fur your gloves with reasons. Here are your reasons. You know, an enemy intends you harm ; You know, a fword imploy'd is perilous ; And reason flies the object of all harm. Who marvels then, when Helenus beholds A Grecian and his fword, if he do fet The very wings of reason to his heels, And fly like chidden Mercury from Jove,

(18) The wound of peace is Surety;] i. e. the great danger of peace is too much fecurity; the opinion of our being leaft in danger. Therefore, as our Author fays in Hamlet;

Be wary then; beft fafety lies in fear.

Velleius Paterculus, fpeaking of Arminius's treachery, has left us a fentiment that might very well have given rise to our Author's. Haud imprudenter fpeculatus, neminem celerius opprimi, quàm qui nibil timeret z frequentiffimum initium e calamitatis fecuritatem.

Or

Or like a ftar diforb'd !-Nay, if we talk of reafon,
Let's fhut our gates, and fleep: manhood and honour
Should have hare-hearts, would they but fat their thoughts
With this cramm'd reafon : reafon and refpect
Make livers pale, and luftyhood deject.

Heat. Brother, fhe is not worth what the doth coft The holding.

Troi. What is aught, but as 'tis valued ?

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 them ; 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, whofe youth and freshness
Wrinkles Apollo's, and makes stale the morning. (19)
Why

. (19)
-whofe youth and freshness
Wrinkles Apollo's, and makes pale the morning.] This is only Mr.
Pope's reading; all the other edtitions have, fale; which feems the
Poet's antithefis to freshness. So in his Winter's Tale,

Why keep we her? the Grecians keep our aunt:
Is the worth keeping? why, fhe is a pearl,
Whofe 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 clap'd your hands,
And cry'd inestimable !) why do you now
The iffue of your proper wisdom's rate,
And do a deed that Fortune never did,
Beggar that eftimation which you priz'd
Richer than fea and land? O theft most base!
That we have ftol'n what we do fear to keep!
But thieves, unworthy of a thing fo ftol'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 fifter, I do know her voice:
Caf. [within.] Cry, Trojans !

Het. It is Caffandra.

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.

Het. Peace, fifter, peace.

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

-fo fhall I do

To th' fresheft things now reigning, and make ftale

The gliftring of this prefent.

This old aunt, who is only hinted at by our Poet, is Hefione, the daughter of Laomedon, and fifter of Priam. She was borne away captive to Greece by Hercules, when he fack'd Troy; and was given to Telamon's bed, by whom the bore Teucer.-Spenfer mentions her fubduing Telamon to her charms, in his verfion of VIRGIL's Gnat For th' one was ravish'd of his own bond- maid,

The fair Ixione, captiv'd from Troy.

For here we must read, Hefione. The particulars of her ftory are to

be found in Hyginus's 89th fable.

必ず

Add

Add to my clamour; let us pay betimes
A moiety of that mafs of moan to come:
Cry, Trojans, cry; practise your eyes with tears.
Troy muft not be, nor goodly Ilium ftand:
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.

Hed. Now, youthful Troilus, do not these high rains

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 success in a bad cause,
Can qualify the same ?

Troi. Why, brother Hector,

We may not think the juftness 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 diftafte 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 might offend the weakest spleen
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 diré 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 pafs the difficulties,
And had as ample power, as I have will,
Paris fhould ne'er retract what he hath done,
Nor faint in the pursuit.

Pri. Paris, you speak

Like one befotted on your fweet delights;

You

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 treason were it to the ranfack'd Queen,
Difgrace to your great worths, and shame to me,
Now to deliver her poffeffion up,

On terms of base compulfion? can it be,
That fo degenerate a firain, 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: none fo noble,
Whose life were ill bestow'd, or death unfam'd,
When Helen is the fubject. Then, I fay,

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

Heat. Paris and Troilus, you have both faid well: (20) 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. (21)

The

(20) Paris and Troilus, you have both faid well; And on the caufe and question now in band Have glofs'd but fuperficially.] I can never think that the Poet exprefs'd himself thus: 'tis abfurd to fay, that people have talk'd well, and yet but fuperficially at the fame time. I have ventur'd to substitute a disjunctive inftead of the copulative, by which we gain this commodious fenfe: "You have argued very well in the general, "but have gloz'd too fuperficially upon the particular question in

"debate."

not much

(21) Unlike young men whom graver fages thought

Unfit to bear moral philofophy.] This is a fophifticated reading firft of Mr. Rowe, and afterwards of Mr. Pope. I had objected, that this was an exception to Mr. Pope's rule laid down in his preface, that the various readings are fairly put in the margin, fo that every one may compare them: and those be has preferr'd into the text, are coNSTANTLY ex fide codicum, upon authority. For graver fages, I faid, was preferr'd into the text without any authority, and that all the

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