Page:Atalanta in Calydon - a tragedy (IA atalantaincalydo00swinrich).pdf/133

 Vex the great gods, and overloving men Slay and are slain for love’s sake; and this house Shall bear much better children; why should these Weep? but in patience let them live their lives And mine pass by forgotten: thou alone, Mother, thou sole and only, thou not these, Keep me in mind a little when I die Because I was thy first-born; let thy soul Pity me, pity even me gone hence and dead, Though thou wert wroth, and though thou bear again Much happier sons, and all men later born Exceedingly excel me; yet do thou Forget not, nor think shame; I was thy son. Time was I did not shame thee; and time was I thought to live and make thee honourable With deeds as great as these men’s; but they live, These, and I die; and what thing should have been Surely I know not; yet I charge thee, seeing I am dead already, love me not the less, Me, O my mother; I charge thee by these gods, My father’s, and that holier breast of thine, By these that see me dying, and that which nursed, Love me not less, thy first-born: though grief come, Grief only, of me, and of all these great joy, And shall come always to thee; for thou knowest, O mother, O breasts that bare me, for ye know,