Page:The Plays of Euripides Vol. 1- Edward P. Coleridge (1910).djvu/155

Rh me. For sweet it is to see our friends, come they when they will, e'en by night.

Had I the tongue, the tuneful voice of Orpheus to charm Demeter's daughter or her husband by my lay and bring thee back from Hades, I had gone down, nor Pluto's hound, nor Charon, ferryman of souls, whose hand is on the oar, had held me back, till to the light I had restored thee alive. At least do thou await me there, against the hour I die, prepare a home for me to be my true wife still. For in this same cedar coffin I will bid these children lay me with thee and stretch my limbs by thine; for never even in death may I be severed from thee, alone found faithful of them all.

. Lo! I too will share with thee thy mourning for her, friend with friend; for this is but her due.

. My children, ye with your own ears have heard your father's promise, that he will never wed another wife to set her over you, nor e'er dishonour me.

. Yea, so I promise now, and accomplish it I will.

. On these conditions receive the children from my hand.

. I receive them, dear pledges by a dear hand given.

. Take thou my place and be a mother to these babes.

. Sore will be their need when they are reft of thee.

. O my children, I am passing to that world below, when my life was needed most.

. Ah me, what can I do bereft of thee?

. Thy sorrow Time will soothe; 'tis the dead who are as naught.

. Take me, O take me, I beseech, with thee 'neath the earth.

. Enough that I in thy stead am dying.

. O Destiny! of what a wife art thou despoiling me!

. Lo! the darkness deepens on my drooping eyes.