The Seven Plays in English Verse Part 10

I slew thee--I, O misery!

I say the truth, 'twas I! My followers, Take me with speed--take me away, away!

Me, who am nothing now.

CH. Thou sayest the best, if there be best in woe.

Briefest is happiest in calamity.

CR. Ah! let it come, II 2 The day, most welcome of all days to me, That brings the consummation of my doom.

Come! Come! I would not see another sun.

CH. Time will determine that. We must attend To present needs. Fate works her own dread work.

CR. All my desire was gathered in my prayer.

CH. But prayer is bootless. For to mortal men There is no saviour from appointed woe.

CR. Take me away, the vain-proud man that slew Thee, O my son! unwittingly,--and thee!

Me miserable, which way shall I turn, Which look upon? Since all that I can touch Is falling,--falling,--round me, and o'erhead Intolerable destiny descends.

LEADER OF CHORUS.

Wise conduct hath command of happiness Before all else, and piety to Heaven Must be preserved. High boastings of the proud Bring sorrow to the height to punish pride:-- A lesson men shall learn when they are old.

AIAS

THE PERSONS

ATHENA.

ODYSSEUS.

AIAS, _the son of Telamon._ CHORUS _of Salaminian Mariners._ TECMESSA.

_A Messenger._ TEUCER, _half brother of Aias._ MENELAUS.

AGAMEMNON.

EURYSAKeS, _the child of Aias and Tecmessa, appears, but does not speak._

SCENE. Before the encampment of Aias on the sh.o.r.e of the Troad.

Afterwards a lonely place beyond Rhoeteum.

Time, towards the end of the Trojan War.

_'A wounded spirit who can bear?'_

After the death of Achilles, the armour made for him by Hephaestus was to be given to the worthiest of the surviving Greeks. Although Aias was the most valiant, the judges made the award to Odysseus, because he was the wisest.

Aias in his rage attempts to kill the generals; but Athena sends madness upon him, and he makes a raid upon the flocks and herds of the army, imagining the bulls and rams to be the Argive chiefs. On awakening from his delusion, he finds that he has fallen irrecoverably from honour and from the favour of the Greeks. He also imagines that the anger of Athena is unappeasable. Under this impression he eludes the loving eyes of his captive-bride Tecmessa, and of his Salaminian comrades, and falls on his sword. ('The soul and body rive not more in parting Than greatness going off.')

But it is revealed through the prophet Calchas, that the wrath of Athena will last only for a day; and on the return of Teucer, Aias receives an honoured funeral, the tyrannical reclamations of the two sons of Atreus being overcome by the firm fidelity of Teucer and the magnanimity of Odysseus, who has been inspired for this purpose by Athena.

AIAS

ATHENA (_above_). ODYSSEUS.

ATHENA. Oft have I seen thee, Laertiades, Intent on some surprisal of thy foes; As now I find thee by the seaward camp, Where Aias holds the last place in your line, Lingering in quest, and scanning the fresh print Of his late footsteps, to be certified If he keep house or no. Right well thy sense Hath led thee forth, like some keen hound of Sparta!

The man is even but now come home, his head And slaughterous hands reeking with ardent toil.

Thou, then, no longer strain thy gaze within Yon gateway, but declare what eager chase Thou followest, that a G.o.d may give thee light.

ODYSSEUS. Athena, 'tis thy voice! Dearest in heaven, How well discerned and welcome to my soul From that dim distance doth thine utterance fly In tones as of Tyrrhenian trumpet clang!

Rightly hast thou divined mine errand here, Beating this ground for Aias of the s.h.i.+eld, The lion-quarry whom I track to day.

For he hath wrought on us to night a deed Past thought--if he be doer of this thing; We drift in ignorant doubt, unsatisfied-- And I unbidden have bound me to this toil.

Brief time hath flown since suddenly we knew That all our gathered spoil was reaved and slaughtered, Flocks, herds, and herdmen, by some human hand, All tongues, then, lay this deed at Aias' door.

And one, a scout who had marked him, all alone, With new-fleshed weapon bounding o'er the plain, Gave me to know it, when immediately I darted on the trail, and here in part I find some trace to guide me, but in part I halt, amazed, and know not where to look.

Thou com'st full timely. For my venturous course, Past or to come, is governed by thy will.

ATH. I knew thy doubts, Odysseus, and came forth Zealous to guard thy perilous hunting-path.

OD. Dear Queen! and am I labouring to an end?

ATH. Thou schem'st not idly. This is Aias' deed.

OD. What can have roused him to a work so wild?

ATH. His grievous anger for Achilles' arms.

OD. But wherefore on the flock this violent raid?

ATH. He thought to imbrue his hands with your heart's blood.

OD. What? Was this planned against the Argives, then?

ATH. Planned, and performed, had I kept careless guard.

OD. What daring spirit, what hardihood, was here!

ATH. Alone by night in craft he sought your tents.

OD. How? Came he near them? Won he to his goal?