Page:Sophocles - Seven Plays, 1900.djvu/273

786–816]

What wilt thou do to me? Ah! ah! It comes,

It is at hand. ’Tis here! Woe ’s me, undone!

I have shown you all. Stay near me. Go not far:

Ah! ah!

O island king, I would this agony

Might cleave thy bosom through and through! Woe, woe!

Woe! Ah! ye two commanders of the host,

Agamemnon, Menelaüs, O that ye,

Another ten years’ durance in my room

Might nurse this malady! O Death, Death, Death!

I call thee daily—wilt thou never come?

Will it not be?—My son, thou noble boy,

If thou art noble, take and burn me there

Aloft in yon all-worshipped Lemnian fire!

Yea, when the bow thou keep’st was my reward,

I did like service for the child of Heaven.

How now, my son?

What say’st? Art silent? Where—where art thou, boy?

. My heart is full, and groaning o’er thy woes.

. Nay, yet have comfort. This affliction oft

Goes no less swiftly than it came. I pray thee,

Stand fast and leave me not alone!

. Fear nought.

We will not stir.

. Wilt thou remain?

. Be sure of it.

. I’ll not degrade thee with an oath, my son.

. Rest satisfied. I may not go without thee.

. Thy hand, to pledge me that!

. There, I will stay.

, Now, now, aloft!

. Where mean’st thou?

. Yonder aloft!

, Whither? Thou rav’st. Why starest thou at the sky?

. Now, let me go.

. Where?

. Let me go, I say!