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15°2-1550<br />
She hath the altar dressed<br />
AESCHYLUS<br />
ct. Let that alone; it matters not to thee:<br />
With brawn of manhood for the tender limb For by our hand he fell, he dropped down dead,<br />
Of weanling infants taken from the breast.<br />
And we will dig him deep in earth. Let be;<br />
Ch. Go to: that thou art innocent of this blood We'll have no wailers here; but, in their stead,<br />
What witness will avouch? Though, it may be, His child, Iphigeneia, with soft beck,<br />
That Old Destroyer wove with thee the mesh. Where the rapid waves of the Ford of Sorrows hiss,<br />
This bloody deluge, like anon-coming sea<br />
Shall come; and fling her arms about his neck,<br />
That may not halt untilit makes the flood,<br />
Rolls its rough waves, with kindred-murder red,<br />
And greet her loving father with a kiss.<br />
Till Justice lave the rank corruption bred<br />
Ch. So taunt meets taunt; but Judgment<br />
Of that foul, cannibal roast of childish flesh.<br />
Is bitter hard to gain.<br />
Now spoiled is the despoiler,<br />
Now is the slayer slain.<br />
King, my king, how shall I weep for thee?<br />
What shall my fond heart say?<br />
Thou liest in spider's web-work; gaspingly<br />
In hideous death, the fleet life ebbs away!<br />
Woe, woe, that thou shouldst bow thy head<br />
On this unkingl y bed!<br />
By dagger-hand despatched and treason's felony!<br />
ct. Is he guile-free?<br />
Hath he not slain<br />
His own, even my branch, raised up from him,<br />
Iphigeneia, wept with all my tears?<br />
Ah, to the traitor, treachery!<br />
He hath discharged in blood his long arrears;<br />
The measure he dealt is meted him again.<br />
Then, let his big voice, in the dim<br />
Darkness of Hell,<br />
Sink low and sadly breathed;<br />
He hath his just quietus; this great quell<br />
Ripostes his stroke, who first the sword<br />
unsheathed.<br />
Ch. Now like a weary wrestler<br />
My fainting heart contends;<br />
Now that the house if falling,<br />
Where shall I find me friends?<br />
But, oh, Hear, to whelm it<br />
Red Ruin roars amain;<br />
For the first shower is over,<br />
The early, morning rain.<br />
Yea, Fate that forgeth Sorrow<br />
Now a new grindstone sets;<br />
There, for fresh hurt, her dagger<br />
The Armourer, Justice, whets.<br />
Oh, Earth, Earth, Earthl Would God I had lain<br />
dead,<br />
Deep in thy mould,<br />
Ere on his silver-sided pallet-bed<br />
I saw my lord lie cold!<br />
Oh, who will bury him, dirge him to his rest?<br />
Wilt thou sing his death-song,<br />
Murderess of thine own man; wail and beat breast<br />
For thy most grievous wrong?<br />
Mock his great spirit with such comfort cold?<br />
Oh, for a voice to sound<br />
The hero's praise, with passionate weeping knolled<br />
Over his low grave-mound I<br />
For Zeus abides upon His Throne,<br />
And, through all time, all tides,<br />
The Law that quits the Doer,<br />
The changeless Law abides.<br />
Who will cast out the accursed stuff,<br />
Bone of thee, breath of thy breath?<br />
Thy very stones, thou bloody house,<br />
Are bonded in with Death!<br />
CI. Now is thine oracle come to the fountainhead<br />
Of bitter Truth. As God lives, I would swear<br />
Great oaths to that cursed Spirit, Whose ghostly<br />
tread<br />
Haunteth the House ofPleisthenes, to bear<br />
What's past endurance, and take heart of grace<br />
To pluck these rooted sorrows from my mind,<br />
Would he avaunt, and harry some other race<br />
With the Soul of Murder that seeks out his kind.<br />
Then, with that Horror from this house cast forth<br />
Which mads their blood with mutual butchery,<br />
Oh, what were all its golden treasure worth?<br />
A poor man's portion were enough for me.<br />
Enter AEGISTHUS, with his guards.<br />
Aegistkus. Oh, day of grace, meridian ofT ustice I<br />
Now may I say the Gods are our Avengers<br />
And from on high behold the crimes of earth;<br />
For now I have my wish; I see yon man,<br />
Wound up in raiment of Erinys' woof;<br />
The shroud that shrives his father's handiwork.<br />
Atreus, his sire, who here bear rule, because<br />
His power was challenged, did his father's son<br />
Thyestes, my dear father-dost thou mark me?<br />
Outlaw and ban from home and kingdom both.<br />
Himself, poor man, a sui tor for his life,<br />
Recalled from exile, found fair terms enough;<br />
No death for him, no staining with his blood<br />
This parent soil. But, for his entertainment,<br />
Atreus, this man's cursed father, with more heat<br />
Than heart towards mine, with a pretended stir<br />
Of welcome-oh, a high-day of hot joints!<br />
Dished up for him a mess of his own babes.<br />
The hands and feet he chopped and put aside;<br />
The rest, minced small and indistinguishable,<br />
Served at a special table. So he ate<br />
Knowing not what he ate; but, purge thine eyes,<br />
And own 'twas sauced with sorrow for his seed.<br />
And, when he saw what wickedness was done,<br />
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