Page:The Antigone of Sophocles (1911).djvu/68

64 Then leaned against his sword with all his weight

And drove full half the blade into his side;

Then conscious still he in his faint

Embrace the maiden folded, gasping, while

A perfect stream of blood on her white cheek

Shot forth and dyed it to a crimson hue.

A corpse enclosing corpse he lies, his bride

And he united—in the halls of Death;

And he has shown to all the world, no ill

That man is heir to transcends thoughtlessness.

[Eurydice exit through palace door C.

What can this mean? The lady has gone back

Into the house without a single word.

I, too, am all amaze; yet cherish I

The hope that, hearing of her son’s sad fate,

She deems it quite unseemly to parade

Her grief before the people, but retired

Within the house, will make loud lamentation,

With handmaids following in mournful strain.

By judgment taught, she’s too discreet to err.

Perhaps; excessive silence though to me

Seems perilous, as well as loud lament.

Well, we shall soon discover whether we

Are justified in fearing that concealed

In her afflicted heart she aught restrains,

For I shall go and see—yes, you are right—

Excessive silence, too, is perilous.

[Exit through side door L. into palace.

Lo, yonder the monarch himself draws near,

A memorial bearing all too clear

Of the sin of his own infatuate mind:

His own, not another’s misdeed, here I find.

Woe is me! Woe!

Oh, the sins of my misguided mind,

Stubborn, teeming with death and pain!