Rhesus
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng4
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VARIOUS VOICES.
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On to the Prince’s quarters!—Ho!
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Who is awake? What man-at-arms,
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Or squire or groom?—Let Hector know
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New rumour of alarms
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The four long watches of the dark,
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While others sleep.—Uplift thine head,
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O Hector! On thine elbow rise,
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Unhood the eagle of thine eyes,
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Up from thy leaf-strewn bed!—
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Lord Hector!
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HECTOR
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Who goes there? Who cries?
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A friend? The watchword! . . . By what right
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Do men come prowling in the night
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Across my quarters? Come! Speak out.
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LEADER.
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A picket, Lord.
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LEADER.
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Be not afraid, Lord.
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Is there an ambush? No? Then what,
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In God’s name, brings you from your post
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With no clear tale to speak,
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That lies in harness—do ye all
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Know nothing?—out against the wall
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And gateways of the Greek?
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CHORUS.
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To arms! To arms, Lord Hector!—Send
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First where the allied armies lie,
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Bid them draw sword and make an end
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Of sleep.—Let someone fly
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And get the horses’ armour on!—
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Who goes with me to Panthoös’ son?—
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Who’s for Sarpêdon and the Lycians?—None
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Hath seen the priestP. 5, 1. 30, The priest.]—He would be needed to make the sacrifice before battle. go by?—
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Ho, Captain of the Runners, ho!—
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Ho, Trojans of the hornèd bow!
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String, string! For need is nigh.
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HECTOR.
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Ha, silence there! . . .
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First words of fear,
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Then comfort. All an empty swell!
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It seems The lash of trembling PanP. 5, 1. 36, The lash of trembling Pan.]—i.e., a panic.
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Hath caught you. Speak, if speak ye can.
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What tidings? Not a word is clear
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Of the whole tale ye tell.
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LEADER.
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Great beacons in the Argive lineP. 5, 1. 41, Great beacons in the Argive line.]— In the Iliad it is the Trojan watch-fires that are specially mentioned, especially VIII. 553-end. There is no great disturbance in the Greek camp in the Doloneia; there is a gathering of the principal chiefs, a visit to the Guards, and the despatch of the two spies, but no general tumult such as there is in Book II. One cannot help wondering whether our playwright found in his version of the Doloneia a description of fires in the Greek camp, such as our Eighth Book has of those in the Trojan camp. The object might be merely protection against a night attack, or it might be a wish to fly, as Hector thinks. If so, presumably the Assembly changed its mind— much as it does in our Book II.—and determined to send spies.
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Have burned, my chief, through half the night.
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The shipyard timbersP. 5, 1. 43 ff., The shipyard timbers.]—The Greeks had their ships drawn up on the beach and protected by some sort of wooden shipyard; then came the camp; then, outside the whole, a trench and a wall. The fires were in the camp. seemed to shine.
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Then, clear against the light,
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Toward Agamemnon’s tent the whole
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Army in tumult seemed to roll,
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As stirred by some strange voice, shoal after shoal.
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A night of such discord
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Was never seen. And we, in dread
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What such things boded, turned and sped
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Hither; dost blame us, Lord?
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HECTOR.
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No! Welcome, friend, with all thy tale of fear!
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It shows they mean to fly: they mean to clear
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Decks in the dark and so delude my sight . . .
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I like that beacon-burning in the night.
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O Zeus above, who checked my conquering way,
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Who baulked the hungry lion of his prey
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Of these despoilers, dost thou hate my spear?
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Had but the sun’s bright arrows failed me not,
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I ne’er had rested till the ships were hot
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With fire, and through the tents upon the plain
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This bloody hand had passed and passed again!
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Myself, I longed to try the battle-cast
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By night, and use God’s vantage to the last,
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But sage and prophet, learned in the way
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Of seercraft, bade me wait for dawn of day,
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And then—leave no Greek living in the land.
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They wait not, they, for what my prophets planned
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So sagely. In the dark a runaway
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Through our whole array
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Send runners! Bid them shake off sleep and wait
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Ready with shield and spear. ’Tis not too late
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Their crouching shoulders till the gangways splash
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With blood, or teach them, fettered leg and arm,
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To dig the stiff clods of some Trojan farm.
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LEADER.
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My Prince, thy words run fast. Nor thou nor I
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Have knowledge yet that the Greeks mean to fly.
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HECTOR.
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What makes them light their beacons? Tell me, what?
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LEADER.
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God knows! And, for my part, I like it not.
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HECTOR.
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What, feared? Thou wouldst be feared of everything!
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LEADER.
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They never lit such light before, O King.
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HECTOR.
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They never fled, man, in such wild dismay.
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LEADER
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’Twas all thy work.—Judge thou, and we obey.
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HECTOR.
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My word is simple. Arm and face the foe.
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LEADER.
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Who comes? Aeneas, and in haste, as though
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Fraught with some sudden tiding of the night.
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AENEAS.
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Hector, what means it? Watchers in affright
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Who gather shouting at thy doors, and then
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Hold midnight council, shaking all our men?
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HECTOR.
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To arms, Aeneas! Arm from head to heel!
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AENEAS.
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What is it? Tidings? Doth the Argive steal
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Some march, some ambush in the day’s eclipse?
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HECTOR.
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’Tis flight, man! They are marching to the ships.
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AENEAS.
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How know’st thou?—Have we proof that it is flight?
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HECTOR.
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They are burning beacon-fires the livelong night.
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They never mean to wait till dawn. Behind
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That screen of light they are climbing in the blind
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Dark to their ships—unmooring from our coast.
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AENEAS.
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God guide them!—Why then do you arm the host?
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HECTOR.
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I mean to lame them in their climbing, I