The House of Atreus Part 18

CHORUS

I dealt upon my breast the blow That Asian mourning women know; Wails from my breast the fun'ral cry, The Cissian weeping melody; Stretched rendingly forth, to tatter and tear, My clenched hands wander, here and there, From head to breast; distraught with blows Throb dizzily my brows.

ELECTRA

Aweless in hate, O mother, sternly brave!

As in a foeman's grave Thou laid'st in earth a king, but to the bier No citizen drew near,-- Thy husband, thine, yet for his obsequies, Thou bad'st no wail arise!

ORESTES

Alas the shameful burial thou dost speak!

Yet I the vengeance of his shame will wreak-- That do the G.o.ds command!

That shall achieve mine hand!

Grant me to thrust her life away, and I Will dare to die!

CHORUS

List thou the deed! Hewn down and foully torn, He to the tomb was borne; Yea, by her hand, the deed who wrought, With like dishonour to the grave was brought, And by her hand she strove, with strong desire, Thy life to crush, O child, by murder of thy sire: Bethink thee, hearing, of the shame, the pain Wherewith that sire was slain!

ELECTRA

Yea, such was the doom of my sire; well-a-day, I was thrust from his side,-- As a dog from the chamber they thrust me away, And in place of my laughter rose sobbing and tears As in darkness I lay.

O father, if this word can pa.s.s to thine ears, To thy soul let it reach and abide!

CHORUS

Let it pa.s.s, let it pierce, through the sense of thine ear, To thy soul, where in silence it waiteth the hour!

The past is accomplished; but rouse thee to hear What the future prepareth; awake and appear, Our champion, in wrath and in power!

ORESTES

O father, to thy loved ones come in aid.

ELECTRA

With tears I call on thee.

CHORUS

Listen and rise to light!

Be thou with us, be thou against the foe!

Swiftly this cry arises--even so Pray we, the loyal band, as we have prayed!

ORESTES

Let their might meet with mine, and their right with my right.

ELECTRA

O ye G.o.ds, it is yours to decree.

CHORUS

Ye call unto the dead; I quake to hear.

Fate is ordained of old, and shall fulfil your prayer.

ELECTRA

Alas, the inborn curse that haunts our home, Of Ate's bloodstained scourge the tuneless sound!

Alas, the deep insufferable doom, The stanchless wound!

ORESTES

It shall be stanched, the task is ours,-- Not by a stranger's, but by kindred hand, Shall be chased forth the blood-fiend of our land.

Be this our spoken spell, to call Earth's nether powers!

CHORUS

Lords of a dark eternity, To you has come the children's cry, Send up from h.e.l.l, fulfil your aid To them who prayed.

ORESTES

O father, murdered in unkingly wise, Fulfil my prayer, grant me thine halls to sway.

ELECTRA

To me too, grant this boon--dark death to deal Unto Aegisthus, and to 'scape my doom.

ORESTES

So shall the rightful feasts that mortals pay Be set for thee; else, not for thee shall rise The scented reek of altars fed with flesh, But thou shall lie dishonoured: hear thou me!

ELECTRA

I too, from my full heritage restored, Will pour the l.u.s.tral streams, what time I pa.s.s Forth as a bride from these paternal halls, And honour first, beyond all graves, thy tomb.

ORESTES

Earth, send my sire to fend me in the fight!

ELECTRA

Give fair-faced fortune, O Persephone!

ORESTES

Bethink thee, father, in the laver slain--