Thomas Heywood

2 THE IRON AGE

1612–1613

The subtitle announces that this play contains "the deaths of Penthesilia, Paris, Priam, and Hecuba: The burning of Troy: The deaths of Agamemnon, Menelaus, Clitemnestra, Hellena, Orestes, Egistus [Ægisthus], Pillades, King Diomed, Pyrhus, Cethus, Synon, Thersites, &c.": Heywood seems to have supposed that the body-count was significant. An article by Robert Grant Martin (Modern Philology 16.1 [1918]: 1-10) makes a persuasive claim for including the play in the group of revenge plays; the proposition helps to account for Heywood's bloody additions to his source, William Caxton's translation of Raoul LeFevre's Recuyell of the Histories of Troye. C. W. Marshall has called attention to an edition of this work, "newly corrected by W. Fiston," published in 1596. Similarities to Hamlet and Macbeth may, of course, anticipate as well as echo. Although no claims of earlier performance appear on the title page, Heywood's dedicatory epistle to Thomas Mannering states that Mannering approved it when he "saw it Acted."

ÆNEAS

Present at the discovery of the giant horse, Æneas accepts Synon's treacherous lies and endorses the introduction of the fatal engine into Troy. When the Greeks are inside the city he hurls himself into the fray. He encounters the ghost of Hector, who tells him to escape the destruction of the city so that he can go on to found Rome. In the confusion, he kills his friend Chorebus, who has put on Greek armor as a stratagem to kill more Greeks, then carries his father, Anchises, out of the city, and escapes with 22 ships loaded with compatriots.

AGAMEMNON

Agamemnon opens the play by giving the dead Achilles' arms to the hero's son, Pyrhus. He approves of Synon's plan and leads the Greeks away, then returns at night to enter the opened city. He persuades Menelaus to take Hellen back, as a favor to her sister-in-law, Cassandra, whom he fancies, and joins in the final slaughter of the Trojan royal family by stabbing Andromache. Having returned to Mycene, he is about to take his wife to bed after a ten-year separation when Egistus jumps from hiding and kills him.

AGAMEMNON'S GHOST

As his father's ghost does to Hamlet in the closet scene, the mute spirit of the murdered king appears while Orestes is confronting his mother (although the spirit remains invisible to Clitemnestra); the apparition arouses him to reject his mother's false claims of innocence and kill her.

ANCHISES

A mute character, Aeneas's father, carried on his son's back out of the burning city.

ANDROMACHE

Hector's wife and mother of Astianax, she is killed by Agamemnon in the final slaughter.

ANTHENOR

This Trojan prince appears but takes no significant part in the struggle to save the city, from which he manages to escape with 500 other Trojans.

ASTIANAX

Astianax is the son of Hector and Andromache; in a manner very reminiscent of young Macduff, he offers stout verbal resistance to the triumphant Pyrhus, but is slain.

BRISEUS

A "ghost character"; Cethus uses the fact that Agamemnon took Briseis away from Achilles in his argument to persuade Clitemnestra to murder her husband.

CASSANDRA

Priam's daughter, loved by both Chorephus and Agamemnon, Cassandra (not obviously possessed) escapes from Synon and Thersites only to witness Aeneas' unwitting killing of Chorephus, and is killed by Diomed in Agamemnon's presence when Pyrhus directs the final solution of the Trojan problem.

CETHUS

Prince Cethus (Oeax or some variant of it in the ultimate source, Dictys of Crete, and in every other version of the tale except Caxton's) is the son of the Argonaut King Naulus (more usually Nauplius) of Nauplia, and brother of Palamedes. He is staying with Clitemnestra in Mycene at the end of the war, and vows to avenge his brother's death at the hands of the Greek leaders, Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Ulisses. Frustrated when the Greeks escape the maritime trap he and his father have laid, he persuades his hostess and her lover that they should kill Agamemnon before he discovers their affair and has them killed. When Orestes' bethrothal to Hermione is ruptured by her father, Cethus enrolls the angry youngster in his plot. He forges a letter purporting to be from Menelaus that instates Clitemnestra and Egistus as rulers in Mycene, which allows its bearer, Orestes, to enter their citadel and kill them. Rejoicing at the success of all his schemes, he then urges the maddened youth to reclaim his betrothed, Hermione, from Pyrhus. In the melée that occurs when Orestes attacks the would-be bridegroom, Cethus kills Pillades, Diomed, Menelaus, and Thersites, and wounds Ulisses, and is exulting over the unparalleled extent of his revenge when Synon, who has been pretending to be dead, rises up, and the two malcontents kill each other.

CHOREBUS

A prince, who has joined the Trojans for love of Cassandra, Chorebus is suspicious of the horse. When the treachery is confirmed, he fights bravely, routing Thersites and putting on the armor of a dead Greek so as to meet guile with guile. So disguised, he rescues Cassandra from Synon and Thersites, but then is killed as a Greek by his friend Æneas.

CLYTEMNESTRA

Spelled Clitemnestra in the play. While her husband has been off fighting the Trojans, she has entered into an adulterous relationship with Egistus. Cethus persuades her and her lover that her husband will kill them when he discovers their adultery, and that their only choice is to strike first; they do so, flee from Mycene, and take refuge in a strong citadel, where they plot to kill Orestes and rule all Argos. Orestes and Pillades, in disguise, gain entrance, and Clitemnestra first watches Orestes kill her lover, then is killed in turn by her maddened son.

CRESSIDA

Having betrayed Troilus by loving Diomed, she is persuaded by Synon that the Greek, already married, will only be true to her while the war lasts. She turns to Synon instead, and soon finds herself scorned by all. On her way back to Troy, she asks Penthesilea to kill Synon for her. Having contracted leprosy, she meets Hellen during the Grecian assault, then disappears from the play.

CREUSA

A "ghost character," Aeneas's wife, Creusa is separated from her husband during the fight for Troy and lost.

DIOMED

Synon offers to show this Greek hero that Cressida, whom he has made unfaithful to Troilus, will be unfaithful to him in turn. Synon makes good his boast, and Diomed rejects the wavering Trojan girl. He is one of the soldiers hidden in the horse, and at Pyrhus' behest kills Cassandra in the massacre. He accompanies the sons of Atreus to Mycene, and is killed by Cethus in the final melée.

EGISTUS

Egistus (more usually Ægisthus) has become Clitemnestra's lover during her husband's absence, and is persuaded by Cethus to join the murderous plot. He hides in the royal bedchamber, and as Agamemnon and Clitemnestra are about to be reunited after ten years of separation attacks and fatally wounds the king. He and the queen flee, planning to have Orestes killed and to use their connections with Menelaus to retain the throne. Egistus accepts Cethus' forged letter as real, and admits Orestes and Pillades in disguise to the citadel; he pays for the error with his life.

ELECTRA

Daughter of Agamemnon and Clitemnestra and sister of Orestes, she witnesses the latter's betrothal to Hermione and flirts with his friend Pillades. But the deaths of her father, mother, brother, and lover leave her bereft at the end of the play.

EPEUS

A "ghost character," the brilliant craftsman who builds the Trojan horse.

HECTOR'S GHOST

The shade of the dead Trojan hero encounters Æneas in the midst of the Grecian assault and tells him to escape so as to found a greater city, Rome.

HECUBA

Priam's queen, she watches Pyrhus kill her son and husband, then is pitilessly slaughtered by Thersites.

HELEN

During the Greek attack on Troy, Hellena (so spelled throughout) and Cressida are threatened with death by Pyrhus and Menelaus but saved by the intervention of Agamemnon as a favor to his beloved, Cassandra. After the slaughter of the Trojan royal family she mourns her responsibility for so much death. She returns with the other Greeks to Mycene and is reconciled with her husband, but when Cethus' plot succeeds and most of the Greeks are killed she laments anew that her beauty and the folly it fostered have had such fatal consequences, and hangs herself.

HERMIONE

Hermione is daughter of Hellena and Menelaus, and her betrothal to Orestes seems to augur a fair ending to the tale so bloodily begun by her mother's infidelity. But when her father offers her to Pyrhus instead, the hope fades. At the nuptial altar, Orestes' attack on Pyrhus initiates a fight in which she loses both lovers and both parents; she is left with Electra to mourn at the end.

LAOCOON

Laocoon, the priest of Apollo, proposes to hurl a javelin into the wooden horse and so prove that it conceals Greek warriors. Before he can do so, however, Synon is discovered, and while the Greek is telling his deceitful tale Laocoon is stung to death by serpents.

MENELAUS

The King of Sparta participates in the various council scenes prior to the noctural attack on Troy. Initially prepared to kill his unfaithful wife Hellena, Menelaus is persuaded by his brother Agamemnon to take her back. He is present at the Trojan massacre but is not one of the killers. Having returned home to Mycene, he offers his daughter Hermione, beloved by his nephew Orestes, to Pyrhus. At the wedding, however, during the fight initiated by Orestes, he is killed by the vengeful Cethus.

NAUPLUS

A "ghost character," father of Cethus and Palamades; incensed by reports that the Greek leaders have treacherously branded Palamedes a traitor and contrived his death, he and Cethus try to lure them onto the rocky shores of Nauplia by lighting beacons, which draw many Greeks to their death. The intended victims, however, escape.

NEOPTOLEMUS

Alternative name for Pyrhus.

ORESTES

Orestes is the son of Agamemnon and Clitemnestra. His betrothal to Hermione, daughter of Hellen, is proposed as a happy way to heal the wounds caused by the latter's adultery. When the generals return, however, Menelaus offers his daughter's hand to Pyrhus. In his anger Orestes agrees to join in Cethus' plot. To avenge his father's death, he and Pillades disguise themselves as Spartans, and use Cethus' forged letter to gain entrance to the citadel where the murderers have taken refuge. He learns that they have been plotting his death, kills Egistus, and then, spurred on by his father's ghost, kills his mother. At Cethus' urging, he attacks Pyrhus as the latter is in the process of marrying Hermione; the rivals kill each other.

PALAMEDES

A "ghost character," he was brother of Cethus. Originally chosen by the other Grecian princes to lead the army against Troy, he was falsely accused by Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Ulisses of traitorous communications with the Trojans and murdered, in order that they might take charge. The action provokes Cethus to take remarkably extensive revenge.

PENTHESILEA

Queen of the Amazons, Penthesilea has joined the struggle on the Trojan side for Hector's sake. In the first battle, she challenges and wounds Pyrhus; after routing Synon and Thersites she meets Pyrhus again and is slain by him.

PILLADES

Pillades or Pilades or Pylades is Orestes' friend, and lover of Electra; he is visiting in Mycene when the victorious Greeks return from Troy. He and Orestes, disguised as Menelaus' men, deliver Cethus' forged letter to Clitemnestra and Egistus and are admitted to their citadel on the strength of it. Though horrified by Orestes' matricide, he stays with his crazed friend, but is killed by Cethus during the bloody wedding of Pyrhus and Hermione.

POLITES

Priam's son, killed by Pyrhus before the altar of his ancestors.

POLIXENA

Priam's daughter, killed by Synon in cold blood during the massacre of the Trojan royal family.

PRIAM

King of Troy, he is beguiled by Synon to order that the great horse left behind by the departing Greeks be brought into the city. He watches helplessly as Pyrhus kills Polites, and then is killed with all the remnants of his once-great family.

PYRHUS

In accepting his father Achilles' armor and accoutrements, this young warrior vows not just to defeat but to destroy Troy. He fights Penthesilia and is wounded by her, but keeps the field, and kills his father's killer, Paris; encountering the Amazon again he kills her. He hides in the horse, and in the fighting threatens but spares Hellen, then kills Polites, Priam, and Astaniax himself and orders his companions to kill the rest of the Trojan royal family. When the young conqueror summarizes the heroic achievements of Achilles and others, Thersites slily notes that Pyrhus' own victims are a woman and an old man. Having accompanied Agamemnon and the others to Mycene, he is offered Hermione's hand by Menelaus, and courts the unwilling girl despite Agamemnon's death. Orestes attacks him during the wedding, and they kill each other.

SINON

Spelled Synon throughout the play. A guileful Greek, he can in one speech epically imagine the overthrow of Troy and in the next select Thersites as his boon companion. He boasts to Diomed that he can win Cressida to be his lover, and persuades her to kiss him by revealing that the Greek is already married. He then spurns her, however, and barely escapes death at the hands of her champion, Penthesilia. He devises the strategem of building a giant horse, hiding soldiers in it, pretending that the Greeks armies have sailed away, then having the hidden Greeks open the city to the others after they have secretly returned. He allows himself to be found, bound and apparently abandoned, so as to persuade the Trojans that the horse is an offering to Pallas that ought to be brought inside the city walls; once there, he opens the door and lets Pyrhus, Diomed, and the others out. He captures Cassandra but is driven off by Chorebus, then kills Polixena in gleeful sport. He carries the news of the Greek victory to Mycene, reports that Agamemnon, Menelaus, Hellen, Pyrhus, Diomed, and Ulisses have escaped the shipwrecks that destroyed most of the Greek fleet, and comments acerbly on the murder of Agamemnon and the match between Pyrhus and Hermione. During the nuptial melée, he feigns death (like Falstaff), but rises up to challege the exulting Cethus for the title of greatest scoundrel; they fight, and the two Machiavels kill each other.

THERSITES

A sarcastic coward, Thersites and his new friend Synon are attacked by Penthesilea and run away. During the fighting in Troy he and Synon briefly capture Cassandra. He cynically joins in persuading Menelaus to take Hellen back, and kills the aged Hecuba in cold blood. He survives the hazards of the voyage back to Greece and rejoins Synon in Mycene, where the two act as mocking chorus of the bloody events surrounding Agamemnon's homecoming. Cethus kills him during the marriage of Pyrhus and Hermione.

TROJAN MAN

The first Trojan to observe the Greeks' nocturnal assault, he flees and is presumably killed.

TROJAN WIFE

A Trojan woman who is with her husband when he first hears the Greeks entering the city, she flees and is presumably killed.

TROILUS

A "ghost character," mentioned in connection with Cressida's infidelity and the massacre of the Trojan royalty.

ULYSSES

One of the Greek generals, Ulisses or Ulysses participates in the assault on Troy but takes no major part. He accompanies the other victorious survivors to Mycene, where he joins in discussion of Agamemnon's death. During the catastrophic wedding of Hermione and Pyrhus he is wounded by the vengeful Cethus, but survives to speak the epilogue.

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