Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (Cookson).djvu/122




 * Before the Citadel which rises in the background, crowded with altars and statues.

Burghers of Cadmus! Seasonable speech,

And apt withal, the world expects from him

Whose business is a kingdom's governance,—

High on the hinder-bulwark of the State

At lonely watch,—his hand upon the helm

And never a lull from care to latch his lids.

For, if we prosper, God shall have the thanks;

But,—if the sorry thing, I wish away,

Calamity befall,—one man, and he

My sole self Eteocles, shall hear his name

Sung to loud preludes,—universal note

Of wail,—which I pray Zeus, whom we acclaim

Averter, to keep far from Cadmus Town.

And now the hour is ripe when all of you—

Whether your prime's to come or hath gone by—

Must put on strength like buds thick-burgeoning.

Each in such measure as his age allows,

Both for the safety of the realm, her Gods—

Lest their accounted glories be wiped out,—

And for your children and this earth—the Mother

And most dear nurse of your young innocence.