Page:Genius, and other essays.djvu/258

GENIUS AND OTHER ESSAYS the foregoing speech appeared again in literature until Shakespeare wrote:

I will omit the greater portion of the choruses and dialogue which follow the Queen's avowal, but translate a few of the strophes and antistrophes alluding to the evil auspices of the Atreidæ and to the sacrifice of Iphigeneia:

[Agam. 1466-1507.]

CHORUS—SEMI-CHORUS—KLYTÆMNESTRA

Chorus.Woe! Woe!

King! O how shall I weep for thy dying?

What shall my fond heart say anew?

Thou in the web of the spider art lying,

Breathing out life by a death she shall rue!

Semi-Chorus.—Alas! alas for this slavish couch! By a sword

Two-edged, by a hand untrue,

Thou art smitten, even to death, my lord!

Klyt.—Thou sayest this deed was mine alone;

But I bid thee call me not

The wife of Agamemnon's bed;

'Twas the ancient fell Alastor of Atreus' throne,

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