Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/405

Rh Are basest words like these. For very shame

Leave not thy father in his sad old age;

For shame leave not thy mother, feeble grown

With many years, who ofttimes prays the Gods

That thou may'st live and to thy home return:

Pity, Ο king, thy boy, and think if he,

Deprived of childhood's nurture, live bereaved,

Beneath unfriendly guardians, what sore grief

Thou, in thy death, dost give to him and me;

For I have nothing now on earth save thee

To which to look; for thou hast swept away

My country with thy spear, and other fate

Has taken both my mother and my sire

To dwell, as dead, in Hades. What to me

Were country in thy stead, or what were wealth?

For I in thee find all deliverance.

Yea, think of me too. Still the good man feels,

Or ought to feel, the memory of delight;

For gracious favours still do favour win;

But if a man forget the good received,

His soul no more wears stamp of gentle birth.

Chor. I would, Ο Aias, thou could'st pity feel,

As I do. Then would'st thou approve her words.

Aias. Great praise shall she have from me, if she dare

Fully to do the task appointed her.

Tec. Lo! Aias dear, I will obey in all.

Aias. Bring then thy child to me that I may see him.

Tec. In very fear but now I sent him forth.

Aias. In these late troubles? Or what meanest thou?

Tec. Lest he, poor child, should meet with thee and die.

Aias. That would have been fit pastime for my Fate.

Tec. But I took care against that fate to guard.