Page:The Tragedies of Aeschylus - tr. Potter - 1812.pdf/78

34 What wilt thou do, when thou shalt learn the rest?

Remains there ought of ills yet to be told?

A wide tempestuous sea of baleful woes.

What then has life desirable? Why rather

From this rude cliff leap I not headlong down,

And end my woes? Better to die at once,

Than linger out a length of life in pain.

Ill wou'dst thou bear my miseries, by the Fates,

Exempt from death, the refuge of th' afflicted.

Bat my afflictions know no bounds, till Jove

Falls from th' inmperial sovereignty of heav'n.

Shall he then fall? Shall the time come, when Jove

Shall sink dethron'd? I think I shou'd rejoice

To see the tyrant's ruin: Shou'd I not,

Since from his hands I suffer all these ills.

Then be thou well assur'd it shall be so.

And who shall wrest th' imperial sceptre from him?

Himself, destroy'd by his improvident counsels.

Oh say, if harmless what I ask, say how.

Urging a marriage he shall dearly rue.

Heav'n-sprung, or mortal ? If permitted, say.

What matters which? It may not be disclos'd.

Shall then a wife deprive him of the throne?

She greater than the sire shall bear a son.

Has he no means of pow'r t' avert this fate?