Enter PRIAM, HECTOR, TROILUS, and AENEAS.

Priam. After the expence of so much time and blood,
Thus once again the Grecians send to Troy;—­
Deliver Helen, and all other loss
Shall be forgotten.—­Hector, what say you to it?

Hect. Though no man less can fear the Greeks than I,
Yet there’s no virgin of more tender heart,
More ready to cry out,—­who knows the consequence? 
Than Hector is; for modest doubt is mixed
With manly courage best:  let Helen go. 
If we have lost so many lives of ours,
To keep a thing not ours, not worth to us
The value of a man, what reason is there
Still to retain the cause of so much ill?

Troil. Fye, fye, my noble brother! 
Weigh you the worth and honour of a king,
So great as Asia’s monarch, in a scale
Of common ounces thus? 
Are fears and reasons fit to be considered,
When a king’s fame is questioned?

Hect. Brother, she’s not worth What her defence has cost us.

Troil. What’s aught, but as ’tis valued?

Hect. But value dwells not in opinion only: 
It holds the dignity and estimation,
As well, wherein ’tis precious of itself,
As in the prizer:  ’tis idolatry,
To make the service greater than the god.

Troil. We turn not back the silks upon the merchant,
When we have worn them; the remaining food
Throw not away, because we now are full. 
If you confess, ’twas wisdom Paris went;—­
As you must needs, for you all cried, Go, go:—­
If you’ll confess, he brought home noble prize;—­
As you must needs, for you all clapped your hands,
And cried, Inestimable!—­Why do you now
So under-rate the value of your purchase? 
For, let me tell you, ’tis unmanly theft,
When we have taken what we fear to keep.

AEne. There’s not the meanest spirit in our party,
Without a heart to dare, or sword to draw,
When Helen is defended:  None so noble,
Whose life were ill bestowed, or death unfamed,
When Helen is the subject.

Priam. So says Paris,
Like one besotted on effeminate joys;
He has the honey still, but these the gall.

AEne. He not proposes merely to himself
The pleasures such a beauty brings with it;
But he would have the stain of Helen’s rape
Wiped off, in honourable keeping her.

Hect. Troilus and AEneas, you have said;
If saying superficial things be reason. 
But if this Helen be another’s wife,
The moral laws of nature and of nations
Speak loud she be restored.  Thus to persist
In doing wrong, extenuates not wrong,
But makes it much more so.  Hector’s opinion
Is this, in way of truth:  yet, ne’ertheless,
My sprightly brother, I incline to you
In resolution to defend her still: 
For ’tis a cause on which our Trojan honour
And common reputation will depend.