The Seven Plays in English Verse Part 45

De. Think not mine eye hath kept such careless guard, Dear maids, that I could miss this moving train.

Herald, I bid thee hail, although so late Appearing, if thou bringest health with thee!

_Enter_ LICHAS, _with_ Captive Women.

LICHAS. A happy welcome on a happy way, As prosperous our achievement. Meet it is Good words should greet bright actions, mistress mine!

De. Kind friend, first tell me what I first would know-- Shall I receive my Heracles alive?

LICH. I left him certainly alive and strong: Blooming in health, not with disease oppressed.

De. In Greece, or in some barbarous country? Tell!

LICH. Euboea's island hath a promontory, Where to Cenaean Zeus he consecrates Rich altars and the tribute of the ground.

De. Moved by an oracle, or from some vow?

LICH. So vowed he when he conquered with the spear The country of these women whom you see.

De. And who, by Heaven, are they? Who was their sire?

Their case is piteous, or eludes my thought.

LICH. He took them for the service of the G.o.ds And his own house, when high Oechalia fell.

De. Was't then before that city he was kept Those endless ages of uncounted time?

LICH. Not so. The greater while he was detained Among the Lydians, sold, as he declares, To bondage. Nor be jealous of the word, Since Heaven, my Queen, was author of the deed.

Enthralled so to Asian Omphale, He, as himself avers, fulfilled his year.

The felt reproach whereof so chafed his soul, He bound fierce curses on himself and sware That,--children, wife and all,--he yet would bring In captive chains the mover of this harm.

Nor did this perish like an idle word, But, when the stain was off him, straight he drew Allied battalions to a.s.sault the town Of Eurytus, whom, sole of earthly powers, He had noted as the source of his annoy, Because, having received him in his hall A guest of ancient days, he burst on him With outrage of loud voice and villanous mind, Saying, 'with his hand upon the unerring bow, Oechalia's princes could o'ershoot his skill; And born to bondage, he must quail beneath His overlord'; lastly, to crown this cry, When at a banquet he was filled with wine, He flung him out of door. Whereat being wroth, When Iphitus to the Tirynthian height Followed the track where his brood-mares had strayed, He, while the thought and eye of the man by chance Were sundered, threw him from the tower-crowned cliff.

In anger for which deed the Olympian King, Father of G.o.ds and men, delivered him To be a bond-slave, nor could brook the offence, That of all lives he vanquished, this alone Should have been ta'en by guile. For had he wrought In open quittance of outrageous wrong, Even Zeus had granted that his cause was just.

The braggart hath no favour even in Heaven.

Whence they, o'erweening with their evil tongue, Are now all dwellers in the house of death, Their ancient city a captive;--but these women Whom thou beholdest, from their blest estate Brought suddenly to taste of piteous woe, Come to thy care. This task thy wedded lord Ordained, and I, his faithful minister, Seek to perform. But, for his n.o.ble self, When with pure hands he hath done sacrifice To his Great Father for the victory given, Look for his coming, lady. This last word Of all my happy speech is far most sweet.

CH. Now surety of delight is thine, my Queen, Part by report and part before thine eye.

De. Yea, now I learn this triumph of my lord, Joy reigns without a rival in my breast.

This needs must run with that in fellows.h.i.+p.

Yet wise consideration even of good Is flecked with fear of what reverse may come.

And I, dear friends, when I behold these maids, Am visited with sadness deep and strange.

Poor friendless beings, in a foreign land Wandering forlorn in homeless orphanhood!

Erewhile, free daughters of a freeborn race, Now, snared in strong captivity for life.

O Zeus of battles, breaker of the war, Ne'er may I see thee[2] turn against my seed So cruelly; or, if thou meanest so, Let me be spared that sorrow by my death!

Such fear in me the sight of these hath wrought.

Who art thou, of all damsels most distressed?

Single or child-bearing? Thy looks would say, A maid, of no mean lineage. Lichas, tell, Who is the stranger-nymph? Who gave her birth?

Who was her sire? Mine eye hath pitied her O'er all, as she o'er all hath sense of woe.

LICH. What know I? Why should'st thou demand? Perchance Not lowest in the list of souls there born.

De. How if a princess, offspring of their King?

LICH. I cannot tell. I did not question far.

De. Have none of her companions breathed her name?

LICH. I brought them silently. I did not hear.

De. Yet speak it to us of thyself, poor maid!

'Tis sorrow not to know thee who thou art.

LICH. She'll ne'er untie her tongue, if she maintain An even tenor, since nor more nor less Would she disclose; but, poor unfortunate!

With agonizing sobs and tears she mourns This crus.h.i.+ng sorrow, from the day she left Her wind-swept home. Her case is cruel, sure,-- And claims a privilege from all who feel.

De. Well, let her go, and pa.s.s beneath the roof In peace, as she desires; nor let fresh pain From me be added to her previous woe.

She hath enough already. Come, away!

Let's all within at once, that thou mayest speed Thy journey, and I may order all things here.

[_Exit_ LICHAS, _with_ Captives, _into the house_.

DeANIRA _is about to follow them_

_Re-enter_ Messenger.

MESS. Pause first there on the threshold, till you learn (Apart from those) who 'tis you take within, And more besides that you yet know not of, Which deeply imports your knowing. Of all this I throughly am informed.

De. What cause hast thou Thus to arrest my going?

MESS. Stand, and hear.

Not idle was my former speech, nor this.

De. Say, must we call them back in presence here, Or would'st thou tell thy news to these and me?

MESS. To thee and these I may, but let those be.

De. Well, they are gone. Let words declare thy drift.

MESS. That man, in all that he hath lately said, Hath sinned against the truth: or now he's false, Or else unfaithful in his first report.

De. What? Tell me thy full meaning clearly forth.

That thou hast uttered is all mystery.

MESS. I heard this herald say, while many thronged To hearken, that this maiden was the cause, Why lofty-towered Oechalia and her lord Fell before Heracles, whom Love alone Of heavenly powers had warmed to this emprise, And not the Lydian thraldom or the tasks Of rigorous Omphale, nor that wild fate Of rock-thrown Iphitus. Now he thrusts aside The Love-G.o.d, contradicting his first tale.

When he that was her sire could not be brought To yield the maid for Heracles to hold In love unrecognized, he framed erelong A feud about some trifle, and set forth In arms against this damsel's fatherland (Where Eurytus, the herald said, was king) And slew the chief her father; yea, and sacked Their city. Now returning, as you see, He sends her hither to his halls, no slave, Nor unregarded, lady,--dream not so!

Since all his heart is kindled with desire.

I, O my Queen! thought meet to show thee all The tale I chanced to gather from his mouth, Which many heard as well as I, i' the midst Of Trachis' market-place, and can confirm My witness. I am pained if my plain speech Sound harshly, but the honest truth I tell.

De. Ah me! Where am I? Whither am I fallen?

What hidden woe have I unwarily Taken beneath my roof? O misery!

Was she unknown, as he that brought her sware?

MESS. Nay, most distinguished both in birth and mien; Called in her day of freedom Iole, Eurytus' daughter,--of whose parentage, Forsooth as ignorant, he ne'er would speak.