The Seven Plays in English Verse Part 17

Will Telamon, my sire and thine, receive me With radiant countenance and favouring brow Returning without thee? Most like! being one Who smiles no more[4], yield Fortune what she may.

Will he hide aught or soften any word, Rating the b.a.s.t.a.r.d of his spear-won thrall, Whose cowardice and dastardy betrayed Thy life, dear Aias,--or my murderous guile, To rob thee of thy lords.h.i.+p and thy home?

Such greeting waits me from the man of wrath, Whose testy age even without cause would storm.

Last, I shall leave my land a castaway, Thrust forth an exile, and proclaimed a slave; So should I fare at home. And here in Troy My foes are many and my comforts few.

All these things are my portion through thy death.

Woe's me, my heart! how shall I bear to draw thee, O thou ill-starr'd! from this discoloured blade, Thy self-shown slayer? Didst thou then perceive Dead Hector was at length to be thine end?-- I pray you all, consider these two men.

Hector, whose gift from Aias was a girdle, Tight-braced therewith to the car's rim, was dragged And scarified till he breathed forth his life.

And Aias with this present from his foe Finds through such means his death-fall and his doom.

Say then what cruel workman forged the gifts, But Fury this sharp sword, h.e.l.l that bright band?

In this, and all things human, I maintain, G.o.ds are the artificers. My thought is said.

And if there be who cares not for my thought, Let him hold fast his faith and leave me mine.

CH. Spare longer speech, and think how to secure Thy brother's burial, and what plea will serve; Since one comes here hath no good will to us And like a villain haply comes in scorn.

TEU. What man of all the host hath caught thine eye?

CH. The cause for whom we sailed, the Spartan King.

TEU. Yes; I discern him, now he moves more near.

_Enter_ MENELAUS.

MENELAUS. Fellow, give o'er. Cease tending yon dead man!

Obey my voice, and leave him where he lies.

TEU. Thy potent cause for spending so much breath?

MEN. My will, and his whose word is sovereign here.

TEU. May we not know the reasons of your will?

MEN. Because he, whom we trusted to have brought To lend us loyal help with heart and hand, Proved in the trial a worse than Phrygian foe; Who lay in wait for all the host by night, And sallied forth in arms to shed our blood; That, had not one in Heaven foiled this attempt, Our lot had been to lie as he doth here Dead and undone for ever, while he lived And flourished. Heaven hath turned this turbulence To fall instead upon the harmless flock.

Wherefore no strength of man shall once avail To encase his body with a seemly tomb, But outcast on the wide and watery sand, He'll feed the birds that batten on the sh.o.r.e.

Nor let thy towering spirit therefore rise In threatening wrath. Wilt thou or not, our hand Shall rule him dead, howe'er he braved us living, And that by force; for never would he yield, Even while he lived, to words from me. And yet It shows base metal when the subject-wight Deigns not to hearken to the chief in power.

Since without settled awe, neither in states Can laws have rightful sway, nor can a host Be governed with due wisdom, if no fear Or wholesome shame be there to s.h.i.+eld its safety.

And though a man wax great in thews and bulk, Let him be warned: a trifling harm may ruin him.

Whoever knows respect and honour both Stands free from risk of dark vicissitude.

But whereso pride and licence have their fling, Be sure that state will one day lose her course And founder in the abysm. Let fear have place Still where it ought, say I, nor let men think To do their pleasure and not bide the pain.

That wheel comes surely round. Once Aias flamed With insolent fierceness. Now I mount in pride, And loudly bid thee bury him not, lest burying Thy brother thou be burrowing thine own grave.

CH. Menelaus, make not thy philosophy A platform whence to insult the valiant dead.

TEU. I nevermore will marvel, sirs, when one Of humblest parentage is p.r.o.ne to sin, Since those reputed men of n.o.ble strain Stoop to such phrase of prating frowardness.

Come, tell it o'er again,--said you ye brought My brother bound to aid you with his power?

Sailed he not forth of his own sovereign will?

Where is thy voucher of command o'er him?

Where of thy right o'er those that followed him?

Sparta, not we, shall buckle to thy sway.

'Twas written nowhere in the bond of rule That thou shouldst check him rather than he thee.

Thou sailedst under orders, not in charge Of all, much less of Aias. Then pursue Thy limited direction, and chastise, In haughty phrase, the men who fear thy nod.

But I will bury Aias, whether thou Or the other general give consent or no.

'Tis not for me to tremble at your word.

Not to reclaim thy wife, like those poor souls Thou flll'st with labour, issued this man forth, But caring for his oath, and not for thee, Or any other n.o.body. Then come With heralds all arow, and bring the man Called king of men with thee! For thy sole noise I budge not, wert thou twenty times thy name.

CH. The sufferer should not bear a bitter tongue.

Hard words, how just soe'er, will leave their sting.

MEN. Our bowman carries no small pride, I see.

TEU. No mere mechanic's menial craft is mine.

MEN. How wouldst thou vaunt it hadst thou but a s.h.i.+eld!

TEU. Unarmed I fear not thee in panoply.

MEN. Redoubted is the wrath lives on thy tongue.

TEU. Whose cause is just hath licence to be proud.

MEN. Just, that my murderer have a peaceful end?

TEU. Thy murderer? Strange, to have been slain and live!

MEN. Yea, through Heaven's mercy. By his will, I am dead.

TEU. If Heaven have saved thee, give the G.o.ds their due.

MEN. Am I the man to spurn at Heaven's command?

TEU. Thou dost, to come and frustrate burial.

MEN. Honour forbids to yield my foe a tomb.

TEU. And Aias was thy foeman? Where and when?

MEN. Hate lived between us; that thou know'st full well.

TEU. For thy proved knavery, coining votes i' the court

MEN. The judges voted. He ne'er lost through me.

TEU. Guilt hiding guile wears often fairest front.

MEN. I know whom pain shall hara.s.s for that word.

TEU. Not without giving equal pain, 'tis clear.

MEN. No more, but this. No burial for this man!

TEU. Yea, this much more. He shall have instant burial.