Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/76

20 And in men's eyes shalt thou too share this guilt:

Thy part in this her deed shall weigh thee down.

But if I 'scape your hands, that I die not,

Then will ye slay my son? And the child's death—

Think ye his sire shall hold it a little thing?

So void of manhood Troy proclaims him not.

Nay, he shall follow duty's call, be proved,

By deeds, of Peleus worthy and Achilles.

He shall thrust forth thy child. What plea wilt find

For a new spouse?—This lie—"the saintly soul

Of this pure thing shrank from her wicked lord?"

Who shall wed such? Wilt keep her in thine halls

Spouseless, a grey-haired widow? O thou wretch,

Seest not the floods of evil bursting o'er thee?

How many a wedlock-wrong wouldst thou be fain

Thy child knew rather than the ills I name!

We ought not for slight cause court grievous harm;

Nor, if we women be a baleful curse,

Ought men to make their nature woman-like.

For, if I practise on thy child by philtres,

And seal her womb, according to her tale,

Willingly, nothing loth, nor low at altars

Crouching, myself will face the penalty

At her lord's hands, to whom I am guilty of wrong

No less, in blasting him with childlessness.

Hereon I stand:—but one thing in thy nature

I fear—'twas in a woman's quarrel too

Thou didst destroy the hapless Phrygians' town.

Thou hast said too much, as woman against man:

Yea, and thy soul's discretion hath shot wide.