Story of Orestes Part 9

_Ores._ [To _Aegisthus_.] Go thou within, and quickly.

Now our strife Is not of words, but for thy life itself.

_Aegis._ Why dost thou force me in? If this be right, What need of darkness? Why not slay at once?

_Ores._ Give thou no orders, but where thou did'st slay My father go, that thou too there may'st die.

_Aegis._ Truly the doom is fixed, this house should see The ills that on the house of Pelops fall, Or present, or to come.

_Ores._ Yes, those that fall On thee: of these I am a prophet true.

_Aegis._ Thou boastest of a skill which he had not-- Thy father.

_Ores._ Still thou bandiest many words, And length'nest out the way. Move on.

_Aegis._ Lead thou.

_Ores._ Not so, thou must go first.

_Aegis._ Dost think I'll flee?

_Ores._ Thou must not die the death thou would'st desire.

I needs must make it utter. Doom like this Should fall on all who dare transgress the laws, The doom of death. Then wickedness no more Would multiply its strength.

_Chor._ O seed of Atreus, after many woes, Thou hast come forth, thy freedom hardly won, By this emprise made perfect!

[1] The quotations of Sophocles are (mostly) from Plumptre's translation.

THE ELECTRA OF EURIPIDES[1]

PROLOGUE

_The Scene is in front of a Peasant's Cottage: the Centre is the door of the Cottage, the scene on the two sides of it represents the ways to fields and to the river. Time: early Morning, the stars still s.h.i.+ning._

_Enter from the Cottage the Peasant on his way to his day's work_. In the form of a Morning Prayer to the stream Inachus, he makes known the situation of affairs, the murder of Agamemnon, etc.--and in particular how Aegisthus, fearing lest some n.o.bleman might marry Electra and be her avenger, had forced her into wedlock with himself, a peasant, honest but in the lowest poverty. But he is too good a friend to his master's house and to the absent Orestes to wrong Electra; he has been a husband only in name, to give her the shelter of his humble roof.

_Enter Electra from the Cottage with a watering pot_: not seeing the Peasant she in a similar soliloquy announces that she is on her way to the river to prosecute her unnatural toil.

_Peas._ Why will thou thus, unhappy lady, toil For my sake bearing labours, nor desist At my desire? Not thus hast thou been train'd.

_Elec._ Thee equal to the G.o.ds I deem my friend, For in my ills thou hast not treated me With insult. In misfortunes thus to find What I have found in thee, a gentle pow'r, Lenient of grief, must be a mighty source Of consolations. It behoves me then, Far as my pow'r avails, to ease thy toils, That lighter thou may'st feel them, and to share Thy labour, though unbidden; in the fields Thou hast enough of work; be it my task Within to order well. The lab'rer tired Abroad, with pleasure to his house returns.

Accustom'd all things grateful there to find.

_Peas._ Go then, since such thy will; nor distant far The fountain from the house. At the first dawn My bullocks yoked I to the field will drive, And sow my furrows; for no idle wretch With the G.o.ds always in the mouth can gain Without due labour the support of life. {95}

_Stage vacant a moment. Then enter by Distance-door Orestes and Pylades._

_Orestes_ in conversation with his friend makes known he is come by divine command to avenge his father's death: he has fulfilled the G.o.d's first charge to present offerings on his father's tomb; the second is that he must not enter the walls of the city; thus he wishes to find his sister--now, as he hears, wedded to a peasant!--and consult--they step aside as they see one whom 'female slave her tresses show'

approaching. {127}

_Re-enter Electra with her water-pot filled_: and in a _Monody_ (_strophe, antistrophe and epode_) laments her situation: laments for her lost father, her brother afar off, in servitude it may be: and adjures her father's spirit to send vengeance. {187}

PARODE JOINING ON TO EPISODE I

_Enter the Orchestra Chorus of Maidens of Mycenae, and in dialogue_ (_two Strophes and Antistrophes_) beg Electra to join them in an approaching festival, as she had been wont in happier days.--Electra declares she is fit for tears and rags, not for festivities.--As for rags they will find her the festal robes; and vows, instead of tears may gain the G.o.ddess's help.--No G.o.d, says Electra, has an ear for the wretched, and in wretched toil and obscure retreat her life is wasting away.--_A sob from the concealed Orestes startles them, and they are about to flee, when Orestes and Pylades discover themselves and rea.s.sure them_. With difficulty he restrains his emotions throughout a long conversation, personating a messenger from himself to Electra.

_Ores._ Bearing thy brother's words to thee I come. {251} _Elec._ Most welcome: breathes he yet this vital air?

_Ores._ He lives: I first would speak what brings thee joy.

_Elec._ Oh be thou blest for these most grateful words!

_Ores._ To both in common this I give to share.

_Elec._ Where is th' unhappy outcast wand'ring now?

_Ores._ He wastes his life not subject to one state.

_Elec._ Finds he with toil what life each day requires?

_Ores._ Not so; but mean the wand'ring exile's state.

_Elec._ But with what message art thou from him charg'd?

_Ores._ T' inquire, if living, where thou bear'st thy griefs.

_Elec._ First then observe my thin and wasted state.

_Ores._ Wasted with grief, so that I pity thee.

_Elec._ Behold my head, its crisped honours shorn.

_Ores._ Mourning thy brother, or thy father dead?

_Elec._ What can be dearer to my soul than these?

_Ores._ Alas! What deem'st thou are thy brother's thoughts?

_Elec._ He, though far distant, is most dear to me.

_Ores._ Why here thy dwelling from the city far?

_Elec._ O, stranger, in base nuptials I am join'd-- _Ores._ I feel thy brother's grief!--To one of rank?

_Elec._ Not as my father once to place me hop'd-- _Ores._ That hearing I may tell thy brother, speak.

_Elec._ This is his house: in this I dwell remote.

_Ores._ This house some digger or some herdsman suits.

_Elec._ Generous, though poor, in reverence me he holds.

_Ores._ To thee what reverence doth thy husband pay?

_Elec._ He never hath presumed t' approach my bed.

The conversation is prolonged, bringing out for the benefit of the Strangers and the Chorus the whole of Electra's troubles, and how her father's blood is crying for vengeance.

_Elec._ The monarch's tomb Unhonoured, nor libations hath receiv'd, Nor myrtle bough, no hallow'd ornament Hath dignified the pyre. Inflamed with wine, My mother's husband, the ill.u.s.trious lord, For so they call him, trampled on the earth Insultingly where Agamemnon lies, And hurling 'gainst his monument a stone, Thus taunts us with proud scorn, "Where is thy son, "Orestes where? right n.o.ble is thy tomb "Protected by his presence." Thus he mocks The absent; but, O stranger, tell him this Suppliant I beg thee. {371}

_Enter unexpectedly the Peasant_. On hearing that these strangers are messengers from Orestes, he instantly calls for refreshments to be brought, and begs the stranger to delay no longer to enter the cottage: poverty must be no excuse for not offering what hospitality he has.--A burst of admiration is drawn from Orestes. {400}

_Ores._ Nature hath giv'n no outward mark to note The generous mind; the qualities of men To sense are indistinct. I oft have seen One of no worth a n.o.ble father shame, And from vile parents worthy children spring, Meanness oft grov'lling in the rich man's mind, And oft exalted spirits in the poor.

How then discerning shall we judge aright?

By riches? ill would they abide the test.

By poverty? on poverty awaits This ill, through want it prompts to sordid deeds.

Shall we p.r.o.nounce by arms? but who can judge By looking on the spear the dauntless heart?

Such judgment is fallacious; for this man, Nor great among the Argives, nor elate With the proud honours of his house, his rank Plebeian, hath approv'd his liberal heart.

Will you not then learn wisdom, you whose minds Error with false presentments leads astray?

Will you not learn by manners and by deeds To judge the n.o.ble? Such discharge their trust With honour to the state and to their house.

Mere flesh without a spirit is no more Than statues in the forum; nor in war Doth the strong arm the dang'rous shock abide More than the weak; on nature this depends And an intrepid mind. But we accept Thy hospitable kindness; for the son Of Agamemnon, for whose sake we come, Present or not is worthy to this house.

Go, my attendants, I must enter it; This man, though poor, more cheerful than the rich Receives me; to his kindness thanks are due.

More would it joy me if thy brother, blest Himself, could lead me to his prosperous house: Yet haply he may come; th' oracular voice Of Phoebus firmly will be ratified: Lightly of human prophecies I deem. {438}

[_Orestes and his attendants enter the house._]

_Electra_ is in a quandary at the idea of people of such rank being invited into her humble cottage.

_Peas._ Why not? If they are n.o.ble, as their port Denotes them, will they not alike enjoy Contentment, be their viands mean or rich?

The only device Electra can think of is to send to an old servant of her father's house--the same who, as Tutor, preserved the child Orestes on the fatal night--now an aged herdsman forced to hide himself in obscurity, and ask him to help them in this emergency. _Exit Peasant to the fields to find the old Tutor; Electra into the cottage_. {474}