Iphigenia in Tauris | Page 8

the gods.
PYLADES.?Of what avail is prudence, if it fail?Heedful to mark the purposes of Heaven??A noble man, who much hath sinn'd, some god?Doth summon to a dangerous enterprize,?Which to achieve appears impossible.?The hero conquers, and atoning serves?Mortals and gods, who thenceforth honour him.
ORESTES.?Am I foredoom'd to action and to life,?Would that a god from my distemper'd brain?Might chase this dizzy fever, which impels?My restless steps along a slipp'ry path,?Stain'd with a mother's blood, to direful death;?And pitying, dry the fountain, whence the blood,?For ever spouting from a mother's wounds,?Eternally defiles me!
PYLADES.
Wait in peace!

Thou dost increase the evil, and dost take?The office of the Furies on thyself.?Let me contrive,--be still! And when at length?The time for action claims our powers combin'd,?Then will I summon thee, and on we'll stride,?With cautious boldness to achieve the event.
ORESTES.?I hear Ulysses speak!
PYLADES.
Nay, mock me not.

Each must select the hero after whom?To climb the steep and difficult ascent?Of high Olympus. And to me it seems?That him nor stratagem nor art defile?Who consecrates himself to noble deeds.
ORESTES.?I most esteem the brave and upright man.
PYLADES.?And therefore have I not desir'd thy counsel.?One step is ta'en already: from our guards?I have extorted this intelligence.?A strange and godlike woman now restrains?The execution of that bloody law:?Incense, and prayer, and an unsullied heart,?These are the gifts she offers to the gods.?Her fame is widely spread, and it is thought?That from the race of Amazon she springs,?And hither fled some great calamity.
ORESTES.?Her gentle sway, it seems, lost all its power?At the approach of one so criminal,?Whom the dire curse enshrouds in gloomy night.?Our doom to seal, the pious thirst for blood?Again unchains the ancient cruel rite:?The monarch's savage will decrees our death;?A woman cannot save when he condemns.
PYLADES.?That 'tis a woman is a ground for hope!?A man, the very best, with cruelty?At length may so familiarize his mind,?His character through custom so transform,?That he shall come to make himself a law?Of what at first his very soul abhorr'd.?But woman doth retain the stamp of mind?She first assum'd. On her we may depend?In good or evil with more certainty.?She comes; leave us alone. I dare not tell?At once our names, nor unreserv'd confide?Our fortunes to her. Now retire awhile,?And ere she speaks with thee we'll meet again.
SCENE II.
IPHIGENIA. PYLADES.
IPHIGENIA.?Whence art thou? Stranger, speak! To me thy bearing?Stamps thee of Grecian, not of Scythian race.
(She unbinds his chains.)?The freedom that I give is dangerous:?The gods avert the doom that threatens you!
PYLADES.?Delicious music! dearly welcome tones?Of our own language in a foreign land!?With joy my captive eye once more beholds?The azure mountains of my native coast.?Oh, let this joy that I too am a Greek?Convince thee, priestess! How I need thine aid,?A moment I forget, my spirit wrapt?In contemplation of so fair a vision.?If fate's dread mandate doth not seal thy lips.?From which of our illustrious races, say,?Dost thou thy godlike origin derive?
IPHIGENIA.?A priestess, by the Goddess' self ordain'd?And consecrated too, doth speak with thee.?Let that suffice: but tell me, who art thou,?And what unbless'd o'erruling destiny?Hath hither led thee with thy friend?
PYLADES.
The woe,

Whose hateful presence ever dogs our steps,?I can with ease relate. Oh, would that thou?Couldst with like ease, divine one, shed on us?One ray of cheering hope! We are from Crete,?Adrastus' sons, and I, the youngest born,?Named Cephalus; my eldest brother, he,?Laodamus. Between us two a youth?Of savage temper grew, who oft disturb'd?The joy and concord of our youthful sports.?Long as our father led his powers at Troy,?Passive our mother's mandate we obey'd;?But when, enrich'd with booty, he