ELECTRA
Orestes
’Tis he; let that suffice thee; ask no more.
Electra
O happy day! O sole deliverer
Of Agamemnon’s house, how cam’st thou hither?
Art thou indeed our saviour who redeemed
From endless woes my brother and myself?
O hands beloved, O messenger whose feet
Were bringers of glad tidings, how so long
Couldst thou be with me and remain unknown,
Stay me with feignèd fables and conceal
The truth that gave me life? Hail, father, hail!
For ’tis a father whom I seem to see.
Verily no man in the self-same day
Was hated so and so much loved as thou.
Aged Servant
Enough methinks; the tale ’twixt then and now—
Many revolving nights and days as many
Shall serve, Electra, to unfold it all.
(To Orestes and Pylades)
Why stand ye here! ’tis time for you to act,
Now Clytemnestra is alone; no man
Is now within; but, if ye stay your hand,
Not only with her house-carls will ye fight
But with a troop more numerous and more skilled.
Orestes
Our business, Pylades, would seem to crave
No longer parley; let us instantly
Enter, but ere we enter first adore
The gods who keep the threshold of the house.
Electra
O King Apollo! lend a gracious ear
