Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold - LightNovelsOnl.com
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Thou dost well: but take....
_aepytus_
What wav'st thou off?
_Merope_
That murderous axe away!
_aepytus_
Thy son is here.
_Merope_
One said so, sure, but now.
_aepytus_
Here, here thou hast him!
_Merope_
Slaughter'd by this hand!...
_aepytus_
No, by the G.o.ds, alive and like to live!
_Merope_
What, thou?--I dream----
_aepytus_
May'st thou dream ever so!
_Merope_ (_advancing towards him_)
My child? unhurt?...
_aepytus_
Only by over joy
_Merope_
Art thou, then, come?...
_aepytus_
Never to part again.
[_They fall into one another's arms. Then_ MEROPE, _holding_ aePYTUS _by the hand, turns to_ THE CHORUS.
_Merope_
O kind Messenian maidens, O my friends, Bear witness, see, mark well, on what a head My first stroke of revenge had nearly fallen!
_The Chorus_
We see, dear mistress: and we say, the G.o.ds, As. .h.i.therto they kept him, keep him now.
_Merope_
O my son! _str._ I have, I have thee ... the years Fly back, my child! and thou seem'st Ne'er to have gone from these eyes, Never been torn from this breast.
_aepytus_
Mother, my heart runs over; but the time Presses me, chides me, will not let me weep.
_Merope_
Fearest thou now?
_aepytus_
I fear not, but I think on my design.
_Merope_
At the undried fount of this breast, A babe, thou smilest again.
Thy brothers play at my feet, Early-slain innocents! near, Thy kind-speaking father stands.
_aepytus_
Remember, to revenge his death I come!
_Merope_
Ah ... revenge! _ant._ That word! it kills me! I see Once more roll back on my house, Never to ebb, the accurst All-flooding ocean of blood.
_aepytus_
Mother, sometimes the justice of the G.o.ds Appoints the way to peace through shedding blood.
_Merope_
Sorrowful peace!
