Page:Ten Tragedies of Seneca (1902).djvu/166

146 Jaculare flammas; lumen ereptum polo

Fulminibus exple. causa, ne dubites diu,

Utriusque mala sit: si minus, mala sit mea.

Me pete, trisulco flammeam telo sacem

Per pectus hoc transmitte. si natos pater

Humare, & igni tradere extremo volo,

Ego sum cremandus. si nihil superos movet,

Nullumque telis impios numen petit;

Ætema nox permaneat, & tenebris tegat

Immensa longis scelera. nil Titan queror,

Si perseveras. ATR. Nunc meas laudo manus,

Nunc parta vera est palma. perdideram scelus,

Nisi sic doleres. liberos nasci mihi

Nunc credo, castis nunc fidem reddi toris.

THY. Quid liberi meruere? ATR. Quod fuerant tui.

THY. Natos parenti? ATR. Fateor, &, quod me juvat,

Certos. THY. Piorum præsides testor Deos.

ATR. Quid conjugales? THY. Scelere quis pensat scelus?

ATR. Scio, quid queraris. scelere prærepto doles:

Nec, quod nefandas hauseris, tangit, dapes:

Qued non pararis fuerat hic animus tibi

Instruere similes inscio fratri cibos,

Et adjuvante liberos matre aggredi,

Similique leto stemere. hoc unum obstitit,

Tuos putasti. THY. Vindices aderunt Dei:

His puniendum vota te tradunt mea.

ATR. Te puniendum liberis trado tuis.

 Shoot forth thy flames, and superadd to thy lightnings, all the light which can be drawn away from the heavens, so as to intensify them! The culpability of each of us is great, do not hesitate for long, if there be any difference in our guilt, let it be mine, which shall be adjudged the greater! Select me, send through my breast, the flaming fires of thy three-forked lightning if as a father I only wish to bury my sons and deliver them over to "fire" at last? I myself must be burnt, if nothing moves the Gods, and no deity is willing to search out the wicked for punishment with his lightnings, let eternal night remain to us, and hide these tremendous crimes with its prolonged darkness! O! Titan! I shall complain of nothing then, if thou wilt only persevere in lying hidden away.

ATR. Now I congratulate myself upon my operations, now a real victory is achieved. I should have been deprived of the chief advantages of my crime, unless thou grievest as thou hast been doing—I believe, that those children were destined to be born for me (for my designs) and thus it is, that I have dealt out justice to such chaste nuptials! 