Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/301

Rh How shall I praise these deeds? or wilt thou say

That thus thou takest vengeance for thy child?

Basely enough, if thou should'st say it. Lo!

It is not good to wed an enemy,

E'en in a daughter's cause. But since to speak

A word of counsel is not granted us,

Though thou dost love to speak all words of ill,

That "we revile a mother;"—yet I look

On thee as more my mistress than my mother,

Living a woeful life, by many ills

Encompassed which proceed from thee, and him,

The partner of thy guilt. That other one,

My poor Orestes, hardly 'scaped from thee,

Drags on a weary life. Full oft hast thou

Charged me with rearing him to come at last

A minister of vengeance; and I own,

Had I but strength, be sure of this, 'twere done.

For this then, even this, proclaim aloud

To all men, as thou wilt, that I am base,

Or foul of speech, or full of shamelessness:

For if I be with such things conversant,

Then to thy breeding I bring no disgrace.

Chor. I see she breathes out rage—but whether right

Be on her side, for this no care I see.

Clytem. And why should I give heed to one like her,

Who thus her mother scorns? And at her age!

Does she not seem to thee as one prepared

To go all lengths, and feel no touch of shame?

Elec. Know well, I do feel shame for all I do,

Though thou think'st otherwise, and well I know

I do things startling, most unmeet for me;

But thy fixed hate and these thy deeds perforce

Constrain me still to do them. Still it holds,

Base deeds by base are learnt and perfected.