Chorus
961cont2
To thee, O Teucer ! he bequeathed the care
Of his loved child, and thou obeyst him well.
A sight so dreadful. Came I then for this
With luckless speed ? O melancholy journey !
To seek thee long in vain, and thus at last
To find thee dead before me, O my brother !
Quick through the Grecian host, as if some god
Had brought the tidings, spi-ead the dire report
Of thy untimely fate. Far from thee then
1 heard and wept, but now, alas ! I see
Unveil the body ; let me view it well.
And count my miseries. Horrid spectacle !
Oh ! rash advent' rous deed ! What weight of woe
Thy death has laid on me ! Alas ! to whom
Or whither shall I go ? Oh, wherefore, Teucer,
Wert thou not here to stop a brother's hand ?
What will our poor unhappy father say,
The wretched Telamon ? Will he receive me
With looks of love and pleasure, when 1 come
Even in the best of times he was not wont
To smile or joy in aught. What then will now
His anger vent ? Will he not speak of me
As of a faithless, base, unworthy son,
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The spurious offspring of a captive mother,
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Who hath betrayed and slain his best-loved Ajax
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To gain his fair possessions after death ?
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Thus will his wrath, sharpened by peevish a^e,
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Upbraid me guiltless ; and to slavery doomed,
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A wretched exile from his native land,
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Shall Teucer wander forth. Such dreadful ills
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Must I expect at home. At Troy my foes
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Are numerous, and my friends, alas ! how few !
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What shall I do 1 How can I save thee now
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From this sad fate 1 Oh ! who could have foreseen
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That Hector, long since dead, at last should prove
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I do beseech you, mark the fate of both :
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Dragged the brave Trojan o'er the blood}^ field
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Till he expired ; and now, behold ! the sword,
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The fatal steel, and Pluto made the belt.
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Dreadful artificer ! JBiLt thiSj_an
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.Thatjiappens to us, is the woi^ of^ Heaven. ^mmmm^
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If there be those who doubt it, let them hold -ilS^^i^S"
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Their diff'ring judgments — I shall keep my own.
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