Page:Sophocles - Seven Plays, 1900.djvu/107

1084-1122]

Still where it ought, say I, nor let men think

To do their pleasure and not bide the pain.

That wheel comes surely round. Once Aias flamed

With insolent fierceness. Now I mount in pride,

And loudly bid thee bury him not, lest burying

Thy brother thou be burrowing thine own grave.

. Menelaüs, make not thy philosophy

A platform whence to insult the valiant dead.

. I nevermore will marvel, sirs, when one

Of humblest parentage is prone to sin,

Since those reputed men of noble strain

Stoop to such phrase of prating frowardness.

Come, tell it o’er again,—said you ye brought

My brother bound to aid you with his power?

Sailed he not forth of his own sovereign will?

Where is thy voucher of command o’er him?

Where of thy right o’er those that followed him?

Sparta, not we, shall buckle to thy sway.

’Twas written nowhere in the bond of rule

That thou shouldst check him rather than he thee.

Thou sailedst under orders, not in charge

Of all, much less of Aias. Then pursue

Thy limited direction, and chastise,

In haughty phrase, the men who fear thy nod.

But I will bury Aias, whether thou

Or the other general give consent or no.

’Tis not for me to tremble at your word.

Not to reclaim thy wife, like those poor souls

Thou fill’st with labour, issued this man forth,

But caring for his oath, and not for thee,

Or any other nobody. Then come

With heralds all arow, and bring the man

Called king of men with thee! For thy sole noise

I budge not, wert thou twenty times thy name.

. The sufferer should not bear a bitter tongue.

Hard words, how just soe’er, will leave their sting.

. Our bowman carries no small pride, I see.

. No mere mechanic’s menial craft is mine.

How wouldst thou vaunt it hadst thou but a shield!