Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/407

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'Gainst him wouldst thou with sly assault prevail,
Whom great Achilles slew not with his sword,
Tough he with angry hand the weapon drew;
Nor Telamonian Ajax, crazed with rage; 210
Nor Hector, Troy's sole prop and war's delay;
Nor Paris' deadly darts; nor Mernnon black;
Nor Xanthus, choked with corpses and with arms;
Nor Simois' waves, empurpled with the slain;
Nor Cycnus, snowy offspring of the sea; 215
Nor warlike Rhesus with his Thracian hand;
Nor that fierce maid who led the Amazons,
Armed with the deadly battle-axe and shield?
This hero, home returned, dost thou prepare
To slay, and stain thy hearth with impious blood?
Would Greece, all hot from conquest, suffer this? 220
Bethink thee of the countless steeds and arms,
The sea a-bristle with a thousand ships,
The plains of Ilium soaked with streams of blood,
Troy taken and in utter ruin laid:
Remember this, I say, and check thy wrath,
And bid thy thoughts in safer channels run. 225
⁠[Exit.]
⁠[Enter Aegisthus.]
Aegisthus: The fatal day which I was born to see,
Toward which I've ever looked with dread, is here.
Why dost thou fear, my soul, to face thy fate,
And turn away from action scarce begun?
Be sure that not thy hand is ordering
These dire events, but the relentless gods. 230
Then put thy shame-bought life in pawn to fate
And let thy heart drain suffering to the dregs.
To one of shameful birth death is a boon.
⁠[Enter Clytemnestra.]
Thou comrade of my perils, Leda's child,
Be with me still in this; and thy false lord, 235
This valiant sire, shall pay thee blood for blood.
But why does pallor blanch thy trembling cheeks?
What bodes this softened face, this listless gaze?
Clytemnestra: My husband's love has met and conquered me.