HECUBA [8]
is coming even now from the shelter of the tent appearing just in time to hear thee speak. (HECUBA comes out of the tent.) MAID Alas for thee! most hapless queen, ruined beyond all words of mine to tell; robbed of the light of life; of children, husband, city reft; hopelessly undone! HECUBA This is no news but insult; I have heard it all before. But why art thou come, bringing hither to me the corpse of Polyxena, on whose burial Achaea's host was reported to be busily engaged? MAID (aside) She little knows what I have to tell, but mourns Polyxena, not grasping her new sorrows. HECUBA Ah! woe is me! thou art not surely bringing hither mad Cassandra, the prophetic maid? MAID She lives, of whom thou speakest; but the dead thou dost not weep is here. (Uncovering the corpse) Mark well the body now laid bare; is not this a sight to fill thee with wonder, and upset thy hopes? HECUBA Ah me! 'tis the corpse of my son Polydorus I behold, whom he of Thrace was keeping safe for me in his halls. Alas! this is the end of all; my life is o'er. (Chanting) O my son, my son, alas for thee! a frantic strain I now begin; thy fate I learnt, a moment gone, from some foul fiend. MAID What! so thou knewest thy son's fate, poor lady. HECUBA (chanting) I cannot, cannot credit this fresh sight I see. Woe succeeds to woe; time will never cease henceforth to bring me groans and tears. LEADER Alas poor lady, our sufferings are cruel indeed. HECUBA (chanting) O my son, child of a luckless mother, what was the manner of thy death? what lays thee dead at my feet? Who did the deed? MAID I know not. On the sea-shore I found him. HECUBA (chanting) Cast up on the smooth sand, or thrown there after the murderous blow? MAID The waves had washed him ashore. HECUBA (chanting) Alas! alas! I read aright the vision I saw in my sleep, nor did the phantom dusky-winged escape my ken, even the vision I saw concerning my son, who is now no more within the bright sunshine. LEADER Who slew him then? Can thy dream-lore tell us that? HECUBA (chanting) 'Twas my own, own friend, the knight of Thrace, with whom his aged sire had placed the boy in hiding. LEADER O horror! what wilt thou say? did he slay him to get the gold? HECUBA (chanting) O awful crime! O deed without a name! beggaring wonder! impious! intolerable! Where are now the laws 'twixt guest and host? Accursed monster! how hast thou mangled his flesh, slashing the poor child's limbs with ruthless sword, lost to all sense of pity! LEADER Alas for thee! how some deity, whose hand is heavy on thee, hath sent thee troubles beyond all other mortals! But yonder I see our lord and master Agamemnon coming; so let us be still henceforth, my friends. (AGAMEMNON enters.) AGAMEMNON Hecuba, why art thou delaying to come and bury thy daughter? for it was for this that Talthybius brought me thy message begging that none of the Argives should touch thy child. And so I granted this, and none is touching her, but this long delay of thine fills me with wonder. Wherefore am I come to send thee hence; for our part there is well performed; if herein there be any place for "well." (He sees the body.)
Ha! what man is this I see near the tents, some Trojan's corpse? 'tis not an Argive's body; that the garments it is clad in tell me. HECUBA (aside) Unhappy one! in naming thee I name myself; O Hecuba, what shall do? throw myself here at Agamemnon's knees, or bear my sorrows in silence? AGAMEMNON Why dost thou turn thy back towards me and weep, refusing to say, what has happened, or who this is? HECUBA (aside) But should he count me as a slave and foe and spurn me from his knees, I should but add to my anguish. AGAMEMNON I am no prophet born; wherefore, if I be not told, I cannot learn the current of thy thoughts. HECUBA (aside) Can it be that in estimating
Ha! what man is this I see near the tents, some Trojan's corpse? 'tis not an Argive's body; that the garments it is clad in tell me. HECUBA (aside) Unhappy one! in naming thee I name myself; O Hecuba, what shall do? throw myself here at Agamemnon's knees, or bear my sorrows in silence? AGAMEMNON Why dost thou turn thy back towards me and weep, refusing to say, what has happened, or who this is? HECUBA (aside) But should he count me as a slave and foe and spurn me from his knees, I should but add to my anguish. AGAMEMNON I am no prophet born; wherefore, if I be not told, I cannot learn the current of thy thoughts. HECUBA (aside) Can it be that in estimating