in Troas (Seneca's Sixth Tragedy) — Heywood, Jasper, trans.; Seneca, Lucius Annaeus
Metadata
Play
Troas (Seneca's Sixth Tragedy)
Author
Heywood, Jasper, trans.; Seneca, Lucius Annaeus
Year (catalogued)
1581
First performance
1559
Decade
1580s
Genre
Tragedy
Play type
Closet Translation
Speech prefix(es)
Sen.
Words
170
Characters
892
Typicality
0.39 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A11909.6
BritDrama no.
308
Cluster
Cluster 20 — Conjurers, witches & physicians
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
What sudden fear thus moves your mind, & vexes you so soar? And what more grievous chances yet prepare the Gods to send? Declare what sights your dream hath showed, & tell what does you fear Hide him away: this only way hath saved many more, To make the enemies to believe, that they were dead before. He will be sought: scant any hope remains of safeness, The paise of his nobility does him so soar oppress: Let none bear witness what you do remove them all away. Then shall y boldly answer make that he in Troy was slain. At first the enemies rage is fierce, delay does slake his mind. Let yet the wretch take his defence, me careless there to bide. The tomb him closely hides: but least your fear should him betray Let him here lie and far from hence go you some other way. A little while keep silence now refrain your plaint and cry, His cursed foot now hither moves the Lord of Cephalie.
Plot summary
Plot — Troas (Seneca's Sixth Tragedy)
After a ten-year war, Troy has fallen: King Priam had been murdered, the city burned, the women taken into slavery; but Queen Hecuba’s age means that none of the Greek conquerors are interested in her. Achilles’ ghost returns from the dead, demanding the blood of Hecuba’s daughter Polyxena in revenge for his own treacherous murder by Paris. Until she is sacrificed on his tomb, he will not allow the Greek fleet to sail home. Agamemnon is doubtful about this, but Pyrrhus reminds him that he was willing to sacrifice his own daughter to get the fleet to Troy, and Calchas confirms that the price of returning to Greece is the same as the price of leaving it: a virgin’s death. The ghost of Hector appears to Andromache in a dream and warns her to flee from Troy with their son: Calchas has demanded his blood as well as Polyxena’s. She hides the boy in Hector’s tomb, and tells Ulysses he is dead; but Ulysses insists on removing Hector’s ashes if the Greeks cannot have their sacrifice. Andromache produces the child, and Ulysses has him thrown to his death from a tower. Helen is sent to prepare Polyxena to marry Pyrrhus, but she tells Hecuba and Andromache that the Greeks intend a sacrifice, not a wedding. Pyrrhus leads Polyxena away and kills her. A messenger describes the two deaths. Not knowing whom she should grieve for most — husband, daughter, or nephew — Hecuba wishes for death. The women, Hecuba included, are taken away to live in slavery in Greece.