Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/172

154 And hide. From this one crime spare Hercules. [Enter Hercules.] Hercules: 'Tis well; the household of the shameless king Is utterly destroyed. To thee, O wife Of mighty Jove, this promised sacrifice Have I performed; my vows I've gladly paid; And other victims shall thine Argos give. Amphitr.: Thou hast not yet enough atonement made, O son. Complete the sacrifice. Behold, A victim at the altar stands, and waits, With willing neck, thy hand. I offer here My life, and eagerly; I seek to die. Slay me. [Hercules appears to be fainting.] But what is this? His eye's keen glance Cannot maintain its gaze; grief dims his sight; And do I see the hands of Hercules A-tremble? Now his eyelids fall in sleep, His head sinks down upon his weary breast, His knees give way, and down upon the earth His whole great body falls; as when some ash Is felled in forest glades, or when some cliff Falls down and makes a harbor in the sea. [To Hercules.] Dost thou yet live? Or has thy furious rage, Which sent thy friends to death, slain thee as well? [He examines the prostrate body.] He slumbers; this his measured breathing proves. Let him have time for rest, that heavy sleep May break his madness' force, and so relieve His troubled heart. [To attendants.] Ye slaves, his arms remove, Lest, waking, he again his madness prove.

Chorus: Let heaven and heaven's creator mourn, The fertile earth, the wandering wave Upon the restless sea. And thou, Who over lands and ocean's plains