FullReads

CH.
Now surety of delight is thine, my Queen,
Part by report and part before thine eye.

DE.
Yea, now I learn this triumph of my lord,
Joy reigns without a rival in my breast.
This needs must run with that in fellowship.
Yet wise consideration even of good
Is flecked with fear of what reverse may come.
And I, dear friends, when I behold these maids,
Am visited with sadness deep and strange.
Poor friendless beings, in a foreign land
Wandering forlorn in homeless orphanhood!
Erewhile, free daughters of a freeborn race,
Now, snared in strong captivity for life.
O Zeus of battles, breaker of the war,
Ne’er may I see thee[2] turn against my seed
So cruelly; or, if thou meanest so,
Let me be spared that sorrow by my death!
Such fear in me the sight of these hath wrought.
Who art thou, of all damsels most distressed?
Single or child-bearing? Thy looks would say,
A maid, of no mean lineage. Lichas, tell,
Who is the stranger-nymph? Who gave her birth?
Who was her sire? Mine eye hath pitied her
O’er all, as she o’er all hath sense of woe.

LICH.
What know I? Why should’st thou demand? Perchance
Not lowest in the list of souls there born.

DE.
How if a princess, offspring of their King?

LICH.
I cannot tell. I did not question far.

DE.
Have none of her companions breathed her name?

LICH.
I brought them silently. I did not hear.

DE.
Yet speak it to us of thyself, poor maid!
‘Tis sorrow not to know thee who thou art.

LICH.
She’ll ne’er untie her tongue, if she maintain
An even tenor, since nor more nor less
Would she disclose; but, poor unfortunate!
With agonizing sobs and tears she mourns
This crushing sorrow, from the day she left
Her wind-swept home. Her case is cruel, sure,–
And claims a privilege from all who feel.

DE.
Well, let her go, and pass beneath the roof
In peace, as she desires; nor let fresh pain
From me be added to her previous woe.
She hath enough already. Come, away!
Let’s all within at once, that thou mayest speed
Thy journey, and I may order all things here.

[Exit LICHAS, with Captives, into the house. DEANIRA is about to follow them]

[Re-enter Messenger.]

MESS.
Pause first there on the threshold, till you learn
(Apart from those) who ’tis you take within,
And more besides that you yet know not of,
Which deeply imports your knowing. Of all this
I throughly am informed.

DE.
What cause hast thou
Thus to arrest my going?

MESS.
Stand, and hear.
Not idle was my former speech, nor this.

DE.
Say, must we call them back in presence here,
Or would’st thou tell thy news to these and me?

MESS.
To thee and these I may, but let those be.

DE.
Well, they are gone. Let words declare thy drift.

MESS.
That man, in all that he hath lately said,
Hath sinned against the truth: or now he’s false,
Or else unfaithful in his first report.

DE.
What? Tell me thy full meaning clearly forth.
That thou hast uttered is all mystery.

MESS
.
I heard this herald say, while many thronged
To hearken, that this maiden was the cause,
Why lofty-towered Oechalia and her lord
Fell before Heracles, whom Love alone
Of heavenly powers had warmed to this emprise,
And not the Lydian thraldom or the tasks
Of rigorous Omphale, nor that wild fate
Of rock-thrown Iphitus. Now he thrusts aside
The Love-god, contradicting his first tale.
When he that was her sire could not be brought
To yield the maid for Heracles to hold
In love unrecognized, he framed erelong
A feud about some trifle, and set forth
In arms against this damsel’s fatherland
(Where Eurytus, the herald said, was king)
And slew the chief her father; yea, and sacked
Their city. Now returning, as you see,
He sends her hither to his halls, no slave,
Nor unregarded, lady,–dream not so!
Since all his heart is kindled with desire.
I, O my Queen! thought meet to show thee all
The tale I chanced to gather from his mouth,
Which many heard as well as I, i’ the midst
Of Trachis’ market-place, and can confirm
My witness. I am pained if my plain speech
Sound harshly, but the honest truth I tell.