Modern Italian Poets; Essays and Versions Part 5

_Aeg._ To kill him!

_Cly._ To thy death thou goest!

O me! What dost thou? Hark! Dost thou not hear The yells and threats of the whole people? Hold!

I will not leave thee.

_Aeg._ Nay, thou hop'st in vain To save thy impious son from death. Hence! Peace!

Or I will else--

_Cly._ Oh, yes, Aegisthus, kill me, If thou believest me not. "Orestes!" Hark!

"Orestes!" How that terrible name on high Rings everywhere! I am no longer mother When thou 'rt in danger. Against my blood I grow Cruel once more.

_Aeg._ Thou knowest well the Argives Do hate thy face, and at the sight of thee The fury were redoubled in their hearts.

The tumult rises. Ah, thou wicked wretch, Thou wast the cause! For thee did I delay Vengeance that turns on me now.

_Cly._ Kill me, then!

_Aeg._ I'll find escape some other way.

_Cly._ I follow--

_Aeg._ Ill s.h.i.+eld wert thou for me. Leave me--away, away!

At no price would I have thee by my side! {_Exit._

_Cly._ All hunt me from them! O most hapless state!

My son no longer owns me for his mother, My husband for his wife: and wife and mother I still must be! O misery! Afar I'll follow him, nor lose the way he went.

_Enter_ ELECTRA.

_El._ Mother, where goest thou! Turn thy steps again Into the palace. Danger--

_Cly._ Orestes--speak!

Where is he now? What does he do?

_El._ Orestes, Pylades, and myself, we are all safe.

Even Aegisthus' minions pitied us.

They cried, "This is Orestes!" and the people, "Long live Orestes! Let Aegisthus die!"

_Cly._ What do I hear?

_El._ Calm thyself, mother; soon Thou shalt behold thy son again, and soon Th' infamous tyrant's corse--

_Cly._ Ah, cruel, leave me!

I go--

_El._ No, stay! The people rage, and cry Out on thee for a parricidal wife.

Show thyself not as yet, or thou incurrest Great peril. 'T was for this I came. In thee A mother's agony appeared, to see Thy children dragged to death, and thou hast now Atoned for thy misdeed. My brother sends me To comfort thee, to succor and to hide thee From dreadful sights. To find Aegisthus out, All armed meanwhile, he and his Pylades Search everywhere. Where is the wicked wretch?

_Cly._ Orestes is the wicked wretch!

_El_. O Heaven!

_Cly._ I go to save him or to perish with him.

_El._ Nay, mother, thou shalt never go. Thou ravest--

_Cly._ The penalty is mine. I go--

_El._ O mother!

The monster that but now thy children doomed To death, wouldst thou--

_Cly._ Yes, I would save him--I!

Out of my path! My terrible destiny I must obey. He is my husband. All Too dear he cost me. I will not, can not lose him.

You I abhor, traitors, not children to me!

I go to him. Loose me, thou wicked girl!

At any risk I go, and may I only Reach him in time! {_Exit._

_El_. Go to thy fate, then, go, If thou wilt so, but be thy steps too late!

Why can not I, too, arm me with a dagger, To pierce with stabs a thousand-fold the breast Of infamous Aegisthus! O blind mother, oh, How art thou fettered to his baseness! Yet, And yet, I tremble--If the angry mob Avenge their murdered king on her--O Heaven!

Let me go after her--But who comes here?

Pylades, and my brother not beside him?

_Enter_ PYLADES.

Oh, tell me! Orestes--?

_Pyl._ Compa.s.ses the palace About with swords. And now our prey is safe.

Where lurks Aegisthus! Hast thou seen him?

_El._ Nay, I saw and strove in vain a moment since To stay his maddened wife. She flung herself Out of this door, crying that she would make Herself a s.h.i.+eld unto Aegisthus. He Already had fled the palace.

_Pyl._ Durst he then Show himself in the sight of Argos? Why, Then he is slain ere this! Happy the man That struck him first. Nearer and louder yet I hear their yells.

_El._ "Orestes!" Ah, were't so!

_Pyl._ Look at him in his fury where he comes!

_Enter_ ORESTES _and his followers_.

_Or._ No man of you attempt to slay Aegisthus: There is no wounding sword here save my own.

Aegisthus, ho! Where art thou, coward! Speak!

Aegisthus, where art thou? Come forth: it is The voice of Death that calls thee! Thou comest not?

Ah, villain, dost thou hide thyself? In vain: The midmost deep of Erebus should not hide thee!

Thou shalt soon see if I be Atrides' son.

_El._ He is not here; he--

_Or._ Traitors! You perchance Have slain him without me?

_Pyl._ Before I came He had fled the palace.