HEL. O Menelaus, this is sure a prelude
To greater horrors. For with brutal hands
I by your servants from these tents am dragged?
Too well I know you hate me, yet would learn,
How you and Greece have of my life disposed.
MEN. Thou by the utmost rigour of the laws
Hast not been sentenced; but the host, to me
Whom thou hast wronged, consign thee to be slain.
HEL. May not I answer to these harsh resolves,
That if I bleed, unjustly shall I bleed?
MEN. I came not hither to debate, but slay thee?
HEC. Hear her, nor let her die, O Menelaus,
Without this privilege. Me too allow
To make reply to her defence; for nought
Of the foul deeds, which she in Troy committed
Yet know’st thou: if united, the whole tale
Must force thee to destroy her, and preclude
All means of her escaping.
MEN. An indulgence
Like this supposes leisure to attend;
However, if she have a wish to speak,
She may: but be assured, that my compliance
To your request is owing, for such favour
To her I would not grant.
HEL. Perhaps with me
Whom you account a foe, you will not deign,
Whether I seem to utter truth or falsehood,
To parley. But to each malignant charge
With which, O Hecuba, I know thou com’st
Prepared against me, will I make reply,
And to o’erbalance all that thou canst urge
Produce recriminations. First, she bore
Paris, the author of these mischiefs, next
Did aged Priam ruin Troy and me,
When erst that infant he forbore to slay,
That baleful semblance of a flaming torch!
Hear what ensued; by Paris were the claims
Of the three rival goddesses decided.
The gift Minerva proffered; that commanding
The Phrygians, he should conquer Greece; while Juno
Promised, that he his empire should extend
From Asia to remotest Europe’s bounds,
If he to her adjudged the golden prize;
But Venus, who in rapturous terms extolled
My charms, engaged that as the great reward
She would on him bestow me; to her beauty
If o’er each goddess he the preference gave.
Observe the sequel: Venus, o’er Minerva
And Juno, gained the triumph; and my nuptials
Thus far have been a benefit to Greece;
Ye are not subject to barbarian lords,
Crushed by invasion, or tyrannic power.
But I my ruin owe to what my country
Hath found thus advantageous, for my charms
To Paris sold, and branded with disgrace,
E’en for such deeds as merited a wreath
To crown these brows. But you may urge, that all
I have alleged is of no real weight,
Because by stealth I from your palace fled.
Accompanied by no mean goddess, came
That evil genius, sprung from Hecuba,
Distinguish him by either name you list,
Paris or Alexander, in your house,
Whom, O delirious, you behind you left,
And sailed from Sparta to the Cretan isle.
Well, be it so. Of my own heart, not you
I in regard to all that hence ensued
Will ask the question. What could have induced me,
Following that stranger, to forsake my home,
False to my native land? impute the guilt
To Venus, and assume a power, beyond
E’en that of Jove, who rules th’ inferior gods
But yields to her behests. My crime was venial;
Yet hence you may allege a specious charge
Against me; since to earth’s dark vaults the corse
Of Paris was consigned, no longer bound
Through Heaven’s supreme decree in nuptial chains,
I to the Grecian fleet should have escaped
From Ilion’s palace; such was my design:
This can the guards of Troy’s beleaguered towers,
And sentinels who on the walls were stationed,
Attest, that oft they caught me, as with ropes
By stealth I strove to light upon the ground;
But a new husband, fierce Deiphobus,
Obtained me for a wife by brutal force,
Though every Phrygian disapproved. What law
Can sentence me, whom ’gainst my will he wedded,
By you, my lord, with justice to be slain?
But for the benefits through me derived
To Greece, I in the stead of laureate wreaths
With slavery am requited. If you wish
To overcome the gods’ supreme behests,
That very wish were folly.
CHOR. O my Queen,
Assert thy children’s and thy country’s cause,
’Gainst her persuasive language, for she speaks
With eloquence, though guilty: curst imposture!
HEC. I those three goddesses will first defend,
And prove that she has uttered vile untruths:
For of such madness ne’er can I suspect
Juno and Pallas that immortal maid,
As that the first should to barbarian tribes
Propose to sell her Argos, or Minerva
To make her Athens subject to the Phrygians:
Seeking in sportive strife the palm of beauty
They came to Ida’s mount. For through what motive
Could Juno with such eagerness have wished
Her charms might triumph? to obtain a husband
Greater than Jove? could Pallas, who besought
Her sire she ever might remain a virgin,
Propose to wed some deity? Forbear
To represent these goddesses as foolish,
That thy transgressions may by their example
Be justified: thou never canst persuade
The wise. Thou hast presumed t’ assert (but this
Was a ridiculous pretence) that Venus
Came with my son to Menelaus’ house.
Could she not calmly have abode in Heaven,
Yet wafted thee and all Amycla’s city
To Ilion? but the beauty of my son
Was great, and thy own heart, when thou beheld’st him
Became thy Venus: for whatever folly
Prevails, is th’ Aphrodite of mankind:
That of Love’s goddess, justly doth commence
With the same letters as an idiot’s name.
Him didst thou see in a barbaric vest
With gold refulgent, and thy wanton heart
Was thence inflamed with love, for thou wert poor
While yet thou didst reside in Greece; but leaving
The Spartan regions, thou didst hope, the city
Of Troy, with gold o’erflowing, could support
Thy prodigality; for the revenues
Of Menelaus far too scanty proved
For thy luxuriant appetites: but sayst thou
That Paris bore thee thence by force? what Spartan
Saw this? or, with what cries didst thou invoke
Castor or Pollux, thy immortal brothers,
Who yet on earth remained, nor had ascended
The starry height? But since thou cam’st to Troy,
And hither the confederate troops of Greece
Tracing thy steps, began the bloody strife,
Whene’er thou heard’st that Menelaus prospered
Him didst thou praise, and make my son to grieve
That such a mighty rival shared thy love:
But if the Trojan army proved victorious,
He shrunk into a thing of nought. On Fortune
Still didst thou look, still deaf to Virtue’s call
Follow her banners: yet dost thou assert
That thou by cords hast from the lofty towers
In secrecy attempted to descend,
As if thou here hadst been constrained to stay?
Where then wert thou surprised, or sharpened sword,
Or ropes preparing, as each generous dame
Who sought her former husband would have done?
Oft have I counselled thee in many words:
“Depart, O daughter, that my sons may take
Brides less obnoxious: thee aboard the ships
Of Greece, assisting in thy secret flight,
Will I convey. O end the war ’twixt Greece
And Ilion.” But to thee was such advice
Unwelcome; for with pride thou in the house
Of Paris didst behave thyself, and claim
The adoration of barbaric tribes,
For this was thy great object. But e’en now
Thy charms displaying, clad in gorgeous vest
Dost thou go forth, still daring to behold
That canopy of Heaven which o’erhangs
Thy injured husband; thou detested woman!
Whom it had suited, if in tattered vest
Shivering, with tresses shorn, in Scythian guise
Thou hadst appeared, and for transgressions past
Deep smitten with remorse, assumed the blush
Of virtuous matrons, not that frontless air.
O Menelaus! I will now conclude;
By slaying her, prepare for Greece the wreaths
It merits, and extend to the whole sex
This law, that every woman who betrays
Her lord shall die.
CHOR. As that illustrious stem
Whence thou deriv’st thy birth, and as thy rank
Demand, on thy adulterous wife inflict
Just punishment, and purge this foul reproach,
This instance of a woman’s lust, from Greece:
So shall thy very enemies perceive
Thou art magnanimous.
MEN. Your thoughts concur
With mine, that she a willing fugitive
My palace left and sought a foreign bed;
But speaks of Venus merely to disguise
Her infamy!—Away! thou shalt be stoned,
And in one instant for the tedious woes
Of Greece make full atonement; I will teach thee
That thou didst shame me in an evil hour.
HEL. I by those knees entreat you, O forbear
To slay me, that distraction sent by Heaven
To me imputing: but forgive me.
HEC. Wrong not
Thy partners in the war, whom she hath slain;
In theirs, and in my children’s cause, I sue.
MEN. Desist, thou hoary matron: her entreaties
Move not this steadfast bosom. O my followers
Attend her, I command you, to the ships
Which shall convey her hence.
HEC. Let her not enter
Thy ship.
MEN. Is she grown heavier than before?
HEC. He never loved who doth not always love,
Howe’er the inclinations of the dame
He loves may fluctuate.
MEN. All shall be performed
According to thy wish; she shall not enter
My bark: for thou hast uttered wholesome counsels:
But soon as she in Argos’ lands, with shame,
As she deserves, shall she be slain, and warn
All women to be chaste. No easy task:
Yet shall her ruin startle every child
Of folly, though more vicious still than Helen.