The Seven Plays in English Verse Part 43

AEG. I will, for thou advisest well; but thou, Call Clytemnestra, if she be within. [AEGISTHUS _lifts the shroud_

OR. She is beside thee, gaze not otherwhere.

AEG. What do I see! oh!

OR. Why so strange? Whom fear you?

AEG. Who are the men into whose midmost toils All hapless I am fallen?

OR. Ha! knowest thou not Thou hast been taking living men for dead?[11]

AEG. I understand that saying. Woe is me!

I know, Orestes' voice addresseth me.

OR. A prophet! How wert thou so long deceived?

AEG. Undone, undone! Yet let me speak one word.

EL. Brother, by Heaven, no more! Let him not speak.

When death is certain, what do men in woe Gain from a little time? Kill him at once!

And, killed, expose him to such burial From dogs and vultures, as beseemeth such, Far from our view. Nought less will solace me For the remembrance of a life of pain.

OR. Go in and tarry not. No contest this Of verbal question, but of life or death.

AEG. Why drive you me within? If this you do Be n.o.ble, why must darkness hide the deed?

Why not destroy me out of hand?

OR. Command not!

Enter, and in the place where ye cut down My father, thou shalt yield thy life to me.

AEG. Is there no help but this abode must see The past and future ills of Pelops' race?

OR. Thine anyhow. That I can prophesy With perfect inspiration to thine ear.

AEG. The skill you boast belonged not to your sire.

OR. You question and delay. Go in!

AEG. Lead on.

OR. Nay, go thou first.

AEG. That I may not escape thee?

OR. No, that thou may'st not have thy wish in death.

I may not stint one drop of bitterness.

And would this doom were given without reprieve, If any try to act beyond the law, To kill them. Then the wicked would be few.

LEADER OF CH. O seed of Atreus! how triumphantly Through grief and hardness thou hast freedom found, With full achievement in this onset crowned!

THE TRACHINIAN MAIDENS

THE PERSONS

DeANIRA, _wife of Heracles._ _An_ Attendant.

HYLLUS, _son of Heracles and Deanira_.

CHORUS _of Trachinian Maidens_.

_A_ Messenger.

LICHAS, _the Herald_.

_A_ Nurse.

_An_ Old Man.

HERACLES.

IOLE, _who does not speak_.

SCENE. Before the temporary abode of Heracles in Trachis.

This tragedy is named from the Chorus. From the subject it might have been called 'Deanira or the Death of Heracles'.

The Centaur Nessus, in dying by the arrow of Heracles, which had been dipped in the venom of the Hydra, persuaded the bride Deanira, whose beauty was the cause of his death, to keep some of the blood from the wound as a love-charm for her husband. Many years afterwards, when Heracles was returning from his last exploit of sacking Oechalia, in Euboea, he sent before him, by his herald Lichas, Iole, the king's daughter, whom he had espoused. Deanira, when she had discovered this, commissioned Lichas when he returned to present his master with a robe, which she had anointed with the charm,--hoping by this means to regain her lord's affection. But the poison of the Hydra did its work, and Heracles died in agony, Deanira having already killed herself on ascertaining what she had done. The action takes place in Trachis, near the Mahae Gulf, where Heracles and Deanira, by permission of Ceyx, the king of the country, have been living in exile. At the close of the drama, Heracles, while yet alive, is carried towards his pyre on Mount Oeta.

THE TRACHINIAN MAIDENS

DeANIRA. Men say,--'twas old experience gave the word, --'No lot of mortal, ere he die, can once Be known for good or evil.' But I know, Before I come to the dark dwelling-place, Mine is a lot, adverse and hard and sore.

Who yet at Pleuron, in my father's home, Of all Aetolian women had most cause To fear my bridal. For a river-G.o.d, Swift Achelous, was my suitor there And sought me from my father in three forms; Now in his own bull-likeness, now a serpent Of coiling sheen, and now with manlike build But bovine front, while from the shadowy beard Sprang fountain-waters in perpetual spray.

Looking for such a husband, I, poor girl!

Still prayed that Death might find me, ere I knew That nuptial.--Later, to my glad relief, Zeus' and Alcmena's glorious offspring came, And closed with him in conflict, and released My heart from torment. How the fight was won I could not tell. If any were who saw Unshaken of dread foreboding, such may speak.

But I sate quailing with an anguished fear, Lest beauty might procure me nought but pain, Till He that rules the issue of all strife, Gave fortunate end--if fortunate! For since, a.s.signed by that day's conquest, I have known The couch of Heracles, my life is spent In one continual terror for his fate.

Night brings him, and, ere morning, some fresh toil Drives him afar. And I have borne him seed; Which he, like some strange husbandman that farms A distant field, finds but at sowing time And once in harvest. Such a weary life Still tossed him to and fro,--no sooner home But forth again, serving I know not whom.

And when his glorious head had risen beyond These labours, came the strongest of my fear.

For since he quelled the might of Iphitus, We here in Trachis dwell, far from our home, Dependent on a stranger, but where he Is gone, none knoweth. Only this I know, His going pierced my heart with pangs for him, And now I am all but sure he bears some woe.

These fifteen months he hath sent me not one word.

And I have cause for fear. Ere he set forth He left a scroll with me, whose dark intent I oft pray Heaven may bring no sorrow down.

ATTENDANT. Queen Deanira, many a time ere now Have I beheld thee with all tearful moan Bewailing the departure of thy lord.

But, if it be permitted that a slave Should tender counsel to the free, my voice May venture this:--Of thy strong band of sons Why is not one commissioned to explore For Heracles? and why not Hyllus first, Whom most it would beseem to show regard For tidings of his father's happiness?