Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/69

Rh In argument o'ermastered by the lowly:

Yet will I not abandon mine own cause.

Say, thou rash girl, in what assurance strong

Should I thrust thee from lawful wedlock-rights?

Is Sparta meaner than the Phrygians' burg?

Soareth my fortune?—dost thou see me free?

Or by my young and rounded loveliness,

My city's greatness, and my noble friends

Exalted, would I wrest from thee thine home?

Sooth, to bear sons myself instead of thee—

Slave-sons, a wretched drag upon my life!

Nay, though thou bear no children, who will brook

That sons of mine be lords of Phthia-land?

O yea, the Greeks love me—for Hector's sake!—

Myself obscure, nor ever a Phrygian queen!

Not of my philtres thy lord hateth thee,

But that thy nature is no mate for his.

That is the love-charm: woman, 'tis not beauty

That witcheth bridegrooms, nay, but nobleness.

Let aught vex thee—O then a mighty thing

Is thy Laconian city, Skyros naught!

Thy wealth thou flauntest, settest above Achilles

Menelaus: therefore thy lord hateth thee.

A wife, though low-born be her lord, must yet

Content her, without wrangling arrogance.

But if in Thrace with snow-floods overstreamed

Thou hadst for lord a prince, where one man shares

His couch's boon in turn with many wives,

Wouldst thou have slain these?—ay, and so be found

Branding all women with the slur of lust—

A shameful thing! Yet herein more than men's

Is our affliction; but we bear up bravely.

Ah, dear, dear Hector, I would take to my heart