by Euripides
What Prince of Argos…?
ELECTRA.
Not the man to whom
My father thought to give me.
ORESTES.
Speak; that I
May tell thy brother all.
ELECTRA.
’Tis there, hard by,
His dwelling, where I live, far from men’s eyes.
ORESTES.
Some ditcher’s cot, or cowherd’s, by its guise!
ELECTRA (struck with shame for her ingratitude).
A poor man; but true-hearted, and to me
God-fearing.
ORESTES.
How? What fear of God hath he?
ELECTRA.
He hath never held my body to his own.
ORESTES.
Hath he some vow to keep? Or is it done
To scorn thee?
ELECTRA.
Nay; he only scorns to sin
Against my father’s greatness.
ORESTES.
But to win
A princess! Doth his heart not leap for pride?
ELECTRA.
He honoureth not the hand that gave the bride.
ORESTES.
I see. He trembles for Orestes’ wrath?
ELECTRA.
Aye, that would move him. But beside, he hath
A gentle heart.
ORESTES.
Strange! A good man…. I swear
He well shall be requited.
ELECTRA.
Whensoe’er
Our wanderer comes again!
ORESTES.
Thy mother stays
Unmoved ‘mid all thy wrong?
ELECTRA.
A lover weighs
More than a child in any woman’s heart.
ORESTES.
But what end seeks Aegisthus, by such art
Of shame?
ELECTRA.
To make mine unborn children low
And weak, even as my husband.
ORESTES.
Lest there grow
From thee the avenger?
ELECTRA.
Such his purpose is:
For which may I requite him!
ORESTES.
And of this
Thy virgin life — Aegisthus knows it?
ELECTRA.
Nay,
We speak it not. It cometh not his way.
ORESTES.
These women hear us. Are they friends to thee?
ELECTRA.
Aye, friends and true. They will keep faithfully
All words of mine and thine.
ORESTES (trying her).
Thou art well stayed
With friends. And could Orestes give thee aid
In aught, if e’er…
ELECTRA.
Shame on thee! Seest thou not?
Is it not time?
ORESTES (catching her excitement).
How time? And if he sought
To slay, how should he come at his desire?
ELECTRA.
By daring, as they dared who slew his sire!
ORESTES.
Wouldst thou dare with him, if he came, thou too,
To slay her?
ELECTRA.
Yes; with the same axe that slew
My father!
ORESTES.
’Tis thy message? And thy mood
Unchanging?
ELECTRA.
Let me shed my mother’s blood,
And I die happy.
ORESTES.
God!… I would that now
Orestes heard thee here.
ELECTRA.
Yet, wottest thou,
Though here I saw him, I should know him not.
ORESTES.
Surely. Ye both were children, when they wrought
Your parting.
ELECTRA.
One alone in all this land
Would know his face.
ORESTES.
The thrall, methinks, whose hand
Stole him from death — or so the story ran?
ELECTRA.
He taught my father, too, an old old man
Of other days than these.
ORESTES.
Thy father’s grave…
He had due rites and tendance?
ELECTRA.
What chance gave,
My father had, cast out to rot in the sun.
ORESTES.
God, ’tis too much!… To hear of such things done
Even to a stranger, stings a man…. But speak,
Tell of thy life, that I may know, and seek
Thy brother with a tale that must be heard
Howe’er it sicken. If mine eyes be blurred,
Remember, ’tis the fool that feels not. Aye,
Wisdom is full of pity; and thereby
Men pay for too much wisdom with much pain.
LEADER.
My heart is moved as this man’s. I would fain
Learn all thy tale. Here dwelling on the hills
Little I know of Argos and its ills.
ELECTRA.
If I must speak — and at love’s call, God knows,
I fear not — I will tell thee all; my woes,
My father’s woes, and — O, since thou hast stirred
This storm of speech, thou bear him this my word —
His woes and shame! Tell of this narrow cloak
In the wind; this grime and reek of toil, that choke
My breathing; this low roof that bows my head
After a king’s. This raiment … thread by thread,
’Tis I must weave it, or go bare — must bring,
Myself, each jar of water from the spring.
No holy day for me, no festival,
No dance upon the green! From all, from all
I am cut off. No portion hath my life
‘Mid wives of Argos, being no true wife.
No portion where the maidens throng to praise
Castor — my Castor, whom in ancient days,
Ere he passed from us and men worshipped him,
They named my bridegroom! —
And she, she!… The grim
Troy spoils gleam round her throne, and by each hand
Queens of the East, my father’s prisoners, stand,
A cloud of Orient webs and tangling gold.
And there upon the floor, the blood, the old
Black blood, yet crawls and cankers, like a rot
In the stone! And on our father’s chariot
The murderer’s foot stands glorying, and the red
False hand uplifts that ancient staff, that led
The armies of the world!… Aye, tell him how
The grave of Agamemnon, even now,
Lacketh the common honour of the dead;
A desert barrow, where no tears are shed,
No tresses hung, no gift, no myrtle spray.
And when the wine is in him, so men say,
Our mother’s mighty master leaps thereon,
Spurning the slab, or pelteth stone on stone,
Flouting the lone dead and the twain that live:
“Where is thy son Orestes? Doth he give
Thy tomb good tendance? Or is all forgot?”
So is he scorned because he cometh not….
O Stranger, on my knees, I charge thee, tell
This tale, not mine, but of dumb wrongs that swell
Crowding — and I the trumpet of their pain,
This tongue, these arms, this bitter burning brain;
These dead shorn locks, and he for whom they died!
His father slew Troy’s thousands in their pride;
He hath but one to kill…. O God, but one!
Is he a man, and Agamemnon’s son?
LEADER.
But hold: is this thy husband from the plain,
His labour ended, hasting home again?
Enter the PEASANT.
PEASANT.
Ha, who be these? St
range men in arms before
My house! What would they at this lonely door?
Seek they for me? — Strange gallants should not stay
A woman’s goings.
ELECTRA.
Friend and helper! — Nay,
Think not of any evil. These men be
Friends of Orestes, charged with words for me!…
Strangers, forgive his speech.
PEASANT.
What word have they
Of him? At least he lives and sees the day!
ELECTRA.
So fares their tale — and sure I doubt it not!
PEASANT.
And ye two still are living in his thought,
Thou and his father?
ELECTRA.
In his dreams we live.
An exile hath small power.
PEASANT.
And did he give
Some privy message?
ELECTRA.
None: they come as spies
For news of me.
PEASANT.
Thine outward news their eyes
Can see; the rest, methinks, thyself will tell.
ELECTRA.
They have seen all, heard all. I trust them well.
PEASANT.
Why were our doors not open long ago? —
Be welcome, strangers both, and pass below
My lintel. In return for your glad words
Be sure all greeting that mine house affords
Is yours. — Ye followers, bear in their gear! —
Gainsay me not; for his sake are ye dear
That sent you to our house; and though my part
In life be low, I am no churl at heart.
[The PEASANT goes to the ARMED SERVANTS at the back, to help them with the baggage.
ORESTES (aside to ELECTRA).
Is this the man that shields thy maidenhood
Unknown, and will not wrong thy father’s blood?
ELECTRA.
He is called my husband. ’Tis for him I toil.
ORESTES.
How dark lies honour hid! And what turmoil
In all things human: sons of mighty men
Fallen to naught, and from ill seed again
Good fruit: yea, famine in the rich man’s scroll
Writ deep, and in poor flesh a lordly soul.
As, lo, this man, not great in Argos, not
With pride of house uplifted, in a lot
Of unmarked life hath shown a prince’s grace.
[To the PEASANT, who has returned.
All that is here of Agamemnon’s race,
And all that lacketh yet, for whom we come,
Do thank thee, and the welcome of thy home
Accept with gladness. — Ho, men; hasten ye
Within! — This open-hearted poverty
Is blither to my sense than feasts of gold.
Lady, thine husband’s welcome makes me bold;
Yet would thou hadst thy brother, before all
Confessed, to greet us in a prince’s hall!
Which may be, even yet. Apollo spake
The word; and surely, though small store I make
Of man’s divining, God will fail us not.
[ORESTES and PYLADES go in, following the SERVANTS.
LEADER.
O never was the heart of hope so hot
Within me. How? So moveless in time past,
Hath Fortune girded up her loins at last?
ELECTRA.
Now know’st thou not thine own ill furniture,
To bid these strangers in, to whom for sure
Our best were hardship, men of gentle breed?
PEASANT.
Nay, if the men be gentle, as indeed
I deem them, they will take good cheer or ill
With even kindness.
ELECTRA.
’Twas ill done; but still —
Go, since so poor thou art, to that old friend
Who reared my father. At the realm’s last end
He dwells, where Tanaos river foams between
Argos and Sparta. Long time hath he been
An exile ‘mid his flocks. Tell him what thing
Hath chanced on me, and bid him haste and bring
Meat for the strangers’ tending. — Glad, I trow,
That old man’s heart will be, and many a vow
Will lift to God, to learn the child he stole
From death, yet breathes. — I will not ask a dole
From home; how should my mother help me? Nay,
I pity him that seeks that door, to say
Orestes liveth!
PEASANT.
Wilt thou have it so?
I will take word to the old man. But go
Quickly within, and whatso there thou find
Set out for them. A woman, if her mind
So turn, can light on many a pleasant thing
To fill her board. And surely plenishing
We have for this one day.— ’Tis in such shifts
As these, I care for riches, to make gifts
To friends, or lead a sick man back to health
With ease and plenty. Else small aid is wealth
For daily gladness; once a man be done
With hunger, rich and poor are all as one.
[The PEASANT goes off to the left; ELECTRA goes into the house.
* * * * *
CHORUS.
O for the ships of Troy, the beat [Strophe 1.
Of oars that shimmered
Innumerable, and dancing feet
Of Nereids glimmered;
And dolphins, drunken with the lyre,
Across the dark blue prows, like fire,
Did bound and quiver,
To cleave the way for Thetis’ son,
Fleet-in-the-wind Achilles, on
To war, to war, till Troy be won
Beside the reedy river.
Up from Euboea’s caverns came [Antistrophe 1.
The Nereids, bearing
Gold armour from the Lords of Flame,
Wrought for his wearing:
Long sought those daughters of the deep,
Up Pelion’s glen, up Ossa’s steep
Forest enchanted,
Where Peleus reared alone, afar,
His lost sea-maiden’s child, the star
Of Hellas, and swift help of war
When weary armies panted.
There came a man from Troy, and told [Strophe 2.
Here in the haven,
How, orb on orb, to strike with cold
The Trojan, o’er that targe of gold,
Dread shapes were graven.
All round the level rim thereof
Perseus, on wingèd feet, above
The long seas hied him;
The Gorgon’s wild and bleeding hair
He lifted; and a herald fair,
He of the wilds, whom Maia bare,
God’s Hermes, flew beside him.
[Antistrophe 2.
But midmost, where the boss rose higher,
A sun stood blazing,
And wingèd steeds, and stars in choir,
Hyad and Pleiad, fire on fire,
For Hector’s dazing:
Across the golden helm, each way,
Two taloned Sphinxes held their prey,
Song-drawn to slaughter:
And round the breastplate ramping came
A mingled breed of lion and flame,
Hot-eyed to tear that steed of fame
That found Pirênê’s water.
The red red sword with steeds four-yoked [Epode.
Black-maned, was graven,
That laboured, and the hot dust smoked
Cloudwise to heaven.
Thou Tyndarid woman! Fair and tall
Those warriors were, and o’er them all
One king great-hearted,
Whom thou and thy false love did slay:
Therefore the tribes of Heaven one day
For
these thy dead shall send on thee
An iron death: yea, men shall see
The white throat drawn, and blood’s red spray,
And lips in terror parted.
[As they cease, there enters from the left a very old man, bearing a lamb, a wineskin, and a wallet.
OLD MAN.
Where is my little Princess? Ah, not now;
But still my queen, who tended long ago
The lad that was her father…. How steep-set
These last steps to her porch! But faint not yet:
Onward, ye failing knees and back with pain
Bowed, till we look on that dear face again.
[Enter ELECTRA.
Ah, daughter, is it thou? — Lo, here I am,
With gifts from all my store; this suckling lamb
Fresh from the ewe, green crowns for joyfulness,
And creamy things new-curdled from the press.
And this long-storèd juice of vintages
Forgotten, cased in fragrance: scant it is,
But passing sweet to mingle nectar-wise
With feebler wine. — Go, bear them in; mine eyes…
Where is my cloak? — They are all blurred with tears.
ELECTRA.
What ails thine eyes, old friend? After these years
Doth my low plight still stir thy memories?
Or think’st thou of Orestes, where he lies
In exile, and my father? Aye, long love
Thou gavest him, and seest the fruit thereof
Wasted, for thee and all who love thee!
OLD MAN.
All
Wasted! And yet ’tis that lost hope withal
I cannot brook. But now I turned aside
To see my master’s grave. All, far and wide,
Was silence; so I bent these knees of mine
And wept and poured drink-offerings from the wine
I bear the strangers, and about the stone
Laid myrtle sprays. And, child, I saw thereon
Just at the censer slain, a fleeced ewe,
Deep black, in sacrifice: the blood was new
About it: and a tress of bright brown hair
Shorn as in mourning, close. Long stood I there
And wondered, of all men what man had gone
In mourning to that grave. — My child, ’tis none
In Argos. Did there come … Nay, mark me now…
Thy brother in the dark, last night, to bow
His head before that unadorèd tomb?
O come, and mark the colour of it. Come
And lay thine own hair by that mourner’s tress!
A hundred little things make likenesses
In brethren born, and show the father’s blood.
ELECTRA (trying to mask her excitement and resist the contagion of his).
Old heart, old heart, is this a wise man’s mood?…
O, not in darkness, not in fear of men,
Shall Argos find him, when he comes again,
Mine own undaunted … Nay, and if it were,
What likeness could there be? My brother’s hair
Is as a prince’s and a rover’s, strong
With sunlight and with strife: not like the long