Courage! Hope, howe'er he fly,
For a time can never die.
Courage, therefore brother men!
Cry, God! and to the fight again.
THE PARTING OF HECTOR AND
ANDROMACHE.
(SOLEMN AND PLAINTIVE UTTERANCE.)
The principal Rhetorical Figures are the Erotesis, the Ecphonesis, the Metonymy, and the Synecdoche.
"Too daring Prince! Ah! whither dost thou run? "Ah too forgetful of thy wife and son !
And think'st thou not how wretched we shall be,
A widow I, an helpless orphan he!
For sure such courage length of life denies,
And thou must fall, thy virtue's sacrifice.
Greece in her single heroes strove in vain :
Now hosts oppose thee; and thou must be slain.
O grant me Gods! e'er Hector meets his doom,
All I can ask of heav'n, an early tomb!
So shall my days in one sad tenor run,
And end with sorrows, as they first begun.
f No parent now remains, my griefs to share,
No father's aid, no mother's tender care.
Yet while my Hector still survives, I see
My father, mother, brethren, all in thee.
Alas! my parents, brothers, kindred, all
Once more will perish if my Hector fall.
a Andromache exhibits the warmest conjugal affection; her address requires a plaintive and soft tone of voice, with great pathos.
d Most earnest manner, with eyes and hands elevated.
e Tone of Lamentation, increasing almost to Anguish.
This should be uttered with much Warmth.
h Again entertains a feeling of Apprehension.
Thy wife, thy infant in the danger share;
i O prove a husband's and a parent's care!-
That quarter most the skilful Greeks annoy,
Where yon wild fig-trees join the wall of Troy:
Thou from this tow'r defend th' important post,
There Agamemnon points his dreadful host,
That pass Tydides, Ajax, strive to gain,
And there the vengeful Spartan fires his train.
Thrice our bold foes the fierce attack have giv'n,
Or led by hopes, or dictated from heav'n.
1 Let others in the field their arms employ;
But stay my Hector here and guard his Troy."
The chief reply'd, m"That post shall be my care;
Not that alone, but all the works of war.
How would the sons of Troy in arms renown'd,
And Troy's proud dames, whose garments sweep the ground,
Attaint the lustre of my former name,
Should Hector basely quit the field of fame?
My early youth was bred to martial pains,
My soul impels me to the embattled plains:
Let me be foremost to defend the throne,
And guard my father's glories and my own.
n-Yet come it will, the day decreed by fates:
(How my heart trembles while my tongue relates !)
The day when thou, imperial Troy! must bend,
And see thy warriors fall, thy glories end.
And yet no dire presage so wounds my mind,
My mother's death, the ruin of my kind,
Not Priam's hoary hairs defiled with gore,
Not all my brothers gasping on the shore;
• As thine Andromache! thy griefs I dread;
I see thee trembling, weeping, captive led !
In Argive looms our battles to design,
And woes, of which so large a part was thine!
k Having been viewing the field of battle from a tower in Troy, she here describes the disposition of the forces. 1 Most anxious Entreaty.
m The Courageous manner and firm tones of Hector must be made to contrast strongly with the timid manner and plaintive utterance of Andromache.
Here is a transition to a feeling of Apprehension, gradually increasing to o Agony.
To bear the victor's hard commands, or bring
The weight of waters from Hyperia's spring.
There while you groan beneath the load of life,
They cry, Pbehold the mighty Hector's wife'!
Some haughty Greek, who lives thy tears to see,
Embitters all thy woes by naming me.
The thoughts of glory past, and present shame,
A thousand griefs shall waken at the name!
9 May I lie cold before that dreadful day,
Prest with a load of monumental clay!
Thy Hector, wrapt in everlasting sleep,
Shall neither hear thee sigh nor see thee weep.'
Thus having spoke, th' illustrious chief of Troy
Stretch'd his fond arms to clasp the lovely boy.
The babe clung crying to his nurse's breast,
Scared at the dazzling helm and nodding crest.
With secret pleasure each fond parent smiled,
And Hector hasted to relieve his child,
The glittering terrors from his brows unbound,
And placed the beaming helmet on the ground,
Then kiss'd the child, and lifting high in air,
Thus to the Gods prefer'd a father's prayer.
"O thou! whose glory fills th' etherial throne,
And all ye deathless powers! protect my son !
Grant him like me, to purchase just renown,
To guard the Trojans, to defend the crown,
Against his country's foes the war to wage,
And rise the Hector of the future age!
So when triumphant from successful toils,
Of heroes slain he bears the reeking spoils,
Whole hosts may hail him with deserved acclaim,
And say, this chief transcends his father's fame:
While pleased, amidst the general shouts of Troy,
His mother's conscious heart o'erflows with joy.'
He spoke, and fondly gazing on her charms,
Restored the pleasing burden to her arms;
P This requires to be uttered with a most strong feeling of Disdain. 4 Solemn Ejaculation.
Narrative, requiring much Tenderness of manner.
• Most solemn and earnest prayer.
Soft on her fragrant breast the babe she laid,
Hush'd to repose, and with a smile survey'd.
The troubled pleasure soon chastised with fear,
She mingled with a smile a tender tear.
The soften'd chief with kind compassion view'd,
And dry'd the falling drops and thus pursu'd :
"Andromache! my soul's far better part,
Why with untimely sorrows heaves thy heart?
No hostile hand can antedate my doom
"Till fate condemns me to the silent tomb.
Fix'd is the term to all the sons of earth,
And such the hard condition of our birth,
No force can then resist, no flight can save,
All sink alike, the fearful, and the brave.
No more-
e-but hasten to thy tasks at home,
There guide the spindle and direct the loom :
* Me glory summons to the martial scene,
The field of combat is the sphere for men ;
Where heroes war the foremost place I claim,
The first in danger, as the first in fame."
y Thus having said, the glorious chief resumes
His towery helmet, black with shading plumes.
His princess parts with a prophetic sigh,
Unwilling parts, and oft reverts her eye,
That stream'd at every look; then moving slow,
Sought her own palace, and indulged her woe.
There, while her tears deplored the God-like man,
Through all her train the soft infection ran;
The pious maids their mingled sorrows shed,
And mourn'd the living Hector, as the dead. POPE.
Affectionate warmth.
Most courageous and undaunted manner.
This sorrowful Description requires a tone corresponding with it.
The principal Rhetorical Figures are the Metonymy, the Periphrasis, the Erotesis, the Metaphor, and the Apostrophe.
a Fierce and furious was the combat,
Long the war-cry rose, and loud;
When the warring Barons battled
With Plantagenet the Proud.
From the morning 'till the evening,
Evesham's deep echoing vale
Rang with jarring arms and armour,
Fell the cross-bow bolts like hail.
Red with blood ran Severn's river
Wildly dashing to the main,
Ere De Montfort's scattered forces
Fled across the crimson plain.
Red with blood was Severn's river,
Choak'd with dead its mighty tide,
When amidst his scatter'd forces
England's bravest champion died.
Where the fight had been the fiercest
Montfort's standard to obtain ;
Lifeless lay the noble warrior
'Mid a heap that he had slain;
And the sun that set in sorrow,
O'er that long remember'd day,
Beamed its last and brightest glory
On the hillock where he lay.
Ere that noble warrior perish'd,
Mournfully he look'd around,
While, alas! in gushing torrents
Well'd the life-blood from the wound;
a Firm tone and manner.
b Mournful tone, with a degree of Sympathy.
|