Page:The Plays of Euripides Vol. 1- Edward P. Coleridge (1910).djvu/131

Rh rest thou hast. Had I a witness to attest my purity, and were I pitted 'gainst her still alive, facts would show thee on enquiry who the culprit was. Now by Zeus, the god of oaths, and by the earth, whereon we stand, I swear to thee I never did lay hand upon thy wife nor would have wished to, or have harboured such a thought. Slay me, ye gods! rob me of name and honour, from home and city cast me forth, a wandering exile o'er the earth! nor sea nor land receive my bones when I am dead, if I am such a miscreant! I cannot say if she through fear destroyed herself, for more than this am I forbid. With her discretion took the place of chastity, while I, though chaste, was not discreet in using this virtue.

. Thy oath by heaven, strong security, sufficiently refutes the charge.

. A wizard or magician must the fellow be, to think he can first flout me, his father, then by coolness master my resolve.

. Father, thy part in this doth fill me with amaze; wert thou my son and I thy sire, by heaven! I would have slain, not let thee off with banishment, hadst thou presumed to violate my honour.

. A just remark! yet shalt thou not die by the sentence thine own lips pronounce upon thyself; for death,