Page:Ten Tragedies of Seneca (1902).djvu/134

114 Vix tempero animo, vix dolor frenos capit.

Sic, cum feras vestigat, & longo sagax

Loro tenetur Umber, ac presso vias

Scrutator ore; dum procul lento suem

Odore sentit, paret, & tacito locum

Rostro pererrat: præda cum propior fuit,

Cervice tota pugnat, & gemitu vocat

Dominum morantem, seque retinenti eripit.

Cum spirat ira sanguinem, nescit tegi.

Tamen tegatur. aspice, ut multo gravis

Squallore vultus obruat mœstos coma:

Quam fæda jaceat barba. præstatur fides.

Fratrem juvat videre: complexus mihi

Redde expetitos. quidquid iraram suit,

Transierit. ex hoc sanguis ac pietas die

Colantur: animis odia damnata excidant.

THY. Diluere possem cuncta, nisi talis fores.

Sed fateor, Atreu, fateor, admisi omnia

Quæ credidisti. pessimam causam meam

Hodierna pietas fecit, est prorsus nocens,

Quicunque visus tam bono fratri est nocens.

Lacrimis agendum est: supplicem primus vides.

Hæ te precantur pedibus intactæ manus.

Ponatur omnis ira, & ex animo tumor

Erasus abeat: obsides fidei accipe

Hos innocentes. ATR. Frater, a genubus manus

Aufer, meosque potius amplexus pete.

Vos quoque, senum præsidia, tot juvenes, meo

Pendete collo, squallidam vestem exue,

Oculisque nostris parce, & omatus cape

Pares meis; lætusque fraterni imperii

Capesse partem, major hæc laus est mea,

Fratri paternum reddere incolumi decus.

Habere regnum, casus est: virtus, dare.

THY. Dii paria, frater, pretia pro tantis tibi

Meritis rependant. regiam capitis notam

 appear, but his sons too, a regular family party! I can scarcely preserve my equanimity, and it is with great difficulty, that I can keep my anger in subjugation! Just as when the blood-hound is on the track, and is then being held in by a leather strap, at the same time that he is following up that track, with his nose pressing the ground, and is obedient, whilst he is detecting the boar's whereabout with a feeble scent at a distance only, and wanders here, wanders there silently; but when his quarry draws nearer, he strains away at the collar, and sets up a loud bark, as if he would remind his master of his being kept back, and forthwith breaks away from the hand that held him! So when an angry man has made 