Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/387

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MEROPE.
349

ÆPYTUS.

Never to part again.

[They fall into one another's arms. Then Merope, holding Æpytus by the hand, turns to The Chorus.


MEROPE.

O kind Messenian maidens, O my friends,
Bear witness, see, mark well, on what a head
My first stroke of revenge had nearly fallen!


THE CHORUS.

We see, dear mistress: and we say, the Gods,
As hitherto they kept him, keep him now.


MEROPE.

O my son! str.
I have, I have thee...the years
Fly back, my child! and thou seem'st
Ne'er to have gone from these eyes,
Never been torn from this breast.


ÆPYTUS.

Mother, my heart runs over; but the time
Presses me, chides me, will not let me weep.


MEROPE.

Fearest thou now?


ÆPYTUS.

I fear not, but I think on my design.