Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/347

Rh Are apt to snap; the easy-stretch'd endure

O gentle wisdom, little understood!

O arts above the vulgar tyrant's reach!

O policy too subtle far for sense

Of heady, masterful, injurious men!

This good he meant you, and for this he died!

Yet not for this—else might thy crime in part

Be error deem'd—but that pretence is vain.

For, if ye slew him for supposed misrule,

Injustice to his kin and Dorian friends,

Why with the offending father did ye slay

Two unoffending babes, his innocent sons?

Why not on them have placed the forfeit crown,

Ruled in their name, and train'd them to your will?

Had they misruled? had they forgot their friends,

Forsworn their blood? ungratefully had they

Preferr'd Messenian serfs to Dorian lords?

No! but to thy ambition their poor lives

Were bar—and this, too, was their father's crime.

That thou might'st reign he died, not for his fault

Even fancied; and his death thou wroughtest chief!

For, if the other lords desired his fall

Hotlier than thou, and were by thee kept back,

Why dost thou only profit by his death?

Thy crown condemns thee, while thy tongue absolves.

And now to me thou tenderest friendly league,

And to my son reversion to thy throne!

Short answer is sufficient; league with thee,

For me I deem such impious; and for him

Exile abroad more safe than heirship here.

POLYPHONTES.

I ask thee not to approve thy husband's death,

No, nor expect thee to admit the grounds,