Andromache [7]
MENELAUS Away, to the world below! from hostile towers ye came, the pair of you; two different causes necessitate your deaths; my sentence takes away thy life, and my daughter Hermione's requires his; for it would be the height of folly to leave our foemen's sons, when we might kill them and remove the danger from our house. ANDROMACHE O husband mine! I would I had thy strong arm and spear to aid me, son of Priam. MOLOSSUS Ah, woe is me! what spell can I now find to turn death's stroke aside? ANDROMACHE Embrace thy master's knees, my child, and pray to him. MOLOSSUS Spare, O spare my life, kind master! ANDROMACHE Mine eyes are wet with tears, which trickle down my cheeks, as doth a sunless spring from a smooth rock. Ah me! MOLOSSUS What remedy, alas! can I provide me 'gainst my ills? MENELAUS Why fall at my knees in supplication? hard as the rock and deaf as the wave am I. My own friends have I helped, but for thee have no tie of affection; for verily it cost me a great part of my life to capture Troy and thy mother; so thou shalt reap the fruit thereof and into Hades' halls descend. LEADER OF THE CHORUS Behold! I see Peleus drawing nigh; with aged step he hasteth hither.
(PELEUS enters with an attendant.)
PELEUS (calling out as he comes in sight) What means this? I ask you and your executioner; why is the palace in an uproar? give a reason; what mean your lawless machinations? Menelaus, hold thy hand. Seek not to outrun justice. (To his attendant) Forward! faster, faster! for this matter, methinks, admits of no delay; now if ever would I fain resume the vigour of my youth. First however will breathe new life into this captive, being to her as the breeze that blows a ship before the wind. Tell me, by what right have they pinioned thine arms and are dragging thee and thy child away? Like a ewe with her lamb art thou led to the slaughter, while I and thy lord were far away. ANDROMACHE Behold them that are haling me and my child to death, e'en as thou seest, aged prince. Why should I tell thee? For not by one urgent summons alone but by countless messengers have I sent for thee. No doubt thou knowest by hearsay of the strife in this house with this man's daughter, and the reason of my ruin. So now they have torn and are dragging me from the altar of Thetis, the goddess of thy chiefest adoration and the mother of thy gallant son, without any proper trial, yea, and without waiting for my absent master; because, forsooth, they knew my defencelessness and my child's, whom they mean to slay with me his hapless mother, though he has done no harm. But to thee, O sire, I make my supplication, prostrate at thy knees, though my hand cannot touch thy friendly beard; save me, I adjure thee, reverend sir, or to thy shame and my sorrow shall we be slain. PELEUS Loose her bonds, I say, ere some one rue it; untie her folded hands. MENELAUS I forbid it, for besides being a match for thee, I have a far better right to her. PELEUS What! art thou come hither to set my house in order? Art not content with ruling thy Spartans? MENELAUS She is my captive; I took her from Troy. PELEUS Aye, but my son's son received her as his prize. MENELAUS Is not all I have his, and all his mine? PELEUS For good, but not evil ends; and surely not for murderous violence. MENELAUS Never shalt thou wrest her from my grasp. PELEUS With this good staff I'll stain thy head with blood! MENELAUS Just touch me and see! Approach one step! PELEUS What! shalt thou rank with men? chief of cowards, son of cowards! What right hast thou to any place 'mongst men? Thou who didst let Phrygian rob thee of thy wife, leaving thy home without bolt or guard, as if forsooth the cursed woman thou hadst there was a model of virtue. No! a Spartan maid could not be chaste, e'en if she would, who leaves her home and bares her limbs and lets her robe float free, to share with youths their races and their sports,-customs I cannot away with.
(PELEUS enters with an attendant.)
PELEUS (calling out as he comes in sight) What means this? I ask you and your executioner; why is the palace in an uproar? give a reason; what mean your lawless machinations? Menelaus, hold thy hand. Seek not to outrun justice. (To his attendant) Forward! faster, faster! for this matter, methinks, admits of no delay; now if ever would I fain resume the vigour of my youth. First however will breathe new life into this captive, being to her as the breeze that blows a ship before the wind. Tell me, by what right have they pinioned thine arms and are dragging thee and thy child away? Like a ewe with her lamb art thou led to the slaughter, while I and thy lord were far away. ANDROMACHE Behold them that are haling me and my child to death, e'en as thou seest, aged prince. Why should I tell thee? For not by one urgent summons alone but by countless messengers have I sent for thee. No doubt thou knowest by hearsay of the strife in this house with this man's daughter, and the reason of my ruin. So now they have torn and are dragging me from the altar of Thetis, the goddess of thy chiefest adoration and the mother of thy gallant son, without any proper trial, yea, and without waiting for my absent master; because, forsooth, they knew my defencelessness and my child's, whom they mean to slay with me his hapless mother, though he has done no harm. But to thee, O sire, I make my supplication, prostrate at thy knees, though my hand cannot touch thy friendly beard; save me, I adjure thee, reverend sir, or to thy shame and my sorrow shall we be slain. PELEUS Loose her bonds, I say, ere some one rue it; untie her folded hands. MENELAUS I forbid it, for besides being a match for thee, I have a far better right to her. PELEUS What! art thou come hither to set my house in order? Art not content with ruling thy Spartans? MENELAUS She is my captive; I took her from Troy. PELEUS Aye, but my son's son received her as his prize. MENELAUS Is not all I have his, and all his mine? PELEUS For good, but not evil ends; and surely not for murderous violence. MENELAUS Never shalt thou wrest her from my grasp. PELEUS With this good staff I'll stain thy head with blood! MENELAUS Just touch me and see! Approach one step! PELEUS What! shalt thou rank with men? chief of cowards, son of cowards! What right hast thou to any place 'mongst men? Thou who didst let Phrygian rob thee of thy wife, leaving thy home without bolt or guard, as if forsooth the cursed woman thou hadst there was a model of virtue. No! a Spartan maid could not be chaste, e'en if she would, who leaves her home and bares her limbs and lets her robe float free, to share with youths their races and their sports,-customs I cannot away with.