In misty air,Like wingless, viewless dust, and endingIn nothing there!ANTISTROPHE I.’Tis more than heart may bear. Quick FearMy quaking life with dusky drearAlarm surroundeth!My father spied my ruin: sheerDespair confoundeth.Sooner, high-swung from fatal rope,Here may I end both life and hope,And strong Death bind me,Than hated hearts shall reach their scope,And shame shall find me!STROPHE II.Would I were throned in ether high,Where snows are born, and through the skyThe white rack skurries! Would that IMight sit sublimeOn a hanging cliff where lone winds sigh,n50Where human finger never showedThe far-perched vultures’ drear abode,Nor goat may climb!Thence sheer to leap, and end for everMy life and name,Ere forceful hands this heart deliverTo married shame!ANTISTROPHE II.There, where no friendly foot may stray,There let me lie, my limbs a preyTo dogs and birds: I not gainsay:’Twas wisely said,Free from much woe who dies to-dayShall be to-morrow. Rather than weddedTo whom I hate, let me be beddedNow with the dead!Or if there be, my life to free,A way, declare it,Ye gods!—a surgeon’s cut for me,My heart shall bear it!STROPHE III.Voice ye your sorrow! with the cryOf doleful litany pierce the sky!For freedom, for quick rescue cryTo him above!Ruler of Earth, look from thy throne,With eyes of love!These deeds of violence wilt thou own,Nor know thy prostrate suppliant’s groan,Almighty Jove?ANTISTROPHE III.Ægyptus’ sons, a haughty race,Follow my flight with sleepless chase,With whoop and bay they scent my traceTo force my love.Thy beam is true; both good and illThy sure scales prove,Thou even-handed! Mortals stillReap fair fulfilment from thy will,All-crowning Jove.Chorus,in separate voices, and short hurried exclamations:n51Voice 1.Ah me! he lands! he leaps ashore!He strides with ruffian hands to hale us!Voice 2.Cry, sisters, cry! swift help implore!If here to cry may aught avail us!Voice 3.Ah me! ’tis but the muffled roarOf forceful storms soon to assail us!Voice 1.Flee to the gods! to the altars cling!Voice 2.By sea, by land, the ruthless foeGrimly wantons in our woe!Voice 3.Beneath thy wing shield us, O king!EnterHerald.Herald.Hence to the ships! to the good ships fare ye!n52Swiftly as your feet may bear ye!Chorus.Tear us! tear us!Rend us rather,Torture and tear us!From this bodyCut the head!Gorily gatherUs to the dead!Herald.Hence to the ships, away! away!A curse on you, and your delay!O’er the briny billowy wayThou shalt go to-day, to-day!Wilt thou stand, a mulish striver,I can spur, a forceful driver;Deftly, deftly, thou shalt tripTo the stoutly-timbered ship!If to yield thou wilt not know,Gorily, gorily thou shalt go!An’ thou be not madded wholly,Know thy state, and quit thy folly!Chorus.Help, ho! help, ho! help!Herald.To the ships! to the ships away with me!These gods of Argos what reck we?Chorus.Never, O neverThe nurturing river,Of life the giver,The healthful floodThat quickens the bloodLet me behold!An Argive am I,f19From Inachus old,These gods denyThy claim. Withhold!Herald.To the ships, to the ships, with march not slow,Will ye, nill ye, ye must go!Quickly, quickly, hence away!Know thy master and obey!Ere a worse thing thou shalt know—Blows and beating—gently go!STROPHE I.Chorus.Worse than worsestMay’st thou know!As thou cursest,Curst be so!The briny billowO’er thee flow!On sandy pillowBedded low,’Neath Sarpedon’s breezy brow,f20With the shifting sands shift thou!Herald.Scream—rend your robes in rags!—call on the gods!The Egyptian bark thou shalt not overleap.Pour ye the bitter bootless wail at will!ANTISTROPHE I.Chorus.With fierce heart swellingTo work my woe,With keen hate yellingBarks the foe.Broad Nile wellingO’er thee flow!Find thy dwellingBedded low,’Neath the towering Libyan waters,Towering thou ’gainst Libya’s daughters!Herald.To the ships! to the ships! the swift ships even-oared!Quickly! no laggard shifts! the hand that drags theeWill lord it o’er thy locks, not gently handled!STROPHE II.Chorus.O father, oh!From the altarThe assaulterDrags me to my woe!Step by step, a torturing guider,Like the slowly-dragging spider,Cruel-minded so!Like a dream,A dusky dream,My hope away doth go!O Earth, O Earth,From death redeem!O Earth, O Jove deliver!Herald.Your Argive gods I know not; they nor nursedMy infant life, nor reared my riper age.ANTISTROPHE II.Chorus.O father, oh!From the altarThe assaulterDrags me to my woe!A snake two-footed fiercely frettedSwells beside me! from his whettedFangs, black death doth flow!Like a dream,A dusky dream,My hope is vanished so!O Earth, O Earth,From death redeem!O Earth, O Jove deliver!Herald.To the ships! to the ships! Obey! I say, obey!Pity thy robes, if not thy flesh—away!STROPHE III.Chorus.Ye chiefs of the city,By force they subdue me!Herald.Well! I must drag thee by the hair! come! come!Point thy dull ears, and hear me!—come! come! come!ANTISTROPHE III.Chorus.I’m lost! I’m ruined!O king, they undo me!Herald.Thou shalt see kings enough anon, believe me,Ægyptus’ sons—kingless thou shalt not die.EnterKingwith Attendants.King.Fellow, what wouldst thou? With what purpose hereDost flout this land of brave Pelasgian men?Deem’st thou us women? A barbarian trulyArt thou, if o’er the Greek to sport it thusThe fancy tempts thee. Nay, but thou art wrongBoth root and branch in this.Herald.How wrong? Speak plainly.King.Thou art a stranger here, and dost not knowAs a stranger how to bear thee.Herald.This I know,I lost my own, and what I lost I found.King.Thy patronsf21who, on this Pelasgian ground?Herald.To find stray goods the world all over, HermesIs prince of patrons.n53King.Hermes is a god,Thou, therefore, fear the gods.Herald.And I do fearThe gods of the Nile.King.We too have gods in Argos.Herald.So be it: but, in Argos or in Africk,My own’s my own.King.Who touches these reaps harm,And that right soon.Herald.No friendly word thou speak’st,To welcome strangers.King.Strangers are welcome here;But not to spoil the gods.Herald.These words of thineTo Ægyptus’ sons be spoken, not to me.King.I take no counsel, or from them, or thee.Herald.Thou—who art thou? for I must plainly makeRehearsal to my masters—this my officeEnforces—both by whom, and why, unjustlyI of this kindred company of womenAm robbed. A serious strife it is; no bandyingOf words from witnesses, no silver passedFrom hand to hand will lay such ugly strife;But man for man must fall, and noblest soulsMust dash their lives away.King.For what I am,You, and your shipmates, soon enough shall know me.These maids, if with the softly suasive wordThou canst prevail, are thine; to force we neverWill yield the suppliant sisters; thus the peopleWith one acclaim have voted; ’tis nailed downThus to the letter. So it must remain.Thou hast my answer, not in tablets graven,Or in the volumed scroll, all stamped and sealed,But from a free Greek mouth. Dost understand me?Hence quickly from my sight!Herald.Of this be sure,A war thou stirrest, in which, when once begun,The males will be the stronger.King.We, too, have malesIn Argos, lusty-blooded men, who drinkGood wine, not brewed from barley.f22As for you,Ye virgins, fearless follow where these guidesShall lead. Our city strongly girt with wall,And high-reared tower receives you. We can boastFull many a stately mansion; stateliest piledMy palace stands, work of no feeble hands.Right pleasant ’tis in populous floors to lodgeWith many a fellow-tenant: some will findA greater good in closely severed homes,That have no common gates: of these thou hastThe ample choice: take what shall like thee most.Know me thy patron, and in all things knowMy citizens thy shield, whose vote hath pledgedThy safety; surer guarantee what wouldst thou?Chorus.Blessing for thy blessing given,Flow to thee, divine Pelasgian!But for our advisal forthwithSend, we pray thee, for our father;He the firm, the far foreseeing,How to live, and where to lodge us,Duly shall direct. For everQuick to note the faults of strangersSways the general tongue; though weHope all that’s good and best from thee.King.(to the attendant maids)Likewise you, ye maids attendantFor his daughters’ service, wiselyPortioned by the father, hereBe your home secure,Far from idle-bruited babblings,’Neath my wing to dwell!EnterDanaus,attended by an Argive guard.Danaus.Daughters! if so the Olympian gods deserveYour sacrifices, your libations, surelyArgos no less may claim them! Argos trulyYour Saviour in worst need! With eager earsThey drank my tale, indignant the foul deedsOf our fell-purposed cousinship they heard,And for my guard this goodly band they set meOf strong spear-bearing men, lest being slainBy the lurking lance of some insidious foeMy death bring shame to Argos. Such high honor,From hearts where kindness moves the friendly deed,They heaped the sire withal, that you, the daughters,In father’s stead should own them. For the rest,To the chaste precepts graven on your heartThat oft I gave, one timely warning add,That time, which proveth all, approve your livesBefore this people; for ’gainst the stranger, calumnyFlows deftly from the tongue, and cheap traducementCosts not a thought. I charge ye, therefore, daughters,Your age being such that turns the eyes of menTo ready gaze, in all ye do consultYour father’s honor: such ripe bloom as yoursNo careless watch demands: so fair a flowerWild beasts and men, monsters of all degrees,Winged and four-footed, wantonly will tear.Her luscious-dropping fruits the Cyprianf23hangsIn the general view, and publishes their praise;n54That whoso passes, and beholds the pompOf shapeliest beauty, feels the charmed dartThat shoots from eye to eye, and vanquished fallsBy strong desire. Give, therefore, jealous heedThat our long toils, and ploughing the deep seaNot fruitless fall; but be your portment suchAs breeds no shame to us, nor to our enemiesLaughter. A double lodgment for our use,One from the state, the other from the king,Rentless we hold. All things look bright. This only,Your father’s word, remember. More than lifeHold a chaste heart in honor.Chorus.The high OlympiansGrant all thy wish! For us and our young bloom,Fear nothing, father: for unless the godsHave forged new counsels, we ev’n to the endWill tread the trodden path, and will not bend.CHORAL HYMN.n55STROPHE I.Semi-Chorus 1.Lift ye the solemn hymn!High let your pæans brim!Praise in your strainGods that in glory reignHigh o’er the Argive plain,High o’er each castled hold,Where Erasinus oldf24Winds to the main!Semi-Chorus 2.(to the attendant maids)Sing, happy maids, with me!Loud with responsive gleeVoice ye the strain!Praise ye the Argive shore,Praise holy Nile no more,Wide where his waters roar,Mixed with the main!ANTISTROPHE I.Semi-Chorus 1.Lift ye the solemn hymn!High let your pæans brim!Praise in your strainTorrents that bravely swellFresh through each Argive dell,Broad streams that lazilyWander, and mazilyFatten the plain.Semi-Chorus 2.Sing, sisters, sing with meArtemis chaste! may sheList to the strain!Never, O never mayMarriage with fearful swayBind me; nor I obeyHatefullest chain!STROPHE II.Semi-Chorus 1.Yet, mighty praise be thinen56Cyprian queen divine!Hera, with thee I join,Nearest to Jove.Subtly conceiving all,Wiseliest weaving all,Thy will achieving allNobly by love!Semi-Chorus 2.With thee Desire doth go;Peitho,f25with suasive flowBending the willing foe,Marches with thee.Lovely Harmonian57Knows thee; and, smote with awe,Strong kings obey the lawWhispered by thee.STROPHE IV.Semi-Chorus 1.Yet must I fear the chase,n58Sail spread in evil race,War with a bloody paceSpurred after me.Why to this Argive shoreCame they with plashing oar,If not with sorrow’s storeTreasured for me?Semi-Chorus 2.Comes fated good or ill,Wait we in patience still!No power may thwart his willJove, mighty Jove.Laden with sorrow’s storeVirgins in days of yorePraised, when their grief was o’er,Jove, mighty Jove.Semi-Chorus 1.Jove, mighty Jove, may heFrom wedded force for meRescue prepare!Semi-Chorus 2.Fair fall our maiden lot!But mighty Jove may notYield to thy prayer.Semi-Chorus 1.Know’st thou what woes may beStored yet by Fate for me?Semi-Chorus 2.Jove and his hidden planSight of the sharpest manSearcheth in vain;Thou in thy narrow spanWisely remain!Semi-Chorus 1.Wisely my thought may fareTell me, O tell me where?Semi-Chorus 2.’Gainst what the gods ordainFret not thy heart in vain!STROPHE.Semi-Chorus 1.Save me, thou chief of gods, great Jove,From violent bonds of hated love,Even as the Inachian maid of yoreThy hand set free from labour sore,What time thou soothed with touch divineHer weary frame,And with a friendly force benignThy healing came.ANTISTROPHE.Semi-Chorus 2.May the woman’s cause prevail!And, when two certain ills assail,Be ours the less: and Justice fairFor the just shall still declare.Ye mighty gods o’er human fatesSupremely swaying,On you my prayer, my fortune waits,Your will obeying.[The End]THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBESA LYRICO-DRAMATIC SPECTACLEI cannot think but curses climb the sky,And there awake God’s gentle-sleeping peace.Shakespere.Alle Schuld rächt sich auf Erden.Goethe.PERSONSEteocles,Son of Oedipus.Messenger.Chorus of Theban Virgins.IsmeneandAntigone,Sisters of Eteocles.Herald.Scene—The Acropolis of Thebes.INTRODUCTORY REMARKSOneof the most indisputable laws of the moral world, and, when seriously considered, perhaps the most awful one, is that principle of hereditary dependence, which connects the sins of one generation, and often of one individual, by an indissoluble bond, with the fortunes of another. In the closely compacted machinery of the moral world no man can be ignorant, or foolish, or vicious to himself. The most isolated individual by the very act of his existence, as he necessarily inhales, so he likewise exhales, a social atmosphere, either healthy so far, or so far unhealthy, for the race. Nothing in the world is independent either of what co-exists with it, or of what precedes it. The present, in particular, is everywhere at once the child of the past, and the parent of the future. It is no doubt true that a foolish father does not always beget a foolish son. There are counteracting influences constantly at work to prevent the fatal tendency to degeneration, of which Horace speaks so feelingly—Aetas parentum pejor avis tulitNos nequiores, mox daturosProgeniem vitiosiorem,but the “Delicta majorum immeritus lues” of the same poet remains a fearful reality in the daily administration of the world, which no serious-thinking man can afford to disregard. In the ancient law of Moses, as in the most famous systems of Christian theology, this principle plays a prominent part; and awful as its operation is, often sweeping whole generations into ruin, and smiting whole nations with a chronic leprosy, for the folly or extravagance of an ephemeral individual, we shall not be surprised to find it equally conspicuous in the literature of so subtle a people as the Greeks. The Hellenic mind, no doubt, was too sunny and too healthy to allow itself to be encased and imprisoned with this idea, as with an iron mail; but as a mysterious dark background of moral existence it was recognised in its highest power; and nowhere so distinctly, and with such terrible iteration, as in those lyrical exhibitions of solemn, religious, and legendary faith, which we call tragedy.Among the other serious ethico-religious legends with which the scanty remains of the rich Greek tragedy have made us more familiar, the dark fates of two famous families—the Pelopidae and the Labdacidae—force themselves upon our attention with a marked distinctness. How the evil genius (ἀλάστωρ) of inherited guilt revealed itself in the blood-stained track of the descendants of Tantalus we have seen on the large scale of a complete trilogy; the play to which we now introduce the reader is an exhibition of the same stern law of moral concatenation, in one of the scenes of the dark story of the Theban family of the Labdacidae. Labdacus, the father of this unfortunate race, is traced back in the legendary genealogy to the famous Phœnician settler, Cadmus, being removed from him by only one generation.f1This head of the family appears tainted with no moral guilt of an extraordinary kind; but his son Laius figures in the legend, not like Pelops in the Pelopidan story, as a murderer, but as a licentious and a lustful character. Yielding to the violent impulses of unnatural passion,f2he is said to have carried off from Elis, Chrysippus, the son of Pelops; whereupon the injured father pronounced against the unholy ravisher the appropriate curse that he should die childless, or, if he did beget children, that himself should lose his life by the hands of those to whom he had been the means of giving it. We see here exemplified that grand principle of retaliation (lex talionis), “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” which stands out so prominently in the laws of Moses, and is so agreeable to the moral instincts of the human heart. Laius was to perish by his own progeny, because, in the irregular gratification of the procreative instinct, he had sinned against Nature. The curse spoken against him by Pelops was the wrathful expression of one of Nature’s greatest laws; in whatever way we seek violently to obtain happiness contrary to the sober course of the divine arrangements, in that way we are sure with our own hands to work our own destruction. This is inevitable. Accordingly, that the direct sanction of the gods might be added to the utterance of an aggrieved human heart, the legend represents the lustful offender as consulting the oracle of Delphi, whether he might not with safety disregard the imprecation of Pelops, and beget children by his wife Iocaste (called Epicaste in Homer, Od. XI. 271); and receiving the ominous answer—
In misty air,
Like wingless, viewless dust, and ending
In nothing there!
ANTISTROPHE I.
’Tis more than heart may bear. Quick Fear
My quaking life with dusky drear
Alarm surroundeth!
My father spied my ruin: sheer
Despair confoundeth.
Sooner, high-swung from fatal rope,
Here may I end both life and hope,
And strong Death bind me,
Than hated hearts shall reach their scope,
And shame shall find me!
STROPHE II.
Would I were throned in ether high,
Where snows are born, and through the sky
The white rack skurries! Would that I
Might sit sublime
On a hanging cliff where lone winds sigh,n50
Where human finger never showed
The far-perched vultures’ drear abode,
Nor goat may climb!
Thence sheer to leap, and end for ever
My life and name,
Ere forceful hands this heart deliver
To married shame!
ANTISTROPHE II.
There, where no friendly foot may stray,
There let me lie, my limbs a prey
To dogs and birds: I not gainsay:
’Twas wisely said,
Free from much woe who dies to-day
Shall be to-morrow. Rather than wedded
To whom I hate, let me be bedded
Now with the dead!
Or if there be, my life to free,
A way, declare it,
Ye gods!—a surgeon’s cut for me,
My heart shall bear it!
STROPHE III.
Voice ye your sorrow! with the cry
Of doleful litany pierce the sky!
For freedom, for quick rescue cry
To him above!
Ruler of Earth, look from thy throne,
With eyes of love!
These deeds of violence wilt thou own,
Nor know thy prostrate suppliant’s groan,
Almighty Jove?
ANTISTROPHE III.
Ægyptus’ sons, a haughty race,
Follow my flight with sleepless chase,
With whoop and bay they scent my trace
To force my love.
Thy beam is true; both good and ill
Thy sure scales prove,
Thou even-handed! Mortals still
Reap fair fulfilment from thy will,
All-crowning Jove.
Chorus,in separate voices, and short hurried exclamations:n51
Voice 1.
Ah me! he lands! he leaps ashore!
He strides with ruffian hands to hale us!
Voice 2.
Cry, sisters, cry! swift help implore!
If here to cry may aught avail us!
Voice 3.
Ah me! ’tis but the muffled roar
Of forceful storms soon to assail us!
Voice 1.
Flee to the gods! to the altars cling!
Voice 2.
By sea, by land, the ruthless foe
Grimly wantons in our woe!
Voice 3.
Beneath thy wing shield us, O king!
EnterHerald.
Herald.
Hence to the ships! to the good ships fare ye!n52
Swiftly as your feet may bear ye!
Chorus.
Tear us! tear us!
Rend us rather,
Torture and tear us!
From this body
Cut the head!
Gorily gather
Us to the dead!
Herald.
Hence to the ships, away! away!
A curse on you, and your delay!
O’er the briny billowy way
Thou shalt go to-day, to-day!
Wilt thou stand, a mulish striver,
I can spur, a forceful driver;
Deftly, deftly, thou shalt trip
To the stoutly-timbered ship!
If to yield thou wilt not know,
Gorily, gorily thou shalt go!
An’ thou be not madded wholly,
Know thy state, and quit thy folly!
Chorus.
Help, ho! help, ho! help!
Herald.
To the ships! to the ships away with me!
These gods of Argos what reck we?
Chorus.
Never, O never
The nurturing river,
Of life the giver,
The healthful flood
That quickens the blood
Let me behold!
An Argive am I,f19
From Inachus old,
These gods deny
Thy claim. Withhold!
Herald.
To the ships, to the ships, with march not slow,
Will ye, nill ye, ye must go!
Quickly, quickly, hence away!
Know thy master and obey!
Ere a worse thing thou shalt know—
Blows and beating—gently go!
STROPHE I.Chorus.
Worse than worsest
May’st thou know!
As thou cursest,
Curst be so!
The briny billow
O’er thee flow!
On sandy pillow
Bedded low,
’Neath Sarpedon’s breezy brow,f20
With the shifting sands shift thou!
Herald.
Scream—rend your robes in rags!—call on the gods!
The Egyptian bark thou shalt not overleap.
Pour ye the bitter bootless wail at will!
ANTISTROPHE I.Chorus.
With fierce heart swelling
To work my woe,
With keen hate yelling
Barks the foe.
Broad Nile welling
O’er thee flow!
Find thy dwelling
Bedded low,
’Neath the towering Libyan waters,
Towering thou ’gainst Libya’s daughters!
Herald.
To the ships! to the ships! the swift ships even-oared!
Quickly! no laggard shifts! the hand that drags thee
Will lord it o’er thy locks, not gently handled!
STROPHE II.Chorus.
O father, oh!
From the altar
The assaulter
Drags me to my woe!
Step by step, a torturing guider,
Like the slowly-dragging spider,
Cruel-minded so!
Like a dream,
A dusky dream,
My hope away doth go!
O Earth, O Earth,
From death redeem!
O Earth, O Jove deliver!
Herald.
Your Argive gods I know not; they nor nursed
My infant life, nor reared my riper age.
ANTISTROPHE II.Chorus.
O father, oh!
From the altar
The assaulter
Drags me to my woe!
A snake two-footed fiercely fretted
Swells beside me! from his whetted
Fangs, black death doth flow!
Like a dream,
A dusky dream,
My hope is vanished so!
O Earth, O Earth,
From death redeem!
O Earth, O Jove deliver!
Herald.
To the ships! to the ships! Obey! I say, obey!
Pity thy robes, if not thy flesh—away!
STROPHE III.Chorus.
Ye chiefs of the city,
By force they subdue me!
Herald.
Well! I must drag thee by the hair! come! come!
Point thy dull ears, and hear me!—come! come! come!
ANTISTROPHE III.Chorus.
I’m lost! I’m ruined!
O king, they undo me!
Herald.
Thou shalt see kings enough anon, believe me,
Ægyptus’ sons—kingless thou shalt not die.
EnterKingwith Attendants.
King.
Fellow, what wouldst thou? With what purpose here
Dost flout this land of brave Pelasgian men?
Deem’st thou us women? A barbarian truly
Art thou, if o’er the Greek to sport it thus
The fancy tempts thee. Nay, but thou art wrong
Both root and branch in this.
Herald.
How wrong? Speak plainly.
King.
Thou art a stranger here, and dost not know
As a stranger how to bear thee.
Herald.
This I know,
I lost my own, and what I lost I found.
King.
Thy patronsf21who, on this Pelasgian ground?
Herald.
To find stray goods the world all over, Hermes
Is prince of patrons.n53
King.
Hermes is a god,
Thou, therefore, fear the gods.
Herald.
And I do fear
The gods of the Nile.
King.
We too have gods in Argos.
Herald.
So be it: but, in Argos or in Africk,
My own’s my own.
King.
Who touches these reaps harm,
And that right soon.
Herald.
No friendly word thou speak’st,
To welcome strangers.
King.
Strangers are welcome here;
But not to spoil the gods.
Herald.
These words of thine
To Ægyptus’ sons be spoken, not to me.
King.
I take no counsel, or from them, or thee.
Herald.
Thou—who art thou? for I must plainly make
Rehearsal to my masters—this my office
Enforces—both by whom, and why, unjustly
I of this kindred company of women
Am robbed. A serious strife it is; no bandying
Of words from witnesses, no silver passed
From hand to hand will lay such ugly strife;
But man for man must fall, and noblest souls
Must dash their lives away.
King.
For what I am,
You, and your shipmates, soon enough shall know me.
These maids, if with the softly suasive word
Thou canst prevail, are thine; to force we never
Will yield the suppliant sisters; thus the people
With one acclaim have voted; ’tis nailed down
Thus to the letter. So it must remain.
Thou hast my answer, not in tablets graven,
Or in the volumed scroll, all stamped and sealed,
But from a free Greek mouth. Dost understand me?
Hence quickly from my sight!
Herald.
Of this be sure,
A war thou stirrest, in which, when once begun,
The males will be the stronger.
King.
We, too, have males
In Argos, lusty-blooded men, who drink
Good wine, not brewed from barley.f22As for you,
Ye virgins, fearless follow where these guides
Shall lead. Our city strongly girt with wall,
And high-reared tower receives you. We can boast
Full many a stately mansion; stateliest piled
My palace stands, work of no feeble hands.
Right pleasant ’tis in populous floors to lodge
With many a fellow-tenant: some will find
A greater good in closely severed homes,
That have no common gates: of these thou hast
The ample choice: take what shall like thee most.
Know me thy patron, and in all things know
My citizens thy shield, whose vote hath pledged
Thy safety; surer guarantee what wouldst thou?
Chorus.
Blessing for thy blessing given,
Flow to thee, divine Pelasgian!
But for our advisal forthwith
Send, we pray thee, for our father;
He the firm, the far foreseeing,
How to live, and where to lodge us,
Duly shall direct. For ever
Quick to note the faults of strangers
Sways the general tongue; though we
Hope all that’s good and best from thee.
King.(to the attendant maids)
Likewise you, ye maids attendant
For his daughters’ service, wisely
Portioned by the father, here
Be your home secure,
Far from idle-bruited babblings,
’Neath my wing to dwell!
EnterDanaus,attended by an Argive guard.
Danaus.
Daughters! if so the Olympian gods deserve
Your sacrifices, your libations, surely
Argos no less may claim them! Argos truly
Your Saviour in worst need! With eager ears
They drank my tale, indignant the foul deeds
Of our fell-purposed cousinship they heard,
And for my guard this goodly band they set me
Of strong spear-bearing men, lest being slain
By the lurking lance of some insidious foe
My death bring shame to Argos. Such high honor,
From hearts where kindness moves the friendly deed,
They heaped the sire withal, that you, the daughters,
In father’s stead should own them. For the rest,
To the chaste precepts graven on your heart
That oft I gave, one timely warning add,
That time, which proveth all, approve your lives
Before this people; for ’gainst the stranger, calumny
Flows deftly from the tongue, and cheap traducement
Costs not a thought. I charge ye, therefore, daughters,
Your age being such that turns the eyes of men
To ready gaze, in all ye do consult
Your father’s honor: such ripe bloom as yours
No careless watch demands: so fair a flower
Wild beasts and men, monsters of all degrees,
Winged and four-footed, wantonly will tear.
Her luscious-dropping fruits the Cyprianf23hangs
In the general view, and publishes their praise;n54
That whoso passes, and beholds the pomp
Of shapeliest beauty, feels the charmed dart
That shoots from eye to eye, and vanquished falls
By strong desire. Give, therefore, jealous heed
That our long toils, and ploughing the deep sea
Not fruitless fall; but be your portment such
As breeds no shame to us, nor to our enemies
Laughter. A double lodgment for our use,
One from the state, the other from the king,
Rentless we hold. All things look bright. This only,
Your father’s word, remember. More than life
Hold a chaste heart in honor.
Chorus.
The high Olympians
Grant all thy wish! For us and our young bloom,
Fear nothing, father: for unless the gods
Have forged new counsels, we ev’n to the end
Will tread the trodden path, and will not bend.
CHORAL HYMN.n55STROPHE I.Semi-Chorus 1.
Lift ye the solemn hymn!
High let your pæans brim!
Praise in your strain
Gods that in glory reign
High o’er the Argive plain,
High o’er each castled hold,
Where Erasinus oldf24
Winds to the main!
Semi-Chorus 2.(to the attendant maids)
Sing, happy maids, with me!
Loud with responsive glee
Voice ye the strain!
Praise ye the Argive shore,
Praise holy Nile no more,
Wide where his waters roar,
Mixed with the main!
ANTISTROPHE I.Semi-Chorus 1.
Lift ye the solemn hymn!
High let your pæans brim!
Praise in your strain
Torrents that bravely swell
Fresh through each Argive dell,
Broad streams that lazily
Wander, and mazily
Fatten the plain.
Semi-Chorus 2.
Sing, sisters, sing with me
Artemis chaste! may she
List to the strain!
Never, O never may
Marriage with fearful sway
Bind me; nor I obey
Hatefullest chain!
STROPHE II.Semi-Chorus 1.
Yet, mighty praise be thinen56
Cyprian queen divine!
Hera, with thee I join,
Nearest to Jove.
Subtly conceiving all,
Wiseliest weaving all,
Thy will achieving all
Nobly by love!
Semi-Chorus 2.
With thee Desire doth go;
Peitho,f25with suasive flow
Bending the willing foe,
Marches with thee.
Lovely Harmonian57
Knows thee; and, smote with awe,
Strong kings obey the law
Whispered by thee.
STROPHE IV.Semi-Chorus 1.
Yet must I fear the chase,n58
Sail spread in evil race,
War with a bloody pace
Spurred after me.
Why to this Argive shore
Came they with plashing oar,
If not with sorrow’s store
Treasured for me?
Semi-Chorus 2.
Comes fated good or ill,
Wait we in patience still!
No power may thwart his will
Jove, mighty Jove.
Laden with sorrow’s store
Virgins in days of yore
Praised, when their grief was o’er,
Jove, mighty Jove.
Semi-Chorus 1.
Jove, mighty Jove, may he
From wedded force for me
Rescue prepare!
Semi-Chorus 2.
Fair fall our maiden lot!
But mighty Jove may not
Yield to thy prayer.
Semi-Chorus 1.
Know’st thou what woes may be
Stored yet by Fate for me?
Semi-Chorus 2.
Jove and his hidden plan
Sight of the sharpest man
Searcheth in vain;
Thou in thy narrow span
Wisely remain!
Semi-Chorus 1.
Wisely my thought may fare
Tell me, O tell me where?
Semi-Chorus 2.
’Gainst what the gods ordain
Fret not thy heart in vain!
STROPHE.Semi-Chorus 1.
Save me, thou chief of gods, great Jove,
From violent bonds of hated love,
Even as the Inachian maid of yore
Thy hand set free from labour sore,
What time thou soothed with touch divine
Her weary frame,
And with a friendly force benign
Thy healing came.
ANTISTROPHE.Semi-Chorus 2.
May the woman’s cause prevail!
And, when two certain ills assail,
Be ours the less: and Justice fair
For the just shall still declare.
Ye mighty gods o’er human fates
Supremely swaying,
On you my prayer, my fortune waits,
Your will obeying.
[The End]
A LYRICO-DRAMATIC SPECTACLEI cannot think but curses climb the sky,And there awake God’s gentle-sleeping peace.Shakespere.Alle Schuld rächt sich auf Erden.Goethe.
A LYRICO-DRAMATIC SPECTACLE
A LYRICO-DRAMATIC SPECTACLE
I cannot think but curses climb the sky,And there awake God’s gentle-sleeping peace.Shakespere.
I cannot think but curses climb the sky,
And there awake God’s gentle-sleeping peace.
Shakespere.
Alle Schuld rächt sich auf Erden.Goethe.
Alle Schuld rächt sich auf Erden.
Goethe.
Eteocles,Son of Oedipus.Messenger.Chorus of Theban Virgins.IsmeneandAntigone,Sisters of Eteocles.Herald.Scene—The Acropolis of Thebes.
Eteocles,Son of Oedipus.Messenger.Chorus of Theban Virgins.IsmeneandAntigone,Sisters of Eteocles.Herald.
Eteocles,Son of Oedipus.
Messenger.
Chorus of Theban Virgins.
IsmeneandAntigone,Sisters of Eteocles.
Herald.
Oneof the most indisputable laws of the moral world, and, when seriously considered, perhaps the most awful one, is that principle of hereditary dependence, which connects the sins of one generation, and often of one individual, by an indissoluble bond, with the fortunes of another. In the closely compacted machinery of the moral world no man can be ignorant, or foolish, or vicious to himself. The most isolated individual by the very act of his existence, as he necessarily inhales, so he likewise exhales, a social atmosphere, either healthy so far, or so far unhealthy, for the race. Nothing in the world is independent either of what co-exists with it, or of what precedes it. The present, in particular, is everywhere at once the child of the past, and the parent of the future. It is no doubt true that a foolish father does not always beget a foolish son. There are counteracting influences constantly at work to prevent the fatal tendency to degeneration, of which Horace speaks so feelingly—
Aetas parentum pejor avis tulitNos nequiores, mox daturosProgeniem vitiosiorem,
Aetas parentum pejor avis tulit
Nos nequiores, mox daturos
Progeniem vitiosiorem,
but the “Delicta majorum immeritus lues” of the same poet remains a fearful reality in the daily administration of the world, which no serious-thinking man can afford to disregard. In the ancient law of Moses, as in the most famous systems of Christian theology, this principle plays a prominent part; and awful as its operation is, often sweeping whole generations into ruin, and smiting whole nations with a chronic leprosy, for the folly or extravagance of an ephemeral individual, we shall not be surprised to find it equally conspicuous in the literature of so subtle a people as the Greeks. The Hellenic mind, no doubt, was too sunny and too healthy to allow itself to be encased and imprisoned with this idea, as with an iron mail; but as a mysterious dark background of moral existence it was recognised in its highest power; and nowhere so distinctly, and with such terrible iteration, as in those lyrical exhibitions of solemn, religious, and legendary faith, which we call tragedy.
Among the other serious ethico-religious legends with which the scanty remains of the rich Greek tragedy have made us more familiar, the dark fates of two famous families—the Pelopidae and the Labdacidae—force themselves upon our attention with a marked distinctness. How the evil genius (ἀλάστωρ) of inherited guilt revealed itself in the blood-stained track of the descendants of Tantalus we have seen on the large scale of a complete trilogy; the play to which we now introduce the reader is an exhibition of the same stern law of moral concatenation, in one of the scenes of the dark story of the Theban family of the Labdacidae. Labdacus, the father of this unfortunate race, is traced back in the legendary genealogy to the famous Phœnician settler, Cadmus, being removed from him by only one generation.f1This head of the family appears tainted with no moral guilt of an extraordinary kind; but his son Laius figures in the legend, not like Pelops in the Pelopidan story, as a murderer, but as a licentious and a lustful character. Yielding to the violent impulses of unnatural passion,f2he is said to have carried off from Elis, Chrysippus, the son of Pelops; whereupon the injured father pronounced against the unholy ravisher the appropriate curse that he should die childless, or, if he did beget children, that himself should lose his life by the hands of those to whom he had been the means of giving it. We see here exemplified that grand principle of retaliation (lex talionis), “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” which stands out so prominently in the laws of Moses, and is so agreeable to the moral instincts of the human heart. Laius was to perish by his own progeny, because, in the irregular gratification of the procreative instinct, he had sinned against Nature. The curse spoken against him by Pelops was the wrathful expression of one of Nature’s greatest laws; in whatever way we seek violently to obtain happiness contrary to the sober course of the divine arrangements, in that way we are sure with our own hands to work our own destruction. This is inevitable. Accordingly, that the direct sanction of the gods might be added to the utterance of an aggrieved human heart, the legend represents the lustful offender as consulting the oracle of Delphi, whether he might not with safety disregard the imprecation of Pelops, and beget children by his wife Iocaste (called Epicaste in Homer, Od. XI. 271); and receiving the ominous answer—