| Thridding the sombre boskage of the woods, | |
| Toward the morning-star.” |
In the “Trojan dames” there are fine touches of nature with regard to Cassandra. Hecuba shows that mixture of shame and reverence, that prose kindred always do, towards the inspired child, the poet, the elected sufferer for the race.
When the herald announces that she is chosen to be the mistress of Agamemnon, Hecuba answers indignant, and betraying the involuntary pride and faith she felt in this daughter.
| “ | The virgin of Apollo, whom the God, |
| Radiant with golden locks, allowed to live | |
| In her pure vow of maiden chastity? | |
| Tal. | With love the raptured virgin smote his heart. |
| Hec. | Cast from thee, O my daughter, cast away |
| Thy sacred wand, rend off the honored wreaths, | |
| The splendid ornaments that grace thy brows.” |
Yet the moment Cassandra appears, singing wildly her inspired song, Hecuba calls her
“My frantic child.”
Yet how graceful she is in her tragic phrenzy, the chorus shows—
| “ | How sweetly at thy house's ills thou smil'st, |
| Chanting what haply thou wilt not show true?” |
But if Hecuba dares not trust her highest instinct about her daughter, still less can the vulgar mind of the herald (a man not without tenderness of heart, but with no princely, no poetic blood,) abide the wild prophetic mood which insults his prejudices both as to country and decorums of the sex. Yet Agamemnon,
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