Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/217

Rh Whence came this base infection of our race? Was he of Grecian birth, or did he spring From Scythian Taurus or some Colchian stream? The type reverts to its ancestral stock, And blood ignoble but repeats its source. This is the madness of that savage race, To scorn all lawful love, and prostitute At last the long-chaste body to the crowd. Oh, loathsome race, restrained by no good laws Which milder climes revere! The very beasts Shun love incestuous, and keep the laws Of nature with instinctive chastity. Where is that face, that feigned austerity, That rough and careless garb that sought to ape The ancient customs? Where that aspect stern, That sour severity which age assumes? O life, two-faced! How thou dost hide thy thoughts! For fairest faces cover foulest hearts; The chaste demeanor hides inchastity; The gentle, boldness; seeming goodness, sin. False men approve the truth; the faint of heart Affect a blustering mood. O thou, of woods Enamored, savage, rough and virgin pure, Didst thou reserve thyself for me alone? On my couch first and with so fell a crime Wast thou inclined to try thy manly powers? Now, now I thank the kindly gods of heaven That long ago I slew Antiope; That, when I went below to Stygian caves, I did not leave thy mother for thy lust. Go, get thee far away to unknown lands; And there, though to her utmost bounds removed, The earth should hem thee off by ocean's wastes; Though thou shouldst dwell at the Antipodes; Though to the frigid northern realms thou go, And deep within her farthest caverns hide; Or, though beyond the reach of winter placed, And drifting snows, thou leave the boisterous threats Of frosty Boreas in mad pursuit: