The Electra of Euripides | Page 8

through the murderers' door.
ELECTRA.
Thou knowest, when Orestes was cast out?I was a child.... If I did weave some clout?Of raiment, would he keep the vesture now?He wore in childhood? Should my weaving grow?As his limbs grew?... 'Tis lost long since. No more!?O, either 'twas some stranger passed, and shore?His locks for very ruth before that tomb:?Or, if he found perchance, to seek his home,?Some spy...
OLD MAN.
The strangers! Where are they? I fain?Would see them, aye, and bid them answer plain...
ELECTRA.
Here at the door! How swift upon the thought!
_Enter_ ORESTES _and_ PYLADES.
OLD MAN.
High-born: albeit for that I trust them not.?The highest oft are false.... Howe'er it be,
[_Approaching them_.
I bid the strangers hail!
ORESTES.
All hail to thee,?Greybeard!--Prithee, what man of all the King?Trusted of old, is now this broken thing?
ELECTRA.
'Tis he that trained my father's boyhood.
ORESTES.
How??And stole from death thy brother? Sayest thou?
ELECTRA.
This man was his deliverer, if it be?Deliverance.
ORESTES.
How his old eye pierceth me,?As one that testeth silver and alloy!?Sees he some likeness here?
ELECTRA.
Perchance 'tis joy,?To see Orestes' comrade, that he feels.
ORESTES.
None dearer.--But what ails the man? He reels?Dizzily back.
ELECTRA.
I marvel. I can say?No more.
OLD MAN (_in a broken voice_).
Electra, mistress, daughter, pray!?Pray unto God!
ELECTRA.
Of all the things I crave,?The thousand things, or all that others have,?What should I pray for?
OLD MAN.
Pray thine arms may hold?At last this treasure-dream of more than gold?God shows us!
ELECTRA.
God, I pray thee!... Wouldst thou more?
OLD MAN.
Gaze now upon this man, and bow before?Thy dearest upon earth!
ELECTRA.
I gaze on thee!?O, hath time made thee mad?
OLD MAN.
Mad, that I see?Thy brother?
ELECTRA.
My ... I know not what thou say'st:?I looked not for it...
OLD MAN.
I tell thee, here confessed?Standeth Orestes, Agamemnon's son!
ELECTRA.
A sign before I trust thee! O, but one!?How dost thou know...?
OLD MAN.
There, by his brow, I see?The scar he made, that day he ran with thee?Chasing thy fawn, and fell.
ELECTRA (_in a dull voice_).
A scar? 'Tis so.?I see a scar.
OLD MAN.
And fearest still to throw?Thine arms round him thou lovest?
ELECTRA.
O, no more!?Thy sign hath conquered me.... (_throwing herself into_ ORESTES' _arms_). At last, at last!?Thy face like light! And do I hold thee fast,?Unhoped for?
ORESTES.
Yea, at last! And I hold thee.
ELECTRA.
I never knew...
ORESTES.
I dreamed not.
ELECTRA.
Is it he,?Orestes?
ORESTES.
Thy defender, yea, alone?To fight the world! Lo, this day have I thrown?A net, which once unbroken from the sea?Drawn home, shall ... O, and it must surely be!?Else men shall know there is no God, no light?In Heaven, if wrong to the end shall conquer right.
CHORUS.
Comest thou, comest thou now,?Chained by the years and slow,?O Day long sought??A light on the mountains cold?Is lit, yea, a fire burneth,?'Tis the light of one that turneth?From roamings manifold,?Back out of exile old?To the house that knew him not.
Some spirit hath turned our way,?Victory visible,?Walking at thy right hand,?Belov��d; O lift this day?Thine arms, thy voice, as a spell;?And pray for thy brother, pray,?Threading the perilous land,?That all be well!
ORESTES.
Enough; this dear delight is mine at last?Of thine embracing; and the hour comes fast?When we shall stand again as now we stand,?And stint not.--Stay, Old Man: thou, being at hand?At the edge of time, advise me, by what way?Best to requite my father's murderers. Say,?Have I in Argos any still to trust;?Or is the love, once borne me, trod in dust,?Even as my fortunes are? Whom shall I seek??By day or night? And whither turn, to wreak?My will on them that hate us? Say.
OLD MAN.
My son,?In thine adversity, there is not one?Will call thee friend. Nay, that were treasure-trove,?A friend to share, not faltering from love,?Fair days and foul the same. Thy name is gone?Forth to all Argos, as a thing o'erthrown?And dead. Thou hast not left one spark to glow?With hope in one friend's heart! Hear all, and know:?Thou hast God's fortune and thine own right hand,?Naught else, to conquer back thy fatherland.
ORESTES.
The deed, the deed! What must we do?
OLD MAN.
Strike down?Aegisthus ... and thy mother.
ORESTES.
'Tis the crown?My race is run for. But how find him?
OLD MAN.
Not?Within the city walls, however hot?Thy spirit.
ORESTES.
Ha! With watchers doth he go?Begirt, and mail��d pikemen?
OLD MAN.
Even so:?He lives in fear of thee, and night nor day?Hath slumber.
ORESTES.
That way blocked!--'Tis thine to say?What next remains.
OLD MAN.
I will; and thou give ear.?A thought has found me!
ORESTES.
All good thoughts be near,?For thee to speak and me to understand!
OLD MAN.
But now I saw Aegisthus, close at hand?As here I journeyed.
ORESTES.
That good word shall trace?My path for me! Thou saw'st him? In what place?
OLD MAN.
Out on the pastures where his horses stray.
ORESTES.
What did he there so far?--A gleam of day?Crosseth our darkness.
OLD MAN.
'Twas a feast, methought,?Of worship to the wild-wood nymphs he wrought.
ORESTES.
The watchers of men's birth? Is there a son?New born to him, or doth he pray for one?That cometh? [_Movement of_ ELECTRA.
OLD MAN.
More I know not; he had there?A wreathed ox, as for some weighty prayer.
ORESTES.
What force was with him?