Ajax
Scene III.
Bring him this way : for if he be the son
Will not aflright him ; he must learn like me
In earliest years the savage laws of war,
And be inured to scenes of death and slaughter.
Mayst thou, my boy, be happier than thy fatlier !
In all things elt^e it will be no disgrace
To copy me : I envy thee, my child,
For that thou seest not thy own wretchedness ;
The happiness of Kfe is not to know.
Thy ignorance will keep thee free from pain,
Till time shall teach thee what it is to grieye
And to rejoice ; then must thou show thy foes
From whom thou art descended. May the breath
Of life meantime nourish thy tender frame,
That thou mayst prove a comfort to thy mother !
I know there's not a Grecian that will dare
Insult thee when thy father is no more ;
For I shall leave thee to the best of guardians.
The faithful Teucer, who far from thee now,
Sent forth by Greece, repels the invading foe.
Of you, my friends, companions of the war,
The only boon I ask is, that ye urge
This last request to Teucer : say, I begged
That straight to Telamon and Eribcea,
My aged parents, he would bear my child,
To be the joy of their declining years,
Till death shall call them to the shades below.
Let not my arms by Greece, or by that plague
