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第11章

LEADER

To kill a suppliant there the law forbids.

CREUSA

But by the law I perish.

LEADER

If their hands Had seized thee.

CREUSA

Dreadful contest,with drawn swords They hastily advance.

LEADER

Now take thy seat At the altar:shouldst thou die ev'n there,thy blood Will call the vengeance of the god on those That spilt it:but our fortune we must bear.

(She takes refuge at the altar as ION,guards,and Delphians enter.)

ION

Bull-visaged sire Cephisus,what a viper Hast thou produced?a dragon from her eyes Glaring pernicious flame.Each daring deed Is hers:less venomous the Gorgon's blood,With which she purposed to have poison'd me.

Seize her,that the Parnassian rocks may tease Those nice-adjusted ringlets of her hair,As down the craggy precipice she bounds.

Here my good genius saved me,e'er I came To Athens,there beneath my stepdame's wiles To fall;amid my friends thy fell intents Have I unravell'd,what a pest to me,Thy hate how deadly:had thy toils inclosed me In thine own house,thou wouldst at once have sent me With complete ruin to the shades below.

But nor the altar nor Apollo's shrine Shall save thee.Pity,might her voice be heard,Would rather plead for me and for my mother,She absent,yet the name remains with me.

Behold that sorceress;with what art she wove Wile after wile;the altar of the god Impress'd her not with awe,as if secure.

No vengeance waited her unhallow'd deeds.

CREUSA

I charge thee,kill me not,in my own right,And in the god's,whose suppliant here I stand.

ION

What right hast thou to plead Apollo's name?

CREUSA

My person hallow'd to the god I offer.

ION

Yet wouldst thou poison one that is the god's.

CREUSA

Thou wast no more Apollo's,but thy father's.

ION

I have been,of a father's wealth I speak.

CREUSA

And now I am:thou hast that claim no more.

ION

But thou art impious:pious were my deeds.

CREUSA

As hostile to my house,I would have kill'd thee.

ION

Did I against thy country march in arms?

CREUSA

And more;thou wouldst have fired Erechtheus'house.

ION

What torch,what brands,what flames had I prepared?

CREUSA

There wouldst thou fix,seizing my right by force.

ION

The land which he possess'd,my father gave me.

CREUSA

What claim hath there the race of Aeolus?

ION

He was its guardian,not with words but arms.

CREUSA

Its soldier then;an inmate,not its lord.

ION

Wouldst thou,through fear of what might happen,kill me?

CREUSA

Lest death should be my portion,if not thine.

ION

Childless thou enviest that my father found me.

CREUSA

And wilt thou make a childless house thy spoil?

ION

Devolves my father then no share to me?

CREUSA

His shield,his spear;be those thine heritage.

ION

Come from the altar,quit that hallow'd seat.

CREUSA

Instruct thy mother,whosoe'er she be.

ION

Shalt thou unpunish'd meditate my death?

CREUSA

Within this shrine if thou wilt murder me.

ION

What pleasure mid these sacred wreaths to die?

CREUSA

We shall grieve one,by whom we have been grieved.

ION

Strange,that the god should give these laws to men,Bearing no stamp of honour,nor design'd With provident thought:it is not meet to place The unrighteous at his altars;worthier far To be chased thence;nor decent that the vile Should with their touch pollute the gods:the good,Oppress'd with wrongs,should at those hallow'd seats Seek refuge:ill beseems it that the unjust And just alike should seek protection there.

(As ION and his followers are about to tear CREUSA from the altar,the PRIESTESS of Apollo enters from the temple.)

PRIESTESS

Forbear,my son,leaving the oracular seat,I pass this pale,the priestess of the god,The guardian of the tripod's ancient law,Call'd to this charge from all the Delphian dames.

ION

Hail,my loved mother,dear,though not my parent.

PRIESTESS

Yet let me have the name,'tis grateful to me.

ION

Hast thou yet heard their wily trains to kill me?

PRIESTESS

I have;but void of mercy thou dost wrong.

ION

Should I not ruin those that sought my life?

PRIESTESS

Stepdames to former sons are always hostile.

ION

And I to stepdames ill intreated thus.

PRIESTESS

Be not,this shrine now leaving for thy country.

ION

How,then,by thy monition should I act?

PRIESTESS

Go with good omens,pure to Athens go.

ION

All must be pure that kill their enemies.

PRIESTESS

So do not thou:attentive mark my words.

ION

Speak:from good will whate'er thou say'st must flow.

PRIESTESS

Seest thou the vase I hold beneath mine arm?

ION

I see an ancient ark entwined with wreaths.

PRIESTESS

In this long since an infant I received thee.

ION

What say'st thou?New is thy discourse and strange.

PRIESTESS

In silence have I kept them:now I show them.

ION

And why conceal'd,as long since thou received'st me?

PRIESTESS

The god would have thee in his shrine a servant.

ION

Is that no more his will?How shall I know it?

PRIESTESS

Thy father shown,he sends thee from this land.

ION

Hast thou preserved these things by charge,or how?

PRIESTESS

It was the god that so disposed my thought.

ION

With what design?Speak,finish thy discourse.

PRIESTESS

Ev'n to this hour to keep what then I found.

ION

What gain imports this to me,or what loss?

PRIESTESS

There didst thou lie wrapp'd in thy infant vests.

ION

Thou hast produced whence I may find my mother.

PRIESTESS

Since now the god so wills,but not before.

ION

This is a day of bless'd discoveries.

PRIESTESS

Now take them:o'er all Asia,and the bounds Of Europe hold thy progress:thou shalt know These tokens.To do pleasure to the god,I nurtured thee,my son;now to thy hand Restore what was his will I should receive Unbidden,and preserve:for what intent It was his will,I have not power to say.

That I had these,or where they were conceal'd,No mortal knew.And now farewell:the love I bear thee equals what a parent feels.

Let thy inquiries where they ought begin;

First,if some Delphian virgin gave thee birth,And in this shrine exposed thee;next,if one Of Greece.From me,and from the god,who feels An interest in thy fortune,thou hast all.

(She goes into the temple after giving ION the ark.)

ION

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