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APPENDIX.
| To sweet endearing fondness. Lead me then, | |
| Instantly lead me to my house, consign | |
| My wretched age to darkness, there to pine | |
| And waste away. | |
| Old age, | |
| Struggling with many griefs, O how I hate thee!” |
But to return to Iphigenia,—how infinitely melting is her appeal to Orestes, whom she holds in her robe.
| “ | My brother, small assistance canst thou give |
| Thy friends; yet for thy sister with thy tears | |
| Implore thy father that she may not die: | |
| Even infants have a sense of ills; and see, | |
| My father! silent though he be, he sues | |
| To thee: be gentle to me; on my life | |
| Have pity: thy two children by this beard | |
| Entreat thee, thy dear children: one is yet | |
| An infant, one to riper years arrived.” |
The mention of Orestes, then an infant, all through, though slight, is of a domestic charm that prepares the mind to feel the tragedy of his after lot. When the Queen says
| “Dost thou sleep, |
| My son? The rolling chariot hath subdued thee; |
| Wake to thy sister's marriage happily.” |
We understand the horror of the doom which makes this cherished child a parricide. And so when Iphigenia takes leave of him after her fate is by herself accepted.
| Iphi. | “To manhood train Orestes, |
| Cly. | Embrace him, for thou ne'er shall see him more. |
| Iphi. | (To Orestes.) Far as thou couldst, thou didst assist thy friends.” |
We know not how to blame the guilt of the maddened wife and mother. In her last meeting with
