Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/151

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Be then my wife and not my enemy.
Megara: Cold horror creeps throughout my lifeless limbs.
What shameful proposition do I hear? 415
I did not shrink when loud alarms of war
Rang round our city's walls; and all my woes
I've bravely borne. But marriage—and with him!
Now do I think myself indeed a slave.
Load down my tender frame with heavy chains;
Be lingering death by long starvation sought; 420
Still shall no power o'ercome my wifely faith.
I shall be thine, Alcides, to the death.
Lycus: Such spirits does a buried husband give?
Megara: He went below that he might reach the heavens.
Lycus: The boundless weight of earth oppresses him.
Megara: No weight of earth can overwhelm the man 425
Who bore the heavens up.
Lycus: Thou shalt be forced.
Megara: He can be forced who knows not how to die.
Lycus: Tell me what gift I could bestow more rich
Than royal wedlock?
Megara: Grant thy death, or mine.
Lycus: Then die, thou fool.
Megara: 'Tis thus I'll meet my lord.
Lycus: Is that slave more to thee, than I, a king? 430
Megara: How many kings has that slave given to death!
Lycus: Why does he serve a king, and bear the yoke?
Megara: Remove hard tasks, and where would valor be?
Lycus: To conquer monsters call'st thou valor then?
Megara: 'Tis valor to subdue what all men fear. 435
Lycus: The shades of hades hold that boaster fast.
Megara: No easy way leads from the earth to heaven.
Lycus: Who is his father, that he hopes for heaven?
Amphitr.: Unhappy wife of mighty Hercules,
Be silent now, for 'tis my part to tell 440
Alcides' parentage. After his deeds,
So many and so great; after the world,
From rising unto setting of the sun,
Has been subdued, so many monsters tamed;
After the giants' impious blood was spilled