Page:Sophocles (Collins).djvu/189

Rh

Then the disguised stranger knows that this maiden—noble even in her mean dress—must be his sister; and his heart yearns towards her, and he can contain himself no longer. He burns with indignation as he looks on one whom he had left a light-hearted and innocent girl, now worn and wasted, as she says herself,

"Funeral urns," he cries, "are not for the living, and Orestes is alive." Then he shows his father's signet-ring, and Electra knows that he must be indeed her brother. The haughty spirit which had defied Ægisthus, and repaid the queen with scorn for scorn, is at once softened. She bursts into tears, and with wild exclamations of joy throws herself into the arms of "her own, her dear Orestes."

Even when told through the cold medium of a dead language—without a stage direction, without the aid of dress or scenery—no "recognition" in any drama