Clytaemestra

Oh no! Your story spells our utter undoing. O curse that haunts this house, so hard to wrestle down: how far forward you look! Even what was laid well out of harm’s way you bring down with your well-aimed shafts from far off,

and you strip me of those I love, utterly wretched as I am. And now Orestes: he was indeed prudent in keeping his foot out of the mire of destruction, but now mark down as having abandoned us what was once the one hope in our house of a cure for its fine revelry. ¹

695

Orestes

As for me, I am sure that with hosts so prosperous I would rather have been made known and welcomed for favorable news. For where is goodwill greater than from guest to host? Yet to my mind it would have been irreverent

700

not to fulfill for friends a charge like this when I was bound by promise and hospitality pledged to me.

705

Clytaemestra

Rest assured you will receive no less a reward than you deserve nor be the less welcome to this house: someone else might just as well have brought your message.

But it is the hour when strangers who have been travelling on a long day’s journey should have their proper entertainment. To an attendant Conduct him to the rooms where the men are hospitably lodged, him and his attendants here and his fellow-traveller, and let them be tended to there as is proper in our house.

710

I command you to do this as you shall be held to strict account. Meantime we will communicate this matter to the master of the house, and since we have no lack of friends we will confer on this occurrence.

715

ORESTES

I could indeed have wished to have become known, and to have been welcomed as a guest by hosts thus opulent through the means of gladsome tidings; for what more kindly feeling is there than that which is entertained by a guest towards hosts? But to my mind it was an act of impiety not to fulfil such an obligation as this to friends, having pledged ray word, and been hospitably welcomed.

CLYTEMNESTRA

Be sure thou shalt not meet with unworthy treatment, and not the less shouldest thou be friendly to the household; For some one else would have come all the same to bring us these tidings. But it is the fit time for strangers that spend the whole day in long travel, to obtain the things that are suitable under their circumstances. Conduct him into the hospitable male apartments of the palace, and these his attendants and fellow-travellers, and there let them enjoy treatment such as beseems the house. And I bid thee do this as liable to be called to account. And we will both communicate these things to the heads of the family, and not lacking friends, will deliberate concerning this misfortune.

CHORUS

ORESTE.

J'aurais voulu, à d'aussi nobles hôtes, apporter d'heureuses nouvelles, pour me faire connaître et accueillir d'eux. Est-il rien de mieux disposé qu'un hôte pour ses hôtes ? Mais mon cœur eût trouvé quelque impiété

[ORESTE]

à ne pas achever mon rôle auprès d'amis, après promesse faite et accueil reçu ² .

CLYTEMNESTRE.

Tu n'en seras pas moins traité suivant ton mérite et reçu en ami par cette maison. Un autre, tôt ou tard, nous eût porté même message. Mais l'heure est
venue, pour des hôtes au bout de leur journée, de rencon- trer des soins en rapport avec leur longue route. (A une esclave.) Conduis-le dans les chambres réservées à nos hôtes, avec ses serviteurs et ses compagnons ³ . Et qu'ils y trouvent tout ce qui convient à notre maison. Je t'avertis :
songe, en m'obéissant, que tu m'en rendras compte.

Pour nous, nous rapporterons tout au maître du palais et, comme les amis ne nous manquent pas, nous consulterons sur l'événement.

LE CORYPHÉE.

ORESTES.

It were my wish to have borne other tidings,

More welcome to the lords of this fair manſion,

And meriting their hospitable favours:

For what more ſtrongly to benevolence

790

Can bind the grateful ſoul?

Yet I ſhou'd deem it

An impious wrong not to disclose e'en these,

Unwelcome, as they must be, to his friends,

So folemnly entrusted to my charge.

795

CLYTEMNESTRA.

Not leſs for this ſhalt thou receive ſuch uſage

As thy worth challenges: not leſs for this

Reſpected here: another wou’d have come

Charg’d with the ſame sad meſſage. But the hour

Demands refreſhment for the ſtranger, ſpent

800

With the long travel of the weary day.

Lead him to thoſe apartments, where the men

Are well receiv’d; let his attendant follow,

His fellow traveller;

let thy diligent care,

805

I charge thee, miniſter to all his wants.

We to the rulers of this house will bear

These tidings, and amongst our friends conſult

What meaſures in this sad event to form.

CHORUS

alone.

ORESTE

Ad ospiti sí pii, grate novelle

recare avrei bramato, e in tale evento

esserne conosciuto, averne ospizio.

575

Per gli ospiti, quale è cosa piú grata

dell'ospite? Ma far tale promessa

a genti amiche, e poi non mantenerla,

ed accettar l'ospizio, io ne avrei scrupolo.

CLITENNESTRA

Non per questo accoglienza avrai men degna,

580

né sarai men gradito alla mia casa.

In vece tua, sarebbe un altro giunto

a recar la novella. Ora il ristoro

convien della via lunga offrire agli ospiti

ch'àn viaggiato tutto il dí. Conducilo

585

nelle stanze degli uomini; e il compagno

seco ed i servi: e quivi abbiano quanto

le loro membra riconforti. Intanto

io la novella al re di questa casa

darò. D'amici non abbiam penuria:

590

quel che far ci convenga avviseremo.

CORO

Ore.

Ego quidem hoſpitibus felicibus fic

Bonarum rerum gratia uolui

Notus eſse, & hospitari. quid enim

Hospite hoſpitibus eſt felicius?

655

In impietate erat mihi hoc in mente

Tale negotium non dicere amicis

Amittentem & hoſpitantem.

Cl.

Non enim aſsequeris minus dignè te

Neque minus fies ædibus amicus.

660

Alius uenit ſimiliter hæc nuncians.

Sed tempus est hoſpites interdiu laborantes

Longe uice, aſsequi tempeſtiua.

Conſulo uerò tibi hæc agere tanquam ſubdito-

Vos uerò hæc imperantibus domibus

665

Comunicabimus, & non amicorum penuria laborantes

Conſultabimus de hac calamitate.

Cho.

Orestes.

700 Mir wär' es freilich viel erwünschter, hätte mich

ein freudiges Ereignis einem also hoch

beglückten Hause zugeführt und mir den Schatz

der Gastfreundschaft, des Fremdlings köstlichsten,

beschert.

Doch zu bestellen, was dem Gastfreund ich gelobt,

705 wie es auch war, empfand ich als Gewissenspflicht.

Klytaimestra.

Du sollst darum nicht kärglicher was dir gebührt

erhalten, nicht geringer wird darum das Haus

den Gastfreund schätzen. Wäre mit der Botschaft doch

710 ein andrer sonst gekommen. Doch die Zeit ist da,

wo nach des langen Tages Fahrt der Wandersmann

sich pflegen muſs.

Sie winkt einen aus der Schar der Diener heran.

Du führst die Männer in den Saal,

der unsres Hauses Gästen wohlbereitet ist,

begleitest ihre Schritte, wartest ihnen auf,

und dafs sie alles was ein müder Leib bedarf

715 erhalten; dafür, das bedenke, haftest du.

Zu Orestes.

Ich aber werde diese Sache vor den Herrn

des Hauses bringen. Zuverläss'ger Freunde Rat

gebricht uns nicht: mit ihnen soll's besprochen sein.

Chorführerin.

720

CLYTEMNESTRA

Worthy regard not less shalt thou receive;

Nor have the less fair welcome to this house.

Another all the same had brought thy news.

But time it is that strangers who have spent

The day in travel should their strength recruit.

700

[To an Attendant.]

To the men's chambers usher him as guest,

His escort too, and fellow-traveller.

There be they tended as befits this house.

Do ye my will as who must give account.

Ourselves will to the rulers of this house

Impart the tidings, and not poor in friends,

We will take counsel touching this mischance.

ORESTES

O Earth, my sire upsend to watch the fray.

480

ELECTRA

O Proserpine, grant beautiful success!

ORESTES

Think, Father, of the bath that reaved thy life.

ELECTRA

Think of the net in which they tangled thee.

ORESTES

In shackles, not of brass, wast thou ensnared.

ELECTRA

Basely enveloped in the treacherous folds.

ORESTES

Art thou not roused by these reproaches, Sire?

ELECTRA

Dost thou not lift erect thine honoured head?

ORESTES

Either send Justice, ally to thy friends,

Or give them in like grasp thy foes to hold,

490

If thou, o'erthrown, wouldst victor be in turn.

ELECTRA

And hearken, Father, this my last appeal;

Behold thy fledglings nestled on thy tomb;

Pity thy progeny of either sex,

Nor Pelops' remnant seed exterminate;

For in their life thou livest, even in death.

For children are as voices that prolong

The dead man's fame; like corks they float the net,

The flaxen line upbearing from the deep.

Thyself art saved, if thou dost grant our prayer.

500

Chorus

Unblamed in sooth have ye your speech prolonged,

Due to his tomb and unlamented fate.

But since to action now thy soul is braced,

To work forthwith! and in the god confide.

ORESTES

So be it! yet not out of course I ask

What mean these off'rings? By what motive swayed,

Seeks she too late to med'cine cureless bale?

For to the dead, who heeds it not, she sends

A sorry tribute ;—I divine it not!

510

Her crime o'ertops the gift;—for should we pour

Earth's treasures to atone for one man's blood,

Vain were the toil;-so runs the ancient saw.

But if thou knowest answer to my prayer.

Chorus

That can I, son, for I was there ;-by dreams,

And troublous terrors of the night appalled,

The godless woman sent these sacred rites.

ORESTES

Heard ye the dream, and truly can rehearse?

Chorus

She, as herself relates, a dragon bare.

ORESTES

And what the scope, the issue, of the dream?

Chorus

In swathing-clothes she moored it as a child.

520

ORESTES

What nurture might the new-born horror crave?

Chorus

She, in her dream, herself held forth the breast.

ORESTES

How by the pest the nipple then unscathed?

Chorus

With nurture-milk it sucked the clotted blood.

ORESTES

Not vain the dream but by her husband sent;-

Chorus

In terorr shrieked she, waking up from sleep,

And many torches, in the darkness quenched,

Gleamed through the palace in our mistress' aid;

Libations to the tomb forthwith she sends

Devising for her woe a sovereign cure.

530

ORESTES

I to this earth and to my father's tomb

Pray that this dream be consummate in me.

And as I read it, sooth, it tallies well.

For if the snake, quitting the self-same womb,

Was girded straightway with my swathing-clothes,

And, gaping round the breast that nourished me,

Sucked with my nurture-milk the clotted blood,

While she in terror, at the portent shrieked ;—

Needs must it be, that she who reared the pest

A forceful death must die. I, dragon-like,

540

Myself shall slay her, as this dream declares.—

As augur of these portents thee I choose.

Chorus

So let it be! But now direct thy friends,

These how to act, or those aloof to bide.

ORESTES

Hear then, in brief;— Sister, go thou within;

But you I counsel to conceal my plans.

For as with guile an honoured man they slew,

Themselves with guile shall be entrapped, and die

In the same toils, foretold by Loxias,

Apollo Lord, no faithless seer of yore.—

550

For I, equipped for travel, with this man,

With Pylades, will reach the outer gate;

I as a stranger;-he as ransom-friend ;-

Familiar both with the Parnassian speech,

The tongue of Phocis we will imitate.

And if no friendly warder, on the plea

That by dire evils is the house possessed,

Will give us entrance, we without will bide,

Until some passer guess our plight, and say,

"If that Ægisthos knoweth, being at home,

560

Why 'gainst the suppliant doth he shut the door?"

If, passing then the threshold of the gates,

Him I discover on my father's seat,-

Or should he meet me face to face, and set

His eyes on me, ere he can speak the word,

"Whence is this stranger?"—I will lay him dead,

Spitting his body round my nimble steel.

The Fury thus, of gore insatiate,

Shall blood untempered quaff, third, crowning draught.

[To ELECTRA.]

Go thou,-keep watchful guard within the house,

570

That all, well ordered, fitly may combine.

[To the Chorus.]

To you a tongue of wisdom I commend,

To speak in season, or from speech refrain.-

[To PYLADES.]

And for the rest let this man look to it,

When in the strife of swords this arm hath won.

Chorus

STROPHE I.

Full many a horror drear

And ghastly, Earth doth rear;-

With direful monsters teems encircling Ocean;

Meteors, with threatening sheen,

580

Hang heaven and earth between ;—

The tempest's wrath still raves with wild commotion;

These, and dire wingèd things, and things that crawl,

Thou mayst describe them all.

ANTISTROPHE I.

But man's audacious might

What words can paint aright,

Or woman's daring spirit who may tell?

Her passion's frenzied throes,

Co-mates of mortal woes?

For love unlovely, when its evil spell

590

'Mong brutes or men the feebler sex befools,

Conjugial bands o'errules.

STROPHE II.

Let him confirm the truth I sing,

Whose thoughts soar not on Folly's wing,

Knowing full well what Thestios' daughter planned * ;—

Her fiery plot, child-murdering;

Wretched, who burnt her son's coeval brand.

Born with him when he cried

First from the mother's womb;-

Like-aged with him it died,

600

When dawned his day of doom.

ANTISTROPHE II.

Needs must we loathe another dame,

The bloody Scylla, known to fame, *

Who lured by Minos' gifts of fine-wrought gold,

Neck-gear from Crete,-devoid of shame,

Nisos her sire, a friend to foemen, sold.

Deep-breathing, free from care,

In slumber while he lay,

Ruthless she cut th' immortal hair :

610

And Hermes seized his prey.

STROPHE III.

But since these direful woes have burst,

†Untimely, into song:-

Be the foul wedlock too accursed,

That doth this palace wrong.—

And cursed be the plot that snared

(By woman's brain devised,)

The armed chief who foemen scared,

Whom faithful lieges prized.

Dear is to me the unstained hearth, and dear

In woman's hand the unaudacious spear.

ANTISTROPHE III.

But first of woes in every clime,

620

The Lemnian is deplored ;— *

And still the most detested crime

As Lemnian is abhorred.

Branded with infamy by men,

The impious disappear;

For whom the righteous gods condemn,

No mortal dares revere.—

The lore which thus we chant in choral strain,

Say ye, doth Reason at her bar arraign?

STROPHE IV.

Right through the lungs doth Justice' hand

Drive home the bitter steel;

630

†For all must perish who withstand

Her mandates, and with reckless heel,

Trample high Jove's command.

ANTISTROPHE IV.

Firm based is Justice; Fate of yore

Forged weapon for the blow;

Deep-souled Erinys doth restore

Th' avenger to his home, and, lo!

He pays the bloody score.

ORESTES

[Knocking at the gate.]

Boy, hear the knocking, at the outer gate;-

640

Who is within? Hola! Again I call.-

For the third time I crave a parley here,

If that Ægisthos heeds the stranger's rights.

Attendant

Well, well, I hear. Who art thou, friend, and whence?

ORESTES

Me to the rulers of this house announce,

For unto them, bearer of news, I come.

Haste, for Night's dusky car rolls on apace,

And time it is for weary traveller

Anchor to drop in hospitable home.

Let one in trust, a woman bearing rule,

650

Come forth; yet more decorous were a man.

For when by bashfulness the tongue is swayed

Darkened is speech ;—boldly man speaks to man,

And tells his message forth without reserve.

CLYTEMNESTRA

Speak, strangers, what your need? for here is found

Whate'er beseemeth royal halls like these ;—

Warm baths, the easeful couch that charmeth toil,

And fair regard from justice-beaming eyes.

But if your mission here doth counsel crave,

660

'Tis men's concern:-we will inform them straight.

ORESTES

From Phocis I, a Daulian, stranger here.-

What time my home I left, for Argos bound,

Starting on foot, with baggage self-equipped,

A man to me unknown, as I to him,

Met me, inquired my route and told me his.

Strophios, the Phocian, as in talk I learned.

"Stranger," he said, "since Argos is thy goal,

Say to the parents,”—strictly mark my words,——

"Dead is Orestes;-grave it on thy mind;-

670

Whether the counsel of his friends prevail

To bring him home, or give him sepulture,

Alien for aye;-bear thou their mandates back;

For now the brazen urn doth shroud from sight

The ashes of the hero duly wept."

Such words I heard, and tell thee;—if to those

Who here bear rule I speak, kin to the dead,

I know not;-but 'tis meet his sire should know.

ELECTRA

Woe's me! Then are we utterly undone!

O household Fury, hard to grapple with,

680

Alas how many, seemingly secure,

Thy ruthless arrow hitteth from afar,

While wretched me thou hast stript bare of friends.

And now, Orestes, who, by lucky chance,

His foot from ruin's slough had well-nigh freed,

Cancels by death our cherished hope, sole cure

Of the ill revelry that reigneth here.

ORESTES

With hosts so richly dowered I fain had sought

Acquaintance and kind cheer, as messenger

690

Bearing more welcome tidings; for what bond

More friendly than of stranger to his hosts?

Yet not to consummate to friends a charge

So weighty deemed I an impiety,

After assent and pledges of good-will.

CLYTEMNESTRA

Worthy regard not less shalt thou receive;

Nor have the less fair welcome to this house.

Another all the same had brought thy news.

But time it is that strangers who have spent

The day in travel should their strength recruit.

700

[To an Attendant.]

To the men's chambers usher him as guest,

His escort too, and fellow-traveller.

There be they tended as befits this house.

Do ye my will as who must give account.

Ourselves will to the rulers of this house

Impart the tidings, and not poor in friends,

We will take counsel touching this mischance.

Orestes.

To host and hostess thus with fortune blest,

Lief had I come with better news to bear

785

Unto your greeting and acquaintanceship;

For what goodwill lies deeper than the bond

Of guest and host? and wrong abhorred it were,

As well I deem, if I, who pledged my faith

To one, and greetings from the other had,

790

Bore not aright the tidings 'twixt the twain.

Clytemnestra.

What'er thy news, thou shalt not welcome lack,

Meet and deserved, nor scant our grace shall be.

Hadst thou thyself not come, such tale to tell,

Another, sure, had borne it to our ears.

795

But lo! the hour is here when travelling guests,

Fresh from the daylong labour of the road,

Should win their rightful due. Take him within

[ To the slave.

To the man-chamber's hospitable rest—

Him and these fellow-farers at his side;

800

Give them such guest-right as beseems our halls;

I bid thee do as thou shalt answer for it.

And I unto the prince that rules our home

Will tell the tale, and, since we lack not friends,

With them will counsel how this hap to bear.

805

[ Exit Clytemnestra.

Chorus.

Orestes.

O hätten doch Gastfreunde so glanzvollen Stamms

695

Um froher Botschaft willen mich als Freund erkannt,

Als holden Gast empfangen! Denn wer fühlte mehr,

Als solch ein Gastfreund, für den Gast in fremdem Land?

Doch frevelhaft erschien mir's, wenn ich solchen Fall

Den Seinen nicht kundthäte, weil ich's doch versprach,

700

Und hier als Gastfreund liebevoll empfangen ward.

Klytämnestra.

Nicht minder soll dir werden, was dein würdig ist,

Noch sollst du minder gelten als des Hauses Freund.

Die gleiche Botschaft brachte doch ein Andrer auch.

Doch ist es Zeit, den Fremden alles Nöthige

705

Herbeizuschaffen, nach des Tages langem Weg.

(Zu einem Diener.)

Ihn führe hin zum gastlich offnen Männersaal,

Und, kommst du wieder, seine Fahrtgenossen auch;

Dort dann im Hause finden sie das Nöthige.

Vollzieh' es pünktlich; denn du haftest mir dafür.

710

Wir aber wollen alles dies des Hauses Herrn

Mittheilen, und in unsrer Freunde treuem Kreis

Berathen, was in diesem Fall zu thun geziemt.

Die Chorführerin.

(Alle ab.)