FullReads

OR.
Bring it and give her, whosoe’er she be.
For not an enemy–this petition shows it–
But of his friends or kindred, is this maid.

[The urn is given into ELECTRA’S hands]

EL.
O monument of him whom o’er all else
I loved! sole relic of Orestes’ life,
How cold in this thy welcome is the hope
Wherein I decked thee as I sent thee forth!
Then bright was thy departure, whom I now
Bear lightly, a mere nothing, in my hands.
Would I had gone from life, ere I dispatched
Thee from my arms that saved thee to a land
Of strangers, stealing thee from death! For then
Thou hadst been quiet on that far off day,
And had thy portion in our father’s tomb
Now thou hast perished in the stranger land
Far from thy sister, lorn and comfortless
And I, O wretchedness! neither have bathed
And laid thee forth, nor from the blazing fire
Collected the sad burden, as was meet
But thou, when foreign hands have tended thee
Com’st a small handful in a narrow shell
Woe for the constant care I spent on thee
Of old all vainly, with sweet toil! For never
Wast thou thy mother’s darling, nay, but mine,
And I of all the household most thy nurse,
While ‘sister, sister,’ was thy voice to me
But now all this is vanished in one day,
Dying in thy death. Thou hast carried all away
As with a whirlwind, and art gone. No more
My father lives, thyself art lost in death,
I am dead, who lived in thee. Our enemies
Laugh loudly, and she maddens in her joy,
Our mother most unmotherly, of whom
Thy secret missives ofttimes told me, thou
Wouldst be the punisher. But that fair hope
The hapless Genius of thy lot and mine
Hath reft away, and gives thee thus to me,–
For thy loved form thy dust and fruitless shade
O bitterness! O piteous sight! Woe! woe!
Oh! sent on thy dire journey, dearest one,
How thou hast ruined me! Thou hast indeed,
Dear brother! Then receive me to thyself,
Hide me in this thy covering, there to dwell,
Me who am nothing, with thy nothingness,
For ever! Yea, when thou wert here above,
I ever shared with thee in all, and now
I would not have thee shut me from thy tomb.
Oh! let me die and follow thee! the dead,
My mind assures me now, have no more pain.

CH.
Electra, think! Thou hadst a mortal sire,
And mortal was thy brother. Grieve not far.

OR.
O me! What shall I speak, or which way turn
The desperate word? I cannot hold my tongue.

EL.
What pain o’ercomes thee? Wherefore speak’st thou so?

OR.
Can this be famed Electra I behold?

EL.
No other. In sad case, as you may see

OR.
Ah! deep indeed was this calamity!

EL.
Is’t possible that thou shouldst grieve for me?

OR.
O ruined form! abandoned to disgrace!

EL.
‘Tis me you mean, stranger, I feel it now.

OR.
Woe ‘s me! Untrimmed for bridal, hapless maid!

EL.
Why this fixed gaze, O stranger! that deep groan?

OR.
How all unknowing was I of mine ill!

EL.
What thing hath passed to make it known to thee?