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 shore.
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
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Deigns not to hearken to the chief in power.
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Since without settled awe, neither in states
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Can laws have rightful sway, nor can a host
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Be governed with due wisdom, if no fear
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Or wholesome shame be there to shield its safety.
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And though a man wax great in thews and bulk,
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Let him be warned: a trifling harm may ruin him.
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Whoever knows respect and honour both
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Stands free from risk of dark vicissitude.
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But whereso pride and licence have their fling,
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Be sure that state will one day lose her course
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And founder in the abysm. Let fear have place
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Still where it ought, say I, nor let men think
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To do their pleasure and not bide the pain.
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That wheel comes surely round. Once Aias flamed
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With insolent fierceness. Now I mount in pride,
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And loudly bid thee bury him not, lest burying
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Thy brother thou be burrowing thine own grave.
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