The Seven Plays in English Verse Part 50

HER. Many hot toils and hard beyond report, With st.u.r.dy thews and sinews I have borne, But no such labour hath the Thunderer's wife Or sour Eurystheus ever given, as this, Which Oeneus' daughter of the treacherous eye Hath fastened on my back, this amply-woven Net of the Furies, that is breaking me.

For, glued unto my side, it hath devoured My flesh to the bone, and lodging in the lungs It drains the vital channels, and hath drunk The fresh life-blood, and ruins all my frame, Foiled in the tangle of a viewless bond.

Yet me nor War-host, nor Earth's giant brood, Nor Centaur's monstrous violence could subdue, Nor h.e.l.las, nor the Stranger, nor all lands Where I have gone, cleansing the world from harms.

But a soft woman without manhood's strain Alone and weaponless hath conquered me.

Son, let me know thee mine true-born, nor rate Thy mother's claim beyond thy sire's, but bring Thyself from out the chambers to my hand Her body that hath borne thee, that my heart May be a.s.sured, if lesser than my pain It will distress thee to behold her limbs With righteous torment agonized and torn.

Nay, shrink not, son, but pity me, whom all May pity--me, who, like a tender girl, Am heard to weep aloud! This none could say He knew in me of old; for, murmuring not, I went with evil fortune, silent still.

Now, such a foe hath found the woman in me!

Ay, but come near; stand by me, and behold What cause I have for crying. Look but here!

Here is the mystery unveiled. O see!

Ye people, gaze on this poor quivering flesh, Look with compa.s.sion on my misery!

Ah me!

Ah! ah! Again!

Even now the hot convulsion of disease Shoots through my side, and will not let me rest From this fierce exercise of wearing woe.

Take me, O King of Night!

O sudden thunderstroke.

Smite me! O sire, transfix me with the dart Of thy swift lightning! Yet again that fang Is tearing; it hath blossomed forth anew, It soars up to the height!

O breast and back, O shrivelling arms and hands, ye are the same That crushed the dweller of the Nemean wild, The lion unapproachable and rude, The oxherd's plague, and Hydra of the lake Of Lerna, and the twi-form prancing throng Of Centaurs,--insolent, unsociable, Lawless, ungovernable:--the tusked pest Of Erymanthine glades; then underground Pluto's three-headed cur--a perilous fear, Born from the monster-worm; and, on the verge Of Earth, the dragon, guarding fruits of gold.

These toils and others countless I have tried, And none hath triumphed o'er me. But to-day, Jointless and riven to tatters, I am wrecked Thus utterly by imperceptible woe; I, proudly named Alcmena's child, and His Who reigns in highest heaven, the King supreme!

Ay, but even yet, I tell ye, even from here, Where I am nothingness and cannot move, She who hath done this deed shall feel my power.

Let her come near, that, mastered by my might, She may have this to tell the world, that, dying, As living, I gave punishment to wrong.

CH. O h.e.l.las, how I grieve for thy distress!

How thou wilt mourn in losing him we see!

HYL. My father, since thy silence gives me leave, Still hear me patiently, though in thy pain!

For my request is just. Lend me thy mind Less wrathfully distempered than 'tis now; Else thou canst never know, where thou art keen With vain resentment and with vain desire

HER. Speak what thou wilt and cease, for I in pain Catch not the sense of thy mysterious talk

HYL. I come to tell thee of my mother's case, And her involuntary unconscious fault.

HER. Base villain! hast thou breathed thy mother's name, Thy father's murderess, in my hearing too!

HYL. Her state requires not silence, but full speech.

HER. Her faults in former time might well be told.

HYL. So might her fault to day, couldst thou but know.

HER. Speak, but beware base words disgrace thee not.

HYL. List! She is dead even now with new-given wound.

HER. By whom? Thy words flash wonder through my woe.

HYL. Her own hand slaughtered her, no foreign stroke.

HER. Wretch! to have reft this office from my hands.

HYL. Even your rash spirit were softened, if you knew.

HER. This bodes some knavery. But declare thy thought!

HYL. She erred with good intent. The whole is said.

HER. Good, O thou villain, to destroy thy sire!

HYL. When she perceived that marriage in her home, She erred, supposing to enchain thy love.

HER. Hath Trachis a magician of such might?

HYL. Long since the Centaur Nessus moved her mind To work this charm for heightening thy desire.

HER. O horror, thou art here! I am no more.

My day is darkened, boy! Undone, undone!

I see our plight too plainly. woe is me!

Come, O my son! --thou hast no more a father,-- Call to me all the brethren of thy blood, And poor Alcmena, wedded all in vain Unto the Highest, that ye may hear me tell With my last breath what prophecies I know.

HYL. Thy mother is not here, but by the sh.o.r.e Of Tiryns hath obtained a dwelling-place; And of thy sons, some she hath with her there, And some inhabit Thebe's citadel.

But we who are with thee, sire, if there be aught That may by us be done, will hear, and do.

HER. Then hearken thou unto this task, and show If worthily thou art reputed mine.

Now is time to prove thee. My great father Forewarned me long ago that I should die By none who lived and breathed, but from the will Of one now dwelling in the house of death.

And so this Centaur, as the voice Divine Then prophesied, in death hath slain me living.

And in agreement with that ancient word I now interpret newer oracles Which I wrote down on going within the grove Of the hill-roving and earth-couching Selli,-- Dictated to me by the mystic tongue Innumerous, of my Father's sacred tree; Declaring that my ever instant toils Should in the time that new hath being and life End and release me. And I look'd for joy.

But the true meaning plainly was my death.-- No labour is appointed for the dead.-- Then, since all argues one event, my son, Once more thou must befriend me, and not wait For my voice goading thee, but of thyself Submit and second my resolve, and know Filial obedience for thy n.o.blest rule.

HYL. I will obey thee, father, though my heart Sinks heavily in approaching such a theme.

HER. Before aught else, lay thy right hand in mine.

HYL. Why so intent on this a.s.surance, sire?

HER. Give it at once and be not froward, boy.

HYL. There is my hand: I will gainsay thee nought.

HER. Swear by the head of him who gave me life.

HYL. Tell me the oath, and I will utter it.

HER. Swear thou wilt do the thing I bid thee do.

HYL. I swear, and make Zeus witness of my troth.

HER. But if you swerve, pray that the curse may come.

HYL. It will not come for swerving:--but I pray.