Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/325

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Tantalus: ⁠Leave it to thy sons.
Thyestes: No realm on earth can stand divided power.
Tantalus: Should he, who can be happy, still be sad? 445
Thyestes: Believe me, son, 'tis by their lying names
That things seem great, while others harsh appear
Which are not truly so. When high in power
I stood, I never ceased to be in fear;
Yea, even did I fear the very sword
Upon my thigh. Oh, what a boon it is
To be at feud with none, to eat one's bread 450
Without a trace of care, upon the ground!
Crime enters not the poor man's humble cot;
And all in safety may one take his food
From slender boards; for 'tis in cups of gold
That poison lurks—I speak what I do know.
Ill fortune is to be preferred to good.
For since my palace does not threatening stand 455
In pride upon some lofty mountain top,
The people fear me not; my lowering roofs
Gleam not with ivory, nor do I need
A watchful guard to keep me while I sleep
I do not fish with fleets, nor drive the sea
With massive dykes back from its natural shore; 460
I do not gorge me at the world's expense;
For me no fields remote are harvested
Beyond the Getae and the Parthians;
No incense burns for me, nor are my shrines
Adorned in impious neglect of Jove;
No forests wave upon my battlements,
No vast pools steam for my delight; my days 465
Are not to slumber given, nor do I spend
The livelong night in drunken revelry.
No one feels fear of me, and so my home,
Though all unguarded, is from danger free;
For poverty alone may be at peace.
And this I hold: the mightiest king is he,
Who from the lust of sovereignty is free. 470
Tantalus: But if some god a kingdom should bestow,
It is not meet for mortal to refuse: