Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1894) v1.djvu/263

Rh Enter Handmaid, with bearers carrying a covered corpse.

Women, O where is Hecuba, sorrow's queen,

Who passeth every man, all womankind,

In woes? No man shall take away her crown.

What now, O hapless voice of evil-boding?

Shall they ne'er sleep, thy publishings of grief?

To Hecuba I bring this pang: mid woes

Not easily may mortal lips speak fair.

Lo where she cometh from beneath the roofs:

In season for thy tale appeareth she.

O all-afflicted, more than lips can say!

Queen, thou art slain—thou seest the light no more!

Unchilded, widowed, cityless—all-destroyed!

No news this: 'tis but taunting me who knew.

But wherefore com'st thou bringing me this corpse,

Polyxena's, whose burial-rites, 'twas told,

By all Achaia's host were being sped?

She nothing knows: Polyxena—ah me!—

Still wails she, and the new woes graspeth not.