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diff --git a/8604-h/8604-h.htm b/8604-h/8604-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ea0493 --- /dev/null +++ b/8604-h/8604-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7990 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The House of Atreus by Aeschylus</title> + +<style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; +font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: +.5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 175%;} +h3 {font-size: 150%;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; + text-align: justify;} + +p.drama {text-indent: 0%; + margin-top: .5em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + line-height: 1.2; + text-align: justify;} + +p.right {text-align: right;} + +p.pfirst {text-indent: 0; } + +span.dropcap { float: left; margin: 0 0.1em 0 0; line-height: .8 } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> +</head> +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The House of Atreus, by Aeschylus</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The House of Atreus</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Aeschylus</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: August, 2005 [eBook #8604]<br /> +[Most recently updated: June 19, 2023]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Ted Garvin, Lorna Hanrahan, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE OF ATREUS ***</div> + +<h1>THE HOUSE OF ATREUS</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">by Aeschylus</h2> + +<h4>BEING</h4> + +<h4>THE AGAMEMNON, THE LIBATION-BEARERS AND THE FURIES</h4> + +<h4>TRANSLATED BY E.D.A. MORSHEAD</h4> + +<hr /> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link01">INTRODUCTORY NOTE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link02">AGAMEMNON</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link03">THE LIBATION-BEARERS</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link04">THE FURIES</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link01"></a>INTRODUCTORY NOTE</h2> + +<p> +Of the life of Aeschylus, the first of the three great masters of Greek +tragedy, only a very meager outline has come down to us. He was born at +Eleusis, near Athens, B. C. 525, the son of Euphorion. Before he was +twenty-five he began to compete for the tragic prize, but did not win a victory +for twelve years. He spent two periods of years in Sicily, where he died in +456, killed, it is said, by a tortoise which an eagle dropped on his head. +Though a professional writer, he did his share of fighting for his country, and +is reported to have taken part in the battles of Marathon, Salamis, and +Plataea. +</p> + +<p> +Of the seventy or eighty plays which he is said to have written, only seven +survive: “The Persians,” dealing with the defeat of Xerxes at Salamis; “The +Seven against Thebes,” part of a tetralogy on the legend of Thebes; “The +Suppliants,” on the daughters of Danaüs; “Prometheus Bound,” part of a trilogy, +of which the first part was probably “Prometheus, the Fire-bringer,” and the +last, “Prometheus Unbound”; and the “Oresteia,” the only example of a complete +Greek tragic trilogy which has come down to us, consisting of “Agamemnon”, +“Choephorae” (The Libation-Bearers), and the “Eumenides” (Furies). +</p> + +<p> +The importance of Aeschylus in the development of the drama is immense. Before +him tragedy had consisted of the chorus and one actor; and by introducing a +second actor, expanding the dramatic dialogue thus made possible, and reducing +the lyrical parts, he practically created Greek tragedy as we understand it. +Like other writers of his time, he acted in his own plays, and trained the +chorus in their dances and songs; and he did much to give impressiveness to the +performances by his development of the accessories of scene and costume on the +stage. Of the four plays here reproduced, “Prometheus Bound” holds an +exceptional place in the literature of the world. (As conceived by Aeschylus, +Prometheus is the champion of man against the oppression of Zeus; and the +argument of the drama has a certain correspondence to the problem of the Book +of Job.) The Oresteian trilogy on “The House of Atreus” is one of the supreme +productions of all literature. It deals with the two great themes of the +retribution of crime and the inheritance of evil; and here again a parallel may +be found between the assertions of the justice of God by Aeschylus and by the +Hebrew prophet Ezekiel. Both contend against the popular idea that the fathers +have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge; both maintain +that the soul that sinneth, it shall die. The nobility of thought and the +majesty of style with which these ideas are set forth give this triple drama +its place at the head of the literary masterpieces of the antique world. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link02"></a>AGAMEMNON</h2> + +<h3>DRAMATIS PERSONAE</h3> + +<p class="drama"> +A WATCHMAN<br/> +A HERALD<br/> +CHORUS<br/> +AGAMEMNON<br/> +AEGISTHUS<br/> +CLYTEMNESTRA<br/> +CASSANDRA +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<i>The Scene is the Palace of Atreus at Mycenae. In front of the Palace stand +statues of the gods, and altars prepared for sacrifices.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<i>A Watchman</i> +</p> + +<p class="pfirst"> +<span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">I</span> +pray the gods to quit me of my toils,<br/> +To close the watch I keep, this livelong year;<br/> +For as a watch-dog lying, not at rest,<br/> +Propped on one arm, upon the palace-roof<br/> +Of Atreus’ race, too long, too well I know<br/> +The starry conclave of the midnight sky,<br/> +Too well, the splendours of the firmament,<br/> +The lords of light, whose kingly aspect shows—<br/> +What time they set or climb the sky in turn—<br/> +The year’s divisions, bringing frost or fire.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +And now, as ever, am I set to mark<br/> +When shall stream up the glow of signal-flame,<br/> +The bale-fire bright, and tell its Trojan tale—<br/> +<i>Troy town is ta’en:</i> such issue holds in hope<br/> +She in whose woman’s breast beats heart of man.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Thus upon mine unrestful couch I lie,<br/> +Bathed with the dews of night, unvisited<br/> +By dreams—ah me!—for in the place of sleep<br/> +Stands Fear as my familiar, and repels<br/> +The soft repose that would mine eyelids seal.<br/> +And if at whiles, for the lost balm of sleep,<br/> +I medicine my soul with melody<br/> +Of trill or song—anon to tears I turn,<br/> +Wailing the woe that broods upon this home,<br/> +Not now by honour guided as of old.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +But now at last fair fall the welcome hour<br/> +That sets me free, whene’er the thick night glow<br/> +With beacon-fire of hope deferred no more.<br/> +All hail!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>A beacon-light is seen reddening the distant sky.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Fire of the night, that brings my spirit day,<br/> +Shedding on Argos light, and dance, and song,<br/> +Greetings to fortune, hail!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Let my loud summons ring within the ears<br/> +Of Agamemnon’s queen, that she anon<br/> +Start from her couch and with a shrill voice cry<br/> +A joyous welcome to the beacon-blaze,<br/> +For Ilion’s fall; such fiery message gleams<br/> +From yon high flame; and I, before the rest,<br/> +Will foot the lightsome measure of our joy;<br/> +For I can say, <i>My master’s dice fell fair—<br/> +Behold! the triple sice, the lucky flame!</i><br/> +Now be my lot to clasp, in loyal love,<br/> +The hand of him restored, who rules our home:<br/> +Home—but I say no more: upon my tongue<br/> +Treads hard the ox o’ the adage.<br/> + Had it voice,<br/> +The home itself might soothliest tell its tale;<br/> +I, of set will, speak words the wise may learn,<br/> +To others, nought remember nor discern.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exit. The chorus of old men of Mycenae enter, each leaning on a +staff. During their song Clytemnestra appears in the background, +kindling the altars. </i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Ten livelong years have rolled away,<br/> +Since the twin lords of sceptred sway,<br/> +By Zeus endowed with pride of place,<br/> +The doughty chiefs of Atreus’ race,<br/> + Went forth of yore,<br/> +To plead with Priam, face to face,<br/> + Before the judgment-seat of War!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +A thousand ships from Argive land<br/> +Put forth to bear the martial band,<br/> +That with a spirit stern and strong<br/> +Went out to right the kingdom’s wrong—<br/> +Pealed, as they went, the battle-song,<br/> + Wild as the vultures’ cry;<br/> +When o’er the eyrie, soaring high,<br/> +In wild bereavèd agony,<br/> +Around, around, in airy rings,<br/> +They wheel with oarage of their wings,<br/> +But not the eyas-brood behold,<br/> +That called them to the nest of old;<br/> +But let Apollo from the sky,<br/> +Or Pan, or Zeus, but hear the cry,<br/> +The exile cry, the wail forlorn,<br/> +Of birds from whom their home is torn—<br/> +On those who wrought the rapine fell,<br/> +Heaven sends the vengeful fiends of hell.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Even so doth Zeus, the jealous lord<br/> +And guardian of the hearth and board,<br/> +Speed Atreus’ sons, in vengeful ire,<br/> +’Gainst Paris—sends them forth on fire,<br/> +Her to buy back, in war and blood,<br/> +Whom one did wed but many woo’d!<br/> +And many, many, by his will,<br/> +The last embrace of foes shall feel,<br/> +And many a knee in dust be bowed,<br/> +And splintered spears on shields ring loud,<br/> + Of Trojan and of Greek, before<br/> + That iron bridal-feast be o’er!<br/> + But as he willed ’tis ordered all,<br/> + And woes, by heaven ordained, must fall—<br/> + Unsoothed by tears or spilth of wine<br/> + Poured forth too late, the wrath divine<br/> + Glares vengeance on the flameless shrine.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + And we in gray dishonoured eld,<br/> + Feeble of frame, unfit were held<br/> + To join the warrior array<br/> + That then went forth unto the fray:<br/> + And here at home we tarry, fain<br/> + Our feeble footsteps to sustain,<br/> + Each on his staff—so strength doth wane,<br/> + And turns to childishness again.<br/> + For while the sap of youth is green,<br/> + And, yet unripened, leaps within,<br/> + The young are weakly as the old,<br/> + And each alike unmeet to hold<br/> + The vantage post of war!<br/> + And ah! when flower and fruit are o’er,<br/> + And on life’s tree the leaves are sere,<br/> + Age wendeth propped its journey drear,<br/> + As forceless as a child, as light<br/> + And fleeting as a dream of night<br/> + Lost in the garish day!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + But thou, O child of Tyndareus,<br/> + Queen Clytemnestra, speak! and say<br/> + What messenger of joy to-day<br/> + Hath won thine ear? what welcome news,<br/> + That thus in sacrificial wise<br/> + E’en to the city’s boundaries<br/> + Thou biddest altar-fires arise?<br/> + Each god who doth our city guard,<br/> + And keeps o’er Argos watch and ward<br/> + From heaven above, from earth below—<br/> + The mighty lords who rule the skies,<br/> + The market’s lesser deities,<br/> + To each and all the altars glow,<br/> + Piled for the sacrifice!<br/> + And here and there, anear, afar,<br/> + Streams skyward many a beacon-star,<br/> + Conjur’d and charm’d and kindled well<br/> + By pure oil’s soft and guileless spell,<br/> + Hid now no more<br/> + Within the palace’ secret store.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + O queen, we pray thee, whatsoe’er,<br/> + Known unto thee, were well revealed,<br/> + That thou wilt trust it to our ear,<br/> + And bid our anxious heart be healed!<br/> + That waneth now unto despair—<br/> + Now, waxing to a presage fair,<br/> + Dawns, from the altar, Hope—to scare<br/> + From our rent hearts the vulture Care.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +List! for the power is mine, to chant on high<br/> + The chiefs’ emprise, the strength that omens gave!<br/> +List! on my soul breathes yet a harmony,<br/> + From realms of ageless powers, and strong to save!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +How brother kings, twin lords of one command,<br/> + Led forth the youth of Hellas in their flower,<br/> +Urged on their way, with vengeful spear and brand,<br/> + By warrior-birds, that watched the parting hour.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<i>Go forth to Troy</i>, the eagles seemed to cry—<br/> + And the sea-kings obeyed the sky-kings’ word,<br/> +When on the right they soared across the sky,<br/> + And one was black, one bore a white tail barred.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +High o’er the palace were they seen to soar,<br/> + Then lit in sight of all, and rent and tare,<br/> +Far from the fields that she should range no more,<br/> + Big with her unborn brood, a mother-hare.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +And one beheld, the soldier-prophet true,<br/> + And the two chiefs, unlike of soul and will,<br/> +In the twy-coloured eagles straight he knew,<br/> + And spake the omen forth, for good and ill.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +(Ah woe and well-a-day! but be the issue fair!) +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<i>Go forth,</i> he cried, <i>and Priam’s town shall fall.<br/> + Yet long the time shall be; and flock and herd,<br/> +The people’s wealth, that roam before the wall.<br/> + Shall force hew down, when Fate shall give the word.</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<i>But O beware! lest wrath in Heaven abide,<br/> + To dim the glowing battle-forge once more,<br/> +And mar the mighty curb of Trojan pride,<br/> + The steel of vengeance, welded as for war!</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<i>For virgin Artemis bears jealous hate<br/> + Against the royal house, the eagle-pair,<br/> +Who rend the unborn brood, insatiate—<br/> + Yea, loathes their banquet on the quivering hare.</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +(Ah woe and well-a-day! but be the issue fair!) +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<i>For well she loves—the goddess kind and mild—<br/> + The tender new-born cubs of lions bold,<br/> +Too weak to range—and well the sucking child<br/> + Of every beast that roams by wood and wold.</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<i>So to the Lord of Heaven she prayeth still,<br/> + “Nay. if it must be, be the omen true!<br/> +Yet do the visioned eagles presage ill;<br/> + The end be well, but crossed with evil too!”</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<i>Healer Apollo! be her wrath controll’d,<br/> + Nor weave the long delay of thwarting gales,<br/> +To war against the Danaans and withhold<br/> + From the free ocean-waves their eager sails!</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<i>She craves, alas! to see a second life<br/> + Shed forth, a curst unhallowed sacrifice—<br/> +’Twixt wedded souls, artificer of strife,<br/> + And hate that knows not fear, and fell device.</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<i>At home there tarries like a lurking snake,<br/> + Biding its time, a wrath unreconciled,<br/> + A wily watcher, passionate to slake,<br/> + In blood, resentment for a murdered child.</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Such was the mighty warning, pealed of yore—<br/> + Amid good tidings, such the word of fear,<br/> +What time the fateful eagles hovered o’er<br/> + The kings, and Calchas read the omen clear.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +(In strains like his, once more,<br/> +Sing woe and well-a-day! but be the issue fair!)<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Zeus—if to The Unknown<br/> + That name of many names seem good—<br/> + Zeus, upon Thee I call.<br/> + Thro’ the mind’s every road<br/> + I passed, but vain are all,<br/> + Save that which names thee Zeus, the Highest One,<br/> + Were it but mine to cast away the load,<br/> +The weary load, that weighs my spirit down.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + He that was Lord of old,<br/> +In full-blown pride of place and valour bold,<br/> + Hath fallen and is gone, even as an old tale told!<br/> + And he that next held sway,<br/> + By stronger grasp o’erthrown<br/> + Hath pass’d away!<br/> +And whoso now shall bid the triumph-chant arise<br/> + To Zeus, and Zeus alone,<br/> +He shall be found the truly wise.<br/> +’Tis Zeus alone who shows the perfect way<br/> + Of knowledge: He hath ruled,<br/> +Men shall learn wisdom, by affliction schooled.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + In visions of the night, like dropping rain,<br/> + Descend the many memories of pain<br/> +Before the spirit’s sight: through tears and dole<br/> + Comes wisdom o’er the unwilling soul—<br/> + A boon, I wot, of all Divinity,<br/> +That holds its sacred throne in strength, above the sky!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + And then the elder chief, at whose command<br/> + The fleet of Greece was manned,<br/> + Cast on the seer no word of hate,<br/> + But veered before the sudden breath of Fate—<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Ah, weary while! for, ere they put forth sail,<br/> + Did every store, each minish’d vessel, fail,<br/> + While all the Achaean host<br/> + At Aulis anchored lay,<br/> + Looking across to Chalics and the coast<br/> + Where refluent waters welter, rock, and sway;<br/> + And rife with ill delay<br/> + From northern Strymon blew the thwarting blast—<br/> + Mother of famine fell,<br/> + That holds men wand’ring still<br/> + Far from the haven where they fain would be!—<br/> + And pitiless did waste<br/> + Each ship and cable, rotting on the sea,<br/> + And, doubling with delay each weary hour,<br/> +Withered with hope deferred th’ Achaeans’ warlike flower.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + But when, for bitter storm, a deadlier relief,<br/> + And heavier with ill to either chief,<br/> +Pleading the ire of Artemis, the seer avowed,<br/> + The two Atridae smote their sceptres on the plain,<br/> + And, striving hard, could not their tears restrain!<br/> + And then the elder monarch spake aloud—<br/> + <i>Ill lot were mine, to disobey!<br/> + And ill, to smite my child, my household’s love and pride!<br/> + To stain with virgin blood a father’s hands, and slay<br/> + My daughter, by the altar’s side!<br/> + ’Twixt woe and woe I dwell—<br/> + I dare not like a recreant fly,<br/> +And leave the league of ships, and fail each true ally;<br/> + For rightfully they crave, with eager fiery mind,<br/> + The virgin’s blood, shed forth to lull the adverse wind—<br/> + God send the deed be well!</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Thus on his neck he took<br/> + Fate’s hard compelling yoke;<br/> +Then, in the counter-gale of will abhorr’d, accursed,<br/> + To recklessness his shifting spirit veered—<br/> + Alas! that Frenzy, first of ills and worst,<br/> +With evil craft men’s souls to sin hath ever stirred!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + And so he steeled his heart—ah, well-a-day—<br/> + Aiding a war for one false woman’s sake,<br/> + His child to slay,<br/> + And with her spilt blood make<br/> +An offering, to speed the ships upon their way!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Lusting for war, the bloody arbiters<br/> +Closed heart and ears, and would nor hear nor heed<br/> + The girl-voice plead,<br/> + <i>Pity me, Father!</i> nor her prayers,<br/> + Nor tender, virgin years.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + So, when the chant of sacrifice was done,<br/> + Her father bade the youthful priestly train<br/> +Raise her, like some poor kid, above the altar-stone,<br/> + From where amid her robes she lay<br/> + Sunk all in swoon away—<br/> +Bade them, as with the bit that mutely tames the steed,<br/> + Her fair lips’ speech refrain,<br/> +Lest she should speak a curse on Atreus’ home and seed,<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + So, trailing on the earth her robe of saffron dye,<br/> + With one last piteous dart from her beseeching eye<br/> + Those that should smite she smote—<br/> + Fair, silent, as a pictur’d form, but fain<br/> + To plead, <i>Is all forgot?<br/> +How oft those halls of old,<br/> +Wherein my sire high feast did hold,</i><br/> + <i>Rang to the virginal soft strain,<br/> + When I, a stainless child,<br/> + Sang from pure lips and undefiled,<br/> + Sang of my sire, and all<br/> +His honoured life, and how on him should fall<br/> + Heaven’s highest gift and gain!</i><br/> + And then—but I beheld not, nor can tell,<br/> + What further fate befel:<br/> + But this is sure, that Calchas’ boding strain<br/> + Can ne’er be void or vain.<br/> + This wage from Justice’ hand do sufferers earn,<br/> + The future to discern:<br/> + And yet—farewell, O secret of To-morrow!<br/> + Fore-knowledge is fore-sorrow.<br/> + Clear with the clear beams of the morrow’s sun,<br/> + The future presseth on.<br/> + Now, let the house’s tale, how dark soe’er,<br/> + Find yet an issue fair!—<br/> + So prays the loyal, solitary band<br/> + That guards the Apian land.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>They turn to Clytemnestra, who leaves the altars and comes +forward.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +O queen, I come in reverence of thy sway—<br/> +For, while the ruler’s kingly seat is void,<br/> +The loyal heart before his consort bends.<br/> +Now—be it sure and certain news of good,<br/> +Or the fair tidings of a flatt’ring hope,<br/> +That bids thee spread the light from shrine to shrine,<br/> +I, fain to hear, yet grudge not if thou hide.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +As saith the adage, <i>From the womb of Night<br/> +Spring forth, with promise fair, the young child Light.</i><br/> +Ay—fairer even than all hope my news—<br/> +By Grecian hands is Priam’s city ta’en!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +What say’st thou? doubtful heart makes treach’rous ear. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Hear then again, and plainly—Troy is ours! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Thrills thro’ my heart such joy as wakens tears. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Ay, thro’ those tears thine eye looks loyalty. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +But hast thou proof, to make assurance sure? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Go to; I have—unless the god has lied. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Hath some night-vision won thee to belief? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Out on all presage of a slumb’rous soul! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +But wert thou cheered by Rumour’s wingless word? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Peace—thou dost chide me as a credulous girl. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Say then, how long ago the city fell? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Even in this night that now brings forth the dawn. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Yet who so swift could speed the message here? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +From Ida’s top Hephaestus, lord of fire,<br/> +Sent forth his sign; and on, and ever on,<br/> +Beacon to beacon sped the courier-flame.<br/> +From Ida to the crag, that Hermes loves,<br/> +Of Lemnos; thence unto the steep sublime<br/> +Of Athos, throne of Zeus, the broad blaze flared.<br/> +Thence, raised aloft to shoot across the sea,<br/> +The moving light, rejoicing in its strength,<br/> +Sped from the pyre of pine, and urged its way,<br/> +In golden glory, like some strange new sun,<br/> +Onward, and reached Macistus’ watching heights.<br/> +There, with no dull delay nor heedless sleep,<br/> +The watcher sped the tidings on in turn,<br/> +Until the guard upon Messapius’ peak<br/> +Saw the far flame gleam on Euripus’ tide,<br/> +And from the high-piled heap of withered furze<br/> +Lit the new sign and bade the message on.<br/> +Then the strong light, far flown and yet undimmed,<br/> +Shot thro’ the sky above Asopus’ plain,<br/> +Bright as the moon, and on Cithaeron’s crag<br/> +Aroused another watch of flying fire.<br/> +And there the sentinels no whit disowned,<br/> +But sent redoubled on, the hest of flame—<br/> +Swift shot the light, above Gorgopis’ bay,<br/> +To Aegiplanctus’ mount, and bade the peak<br/> +Fail not the onward ordinance of fire.<br/> +And like a long beard streaming in the wind,<br/> +Full-fed with fuel, roared and rose the blaze,<br/> +And onward flaring, gleamed above the cape,<br/> +Beneath which shimmers the Saronic bay,<br/> +And thence leapt light unto Arachne’s peak,<br/> +The mountain watch that looks upon our town.<br/> +Thence to th’ Atrides’ roof—in lineage fair,<br/> +A bright posterity of Ida’s fire.<br/> +So sped from stage to stage, fulfilled in turn,<br/> +Flame after flame, along the course ordained,<br/> +And lo! the last to speed upon its way<br/> +Sights the end first, and glows unto the goal.<br/> +And Troy is ta’en, and by this sign my lord<br/> +Tells me the tale, and ye have learned my word.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +To heaven, O queen, will I upraise new song:<br/> +But, wouldst thou speak once more, I fain would hear<br/> +From first to last the marvel of the tale.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Think you—this very morn—the Greeks in Troy,<br/> +And loud therein the voice of utter wail!<br/> +Within one cup pour vinegar and oil,<br/> +And look! unblent, unreconciled, they war.<br/> +So in the twofold issue of the strife<br/> +Mingle the victor’s shout, the captives’ moan.<br/> +For all the conquered whom the sword has spared<br/> +Cling weeping—some unto a brother slain,<br/> +Some childlike to a nursing father’s form,<br/> +And wail the loved and lost, the while their neck<br/> +Bows down already ’neath the captive’s chain.<br/> +And lo! the victors, now the fight is done,<br/> +Goaded by restless hunger, far and wide<br/> +Range all disordered thro’ the town, to snatch<br/> +Such victual and such rest as chance may give<br/> +Within the captive halls that once were Troy—<br/> +Joyful to rid them of the frost and dew,<br/> +Wherein they couched upon the plain of old—<br/> +Joyful to sleep the gracious night all through,<br/> +Unsummoned of the watching sentinel.<br/> +Yet let them reverence well the city’s gods,<br/> +The lords of Troy, tho’ fallen, and her shrines;<br/> +So shall the spoilers not in turn be spoiled.<br/> +Yea, let no craving for forbidden gain<br/> +Bid conquerors yield before the darts of greed.<br/> +For we need yet, before the race be won,<br/> +Homewards, unharmed, to round the course once more.<br/> +For should the host wax wanton ere it come,<br/> +Then, tho’ the sudden blow of fate be spared,<br/> +Yet in the sight of gods shall rise once more<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +The great wrong of the slain, to claim revenge.<br/> +Now, hearing from this woman’s mouth of mine,<br/> +The tale and eke its warning, pray with me,<br/> +<i>Luck sway the scale, with no uncertain poise.<br/> +For my fair hopes are changed to fairer joys.</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +A gracious word thy woman’s lips have told,<br/> +Worthy a wise man’s utterance, O my queen;<br/> +Now with clear trust in thy convincing tale<br/> +I set me to salute the gods with song,<br/> +Who bring us bliss to counterpoise our pain.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exit Clytemnestra.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Zeus, Lord of heaven! and welcome night<br/> +Of victory, that hast our might<br/> + With all the glories crowned!<br/> +On towers of Ilion, free no more,<br/> +Hast flung the mighty mesh of war,<br/> + And closely girt them round,<br/> +Till neither warrior may ’scape,<br/> +Nor stripling lightly overleap<br/> +The trammels as they close, and close,<br/> +Till with the grip of doom our foes<br/> + In slavery’s coil are bound!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Zeus, Lord of hospitality,<br/> +In grateful awe I bend to thee—<br/> + ’Tis thou hast struck the blow!<br/> + At Alexander, long ago,<br/> + We marked thee bend thy vengeful bow,<br/> +But long and warily withhold<br/> +The eager shaft, which, uncontrolled<br/> +And loosed too soon or launched too high,<br/> +Had wandered bloodless through the sky.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Zeus, the high God!—whate’er be dim in doubt,<br/> + This can our thought track out—<br/> +The blow that fells the sinner is of God,<br/> + And as he wills, the rod<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Of vengeance smiteth sore. One said of old,<br/> + <i>The gods list not to hold<br/> +A reckoning with him whose feet oppress<br/> + The grace of holiness—</i><br/> +An impious word! for whensoe’er the sire<br/> + Breathed forth rebellious fire—<br/> +What time his household overflowed the measure<br/> + Of bliss and health and treasure—<br/> +His children’s children read the reckoning plain,<br/> + At last, in tears and pain.<br/> +On me let weal that brings no woe be sent,<br/> + And therewithal, content!<br/> +Who spurns the shrine of Right, nor wealth nor power<br/> + Shall be to him a tower,<br/> +To guard him from the gulf: there lies his lot,<br/> + Where all things are forgot.<br/> +Lust drives him on—lust, desperate and wild,<br/> + Fate’s sin-contriving child—<br/> +And cure is none; beyond concealment clear,<br/> + Kindles sin’s baleful glare.<br/> +As an ill coin beneath the wearing touch<br/> + Betrays by stain and smutch<br/> +Its metal false—such is the sinful wight.<br/> + Before, on pinions light,<br/> +Fair Pleasure flits, and lures him childlike on,<br/> + While home and kin make moan<br/> +Beneath the grinding burden of his crime;<br/> + Till, in the end of time,<br/> +Cast down of heaven, he pours forth fruitless prayer<br/> + To powers that will not hear.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + And such did Paris come<br/> + Unto Atrides’ home,<br/> +And thence, with sin and shame his welcome to repay,<br/> + Ravished the wife away—<br/> +And she, unto her country and her kin<br/> +Leaving the clash of shields and spears and arming ships,<br/> +And bearing unto Troy destruction for a dower,<br/> + And overbold in sin,<br/> +Went fleetly thro’ the gates, at midnight hour.<br/> + Oft from the prophets’ lips<br/> +Moaned out the warning and the wail—Ah woe!<br/> +Woe for the home, the home! and for the chieftains, woe<br/> + Woe for the bride-bed, warm<br/> +Yet from the lovely limbs, the impress of the form<br/> + Of her who loved her lord, a while ago!<br/> + And woe! for him who stands<br/> +Shamed, silent, unreproachful, stretching hands<br/> + That find her not, and sees, yet will not see,<br/> + That she is far away!<br/> +And his sad fancy, yearning o’er the sea,<br/> + Shall summon and recall<br/> +Her wraith, once more to queen it in his hall.<br/> + And sad with many memories,<br/> +The fair cold beauty of each sculptured face—<br/> + And all to hatefulness is turned their grace,<br/> +Seen blankly by forlorn and hungering eyes!<br/> + And when the night is deep,<br/> +Come visions, sweet and sad, and bearing pain<br/> + Of hopings vain—<br/> +Void, void and vain, for scarce the sleeping sight<br/> + Has seen its old delight,<br/> +When thro’ the grasps of love that bid it stay<br/> + It vanishes away<br/> +On silent wings that roam adown the ways of sleep.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Such are the sights, the sorrows fell,<br/> +About our hearth—and worse, whereof I may not tell.<br/> + But, all the wide town o’er,<br/> +Each home that sent its master far away<br/> + From Hellas’ shore,<br/> +Feels the keen thrill of heart, the pang of loss, to-day.<br/> + For, truth to say,<br/> +The touch of bitter death is manifold!<br/> +Familiar was each face, and dear as life,<br/> + That went unto the war,<br/> +But thither, whence a warrior went of old,<br/> + Doth nought return—<br/> +Only a spear and sword, and ashes in an urn!<br/> + For Ares, lord of strife,<br/> +Who doth the swaying scales of battle hold,<br/> +War’s money-changer, giving dust for gold,<br/> + Sends back, to hearts that held them dear,<br/> +Scant ash of warriors, wept with many a tear,<br/> +Light to the hand, but heavy to the soul;<br/> + Yea, fills the light urn full<br/> + With what survived the flame—<br/> +Death’s dusty measure of a hero’s frame!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<i>Alas!</i> one cries, <i>and yet alas again!<br/> +Our chief is gone, the hero of the spear,<br/> + And hath not left his peer!<br/> +Ah woe!</i> another moans—<i>my spouse is slain,<br/> + The death of honour, rolled in dust and blood,<br/> +Slain for a woman’s sin, a false wife’s shame!</i><br/> + Such muttered words of bitter mood<br/> +Rise against those who went forth to reclaim;<br/> + Yea, jealous wrath creeps on against th’ Atrides’ name.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + And others, far beneath the Ilian wall,<br/> + Sleep their last sleep—the goodly chiefs and tall,<br/> + Couched in the foeman’s land, whereon they gave<br/> +Their breath, and lords of Troy, each in his Trojan grave.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Therefore for each and all the city’s breast<br/> + Is heavy with a wrath supprest,<br/> +As deep and deadly as a curse more loud<br/> + Flung by the common crowd;<br/> +And, brooding deeply, doth my soul await<br/> + Tidings of coming fate,<br/> +Buried as yet in darkness’ womb.<br/> +For not forgetful is the high gods’ doom<br/> + Against the sons of carnage: all too long<br/> +Seems the unjust to prosper and be strong,<br/> + Till the dark Furies come,<br/> +And smite with stern reversal all his home,<br/> + Down into dim obstruction—he is gone,<br/> +And help and hope, among the lost, is none!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +O’er him who vaunteth an exceeding fame,<br/> + Impends a woe condign;<br/> +The vengeful bolt upon his eyes doth flame,<br/> + Sped from the hand divine.<br/> +This bliss be mine, ungrudged of God, to feel—<br/> + To tread no city to the dust,<br/> + Nor see my own life thrust<br/> +Down to a slave’s estate beneath another’s heel!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Behold, throughout the city wide<br/> +Have the swift feet of Rumour hied,<br/> + Roused by the joyful flame:<br/> +But is the news they scatter, sooth?<br/> +Or haply do they give for truth<br/> + Some cheat which heaven doth frame?<br/> +A child were he and all unwise,<br/> + Who let his heart with joy be stirred,<br/> +To see the beacon-fires arise,<br/> + And then, beneath some thwarting word,<br/> + Sicken anon with hope deferred.<br/> + The edge of woman’s insight still<br/> + Good news from true divideth ill;<br/> +Light rumours leap within the bound<br/> +That fences female credence round,<br/> +But, lightly born, as lightly dies<br/> +The tale that springs of her surmise.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Soon shall we know whereof the bale-fires tell,<br/> +The beacons, kindled with transmitted flame;<br/> +Whether, as well I deem, their tale is true.<br/> +Or whether like some dream delusive came<br/> +The welcome blaze but to befool our soul.<br/> +For lo! I see a herald from the shore<br/> +Draw hither, shadowed with the olive-wreath—<br/> +And thirsty dust, twin-brother of the clay,<br/> +Speaks plain of travel far and truthful news—<br/> +No dumb surmise, nor tongue of flame in smoke,<br/> +Fitfully kindled from the mountain pyre;<br/> +But plainlier shall his voice say, <i>All is well,</i><br/> +Or—but away, forebodings adverse, now,<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +And on fair promise fair fulfilment come!<br/> +And whoso for the state prays otherwise,<br/> +Himself reap harvest of his ill desire!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<i>Enter</i> <b>HERALD</b><br/> +O land of Argos, fatherland of mine!<br/> +To thee at last, beneath the tenth year’s sun,<br/> +My feet return; the bark of my emprise,<br/> +Tho’ one by one hope’s anchors broke away,<br/> +Held by the last, and now rides safely here.<br/> +Long, long my soul despaired to win, in death,<br/> +Its longed-for rest within our Argive land:<br/> +And now all hail, O earth, and hail to thee,<br/> +New-risen sun! and hail our country’s God,<br/> +High-ruling Zeus, and thou, the Pythian lord,<br/> +Whose arrows smote us once—smite thou no more!<br/> +Was not thy wrath wreaked full upon our heads,<br/> +O king Apollo, by Scamander’s side?<br/> +Turn thou, be turned, be saviour, healer, now!<br/> +And hail, all gods who rule the street and mart<br/> +And Hermes hail! my patron and my pride,<br/> +Herald of heaven, and lord of heralds here!<br/> +And Heroes, ye who sped us on our way—<br/> +To one and all I cry, <i>Receive again<br/> +With grace such Argives as the spear has spared.</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Ah, home of royalty, beloved halls,<br/> +And solemn shrines, and gods that front the morn!<br/> +Benign as erst, with sun-flushed aspect greet<br/> +The king returning after many days.<br/> +For as from night flash out the beams of day,<br/> +So out of darkness dawns a light, a king,<br/> +On you, on Argos—Agamemnon comes.<br/> +Then hail and greet him well! such meed befits<br/> +Him whose right hand hewed down the towers of Troy<br/> +With the great axe of Zeus who righteth wrong—<br/> +And smote the plain, smote down to nothingness<br/> +Each altar, every shrine; and far and wide<br/> +Dies from the whole land’s face its offspring fair.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Such mighty yoke of fate he set on Troy—<br/> +Our lord and monarch, Atreus’ elder son,<br/> +And comes at last with blissful honour home;<br/> +Highest of all who walk on earth to-day—<br/> +Not Paris nor the city’s self that paid<br/> +Sin’s price with him, can boast, <i>Whate’er befal,<br/> +The guerdon we have won outweighs it all.</i><br/> +But at Fate’s judgment-seat the robber stands<br/> +Condemned of rapine, and his prey is torn<br/> +Forth from his hands, and by his deed is reaped<br/> +A bloody harvest of his home and land<br/> +Gone down to death, and for his guilt and lust<br/> +His father’s race pays double in the dust.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Hail, herald of the Greeks, new-come from war. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>HERALD</b><br/> +All hail! not death itself can fright me now. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Was thine heart wrung with longing for thy land? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>HERALD</b><br/> +So that this joy doth brim mine eyes with tears. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +On you too then this sweet distress did fall— +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>HERALD</b><br/> +How say’st thou? make me master of thy word. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +You longed for us who pined for you again. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>HERALD</b><br/> +Craved the land us who craved it, love for love? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Yea till my brooding heart moaned out with pain. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>HERALD</b><br/> +Whence thy despair, that mars the army’s joy? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +<i>Sole cure of wrong is silence,</i> saith the saw. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>HERALD</b><br/> +Thy kings afar, couldst thou fear other men? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Death had been sweet, as thou didst say but now. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>HERALD</b><br/> +’Tis true; Fate smiles at last. Throughout our toil,<br/> +These many years, some chances issued fair,<br/> +And some, I wot, were chequered with a curse.<br/> +But who, on earth, hath won the bliss of heaven,<br/> +Thro’ time’s whole tenor an unbroken weal?<br/> +I could a tale unfold of toiling oars,<br/> +Ill rest, scant landings on a shore rock-strewn,<br/> +All pains, all sorrows, for our daily doom.<br/> +And worse and hatefuller our woes on land;<br/> +For where we couched, close by the foeman’s wall,<br/> +The river-plain was ever dank with dews,<br/> +Dropped from the sky, exuded from the earth,<br/> +A curse that clung unto our sodden garb,<br/> +And hair as horrent as a wild beast’s fell.<br/> +Why tell the woes of winter, when the birds<br/> +Lay stark and stiff, so stern was Ida’s snow?<br/> +Or summer’s scorch, what time the stirless wave<br/> +Sank to its sleep beneath the noon-day sun?<br/> +Why mourn old woes? their pain has passed away;<br/> +And passed away, from those who fell, all care,<br/> +For evermore, to rise and live again.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Why sum the count of death, and render thanks<br/> +For life by moaning over fate malign?<br/> +Farewell, a long farewell to all our woes!<br/> +To us, the remnant of the host of Greece,<br/> +Comes weal beyond all counterpoise of woe;<br/> +Thus boast we rightfully to yonder sun,<br/> +Like him far-fleeted over sea and land.<br/> +<i>The Argive host prevailed to conquer Troy,<br/> +And in the temples of the gods of Greece<br/> +Hung up these spoils, a shining sign to Time.</i><br/> +Let those who learn this legend bless aright<br/> +The city and its chieftains, and repay<br/> +The meed of gratitude to Zeus who willed<br/> +And wrought the deed. So stands the tale fulfilled.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Thy words o’erbear my doubt: for news of good,<br/> +The ear of age hath ever youth enow:<br/> +But those within and Clytemnestra’s self<br/> +Would fain hear all; glad thou their ears and mine.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<i>Re-enter</i> <b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Last night, when first the fiery courier came,<br/> +In sign that Troy is ta’en and razed to earth,<br/> +So wild a cry of joy my lips gave out,<br/> +That I was chidden—<i>Hath the beacon watch<br/> +Made sure unto thy soul the sack of Troy?<br/> +A very woman thou, whose heart leaps light<br/> +At wandering rumours!</i>—and with words like these<br/> +They showed me how I strayed, misled of hope.<br/> +Yet on each shrine I set the sacrifice,<br/> +And, in the strain they held for feminine,<br/> +Went heralds thro’ the city, to and fro,<br/> +With voice of loud proclaim, announcing joy;<br/> +And in each fane they lit and quenched with wine<br/> +The spicy perfumes fading in the flame.<br/> +All is fulfilled: I spare your longer tale—<br/> +The king himself anon shall tell me all.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Remains to think what honour best may greet<br/> +My lord, the majesty of Argos, home.<br/> +What day beams fairer on a woman’s eyes<br/> +Than this, whereon she flings the portal wide,<br/> +To hail her lord, heaven-shielded, home from war?<br/> +This to my husband, that he tarry not,<br/> +But turn the city’s longing into joy!<br/> +Yea, let him come, and coming may he find<br/> +A wife no other than he left her, true<br/> +And faithful as a watch-dog to his home,<br/> +His foemen’s foe, in all her duties leal,<br/> +Trusty to keep for ten long years unmarred<br/> +The store whereon he set his master-seal.<br/> +Be steel deep-dyed, before ye look to see<br/> +Ill joy, ill fame, from other wight, in me!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>HERALD</b><br/> +’Tis fairly said: thus speaks a noble dame,<br/> +Nor speaks amiss, when truth informs the boast.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exit Clytemnestra.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +So has she spoken—be it yours to learn<br/> +By clear interpreters her specious word.<br/> +Turn to me, herald—tell me if anon<br/> +The second well-loved lord of Argos comes?<br/> +Hath Menelaus safely sped with you?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>HERALD</b><br/> +Alas—brief boon unto my friends it were,<br/> +To flatter them, for truth, with falsehoods fair!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Speak joy, if truth be joy, but truth, at worst—<br/> +Too plainly, truth and joy are here divorced. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>HERALD</b><br/> +The hero and his bark were rapt away<br/> +Far from the Grecian fleet? ’tis truth I say.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Whether in all men’s sight from Ilion borne,<br/> +Or from the fleet by stress of weather torn?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>HERALD</b><br/> +Full on the mark thy shaft of speech doth light,<br/> +And one short word hath told long woes aright.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +But say, what now of him each comrade saith?<br/> +What their forebodings, of his life or death?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>HERALD</b><br/> +Ask me no more: the truth is known to none,<br/> +Save the earth-fostering, all-surveying Sun,<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Say, by what doom the fleet of Greece was driven?<br/> +How rose, how sank the storm, the wrath of heaven?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>HERALD</b><br/> +Nay, ill it were to mar with sorrow’s tale<br/> +The day of blissful news. The gods demand<br/> +Thanksgiving sundered from solicitude.<br/> +If one as herald came with rueful face<br/> +To say, <i>The curse has fallen, and the host<br/> +Gone down to death; and one wide wound has reached<br/> +The city’s heart, and out of many homes<br/> +Many are cast and consecrate to death,<br/> +Beneath the double scourge, that Ares loves,<br/> +The bloody pair, the fire and sword of doom</i>—<br/> +If such sore burden weighed upon my tongue,<br/> +’Twere fit to speak such words as gladden fiends.<br/> +But—coming as he comes who bringeth news<br/> +Of safe return from toil, and issues fair,<br/> +To men rejoicing in a weal restored—<br/> +Dare I to dash good words with ill, and say<br/> +How the gods’ anger smote the Greeks in storm?<br/> +For fire and sea, that erst held bitter feud,<br/> +Now swore conspiracy and pledged their faith,<br/> +Wasting the Argives worn with toil and war.<br/> +Night and great horror of the rising wave<br/> +Came o’er us, and the blasts that blow from Thrace<br/> +Clashed ship with ship, and some with plunging prow<br/> +Thro’ scudding drifts of spray and raving storm<br/> +Vanished, as strays by some ill shepherd driven.<br/> +And when at length the sun rose bright, we saw<br/> +Th’ Aegaean sea-field flecked with flowers of death,<br/> +Corpses of Grecian men and shattered hulls.<br/> +For us indeed, some god, as well I deem,<br/> +No human power, laid hand upon our helm,<br/> +Snatched us or prayed us from the powers of air,<br/> +And brought our bark thro’ all, unharmed in hull:<br/> +And saving Fortune sat and steered us fair,<br/> +So that no surge should gulf us deep in brine,<br/> +Nor grind our keel upon a rocky shore.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +So ’scaped we death that lurks beneath the sea,<br/> +But, under day’s white light, mistrustful all<br/> +Of fortune’s smile, we sat and brooded deep,<br/> +Shepherds forlorn of thoughts that wandered wild,<br/> +O’er this new woe; for smitten was our host,<br/> +And lost as ashes scattered from the pyre.<br/> +Of whom if any draw his life-breath yet,<br/> +Be well assured, he deems of us as dead,<br/> +As we of him no other fate forebode.<br/> +But heaven save all! If Menelaus live,<br/> +He will not tarry, but will surely come:<br/> +Therefore if anywhere the high sun’s ray<br/> +Descries him upon earth, preserved by Zeus,<br/> +Who wills not yet to wipe his race away,<br/> +Hope still there is that homeward he may wend.<br/> +Enough—thou hast the truth unto the end.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Say, from whose lips the presage fell?<br/> + Who read the future all too well,<br/> + And named her, in her natal hour,<br/> + Helen, the bride with war for dower?<br/> + ’Twas one of the Invisible,<br/> + Guiding his tongue with prescient power.<br/> + On fleet, and host, and citadel,<br/> + War, sprung from her, and death did lour,<br/> + When from the bride-bed’s fine-spun veil<br/> + She to the Zephyr spread her sail.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Strong blew the breeze—the surge closed o’er<br/> + The cloven track of keel and oar,<br/> + But while she fled, there drove along,<br/> + Fast in her wake, a mighty throng—<br/> + Athirst for blood, athirst for war,<br/> + Forward in fell pursuit they sprung,<br/> + Then leapt on Simois’ bank ashore,<br/> + The leafy coppices among—<br/> + No rangers, they, of wood and field,<br/> + But huntsmen of the sword and shield.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Heaven’s jealousy, that works its will,<br/> + Sped thus on Troy its destined ill,<br/> + Well named, at once, the Bride and Bane;<br/> + And loud rang out the bridal strain;<br/> + But they to whom that song befel<br/> + Did turn anon to tears again;<br/> + Zeus tarries, but avenges still<br/> + The husband’s wrong, the household’s stain!<br/> + He, the hearth’s lord, brooks not to see<br/> + Its outraged hospitality.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Even now, and in far other tone,<br/> + Troy chants her dirge of mighty moan,<br/> + <i>Woe upon Paris, woe and hate!<br/> + Who wooed his country’s doom for mate</i>—<br/> +This is the burthen of the groan,<br/> + Wherewith she wails disconsolate<br/> +The blood, so many of her own<br/> + Have poured in vain, to fend her fate;<br/> +Troy! thou hast fed and freed to roam<br/> +A lion-cub within thy home!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +A suckling creature, newly ta’en<br/> +From mother’s teat, still fully fain<br/> + Of nursing care; and oft caressed,<br/> + Within the arms, upon the breast,<br/> +Even as an infant, has it lain;<br/> + Or fawns and licks, by hunger pressed,<br/> +The hand that will assuage its pain;<br/> + In life’s young dawn, a well-loved guest,<br/> +A fondling for the children’s play,<br/> +A joy unto the old and gray.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +But waxing time and growth betrays<br/> +The blood-thirst of the lion-race,<br/> + And, for the house’s fostering care,<br/> + Unbidden all, it revels there,<br/> +And bloody recompense repays—<br/> + Rent flesh of tine, its talons tare:<br/> +A mighty beast, that slays and slays,<br/> + And mars with blood the household fair,<br/> +A God-sent pest invincible,<br/> +A minister of fate and hell.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Even so to Ilion’s city came by stealth<br/> + A spirit as of windless seas and skies,<br/> + A gentle phantom-form of joy and wealth,<br/> + With love’s soft arrows speeding from its eyes—<br/> +Love’s rose, whose thorn doth pierce the soul in subtle wise.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Ah, well-a-day! the bitter bridal-bed,<br/> + When the fair mischief lay by Paris’ side!<br/> +What curse on palace and on people sped<br/> + With her, the Fury sent on Priam’s pride,<br/> +By angered Zeus! what tears of many a widowed bride!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Long, long ago to mortals this was told,<br/> + How sweet security and blissful state<br/> + Have curses for their children—so men hold—<br/> + And for the man of all-too prosperous fate<br/> +Springs from a bitter seed some woe insatiate.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Alone, alone, I deem far otherwise;<br/> + Not bliss nor wealth it is, but impious deed,<br/> + From which that after-growth of ill doth rise!<br/> + Woe springs from wrong, the plant is like the seed—<br/> +While Right, in honour’s house, doth its own likeness breed.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Some past impiety, some gray old crime,<br/> + Breeds the young curse, that wantons in our ill,<br/> + Early or late, when haps th’ appointed time—<br/> + And out of light brings power of darkness still,<br/> +A master-fiend, a foe, unseen, invincible;<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + A pride accursed, that broods upon the race<br/> + And home in which dark Atè holds her sway—<br/> + Sin’s child and Woe’s, that wears its parents’ face;<br/> + While Right in smoky cribs shines clear as day,<br/> +And decks with weal his life, who walks the righteous way.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + From gilded halls, that hands polluted raise,<br/> + Right turns away with proud averted eyes,<br/> + And of the wealth, men stamp amiss with praise,<br/> + Heedless, to poorer, holier temples hies,<br/> +And to Fate’s goal guides all, in its appointed wise.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Hail to thee, chief of Atreus’ race,<br/> + Returning proud from Troy subdued!<br/> +How shall I greet thy conquering face?<br/> +How nor a fulsome praise obtrude,<br/> +Nor stint the meed of gratitude?<br/> +For mortal men who fall to ill<br/> +Take little heed of open truth,<br/> +But seek unto its semblance still:<br/> +The show of weeping and of ruth<br/> +To the forlorn will all men pay,<br/> +But, of the grief their eyes display,<br/> +Nought to the heart doth pierce its way.<br/> +And, with the joyous, they beguile<br/> +Their lips unto a feigned smile,<br/> +And force a joy, unfelt the while;<br/> +But he who as a shepherd wise<br/> + Doth know his flock, can ne’er misread<br/> +Truth in the falsehood of his eyes,<br/> +Who veils beneath a kindly guise<br/> + A lukewarm love in deed.<br/> +And thou, our leader—when of yore<br/> +Thou badest Greece go forth to war<br/> +For Helen’s sake—I dare avow<br/> +That then I held thee not as now;<br/> +That to my vision thou didst seem<br/> +Dyed in the hues of disesteem.<br/> +I held thee for a pilot ill,<br/> +And reckless, of thy proper will,<br/> +Endowing others doomed to die<br/> +With vain and forced audacity!<br/> +Now from my heart, ungrudgingly,<br/> +To those that wrought, this word be said—<br/> +<i>Well fall the labour ye have sped—</i><br/> +Let time and search, O king, declare<br/> +What men within thy city’s bound<br/> +Were loyal to the kingdom’s care,<br/> + And who were faithless found.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Enter Agamemnon in a chariot, accompanied by Cassandra. He speaks +without descending.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AGAMEMNON</b><br/> +First, as is meet, a king’s All-hail be said<br/> +To Argos, and the gods that guard the land—<br/> +Gods who with me availed to speed us home,<br/> +With me availed to wring from Priam’s town<br/> +The due of justice. In the court of heaven<br/> +The gods in conclave sat and judged the cause,<br/> +Not from a pleader’s tongue, and at the close,<br/> +Unanimous into the urn of doom<br/> +This sentence gave, <i>On Ilion and her men,<br/> +Death:</i> and where hope drew nigh to pardon’s urn<br/> +No hand there was to cast a vote therein.<br/> +And still the smoke of fallen Ilion<br/> +Rises in sight of all men, and the flame<br/> +Of Atè’s hecatomb is living yet,<br/> +And where the towers in dusty ashes sink,<br/> +Rise the rich fumes of pomp and wealth consumed.<br/> +For this must all men pay unto the gods<br/> +The meed of mindful hearts and gratitude:<br/> +For by our hands the meshes of revenge<br/> +Closed on the prey, and for one woman’s sake<br/> +Troy trodden by the Argive monster lies—<br/> +The foal, the shielded band that leapt the wall,<br/> +What time with autumn sank the Pleiades.<br/> +Yea, o’er the fencing wall a lion sprang<br/> +Ravening, and lapped his fill of blood of kings.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Such prelude spoken to the gods in full,<br/> +To you I turn, and to the hidden thing<br/> +Whereof ye spake but now: and in that thought<br/> +I am as you, and what ye say, say I.<br/> +For few are they who have such inborn grace,<br/> +As to look up with love, and envy not,<br/> +When stands another on the height of weal.<br/> +Deep in his heart, whom jealousy hath seized,<br/> +Her poison lurking doth enhance his load;<br/> +For now beneath his proper woes he chafes,<br/> +And sighs withal to see another’s weal.<br/> +I speak not idly, but from knowledge sure—<br/> +There be who vaunt an utter loyalty,<br/> +That is but as the ghost of friendship dead,<br/> +A shadow in a glass, of faith gone by.<br/> +One only—he who went reluctant forth<br/> +Across the seas with me—Odysseus—he<br/> +Was loyal unto me with strength and will,<br/> +A trusty trace-horse bound unto my car.<br/> +Thus—be he yet beneath the light of day,<br/> +Or dead, as well I fear—I speak his praise.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Lastly, whate’er be due to men or gods,<br/> +With joint debate, in public council held,<br/> +We will decide, and warily contrive<br/> +That all which now is well may so abide:<br/> +For that which haply needs the healer’s art,<br/> +That will we medicine, discerning well<br/> +If cautery or knife befit the time.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Now, to my palace and the shrines of home,<br/> +I will pass in, and greet you first and fair,<br/> +Ye gods, who bade me forth, and home again—<br/> +And long may Victory tarry in my train!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Enter Clytemnestra, followed by maidens bearing purple robes.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Old men of Argos, lieges of our realm,<br/> +Shame shall not bid me shrink lest ye should see<br/> +The love I bear my lord. Such blushing fear<br/> +Dies at the last from hearts of human kind.<br/> +From mine own soul and from no alien lips,<br/> +I know and will reveal the life I bore,<br/> +Reluctant, through the lingering livelong years,<br/> +The while my lord beleaguered Ilion’s wall.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +First, that a wife sat sundered from her lord,<br/> +In widowed solitude, was utter woe—<br/> +And woe, to hear how rumour’s many tongues<br/> + All boded evil—woe, when he who came<br/> + And he who followed spake of ill on ill,<br/> + Keening <i>Lost, lost, all lost!</i> thro’ hall and bower.<br/> + Had this my husband met so many wounds,<br/> + As by a thousand channels rumour told,<br/> + No network e’er was full of holes as he.<br/> + Had he been slain, as oft as tidings came<br/> + That he was dead, he well might boast him now<br/> + A second Geryon of triple frame,<br/> + With triple robe of earth above him laid—<br/> + For that below, no matter—triply dead,<br/> + Dead by one death for every form he bore.<br/> + And thus distraught by news of wrath and woe,<br/> + Oft for self-slaughter had I slung the noose,<br/> + But others wrenched it from my neck away.<br/> + Hence haps it that Orestes, thine and mine,<br/> + The pledge and symbol of our wedded troth,<br/> + Stands not beside us now, as he should stand.<br/> + Nor marvel thou at this: he dwells with one<br/> + Who guards him loyally; ’tis Phocis’ king,<br/> + Strophius, who warned me erst, <i>Bethink thee, queen,<br/> + What woes of doubtful issue well may fall!<br/> + Thy lord in daily jeopardy at Troy,<br/> + While here a populace uncurbed may cry<br/> + “Down with the council, down!” bethink thee too,<br/> + ’Tis the world’s way to set a harder heel<br/> + On fallen power.</i><br/> + For thy child’s absence then<br/> + Such mine excuse, no wily afterthought.<br/> + For me, long since the gushing fount of tears<br/> + Is wept away; no drop is left to shed.<br/> + Dim are the eyes that ever watched till dawn,<br/> + Weeping, the bale-fires, piled for thy return,<br/> + Night after night unkindled. If I slept,<br/> + Each sound—the tiny humming of a gnat,<br/> + Roused me again, again, from fitful dreams<br/> + Wherein I felt thee smitten, saw thee slain,<br/> + Thrice for each moment of mine hour of sleep.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +All this I bore, and now, released from woe,<br/> +I hail my lord as watch-dog of a fold,<br/> +As saving stay-rope of a storm-tossed ship,<br/> +As column stout that holds the roof aloft,<br/> +As only child unto a sire bereaved,<br/> +As land beheld, past hope, by crews forlorn,<br/> +As sunshine fair when tempest’s wrath is past,<br/> +As gushing spring to thirsty wayfarer.<br/> +So sweet it is to ’scape the press of pain.<br/> +With such salute I bid my husband hail!<br/> +Nor heaven be wroth therewith! for long and hard<br/> +I bore that ire of old.<br/> + Sweet lord, step forth,<br/> +Step from thy car, I pray—nay, not on earth<br/> +Plant the proud foot, O king, that trod down Troy!<br/> +Women! why tarry ye, whose task it is<br/> +To spread your monarch’s path with tapestry?<br/> +Swift, swift, with purple strew his passage fair,<br/> +That justice lead him to a home, at last,<br/> +He scarcely looked to see.<br/> + For what remains,<br/> +Zeal unsubdued by sleep shall nerve my hand<br/> +To work as right and as the gods command.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AGAMEMNON</b><br/> +Daughter of Leda, watcher o’er my home,<br/> +Thy greeting well befits mine absence long,<br/> +For late and hardly has it reached its end.<br/> +Know, that the praise which honour bids us crave,<br/> +Must come from others’ lips, not from our own:<br/> +See too that not in fashion feminine<br/> +Thou make a warrior’s pathway delicate;<br/> +Not unto me, as to some Eastern lord,<br/> +Bowing thyself to earth, make homage loud.<br/> +Strew not this purple that shall make each step<br/> +An arrogance; such pomp beseems the gods,<br/> +Not me. A mortal man to set his foot<br/> +On these rich dyes? I hold such pride in fear,<br/> +And bid thee honour me as man, not god.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Fear not—such footcloths and all gauds apart,<br/> + Loud from the trump of Fame my name is blown;<br/> + Best gift of heaven it is, in glory’s hour,<br/> + To think thereon with soberness: and thou—<br/> + Bethink thee of the adage, <i>Call none blest<br/> + Till peaceful death have crowned a life of weal.</i><br/> + ’Tis said: I fain would fare unvexed by fear.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> + Nay, but unsay it—thwart not thou my will! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AGAMEMNON</b><br/> + Know, I have said, and will not mar my word. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> + Was it fear made this meekness to the gods? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AGAMEMNON</b><br/> + If cause be cause, ’tis mine for this resolve. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> + What, think’st thou, in thy place had Priam done? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AGAMEMNON</b><br/> + He surely would have walked on broidered robes. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> + Then fear not thou the voice of human blame. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AGAMEMNON</b><br/> + Yet mighty is the murmur of a crowd. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> + Shrink not from envy, appanage of bliss. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AGAMEMNON</b><br/> + War is not woman’s part, nor war of words. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Yet happy victors well may yield therein. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AGAMEMNON</b><br/> +Dost crave for triumph in this petty strife? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Yield; of thy grace permit me to prevail! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AGAMEMNON</b><br/> +Then, if thou wilt, let some one stoop to loose<br/> +Swiftly these sandals, slaves beneath my foot:<br/> +And stepping thus upon the sea’s rich dye,<br/> +I pray, <i>Let none among the gods look down<br/> +With jealous eye on me</i>—reluctant all,<br/> +To trample thus and mar a thing of price,<br/> +Wasting the wealth of garments silver-worth.<br/> +Enough hereof: and, for the stranger maid,<br/> +Lead her within, but gently: God on high<br/> +Looks graciously on him whom triumph’s hour<br/> +Has made not pitiless. None willingly<br/> +Wear the slave’s yoke—and she, the prize and flower<br/> +Of all we won, comes hither in my train,<br/> +Gift of the army to its chief and lord.<br/> +—Now, since in this my will bows down to thine,<br/> +I will pass in on purples to my home.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +A Sea there is—and who shall stay its springs?<br/> +And deep within its breast, a mighty store,<br/> +Precious as silver, of the purple dye,<br/> +Whereby the dipped robe doth its tint renew.<br/> +Enough of such, O king, within thy halls<br/> +There lies, a store that cannot fail; but I—<br/> +I would have gladly vowed unto the gods<br/> +Cost of a thousand garments trodden thus,<br/> +(Had once the oracle such gift required)<br/> +Contriving ransom for thy life preserved.<br/> + For while the stock is firm the foliage climbs,<br/> + Spreading a shade what time the dog-star glows;<br/> + And thou, returning to thine hearth and home,<br/> + Art as a genial warmth in winter hours,<br/> + Or as a coolness, when the lord of heaven<br/> + Mellows the juice within the bitter grape.<br/> + Such boons and more doth bring into a home<br/> + The present footstep of its proper lord.<br/> + Zeus, Zeus, Fulfilment’s lord! my vows fulfil,<br/> + And whatsoe’er it be, work forth thy will!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exeunt all but Cassandra and the Chorus.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Wherefore for ever on the wings of fear<br/> + Hovers a vision drear<br/> + Before my boding heart? a strain,<br/> + Unbidden and unwelcome, thrills mine ear,<br/> + Oracular of pain.<br/> + Not as of old upon my bosom’s throne<br/> + Sits Confidence, to spurn<br/> + Such fears, like dreams we know not to discern.<br/> + Old, old and gray long since the time has grown,<br/> + Which saw the linkèd cables moor<br/> + The fleet, when erst it came to Ilion’s sandy shore;<br/> + And now mine eyes and not another’s see<br/> + Their safe return.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Yet none the less in me<br/> + The inner spirit sings a boding song,<br/> + Self-prompted, sings the Furies’ strain—<br/> + And seeks, and seeks in vain,<br/> + To hope and to be strong!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Ah! to some end of Fate, unseen, unguessed,<br/> + Are these wild throbbings of my heart and breast—<br/> + Yea, of some doom they tell—<br/> + Each pulse, a knell.<br/> + Lief, lief I were, that all<br/> + To unfulfilment’s hidden realm might fall.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Too far, too far our mortal spirits strive,<br/> + Grasping at utter weal, unsatisfied—<br/> + Till the fell curse, that dwelleth hard beside,<br/> + Thrust down the sundering wall. Too fair they blow,<br/> + The gales that waft our bark on Fortune’s tide!<br/> + Swiftly we sail, the sooner all to drive<br/> + Upon the hidden rock, the reef of woe.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Then if the hand of caution warily<br/> + Sling forth into the sea<br/> + Part of the freight, lest all should sink below,<br/> + From the deep death it saves the bark: even so,<br/> + Doom-laden though it be, once more may rise<br/> + His household, who is timely wise.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + How oft the famine-stricken field<br/> +Is saved by God’s large gift, the new year’s yield!<br/> + But blood of man once spilled,<br/> + Once at his feet shed forth, and darkening the plain,—<br/> + Nor chant nor charm can call it back again.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + So Zeus hath willed:<br/> +Else had he spared the leech Asclepius, skilled<br/> + To bring man from the dead: the hand divine<br/> +Did smite himself with death—a warning and a sign.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Ah me! if Fate, ordained of old,<br/> +Held not the will of gods constrained, controlled,<br/> + Helpless to us-ward, and apart—<br/> + Swifter than speech my heart<br/> +Had poured its presage out!<br/> +Now, fretting, chafing in the dark of doubt,<br/> + ’Tis hopeless to unfold<br/> +Truth, from fear’s tangled skein; and, yearning to proclaim<br/> + Its thought, my soul is prophecy and flame.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<i>Re-enter</i> <b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Get thee within thou too, Cassandra, go!<br/> +For Zeus to thee in gracious mercy grants<br/> +To share the sprinklings of the lustral bowl,<br/> +Beside the altar of his guardianship,<br/> +Slave among many slaves. What, haughty still?<br/> +Step from the car; Alcmena’s son, ’tis said,<br/> +Was sold perforce and bore the yoke of old.<br/> +Ay, hard it is, but, if such fate befall,<br/> +’Tis a fair chance to serve within a home<br/> +Of ancient wealth and power. An upstart lord,<br/> +To whom wealth’s harvest came beyond his hope,<br/> +Is as a lion to his slaves, in all<br/> +Exceeding fierce, immoderate in sway.<br/> +Pass in: thou hearest what our ways will be.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Clear unto thee, O maid, is her command,<br/> +But thou—within the toils of Fate thou art—<br/> +If such thy will, I urge thee to obey;<br/> +Yet I misdoubt thou dost nor hear nor heed.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +I wot—unless like swallows she doth use<br/> +Some strange barbarian tongue from oversea—<br/> +My words must speak persuasion to her soul.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Obey: there is no gentler way than this.<br/> +Step from the car’s high seat and follow her.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Truce to this bootless waiting here without!<br/> +I will not stay: beside the central shrine<br/> +The victims stand, prepared for knife and fire—<br/> +Offerings from hearts beyond all hope made glad.<br/> +Thou—if thou reckest aught of my command,<br/> +’Twere well done soon: but if thy sense be shut<br/> +From these my words, let thy barbarian hand<br/> +Fulfil by gesture the default of speech.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +No native is she, thus to read thy words<br/> +Unaided: like some wild thing of the wood,<br/> +New-trapped, behold! she shrinks and glares on thee.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +’Tis madness and the rule of mind distraught,<br/> +Since she beheld her city sink in fire,<br/> +And hither comes, nor brooks the bit, until<br/> +In foam and blood her wrath be champed away.<br/> +See ye to her; unqueenly ’tis for me,<br/> +Unheeded thus to cast away my words.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exit Clytemnestra.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +But with me pity sits in anger’s place.<br/> +Poor maiden, come thou from the car; no way<br/> +There is but this—take up thy servitude.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Woe, woe, alas! Earth, Mother Earth! and thou<br/> +Apollo, Apollo!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Peace! shriek not to the bright prophetic god,<br/> +Who will not brook the suppliance of woe.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Woe, woe, alas! Earth, Mother Earth! and thou<br/> +Apollo, Apollo!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Hark, with wild curse she calls anew on him,<br/> +Who stands far off and loathes the voice of wail.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Apollo, Apollo!<br/> +God of all ways, but only Death’s to me,<br/> +Once and again, O thou, Destroyer named,<br/> +Thou hast destroyed me, thou, my love of old!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +She grows presageful of her woes to come,<br/> +Slave tho’ she be, instinct with prophecy.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Apollo, Apollo!<br/> +God of all ways, but only Death’s to me,<br/> +O thou Apollo, thou Destroyer named!<br/> +What way hast led me, to what evil home?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Know’st thou it not? The home of Atreus’ race:<br/> +Take these my words for sooth and ask no more.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Home cursed of God! Bear witness unto me,<br/> + Ye visioned woes within—<br/> +The blood-stained hands of them that smite their kin—<br/> +The strangling noose, and, spattered o’er<br/> +With human blood, the reeking floor!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +How like a sleuth-hound questing on the track,<br/> +Keen-scented unto blood and death she hies!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Ah! can the ghostly guidance fail,<br/> +Whereby my prophet-soul is onwards led?<br/> +Look! for their flesh the spectre-children wail,<br/> +Their sodden limbs on which their father fed!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Long since we knew of thy prophetic fame,—<br/> +But for those deeds we seek no prophet’s tongue.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +God! ’tis another crime—<br/> +Worse than the storied woe of olden time,<br/> +Cureless, abhorred, that one is plotting here—<br/> +A shaming death, for those that should be dear!<br/> + Alas! and far away, in foreign land,<br/> + He that should help doth stand!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +I knew th’ old tales, the city rings withal—<br/> +But now thy speech is dark, beyond my ken.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +O wretch, O purpose fell!<br/> +Thou for thy wedded lord<br/> +The cleansing wave hast poured—<br/> +A treacherous welcome!<br/> + How the sequel tell?<br/> +Too soon ’twill come, too soon, for now, even now,<br/> +She smites him, blow on blow!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Riddles beyond my rede—I peer in vain<br/> +Thro’ the dim films that screen the prophecy.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +God! a new sight! a net, a snare of hell,<br/> +Set by her hand—herself a snare more fell!<br/> + A wedded wife, she slays her lord,<br/> +Helped by another hand!<br/> + Ye powers, whose hate<br/> + Of Atreus’ home no blood can satiate,<br/> +Raise the wild cry above the sacrifice abhorred!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Why biddest thou some fiend, I know not whom,<br/> +Shriek o’er the house? Thine is no cheering word.<br/> + Back to my heart in frozen fear I feel<br/> + My waning life-blood run—<br/> + The blood that round the wounding steel<br/> + Ebbs slow, as sinks life’s parting sun—<br/> +Swift, swift and sure, some woe comes pressing on!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> + Away, away—keep him away—<br/> + The monarch of the herd, the pasture’s pride,<br/> + Far from his mate! In treach’rous wrath,<br/> + Muffling his swarthy horns, with secret scathe<br/> + She gores his fenceless side!<br/> + Hark! in the brimming bath,<br/> + The heavy plash—the dying cry—<br/> +Hark—in the laver—hark, he falls by treachery!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + I read amiss dark sayings such as thine,<br/> + Yet something warns me that they tell of ill.<br/> + O dark prophetic speech,<br/> + Ill tidings dost thou teach<br/> + Ever, to mortals here below!<br/> + Ever some tale of awe and woe<br/> + Thro’ all thy windings manifold<br/> + Do we unriddle and unfold!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> + Ah well-a-day! the cup of agony,<br/> + Whereof I chant, foams with a draught for me.<br/> + Ah lord, ah leader, thou hast led me here—<br/> + Was’t but to die with thee whose doom is near?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Distraught thou art, divinely stirred,<br/> + And wailest for thyself a tuneless lay,<br/> + As piteous as the ceaseless tale<br/> + Wherewith the brown melodious bird<br/> + Doth ever Itys! Itys! wail,<br/> +Deep-bowered in sorrow, all its little life-time’s day!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> + Ah for thy fate, O shrill-voiced nightingale!<br/> + Some solace for thy woes did Heaven afford,<br/> + Clothed thee with soft brown plumes, and life apart from wail—<br/> + But for my death is edged the double-biting sword!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + What pangs are these, what fruitless pain,<br/> + Sent on thee from on high?<br/> + Thou chantest terror’s frantic strain,<br/> + Yet in shrill measured melody.<br/> + How thus unerring canst thou sweep along<br/> + The prophet’s path of boding song?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> + Woe, Paris, woe on thee! thy bridal joy<br/> + Was death and fire upon thy race and Troy!<br/> + And woe for thee, Scamander’s flood!<br/> + Beside thy banks, O river fair,<br/> + I grew in tender nursing care<br/> + From childhood unto maidenhood!<br/> + Now not by thine, but by Cocytus’ stream<br/> + And Acheron’s banks shall ring my boding scream.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Too plain is all, too plain!<br/> +A child might read aright thy fateful strain.<br/> + Deep in my heart their piercing fang<br/> + Terror and sorrow set, the while I heard<br/> + That piteous, low, tender word,<br/> +Yet to mine ear and heart a crushing pang.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +CASSANDRA<br/> + Woe for my city, woe for Ilion’s fall!<br/> + Father, how oft with sanguine stain<br/> + Streamed on thine altar-stone the blood of cattle, slain<br/> + That heaven might guard our wall!<br/> + But all was shed in vain.<br/> + Low lie the shattered towers whereas they fell,<br/> + And I—ah burning heart!—shall soon lie low as well.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Of sorrow is thy song, of sorrow still!<br/> + Alas, what power of ill<br/> + Sits heavy on thy heart and bids thee tell<br/> + In tears of perfect moan thy deadly tale?<br/> +Some woe—I know not what—must close thy piteous wail.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> + List! for no more the presage of my soul,<br/> + Bride-like, shall peer from its secluding veil;<br/> + But as the morning wind blows clear the east,<br/> + More bright shall blow the wind of prophecy,<br/> + And as against the low bright line of dawn<br/> + Heaves high and higher yet the rolling wave,<br/> + So in the clearing skies of prescience<br/> + Dawns on my soul a further, deadlier woe,<br/> + And I will speak, but in dark speech no more.<br/> + Bear witness, ye, and follow at my side—<br/> + I scent the trail of blood, shed long ago.<br/> + Within this house a choir abidingly<br/> + Chants in harsh unison the chant of ill;<br/> + Yea, and they drink, for more enhardened joy,<br/> + Man’s blood for wine, and revel in the halls,<br/> + Departing never, Furies of the home.<br/> + They sit within, they chant the primal curse,<br/> + Each spitting hatred on that crime of old,<br/> + The brother’s couch, the love incestuous<br/> + That brought forth hatred to the ravisher.<br/> + Say, is my speech or wild and erring now,<br/> + Or doth its arrow cleave the mark indeed?<br/> + They called me once, <i>The prophetess of lies,<br/> + The wandering hag, the pest of every door—</i><br/> + Attest ye now, <i>She knows in very sooth<br/> + The house’s curse, the storied infamy.</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Yet how should oath—how loyally soe’er<br/> +I swear it—aught avail thee? In good sooth,<br/> +My wonder meets thy claim: I stand amazed<br/> +That thou, a maiden born beyond the seas,<br/> +Dost as a native know and tell aright<br/> +Tales of a city of an alien tongue.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +That is my power—a boon Apollo gave. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +God though he were, yearning for mortal maid? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Ay! what seemed shame of old is shame no more. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Such finer sense suits not with slavery. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +He strove to win me, panting for my love. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Came ye by compact unto bridal joys? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Nay—for I plighted troth, then foiled the god. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Wert thou already dowered with prescience? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Yea—prophetess to Troy of all her doom. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +How left thee then Apollo’s wrath unscathed? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +I, false to him, seemed prophet false to all. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Not so—to us at least thy words seem sooth. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Woe for me, woe! Again the agony—<br/> +Dread pain that sees the future all too well<br/> +With ghastly preludes whirls and racks my soul.<br/> +Behold ye—yonder on the palace roof<br/> +The spectre-children sitting—look, such things<br/> +As dreams are made on, phantoms as of babes,<br/> +Horrible shadows, that a kinsman’s hand<br/> +Hath marked with murder, and their arms are full—<br/> +A rueful burden—see, they hold them up,<br/> +The entrails upon which their father fed!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +For this, for this, I say there plots revenge<br/> +A coward lion, couching in the lair—<br/> +Guarding the gate against my master’s foot—<br/> +My master—mine—I bear the slave’s yoke now,<br/> +And he, the lord of ships, who trod down Troy,<br/> +Knows not the fawning treachery of tongue<br/> +Of this thing false and dog-like—how her speech<br/> +Glozes and sleeks her purpose, till she win<br/> +By ill fate’s favour the desired chance,<br/> +Moving like Atè to a secret end.<br/> +O aweless soul! the woman slays her lord—<br/> +Woman? what loathsome monster of the earth<br/> +Were fit comparison? The double snake—<br/> +Or Scylla, where she dwells, the seaman’s bane,<br/> +Girt round about with rocks? some hag of hell,<br/> +Raving a truceless curse upon her kin?<br/> +Hark—even now she cries exultingly<br/> +The vengeful cry that tells of battle turned—<br/> +How fain, forsooth, to greet her chief restored!<br/> +Nay then, believe me not: what skills belief<br/> +Or disbelief? Fate works its will—and thou<br/> +Wilt see and say in ruth, <i>Her tale was true.</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Ah—’tis Thyestes’ feast on kindred flesh—<br/> +I guess her meaning and with horror thrill,<br/> +Hearing no shadow’d hint of th’ o’er-true tale,<br/> +But its full hatefulness: yet, for the rest,<br/> +Far from the track I roam, and know no more.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +’Tis Agamemnon’s doom thou shalt behold. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Peace, hapless woman, to thy boding words! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Far from my speech stands he who sains and saves. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Ay—were such doom at hand—which God forbid! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Thou prayest idly—these move swift to slay. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +What man prepares a deed of such despite? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Fool! thus to read amiss mine oracles. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Deviser and device are dark to me. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Dark! all too well I speak the Grecian tongue. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Ay—but in thine, as in Apollo’s strains,<br/> +Familiar is the tongue, but dark the thought.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Ah ah the fire! it waxes, nears me now—<br/> +Woe, woe for me, Apollo of the dawn!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Lo, how the woman-thing, the lioness<br/> +Couched with the wolf—her noble mate afar—<br/> +Will slay me, slave forlorn! Yea, like some witch,<br/> +She drugs the cup of wrath, that slays her lord<br/> +With double death—his recompense for me!<br/> +Ay, ’tis for me, the prey he bore from Troy,<br/> +That she hath sworn his death, and edged the steel!<br/> +Ye wands, ye wreaths that cling around my neck,<br/> +Ye showed me prophetess yet scorned of all—<br/> +I stamp you into death, or e’er I die—<br/> +Down, to destruction!<br/> + Thus I stand revenged—<br/> +Go, crown some other with a prophet’s woe.<br/> +Look! it is he, it is Apollo’s self<br/> +Rending from me the prophet-robe he gave.<br/> +God! while I wore it yet, thou saw’st me mocked<br/> +There at my home by each malicious mouth—<br/> +To all and each, an undivided scorn.<br/> +The name alike and fate of witch and cheat—<br/> +Woe, poverty, and famine—all I bore;<br/> +And at this last the god hath brought me here<br/> +Into death’s toils, and what his love had made,<br/> +His hate unmakes me now: and I shall stand<br/> +Not now before the altar of my home,<br/> +But me a slaughter-house and block of blood<br/> +Shall see hewn down, a reeking sacrifice.<br/> +Yet shall the gods have heed of me who die,<br/> +For by their will shall one requite my doom.<br/> +He, to avenge his father’s blood outpoured,<br/> +Shall smite and slay with matricidal hand.<br/> +Ay, he shall come—tho’ far away he roam,<br/> +A banished wanderer in a stranger’s land—<br/> +To crown his kindred’s edifice of ill,<br/> +Called home to vengeance by his father’s fall:<br/> +Thus have the high gods sworn, and shall fulfil.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +And now why mourn I, tarrying on earth,<br/> +Since first mine Ilion has found its fate<br/> +And I beheld, and those who won the wall<br/> +Pass to such issue as the gods ordain?<br/> +I too will pass and like them dare to die!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Turns and looks upon the palace door.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Portal of Hades, thus I bid thee hail!<br/> +Grant me one boon—a swift and mortal stroke,<br/> +That all unwrung by pain, with ebbing blood<br/> +Shed forth in quiet death, I close mine eyes.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Maid of mysterious woes, mysterious lore,<br/> +Long was thy prophecy: but if aright<br/> +Thou readest all thy fate, how, thus unscared,<br/> +Dost thou approach the altar of thy doom,<br/> +As fronts the knife some victim, heaven-controlled?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Friends, there is no avoidance in delay. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Yet who delays the longest, his the gain. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +The day is come—flight were small gain to me! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +O brave endurance of a soul resolved! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +That were ill praise, for those of happier doom. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +All fame is happy, even famous death. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Ah sire, ah brethren, famous once were ye! +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>She moves to enter the house, then starts back.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +What fear is this that scares thee from the house? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Pah! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +What is this cry? some dark despair of soul? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Pah! the house fumes with stench and spilth of blood. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +How? ’tis the smell of household offerings. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +’Tis rank as charnel-scent from open graves. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Thou canst not mean this scented Syrian nard? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Nay, let me pass within to cry aloud<br/> +The monarch’s fate and mine—enough of life.<br/> +Ah friends!<br/> +Bear to me witness, since I fall in death,<br/> +That not as birds that shun the bush and scream<br/> +I moan in idle terror. This attest<br/> +When for my death’s revenge another dies,<br/> +A woman for a woman, and a man<br/> +Falls, for a man ill-wedded to his curse.<br/> +Grant me this boon—the last before I die.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Brave to the last! I mourn thy doom foreseen. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CASSANDRA</b><br/> +Once more one utterance, but not of wail,<br/> +Though for my death—and then I speak no more.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Sun! thou whose beam I shall not see again,<br/> +To thee I cry, Let those whom vengeance calls<br/> +To slay their kindred’s slayers, quit withal<br/> +The death of me, the slave, the fenceless prey.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Ah state of mortal man! in time of weal,<br/> +A line, a shadow! and if ill fate fall,<br/> +One wet sponge-sweep wipes all our trace away—<br/> +And this I deem less piteous, of the twain.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exit into the palace.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Too true it is! our mortal state<br/> +With bliss is never satiate,<br/> +And none, before the palace high<br/> +And stately of prosperity,<br/> +Cries to us with a voice of fear,<br/> +<i>Away! ’tis ill to enter here!</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Lo! this our lord hath trodden down,<br/> +By grace of heaven, old Priam’s town,<br/> + And praised as god he stands once more<br/> + On Argos’ shore!<br/> +Yet now—if blood shed long ago<br/> +Cries out that other blood shall flow—<br/> +His life-blood, his, to pay again<br/> +The stern requital of the slain—<br/> +Peace to that braggart’s vaunting vain,<br/> +Who, having heard the chieftain’s tale,<br/> +Yet boasts of bliss untouched by bale!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>A loud cry from within.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>VOICE OF AGAMEMNON</b><br/> +O I am sped—a deep, a mortal blow. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Listen, listen! who is screaming as in mortal agony? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>VOICE OF AGAMEMNON</b><br/> +O! O! again, another, another blow! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +The bloody act is over—I have heard the monarch’s cry—<br/> +Let us swiftly take some counsel, lest we too be doomed to die.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ONE OF THE CHORUS</b><br/> +’Tis best, I judge, aloud for aid to call,<br/> +“Ho! loyal Argives! to the palace, all!”<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ANOTHER</b><br/> +Better, I deem, ourselves to bear the aid,<br/> +And drag the deed to light, while drips the blade.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ANOTHER</b><br/> +Such will is mine, and what thou say’st I say:<br/> +Swiftly to act! the time brooks no delay.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ANOTHER</b><br/> +Ay, for ’tis plain, this prelude of their song<br/> +Foretells its close in tyranny and wrong.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ANOTHER</b><br/> +Behold, we tarry—but thy name, Delay,<br/> +They spurn, and press with sleepless hand to slay.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ANOTHER</b><br/> +I know not what ’twere well to counsel now—<br/> +Who wills to act, ’tis his to counsel how.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ANOTHER</b><br/> +Thy doubt is mine: for when a man is slain,<br/> +I have no words to bring his life again.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ANOTHER</b><br/> +What? e’en for life’s sake, bow us to obey<br/> +These house-defilers and their tyrant sway?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ANOTHER</b><br/> +Unmanly doom! ’twere better far to die—<br/> +Death is a gentler lord than tyranny.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ANOTHER</b><br/> +Think well—must cry or sign of woe or pain<br/> +Fix our conclusion that the chief is slain?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ANOTHER</b><br/> +Such talk befits us when the deed we see—<br/> +Conjecture dwells afar from certainty.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>LEADER OF THE CHORUS</b><br/> +I read one will from many a diverse word,<br/> +To know aright, how stands it with our lord!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>The scene opens, disclosing Clytemnestra, who comes forward. The +body of Agamemnon lies, muffled in a long robe, within a silver-sided +laver; the corpse of Cassandra is laid beside him.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Ho, ye who heard me speak so long and oft<br/> +The glozing word that led me to my will—<br/> +Hear how I shrink not to unsay it all!<br/> +How else should one who willeth to requite<br/> +Evil for evil to an enemy<br/> +Disguised as friend, weave the mesh straitly round him,<br/> +Not to be overleaped, a net of doom?<br/> +This is the sum and issue of old strife,<br/> +Of me deep-pondered and at length fulfilled.<br/> +All is avowed, and as I smote I stand<br/> +With foot set firm upon a finished thing!<br/> +I turn not to denial: thus I wrought<br/> +So that he could nor flee nor ward his doom,<br/> +Even as the trammel hems the scaly shoal,<br/> +I trapped him with inextricable toils,<br/> +The ill abundance of a baffling robe;<br/> +Then smote him, once, again—and at each wound<br/> +He cried aloud, then as in death relaxed<br/> +Each limb and sank to earth; and as he lay,<br/> +Once more I smote him, with the last third blow,<br/> +Sacred to Hades, saviour of the dead.<br/> +And thus he fell, and as he passed away,<br/> +Spirit with body chafed; each dying breath<br/> +Flung from his breast swift bubbling jets of gore,<br/> +And the dark sprinklings of the rain of blood<br/> +Fell upon me; and I was fain to feel<br/> +That dew—not sweeter is the rain of heaven<br/> +To cornland, when the green sheath teems with grain,<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Elders of Argos—since the thing stands so,<br/> +I bid you to rejoice, if such your will:<br/> +Rejoice or not, I vaunt and praise the deed,<br/> +And well I ween, if seemly it could be,<br/> +’Twere not ill done to pour libations here,<br/> +Justly—ay, more than justly—on his corpse<br/> +Who filled his home with curses as with wine,<br/> +And thus returned to drain the cup he filled.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +I marvel at thy tongue’s audacity,<br/> +To vaunt thus loudly o’er a husband slain.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Ye hold me as a woman, weak of will,<br/> +And strive to sway me: but my heart is stout,<br/> +Nor fears to speak its uttermost to you,<br/> +Albeit ye know its message. Praise or blame,<br/> +Even as ye list,—I reck not of your words.<br/> +Lo! at my feet lies Agamemnon slain,<br/> +My husband once—and him this hand of mine,<br/> +A right contriver, fashioned for his death.<br/> +Behold the deed!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Woman, what deadly birth,<br/> +What venomed essence of the earth<br/> +Or dark distilment of the wave,<br/> + To thee such passion gave,<br/> +Nerving thine hand<br/> +To set upon thy brow this burning crown,<br/> + The curses of thy land?<br/> +<i>Our king by thee cut off, hewn down!<br/> + Go forth</i>—they cry—<i>accursèd and forlorn,<br/> + To hate and scorn!</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +O ye just men, who speak my sentence now,<br/> +The city’s hate, the ban of all my realm!<br/> +Ye had no voice of old to launch such doom<br/> +On him, my husband, when he held as light<br/> +My daughter’s life as that of sheep or goat,<br/> +One victim from the thronging fleecy fold!<br/> +Yea, slew in sacrifice his child and mine,<br/> +The well-loved issue of my travail-pangs,<br/> +To lull and lay the gales that blew from Thrace.<br/> +That deed of his, I say, that stain and shame,<br/> +Had rightly been atoned by banishment;<br/> +But ye, who then were dumb, are stern to judge<br/> +This deed of mine that doth affront your ears.<br/> +Storm out your threats, yet knowing this for sooth,<br/> +That I am ready, if your hand prevail<br/> +As mine now doth, to bow beneath your sway:<br/> +If God say nay, it shall be yours to learn<br/> +By chastisement a late humility.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Bold is thy craft, and proud<br/> +Thy confidence, thy vaunting loud;<br/> +Thy soul, that chose a murd’ress’ fate,<br/> +Is all with blood elate—<br/> +Maddened to know<br/> +The blood not yet avenged, the damnèd spot<br/> +Crimson upon thy brow.<br/> +But Fate prepares for thee thy lot—<br/> +Smitten as thou didst smite, without a friend,<br/> +To meet thine end!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Hear then the sanction of the oath I swear—<br/> +By the great vengeance for my murdered child,<br/> +By Atè, by the Fury unto whom<br/> +This man lies sacrificed by hand of mine,<br/> +I do not look to tread the hall of Fear,<br/> +While in this hearth and home of mine there burns<br/> +The light of love—Aegisthus—as of old<br/> +Loyal, a stalwart shield of confidence—<br/> +As true to me as this slain man was false,<br/> +Wronging his wife with paramours at Troy,<br/> +Fresh from the kiss of each Chryseis there!<br/> +Behold him dead—behold his captive prize,<br/> +Seeress and harlot—comfort of his bed,<br/> +True prophetess, true paramour—I wot<br/> +The sea-bench was not closer to the flesh,<br/> +Full oft, of every rower, than was she.<br/> +See, ill they did, and ill requites them now.<br/> +His death ye know: she as a dying swan<br/> +Sang her last dirge, and lies, as erst she lay,<br/> +Close to his side, and to my couch has left<br/> +A sweet new taste of joys that know no fear.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Ah woe and well-a-day! I would that Fate—<br/> +Not bearing agony too great,<br/> +Nor stretching me too long on couch of pain—<br/> +Would bid mine eyelids keep<br/> +The morningless and unawakening sleep!<br/> +For life is weary, now my lord is slain,<br/> +The gracious among kings!<br/> +Hard fate of old he bore and many grievous things,<br/> +And for a woman’s sake, on Ilian land—<br/> +Now is his life hewn down, and by a woman’s hand.<br/> + O Helen, O infatuate soul,<br/> + Who bad’st the tides of battle roll,<br/> + O’erwhelming thousands, life on life,<br/> + ’Neath Ilion’s wall!<br/> +And now lies dead the lord of all.<br/> + The blossom of thy storied sin<br/> + Bears blood’s inexpiable stain,<br/> + O thou that erst, these halls within,<br/> + Wert unto all a rock of strife,<br/> + A husband’s bane!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Peace! pray not thou for death as though<br/> +Thine heart was whelmed beneath this woe,<br/> +Nor turn thy wrath aside to ban<br/> +The name of Helen, nor recall<br/> +How she, one bane of many a man,<br/> +Sent down to death the Danaan lords,<br/> +To sleep at Troy the sleep of swords,<br/> +And wrought the woe that shattered all.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Fiend of the race! that swoopest fell<br/> + Upon the double stock of Tantalus,<br/> +Lording it o’er me by a woman’s will,<br/> + Stern, manful, and imperious—<br/> + A bitter sway to me!<br/> + Thy very form I see,<br/> + Like some grim raven, perched upon the slain,<br/> +Exulting o’er the crime, aloud, in tuneless strain!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Right was that word—thou namest well<br/> +The brooding race-fiend, triply fell!<br/> +From him it is that murder’s thirst,<br/> +Blood-lapping, inwardly is nursed—<br/> +Ere time the ancient scar can sain,<br/> +New blood comes welling forth again.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Grim is his wrath and heavy on our home,<br/> + That fiend of whom thy voice has cried,<br/> +Alas, an omened cry of woe unsatisfied,<br/> + An all-devouring doom!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Ah woe, ah Zeus! from Zeus all things befall—<br/> + Zeus the high cause and finisher of all!—<br/> +Lord of our mortal state, by him are willed<br/> + All things, by him fulfilled!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Yet ah my king, my king no more!<br/> +What words to say, what tears to pour<br/> + Can tell my love for thee?<br/> +The spider-web of treachery<br/> +She wove and wound, thy life around,<br/> + And lo! I see thee lie,<br/> +And thro’ a coward, impious wound<br/> + Pant forth thy life and die!<br/> +A death of shame—ah woe on woe!<br/> +A treach’rous hand, a cleaving blow!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +My guilt thou harpest, o’er and o’er!<br/> +I bid thee reckon me no more<br/> + As Agamemnon’s spouse.<br/> +The old Avenger, stern of mood<br/> +For Atreus and his feast of blood,<br/> + Hath struck the lord of Atreus’ house,<br/> +And in the semblance of his wife<br/> + The king hath slain.—<br/> +Yea, for the murdered children’s life,<br/> + A chieftain’s in requital ta’en.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Thou guiltless of this murder, thou!<br/> + Who dares such thought avow?<br/> + Yet it may be, wroth for the parent’s deed,<br/> + The fiend hath holpen thee to slay the son.<br/> + Dark Ares, god of death, is pressing on<br/> + Thro’ streams of blood by kindred shed,<br/> + Exacting the accompt for children dead,<br/> +For clotted blood, for flesh on which their sire did feed.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Yet ah my king, my king no more!<br/> + What words to say, what tears to pour<br/> + Can tell my love for thee?<br/> + The spider-web of treachery<br/> + She wove and wound, thy life around,<br/> + And lo! I see thee lie,<br/> + And thro’ a coward, impious wound<br/> + Pant forth thy life and die!<br/> + A death of shame—ah woe on woe!<br/> + A treach’rous hand, a cleaving blow!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> + I deem not that the death he died<br/> + Had overmuch of shame:<br/> + For this was he who did provide<br/> + Foul wrong unto his house and name:<br/> + His daughter, blossom of my womb,<br/> + He gave unto a deadly doom,<br/> + Iphigenia, child of tears!<br/> + And as he wrought, even so he fares.<br/> + Nor be his vaunt too loud in hell;<br/> + For by the sword his sin he wrought,<br/> + And by the sword himself is brought<br/> + Among the dead to dwell.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Ah whither shall I fly?<br/> +For all in ruin sinks the kingly hall;<br/> +Nor swift device nor shift of thought have I,<br/> + To ’scape its fall.<br/> +A little while the gentler rain-drops fail;<br/> +I stand distraught—a ghastly interval,<br/> + Till on the roof-tree rings the bursting hail<br/> + Of blood and doom. Even now fate whets the steel<br/> + On whetstones new and deadlier than of old,<br/> + The steel that smites, in Justice’ hold,<br/> + Another death to deal.<br/> + O Earth! that I had lain at rest<br/> + And lapped for ever in thy breast,<br/> + Ere I had seen my chieftain fall<br/> + Within the laver’s silver wall,<br/> + Low-lying on dishonoured bier!<br/> + And who shall give him sepulchre,<br/> + And who the wail of sorrow pour?<br/> + Woman, ’tis thine no more!<br/> + A graceless gift unto his shade<br/> + Such tribute, by his murd’ress paid!<br/> + Strive not thus wrongly to atone<br/> + The impious deed thy hand hath done.<br/> + Ah who above the god-like chief<br/> + Shall weep the tears of loyal grief?<br/> + Who speak above his lowly grave<br/> + The last sad praises of the brave?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> + Peace! for such task is none of thine.<br/> + By me he fell, by me he died,<br/> + And now his burial rites be mine!<br/> + Yet from these halls no mourners’ train<br/> + Shall celebrate his obsequies;<br/> + Only by Acheron’s rolling tide<br/> + His child shall spring unto his side,<br/> + And in a daughter’s loving wise<br/> + Shall clasp and kiss him once again!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Lo! sin by sin and sorrow dogg’d by sorrow—<br/> + And who the end can know?<br/> +The slayer of to-day shall die to-morrow—<br/> + The wage of wrong is woe.<br/> +While Time shall be, while Zeus in heaven is lord,<br/> + His law is fixed and stern;<br/> +On him that wrought shall vengeance be outpoured—<br/> + The tides of doom return.<br/> +The children of the curse abide within<br/> + These halls of high estate—<br/> +And none can wrench from off the home of sin<br/> + The clinging grasp of fate.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> + Now walks thy word aright, to tell<br/> + This ancient truth of oracle;<br/> + But I with vows of sooth will pray<br/> + To him, the power that holdeth sway<br/> + O’er all the race of Pleisthenes—<br/> + <i>Tho’ dark the deed and deep the guilt,<br/> + With this last blood, my hands have spilt,<br/> + I pray thee let thine anger cease!<br/> + I pray thee pass from us away<br/> + To some new race in other lands,<br/> + There, if thou wilt, to wrong and slay<br/> + The lives of men by kindred hands.</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + For me ’tis all sufficient meed,<br/> + Tho’ little wealth or power were won,<br/> + So I can say, <i>’Tis past and done.<br/> + The bloody lust and murderous,<br/> + The inborn frenzy of our house,<br/> + Is ended, by my deed!</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Enter Aegisthus.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AEGISTHUS</b><br/> +Dawn of the day of rightful vengeance, hail!<br/> +I dare at length aver that gods above<br/> +Have care of men and heed of earthly wrongs.<br/> +I, I who stand and thus exult to see<br/> +This man lie wound in robes the Furies wove,<br/> +Slain in requital of his father’s craft.<br/> +Take ye the truth, that Atreus, this man’s sire,<br/> +The lord and monarch of this land of old,<br/> +Held with my sire Thyestes deep dispute,<br/> +Brother with brother, for the prize of sway,<br/> +And drave him from his home to banishment.<br/> +Thereafter, the lorn exile homeward stole<br/> +And clung a suppliant to the hearth divine,<br/> +And for himself won this immunity—<br/> +Not with his own blood to defile the land<br/> +That gave him birth. But Atreus, godless sire<br/> +Of him who here lies dead, this welcome planned—<br/> +With zeal that was not love he feigned to hold<br/> +In loyal joy a day of festal cheer,<br/> +And bade my father to his board, and set<br/> +Before him flesh that was his children once.<br/> +First, sitting at the upper board alone,<br/> +He hid the fingers and the feet, but gave<br/> +The rest—and readily Thyestes took<br/> +What to his ignorance no semblance wore<br/> +Of human flesh, and ate: behold what curse<br/> +That eating brought upon our race and name!<br/> +For when he knew what all unhallowed thing<br/> +He thus had wrought, with horror’s bitter cry<br/> +Back-starting, spewing forth the fragments foul,<br/> +On Pelops’ house a deadly curse he spake—<br/> +<i>As darkly as I spurn this damnèd food,<br/> +So perish all the race of Pleisthenes!</i><br/> +Thus by that curse fell he whom here ye see,<br/> +And I—who else?—this murder wove and planned;<br/> +For me, an infant yet in swaddling bands,<br/> +Of the three children youngest, Atreus sent<br/> +To banishment by my sad father’s side:<br/> +But Justice brought me home once more, grown now<br/> +To manhood’s years; and stranger tho’ I was,<br/> +My right hand reached unto the chieftain’s life,<br/> +Plotting and planning all that malice bade.<br/> +And death itself were honour now to me,<br/> +Beholding him in Justice’ ambush ta’en.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Aegisthus, for this insolence of thine<br/> +That vaunts itself in evil, take my scorn.<br/> +Of thine own will, thou sayest, thou hast slain<br/> +The chieftain, by thine own unaided plot<br/> +Devised the piteous death: I rede thee well,<br/> +Think not thy head shall ’scape, when right prevails,<br/> +The people’s ban, the stones of death and doom.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AEGISTHUS</b><br/> +This word from thee, this word from one who rows<br/> +Low at the oars beneath, what time we rule,<br/> +We of the upper tier? Thou’lt know anon,<br/> +’Tis bitter to be taught again in age,<br/> +By one so young, submission at the word.<br/> +But iron of the chain and hunger’s throes<br/> +Can minister unto an o’erswoln pride<br/> +Marvellous well, ay, even in the old.<br/> +Hast eyes, and seest not this? Peace—kick not thus<br/> +Against the pricks, unto thy proper pain!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Thou womanish man, waiting till war did cease,<br/> +Home-watcher and defiler of the couch,<br/> +And arch-deviser of the chieftain’s doom!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AEGISTHUS</b><br/> +Bold words again! but they shall end in tears.<br/> +The very converse, thine, of Orpheus’ tongue:<br/> +He roused and led in ecstasy of joy<br/> +All things that heard his voice melodious;<br/> +But thou as with the futile cry of curs<br/> +Wilt draw men wrathfully upon thee. Peace!<br/> +Or strong subjection soon shall tame thy tongue.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Ay, thou art one to hold an Argive down—<br/> +Thou, skilled to plan the murder of the king,<br/> +But not with thine own hand to smite the blow!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AEGISTHUS</b><br/> +That fraudful force was woman’s very part,<br/> +Not mine, whom deep suspicion from of old<br/> +Would have debarred. Now by his treasure’s aid<br/> +My purpose holds to rule the citizens.<br/> +But whoso will not bear my guiding hand,<br/> +Him for his corn-fed mettle I will drive<br/> +Not as a trace-horse, light-caparisoned,<br/> +But to the shafts with heaviest harness bound.<br/> +Famine, the grim mate of the dungeon dark,<br/> +Shall look on him and shall behold him tame.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Thou losel soul, was then thy strength too slight<br/> +To deal in murder, while a woman’s hand,<br/> +Staining and shaming Argos and its gods,<br/> +Availed to slay him? Ho, if anywhere<br/> +The light of life smite on Orestes’ eyes,<br/> +Let him, returning by some guardian fate,<br/> +Hew down with force her paramour and her!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AEGISTHUS</b><br/> +How thy word and act shall issue, thou shalt shortly understand. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Up to action, O my comrades! for the fight is hard at hand. +Swift, your right hands to the sword hilt! bare the weapon as for +strife— +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AEGISTHUS</b><br/> +Lo! I too am standing ready, hand on hilt for death or life. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +’Twas thy word and we accept it: onward to the chance of war! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Nay, enough, enough, my champion! we will smite and slay no more.<br/> +Already have we reaped enough the harvest-field of guilt:<br/> +Enough of wrong and murder, let no other blood be spilt.<br/> +Peace, old men! and pass away unto the homes by Fate decreed,<br/> +Lest ill valour meet our vengeance—’twas a necessary deed.<br/> +But enough of toils and troubles—be the end, if ever, now,<br/> +Ere thy talon, O Avenger, deal another deadly blow.<br/> +’Tis a woman’s word of warning, and let who will list thereto.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AEGISTHUS</b><br/> +But that these should loose and lavish reckless blossoms of the tongue,<br/> +And in hazard of their fortune cast upon me words of wrong,<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + And forget the law of subjects, and revile their ruler’s word— +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Ruler? but ’tis not for Argives, thus to own a dastard lord! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AEGISTHUS</b><br/> +I will follow to chastise thee in my coming days of sway. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Not if Fortune guide Orestes safely on his homeward way. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AEGISTHUS</b><br/> +Ah, well I know how exiles feed on hopes of their return. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Fare and batten on pollution of the right, while ’tis thy turn. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AEGISTHUS</b><br/> +Thou shalt pay, be well assurèd, heavy quittance for thy pride +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Crow and strut, with her to watch thee, like a cock, his mate beside! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Heed not thou too highly of them—let the cur-pack growl and yell:<br/> +I and thou will rule the palace and will order all things well.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exeunt</i>. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link03"></a>THE LIBATION-BEARERS</h2> + +<h3>DRAMATIS PERSONAE</h3> + +<p class="drama"> +ORESTES<br/> +CHORUS OF CAPTIVE WOMEN<br/> +ELECTRA<br/> +A NURSE<br/> +CLYTEMNESTRA<br/> +AEGISTHUS<br/> +AN ATTENDANT<br/> +PYLADES<br/> +</p> + +<p><i>The Scene is the Tomb of Agamemnon at Mycenae; afterwards, the +Palace of Atreus, hard by the Tomb.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<i>Orestes</i> +</p> + +<p class="pfirst"> +<span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">L</span> +ord of the shades and patron of the realm<br/> +That erst my father swayed, list now my prayer,<br/> +Hermes, and save me with thine aiding arm,<br/> +Me who from banishment returning stand<br/> +On this my country; lo, my foot is set<br/> +On this grave-mound, and herald-like, as thou,<br/> +Once and again, I bid my father hear.<br/> +And these twin locks, from mine head shorn, I bring,<br/> +And one to Inachus the river-god,<br/> +My young life’s nurturer, I dedicate,<br/> +And one in sign of mourning unfulfilled<br/> +I lay, though late, on this my father’s grave.<br/> +For O my father, not beside thy corse<br/> +Stood I to wail thy death, nor was my hand<br/> +Stretched out to bear thee forth to burial.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +What sight is yonder? what this woman-throng<br/> +Hitherward coming, by their sable garb<br/> +Made manifest as mourners? What hath chanced?<br/> +Doth some new sorrow hap within the home?<br/> +Or rightly may I deem that they draw near<br/> +Bearing libations, such as soothe the ire<br/> +Of dead men angered, to my father’s grave?<br/> +Nay, such they are indeed; for I descry<br/> +Electra mine own sister pacing hither,<br/> +In moody grief conspicuous. Grant, O Zeus,<br/> +Grant me my father’s murder to avenge—<br/> +Be thou my willing champion!<br/> + Pylades,<br/> +Pass we aside, till rightly I discern<br/> +Wherefore these women throng in suppliance.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exeunt Pylades and Orestes; enter the Chorus bearing vessels for +libation; Electra follows them; they pace slowly towards the tomb of +Agamemnon</i>. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Forth from the royal halls by high command<br/> + I bear libations for the dead.<br/> +Rings on my smitten breast my smiting hand,<br/> + And all my cheek is rent and red,<br/> +Fresh-furrowed by my nails, and all my soul<br/> +This many a day doth feed on cries of dole.<br/> + And trailing tatters of my vest,<br/> +In looped and windowed raggedness forlorn,<br/> + Hang rent around my breast,<br/> +Even as I, by blows of Fate most stern<br/> + Saddened and torn.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Oracular thro’ visions, ghastly clear,<br/> +Bearing a blast of wrath from realms below,<br/> +And stiffening each rising hair with dread,<br/> + Came out of dream-land Fear,<br/> + And, loud and awful, bade<br/> +The shriek ring out at midnight’s witching hour,<br/> + And brooded, stern with woe,<br/> +Above the inner house, the woman’s bower.<br/> +And seers inspired did read the dream on oath,<br/> + Chanting aloud <i>In realms below<br/> + The dead are wroth;<br/> +Against their slayers yet their ire doth glow</i>.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Therefore to bear this gift of graceless worth—<br/> + O Earth, my nursing mother!—<br/> +The woman god-accurs’d doth send me forth<br/> + Lest one crime bring another.<br/> +Ill is the very word to speak, for none<br/> + Can ransom or atone<br/> +For blood once shed and darkening the plain.<br/> + O hearth of woe and bane,<br/> + O state that low doth lie!<br/> +Sunless, accursed of men, the shadows brood<br/> + Above the home of murdered majesty.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Rumour of might, unquestioned, unsubdued,<br/> +Pervading ears and soul of lesser men,<br/> + Is silent now and dead.<br/> + Yet rules a viler dread;<br/> + For bliss and power, however won,<br/> +As gods, and more than gods, dazzle our mortal ken.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Justice doth mark, with scales that swiftly sway,<br/> + Some that are yet in light;<br/> + Others in interspace of day and night,<br/> + Till Fate arouse them, stay;<br/> +And some are lapped in night, where all things are undone.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +On the life-giving lap of Earth<br/> + Blood hath flowed forth;<br/> +And now, the seed of vengeance, clots the plain—<br/> + Unmelting, uneffaced the stain.<br/> +And Atè tarries long, but at the last<br/> + The sinner’s heart is cast<br/> +Into pervading, waxing pangs of pain.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Lo, when man’s force doth ope<br/> +The virgin doors, there is nor cure nor hope<br/> + For what is lost,—even so, I deem,<br/> +Though in one channel ran Earth’s every stream,<br/> + Laving the hand defiled from murder’s stain,<br/> + It were vain.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +And upon me—ah me!—the gods have laid<br/> + The woe that wrapped round Troy,<br/> +What time they led down from home and kin<br/> + Unto a slave’s employ—<br/> + The doom to bow the head<br/> + And watch our master’s will<br/> + Work deeds of good and ill—<br/> +To see the headlong sway of force and sin,<br/> + And hold restrained the spirit’s bitter hate,<br/> + Wailing the monarch’s fruitless fate,<br/> +Hiding my face within my robe, and fain<br/> +Of tears, and chilled with frost of hidden pain.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Hand maidens, orderers of the palace-halls,<br/> +Since at my side ye come, a suppliant train,<br/> +Companions of this offering, counsel me<br/> +As best befits the time: for I, who pour<br/> +Upon the grave these streams funereal,<br/> +With what fair word can I invoke my sire?<br/> +Shall I aver, <i>Behold, I bear these gifts<br/> +From well-beloved wife unto her well-beloved lord</i>,<br/> +When ’tis from her, my mother, that they come?<br/> +I dare not say it: of all words I fail<br/> +Wherewith to consecrate unto my sire<br/> +These sacrificial honours on his grave.<br/> +Or shall I speak this word, as mortals use—<br/> +<i>Give back, to those who send these coronals<br/> +Full recompense—of ills for acts malign?<br/> +Or shall I pour this draught for Earth to drink</i>,<br/> +Sans word or reverence, as my sire was slain,<br/> +And homeward pass with unreverted eyes,<br/> +Casting the bowl away, as one who flings<br/> +The household cleansings to the common road?<br/> +Be art and part, O friends, in this my doubt,<br/> +Even as ye are in that one common hate<br/> +Whereby we live attended: fear ye not<br/> +The wrath of any man, nor hide your word<br/> +Within your breast: the day of death and doom<br/> +Awaits alike the freeman and the slave.<br/> +Speak, then, if aught thou know’st to aid us more.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Thou biddest; I will speak my soul’s thought out,<br/> +Revering as a shrine thy father’s grave.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Say then thy say, as thou his tomb reverest. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Speak solemn words to them that love, and pour. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +And of his kin whom dare I name as kind? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Thyself; and next, whoe’er Aegisthus scorns. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Then ’tis myself and thou, my prayer must name. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Whoe’er they be, ’tis thine to know and name them. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Is there no other we may claim as ours? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Think of Orestes, though far-off he be. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Right well in this too hast thou schooled my thought. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Mindfully, next, on those who shed the blood— +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Pray on them what? expound, instruct my doubt. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +This; <i>Upon them some god or mortal come</i>—— +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +As judge or as avenger? speak thy thought. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Pray in set terms, <i>Who shall the slayer slay</i>. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Beseemeth it to ask such boon of heaven? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +How not, to wreak a wrong upon a foe? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +O mighty Hermes, warder of the shades,<br/> +Herald of upper and of under world,<br/> +Proclaim and usher down my prayer’s appeal<br/> +Unto the gods below, that they with eyes<br/> +Watchful behold these halls, my sire’s of old—<br/> +And unto Earth, the mother of all things,<br/> +And foster-nurse, and womb that takes their seed.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Lo, I that pour these draughts for men now dead,<br/> +Call on my father, who yet holds in ruth<br/> +Me and mine own Orestes, <i>Father, speak—<br/> +How shall thy children rule thine halls again?<br/> +Homeless we are and sold; and she who sold<br/> +Is she who bore us; and the price she took<br/> +Is he who joined with her to work thy death</i>,<br/> +<i>Aegisthus, her new lord. Behold me here<br/> +Brought down to slave’s estate, and far away<br/> +Wanders Orestes, banished from the wealth<br/> +That once was thine, the profit of thy care,<br/> +Whereon these revel in a shameful joy.<br/> +Father, my prayer is said; ’tis thine to hear—<br/> +Grant that some fair fate bring Orestes home,<br/> +And unto me grant these—a purer soul<br/> +Than is my mother’s, a more stainless hand.</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +These be my prayers for us; for thee, O sire,<br/> +I cry that one may come to smite thy foes,<br/> +And that the slayers may in turn be slain.<br/> +Cursed is their prayer, and thus I bar its path,<br/> +Praying mine own, a counter-curse on them.<br/> +And thou, send up to us the righteous boon<br/> +For which we pray: thine aids be heaven and earth,<br/> +And justice guide the right to victory,<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>To the Chorus.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Thus have I prayed, and thus I shed these streams,<br/> +And follow ye the wont, and as with flowers<br/> +Crown ye with many a tear and cry the dirge,<br/> +Your lips ring out above the dead man’s grave.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>She pours the libations</i>. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Woe, woe, woe!<br/> +Let the teardrop fall, plashing on the ground<br/> + Where our lord lies low:<br/> +Fall and cleanse away the cursed libation’s stain,<br/> + Shed on this grave-mound,<br/> +Fenced wherein together, gifts of good or bane<br/> + From the dead are found.<br/> + Lord of Argos, hearken!<br/> +Though around thee darken<br/> + Mist of death and hell, arise and hear!<br/> +Hearken and awaken to our cry of woe!<br/> + Who with might of spear<br/> + Shall our home deliver?<br/> + Who like Ares bend until it quiver,<br/> + Bend the northern bow?<br/> +Who with hand upon the hilt himself will thrust with glaive,<br/> + Thrust and slay and save?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> + Lo! the earth drinks them, to my sire they pass—<br/> + Learn ye with me of this thing new and strange.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Speak thou; my breast doth palpitate with fear. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> + I see upon the tomb a curl new shorn. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Shorn from what man or what deep-girded maid? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> + That may he guess who will; the sign is plain. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Let me learn this of thee; let youth prompt age. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> + None is there here but I, to clip such gift. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + For they who thus should mourn him hate him sore. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> + And lo! in truth the hair exceeding like— +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Like to what locks and whose? instruct me that. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Like unto those my father’s children wear. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Then is this lock Orestes’ secret gift? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Most like it is unto the curls he wore, +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Yet how dared he to come unto his home? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +He hath but sent it, clipt to mourn his sire. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +It is a sorrow grievous as his death,<br/> +That he should live yet never dare return.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Yea, and my heart o’erflows with gall of grief,<br/> +And I am pierced as with a cleaving dart;<br/> +Like to the first drops after drought, my tears<br/> +Fall down at will, a bitter bursting tide,<br/> +As on this lock I gaze; I cannot deem<br/> +That any Argive save Orestes’ self<br/> +Was ever lord thereof; nor, well I wot,<br/> +Hath she, the murd’ress, shorn and laid this lock<br/> +To mourn him whom she slew—my mother she,<br/> +Bearing no mother’s heart, but to her race<br/> +A loathing spirit, loathed itself of heaven!<br/> +Yet to affirm, as utterly made sure,<br/> +That this adornment cometh of the hand<br/> +Of mine Orestes, brother of my soul,<br/> +I may not venture, yet hope flatters fair!<br/> +Ah well-a-day, that this dumb hair had voice<br/> +To glad mine ears, as might a messenger,<br/> +Bidding me sway no more ’twixt fear and hope,<br/> +Clearly commanding, <i>Cast me hence away,<br/> +Clipped was I from some head thou lovest not;</i><br/> +Or, <i>I am kin to thee, and here, as thou,<br/> +I come to weep and deck our father’s grave.</i><br/> +Aid me, ye gods! for well indeed ye know<br/> +How in the gale and counter-gale of doubt,<br/> +Like to the seaman’s bark, we whirl and stray.<br/> +But, if God will our life, how strong shall spring,<br/> +From seed how small, the new tree of our home!—<br/> +Lo ye, a second sign—these footsteps, look,—<br/> +Like to my own, a corresponsive print;<br/> +And look, another footmark,—this his own,<br/> +And that the foot of one who walked with him.<br/> +Mark, how the heel and tendons’ print combine,<br/> +Measured exact, with mine coincident!<br/> +Alas! for doubt and anguish rack my mind.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b> (<i>approaching suddenly</i>)<br/> +Pray thou, in gratitude for prayers fulfilled, +<i>Fair fall the rest of what I ask of heaven</i>. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Wherefore? what win I from the gods by prayer? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +This, that thine eyes behold thy heart’s desire. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +On whom of mortals know’st thou that I call? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +I know thy yearning for Orestes deep. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Say then, wherein event hath crowned my prayer? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +I, I am he; seek not one more akin. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Some fraud, O stranger, weavest thou for me? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Against myself I weave it, if I weave. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Ah, thou hast mind to mock me in my woe! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +’Tis at mine own I mock then, mocking thine. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Speak I with thee then as Orestes’ self? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +My very face thou see’st and know’st me not,<br/> +And yet but now, when thou didst see the lock<br/> +Shorn for my father’s grave, and when thy quest<br/> +Was eager on the footprints I had made,<br/> +Even I, thy brother, shaped and sized as thou,<br/> +Fluttered thy spirit, as at sight of me!<br/> +Lay now this ringlet whence ’twas shorn, and judge,<br/> +And look upon this robe, thine own hands’ work,<br/> +The shuttle-prints, the creature wrought thereon—<br/> +Refrain thyself, nor prudence lose in joy,<br/> +For well I wot, our kin are less than kind.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +O thou that art unto our father’s home<br/> +Love, grief and hope, for thee the tears ran down,<br/> +For thee, the son, the saviour that should be;<br/> +Trust thou thine arm and win thy father’s halls!<br/> +O aspect sweet of fourfold love to me,<br/> +Whom upon thee the heart’s constraint bids call<br/> +As on my father, and the claim of love<br/> +From me unto my mother turns to thee,<br/> +For she is very hate; to thee too turns<br/> +What of my heart went out to her who died<br/> +A ruthless death upon the altar-stone;<br/> +And for myself I love thee—thee that wast<br/> +A brother leal, sole stay of love to me.<br/> +Now by thy side be strength and right, and Zeus<br/> +Saviour almighty, stand to aid the twain!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Zeus, Zeus! look down on our estate and us,<br/> +The orphaned brood of him, our eagle-sire,<br/> +Whom to his death a fearful serpent brought<br/> +Enwinding him in coils; and we, bereft<br/> +And foodless, sink with famine, all too weak<br/> +To bear unto the eyrie, as he bore,<br/> +Such quarry as he slew. Lo! I and she,<br/> +Electra, stand before thee, fatherless,<br/> +And each alike cast out and homeless made.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +And if thou leave to death the brood of him<br/> +Whose altar blazed for thee, whose reverence<br/> +Was thine, all thine,—whence, in the after years,<br/> +Shall any hand like his adorn thy shrine<br/> +With sacrifice of flesh? the eaglets slain,<br/> +Thou wouldst not have a messenger to bear<br/> +Thine omens, once so clear, to mortal men;<br/> +So, if this kingly stock be withered all,<br/> +None on high festivals will fend thy shrine<br/> +Stoop thou to raise us! strong the race shall show,<br/> +Though puny now it seem, and fallen low.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +O children, saviours of your father’s home,<br/> +Beware ye of your words, lest one should hear<br/> +And bear them, for the tongue hath lust to tell,<br/> +Unto our masters—whom God grant to me<br/> +In pitchy reek of fun’ral flame to see!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Nay, mighty is Apollo’s oracle<br/> +And shall not fail me, whom it bade to pass<br/> +Thro’ all this peril; clear the voice rang out<br/> +With many warnings, sternly threatening<br/> +To my hot heart the wintry chill of pain,<br/> +Unless upon the slayers of my sire<br/> +I pressed for vengeance: this the god’s command—<br/> +That I, in ire for home and wealth despoiled,<br/> +Should with a craft like theirs the slayers slay:<br/> +Else with my very life I should atone<br/> +This deed undone, in many a ghastly wise<br/> +For he proclaimed unto the ears of men<br/> +That offerings, poured to angry power of death,<br/> +Exude again, unless their will be done,<br/> +As grim disease on those that poured them forth—<br/> +As leprous ulcers mounting on the flesh<br/> +And with fell fangs corroding what of old<br/> +Wore natural form; and on the brow arise<br/> +White poisoned hairs, the crown of this disease.<br/> +He spake moreover of assailing fiends<br/> +Empowered to quit on me my father’s blood,<br/> +Wreaking their wrath on me, what time in night<br/> +Beneath shut lids the spirit’s eye sees clear.<br/> +The dart that flies in darkness, sped from hell<br/> +By spirits of the murdered dead who call<br/> +Unto their kin for vengeance, formless fear,<br/> +The night-tide’s visitant, and madness’ curse<br/> +Should drive and rack me; and my tortured frame<br/> +Should be chased forth from man’s community<br/> +As with the brazen scorpions of the scourge.<br/> +For me and such as me no lustral bowl<br/> +Should stand, no spilth of wine be poured to God<br/> +For me, and wrath unseen of my dead sire<br/> +Should drive me from the shrine; no man should dare<br/> +To take me to his hearth, nor dwell with me:<br/> +Slow, friendless, cursed of all should be mine end,<br/> +And pitiless horror wind me for the grave,<br/> +This spake the god—this dare I disobey?<br/> +Yea, though I dared, the deed must yet be done;<br/> +For to that end diverse desires combine,—<br/> +The god’s behest, deep grief for him who died,<br/> +And last, the grievous blank of wealth despoiled—<br/> +All these weigh on me, urge that Argive men,<br/> +Minions of valour, who with soul of fire<br/> +Did make of fencèd Troy a ruinous heap,<br/> +Be not left slaves to two and each a woman!<br/> +For he, the man, wears woman’s heart; if not<br/> +Soon shall he know, confronted by a man.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Orestes, Electra, and the Chorus gather round the tomb of +Agamemnon for the invocation which follows</i>. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Mighty Fates, on you we call!<br/> + Bid the will of Zeus ordain<br/> + Power to those, to whom again<br/> + Justice turns with hand and aid!<br/> + Grievous was the prayer one made—<br/> + Grievous let the answer fall!<br/> + Where the mighty doom is set,<br/> + Justice claims aloud her debt<br/> + Who in blood hath dipped the steel,<br/> + Deep in blood her meed shall feel!<br/> + List an immemorial word—<br/> + <i>Whosoe’er shall take the sword<br/> + Shall perish by the sword.</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Father, unblest in death, O father mine!<br/> + What breath of word or deed<br/> +Can I waft on thee from this far confine<br/> + Unto thy lowly bed,—<br/> +Waft upon thee, in midst of darkness lying,<br/> + Hope’s counter-gleam of fire?<br/> +Yet the loud dirge of praise brings grace undying<br/> + Unto each parted sire.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +O child, the spirit of the dead,<br/> +Altho’ upon his flesh have fed<br/> + The grim teeth of the flame,<br/> +Is quelled not; after many days<br/> +The sting of wrath his soul shall raise,<br/> + A vengeance to reclaim!<br/> +To the dead rings loud our cry—<br/> +Plain the living’s treachery—<br/> +Swelling, shrilling, urged on high,<br/> + The vengeful dirge, for parents slain,<br/> + Shall strive and shall attain.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> + Hear me too, even me, O father, hear!<br/> +Not by one child alone these groans, these tears are shed<br/> + Upon thy sepulchre.<br/> + Each, each, where thou art lowly laid,<br/> + Stands, a suppliant, homeless made:<br/> + Ah, and all is full of ill,<br/> + Comfort is there none to say!<br/> + Strive and wrestle as we may,<br/> + Still stands doom invincible.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Nay, if so he will, the god<br/> + Still our tears to joy can turn<br/> + He can bid a triumph-ode<br/> + Drown the dirge beside this urn;<br/> + He to kingly halls can greet<br/> +The child restored, the homeward-guided feet.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Ah my father! hadst thou lain<br/> + Under Ilion’s wall,<br/> +By some Lycian spearman slain,<br/> + Thou hadst left in this thine hall<br/> +Honour; thou hadst wrought for us<br/> +Fame and life most glorious.<br/> + Over-seas if thou had’st died,<br/> +Heavily had stood thy tomb,<br/> + Heaped on high; but, quenched in pride,<br/> +Grief were light unto thy home.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Loved and honoured hadst thou lain<br/> + By the dead that nobly fell,<br/> +In the under-world again,<br/> + Where are throned the kings of hell,<br/> + Full of sway adorable<br/> +Thou hadst stood at their right hand—<br/> +Thou that wert, in mortal land,<br/> + By Fate’s ordinance and law,<br/> +King of kings who bear the crown<br/> + And the staff, to which in awe<br/> +Mortal men bow down.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> + Nay O father, I were fain<br/> +Other fate had fallen on thee.<br/> + Ill it were if thou hadst lain<br/> + One among the common slain,<br/> + Fallen by Scamander’s side—<br/> +Those who slew thee there should be!<br/> +Then, untouched by slavery,<br/> + We had heard as from afar<br/> +Deaths of those who should have died<br/> + ’Mid the chance of war.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +O child, forbear! things all too high thou sayest.<br/> + Easy, but vain, thy cry!<br/> +A boon above all gold is that thou prayest,<br/> + An unreached destiny,<br/> +As of the blessèd land that far aloof<br/> + Beyond the north wind lies;<br/> +Yet doth your double prayer ring loud reproof;<br/> + A double scourge of sighs<br/> +Awakes the dead; th’ avengers rise, though late;<br/> + Blood stains the guilty pride<br/> +Of the accursed who rule on earth, and Fate<br/> + Stands on the children’s side.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +That hath sped thro’ mine ear, like a shaft from a bow!<br/> +Zeus, Zeus! it is thou who dost send from below<br/> +A doom on the desperate doer—ere long<br/> +On a mother a father shall visit his wrong.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Be it mine to upraise thro’ the reek of the pyre<br/> +The chant of delight, while the funeral fire<br/> + Devoureth the corpse of a man that is slain<br/> + And a woman laid low!<br/> +For who bids me conceal it! out-rending control,<br/> +Blows ever stern blast of hate thro’ my soul,<br/> + And before me a vision of wrath and of bane<br/> + Flits and waves to and fro.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Zeus, thou alone to us art parent now.<br/> + Smite with a rending blow<br/> + Upon their heads, and bid the land be well:<br/> +Set right where wrong hath stood; and thou give ear,<br/> + O Earth, unto my prayer—<br/> +Yea, hear O mother Earth, and monarchy of hell!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Nay, the law is sternly set—<br/> + Blood-drops shed upon the ground<br/> +Plead for other bloodshed yet;<br/> + Loud the call of death doth sound,<br/> +Calling guilt of olden time,<br/> +A Fury, crowning crime with crime.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> + Where, where are ye, avenging powers,<br/> + Puissant Furies of the slain?<br/> + Behold the relics of the race<br/> + Of Atreus, thrust from pride of place!<br/> + O Zeus, what home henceforth is ours,<br/> + What refuge to attain?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Lo, at your wail my heart throbs, wildly stirred;<br/> + Now am I lorn with sadness,<br/> +Darkened in all my soul, to hear your sorrow’s word.<br/> + Anon to hope, the seat of strength, I rise,—<br/> + She, thrusting grief away, lifts up mine eyes<br/> + To the new dawn of gladness.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> + Skills it to tell of aught save wrong on wrong,<br/> + Wrought by our mother’s deed?<br/> + Though now she fawn for pardon, sternly strong<br/> + Standeth our wrath, and will nor hear nor heed;<br/> + Her children’s soul is wolfish, born from hers,<br/> + And softens not by prayers.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + I dealt upon my breast the blow<br/> + That Asian mourning women know;<br/> + Wails from my breast the fun’ral cry,<br/> + The Cissian weeping melody;<br/> + Stretched rendingly forth, to tatter and tear,<br/> + My clenched hands wander, here and there,<br/> + From head to breast; distraught with blows<br/> + Throb dizzily my brows.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> + Aweless in hate, O mother, sternly brave!<br/> + As in a foeman’s grave<br/> + Thou laid’st in earth a king, but to the bier<br/> + No citizen drew near,—<br/> +Thy husband, thine, yet for his obsequies,<br/> + Thou bad’st no wail arise!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Alas the shameful burial thou dost speak!<br/> +Yet I the vengeance of his shame will wreak—<br/> + That do the gods command!<br/> + That shall achieve mine hand!<br/> +Grant me to thrust her life away, and I<br/> + Will dare to die!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +List thou the deed! Hewn down and foully torn,<br/> + He to the tomb was borne;<br/> +Yea, by her hand, the deed who wrought,<br/> +With like dishonour to the grave was brought,<br/> +And by her hand she strove, with strong desire,<br/> +Thy life to crush, O child, by murder of thy sire:<br/> + Bethink thee, hearing, of the shame, the pain<br/> + Wherewith that sire was slain!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Yea, such was the doom of my sire; well-a-day,<br/> + I was thrust from his side,—<br/> +As a dog from the chamber they thrust me away,<br/> +And in place of my laughter rose sobbing and tears,<br/> + As in darkness I lay.<br/> +O father, if this word can pass to thine ears,<br/> + To thy soul let it reach and abide!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Let it pass, let it pierce, through the sense of thine ear,<br/> + To thy soul, where in silence it waiteth the hour!<br/> +The past is accomplished; but rouse thee to hear<br/> +What the future prepareth; awake and appear,<br/> + Our champion, in wrath and in power!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> + O father, to thy loved ones come in aid. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> + With tears I call on thee. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Listen and rise to light!<br/> +Be thou with us, be thou against the foe!<br/> +Swiftly this cry arises—even so<br/> + Pray we, the loyal band, as we have prayed!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Let their might meet with mine, and their right with my right. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> + O ye Gods, it is yours to decree. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Ye call unto the dead; I quake to hear.<br/> +Fate is ordained of old, and shall fulfil your prayer.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Alas, the inborn curse that haunts our home,<br/> + Of Atè’s bloodstained scourge the tuneless sound!<br/> +Alas, the deep insufferable doom,<br/> + The stanchless wound!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +It shall be stanched, the task is ours,—<br/> + Not by a stranger’s, but by kindred hand,<br/> +Shall be chased forth the blood-fiend of our land.<br/> + Be this our spoken spell, to call Earth’s nether powers!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Lords of a dark eternity,<br/> + To you has come the children’s cry,<br/> + Send up from hell, fulfil your aid<br/> + To them who prayed.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +O father, murdered in unkingly wise,<br/> +Fulfil my prayer, grant me thine halls to sway.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +To me too, grant this boon—dark death to deal<br/> +Unto Aegisthus, and to ’scape my doom.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +So shall the rightful feasts that mortals pay<br/> +Be set for thee; else, not for thee shall rise<br/> +The scented reek of altars fed with flesh,<br/> +But thou shall lie dishonoured: hear thou me!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +I too, from my full heritage restored,<br/> +Will pour the lustral streams, what time I pass<br/> +Forth as a bride from these paternal halls,<br/> +And honour first, beyond all graves, thy tomb.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Earth, send my sire to fend me in the fight! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Give fair-faced fortune, O Persephone! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Bethink thee, father, in the laver slain— +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Bethink thee of the net they handselled for thee! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Bonds not of brass ensnared thee, father mine. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Yea, the ill craft of an enfolding robe. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +By this our bitter speech arise, O sire! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Raise thou thine head at love’s last, dearest call! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Yea, speed forth Right to aid thy kinsmen’s cause;<br/> +Grip for grip, let them grasp the foe, if thou<br/> +Willest in triumph to forget thy fall.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ELECTRA</b><br/> +Hear me, O father, once again hear me.<br/> +Lo! at thy tomb, two fledglings of thy brood—<br/> +A man-child and a maid; hold them in ruth,<br/> +Nor wipe them out, the last of Pelops’ line.<br/> +For while they live, thou livest from the dead;<br/> +Children are memory’s voices, and preserve<br/> +The dead from wholly dying: as a net<br/> +Is ever by the buoyant corks upheld,<br/> +Which save the flex-mesh, in the depth submerged.<br/> +Listen, this wail of ours doth rise for thee,<br/> +And as thou heedest it thyself art saved.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +In sooth, a blameless prayer ye spake at length—<br/> +The tomb’s requital for its dirge denied:<br/> +Now, for the rest, as thou art fixed to do,<br/> +Take fortune by the hand and work thy will.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +The doom is set; and yet I fain would ask—<br/> +Not swerving from the course of my resolve,—<br/> +Wherefore she sent these offerings, and why<br/> +She softens all too late her cureless deed?<br/> +An idle boon it was, to send them here<br/> +Unto the dead who recks not of such gifts.<br/> +I cannot guess her thought, but well I ween<br/> +Such gifts are skilless to atone such crime.<br/> +Be blood once spilled, an idle strife he strives<br/> +Who seeks with other wealth or wine outpoured<br/> +To atone the deed. So stands the word, nor fails.<br/> +Yet would I know her thought; speak, if thou knowest.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +I know it, son; for at her side I stood.<br/> +’Twas the night-wandering terror of a dream<br/> +That flung her shivering from her couch, and bade her—<br/> +Her, the accursed of God—these offerings send.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Heard ye the dream, to tell it forth aright? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +CHORUS<br/> +Yea, from herself; her womb a serpent bare.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +What then the sum and issue of the tale? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Even as a swaddled child, she lull’d the thing. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +What suckling craved the creature, born full-fanged? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Yet in her dreams she proffered it the breast. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +How? did the hateful thing not bite her teat? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Yea, and sucked forth a blood-gout in the milk. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Not vain this dream—it bodes a man’s revenge. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Then out of sleep she started with a cry,<br/> +And thro’ the palace for their mistress’ aid<br/> +Full many lamps, that erst lay blind with night,<br/> +Flared into light; then, even as mourners use,<br/> +She sends these offerings, in hope to win<br/> +A cure to cleave and sunder sin from doom.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Earth and my father’s grave, to you I call—<br/> +Give this her dream fulfilment, and thro’ me.<br/> +I read it in each part coincident,<br/> +With what shall be; for mark, that serpent sprang<br/> +From the same womb as I, in swaddling bands<br/> +By the same hands was swathed, lipped the same breast,<br/> +And sucking forth the same sweet mother’s-milk<br/> +Infused a clot of blood; and in alarm<br/> +She cried upon her wound the cry of pain.<br/> +The rede is clear: the thing of dread she nursed,<br/> +The death of blood she dies; and I, ’tis I,<br/> +In semblance of a serpent, that must slay her.<br/> +Thou art my seer, and thus I read the dream.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +So do; yet ere thou doest, speak to us,<br/> +Siding some act, some, by not acting, aid.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Brief my command: I bid my sister pass<br/> +In silence to the house, and all I bid<br/> +This my design with wariness conceal,<br/> +That they who did by craft a chieftain slay<br/> +May by like craft and in like noose be ta’en<br/> +Dying the death which Loxias foretold—<br/> +Apollo, king and prophet undisproved.<br/> +I with this warrior Pylades will come<br/> +In likeness of a stranger, full equipt<br/> +As travellers come, and at the palace gates<br/> +Will stand, as stranger yet in friendship’s bond<br/> +Unto this house allied; and each of us<br/> +Will speak the tongue that round Parnassus sounds,<br/> +Feigning such speech as Phocian voices use.<br/> +And what if none of those that tend the gates<br/> +Shall welcome us with gladness, since the house<br/> +With ills divine is haunted? if this hap,<br/> +We at the gate will bide, till, passing by,<br/> +Some townsman make conjecture and proclaim,<br/> +<i>How? is Aegisthus here, and knowingly<br/> +Keeps suppliants aloof, by bolt and bar?</i><br/> +Then shall I win my way; and if I cross<br/> +The threshold of the gate, the palace’ guard,<br/> +And find him throned where once my father sat—<br/> +Or if he come anon, and face to face<br/> +Confronting, drop his eyes from mine—I swear<br/> +He shall not utter, <i>Who art thou and whence?</i><br/> +Ere my steel leap, and compassed round with death<br/> +Low he shall lie: and thus, full-fed with doom,<br/> +The Fury of the house shall drain once more<br/> +A deep third draught of rich unmingled blood.<br/> +But thou, O sister, look that all within<br/> +Be well prepared to give these things event.<br/> +And ye—I say ’twere well to bear a tongue<br/> +Full of fair silence and of fitting speech<br/> +As each beseems the time; and last, do thou,<br/> +Hermes the warder-god, keep watch and ward,<br/> +And guide to victory my striving sword.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exit with Pylades.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Many and marvellous the things of fear<br/> + Earth’s breast doth bear;<br/> + And the sea’s lap with many monsters teems,<br/> + And windy levin-bolts and meteor gleams<br/> + Breed many deadly things—<br/> +Unknown and flying forms, with fear upon their wings,<br/> + And in their tread is death;<br/> + And rushing whirlwinds, of whose blasting breath<br/> + Man’s tongue can tell.<br/> + But who can tell aright the fiercer thing,<br/> + The aweless soul, within man’s breast inhabiting?<br/> + Who tell, how, passion-fraught and love-distraught<br/> + The woman’s eager, craving thought<br/> + Doth wed mankind to woe and ruin fell?<br/> + Yea, how the loveless love that doth possess<br/> + The woman, even as the lioness,<br/> + Doth rend and wrest apart, with eager strife,<br/> + The link of wedded life?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Let him be the witness, whose thought is not borne on light wings +thro’ the air,<br/> +But abideth with knowledge, what thing was wrought by Althea’s despair;<br/> +For she marr’d the life-grace of her son, with ill counsel rekindled the flame<br/> +That was quenched as it glowed on the brand, what time from his mother he came,<br/> +With the cry of a new-born child; and the brand from the burning she won,<br/> +For the Fates had foretold it coeval, in life and in death, with her son.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Yea, and man’s hate tells of another, even Scylla of murderous guile,<br/> +Who slew for an enemy’s sake her father, won o’er by the wile<br/> +And the gifts of Cretan Minos, the gauds of the high-wrought gold;<br/> +For she clipped from her father’s head the lock that should never wax old,<br/> +As he breathed in the silence of sleep, and knew not her craft and her crime—<br/> +But Hermes, the guard of the dead, doth grasp her, in fulness of time.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +And since of the crimes of the cruel I tell, let my singing record<br/> +The bitter wedlock and loveless, the curse on these halls outpoured,<br/> +The crafty device of a woman, whereby did a chieftain fall,<br/> +A warrior stern in his wrath; the fear of his enemies all,—<br/> +A song of dishonour, untimely! and cold is the hearth that was warm<br/> +And ruled by the cowardly spear, the woman’s unwomanly arm.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +But the summit and crown of all crimes is that which in Lemnos befell;<br/> +A woe and a mourning it is, a shame and a spitting to tell;<br/> +And he that in after time doth speak of his deadliest thought,<br/> +Doth say, <i>It is like to the deed that of old time in Lemnos was wrought</i>;<br/> +And loathed of men were the doers, and perished, they and their seed,<br/> +For the gods brought hate upon them; none loveth the impious deed.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +It is well of these tales to tell; for the sword in the grasp of Right<br/> +With a cleaving, a piercing blow to the innermost heart doth smite,<br/> +And the deed unlawfully done is not trodden down nor forgot,<br/> +When the sinner out-steppeth the law and heedeth the high God not;<br/> +But Justice hath planted the anvil, and Destiny forgeth the sword<br/> +That shall smite in her chosen time; by her is the child restored;<br/> +And, darkly devising, the Fiend of the house, world-cursed, will repay<br/> +The price of the blood of the slain that was shed in the bygone day.<br/> +</p> + +<p style="margin-top: 2em">[<i>Enter Orestes and Pylades, in guise of travellers</i>. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b> (<i>knocking at the palace gate</i>)<br/> +What ho! slave, ho! I smite the palace gate<br/> +In vain, it seems; what ho, attend within,—<br/> +Once more, attend; come forth and ope the halls,<br/> +If yet Aegisthus holds them hospitable.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>SLAVE</b> (<i>from within</i>)<br/> +Anon, anon!<br/> +</p> +<p class="right"> +[<i>Opens the door.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Speak, from what land art thou, and sent from whom? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Go, tell to them who rule the palace-halls,<br/> +Since ’tis to them I come with tidings new—<br/> +(Delay not—Night’s dark car is speeding on,<br/> +And time is now for wayfarers to cast<br/> +Anchor in haven, wheresoe’er a house<br/> +Doth welcome strangers)—that there now come forth<br/> +Some one who holds authority within—<br/> +The queen, or, if some man, more seemly were it;<br/> +For when man standeth face to face with man,<br/> +No stammering modesty confounds their speech,<br/> +But each to each doth tell his meaning clear.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Enter Clytemnestra</i>. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Speak on, O strangers; have ye need of aught?<br/> +Here is whate’er beseems a house like this—<br/> +Warm bath and bed, tired Nature’s soft restorer,<br/> +And courteous eyes to greet you; and if aught<br/> +Of graver import needeth act as well,<br/> +That, as man’s charge, I to a man will tell.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +A Daulian man am I, from Phocis bound,<br/> +And as with mine own travel-scrip self-laden<br/> +I went toward Argos, parting hitherward<br/> +With travelling foot, there did encounter me<br/> +One whom I knew not and who knew not me,<br/> +But asked my purposed way nor hid his own,<br/> +And, as we talked together, told his name—<br/> +Strophius of Phocis; then he said, “Good sir,<br/> +Since in all case thou art to Argos bound,<br/> +Forget not this my message, heed it well,<br/> +Tell to his own, <i>Orestes is no more</i>.<br/> +And—whatsoe’er his kinsfolk shall resolve,<br/> +Whether to bear his dust unto his home,<br/> +Or lay him here, in death as erst in life<br/> +Exiled for aye, a child of banishment—<br/> +Bring me their hest, upon thy backward road;<br/> +For now in brazen compass of an urn<br/> +His ashes lie, their dues of weeping paid.”<br/> +So much I heard, and so much tell to thee,<br/> +Not knowing if I speak unto his kin<br/> +Who rule his home; but well, I deem, it were,<br/> +Such news should earliest reach a parent’s ear.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Ah woe is me! thy word our ruin tells;<br/> +From roof-tree unto base are we despoiled.—<br/> +O thou whom nevermore we wrestle down,<br/> +Thou Fury of this home, how oft and oft<br/> +Thou dost descry what far aloof is laid,<br/> +Yea, from afar dost bend th’ unerring bow<br/> +And rendest from my wretchedness its friends;<br/> +As now Orestes—who, a brief while since,<br/> +Safe from the mire of death stood warily,—<br/> +Was the home’s hope to cure th’ exulting wrong;<br/> +Now thou ordainest, <i>Let the ill abide</i>.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +To host and hostess thus with fortune blest,<br/> +Lief had I come with better news to bear<br/> +Unto your greeting and acquaintanceship;<br/> +For what goodwill lies deeper than the bond<br/> +Of guest and host? and wrong abhorred it were,<br/> +As well I deem, if I, who pledged my faith<br/> +To one, and greetings from the other had,<br/> +Bore not aright the tidings ’twixt the twain.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Whate’er thy news, thou shalt not welcome lack,<br/> +Meet and deserved, nor scant our grace shall be.<br/> +Hadst them thyself not come, such tale to tell,<br/> +Another, sure, had borne it to our ears.<br/> +But lo! the hour is here when travelling guests,<br/> +Fresh from the daylong labour of the road,<br/> +Should win their rightful due. Take him within<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>To the slave.</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +To the man-chamber’s hospitable rest—<br/> +Him and these fellow-farers at his side;<br/> +Give them such guest-right as beseems our halls;<br/> +I bid thee do as thou shalt answer for it.<br/> +And I unto the prince who rules our home<br/> +Will tell the tale, and, since we lack not friends,<br/> +With them will counsel how this hap to bear<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exit Clytemnestra.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + So be it done—<br/> +Sister-servants, when draws nigh<br/> +Time for us aloud to cry<br/> +<i>Orestes and his victory?</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + O holy earth and holy tomb<br/> +Over the grave-pit heaped on high,<br/> +Where low doth Agamemnon lie,<br/> + The king of ships, the army’s lord!<br/> +Now is the hour—give ear and come,<br/> + For now doth Craft her aid afford,<br/> +And Hermes, guard of shades in hell,<br/> +Stands o’er their strife, to sentinel<br/> + The dooming of the sword.<br/> +I wot the stranger worketh woe within—<br/> +For lo! I see come forth, suffused with tears,<br/> +Orestes’ nurse. What ho, Kilissa—thou<br/> +Beyond the doors? Where goest thou? Methinks<br/> +Some grief unbidden walketh at thy side.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Enter Kilissa, a nurse.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>KILISSA</b><br/> +My mistress bids me, with what speed I may,<br/> +Call in Aegisthus to the stranger guests,<br/> +That he may come, and standing face to face,<br/> +A man with men, may thus more clearly learn<br/> +This rumour new. Thus speaking, to her slaves<br/> +She hid beneath the glance of fictive grief<br/> +Laughter for what is wrought—to her desire<br/> +Too well; but ill, ill, ill besets the house,<br/> +Brought by the tale these guests have told so clear.<br/> +And he, God wot, will gladden all his heart<br/> +Hearing this rumour. Woe and well-a-day!<br/> +The bitter mingled cup of ancient woes,<br/> +Hard to be borne, that here in Atreus’ house<br/> +Befel, was grievous to mine inmost heart,<br/> +But never yet did I endure such pain.<br/> +All else I bore with set soul patiently;<br/> +But now—alack, alack!—Orestes dear,<br/> +The day and night-long travail of my soul!<br/> +Whom from his mother’s womb, a new-born child,<br/> +I clasped and cherished! Many a time and oft<br/> +Toilsome and profitless my service was,<br/> +When his shrill outcry called me from my couch!<br/> +For the young child, before the sense is born,<br/> +Hath but a dumb thing’s life, must needs be nursed<br/> +As its own nature bids. The swaddled thing<br/> +Hath nought of speech, whate’er discomfort come—<br/> +Hunger or thirst or lower weakling need,—<br/> +For the babe’s stomach works its own relief.<br/> +Which knowing well before, yet oft surprised,<br/> +’Twas mine to cleanse the swaddling clothes—poor I<br/> +Was nurse to tend and fuller to make white;<br/> +Two works in one, two handicrafts I took,<br/> +When in mine arms the father laid the boy.<br/> +And now he’s dead—alack and well-a-day!<br/> +Yet must I go to him whose wrongful power<br/> +Pollutes this house—fair tidings these to him!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Say then, with what array she bids him come? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>KILISSA</b><br/> + What say’st thou! Speak more clearly for mine ear. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Bids she bring henchmen, or to come alone? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +KlLISSA<br/> + She bids him bring a spear-armed body-guard. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Nay, tell not that unto our loathèd lord,<br/> + But speed to him, put on the mien of joy,<br/> + Say, <i>Come along, fear nought, the news is good:</i><br/> + A bearer can tell straight a twisted tale.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>KILISSA</b><br/> + Does then thy mind in this new tale find joy? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + What if Zeus bid our ill wind veer to fair? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>KILISSA</b><br/> + And how? the home’s hope with Orestes dies. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Not yet—a seer, though feeble, this might see. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>KILISSA</b><br/> + What say’st thou? Know’st thou aught, this tale belying? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Go, tell the news to him, perform thine hest,—<br/> + What the gods will, themselves can well provide.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>KILISSA</b><br/> + Well, I will go, herein obeying thee;<br/> + And luck fall fair, with favour sent from heaven.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exit.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Zeus, sire of them who on Olympus dwell,<br/> + Hear thou, O hear my prayer!<br/> +Grant to my rightful lords to prosper well<br/> + Even as their zeal is fair!<br/> +For right, for right goes up aloud my cry—<br/> + Zeus, aid him, stand anigh!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Into his father’s hall he goes<br/> + To smite his father’s foes.<br/> +Bid him prevail! by thee on throne of triumph set,<br/> +Twice, yea and thrice with joy shall he acquit the debt.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Bethink thee, the young steed, the orphan foal<br/> + Of sire beloved by thee, unto the car<br/> + Of doom is harnessed fast.<br/> +Guide him aright, plant firm a lasting goal,<br/> +Speed thou his pace,—O that no chance may mar<br/> + The homeward course, the last!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +And ye who dwell within the inner chamber<br/> + Where shines the storèd joy of gold—<br/> +Gods of one heart, O hear ye, and remember;<br/> +Up and avenge the blood shed forth of old,<br/> + With sudden rightful blow;<br/> + Then let the old curse die, nor be renewed<br/> + With progeny of blood,—<br/> + Once more, and not again, be latter guilt laid low!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + O thou who dwell’st in Delphi’s mighty cave,<br/> + Grant us to see this home once more restored<br/> + Unto its rightful lord!<br/> + Let it look forth, from veils of death, with joyous eye<br/> + Unto the dawning light of liberty;<br/> + And Hermes, Maia’s child, lend hand to save,<br/> + Willing the right, and guide<br/> + Our state with Fortune’s breeze adown the favouring tide.<br/> + Whate’er in darkness hidden lies,<br/> + He utters at his will;<br/> +He at his will throws darkness on our eye<br/> + By night and eke by day inscrutable.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Then, then shall wealth atone<br/> + The ills that here were done.<br/> + Then, then will we unbind,<br/> + Fling free on wafting wind<br/> +Of joy, the woman’s voice that waileth now<br/> +In piercing accents for a chief laid low;<br/> + And this our song shall be—<br/> + <i>Hail to the commonwealth restored!<br/> + Hail to the freedom won to me!<br/> +All hail! for doom hath passed from him, my well-loved lord!</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +And thou, O child, when Time and Chance agree,<br/> +Up to the deed that for thy sire is done!<br/> +And if she wail unto thee, <i>Spare, O son</i>—<br/> +Cry, <i>Aid, O father</i>—and achieve the deed,<br/> +The horror of man’s tongue, the gods’ great need!<br/> +Hold in thy breast such heart as Perseus had,<br/> +The bitter woe work forth,<br/> +Appease the summons of the dead,<br/> +The wrath of friends on earth;<br/> +Yea, set within a sign of blood and doom,<br/> +And do to utter death him that pollutes thy home.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Enter Aegisthus</i>. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AEGISTHUS</b><br/> +Hither and not unsummoned have I come;<br/> +For a new rumour, borne by stranger men<br/> +Arriving hither, hath attained mine ears,<br/> +Of hap unwished-for, even Orestes’ death.<br/> +This were new sorrow, a blood-bolter’d load<br/> +Laid on the house that doth already bow<br/> +Beneath a former wound that festers deep.<br/> +Dare I opine these words have truth and life?<br/> +Or are they tales, of woman’s terror born,<br/> +That fly in the void air, and die disproved?<br/> +Canst thou tell aught, and prove it to my soul?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + What we have heard, we heard; go thou within<br/> + Thyself to ask the strangers of their tale.<br/> + Strengthless are tidings, thro’ another heard;<br/> + Question is his, to whom the tale is brought.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>AEGISTHUS</b><br/> + I too will meet and test the messenger,<br/> + Whether himself stood witness of the death,<br/> + Or tells it merely from dim rumour learnt:<br/> + None shall cheat me, whose soul hath watchful eyes.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exit.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Zeus, Zeus! what word to me is given?<br/> + What cry or prayer, invoking heaven,<br/> + Shall first by me be utterèd?<br/> + What speech of craft? nor all revealing,<br/> + Nor all too warily concealing—<br/> + Ending my speech, shall aid the deed?<br/> + For lo! in readiness is laid<br/> + The dark emprise, the rending blade;<br/> + Blood-dropping daggers shall achieve<br/> + The dateless doom of Atreus’ name,<br/> + Or—kindling torch and joyful flame<br/> + In sign of new-won liberty—<br/> + Once more Orestes shall retrieve<br/> + His father’s wealth, and, throned on high,<br/> + Shall hold the city’s fealty.<br/> + So mighty is the grasp whereby,<br/> + Heaven-holpen, he shall trip and throw,<br/> + Unseconded, a double foe<br/> + Ho for the victory!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>A loud cry within.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>VOICE OF AEGISTHUS</b><br/> + Help, help, alas! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Ho there, ho! how is’t within?<br/> +Is’t done? is’t over? Stand we here aloof<br/> +While it is wrought, that guiltless we may seem<br/> +Of this dark deed; with death is strife fulfilled.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Enter a slave</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>SLAVE</b><br/> +O woe, O woe, my lord is done to death!<br/> +Woe, woe, and woe again, AEgisthus gone!<br/> +Hasten, fling wide the doors, unloose the bolts<br/> +Of the queen’s chamber. O for some young strength<br/> +To match the need! but aid availeth nought<br/> +To him laid low for ever. Help, help, help!<br/> +Sure to deaf ears I shout, and call in vain<br/> +To slumber ineffectual. What ho!<br/> +The queen! how fareth Clytemnestra’s self?<br/> +Her neck too, hers, is close upon the steel,<br/> +And soon shall sink, hewn thro’ as justice wills.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Enter Clytemnestra.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +What ails thee, raising this ado for us? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>SLAVE</b><br/> +I say the dead are come to slay the living. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Alack, I read thy riddles all too clear—<br/> +We slew by craft and by like craft shall die.<br/> +Swift, bring the axe that slew my lord of old;<br/> +I’ll know anon or death or victory—<br/> +So stands the curse, so I confront it here.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Enter Orestes, his sword dropping with blood.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Thee too I seek: for him what’s done will serve. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Woe, woe! Aegisthus, spouse and champion, slain! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +What lov’st the man? then in his grave lie down,<br/> +Be his in death, desert him nevermore!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTSA</b><br/> +Stay, child, and fear to strike. O son, this breast<br/> +Pillowed thine head full oft, while, drowsed with sleep,<br/> +Thy toothless mouth drew mother’s milk from me.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Can I my mother spare? speak, Pylades, +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>PYLADES</b><br/> +Where then would fall the hest Apollo gave<br/> +At Delphi, where the solemn compact sworn?<br/> +Choose thou the hate of all men, not of gods.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Thou dost prevail; I hold thy counsel good. +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>To Clytemnestra</i>. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Follow; I will slay thee at his side.<br/> +With him whom in his life thou lovedst more<br/> +Than Agamemnon, sleep in death, the meed<br/> +For hate where love, and love where hate was due!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +I nursed thee young; must I forego mine eld? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Thou slew’st my father; shalt thou dwell with me? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Fate bore a share in these things, O my child! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Fate also doth provide this doom for thee. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Beware, O my child, a parent’s dying curse. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +A parent who did cast me out to ill! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Not cast thee out, but to a friendly home. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Born free, I was by twofold bargain sold. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Where then the price that I received for thee? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +The price of shame; I taunt thee not more plainly. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Nay, but recount thy father’s lewdness too. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Home-keeping, chide not him who toils without. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +’Tis hard for wives to live as widows, child. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +The absent husband toils for them at home. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Thou growest fain to slay thy mother, child +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Nay, ’tis thyself wilt slay thyself, not I. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Beware thy mother’s vengeful hounds from hell. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +How shall I ’scape my father’s, sparing thee? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Living, I cry as to a tomb, unheard. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +My father’s fate ordains this doom for thee. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Ah, me! this snake it was I bore and nursed. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Ay, right prophetic was thy visioned fear.<br/> +Shameful thy deed was—die the death of shame!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exit, driving Clytemnestra before him.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Lo, even for these I mourn, a double death:<br/> +Yet since Orestes, driven on by doom,<br/> +Thus crowns the height of murders manifold,<br/> +I say, ’tis well—that not in night and death<br/> +Should sink the eye and light of this our home.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +There came on Priam’s race and name<br/> + A vengeance; though it tarried long,<br/> + With heavy doom it came.<br/> +Came, too, on Agamemnon’s hall<br/> + A lion-pair, twin swordsmen strong.<br/> +And last, the heritage doth fall<br/> + To him, to whom from Pythian cave<br/> + The god his deepest counsel gave.<br/> +Cry out, rejoice! our kingly hall<br/> + Hath ’scaped from ruin—ne’er again<br/> +Its ancient wealth be wasted all<br/> + By two usurpers, sin-defiled—<br/> + An evil path of woe and bane!<br/> +On him who dealt the dastard blow<br/> + Comes Craft, Revenge’s scheming child.<br/> +And hand in hand with him doth go,<br/> + Eager for fight,<br/> +The child of Zeus, whom men below<br/> + Call Justice, naming her aright.<br/> + And on her foes her breath<br/> + Is as the blast of death;<br/> +For her the god who dwells in deep recess<br/> + Beneath Parnassus’ brow,<br/> + Summons with loud acclaim<br/> + To rise, though late and lame,<br/> +And come with craft that worketh righteousness.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +For even o’er Powers divine this law is strong—<br/> + <i>Thou shalt not serve the wrong</i>.<br/> +To that which ruleth heaven beseems it that we bow.<br/> + Lo, freedom’s light hath come!<br/> + Lo, now is rent away<br/> +The grim and curbing bit that held us dumb.<br/> + Up to the light, ye halls! this many a day<br/> + Too low on earth ye lay.<br/> + And Time, the great Accomplisher,<br/> + Shall cross the threshold, whensoe’er<br/> + He choose with purging hand to cleanse<br/> + The palace, driving all pollution thence.<br/> + And fair the cast of Fortune’s die<br/> + Before our state’s new lords shall lie,<br/> + Not as of old, but bringing fairer doom<br/> + Lo, freedom’s light hath come!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>The scene opens, disclosing Orestes standing over the corpses of +Aegisthus and Clytemnestra; in one hand he holds his sword, in the +other the robe in which Agamemnon was entangled and slain</i>. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +There lies our country’s twofold tyranny,<br/> +My father’s slayers, spoilers of my home.<br/> +Erst were they royal, sitting on the throne,<br/> +And loving are they yet,—their common fate<br/> +Tells the tale truly, shows their trothplight firm.<br/> +They swore to work mine ill-starred father’s death,<br/> +They swore to die together; ’tis fulfilled.<br/> +O ye who stand, this great doom’s witnesses,<br/> +Behold this too, the dark device which bound<br/> +My sire unhappy to his death,—behold<br/> +The mesh which trapped his hands, enwound his feet!<br/> +Stand round, unfold it—’tis the trammel-net<br/> +That wrapped a chieftain; holds it that he see,<br/> +The father—not my sire, but he whose eye<br/> +Is judge of all things, the all-seeing Sun!<br/> +Let him behold my mother’s damnèd deed,<br/> +Then let him stand, when need shall be to me,<br/> +Witness that justly I have sought and slain<br/> +My mother; blameless was Aegisthus’ doom—<br/> +He died the death law bids adulterers die.<br/> +But she who plotted this accursèd thing<br/> +To slay her lord, by whom she bare beneath<br/> +Her girdle once the burden of her babes,<br/> +Beloved erewhile, now turned to hateful foes—<br/> +What deem ye of her? or what venomed thing,<br/> +Sea-snake or adder, had more power than she<br/> +To poison with a touch the flesh unscarred?<br/> +So great her daring, such her impious will.<br/> +How name her, if I may not speak a curse?<br/> +A lion-springe! a laver’s swathing cloth,<br/> +Wrapping a dead man, twining round his feet—<br/> +A net, a trammel, an entangling robe?<br/> +Such were the weapon of some strangling thief,<br/> +The terror of the road, a cut-purse hound—<br/> +With such device full many might he kill,<br/> +Full oft exult in heat of villainy.<br/> +Ne’er have my house so cursed an indweller—<br/> +Heaven send me, rather, childless to be slain!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Woe for each desperate deed!<br/> +Woe for the queen, with shame of life bereft!<br/> +And ah, for him who still is left,<br/> +Madness, dark blossom of a bloody seed!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Did she the deed or not? this robe gives proof,<br/> +Imbrued with blood that bathed Aegisthus’ sword:<br/> +Look, how the spurted stain combines with time<br/> +To blur the many dyes that once adorned<br/> +Its pattern manifold! I now stand here,<br/> +Made glad, made sad with blood, exulting, wailing—<br/> +Hear, O thou woven web that slew my sire!<br/> +I grieve for deed and death and all my home—<br/> +Victor, pollution’s damnèd stain for prize.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Alas, that none of mortal men<br/> +Can pass his life untouched by pain!<br/> +Behold, one woe is here—<br/> +Another loometh near.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Hark ye and learn—for what the end shall be<br/> +For me I know not: breaking from the curb<br/> +My spirit whirls me off, a conquered prey,<br/> +Borne as a charioteer by steeds distraught<br/> +Far from the course, and madness in my breast<br/> +Burneth to chant its song, and leap, and rave—<br/> +Hark ye and learn, friends, ere my reason goes!<br/> +I say that rightfully I slew my mother,<br/> +A thing God-scorned, that foully slew my sire<br/> +And chiefest wizard of the spell that bound me<br/> +Unto this deed I name the Pythian seer<br/> +Apollo, who foretold that if I slew,<br/> +The guilt of murder done should pass from me;<br/> +But if I spared, the fate that should be mine<br/> +I dare not blazon forth—the bow of speech<br/> +Can reach not to the mark, that doom to tell.<br/> +And now behold me, how with branch and crown<br/> +I pass, a suppliant made meet to go<br/> +Unto Earth’s midmost shrine, the holy ground<br/> +Of Loxias, and that renownèd light<br/> +Of ever-burning fire, to ’scape the doom<br/> +Of kindred murder: to no other shrine<br/> +(So Loxias bade) may I for refuge turn.<br/> +Bear witness, Argives, in the after time,<br/> +How came on me this dread fatality.<br/> +Living, I pass a banished wanderer hence,<br/> +To leave in death the memory of this cry.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Nay, but the deed is well; link not thy lips<br/> +To speech ill-starred, nor vent ill-boding words—<br/> +Who hast to Argos her full freedom given,<br/> +Lopping two serpents’ heads with timely blow.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Look, look, alas!<br/> +Handmaidens, see—what Gorgon shapes throng up;<br/> +Dusky their robes and all their hair enwound—<br/> +Snakes coiled with snakes—off, off, I must away!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Most loyal of all sons unto thy sire,<br/> +What visions thus distract thee? Hold, abide;<br/> +Great was thy victory, and shalt thou fear?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +These are no dreams, void shapes of haunting ill,<br/> +But clear to sight my mother’s hell-hounds come!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Nay, the fresh bloodshed still imbrues thine hands,<br/> +And thence distraction sinks into thy soul.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +O king Apollo—see, they swarm and throng—<br/> +Black blood of hatred dripping from their eyes!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +One remedy thou hast; go, touch the shrine<br/> +Of Loxias, and rid thee of these woes.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Ye can behold them not, but I behold them.<br/> +Up and away! I dare abide no more.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exit</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Farewell then as thou mayst,—the god thy friend<br/> +Guard thee and aid with chances favouring.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Behold, the storm of woe divine<br/> +That the raves and beats on Atreus’ line<br/> + Its great third blast hath blown.<br/> +First was Thyestes’ loathly woe—<br/> +The rueful feast of long ago,<br/> + On children’s flesh, unknown.<br/> +And next the kingly chief’s despite,<br/> +When he who led the Greeks to fight<br/> + Was in the bath hewn down.<br/> +And now the offspring of the race<br/> +Stands in the third, the saviour’s place,<br/> + To save—or to consume?<br/> +O whither, ere it be fulfilled,<br/> +Ere its fierce blast be hushed and stilled,<br/> + Shall blow the wind of doom?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exeunt</i>. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link04"></a>THE FURIES</h2> + +<h3>DRAMATIS PERSONAE</h3> + +<p class="drama"> +THE PYTHIAN PRIESTESS<br/> +APOLLO<br/> +ORESTES<br/> +THE GHOST OF CLYTEMNESTRA<br/> +CHORUS OF FURIES<br/> +ATHENA<br/> +ATTENDANTS OF ATHENA<br/> +TWELVE ATHENIAN CITIZENS<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<i>The Scene of the Drama is the Temple of Apollo, at Delphi: +afterwards the Temple of Athena, on the Acropolis of Athens, and the +adjoining Areopagus.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<i>The Temple at Delphi</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<i>The Pythian Priestess</i> +</p> + +<p class="pfirst"> +<span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">F</span> +irst, in this prayer, of all the gods I name<br/> +The prophet-mother Earth; and Themis next,<br/> +Second who sat—for so with truth is said—<br/> +On this her mother’s shrine oracular.<br/> +Then by her grace, who unconstrained allowed,<br/> +There sat thereon another child of Earth—<br/> +Titanian Phoebe. She, in after time,<br/> +Gave o’er the throne, as birthgift to a god,<br/> +Phoebus, who in his own bears Phoebe’s name.<br/> +He from the lake and ridge of Delos’ isle<br/> +Steered to the port of Pallas’ Attic shores,<br/> +The home of ships; and thence he passed and came<br/> +Unto this land and to Parnassus’ shrine.<br/> +And at his side, with awe revering him,<br/> +There went the children of Hephaestus’ seed,<br/> +The hewers of the sacred way, who tame<br/> +The stubborn tract that erst was wilderness.<br/> +And all this folk, and Delphos, chieftain-king<br/> +Of this their land, with honour gave him home;<br/> +And in his breast Zeus set a prophet’s soul,<br/> +And gave to him this throne, whereon he sits,<br/> +Fourth prophet of the shrine, and, Loxias hight,<br/> +Gives voice to that which Zeus his sire decrees.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Such gods I name in my preluding prayer,<br/> +And after them, I call with honour due<br/> +On Pallas, wardress of the fane, and Nymphs<br/> +Who dwell around the rock Corycian,<br/> +Where in the hollow cave, the wild birds’ haunt,<br/> +Wander the feet of lesser gods; and there,<br/> +Right well I know it, Bromian Bacchus dwells,<br/> +Since he in godship led his Maenad host,<br/> +Devising death for Pentheus, whom they rent<br/> +Piecemeal, as hare among the hounds. And last,<br/> +I call on Pleistus’ springs, Poseidon’s might,<br/> +And Zeus most high, the great Accomplisher.<br/> +Then as a seeress to the sacred chair<br/> +I pass and sit; and may the powers divine<br/> +Make this mine entrance fruitful in response<br/> +Beyond each former advent, triply blest.<br/> +And if there stand without, from Hellas bound,<br/> +Men seeking oracles, let each pass in<br/> +In order of the lot, as use allows;<br/> +For the god guides whate’er my tongue proclaims.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>She goes into the interior of the temple; after a short interval, +she returns in great fear</i>. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Things fell to speak of, fell for eyes to see,<br/> +Have sped me forth again from Loxias’ shrine,<br/> +With strength unstrung, moving erect no more,<br/> +But aiding with my hands my failing feet,<br/> +Unnerved by fear. A beldame’s force is naught—<br/> +Is as a child’s, when age and fear combine.<br/> +For as I pace towards the inmost fane<br/> +Bay-filleted by many a suppliant’s hand,<br/> +Lo, at the central altar I descry<br/> +One crouching as for refuge—yea, a man<br/> +Abhorredd of heaven; and from his hands, wherein<br/> +A sword new-drawn he holds, blood reeked and fell:<br/> +A wand he bears, the olive’s topmost bough,<br/> +Twined as of purpose with a deep close tuft<br/> +Of whitest wool. This, that I plainly saw,<br/> +Plainly I tell. But lo, in front of him,<br/> +Crouched on the altar-steps, a grisly band<br/> +Of women slumbers—not like women they,<br/> +But Gorgons rather; nay, that word is weak,<br/> +Nor may I match the Gorgons’ shape with theirs!<br/> +Such have I seen in painted semblance erst—<br/> +Winged Harpies, snatching food from Phineus’ board,—<br/> +But these are wingless, black, and all their shape<br/> +The eye’s abomination to behold.<br/> +Fell is the breath—let none draw nigh to it—<br/> +Wherewith they snort in slumber; from their eyes<br/> +Exude the damnèd drops of poisonous ire:<br/> +And such their garb as none should dare to bring<br/> +To statues of the gods or homes of men.<br/> +I wot not of the tribe wherefrom can come<br/> +So fell a legion, nor in what land Earth<br/> +Could rear, unharmed, such creatures, nor avow<br/> +That she had travailed and brought forth death.<br/> +But, for the rest, be all these things a care<br/> +Unto the mighty Loxias, the lord<br/> +Of this our shrine: healer and prophet he,<br/> +Discerner he of portents, and the cleanser<br/> +Of other homes—behold, his own to cleanse!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exit</i>. +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>The scene opens, disclosing the interior of the temple: Orestes +clings to the central altar; the Furies lie slumbering at a little +distance; Apollo and Hermes appear from the innermost shrine</i>. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +Lo, I desert thee never: to the end,<br/> +Hard at thy side as now, or sundered far,<br/> +I am thy guard, and to thine enemies<br/> +Implacably oppose me: look on them,<br/> +These greedy fiends, beneath my craft subdued!<br/> +See, they are fallen on sleep, these beldames old,<br/> +Unto whose grim and wizened maidenhood<br/> +Nor god nor man nor beast can e’er draw near.<br/> +Yea, evil were they born, for evil’s doom,<br/> +Evil the dark abyss of Tartarus<br/> +Wherein they dwell, and they themselves the hate<br/> +Of men on earth, and of Olympian gods.<br/> +But thou, flee far and with unfaltering speed;<br/> +For they shall hunt thee through the mainland wide<br/> +Where’er throughout the tract of travelled earth<br/> +Thy foot may roam, and o’er and o’er the seas<br/> +And island homes of men. Faint not nor fail,<br/> +Too soon and timidly within thy breast<br/> +Shepherding thoughts forlorn of this thy toil;<br/> +But unto Pallas’ city go, and there<br/> +Crouch at her shrine, and in thine arms enfold<br/> +Her ancient image: there we well shall find<br/> +Meet judges for this cause and suasive pleas,<br/> +Skilled to contrive for thee deliverance<br/> +From all this woe. Be such my pledge to thee,<br/> +For by my hest thou didst thy mother slay.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +O king Apollo, since right well thou know’st<br/> +What justice bids, have heed, fulfil the same,—<br/> +Thy strength is all-sufficient to achieve.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +Have thou too heed, nor let thy fear prevail<br/> +Above thy will. And do thou guard him, Hermes,<br/> +Whose blood is brother unto mine, whose sire<br/> +The same high God. Men call thee guide and guard,<br/> +Guide therefore thou and guard my suppliant;<br/> +For Zeus himself reveres the outlaw’s right,<br/> +Boon of fair escort, upon man conferred.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exeunt Apollo, Hermes, and Orestes. The Ghost of Clytemnestra near</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>GHOST OF CLYTEMNESTRA</b><br/> +Sleep on! awake! what skills your sleep to me—<br/> +Me, among all the dead by you dishonoured—<br/> +Me from whom never, in the world of death,<br/> +Dieth this curse, <i>’Tis she who smote and slew</i>,<br/> +And shamed and scorned I roam? Awake, and hear<br/> +My plaint of dead men’s hate intolerable.<br/> +Me, sternly slain by them that should have loved,<br/> +Me doth no god arouse him to avenge,<br/> +Hewn down in blood by matricidal hands.<br/> +Mark ye these wounds from which the heart’s blood ran,<br/> +And by whose hand, bethink ye! for the sense<br/> +When shut in sleep hath then the spirit-sight,<br/> +But in the day the inward eye is blind.<br/> +List, ye who drank so oft with lapping tongue<br/> +The wineless draught by me outpoured to soothe<br/> +Your vengeful ire! how oft on kindled shrine<br/> +I laid the feast of darkness, at the hour<br/> +Abhorred of every god but you alone!<br/> +Lo, all my service trampled down and scorned!<br/> +And he hath baulked your chase, as stag the hounds;<br/> +Yea, lightly bounding from the circling toils,<br/> +Hath wried his face in scorn, and flieth far.<br/> +Awake and hear—for mine own soul I cry—<br/> +Awake, ye powers of hell! the wandering ghost<br/> +That once was Clytemnestra calls—Arise!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>The Furies mutter grimly, as in a dream</i>. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Mutter and murmur! He hath flown afar— +My kin have gods to guard them, I have none! +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>The Furies mutter as before</i>. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +O drowsed in sleep too deep to heed my pain!<br/> +Orestes flies, who me, his mother, slew. +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>The Furies give a confused cry</i>. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Yelping, and drowsed again? Up and be doing<br/> +That which alone is yours, the deed of hell! +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>The Furies give another cry</i>. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Lo, sleep and toil, the sworn confederates,<br/> +Have quelled your dragon-anger, once so fell! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>THE FURIES</b> (<i>muttering more fiercely and loudly</i>)<br/> +Seize, seize, seize, seize—mark, yonder! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>GHOST</b><br/> +In dreams ye chase a prey, and like some hound,<br/> +That even in sleep doth ply his woodland toil,<br/> +Ye bell and bay. What do ye, sleeping here?<br/> +Be not o’ercome with toil, nor sleep-subdued,<br/> +Be heedless of my wrong. Up! thrill your heart<br/> +With the just chidings of my tongue,—such words<br/> +Are as a spur to purpose firmly held.<br/> +Blow forth on him the breath of wrath and blood,<br/> +Scorch him with reek of fire that burns in you,<br/> +Waste him with new pursuit—swift, hound him down!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Ghost sinks.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>FIRST FURY</b> (<i>awaking</i>)<br/> +Up! rouse another as I rouse thee; up!<br/> +Sleep’st thou? Rise up, and spurning sleep away,<br/> +See we if false to us this prelude rang.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS OF FURIES</b><br/> +Alack, alack, O sisters, we have toiled,<br/> + O much and vainly have we toiled and borne!<br/> +Vainly! and all we wrought the gods have foiled,<br/> + And turnèd us to scorn!<br/> +He hath slipped from the net, whom we chased: he<br/> + hath ’scaped us who should be our prey—<br/> +O’ermastered by slumber we sank, and our quarry hath stolen away!<br/> +Thou, child of the high God Zeus, Apollo, hast robbed us and wronged;<br/> +Thou, a youth, hast down-trodden the right that is godship more ancient belonged;<br/> +Thou hast cherished thy suppliant man; the slayer the God-forsaken,<br/> +The bane of a parent, by craft from out of our grasp thou hast taken:<br/> +A god, thou hast stolen from us the avengers a matricide son—<br/> +And who shall consider thy deed and say, <i>It is rightfully</i> done?<br/> + The sound of chiding scorn<br/> + Came from the land of dream;<br/> + Deep to mine inmost heart I felt it thrill and burn,<br/> + Thrust as a strong-grasped goad, to urge<br/> + Onward the chariot’s team.<br/> + Thrilled, chilled with bitter inward pain<br/> + I stand as one beneath the doomsman’s scourge.<br/> + Shame on the younger gods who tread down right,<br/> + Sitting on thrones of might!<br/> + Woe on the altar of earth’s central fane!<br/> + Clotted on step and shrine,<br/> +Behold, the guilt of blood, the ghastly stain!<br/> + Woe upon thee, Apollo! uncontrolled,<br/> + Unbidden, hast thou, prophet-god, imbrued<br/> + The pure prophetic shrine with wrongful blood!<br/> + For thou too heinous a respect didst hold<br/> +Of man, too little heed of powers divine!<br/> + And us the Fates, the ancients of the earth,<br/> + Didst deem as nothing worth.<br/> +Scornful to me thou art, yet shalt not fend<br/> + My wrath from him; though unto hell he flee,<br/> + There too are we!<br/> +And he the blood defiled, should feel and rue,<br/> +Though I were not, fiend-wrath that shall not end,<br/> +Descending on his head who foully slew.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Re-enter Apollo from the inner shrine.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +Out! I command you. Out from this my home—<br/> +Haste, tarry not! Out from the mystic shrine,<br/> +Lest thy lot be to take into thy breast<br/> +The winged bright dart that from my golden string<br/> +Speeds hissing as a snake,—lest, pierced and thrilled<br/> +With agony, thou shouldst spew forth again<br/> +Black frothy heart’s-blood, drawn from mortal men,<br/> +Belching the gory clots sucked forth from wounds.<br/> +These be no halls where such as you can prowl—<br/> +Go where men lay on men the doom of blood,<br/> +Heads lopped from necks, eyes from their spheres plucked out,<br/> +Hacked flesh, the flower of youthful seed crushed out,<br/> +Feet hewn away, and hands, and death beneath<br/> +The smiting stone, low moans and piteous<br/> +Of men impaled—Hark, hear ye for what feast<br/> +Ye hanker ever, and the loathing gods<br/> +Do spit upon your craving? Lo, your shape<br/> +Is all too fitted to your greed; the cave<br/> +Where lurks some lion, lapping gore, were home<br/> +More meet for you. Avaunt from sacred shrines,<br/> +Nor bring pollution by your touch on all<br/> +That nears you. Hence! and roam unshepherded—<br/> +No god there is to tend such herd as you.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +O king Apollo, in our turn hear us.<br/> +Thou hast’not only part in these ill things,<br/> +But art chief cause and doer of the same.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +How? stretch thy speech to tell this, and have done. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Thine oracle bade this man slay his mother. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +I bade him quit his sire’s death,—wherefore not? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Then didst thou aid and guard red-handed crime. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +Yea, and I bade him to this temple flee. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +And yet forsooth dost chide us following him! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +Ay—not for you it is, to near this fane. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Yet is such office ours, imposed by fate. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +What office? vaunt the thing ye deem so fair. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +From home to home we chase the matricide. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +What? to avenge a wife who slays her lord? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +That is not blood outpoured by kindred hands. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +How darkly ye dishonour and annul<br/> +The troth to which the high accomplishers,<br/> +Hera and Zeus, do honour. Yea, and thus<br/> +Is Aphrodite to dishonour cast,<br/> +The queen of rapture unto mortal men.<br/> +Know, that above the marriage-bed ordained<br/> +For man and woman standeth Right as guard,<br/> +Enhancing sanctity of troth-plight sworn;<br/> +Therefore, if thou art placable to those<br/> +Who have their consort slain, nor will’st to turn<br/> +On them the eye of wrath, unjust art thou<br/> +In hounding to his doom the man who slew<br/> +His mother. Lo, I know thee full of wrath<br/> +Against one deed, but all too placable<br/> +Unto the other, minishing the crime.<br/> +But in this cause shall Pallas guard the right.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Deem not my quest shall ever quit that man. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +Follow then, make thee double toil in vain! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Think not by speech mine office to curtail. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +None hast thou, that I would accept of thee! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Yea, high thine honour by the throne of Zeus:<br/> +But I, drawn on by scent of mother’s blood,<br/> +Seek vengeance on this man and hound him down.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +But I will stand beside him; ’tis for me<br/> +To guard my suppliant: gods and men alike<br/> +Do dread the curse of such an one betrayed,<br/> +And in me Fear and Will say <i>Leave him not</i>.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exeunt omnes</i> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +<i>The scene changes to Athens. In the foreground, the Temple of +Athena on the Acropolis; her statue stands in the centre; Orestes is +seen clinging to it.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Look on me, queen Athena; lo, I come<br/> +By Loxias’ behest; thou of thy grace<br/> +Receive me, driven of avenging powers—<br/> +Not now a red-hand slayer unannealed,<br/> +But with guilt fading, half-effaced, outworn<br/> +On many homes and paths of mortal men.<br/> +For to the limit of each land, each sea,<br/> +I roamed, obedient to Apollo’s hest,<br/> +And come at last, O Goddess, to thy fane,<br/> +And clinging to thine image, bide my doom.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Enter the Chorus of Furies, questing like hounds</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Ho! clear is here the trace of him we seek:<br/> +Follow the track of blood, the silent sign!<br/> +Like to some hound that hunts a wounded fawn,<br/> +We snuff along the scent of dripping gore,<br/> +And inwardly we pant, for many a day<br/> +Toiling in chase that shall fordo the man;<br/> +For o’er and o’er the wide land have I ranged,<br/> +And o’er the wide sea, flying without wings,<br/> +Swift as a sail I pressed upon his track,<br/> +Who now hard by is crouching, well I wot,<br/> +For scent of mortal blood allures me here.<br/> + Follow, seek him—round and round<br/> +Scent and snuff and scan the ground,<br/> +Lest unharmed he slip away,<br/> + He who did his mother slay!<br/> +Hist—he is there! See him his arms entwine<br/> +Around the image of the maid divine—<br/> + Thus aided, for the deed he wrought<br/> +Unto the judgment wills he to be brought.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +It may not be! a mother’s blood, poured forth<br/> + Upon the stainèd earth,<br/> +None gathers up: it lies—bear witness, Hell!—<br/> + For aye indelible!<br/> +And thou who sheddest it shalt give thine own<br/> + That shedding to atone!<br/> +Yea, from thy living limbs I suck it out,<br/> + Red, clotted, gout by gout,—<br/> +A draught abhorred of men and gods; but I<br/> + Will drain it, suck thee dry;<br/> +Yea, I will waste thee living, nerve and vein;<br/> + Yea, for thy mother slain,<br/> +Will drag thee downward, there where thou shalt dree<br/> + The weird of agony!<br/> +And thou and whatsoe’er of men hath sinned—<br/> + Hath wronged or God, or friend,<br/> +Or parent,—learn ye how to all and each<br/> + The arm of doom can reach!<br/> +Sternly requiteth, in the world beneath,<br/> + The judgment-seat of Death;<br/> +Yea, Death, beholding every man’s endeavour<br/> + Recordeth it for ever.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +I, schooled in many miseries, have learnt<br/> +How many refuges of cleansing shrines<br/> +There be; I know when law alloweth speech<br/> +And when imposeth silence. Lo, I stand<br/> +Fixed now to speak, for he whose word is wise<br/> +Commands the same. Look, how the stain of blood<br/> +Is dull upon mine hand and wastes away,<br/> +And laved and lost therewith is the deep curse<br/> +Of matricide; for while the guilt was new,<br/> +’Twas banished from me at Apollo’s hearth,<br/> +Atoned and purified by death of swine.<br/> +Long were my word if I should sum the tale,<br/> +How oft since then among my fellow-men<br/> +I stood and brought no curse. Time cleanses all—<br/> +Time, the coeval of all things that are.<br/> +Now from pure lips, in words of omen fair,<br/> +I call Athena, lady of this land,<br/> +To come, my champion: so, in aftertime,<br/> +She shall not fail of love and service leal,<br/> +Not won by war, from me and from my land,<br/> +And all the folk of Argos, vowed to her.<br/> + Now, be she far away in Libyan land<br/> +Where flows from Triton’s lake her natal wave,—<br/> +Stand she with planted feet, or in some hour<br/> +Of rest conceal them, champion of her friends<br/> +Where’er she be,—or whether o’er the plain<br/> +Phlegraean she look forth, as warrior bold—<br/> +I cry to her to come, where’er she be,<br/> +(And she, as goddess, from afar can hear,)<br/> +And aid and free me, set among my foes.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Thee not Apollo nor Athena’s strength<br/> +Can save from perishing, a castaway<br/> +Amid the Lost, where no delight shall meet<br/> +Thy soul—a bloodless prey of nether powers,<br/> +A shadow among shadows. Answerest thou<br/> +Nothing? dost cast away my words with scorn,<br/> +Thou, prey prepared and dedicate to me?<br/> +Not as a victim slain upon the shrine,<br/> +But living shalt thou see thy flesh my food.<br/> +Hear now the binding chant that makes thee mine.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Weave the weird dance,—behold the hour<br/> + To utter forth the chant of hell,<br/> + Our sway among mankind to tell,<br/> +The guidance of our power.<br/> +Of Justice are we ministers,<br/> + And whosoe’er of men may stand<br/> + Lifting a pure unsullied hand,<br/> +That man no doom of ours incurs,<br/> + And walks thro’ all his mortal path<br/> + Untouched by woe, unharmed by wrath.<br/> + But if, as yonder man, he hath<br/> +Blood on the hands he strives to hide,<br/> + We stand avengers at his side,<br/> +Decreeing, <i>Thou hast wronged the dead:<br/> + We are doom’s witnesses to thee</i>.<br/> +The price of blood, his hands have shed,<br/> +We wring from him; in life, in death,<br/> + Hard at his side are we!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Night, Mother Night, who brought me forth, a torment<br/> + To living men and dead,<br/> +Hear me, O hear! by Leto’s stripling son<br/> + I am dishonourèd:<br/> +He hath ta’en from me him who cowers in refuge,<br/> + To me made consecrate,—<br/> +A rightful victim, him who slew his mother.<br/> + Given o’er to me and fate.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Hear the hymn of hell,<br/> + O’er the victim sounding,—<br/> + Chant of frenzy, chant of ill,<br/> + Sense and will confounding!<br/> + Round the soul entwining<br/> + Without lute or lyre—<br/> + Soul in madness pining,<br/> + Wasting as with fire!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Fate, all-pervading Fate, this service spun, commanding<br/> + That I should bide therein:<br/> +Whosoe’er of mortals, made perverse and lawless,<br/> + Is stained with blood of kin,<br/> +By his side are we, and hunt him ever onward,<br/> + Till to the Silent Land,<br/> +The realm of death, he cometh; neither yonder<br/> + In freedom shall he stand.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Hear the hymn of hell,<br/> + O’er the victim sounding,—<br/> + Chant of frenzy, chant of ill,<br/> + Sense and will confounding!<br/> + Round the soul entwining<br/> + Without lute or lyre—<br/> + Soul in madness pining,<br/> + Wasting as with fire!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +When from womb of Night we sprang, on us this labour<br/> + Was laid and shall abide.<br/> +Gods immortal are ye, yet beware ye touch not<br/> + That which is our pride!<br/> +None may come beside us gathered round the blood feast—<br/> + For us no garments white<br/> +Gleam on a festal day; for us a darker fate is,<br/> + Another darker rite.<br/> +That is mine hour when falls an ancient line—<br/> + When in the household’s heart<br/> +The god of blood doth slay by kindred hands,—<br/> + Then do we bear our part:<br/> +On him who slays we sweep with chasing cry:<br/> +Though he be triply strong,<br/> +We wear and waste him; blood atones for blood,<br/> +New pain for ancient wrong.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +I hold this task—’tis mine, and not another’s.<br/> +The very gods on high,<br/> +Though they can silence and annul the prayers<br/> +Of those who on us cry,<br/> +They may not strive with us who stand apart,<br/> +A race by Zeus abhorred,<br/> +Blood-boltered, held unworthy of the council<br/> +And converse of Heaven’s lord.<br/> +Therefore the more I leap upon my prey;<br/> +Upon their head I bound;<br/> +My foot is hard; as one that trips a runner<br/> +I cast them to the ground;<br/> +Yea, to the depth of doom intolerable;<br/> +And they who erst were great,<br/> +And upon earth held high their pride and glory,<br/> +Are brought to low estate.<br/> +In underworld they waste and are diminished,<br/> +The while around them fleet<br/> +Dark wavings of my robes, and, subtly woven,<br/> +The paces of my feet.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Who falls infatuate, he sees not, neither knows he<br/> +That we are at his side;<br/> +So closely round about him, darkly flitting,<br/> +The cloud of guilt doth glide.<br/> +Heavily ’tis uttered, how around his hearthstone<br/> +The mirk of hell doth rise.<br/> +Stern and fixed the law is; we have hands t’achieve it,<br/> +Cunning to devise.<br/> +Queens are we and mindful of our solemn vengeance.<br/> +Not by tear or prayer<br/> +Shall a man avert it. In unhonoured darkness,<br/> +Far from gods, we fare,<br/> +Lit unto our task with torch of sunless regions,<br/> +And o’er a deadly way—<br/> +Deadly to the living as to those who see not<br/> + Life and light of day—<br/> +Hunt we and press onward. Who of mortals hearing<br/> + Doth not quake for awe,<br/> +Hearing all that Fate thro’ hand of God hath given us<br/> + For ordinance and law?<br/> +Yea, this right to us, in dark abysm and backward<br/> + Of ages it befel:<br/> +None shall wrong mine office, tho’ in nether regions<br/> + And sunless dark I dwell.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Enter Athena from above.</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +Far off I heard the clamour of your cry,<br/> +As by Scamander’s side I set my foot<br/> +Asserting right upon the land given o’er<br/> +To me by those who o’er Achaia’s host<br/> +Held sway and leadership: no scanty part<br/> +Of all they won by spear and sword, to me<br/> +They gave it, land and all that grew theron,<br/> +As chosen heirloom for my Theseus’ clan.<br/> +Thence summoned, sped I with a tireless foot,—<br/> +Hummed on the wind, instead of wings, the fold<br/> +Of this mine aegis, by my feet propelled,<br/> +As, linked to mettled horses, speeds a car.<br/> +And now, beholding here Earth’s nether brood,<br/> +I fear it nought, yet are mine eyes amazed<br/> +With wonder. Who are ye? of all I ask,<br/> +And of this stranger to my statue clinging.<br/> +But ye—your shape is like no human form,<br/> +Like to no goddess whom the gods behold,<br/> +Like to no shape which mortal women wear.<br/> +Yet to stand by and chide a monstrous form<br/> +Is all unjust—from such words Right revolts.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +O child of Zeus, one word shall tell thee all.<br/> +We are the children of eternal Night,<br/> +And Furies in the underworld are called.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +I know your lineage now and eke your name. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Yea, and eftsoons indeed my rights shalt know. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +Fain would I learn them; speak them clearly forth. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +We chase from home the murderers of men. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +And where at last can he that slew make pause? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Where this is law—<i>All joy abandon here.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +Say, do ye bay this man to such a flight? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Yea, for of choice he did his mother slay. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +Urged by no fear of other wrath and doom? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +What spur can rightly goad to matricide? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +Two stand to plead—one only have I heard. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +He will not swear nor challenge us to oath. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +The form of justice, not its deed, thou willest. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Prove thou that word; thou art not scant of skill. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +I say that oaths shall not enforce the wrong. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Then test the cause, judge and award the right. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +Will ye to me then this decision trust? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Yea, reverencing true child of worthy sire. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b> (<i>to Orestes</i>)<br/> +O man unknown, make thou thy plea in turn.<br/> +Speak forth thy land, thy lineage, and thy woes;<br/> +Then, if thou canst, avert this bitter blame—<br/> +If, as I deem, in confidence of right<br/> +Thou sittest hard beside my holy place,<br/> +Clasping this statue, as Ixion sat,<br/> +A sacred suppliant for Zeus to cleanse,—<br/> +To all this answer me in words made plain.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +O queen Athena, first from thy last words<br/> +Will I a great solicitude remove.<br/> +Not one blood-guilty am I; no foul stain<br/> +Clings to thine image from my clinging hand;<br/> +Whereof one potent proof I have to tell.<br/> +Lo, the law stands—<i>The slayer shall not plead,<br/> +Till by the hand of him who cleanses blood<br/> +A suckling creature’s blood besprinkle him</i>.<br/> +Long since have I this expiation done,—<br/> +In many a home, slain beasts and running streams<br/> +Have cleansed me. Thus I speak away that fear.<br/> +Next, of my lineage quickly thou shalt learn:<br/> +An Argive am I, and right well thou know’st<br/> +My sire, that Agamemnon who arrayed<br/> +The fleet and them that went therein to war—<br/> +That chief with whom thy hand combined to crush<br/> +To an uncitied heap what once was Troy;<br/> +That Agamemnon, when he homeward came,<br/> +Was brought unto no honourable death,<br/> +Slain by the dark-souled wife who brought me forth<br/> +To him,—enwound and slain in wily nets,<br/> +Blazoned with blood that in the laver ran.<br/> +And I, returning from an exiled youth,<br/> +Slew her, my mother—lo, it stands avowed!<br/> +With blood for blood avenging my loved sire;<br/> +And in this deed doth Loxias bear part,<br/> +Decreeing agonies, to goad my will,<br/> +Unless by me the guilty found their doom.<br/> +Do thou decide if right or wrong were done—<br/> +Thy dooming, whatsoe’er it be, contents me.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +Too mighty is this matter, whatsoe’er<br/> +Of mortals claims to judge hereof aright.<br/> +Yea, me, even me, eternal Right forbids<br/> +To judge the issues of blood-guilt, and wrath<br/> +That follows swift behind. This too gives pause,<br/> +That thou as one with all due rites performed<br/> +Dost come, unsinning, pure, unto my shrine.<br/> +Whate’er thou art, in this my city’s name,<br/> +As uncondemned, I take thee to my side,—<br/> +Yet have these foes of thine such dues by fate,<br/> +I may not banish them: and if they fail,<br/> +O’erthrown in judgment of the cause, forthwith<br/> +Their anger’s poison shall infect the land—<br/> +A dropping plague-spot of eternal ill.<br/> +Thus stand we with a woe on either hand:<br/> +Stay they, or go at my commandment forth,<br/> +Perplexity or pain must needs befall.<br/> +Yet, as on me Fate hath imposed the cause,<br/> +I choose unto me judges that shall be<br/> +An ordinance for ever, set to rule<br/> +The dues of blood-guilt, upon oath declared.<br/> +But ye, call forth your witness and your proof,<br/> +Words strong for justice, fortified by oath;<br/> +And I, whoe’er are truest in my town,<br/> +Them will I chose and bring, and straitly charge,<br/> +<i>Look on this cause, discriminating well,<br/> +And pledge your oath to utter nought of wrong.</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exit Athena.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Now are they all undone, the ancient laws,<br/> + If here the slayer’s cause<br/> +Prevail; new wrong for ancient right shall be<br/> + If matricide go free.<br/> +Henceforth a deed like his by all shall stand,<br/> + Too ready to the hand:<br/> +Too oft shall parents in the aftertime<br/> + Rue and lament this crime,—<br/> +Taught, not in false imagining, to feel<br/> + Their children’s thrusting steel:<br/> +No more the wrath, that erst on murder fell<br/> + From us, the queens of Hell.<br/> +Shall fall, no more our watching gaze impend—<br/> + Death shall smite unrestrained.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Henceforth shall one unto another cry<br/> +<i>Lo, they are stricken, lo, they fall and die<br/> +Around me!</i> and that other answers him,<br/> +<i>O thou that lookest that thy woes should cease,<br/> + Behold, with dark increase<br/> +They throng and press upon thee; yea, and dim<br/> + Is all the cure, and every comfort vain!</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Let none henceforth cry out, when falls the blow<br/> + Of sudden-smiting woe,<br/> + Cry out in sad reiterated strain<br/> + <i>O Justice, aid! aid, O ye thrones of Hell!</i><br/> + So though a father or a mother wail<br/> + New-smitten by a son, it shall no more avail,<br/> + Since, overthrown by wrong, the fane of Justice fell!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Know, that a throne there is that may not pass away,<br/> + And one that sitteth on it—even Fear,<br/> + Searching with steadfast eyes man’s inner soul:<br/> + Wisdom is child of pain, and born with many a tear;<br/> + But who henceforth,<br/> + What man of mortal men, what nation upon earth,<br/> + That holdeth nought in awe nor in the light<br/> + Of inner reverence, shall worship Right<br/> + As in the older day?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Praise not, O man, the life beyond control,<br/> + Nor that which bows unto a tyrant’s sway.<br/> + Know that the middle way<br/> + Is dearest unto God, and they thereon who wend,<br/> + They shall achieve the end;<br/> + But they who wander or to left or right<br/> + Are sinners in his sight.<br/> + Take to thy heart this one, this soothfast word—<br/> + Of wantonness impiety is sire;<br/> + Only from calm control and sanity unstirred<br/> + Cometh true weal, the goal of every man’s desire.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> + Yea, whatsoe’er befall, hold thou this word of mine:<br/> + <i>Bow down at Justice’ shrine,<br/> + Turn thou thine eyes away from earthly lure,<br/> + Nor with a godless foot that altar spurn.</i><br/> + For as thou dost shall Fate do in return,<br/> + And the great doom is sure.<br/> + Therefore let each adore a parent’s trust,<br/> + And each with loyalty revere the guest<br/> + That in his halls doth rest.<br/> + For whoso uncompelled doth follow what is just,<br/> + He ne’er shall be unblest;<br/> + Yea, never to the gulf of doom<br/> + That man shall come.<br/> +But he whose will is set against the gods,<br/> + Who treads beyond the law with foot impure,<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +Till o’er the wreck of Right confusion broods—<br/> + Know that for him, though now he sail secure,<br/> +The day of storm shall be; then shall he strive and fail,<br/> + Down from the shivered yard to furl the sail,<br/> +And call on Powers, that heed him nought, to save<br/> + And vainly wrestle with the whirling wave,<br/> + Hot was his heart with pride—<br/> + <i>I shall not fall</i>, he cried.<br/> + But him with watching scorn<br/> + The god beholds, forlorn,<br/> + Tangled in toils of Fate beyond escape,<br/> + Hopeless of haven safe beyond the cape—<br/> +Till all his wealth and bliss of bygone day<br/> + Upon the reef of Rightful Doom is hurled,<br/> + And he is rapt away<br/> +Unwept, for ever, to the dead forgotten world.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Re-enter Athena, with twelve Athenian citizens</i>. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +O herald, make proclaim, bid all men come.<br/> +Then let the shrill blast of the Tyrrhene trump,<br/> +Fulfilled with mortal breath, thro’ the wide air<br/> +Peal a loud summons, bidding all men heed.<br/> +For, till my judges fill this judgment-seat,<br/> +Silence behoves,—that this whole city learn,<br/> +What for all time mine ordinance commands,<br/> +And these men, that the cause be judged aright.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Apollo approaches.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +O king Apollo, rule what is thine own,<br/> +But in this thing what share pertains to thee?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +First, as a witness come I, for this man<br/> +Is suppliant of mine by sacred right,<br/> +Guest of my holy hearth and cleansed by me<br/> +Of blood-guilt: then, to set me at his side<br/> +And in his cause bear part, as part I bore<br/> +Erst in his deed, whereby his mother fell.<br/> +Let whoso knoweth now announce the cause.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b> (<i>to the Chorus</i>)<br/> +’Tis I announce the cause—first speech be yours;<br/> +For rightfully shall they whose plaint is tried<br/> +Tell the tale first and set the matter clear.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Though we be many, brief shall be our tale.<br/> +(<i>To Orestes</i>) Answer thou, setting word to match with word;<br/> +And first avow—hast thou thy mother slain?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +I slew her. I deny no word hereof. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Three falls decide the wrestle—this is one. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Thou vauntest thee—but o’er no final fall. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Yet must thou tell the manner of thy deed. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Drawn sword in hand, I gashed her neck. ’Tis told. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +But by whose word, whose craft, wert thou impelled? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +By oracles of him who here attests me. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +The prophet-god bade thee thy mother slay? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Yea, and thro’ him less ill I fared, till now. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +If the vote grip thee, thou shalt change that word. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Strong is my hope; my buried sire shall aid. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Go to now, trust the dead, a matricide! +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Yea, for in her combined two stains of sin. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +How? speak this clearly to the judges’ mind. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Slaying her husband, she did slay my sire. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Therefore thou livest; death assoils her deed. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +Then while she lived why didst thou hunt her not? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +She was not kin by blood to him she slew. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +And I, am I by blood my mother’s kin? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +O cursed with murder’s guilt, how else wert thou<br/> +The burden of her womb? Dost thou forswear<br/> +Thy mother’s kinship, closest bond of love?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +It is thine hour, Apollo—speak the law,<br/> +Averring if this deed were justly done;<br/> +For done it is, and clear and undenied.<br/> +But if to thee this murder’s cause seem right<br/> +Or wrongful, speak—that I to these may tell.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +To you, Athena’s mighty council-court,<br/> +Justly for justice will I plead, even I,<br/> +The prophet-god, nor cheat you by one word.<br/> +For never spake I from my prophet-seat<br/> +One word, of man, of woman, or of state,<br/> +Save what the Father of Olympian gods<br/> +Commanded unto me. I rede you then,<br/> +Bethink you of my plea, how strong it stands,<br/> +And follow the decree of Zeus our sire,—<br/> +For oaths prevail not over Zeus’ command.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Go to; thou sayest that from Zeus befel<br/> +The oracle that this Orestes bade<br/> +With vengeance quit the slaying of his sire,<br/> +And hold as nought his mother’s right of kin!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +Yea, for it stands not with a common death,<br/> +That he should die, a chieftain and a king<br/> +Decked with the sceptre which high heaven confers—<br/> +Die, and by female hands, not smitten down<br/> +By a far-shooting bow, held stalwartly<br/> +By some strong Amazon. Another doom<br/> +Was his: O Pallas, hear, and ye who sit<br/> +In judgment, to discern this thing aright!—<br/> +She with a specious voice of welcome true<br/> +Hailed him, returning from the mighty mart<br/> +Where war for life gives fame, triumphant home;<br/> +Then o’er the laver, as he bathed himself,<br/> +She spread from head to foot a covering net,<br/> +And in the endless mesh of cunning robes<br/> +Enwound and trapped her lord, and smote him down.<br/> +Lo, ye have heard what doom this chieftain met,<br/> +The majesty of Greece, the fleet’s high lord:<br/> +Such as I tell it, let it gall your ears,<br/> +Who stand as judges to decide this cause.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Zeus, as thou sayest, holds a father’s death<br/> +As first of crimes,—yet he of his own act<br/> +Cast into chains his father, Cronos old:<br/> +How suits that deed with that which now ye tell?<br/> +O ye who judge, I bid ye mark my words!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +O monsters loathed of all, O scorn of gods,<br/> +He that hath bound may loose: a cure there is,<br/> +Yea, many a plan that can unbind the chain.<br/> +But when the thirsty dust sucks up man’s blood<br/> +Once shed in death, he shall arise no more.<br/> +No chant nor charm for this my Sire hath wrought.<br/> +All else there is, he moulds and shifts at will,<br/> +Not scant of strength nor breath, whate’er he do.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Think yet, for what acquittal thou dost plead:<br/> +He who hath shed a mother’s kindred blood,<br/> +Shall he in Argos dwell, where dwelt his sire?<br/> +How shall he stand before the city’s shrines,<br/> +How share the clansmen’s holy lustral bowl?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +This too I answer; mark a soothfast word,<br/> +Not the true parent is the woman’s womb<br/> +That bears the child; she doth but nurse the seed<br/> +New-sown: the male is parent; she for him,<br/> +As stranger for a stranger, hoards the germ<br/> +Of life; unless the god its promise blight.<br/> +And proof hereof before you will I set.<br/> +Birth may from fathers, without mothers, be:<br/> +See at your side a witness of the same,<br/> +Athena, daughter of Olympian Zeus,<br/> +Never within the darkness of the womb<br/> +Fostered nor fashioned, but a bud more bright<br/> +Than any goddess in her breast might bear.<br/> +And I, O Pallas, howsoe’er I may,<br/> +Henceforth will glorify thy town, thy clan,<br/> +And for this end have sent my suppliant here<br/> +Unto thy shrine; that he from this time forth<br/> +Be loyal unto thee for evermore,<br/> +O goddess-queen, and thou unto thy side<br/> +Mayst win and hold him faithful, and his line,<br/> +And that for aye this pledge and troth remain<br/> +To children’s children of Athenian seed.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +Enough is said; I bid the judges now<br/> +With pure intent deliver just award.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +We too have shot our every shaft of speech,<br/> +And now abide to hear the doom of law.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b> (<i>to Apollo and Orestes</i>)<br/> +Say, how ordaining shall I ’scape your blame? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +I spake, ye heard; enough. O stranger men,<br/> +Heed well your oath as ye decide the cause.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +O men of Athens, ye who first do judge<br/> +The law of bloodshed, hear me now ordain.<br/> +Here to all time for Aegeus’ Attic host<br/> +Shall stand this council-court of judges sworn,<br/> +Here the tribunal, set on Ares’ Hill<br/> +Where camped of old the tented Amazons,<br/> +What time in hate of Theseus they assailed<br/> +Athens, and set against her citadel<br/> +A counterwork of new sky-pointing towers,<br/> +And there to Ares held their sacrifice,<br/> +Where now the rock hath name, even Ares’ Hill.<br/> +And hence shall Reverence and her kinsman Fear<br/> +Pass to each free man’s heart, by day and night<br/> +Enjoining, <i>Thou shalt do no unjust thing</i>,<br/> +So long as law stands as it stood of old<br/> +Unmarred by civic change. Look you, the spring<br/> +Is pure; but foul it once with influx vile<br/> +And muddy clay, and none can drink thereof.<br/> +Therefore, O citizens, I bid ye bow<br/> +In awe to this command, <i>Let no man live<br/> +Uncurbed by law nor curbed by tyranny;</i><br/> +Nor banish ye the monarchy of Awe<br/> +Beyond the walls; untouched by fear divine,<br/> +No man doth justice in the world of men.<br/> +Therefore in purity and holy dread<br/> +Stand and revere; so shall ye have and hold<br/> +A saving bulwark of the state and land,<br/> +Such as no man hath ever elsewhere known,<br/> +Nor in far Scythia, nor in Pelops’ realm.<br/> +Thus I ordain it now, a council-court<br/> +Pure and unsullied by the lust of gain,<br/> +Sacred and swift to vengeance, wakeful ever<br/> +To champion men who sleep, the country’s guard.<br/> +Thus have I spoken, thus to mine own clan<br/> +Commended it for ever. Ye who judge,<br/> +Arise, take each his vote, mete out the right,<br/> +Your oath revering. Lo, my word is said.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>The twelve judges come forward, one by one, to the urns of +decision; the first votes; as each of the others follows, the Chorus +and Apollo speak alternately.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +I rede ye well, beware! nor put to shame,<br/> +In aught, this grievous company of hell.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +I too would warn you, fear mine oracles—<br/> +From Zeus they are,—nor make them void of fruit.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Presumptuous is thy claim, blood-guilt to judge,<br/> +And false henceforth thine oracles shall be.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +Failed then the counsels of my sire, when turned<br/> +Ixion, first of slayers, to his side?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +These are but words; but I, if justice fail me,<br/> +Will haunt this land in grim and deadly deed.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +Scorn of the younger and the elder gods<br/> +Art thou: ’tis I that shall prevail anon.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Thus didst thou too of old in Pheres’ halls,<br/> +O’erreaching Fate to make a mortal deathless.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +Was it not well, my worshipper to aid,<br/> +Then most of all when hardest was the need?<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +I say thou didst annul the lots of life,<br/> +Cheating with wine the deities of eld.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +I say thou shalt anon, thy pleadings foiled,<br/> +Spit venom vainly on thine enemies.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Since this young god o’errides mine ancient right,<br/> +I tarry but to claim your law, not knowing<br/> +If wrath of mine shall blast your state or spare<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +Mine is the right to add the final vote,<br/> +And I award it to Orestes’ cause.<br/> +For me no mother bore within her womb,<br/> +And, save for wedlock evermore eschewed,<br/> +I vouch myself the champion of the man,<br/> +Not of the woman, yea, with all my soul,—<br/> +In heart, as birth, a father’s child alone.<br/> +Thus will I not too heinously regard<br/> +A woman’s death who did her husband slay,<br/> +The guardian of her home; and if the votes<br/> +Equal do fall, Orestes shall prevail.<br/> +Ye of the judges who are named thereto,<br/> +Swiftly shake forth the lots from either urn.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Two judges come forward, one to each urn.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +O bright Apollo, what shall be the end? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +O Night, dark mother mine, dost mark these things? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>OSESTES</b><br/> +Now shall my doom be life, or strangling cords. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +And mine, lost honour or a wider sway. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>APOLLO</b><br/> +O stranger judges, sum aright the count<br/> +Of votes cast forth, and, parting them, take heed<br/> +Ye err not in decision. The default<br/> +Of one vote only bringeth ruin deep,<br/> +One, cast aright, doth stablish house and home.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +Behold, this man is free from guilt of blood,<br/> +For half the votes condemn him, half set free!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ORESTES</b><br/> +O Pallas, light and safety of my home,<br/> +Thou, thou hast given me back to dwell once more<br/> +In that my fatherland, amerced of which<br/> +I wandered; now shall Grecian lips say this,<br/> +<i>The man is Argive once again, and dwells<br/> +Again within his father’s wealthy hall,<br/> +By Pallas saved, by Loxias, and by Him,<br/> +The great third saviour, Zeus omnipotent—</i><br/> +Who thus in pity for my father’s fate<br/> +Doth pluck me from my doom, beholding these,<br/> +Confederates of my mother. Lo, I pass<br/> +To mine own home, but proffering this vow<br/> +Unto thy land and people: <i>Nevermore,<br/> +Thro’ all the manifold years of Time to be,<br/> +Shall any chieftain of mine Argive land<br/> +Bear hitherward his spears for fight arrayed.</i><br/> +For we, though lapped in earth we then shall lie,<br/> +By thwart adversities will work our will<br/> +On them who shall transgress this oath of mine,<br/> +Paths of despair and journeyings ill-starred<br/> +For them ordaining, till their task they rue.<br/> +But if this oath be rightly kept, to them<br/> +Will we the dead be full of grace, the while<br/> +With loyal league they honour Pallas’ town.<br/> +And now farewell, thou and thy city’s folk—<br/> +Firm be thine arm’s grasp, closing with thy foes,<br/> +And, strong to save, bring victory to thy spear.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exit Orestes, with Apollo.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Woe on you, younger gods! the ancient right<br/> +Ye have o’erridden, rent it from my hands.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +I am dishonoured of you, thrust to scorn!<br/> + But heavily my wrath<br/> +Shall on this land fling forth the drops that blast and burn<br/> + Venom of vengeance, that shall work such scathe<br/> + As I have suffered; where that dew shall fall,<br/> + Shall leafless blight arise,<br/> + Wasting Earth’s offspring,—Justice, hear my call!—<br/> + And thorough all the land in deadly wise<br/> + Shall scatter venom, to exude again<br/> + In pestilence on men.<br/> + What cry avails me now, what deed of blood,<br/> + Unto this land what dark despite?<br/> + Alack, alack, forlorn<br/> + Are we, a bitter injury have borne!<br/> + Alack, O sisters, O dishonoured brood<br/> + Of mother Night!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +Nay, bow ye to my words, chafe not nor moan:<br/> +Ye are not worsted nor disgraced; behold,<br/> +With balanced vote the cause had issue fair,<br/> +Nor in the end did aught dishonour thee.<br/> +But thus the will of Zeus shone clearly forth,<br/> +And his own prophet-god avouched the same,<br/> +<i>Orestes slew: his slaying is atoned</i>.<br/> +Therefore I pray you, not upon this land<br/> +Shoot forth the dart of vengeance; be appeased,<br/> +Nor blast the land with blight, nor loose thereon<br/> +Drops of eternal venom, direful darts<br/> +Wasting and marring nature’s seed of growth.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +For I, the queen of Athens’ sacred right,<br/> +Do pledge to you a holy sanctuary<br/> +Deep in the heart of this my land, made just<br/> +By your indwelling presence, while ye sit<br/> +Hard by your sacred shrines that gleam with oil<br/> +Of sacrifice, and by this folk adored.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Woe on you, younger gods! the ancient right<br/> +Ye have o’erridden, rent it from my hands.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +I am dishonoured of you, thrust to scorn!<br/> + But heavily my wrath<br/> +Shall on his land fling forth the drops that blast and burn.<br/> + Venom of vengeance, that shall work such scathe<br/> + As I have suffered; where that dew shall fall,<br/> + Shall leafless blight arise,<br/> +Wasting Earth’s offspring,—Justice, hear my call!—<br/> +And thorough all the land in deadly wise<br/> +Shall scatter venom, to exude again<br/> + In pestilence of men.<br/> +What cry avails me now, what deed of blood,<br/> +Unto this land what dark despite?<br/> + Alack, alack, forlorn<br/> +Are we, a bitter injury have borne!<br/> +Alack, O sisters, O dishonoured brood<br/> + Of mother Night!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +Dishonoured are ye not; turn not, I pray.<br/> +As goddesses your swelling wrath on men,<br/> +Nor make the friendly earth despiteful to them.<br/> +I too have Zeus for champion—’tis enough—<br/> +I only of all goddesses do know.<br/> +To ope the chamber where his thunderbolts<br/> +Lie stored and sealed; but here is no such need.<br/> +Nay, be appeased, nor cast upon the ground<br/> +The malice of thy tongue, to blast the world;<br/> +Calm thou thy bitter wrath’s black inward surge,<br/> +For high shall be thine honour, set beside me<br/> +For ever in this land, whose fertile lap<br/> +Shall pour its teeming firstfruits unto you,<br/> +Gifts for fair childbirth and for wedlock’s crown:<br/> +Thus honoured, praise my spoken pledge for aye.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +I, I dishonoured in this earth to dwell,—<br/> +Ancient of days and wisdom! I breathe forth<br/> +Poison and breath of frenzied ire. O Earth,<br/> + Woe, woe, for thee, for me!<br/> +From side to side what pains be these that thrill?<br/> +Hearken, O mother Night, my wrath, mine agony!<br/> +Whom from mine ancient rights the gods have thrust,<br/> + And brought me to the dust—<br/> +Woe, woe is me!—with craft invincible.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +Older art thou than I, and I will bear<br/> +With this thy fury. Know, although thou be<br/> +More wise in ancient wisdom, yet have I<br/> +From Zeus no scanted measure of the same,<br/> +Wherefore take heed unto this prophecy—<br/> +If to another land of alien men<br/> +Ye go, too late shall ye feel longing deep<br/> +For mine. The rolling tides of time bring round<br/> +A day of brighter glory for this town;<br/> +And thou, enshrined in honour by the halls<br/> +Where dwelt Erechtheus, shalt a worship win<br/> +From men and from the train of womankind,<br/> +Greater than any tribe elsewhere shall pay.<br/> +Cast thou not therefore on this soil of mine<br/> +Whetstones that sharpen souls to bloodshedding.<br/> +The burning goads of youthful hearts, made hot<br/> +With frenzy of the spirit, not of wine.<br/> +Nor pluck as ’twere the heart from cocks that strive,<br/> +To set it in the breasts of citizens<br/> +Of mine, a war-god’s spirit, keen for fight,<br/> +Made stern against their country and their kin.<br/> +The man who grievously doth lust for fame,<br/> +War, full, immitigable, let him wage<br/> +Against the stranger; but of kindred birds<br/> +I hold the challenge hateful. Such the boon<br/> +I proffer thee—within this land of lands,<br/> +Most loved of gods, with me to show and share<br/> +Fair mercy, gratitude and grace as fair.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +I, I dishonoured in this earth to dwell,—<br/> +Ancient of days and wisdom! I breathe forth<br/> +Poison and breath of frenzied ire. O Earth,<br/> + Woe, woe for thee, for me!<br/> +From side to side what pains be these that thrill?<br/> +Hearken, O mother Night, my wrath, mine agony!<br/> +Whom from mine ancient rights the gods have thrust,<br/> + And brought me to the dust—<br/> +Woe, woe is me!—with craft invincible.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +I will not weary of soft words to thee,<br/> +That never mayst thou say, <i>Behold me spurned,<br/> +An elder by a younger deity,<br/> +And from this land rejected and forlorn,<br/> +Unhonoured by the men who dwell therein</i>.<br/> +But, if Persuasion’s grace be sacred to thee,<br/> +Soft in the soothing accents of my tongue,<br/> +Tarry, I pray thee; yet, if go thou wilt,<br/> +Not rightfully wilt thou on this my town<br/> +Sway down the scale that beareth wrath and teen<br/> +Or wasting plague upon this folk. ’Tis thine,<br/> +If so thou wilt, inheritress to be<br/> +Of this my land, its utmost grace to win.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +O queen, what refuge dost thou promise me? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +Refuge untouched by bale: take thou my boon. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +What, if I take it, shall mine honour be? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +No house shall prosper without grace of thine. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Canst thou achieve and grant such power to me? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +Yea, for my hand shall bless thy worshippers. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +And wilt thou pledge me this for time eterne? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +Yea: none can bid me pledge beyond my power. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Lo, I desist from wrath, appeased by thee. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +Then in the land’s heart shalt thou win thee friends. +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +What chant dost bid me raise, to greet the land? +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +Such as aspires towards a victory<br/> +Unrued by any: chants from breast of earth,<br/> +From wave, from sky; and let the wild winds’ breath<br/> +Pass with soft sunlight o’er the lap of land,—<br/> +Strong wax the fruits of earth, fair teem the kine,<br/> +Unfailing, for my town’s prosperity,<br/> +And constant be the growth of mortal seed.<br/> +But more and more root out the impious,<br/> +For as a gardener fosters what he sows,<br/> +So foster I this race, whom righteousness<br/> +Doth fend from sorrow. Such the proffered boon.<br/> +But I, if wars must be, and their loud clash<br/> +And carnage, for my town, will ne’er endure<br/> +That aught but victory shall crown her fame.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +Lo, I accept it; at her very side<br/> + Doth Pallas bid me dwell:<br/> + I will not wrong the city of her pride,<br/> +Which even Almighty Zeus and Ares hold<br/> + Heaven’s earthly citadel,<br/> +Loved home of Grecian gods, the young, the old,<br/> + The sanctuary divine,<br/> + The shield of every shrine!<br/> +For Athens I say forth a gracious prophecy,—<br/> + The glory of the sunlight and the skies<br/> + Shall bid from earth arise<br/> +Warm wavelets of new life and glad prosperity.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> + Behold, with gracious heart well pleased<br/> + I for my citizens do grant<br/> + Fulfilment of this covenant:<br/> + And here, their wrath at length appeased,<br/> + These mighty deities shall stay,<br/> + For theirs it is by right to sway<br/> +The lot that rules our mortal day,<br/> + And he who hath not inly felt<br/> + Their stern decree, ere long on him,<br/> + Not knowing why and whence, the grim<br/> + Life-crushing blow is dealt.<br/> + The father’s sin upon the child<br/> + Descends, and sin is silent death,<br/> + And leads him on the downward path,<br/> + By stealth beguiled,<br/> + Unto the Furies: though his state<br/> + On earth were high, and loud his boast,<br/> + Victim of silent ire and hate<br/> + He dwells among the Lost.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +To my blessing now give ear.—<br/> +Scorching blight nor singèd air<br/> +Never blast thine olives fair!<br/> +Drouth, that wasteth bud and plant,<br/> +Keep to thine own place. Avaunt,<br/> +Famine fell, and come not hither<br/> +Stealthily to waste and wither!<br/> +Let the land, in season due,<br/> +Twice her waxing fruits renew;<br/> +Teem the kine in double measure;<br/> +Rich in new god-given treasure;<br/> +Here let men the powers adore<br/> +For sudden gifts unhoped before!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> + O hearken, warders of the wall<br/> + That guards mine Athens, what a dower<br/> + Is unto her ordained and given!<br/> +For mighty is the Furies’ power,<br/> + And deep-revered in courts of heaven<br/> +And realms of hell; and clear to all<br/> + They weave thy doom, mortality!<br/> +And some in joy and peace shall sing;<br/> +But unto other some they bring<br/> + Sad life and tear-dimmed eye.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +And far away I ban thee and remove,<br/> + Untimely death of youths too soon brought low!<br/> +And to each maid, O gods, when time is come for love,<br/> + Grant ye a warrior’s heart, a wedded life to know.<br/> +Ye too, O Fates, children of mother Night,<br/> + Whose children too are we, O goddesses<br/> +Of just award, of all by sacred right<br/> + Queens who in time and in eternity<br/> +Do rule, a present power for righteousness,<br/> + Honoured beyond all Gods, hear ye and grant my cry!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +And I too, I with joy am fain,<br/> +Hearing your voice this gift ordain<br/> +Unto my land. High thanks be thine,<br/> +Persuasion, who with eyes divine<br/> +Into my tongue didst look thy strength,<br/> + To bend and to appease at length<br/> +Those who would not be comforted.<br/> + Zeus, king of parley, doth prevail,<br/> +And ye and I will strive nor fail,<br/> + That good may stand in evil’s stead,<br/> +And lasting bliss for bale.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> +And nevermore these walls within<br/> +Shall echo fierce sedition’s din<br/> + Unslaked with blood and crime;<br/> +The thirsty dust shall nevermore<br/> +Suck up the darkly streaming gore<br/> +Of civic broils, shed out in wrath<br/> +And vengeance, crying death for death!<br/> +But man with man and state with state<br/> +Shall vow <i>The pledge of common hate<br/> +And common friendship, that for man<br/> +Hath oft made blessing out of ban,<br/> +Be ours unto all time</i>.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +Skill they, or not, the path to find<br/> +Of favouring speech and presage kind?<br/> +Yea, even from these, who, grim and stern,<br/> + Glared anger upon you of old,<br/> +O citizens, ye now shall earn<br/> + A recompense right manifold.<br/> +Deck them aright, extol them high,<br/> +Be loyal to their loyalty,<br/> + And ye shall make your town and land<br/> + Sure, propped on Justice’ saving hand,<br/> +And Fame’s eternity.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHORUS</b><br/> + Hail ye, all hail! and yet again, all hail<br/> + O Athens, happy in a weal secured!<br/> + O ye who sit by Zeus’ right hand, nor fail<br/> + Of wisdom set among you and assured,<br/> + Loved of the well-loved Goddess-Maid! the King<br/> +Of gods doth reverence you, beneath her guarding wing.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>ATHENA</b><br/> +All hail unto each honoured guest!<br/> +Whom to the chambers of your rest<br/> +’Tis mine to lead, and to provide<br/> +The hallowed torch, the guard and guide.<br/> +Pass down, the while these altars glow<br/> +With sacred fire, to earth below<br/> + And your appointed shrine.<br/> +There dwelling, from the land restrain<br/> +The force of fate, the breath of bane,<br/> +But waft on us the gift and gain<br/> + Of Victory divine!<br/> +And ye, the men of Cranaos’ seed,<br/> +I bid you now with reverence lead<br/> +These alien Powers that thus are made<br/> +Athenian evermore. To you<br/> +Fair be their will henceforth, to do<br/> + Whate’er may bless and aid!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +CHORUS<br/> +Hail to you all! hail yet again,<br/> +All who love Athens, Gods and men,<br/> + Adoring her as Pallas’ home!<br/> +And while ye reverence what ye grant—<br/> +My sacred shrine and hidden haunt—<br/> + Blameless and blissful be your doom!<br/> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +ATHENA<br/> +Once more I praise the promise of your vows,<br/> +And now I bid the golden torches’ glow<br/> +Pass down before you to the hidden depth<br/> +Of earth, by mine own sacred servants borne,<br/> +Mv loyal guards of statue and of shrine.<br/> +Come forth, O flower of Theseus’ Attic land,<br/> +O glorious band of children and of wives,<br/> +And ye, O train of matrons crowned with eld!<br/> +Deck you with festal robes of scarlet dye<br/> +In honour of this day: O gleaming torch,<br/> +Lead onward, that these gracious powers of earth<br/> +Henceforth be seen to bless the life of men.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Athena leads the procession downwards into the Cave of the Furies, +under Areopagus: as they go, the escort of women and children chant +aloud.</i> +</p> + +<p class="drama"> +<b>CHANT</b><br/> +With loyalty we lead you; proudly go,<br/> +Night’s childless children, to your home below!<br/> + (<i>O citizens, awhile from words forbear!</i>)<br/> + To darkness’ deep primeval lair,<br/> + Far in Earth’s bosom, downward fare,<br/> + Adored with prayer and sacrifice.<br/> + (<i>O citizens, forbear your cries!</i>)<br/> + Pass hitherward, ye powers of Dread,<br/> + With all your former wrath allayed,<br/> + Into the heart of this loved land;<br/> + With joy unto your temple wend,<br/> + The while upon your steps attend<br/> + The flames that fed upon the brand—<br/> +(<i>Now, now ring out your chant, your joy’s acclaim!</i>)<br/> + Behind them, as they downward fare,<br/> + Let holy hands libations bear,<br/> + And torches’ sacred flame.<br/> + All-seeing Zeus and Fate come down<br/> + To battle fair for Pallas’ town!<br/> +<i>Ring out your chant, ring out your joy’s acclaim!</i><br/> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +[<i>Exeunt omnes.</i> +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE OF ATREUS ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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