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Rh Even the "rugged Pyrrhus" is touched with pity, pauses, and at last reluctantly,

The action of this play takes place a few days before that of the "Hecuba." It is not, properly speaking, a drama, for it has scarcely any fable. "It is," says Dean Milman, "a series of pathetic speeches and exquisite odes on the fall of Troy. What can be more admirable, in the midst of all these speeches of woe and sorrow, than the wild outburst of Cassandra into a bridal song, instead of, as Shakespeare describes her, 'shrilling her dolours forth'!"

A light! a light! rise up, be swift:

I seize, I worship, and I lift

The bridal torches' festal rays,

Till all the burning fane's ablaze!

Hymen, Hymenœan king!

Look there! look there! what blessings wait

Upon the bridegroom's nuptial state!

And I, how blest, who proudly ride

Through Argos' streets, a queenly bride!

Go thou, my mother! go!

With many a gushing tear

And frantic shriek of woe.

Wail for thy sire, thy country dear!