Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/332

234 Without coercion.

Elec. Yea, my task indeed

Is done; for I at last have wisdom gained,

To work with those more mighty.

[The doors are thrown open, and disclose and ''standing by the dead body of, covered with a sheet and a veil over the face''.

Ægis. Lo, I see,

Ο Zeus, a form that lies there, fallen low,

Not without wrath of Heaven (should that word stir

Heaven's jealousy, I wish it all unsaid.)

Withdraw the veil which hides the face, that I

To kindred blood may pay the meed of tears.

Ores. Do thou uplift it. 'Tis thy task, not mine,

To look on this, and kindly words to speak.

Ægis. Thou giv'st good counsel, and I list to thee:

And thou, if yet she tarries in the house,

Call Clytemnestra.

Ores. [As lifts the veil.] Here she lies before thee!

Seek her not elsewhere.

Ægis. Oh, what sight is this!

Ores. Whom fearest thou? Who is 't thou dost not know?

Ægis. Into whose snares, whose closely-tangled mesh,

Have I, poor victim, fallen?

Ores. See'st not yet

That thou did'st greet the living as the dead?

Ægis. Ah me! I catch thy words. It needs must be

This is Orestes who now speaks to me.

Ores. Wert thou then tricked, who dost divine so well?

Ægis. I then am lost, woe 's me! yet let me speak

One little word.