CHRYSOTHEMIS
Nay,if thou art wise in thine own eyes,be such wisdom thine;by and by,when thou standest in evil plight,thou wilt praise my words.
(CHRYSOTHEMIS goes into the palace.)
CHORUS (singing)
strophe 1
When we see the birds of the air,with sure instinct,careful to nourish those who give them life and nurture,why do not we pay these debts in like measure?Nay,by the lightning-flash of Zeus,by Themis throned in heaven,it is not long till sin brings sorrow.
Voice that comest to the dead beneath the earth,send a piteous cry,I pray thee,to the son of Atreus in that world,a joyless message of dishonour;antistrophe 1
tell him that the fortunes of his house are now distempered;while,among his children,strife of sister with sister hath broken the harmony of loving days.Electra,forsaken,braves the storm alone;she bewails alway,hapless one,her father's fate,like the nightingale unwearied in lament;she recks not of death,but is ready to leave the sunlight,could she but quell the two Furies of her house.Who shall match such noble child of noble sire?
strophe 2
No generous soul deigns,by a base life,to cloud a fair repute,and leave a name inglorious;as thou,too,O my daughter,hast chosen to mourn all thy days with those that mourn,and hast spurned dishonour,that thou mightest win at once a twofold praise,as wise,and as the best of daughters.
antistrophe 2
May I yet see thy life raised in might and wealth above thy foes,even as now it is humbled beneath their hand!For I have found thee in no prosperous estate;and yet,for observance of nature's highest laws,winning the noblest renown,by thy piety towards Zeus.
(ORESTES enters,with PYLADES
and two attendants,one of them carrying a funeral urn.)ORESTES
Ladies,have we been directed aright,and are we on the right path to our goal?
LEADER OF THE CHORUS
And what seekest thou?With what desire hast thou come?
ORESTES
I have been searching for the home of Aegisthus.
LEADER
Well,thou hast found it;and thy guide is blameless.
ORESTES
Which of you,then,will tell those within that our company,long desired,hath arrived?
LEADER
This maiden,-if the nearest should announce it.
ORESTES
I pray thee,mistress,make it known in the house that certain men of Phocis seek Aegisthus.
ELECTRA
Ah,woe is me!Surely ye are not bringing the visible proofs of that rumour which we heard?
ORESTES
I know nothing of thy 'rumour';but the aged Strophius charged me with tidings of Orestes.
ELECTRA
What are they,sir?Ah,how I thrill with fear!
ORESTES
He is dead;and in a small urn,as thou seest,we bring the scanty relics home.
ELECTRA
Ah me unhappy!There,at last,before mine eyes,I see that woful burden in your hands ORESTESIf thy tears are for aught which Orestes hath suffered,know that yonder vessel holds his dust.
ELECTRA
Ah,sir,allow me,then,I implore thee,if this urn indeed contains him,to take it in my hands,-that I may weep and wail,not for these ashes alone,but for myself and for all our house therewith!
ORESTES (to the attendants)
Bring it and give it her,whoe'er she be;for she who begs this boon must be one who wished him no evil,but a friend,or haply a kinswoman in blood.
(The urn is placed in ELECTRA'S hands.)
ELECTRA
Ah,memorial of him whom I loved best on earth!Ah,Orestes,whose life hath no relic left save this,-how far from the hopes with which I sent thee forth is the manner in which I receive thee back!
Now I carry thy poor dust in my hands;but thou wert radiant,my child,when I sped the forth from home!Would that I had yielded up my breath,ere,with these hands,I stole thee away,and sent thee to a strange land,and rescued the from death;that so thou mightest have been stricken down on that self-same day,and had thy portion in the tomb of thy sire!
But now,an exile from home and fatherland,thou hast perished miserably,far from thy sister;woe is me,these loving hands have not washed or decked thy corpse,nor taken up,as was meet,their sad burden from the flaming pyre.No!at the hands of strangers,hapless one,thou hast had those rites,and so art come to us,a little dust in a narrow urn.
Ah,woe is me for my nursing long ago,so vain,that I oft bestowed on thee with loving toil I For thou wast never thy mother's darling so much as mine;nor was any in the house thy nurse but I;and by thee I was ever called 'sister.'But now all this hath vanished in a day,with thy death;like a whirlwind,thou hast swept all away with thee.Our father is gone;I am dead in regard to thee;thou thyself hast perished:our foes exult;that mother,who is none,is mad with joy,-she of whom thou didst oft send me secret messages,thy heralds,saying that thou thyself wouldst appear as an avenger.But our evil fortune.thine and mine,hath reft all that away,and hath sent thee forth unto me thus,-no more the form that I loved so well,but ashes and an idle shade.
Ah me,ah me!O piteous dust!Alas,thou dear one,sent on a dire journey,how hast undone me,-undone me indeed,O brother mine!
Therefore take me to this thy home,me who am as nothing,to thy nothingness,that I may dwell with thee henceforth below;for when thou wert on earth,we shared alike;and now I fain would die,that I may not be parted from thee in the grave.For I see that the dead have rest from pain.
LEADER
Bethink thee,Electra,thou art the child of mortal sire,and mortal was Orestes;therefore grieve not too much.This is a debt which all of us must pay.
ORESTES
Alas,what shall I say?What words can serve me at this pass?Ican restrain my lips no longer!
ELECTRA
What hath troubled thee?Why didst thou say that?
ORESTES
Is this the form of the illustrious Electra that I behold?
ELECTRA
It is;and very grievous is her plight.
ORESTES
Alas,then,for this miserable fortune!
ELECTRA
Surely,sir,thy lament is not for me?
ORESTES
O form cruelly,godlessly misused!
ELECTRA
Those ill-omened words,sir,fit no one better than me.
ORESTES
Alas for thy life,unwedded and all unblest!
ELECTRA
Why this steadfast gaze,stranger,and these laments?
ORESTES
How ignorant was I,then,of mine own sorrows!
ELECTRA
By what that hath been said hast thou perceived this?
ORESTES
By seeing thy sufferings,so many and so great.
ELECTRA
And yet thou seest but a few of my woes.
ORESTES
Could any be more painful to behold?
ELECTRA
This,that I share the dwelling of the murderers.
ORESTES
Whose murderers?Where lies the guilt at which thou hintest?
ELECTRA
My father's;-and then I am their slave perforce.
ORESTES
Who is it that subjects thee to this constraint?
ELECTRA
A mother-in name,but no mother in her deeds.
ORESTES
How doth she oppress thee?With violence or with hardship?
ELECTRA
With violence,and hardships,and all manner of ill.
ORESTES
And is there none to succour,or to hinder?
ELECTRA
None.I had one;and thou hast shown me his ashes.
ORESTES
Hapless girl,how this sight hath stirred my pity!
ELECTRA
Know,then,that thou art the first who ever pitied me.
ORESTES
No other visitor hath ever shared thy pain.
ELECTRA
Surely thou art not some unknown kinsman?
ORESTES
I would answer,if these were friends who hear us.
ELECTRA
Oh,they are friends;thou canst speak without mistrust.
ORESTES
Give up this urn,then,and thou shalt be told all.
ELECTRA
Nay,I beseech thee be not so cruel to me,sir!
ORESTES
Do as I say,and never fear to do amiss.
ELECTRA
I conjure thee,rob me not of my chief treasure!
ORESTES
Thou must not keep it.
ELECTRA
Ah woe is me for thee,Orestes,if I am not to give thee burial ORESTESHush!-no such word!-Thou hast no right to lament.
ELECTRA
No right to lament for my dead brother?
ORESTES
It is not meet for thee to speak of him thus.
ELECTRA
Am I so dishonoured of the dead?
ORESTES
Dishonoured of none:-but this is not thy part.
ELECTRA
Yes,if these are the ashes of Orestes that I hold.
ORESTES
They are not;a fiction dothed them with his name.
(He gently takes the urn from her.)
ELECTRA
And where is that unhappy one's tomb?
ORESTES
There is none;the living have no tomb.
ELECTRA
What sayest thou,boy?
ORESTES
Nothing that is not true.
ELECTRA
The man is alive?
ORESTES
If there be life in me.
ELECTRA
What?Art thou he?
ORESTES
Look at this signet,once our father's,and judge if I speak truth.
ELECTRA
O blissful day!
ORESTES
Blissful,in very deed!
ELECTRA
Is this thy voice?
ORESTES
Let no other voice reply.
ELECTRA
Do I hold thee in my arms?
ORESTES
As mayest thou hold me always!
ELECTRA
Ah,dear friends and fellow-citizens,behold Orestes here,who was feigned dead,and now,by that feigning hath come safely home!
LEADER
We see him,daughter;and for this happy fortune a tear of joy trickles from our eyes.
(The following lines between ORESTES
and ELECTRA are chanted responsively.)
ELECTRA
strophe Offspring of him whom I loved best,thou hast come even now,thou hast come,and found and seen her whom thy heart desired!
ORESTES
I am with thee;-but keep silence for a while.
ELECTRA
What meanest thou?
ORESTES
'Tis better to be silent,lest some one within should hear.
ELECTRA
Nay,by ever-virgin Artemis,I will never stoop to fear women,stay-at-homes,vain burdens of the ground!
ORESTES
Yet remember that in women,too,dwells the spirit of battle;thou hast had good proof of that,I ween.
ELECTRA
Alas!ah me!Thou hast reminded me of my sorrow,one which,from its nature,cannot be veiled,cannot be done away with,cannot forget!
ORESTES
I know this also;but when occasion prompts,then will be the moment to recall those deeds.
ELECTRA
antistrophe Each moment of all time,as it comes,would be meet occasion for these my just complaints;scarcely now have I had my lips set free.
ORESTES
I grant it;therefore guard thy freedom.
ELECTRA
What must I do?
ORESTES
When the season serves not,do not wish to speak too much.
ELECTRA
Nay,who could fitly exchange speech for such silence,when thou hast appeared?For now I have seen thy face,beyond all thought and hope!
ORESTES
Thou sawest it,when the gods moved me to come...
ELECTRA
Thou hast told me of a grace above the first,if a god hath indeed brought thee to our house;I acknowledge therein the work of heaven.
ORESTES
I am loth,indeed,to curb thy gladness,but yet this excess of joy moves my fear.
ELECTRA
epode O thou who,after many a year,hast deigned thus to gladden mine eyes by thy return,do not,now that thou hast seen me in all my woe-ORESTES
What is thy prayer?
ELECTRA
-do not rob me of the comfort of thy face;do not force me to forego it!
ORESTES
I should be wroth,indeed,if I saw another attempt it.
ELECTRA
My prayer is granted?
ORESTES
Canst thou doubt?
ELECTRA
Ah,friends,I heard a voice that I could never have hoped to hear;nor could I have restrained my emotion in silence,and without cry,when I heard it.
Ah me!But now I have thee;thou art come to me with the light of that dear countenance,which never,even in sorrow,could I forget.
(The chant is concluded.)
ORESTES
Spare all superfluous words;tell me not of our mother's wickedness,or how Aegisthus drains the wealth of our father's house by lavish luxury or aimless waste;for the story would not suffer thee to keep due limit.Tell me rather that which will serve our present need,-where we must show ourselves,or wait in ambush,that this our coming may confound the triumph of our foes.
And look that our mother read not thy secret in thy radiant face,when we twain have advanced into the house,but make lament,as for the feigned disaster;for when we have prospered,then there will be leisure to rejoice and exult in freedom.
ELECTRA
Nay,brother,as it pleases thee,so shall be my conduct also;for all my joy is a gift from thee,and not mine own.Nor would Iconsent to win great good for myself at the cost of the least pain to thee;for so should I ill serve the divine power that befriends us now.
But thou knowest how matters stand here,I doubt not:thou must have beard that Aegisthus is from home,but our mother within;-and fear not that she will ever see my face lit up with smiles;for mine old hatred of her hath sunk into my heart;and,since I have beheld thee,for very joy I shall never cease to weep.How indeed should Icease,who have seen thee come home this day,first as dead,and then in life?Strangely hast thou wrought on me;so that,if my father should return alive,I should no longer doubt my senses,but should believe that I saw him.Now,therefore,that thou hast come to me so wondrously,command me as thou wilt;for,had I been alone,I should have achieved one of two things,-a noble deliverance,or a noble death.
ORESTES
Thou hadst best be silent;for I hear some one within preparing to go forth.
ELECTRA (to ORESTES and PYLADES)
Enter,sirs;especially as ye bring that which no one could repulse from these doors,though he receive it without joy.
(The PAEDAGOGUS enters from the palace.)
PAEDAGOGUS
Foolish and senseless children!Are ye weary of your lives,or was there no wit born in you,that ye see not how ye stand,not on the brink,but in the very midst of deadly perils?Nay,had I not kept watch this long while at these doors,your plans would have been in the house before yourselves;but,as it is,my care shielded you from that.Now have done with this long discourse,these insatiate cries of joy,and pass within;for in such deeds delay is evil,and 'tis well to make an end.
ORESTES
What,then,will be my prospects when I enter?
PAEDAGOGUS
Good;for thou art secured from recognition.
ORESTES
Thou hast reported me,I presume,as dead?
PAEDAGOGUS
Know that here thou art numbered with the shades.
ORESTES
Do they rejoice,then,at these tidings?Or what say they?
PAEDAGOGUS
I will tell thee at the end;meanwhile,all is well for us on their party-even that which is not well.
ELECTRA
Who is this,brother?I pray thee,tell me.
ORESTES
Dost thou not perceive?
ELECTRA
I cannot guess.
ORESTES
Knowest thou not the man to whose hands thou gavest me once?
ELECTRA
What man?How sayest thou?
ORESTES
By whose hands,through thy forethought,I was secretly conveyed forth to Phocian soil.
ELECTRA
Is this he in whom,alone of many,I found a true ally of old,when our sire was slain?
ORESTES
'Tis he;question me no further.
ELECTRA
O joyous day!O sole preserver of Agamemnon's house,how hast thou come?Art thou he indeed,who didst save my brother and myself from many sorrows?O dearest hands;O messenger whose feet were kindly servants!How couldst thou be with me so long,and remain unknown,nor give a ray of light,but afflict me by fables,while possessed of truths most sweet?Hail,father,-for 'tis a father that I seem to behold!All hail,-and know that I have hated thee,and loved thee,in one day,as never man before!
PAEDAGOGUS
Enough,methinks;as for the story of the past,many are the circling nights,and days as many,which shall show it thee,Electra,in its fulness.(To ORESTES and PYLADES)But this is my counsel to you twain,who stand there-now is the time to act;now Clytemnestra is alone,-no man is now within:but,if ye pause,consider that ye will have to fight,not with the inmates alone,but with other foes more numerous and better skilled.
ORESTES
Pylades,this our task seems no longer to crave many words,but rather that we should enter the house forthwith,-first adoring the shrines of my father's gods,who keep these gates.
(ORESTES and PYLADES enter the Palace,followed by the PAEDAGOGUS.-ELECTRA remains outside.)ELECTRA
O King Apollo!graciously hear them,and hear me besides,who so oft have come before thine altar with such gifts as my devout hand could bring!And now,O Lycean Apollo,with such vows as I can make,Ipray thee,I supplicate,I implore,grant us thy benignant aid in these designs,and show men how impiety is rewarded by the gods!
(ELECTRA enters the palace.)
CHORUS (singing)
Behold how Ares moves onward,breathing deadly vengeance,against which none may strive!
Even now the pursuers of dark guilt have passed beneath yon roof,the hounds which none may flee.Therefore the vision of my soul shall not long tarry in suspense.
The champion of the spirits infernal is ushered with stealthy feet into the house,the ancestral palace of his sire,bearing keen-edged death in his hands;and Hermes,son of Maia,who hath shrouded the guile in darkness,leads him forward,even to the end,and delays no more.
(ELECTRA enters from the palace.)
ELECTRA
strophe Ah,dearest friends,in a moment the men will do the deed;-but wait in silence.
CHORUS
How is it?-what do they now?
ELECTRA
She is decking the urn for burial,and those two stand close to her CHORUSAnd why hast thou sped forth?
ELECTRA
To guard against Aegisthus entering before we are aware.
CLYTEMNESTRA (within)
Alas!Woe for the house forsaken of friends and filled with murderers!
ELECTRA
A cry goes up within:-hear ye not,friends?
CHORUS
I heard,ah me,sounds dire to hear,and shuddered!
CLYTEMNESTRA (within)
O hapless that I am!-Aegisthus,where,where art thou?
ELECTRA
Hark,once more a voice resounds I
CLYTEMNESTRA (within)
My son,my son,have pity on thy mother!
ELECTRA
Thou hadst none for him,nor for the father that begat him.
CHORUS
Ill-fated realm and race,now the fate that hath pursued thee day by day is dying,-is dying!
CLYTEMNESTRA (within)
Oh,I am smitten!
ELECTRA
Smite,if thou canst,once more!
CLYTEMNESTRA (within)
Ah,woe is me again!
ELECTRA
Would that the woe were for Aegisthus too!
CHORUS
The curses are at work;the buried live;blood flows for blood,drained from the slayers by those who died of yore.
(ORESTES and PYLADES enter from the palace.)antistrophe Behold,they come!That red hand reeks with sacrifice to Ares;nor can I blame the deed.
ELECTRA
Orestes,how fare ye?
ORESTES
All is well within the house,if Apollo's oracle spake well.
ELECTRA
The guilty one is dead?
ORESTES
Fear no more that thy proud mother will ever put thee to dishonour.
CHORUS
Cease;for I see Aegisthus full in view.
ELECTRA
Rash boys,back,back!
ORESTES
Where see ye the man?
ELECTRA
Yonder,at our mercy,be advances from the suburb,full of joy.
CHORUS
Make with all speed for the vestibule;that,as your first task prospered.so this again may prosper now.
ORESTES
Fear not,-we will perform it.
ELECTRA
Haste,then,whither thou wouldst.
ORESTES
See,I am gone.
ELECTRA
I will look to matters here.
(ORESTES and PYLADES go back into the palace.)CHORUS
'Twere well to soothe his ear with some few words of seeming gentleness,that he may rush blindly upon the struggle with his doom.
(AEGISTHUS enters.)
AEGISTHUS
Which of you can tell me,where are those Phocian strangers,who,'tis said,have brought us tidings of Orestes slain in the wreck of his chariot?Thee,thee I ask,yes,thee,in former days so bold,-for methinks it touches thee most nearly;thou best must know,and best canst tell.
ELECTRA
I know assuredly;else were I a stranger to the fortune of my nearest kinsfolk.
AEGISTHUS
Where then may be the strangers?Tell me.
ELECTRA
Within;they have found a way to the heart of their hostess.
AEGISTHUS
Have they in truth reported him dead?
ELECTRA
Nay,not reported only;they have shown him.
AEGISTHUS
Can I,then,see the corpse with mine own eyes?
ELECTRA
Thou canst,indeed;and 'tis no enviable sight.
AEGISTHUS
Indeed,thou hast given me a joyful greeting,beyond thy wont.
ELECTRA
Joy be thine,if in these things thou findest joy.
AEGISTHUS
Silence,I say,and throw wide the gates,for all Mycenaeans and Argives to behold;that,if any of them were once buoyed on empty hopes from this man,now,seeing him dead,they may receive my curb,instead of waiting till my chastisement make them wise perforce!
ELECTRA
No loyalty is lacking on my part;time hath taught me the prudence of concord with the stronger.
(The central doors of the palace are thrown open and a shrouded corpse is disclosed.ORESTES and PYLADES stand near it.)AEGISTHUS
O Zeus,I behold that which hath not fallen save by the doom of jealous Heaven;but,if Nemesis attend that word,be it unsaid!
Take all the covering from the face,that kinship,at least,may receive the tribute of lament from me also.
ORESTES
Lift the veil thyself;not my part this,but thine,to look upon these relics,and to greet them kindly.
AEGISTHUS
'Tis good counsel,and I will follow it.-(To ELECTRA)But thou-call me Clytemnestra,if she is within.
ORESTES
Lo,she is near thee:turn not thine eyes elsewhere.
(AEGISTHUS removes the face-cloth from the corpse.)AEGISTHUS
O,what sight is this!
ORESTES
Why so scared?Is the face so strange?
AEGISTHUS
Who are the men into whose mid toils I have fallen,hapless that Iam?
ORESTES
Nay,hast thou not discovered ere now that the dead,as thou miscallest them,are living?
AEGISTHUS
Alas,I read the riddle:this can be none but Orestes who speaks to me!
ORESTES
And,though so good a prophet,thou wast deceived so long?
AEGISTHUS
Oh lost,undone!Yet suffer me to say one word...
ELECTRA
In heaven's name,my brother,suffer him not to speak further,or to plead at length!When mortals are in the meshes of fate,how can such respite avail one who is to die?No,-slay him forthwith,and cast his corpse to the creatures from whom such as he should have burial,far from our sight!To me,nothing but this can make amends for the woes of the past.
ORESTES (to AEGISTHUS)
Go in,and quickly;the issue here is not of words,but of thy life.
AEGISTHUS
Why take me into the house?If this deed be fair,what need of darkness?Why is thy hand not prompt to strike?
ORESTES
Dictate not,but go where thou didst slay my father,that in the same place thou mayest die.
AEGISTHUS
Is this dwelling doomed to see all woes of Pelops'line,now,and in time to come?
ORESTES
Thine,at least;trust my prophetic skill so far.
AEGISTHUS
The skill thou vauntest belonged not to thy sire.
ORESTES
Thou bandiest words,and our going is delayed.Move forward!
AEGISTHUS
Lead thou.
ORESTES
Thou must go first.
AEGISTHUS
Lest I escape thee?
ORESTES
No,but that thou mayest not choose how to die;I must not spare thee any bitterness of death.And well it were if this judgment came straight-way upon all who dealt in lawless deeds,even the judgment of the sword:so should not wickedness abound.
(ORESTES and PYLADES drive AEGISTHUS into the palace.)CHORUS (singing)
O house of Atreus,through how many sufferings hast thou come forth at last in freedom,crowned with good by this day's enterprise!
-THE END-
