Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/409

---

Clytemnestra: He pardoned Helen; home is she returned,
To Menelaüs joined, though East and West
Have been engulfed for her in common woe.
Aegisthus: But Menelaüs nursed no secret love, 275
Which closed his heart unto his lawful wife.
Thy lord seeks charge against thee, cause of strife.
Suppose thy heart and life were free from guilt:
What hoots an honest life, a stainless heart,
When hate condemns the suppliant unheard? 280
Wilt thou seek Sparta's shelter, and return
Into thy father's house? No shelter waits
The scorned of kings; that hope were false indeed.
Clytemnestra: None knows my sin save one most faithful friend.
Aegisthus: In vain: no faith is found in royal courts. 285
Clytemnestra: But surely gifts will buy fidelity.
Aegisthus: Faith bought by gifts is sold for other gifts.
Clytemnestra: My strength and purity of soul revive.
Why wouldst thou thwart me? Why, with cozening words,
Wouldst thou persuade me to thy evil course? 290
Dost think that I would leave a king of kings
And stoop to wed an outcast wretch like thee?
Aegisthus: What? seem I less than Atreus' son to thee.
Who am Thyestes' son?
Clytemnestra: ⁠Why, so thou art,
And grandson too.
Aegisthus: ⁠My getting shames me not;
For Phoebus' self is voucher for my birth.
Clytemnestra: Name Phoebus not with thine incestuous stock, 295
Who checked his flying steeds and fled the sky,
Withdrawn in sudden night, lest he behold
Thy father's feast. Wouldst thou besmirch the gods.
Thou, trained to revel in unlawful love?
Then get thee gone in haste, and rid mine eyes 300
Of that which doth disgrace this noble house;
This home is waiting for its king and lord.
Aegisthus: Exile is naught to me, for I am used
To woe. At thy command I'll farther flee
Than from this house: I but await thy word
To plunge my dagger in this woeful breast. 305