Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (1908) Morshead.djvu/188

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Will, an thou wilt! but I forbid the deed.

[Exit the.

Exulting Fates, who waste the line

And whelm the house of Oedipus!

Fiends, who have slain, in wrath condign,

The father and the children thus!

What now befits it that I do,

What meditate, what undergo?

Can I the funeral rite refrain,

Nor weep for Polynices slain?

But yet, with fear I shrink and thrill,

Presageful of the city's will!

Thou, O Eteocles, shalt have

Full rites, and mourners at thy grave,

But he, thy brother slain, shall he,

With none to weep or cry Alas,

To unbefriended burial pass?

Only one sister o'er his bier,

To raise the cry and pour the tear—

Who can obey such stern decree?

Let those who hold our city's sway

Wreak, or forbear to wreak, their will

On those who cry, Ah, well-a-day!

Lamenting Polynices still!

We will go forth and, side by side

With her, due burial will provide!

Royal he was; to him be paid

Our grief, wherever he be laid!

The crowd may sway, and change, and still

Take its caprice for Justice' will!