Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/598

500 I care at least for this,

That thou my proffered friendship should'st not miss.

Ah me, upon the shore,

Where the wild waters roar,

He sits and laughs at me,

And tosseth in his hand

What cheered my misery,

What ne'er till now another might command.

Ο bow, most dear to me,

Torn from these hands of mine,

If thou hast sense to see,

Thou lookest piteously

At this poor mate of thine,

The friend of Heracles,

Who never more shall wield thee as of old;

And thou, full ill at ease,

Art bent by hands of one for mischief bold,

All shameful deeds beholding,

Deeds of fierce wrath and hate,

And thousand evils from base thoughts unfolding,

Which none till now had ever dared to perpetrate.

It is a man's true part,

Of what is just to speak with words of good;

But, having eased his heart,

Not to launch forth his speech of bitter mood.

He was but one, urged on

By many to their will,

And for his friends hath won

A common help against a sore and pressing ill.