ELECTRA
And I, O father, I alone of all
Thy house am left forlorn
To make my moan, to mourn
Thy piteous fall.
Yet never, while these eyes
Behold or sun or star-bespangled skies,
Will I restrain my plaint, my bitter cries;
But like some nightingale
My ravished nest bewail,
And through these halls shall sound my groans and sighs.
Halls of Persephonè and Death,
Guide of the shades, O Hermes, and O Wraith,
Ye god-sprung Furies dread
Who watch when blood is shed,
Or stained the marriage bed,
O aid me to avenge my father slain,
O send my brother back again!
Alone, no more I countervail
Grief that o’erloads the scale.
Enter Chorus.
Chorus
Child of a mother all unblest, (Str. 1)
Electra, how in grief that knows no rest
Thou witherest;
Mourning thy father’s cruel fate,
By her betrayed and slaughtered by her mate.
Black death await
The plotter of that sin,
If prayer so bold may answer win!
