Early Modern Mythological Texts: Troia Britanica VI (51-110)
Thomas Heywood. Troia Britanica (1609)
CANTO VI (51-110)
Stanzas 51-60 — 61-70 — 71-80 — 81-90 — 91-100 — 101-110 — Heywood’s endnotes to Canto VI
Back to Stanzas 1-50
Ed. Gaëlle Ginestet
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Much richer gifts in interchange of state, Our sovereign to the lofty Spaniard gave, The warlike constable who came of late From Hespery a five years’ truce to crave; More precious presents and of dearer rate, Bore England’s Admiral, both rich and brave, When from King James sent with a princely train, He was the great ambassador for Spain. |
The Lord High Admiral Ambassador for Spain.
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Jove’s branch, called the Palladium, the King placed
In Pallas’ royal temple, where it stood
Till Troy’s proud walls were quite deject and razed,
And Ilion’s lofty turrets swam in blood;
Great Ilion dies, and he that next him graced
The Trojan crown – a prince not all so good –,
Laomedon, of whom we here will stay
To bear the sons of Danae on their way.
53
Who, as they passed the desert, from afar
They might espy a goodly knight lie spread
Upon the grass; he seemed a man of war,
For he was armed at all points, save the head.
On his fair brow appeared no soldier scar,
It seems he had not arms long managèd;
Exchanges passed of many a kind salute,
Thus speaks the armèd knight, whilst they stand mute:
54
“Who hath not of the great Acrisius heard?
Acrisius, he that built the brazen tower?
Now Argos’ king no longer, but debarred
His native kingdom by his brother’s power;
His brother Pricus hath against him warred,
And all his glories reft him in an hour”.
“Stay there”, quoth Perseus, “you have touched me nearly
Acrisius’ wrongs, King Pricus shall buy dearly.
We are Acrisius’ grandchild, and descended
From beauteous Danae, in that fort of brass
That Lady Rumour hath so far commended,
Who in gold liquid shower drops courted was;
Oh! Where was I, Acrisius t’ have defended,
With Pricus’ blood to have stained the Argive grass:
Both Abas’ sons, a prince frugal and thrifty,
He, Lynceus’ son, the sole remain of fifty.
Is brotherhood abroad so light esteemed,
That kingdoms can such holy knots untie?
Let me no more Jove’s royal son be deemed
But for Acrisius’ wrongs, King Pricus die.
He that in all the world austerest seemed,
And stood upon most points of honesty,
Hath proved the greatest hypocrite: like those
Without precise, within, religious foes.
Assist me, noble knight, in this adventure”,
Quoth the great Gorgon-tamer; when replied
The armèd stranger: “By the firm indenture
Of honour, I am elsewhere bound to ride;
But if with me you will my voyage enter
And see what shall my chivalry betide,
My noble task achieved, I then will lead you
To Pricus, where my knowledge much may stead you.
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When I the triple-shaped Chimera have slain, Whose dreadful form makes all Sicilia quake, Bellerophon will then return again, And your attempt ’gainst Pricus undertake”. The Princes wonder at Chimera’s name, And that one knight his desperate life should stake Against such odds, asking what imposition Hath sent him on this dangerous expedition, |
Bellerophon
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Or whether uncompelled he be so mad To seek assured destruction, and to scale The Devil’s den, where nothing can be had But certain ruin. His tough skin is mail, A terrible huge lion’s head, which drad, A chievre’s body, and a serpent’s tail, Him whose vast gorge whole armies cannot fill, Why should one desperate knight attempt to kill? |
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Bellerophon replies: “by Pricus’ doom, Not my own will, I am compelled to go. Else in my growing years that yet but bloom, I’d flesh my sword on a more equal foe. But in Sicilia I must seek my tomb, Or kill the triple monster, dreaded so”. Saith Perseus then: “What makes him so severe?”. “Attend”, quoth he, “great princes you shall hear: |
King Pricus, brother to Acrisius
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Oh! Why did Nature frame these women fair? And make their outward features angel-bright? When their black insides stained and spotted are With lust, with pride, contempt, disdain, and spite? Why should the snowy swans in beauty rare Have such black feet? Why should the lily white Bear such rank smell? Can men withstand their fates, When golden vessels bring in poisoned cates? |
Bellerophon’s tale
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I thought I might have gathered a fresh rose,
And not have pricked my finger with a thorn,
Or a sweet flower out of the garden chose,
But not a nettle in my hand have worn;
Still, next the sweetest flower, the nettle grows,
The rarest beauty hath the rudest scorn,
The rover’s ship bears the best promising sails,
The foulest serpents the most golden scales.
By a fair woman is my youth misspent,
My innocent youth that never love embraced,
Her devilish mind to malice wholly bent,
My fortunes hath o’erturned, my name disgraced,
And I, through her malevolent intent,
Like a poor exile from my country chased;
Oh woman! Made of envy, pride, and lusts,
Woe to the man that to thy weakness trusts”.
“My hopes”, quoth Perseus, “I on this have laid,
And think her heart to be her beauty’s peer,
Nor where I trusted most am I betrayed,
Andromeda I know still holds me dear”.
“The stranger knight”, quoth she, “that doth upbraid
Our sex so much, methinks is too severe,
To blame all women, for one lady’s deeds”,
At this all silence made, whilst he proceeds.
65
“In Pricus’ court my childhood I have spent,
And there the grace of many ladies gained.
But I, whose thoughts were all on knighthood bent,
Regardless of their looks, their loves disdained.
Among the rest, Queen Aurea often sent
Gifts and smooth letters, fraught with lines unfeigned;
This beauteous queen, whose thoughts were at such strife,
Was my dread sovereign’s spouse: King Pricus’ wife.
66
More than her ravishing beauty could entice,
Th’ allegiance to my king with me prevailed;
The more the wanton queen incites to vice,
The more her sighs and amorous courtships failed.
I held my name and honour of more price
Than basely yield, when womanish lust assailed;
At last, with such hot flames her entrails burned,
That, being disdained, her love to rancour turned.
67
She that before held of my person dearly
Now damns my presence to the deepest hell
And in her heart, vows to revenge severely
My loyal scorn. I know no hate so fell
As that which was once love. It touched her nearly,
Where love once lodged such poisonous hate doth dwell,
That now she aims her envy at my head,
Nor can she live, Bellerophon not dead.
68
Forthwith she cites me to King Pricus’ throne,
And as a ravisher I am accused:
She swears that when I found her all alone,
I would her royal person have abused,
And then round pearls about her eyeballs shone,
Which dropped down by her cheeks—such craft she used!
O heaven! What cannot cunning women do
By oaths, and tears, to win their husbands too!
I pleaded innocence, but what, God wot,
Could my weak plea against her tears prevail?
And to accuse her spouse-breach booted not,
Her whom tears helped, could protestations fail?
Besides in honour I could lay no spot
Upon her loyalty, rather bewail
Her want of grace, and the high gods importune,
To assist my innocence, and guide my fortune.
When I asked witness of such foul abuse,
She thus replied, commixing words with tears:
“When lustful men aim at such horrid use,
They watch, all spial eyes and listening ears;
Nor can the want of witness plead excuse,
For who, that to a woman fancy bears,
Will, when he seeks t’ inforce her ’gainst all reason,
First, call his witness, to such hated treason?
Rather he watcheth the most silent hour,
When man and beast is sunk in leaden slumbers
And Morpheus, he that hath on midnight power,
The world with universal darkness cumbers;
When, saving lust and murder, all the powers
Of earth lie hushed and charmed; when no man numbers
The iron tongues of clocks; such a black time
Should have been guilty of his more black crime.
72
For double witness in this case I stand;
Pricus, you are my husband and my king,
And where should Aurea, if not at your hand,
Seek Justice?”. At that word fresh sources spring
From her drowned eyes: what need the cause be scanned
With more sufficient proof? What needs she bring
More arguments? Since every tear she spilt,
Persuades her loyalty, my heinous guilt.
73
The King, though inly moved with wrath and spleen,
Yet in his calm looks moderates his ire.
He calls to mind how faithful I have been,
Since when I served as knight, before, as squire.
Loath would he unrevengèd leave his Queen,
As loath doth he my innocent blood desire;
Therefore, ’twixt both, this rigorous doom he gave,
That the Chimera’s womb should be my grave”.
74
His tale thus ended, the two princes vow
To lend him all assistance: by their aid,
Bellerophon hath made Chimera bow,
Which done, they jointly Pricus’ realm invade;
Acrisius by their arms is raisèd now,
And Pricus slain; in Argos they are stayed
By old Acrisius, who repents at last,
Of Danae ’mongst the ruthless billows cast.
75
The noble Perseus he adopts his son,
And makes him heir apparent to the crown,
Sorry for all the spight against him done.
And now bright Danae he accounts his own,
Sending young Danaus and Bellerophon
With royal gifts, soon to the princess known,
Showing by these his reconcilèd heart,
But with the warlike Perseus he’ll not part,
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Whom the same day he Argos King creates, Himself in Darrain lives a life retired. Perseus Andromeda his Queen instates In the like pomp, a lady much admired Five children he begat, so would the Fates More valiant, with their father’s gifts inspired: |
Perseus’ issue. Herodotus in Polymnia
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This Gorgophon is held to be the first That in those days was known to marry twice: Her husband dead, alone this lady durst Prove second spousals, which was held a vice; The chastest matrons her example cursed, Who held their constant love in sovereign price. Our hinder widows saint her name in heaven, Some four, some five, nay some have told to seven. |
Pausanias in Corinthiacis
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78
His sons take wives, Acrisius still surviving,
Who glories in his warlike grandchild’s seed,
Their honours from their father’s acts deriving,
For by their swords did many tyrants bleed;
But leave them in their deeds of valour striving,
And of Acrisius’ timeless fate proceed,
Forgetting what was told him long agone,
That Danae’s son must turn him into stone.
79
When Perseus had in Argos governed long,
Upon a night, he much desired to see
Acrisius, and to Darrain that was strong
With triple gates, alone ascended he,
There knocks; the porters had forgot his tongue
And with bold words denied him entrance free,
At which, enraged, the prince his harpe drew,
And at first stroke th’ ill-languaged guardian slew.
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The uproar flows apace, clamours arise From all parts of the fort: to the king’s ear They come at last, who with the warders’ cries Astonished, to the tumult preaseth near, Thinking t’ appease the broil and riotise, But, hapless man, un’wares he perished there: The enraged prince that mad-like laid about, Struck with a blow his grandsire’s lifeblood out. |
2657/1306 |
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Perseus the unavoided Fates now blames, And lays Acrisius in his marble grave, He that on earth enjoys the high’st-styled names, Unto their dooms must yield himself a slave. From all delights the prince himself reclaims, In Argos’ throne he no delight can have, But for his sake that th’ Argive sceptre bore, He leaves the province, ne’er to see it more. |
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His court unto Mycenae he transported, But thither did his sorrows him pursue, And therefore with a huge host bravely sorted, Himself into the Orient he withdrew; His army he with warlike phrase exhorted ’Gainst Liber Pater, whom in arms he slew, And where the Eastern monarch’s blood lay spilt, Persepolis, a stately town, he built. |
Theseus in rebus Corinthiacis
Persepolis |
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He calls the province Persia by his name, Where Bachmon in the kingdom him succeeds; Erictreus did all the nations tame By the Red Sea, and there his honoured deeds Are chronicled; great Sthenelus thy fame Lives in Mycenae: the pontific weeds Are for thy royalty reserved alone; In Thebes, remains twice-married Gorgophon. |
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Alcaeus and Electryon from his line Descend; Alcaeus was Amphitrio’s sire, Electryon as Boccac’ doth devine, Alcmena got, whose face all eyes admire; Alcmena and Amphitrio combine Themselves by Hymen’s ceremonial fire; Of this bright Theban dame through Greece commended, This monster-tamer, Hercules, descended. |
The genealogy of Hercules
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But how great Jove with bright Alcmena lay, Himself transforming to Amphitrio’s shape, Adding three nights together without day; How Juno envious of her husband’s rape, Alcmena’s childbirth hindered, and did stay The unborn infants who with wonder scape Her Hell-born charms; how by Galanthis’ smile, Juno was mocked; Alcmena scaped her guile; |
Galanthis, Alcmena’s nurse
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How young Alcides in the cradle lying, Checked two envenomed snakes by Juno sent To strangle him; how Ypicleus dying By those charmed serpents, to Elysium went; And how the Jove-starr’d lad his valour trying Upon th’ Olympic mount: disgracèd sent All such as came to have their valours tried, To leap, to run, to wrestle, or to ride; |
Ypicleus Hercules’ twin brother and son to Amphitrio
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How by the king Eristheus he was taught, Loved beauteous Megera, and famed all Greece, And through the world renowned adventures sought, Conquered great Cacus and the Golden Fleece; How Achelous he to ruin brought, Doted on Deianira that fair piece, And Iole, who the more fame to win, Made great Alcides on a distaff spin. |
Iole daughter to Cacus. |
All these we leave as tales too often told
And rubs that would our running voyage let,
Not that our thoughts despise them being old,
(For to Antiquity we owe much debt),
But because Time that hath his acts enrolled
To many a common sale his deeds hath set,
Therefore (though no part of his worth to reave him)
We now for matters more allied must leave him,
89
And now look back to Troy: Laomedon
Intends new walls about his town to rear,
But wanting coinèd gold to deal upon,
Solicits all the Gods, such as dwelt near,
Chiefly those two that rule the sea and sun:
Neptune and Phoebus money-masters were,
Of whose rich priests for so much coin he calls,
As may repair his city’s ruined walls.
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They dispurvey their vestry of such treasure As they may spare; the work now being ended, Demand their sums again; but out of measure At their request, the monarch seems offended, And says he means to pay them at his pleasure. The Gods, by whom Troy was with walls defended, Enraged at his ingratitude, conspire With joint revenge to wreak their spleenful ire. |
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The wrathful Neptune first his billows raised
Above the high-built walls, thinking to drown
Those lofty spires whom all the world hath praised,
Hurrying his brinish waters through the town.
Now dolphins play where barbèd steeds have grazed,
In every paved street Neptune’s billows frown,
Till being weary with the city’s sack,
He draws himself into his channels back.
For by the Fates’ appointment the proud God
Must keep his falling ebbs as well as flow,
Else pale-faced Cynthia, at whose dreadful nod
Obedient Neptune shrinks, her rage will show,
For she commands his waves, and his abode
Is pointed by the Moon, whether below
In his abysm, or rocks appearing higher,
He guides his looks by her immortal fire.
But as he shrinks his waters at her beck,
He leaves much slimy filth upon the shore,
Now ’gan the god of fire his beams reflect
Upon the drownèd continent that wore
The sea-gods’ wrath, and now must bide his check,
A hot contagious stem, not known before,
Poisons the clime, and as the heat increased,
The infectious pest consumed both man and beast.
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Half-perished Troy unable to withstand
Their double wrath, her people from her fly,
Knowing they both offended sea and land,
And to abide their vengeance must needs die;
The King himself, that wants power to command,
The all-consuming plague fears to come nigh
The walls he reared, but must to Delphos travel,
To excuse his pride, that with the gods durst cavil.
His due oblations ended, ’tis returned
That he must seek th’ offended gods t’ appease,
Else the hot plague – his people’s entrails burned –
Shall all the remnant of his subjects cease,
Nor must his fearful penance be adjourned;
Nothing can Neptune and Apollo please,
But monthly to a monster of the flood
To yield a beauteous maid of the king’s blood.
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This covenanted, the Trojan king prepares Allotted virgins; now th’ infection slakes, At length alas—for bold Fate all things dares— The lot the beauteous maid Hesione takes The king’s sole daughter; Fortune nothing cares For him whose hand th’ imperial sceptre shakes. The hood-winked goddess dare on all sides strike, Beggars and kings in lots are both alike. |
Hesione, daughter to Laomedon
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Imagine her with thousand virgins guided
Unto her fearful tomb, her monster-grave;
Imagine how the hulky devil slided
Along the seas’ smooth breast, parting the wave;
Alas, poor naked damsel, ill provided,
Whom millions, without Heaven’s help, cannot save;
Yet see, help comes: behold the pride of Greece
Decked in the conquest of the Golden Fleece.
98
Along the glassy Hellespont, by chance,
Alcides sailing sees upon the land
The all-despoilèd virgin in a trance,
Wailing her ruin on the briny strand;
Above the waves he sees a whale advance
His dreadful shape, at whose sight all that stand
Upon the beach, some sounding as half dead,
Others dismayed, back to the city fled.
99
Such only whom the cause concernèd most
And unto whom the virgin was allied
Attend her swallowing, on the marine coast,
For whom no mortal safety can provide.
Now great Alcides with his Greekish host
Lands on the continent unterrified,
And while the Trojan king with terror shakes,
The virgin’s rescue boldly undertakes.
Two barbèd steeds, the best that Asia bred,
Are by the king ordained the victor’s meed,
By whose strong hand the sea-whale shall fall dead,
The virgin live, and Troy from pest be freed;
Now falls his huge club on the monster’s head,
With such impetuous weight and violent speed
As if heaven’s greatest column should down fall
That bears the high roof of th’ Olympic Hall.
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The hideous Augur slain and she released, The perjured king the promised meed denies, And seeing Troy both walled and free from pest, Excludes the Greek for his bold enterprise, Who sails from Greece, after few months of rest Doth burn Larisse, and Tenedos surprise, Ruinates Troy, expels Laomedon, Beats down the walls made by the Sea and Sun. |
The first destruction of Troy |
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In which achievement Philoctetes fought, Made of Alcides’ vanquished foe his friend, The king Eristheus there for honour sought, And Creon to this dreadful fight gave end. The noble Theseus his assistance brought, Theban Amphitrio did his arm extend ’Gainst Asia’s pride, and with the rest returning, Aided great Hercules in Troy’s first burning. |
Creon King of Thebes
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These, as they were a ship-board, having filled
The vast wombs of their barks with wealthy spoils,
Insulting in the Trojan blood they spilled,
Discoursing of their fights and dangerous broils,
And such great victories attained but seld,
Though with more labours, and insudate toils;
Cups of Greek wine unto this conquest crowned,
Thus King Eristheus boards the Princes round.
104
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Now the first vigil of the night is entered, With some discourse let’s overtake the sun, Who flying, is by this beneath us centered, And whilst the waking stars their courses run, Discourse, who first the Tartar gates adventured, And by whose hand that bold attempt was done, Of Orpheus and Eurydice, and in fine Of Pluto and the ravished Proserpine. |
Pluto and Proserpine |
When Theseus thus: “Since you desire to know
The true report of these Tartarian brawls,
Which none can better than Alcides show,
Or Theseus present: by th’ Aetnean walls,
The waters of Pergusa gently flow,
And thence into the neighbouring river falls:
Crowned with a grove, through which the lake doth run,
Making his bows a bongrace from the sun.
Hither fair Proserpine repairing still,
With daisies, daffodils, and lilies white,
Roses and marigolds her lap to fill,
And to return home laden (a sweet sight)
Chaplets to make, or garlands by fine skill;
By chance, the god of shades in edge of night,
In his black ebon chariot hurrying by,
Upon the virgin casts a ravisher’s eye.
He spies, and loves, and catches up at once
Th’ affrighted virgin, who lets fall her flowers.
He bears her over hills, dales, rocks, and stones.
She calls on mother, friends, and tears she pours.
Mother nor friend can hear her shrieks and groans.
Through pools and lakes the god of Tartar scours,
He yerks his hot steeds with his wiry strings,
And from his coach wheels rusty darkness flings,
And calls his jetty stallions by their names,
Whose hard hoofs make the vaulted centre sound;
His rattling chariot, through the air proclaims
His fear and flight, with burnished brass shod round.
Nor once looks back the dreadful god of flames,
Or thinks his rape safe on the upper ground;
But with his ebon mace the earth enforces,
Which cleft, sinks him, his chariot, and his horses.
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The Queen of Plenty, she that crowns the land With several grain and Neptune’s kingdom bounds, Searches about, but cannot understand Of her fair daughter; yet the world she rounds, And day by day she takes this task in hand, But in her bootless search herself confounds. Aurora finds her in her travels rising, The setting sun still sees her, ease despising.
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Ceres
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But in our labours we our pen must rest,
Lest in her search, we our invention lose,
Which finding tired with travel, we hold best
A while to cherish, therefore rest we choose.
Here therefore let us breathe, ere we digest
Troy’s second fall, as that which next ensues:
Our Muse with Phoebus sets, and with the sun
Tomorrow rising, is our task begun.
[Heywood’s endnotes to Canto VI]
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The Gorgons were called by other names, Pemphrado, Erito and Dino, to whom was added a third Iaeno. Pegasus taking his flight out of Helicon, striking the earth with his hooves, there presently sprung out the pleasant fountain Hippocrene, after consecrate to the Muses. Some moralize this winged horse to a swift-sailed ship, in which Perseus sailed in all his foreign adventures. Aurea Mala, which the Latins conster golden apples, the Greeks call golden sheep, the word importing so much. Atlas for his exquisite skill in astronomy was said to bear heaven on his shoulders. Of this sea-monster Saint Augustine speaks in his book De Civitate Dei, affirming that one of the bones was in his time still unconsumed and kept. The monster Chimera described with a lion’s head, a goat’s belly, and a serpent’s tail, was a mountain in Sicily, whose top was full of wild lions, the middle of goats, and the foot and lower part swarmed with serpents; this hill Bellerophon by the aid of Perseus, cleared of all these savages, and after made it habitable. Where Jupiter is said to put three nights into one, some have ingeniously imagined it to be about that time when, at Joshua’s prayer, the Sun stayed his diurnal course (till he had the slaughter of his enemies) which being kept away from a country far remote, must of force lengthen the night by his absence, as it prolonged the day by his presence. Galanthis by her craft deceiving Juno, was by her after in her anger transformed into a weasel. Philoctetes son to Paean, and after his surprisal, companion with Hercules in all his travels, to whom at his death he gave his arrows, poisoned in the blood of Hydra. The length of that night before mentioned may else be alluded to that in the 2. Kings, Chap. XX where Hezekiah being promised by God fifteen years’ life after his extreme sickness, and craving a sign, God commanded the shadow of the Sun to go back ten degrees, which was incontinently performed in the Dial of Ahaz, as it was promised by Isaiah the Prophet. The Nereides with whom Andromeda was compared were the daughters of Nereus, the son of Oceanus and Thetis; his daughters were nymphs of the sea: he had by the nymph Doris these three children, Halia, Spio, Pasithae and Ligea, with others to the number of fifty, whose names Hesiodus remembers, and Apollodorus. Laomedon, besides Hesione, whom he best loved, had 3 daughters more, Aethasa, Astioche, and Medicastes, but Hesione being dearest to him, Neptune and Apollo chose her to be devoured of the sea-monster. |
Ovid, Metamorphoses
Hesiod in Theogony
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The end of the sixth canto.
Back to Canto VI (1-50)
Notes to Canto VI
On to Canto VII
How to cite
Gaëlle Ginestet, ed., 2012. Troia Britanica Canto VI, 51-110 (1609). In A Dictionary of Shakespeare's Classical Mythology: A Textual Companion, ed. Yves Peyré (2009-).
http://www.shakmyth.org/page/Early+Modern+Mythological+Texts%3A+Troia+Britanica+VI
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