Page:Sophocles (Storr 1919) v2.djvu/231



’Tis she, and very wretched is her state.

O for the heavy change! Alas, alas!

Surely thy pity, sir, is not for me.

O beauty marred by foul and impious spite!

Yea, sir, this wreck of womanhood am I.

Alas, how sad a life of singleness!

Why gaze thus on me, stranger, and lament?

Of my own ills how little then I knew!

Was this revealed by any word of mine?

By seeing thee conspicuous in thy woes.

And yet my looks reveal but half my woes.

Could there be woes more piteous to behold?

Yea, to be housemate with the murderers—

Whose murderers? at what villainy dost hint?

My father’s; and their slave am I perforce.

Who is it puts upon thee this constraint? 219