Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/226

208 I'll make thee full atonement, and will plunge The avenging sword within my sinful breast, And so be free from life and Lmilt at once. Thee will I follow through Tartarean pools, Across the Styx, through streams of liquid fire. Let me appease the spirit of the dead. Accept the spoils I offer, take this lock Torn from my bleeding forehead. 'Twas not right To join our souls in life; but surely now We may by death unite our fates. [To herself.] Now die, If thou art undefiled, to appease thy lord; But if defiled, die for thy lover's sake. Is't meet that I should live and seek again My husband's couch, by such foul incest stained? This wrong was lacking still, that, as if pure, Thou shouldst enjoy that union, justified. death, thou only cure for evil love, For injured chastity the last resort: I fly to thee; spread wide thy soothing arms. Hear me, O Athens; thou, O father, hear, Thou worse than stepdame: I have falsely sworn. The crime, which I myself within my heart, With passion mad, conceived, I basely charged To him. An empty vengeance hast thou wrought Upon thy son; for he in chastity, Through fault of the unchaste, lies there, unstained And innocent. [To Hippolytus.] Regain thine honor now; Behold my impious breast awaits the stroke Of justice, and my blood makes sacrifice Unto the spirit of a guiltless man. [To Theseus.] How thou mayst recompense thy murdered son, Learn now from me—and seek the Acheron. [She falls upon her sword and dies.] Theseus: Ye jaws of wan Avernus, and ye caves