Page:Choëphoroe (Murray 1923).djvu/46

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE CHOËPHOROE
531–551

Leader.

The milk ran into blood. So deep it bit.


Orestes.

The dream is come. The man shall follow it.


Leader.

And she, appalled, came shrieking out of sleep;
And many a torch, long blinded in the deep
Of darkness, in our chambers burst afire
To cheer the Queen. Then spake she her desire,
To send, as a swift medicine for the dread
That held her, these peace offerings to the dead.


Orestes.

Behold, I pray this everlasting Earth,
I pray my father's grave, they bring to birth
In fullness all this dream. And here am I
To read its heart and message flawlessly.
Seeing that this serpent, born whence I was born,
Wore the same swathing-bands these limbs had worn,
Fanged the same breast that suckled me of yore,
And through the sweet milk drew that gout of gore;
And seeing she understood, and sore afeared
Shrieked: therefore it must be that, having reared
A birth most ghastly, she in wrath shall die:
And I, the beast, the serpent, even I
Shall slay her! Be it so. The dream speaks clear.


Leader.

I take thyself for mine interpreter.
And pray that this may be. But speak thy will
Who shall be doing, say, and who be still?

42