قراءة كتاب The Rhesus of Euripides

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‏اللغة: English

The Rhesus of Euripides

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المؤلف:

Euripides

دار النشر: Project Gutenberg

الصفحة رقم: 7

tents upon the plain
This bloody hand had passed and passed again!
Myself, I longed to try the battle-cast
By night, and use God's vantage to the last,
But sage and prophet, learned in the way
Of seercraft, bade me wait for dawn of day,
And then—leave no Greek living in the land.
They wait not, they, for what my prophets planned
So sagely. In the dark a runaway
Beats a pursuer.
Through our whole array
Send runners! Bid them shake off sleep and wait
Ready with shield and spear. 'Tis not too late
To catch them as they climb on board, and slash
Their crouching shoulders till the gangways splash
With blood, or teach them, fettered leg and arm,
To dig the stiff clods of some Trojan farm.

Leader.

My Prince, thy words run fast. Nor thou nor I
Have knowledge yet that the Greeks mean to fly.

Hector.

What makes them light their beacons? Tell me, what?

[Pg 7 vv. 79-90]Leader.

God knows! And, for my part, I like it not.

Hector.

God knows! And, for my part, I like it not.

Leader.

God knows! And, for my part, I like it not.

Hector.

They never fled, man, in such wild dismay.

Leader (yielding).

'Twas all thy work.—Judge thou, and we obey.

Hector.

My word is simple. Arm and face the foe.

[A sound of marching without.

Leader.

Who comes? Aeneas, and in haste, as though
Fraught with some sudden tiding of the night.

Enter Aeneas.

Aeneas.

Hector, what means it? Watchers in affright
Who gather shouting at thy doors, and then
Hold midnight council, shaking all our men?

Hector.

To arms, Aeneas! Arm from head to heel!

[Pg 8 vv. 91-109]Aeneas.

What is it? Tidings? Doth the Argive steal
Some march, some ambush in the day's eclipse?

Hector.

'Tis flight, man! They are marching to the ships.

Aeneas.

How know'st thou?—Have we proof that it is flight?

Hector.

They are burning beacon-fires the livelong night.
They never mean to wait till dawn. Behind
That screen of light they are climbing in the blind
Dark to their ships—unmooring from our coast.

Aeneas (looking toward the distant fires: after a pause).

God guide them!—Why then do you arm the host?

Hector.

I mean to lame them in their climbing, I
And my good spear, and break them as they fly.
Black shame it were, and folly worse than shame,
To let these spoilers go the road they came
Unpunished, when God gives them to us