Part 4 (1/2)
'Tis fairly said: thus speaks a n.o.ble dame, Nor speaks amiss, when truth informs the boast.
[_Exit Clytemnestra._
CHORUS
So has she spoken--be it yours to learn By clear interpreters her specious word.
Turn to me, herald--tell me if anon The second well-loved lord of Argos comes?
Hath Menelaus safely sped with you?
HERALD
Alas--brief boon unto my friends it were, To flatter them, for truth, with falsehoods fair!
CHORUS
Speak joy, if truth be joy, but truth, at worst-- loo plainly, truth and joy are here divorced.
HERALD
The hero and his bark were rapt away Far from the Grecian fleet? 'tis truth I say.
CHORUS
Whether in all men's sight from Ilion borne, Or from the fleet by stress of weather torn?
HERALD
Full on the mark thy shaft of speech doth light, And one short word hath told long woes aright.
CHORUS
But say, what now of him each comrade saith?
What their forebodings, of his life or death?
HERALD
Ask me no more: the truth is known to none, Save the earth-fostering, all-surveying Sun,
CHORUS
Say, by what doom the fleet of Greece was driven?
How rose, how sank the storm, the wrath of heaven?
HERALD
Nay, ill it were to mar with sorrow's tale The day of blissful news. The G.o.ds demand Thanksgiving sundered from solicitude.
If one as herald came with rueful face To say, _The curse has fallen, and the host Gone down to death; and one wide wound has reached The city's heart, and out of many homes Many are cast and consecrate to death, Beneath the double scourge, that Ares loves, The b.l.o.o.d.y pair, the fire and sword of doom_-- If such sore burden weighed upon my tongue, 'Twere fit to speak such words as gladden fiends.
But--coming as he comes who bringeth news Of safe return from toil, and issues fair, To men rejoicing in a weal restored-- Dare I to dash good words with ill, and say How the G.o.ds' anger smote the Greeks in storm?
For fire and sea, that erst held bitter feud, Now swore conspiracy and pledged their faith, Wasting the Argives worn with toil and war.
Night and great horror of the rising wave Came o'er us, and the blasts that blow from Thrace Clashed s.h.i.+p with s.h.i.+p, and some with plunging prow Thro' scudding drifts of spray and raving storm Vanished, as strays by some ill shepherd driven.
And when at length the sun rose bright, we saw Th' Aegaean sea-field flecked with flowers of death, Corpses of Grecian men and shattered hulls.
For us indeed, some G.o.d, as well I deem, No human power, laid hand upon our helm, s.n.a.t.c.hed us or prayed us from the powers of air, And brought our bark thro' all, unharmed in hull: And saving Fortune sat and steered us fair, So that no surge should gulf us deep in brine, Nor grind our keel upon a rocky sh.o.r.e.