Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/343

Rh Have I wept bitter tears for. Now of one

I'll tell thee, which I never knew before;

For when our king, our Heracles, went forth

From home for his last journey, then with me

He leaves a tablet, old, and written o'er

With special rules, which never until then

Had he the heart to tell me, though he went

On many a labour, but still started forth,

As one about to prosper, not to die.

But now, like one as good as dead he told

What chattels I should take as marriage dower,

What shares of all their father's land he gave

In portions to his sons, and fixed a time

That when for one whole year and three months more

He from this land was absent, then 'twas his,

Or in that self-same hour to die, or else,

Escaping that one crisis, thenceforth live

With life unvexed. Such things, he said, stood firm

By doom of Gods, and thus the end would come

Of all the labours wrought by Heracles;

For so, he said, Dodona's ancient oak

Had spoken by the voice of twin-born doves.

And of these things the unerring truth is come,

This very hour, as fate decreed it should;

And so, my friends, while sleeping sweetest sleep,

I start in fear and terror, lest I live

Bereaved of him, the noblest man of all.