Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/182

154 Nor sunlit sky, if I forsake thee ever,

Deliver mine own soul, and fall from thee!

I shared the murder, I disown it not.

All did I plan for which thou sufferest now;

Therefore I needs must die with thee, with her.

For I account her pledged of thee to me,

My wife. What tale fair-seeming shall I tell,

Coming to Delphi, to the Phocians' burg,

Who was your close friend ere your fortunes fell,

Now, in calamity, no more thy friend?

Nay, nay, this task is mine no less than thine.

Since we shall surely die, debate we now

How Menelaus too may share our woe.

Dear friend, would I could look on this, and die!

Hearken to me, and that sword-stroke defer.

I wait, if so I avenge me on my foe.

Speak low!—I put in women little trust.

Fear not for these: all here be friends to us.

Slay Helen—Menelaus' bitter grief!