Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1894) v1.djvu/44

16 I might have wed what man Thessalian

I would, have dwelt wealth-crowned in princely halls;

Yet would not live on, torn away from thee,

With orphaned children: wherefore spared I not

The gifts of youth still mine, wherein I joyed.

Yet she that bare, he that begat, forsook thee,

Though fair for death their time of life was come,

Yea, fair, to save their son and die renowned.

Their only one wert thou: no hope there was

To get them sons thereafter, hadst thou died.

So had I lived, and thou, to after days:

Thou wert not groaning, of thy wife bereaved,

Thy children motherless. Howbeit this

Some God hath brought to pass: it was to be.

Let be:—remember thou what thank is due

For this: I never can ask full requital;—

For nought there is more precious than the life;—

Yet justly due: for these thy babes thou lovest

No less than I, if that thine heart be right.

Suffer that they have lordship in mine home:

Wed not a stepdame to supplant our babes,

Whose heart shall tell her she is no Alcestis,

Whose jealous hand shall smite them, thine and mine.

Do not, ah, do not this—I pray thee, I.

For the new stepdame hateth still the babes

Of her that's gone with more than viper-venom.

The boy—his father is his tower of strength

To whom to speak, of whom to win reply:

But, O my child, what girlhood will be thine?

To thee what would she be, thy father's yoke-mate?

What if with ill report she smirched thy name,

And in thy youth's flower marred thy marriage-hopes?

For thee thy mother ne'er shall deck for bridal,