God’s thunder shuddering? Hark, again, and clear!
It swells upon the wind. — Come forth and hear!
Mistress, Electra!
ELECTRA, a bare sword in her hand, comes from the house.
ELECTRA.
Friends! Some news is brought?
How hath the battle ended?
LEADER.
I know naught.
There seemed a cry as of men massacred!
ELECTRA.
I heard it too. Far off, but still I heard.
LEADER.
A distant floating voice … Ah, plainer now!
ELECTRA.
Of Argive anguish! — Brother, is it thou?
LEADER.
I know not. Many confused voices cry…
ELECTRA.
Death, then for me! That answer bids me die.
LEADER.
Nay, wait! We know not yet thy fortune. Wait!
ELECTRA.
No messenger from him! — Too late, too late!
LEADER.
The message yet will come. ’Tis not a thing
So light of compass, to strike down a king.
Enter a MESSENGER, running.
MESSENGER.
Victory, Maids of Argos, Victory!
Orestes … all that love him, list to me!…
Hath conquered! Agamemnon’s murderer lies
Dead! O give thanks to God with happy cries!
ELECTRA.
Who art thou? I mistrust thee…. ’Tis a plot!
MESSENGER.
Thy brother’s man. Look well. Dost know me not?
ELECTRA.
Friend, friend; my terror made me not to see
Thy visage. Now I know and welcome thee.
How sayst thou? He is dead, verily dead,
My father’s murderer…?
MESSENGER.
Shall it be said
Once more? I know again and yet again
Thy heart would hear. Aegisthus lieth slain!
ELECTRA.
Ye Gods! And thou, O Right, that seest all,
Art come at last?… But speak; how did he fall?
How swooped the wing of death?… I crave to hear.
MESSENGER.
Forth of this hut we set our faces clear
To the world, and struck the open chariot road;
Then on toward the pasture lands, where stood
The great Lord of Mycenae. In a set
Garden beside a channelled rivulet,
Culling a myrtle garland for his brow,
He walked: but hailed us as we passed: “How now,
Strangers! Who are ye? Of what city sprung,
And whither bound?” “Thessalians,” answered young
Orestes: “to Alpheüs journeying,
With gifts to Olympian Zeus.” Whereat the king:
“This while, beseech you, tarry, and make full
The feast upon my hearth. We slay a bull
Here to the Nymphs. Set forth at break of day
To-morrow, and ‘twill cost you no delay.
But come” — and so he gave his hand, and led
The two men in— “I must not be gainsaid;
Come to the house. Ho, there; set close at hand
Vats of pure water, that the guests may stand
At the altar’s verge, where falls the holy spray.”
Then quickly spake Orestes: “By the way
We cleansed us in a torrent stream. We need
No purifying here. But if indeed
Strangers may share thy worship, here are we
Ready, O King, and swift to follow thee.”
So spoke they in the midst. And every thrall
Laid down the spears they served the King withal,
And hied him to the work. Some bore amain
The death-vat, some the corbs of hallowed grain;
Or kindled fire, and round the fire and in
Set cauldrons foaming; and a festal din
Filled all the place. Then took thy mother’s lord
The ritual grains, and o’er the altar poured
Its due, and prayed: “O Nymphs of Rock and Mere,
With many a sacrifice for many a year,
May I and she who waits at home for me,
My Tyndarid Queen, adore you. May it be
Peace with us always, even as now; and all
Ill to mine enemies” — meaning withal
Thee and Orestes. Then my master prayed
Against that prayer, but silently, and said
No word, to win once more his fatherland.
Then in the corb Aegisthus set his hand,
Took the straight blade, cut from the proud bull’s head
A lock, and laid it where the fire was red;
Slew it with one clean gash; and suddenly
Turned on thy brother: “Stranger, every true
Thessalian, so the story goes, can hew
A bull’s limbs clean, and tame a mountain steed.
Take up the steel, and show us if indeed
Rumour speak true,” Right swift Orestes took
The Dorian blade, back from his shoulders shook
His broochèd mantle, called on Pylades
To aid him, and waved back the thralls. With ease
Heelwise he held the bull, and with one glide
Bared the white limb; then stripped the mighty hide
From off him, swifter than a runner runs
His furlongs, and laid clean the flank. At once
Aegisthus stooped, and lifted up with care
The ominous parts, and gazed. No lobe was there;
But lo, strange caves of gall, and, darkly raised,
The portal vein boded to him that gazed
Fell visitations. Dark as night his brow
Clouded. Then spake Orestes: “Why art thou
Cast down so sudden?” “Guest,” he cried, “there be
Treasons from whence I know not, seeking me.
Of all my foes, ’tis Agamemnon’s son;
His hate is on my house, like war.” “Have done!”
Orestes cried: “thou fear’st an exile’s plot,
Lord of a city? Make thy cold heart hot
With meat. — Ho, fling me a Thessalian steel!
This Dorian is too light. I will unseal
The breast of him.” He took the heavier blade,
And clave the bone. And there Aegisthus stayed,
The omens in his hand, dividing slow
This sign from that; till, while his head bent low,
Up with a leap thy brother flashed the sword,
Then down upon his neck, and cleft the cord
Of brain and spine. Shuddering the body stood
One instant in an agony of blood,
And gasped and fell. The henchmen saw, and straight
Flew to their spears, a host of them to set
Against those twain. But there the twain did stand
Unfaltering, each his iron in his hand,
Edge fronting edge. Till “Hold,” Orestes calls:
“I come not as in wrath against these walls
And mine own people. One man righteously
I have slain, who slew my father. It is I,
The wronged Orestes! Hold, and smite me not,
Old housefolk of my father!” When they caught
That name, their lances fell. And one old man,
An ancient in the house, drew nigh to scan
His face, and knew him. Then with one accord
They crowned thy brother’s temples, and outpoured
joy and loud songs. And hither now he fares
To show the head, no Gorgon, that he bears,
But that Aegisthus whom thou hatest! Yea,
Blood against blood, his debt is paid this day.
[He goes off to meet the others — ELECTRA stands as though stupefied.
CHORUS.
Now, now thou shalt dance in our dances,
Beloved, as a fawn in the night!
The wind is astir for the glances
Of thy feet; thou art robed with delight.
He hath conquered, he cometh to free us
With garlands new-won,
More high than the crowns of Alpheüs,
Thine own father’s son:
Cry, cry, for the day that is won!
ELECTRA.
O Light of the Sun, O chariot wheels of flame,
O Earth and Night, dead Night without a name
That held me! Now mine eyes are raised to see,
And all the doorways of my soul flung free.
Aegisthus dead! My father’s murderer dead!
What have I still of wreathing for the head
Stored in my chambers? Let it come forth now
To bind my brother’s and my conqueror’s brow.
[Some garlands are brought out from the house to ELECTRA.
CHORUS.
Go, gather thy garlands, and lay them
As a crown on his brow, many-tressed,
But our feet shall refrain not nor stay them:
’Tis the joy that the Muses have blest.
For our king is returned as from prison,
The old king, to be master again,
Our belovèd in justice re-risen:
With guile he hath slain…
But cry, cry in joyance again!
[There enter from the left ORESTES and PYLADES, followed by some thralls.
ELECTRA.
O conqueror, come! The king that trampled Troy
Knoweth his son Orestes. Come in joy,
Brother, and take to bind thy rippling hair
My crowns!…. O what are crowns, that runners wear
For some vain race? But thou in battle true
Hast felled our foe Aegisthus, him that slew
By craft thy sire and mine. [She crowns ORESTES.
And thou no less,
O friend at need, O reared in righteousness,
Take, Pylades, this chaplet from my hand.
’Twas half thy battle. And may ye two stand
Thus alway, victory-crowned, before my face! [She crowns PYLADES.
ORESTES.
Electra, first as workers of this grace
Praise thou the Gods, and after, if thou will,
Praise also me, as chosen to fulfil
God’s work and Fate’s. — Aye, ’tis no more a dream;
In very deed I come from slaying him.
Thou hast the knowledge clear, but lo, I bring
More also. See himself, dead!
[Attendants bring in the body of AEGISTHUS on a bier.
Wouldst thou fling
This lord on the rotting earth for beasts to tear?
Or up, where all the vultures of the air
May glut them, pierce and nail him for a sign
Far off? Work all thy will. Now he is thine.
ELECTRA.
It shames me; yet, God knows, I hunger sore —
ORESTES.
What wouldst thou? Speak; the old fear nevermore
Need touch thee.
ELECTRA.
To let loose upon the dead
My hate! Perchance to rouse on mine own head
The sleeping hate of the world?
ORESTES.
No man that lives
Shall scathe thee by one word.
ELECTRA.
Our city gives
Quick blame; and little love have men for me.
ORESTES.
If aught thou hast unsaid, sister, be free
And speak. Between this man and us no bar
Cometh nor stint, but the utter rage of war.
[She goes and stands over the body. A moment’s silence.
ELECTRA.
Ah me, what have I? What first flood of hate
To loose upon thee? What last curse to sate
My pain, or river of wild words to flow
Bank-high between?… Nothing?… And yet I know
There hath not passed one sun, but through the long
Cold dawns, over and over, like a song,
I have said them — words held back, O, some day yet
To flash into thy face, would but the fret
Of ancient fear fall loose and let me free.
And free I am, now; and can pay to thee
At last the weary debt.
Oh, thou didst kill
My soul within. Who wrought thee any ill,
That thou shouldst make me fatherless? Aye, me
And this my brother, loveless, solitary?
’Twas thou, didst bend my mother to her shame:
Thy weak hand murdered him who led to fame
The hosts of Hellas — thou, that never crossed
O’erseas to Troy!… God help thee, wast thou lost
In blindness, long ago, dreaming, some-wise,
She would be true with thee, whose sin and lies
Thyself had tasted in my father’s place?
And then, that thou wert happy, when thy days
Were all one pain? Thou knewest ceaselessly
Her kiss a thing unclean, and she knew thee
A lord so little true, so dearly won!
So lost ye both, being in falseness one,
What fortune else had granted; she thy curse,
Who marred thee as she loved thee, and thou hers…
And on thy ways thou heardst men whispering,
“Lo, the Queen’s husband yonder” — not “the King.”
And then the lie of lies that dimmed thy brow,
Vaunting that by thy gold, thy chattels, Thou
Wert Something; which themselves are nothingness.
Shadows, to clasp a moment ere they cease.
The thing thou art, and not the things thou hast,
Abideth, yea, and bindeth to the last
Thy burden on thee: while all else, ill-won
And sin-companioned, like a flower o’erblown,
Flies on the wind away.
Or didst them find
In women … Women?… Nay, peace, peace! The blind
Could read thee. Cruel wast thou in thine hour,
Lord of a great king’s house, and like a tower
Firm in thy beauty. [Starting back with a look of loathing.
Ah, that girl-like face!
God grant, not that, not that, but some plain grace
Of manhood to the man who brings me love:
A father of straight children, that shall move
Swift on the wings of War.
So, get thee gone!
Naught knowing how the great years, rolling on,
Have laid thee bare, and thy long debt full paid.
O vaunt not, if one step be proudly made
In evil, that all Justice is o’ercast:
Vaunt not, ye men of sin, ere at the last
The thin-drawn marge before you glimmereth
Close, and the goal that wheels ‘twixt life and death.
LEADER.
Justice is mighty. Passing dark hath been
His sin: and dark the payment of his sin.
ELECTRA (with a weary sigh, turning from the body).
Ah me! Go some of you, bear him from sight,
That when my mother come, her eyes may light
On nothing, nothing, till she know the sword….
[The body is borne into the hut. PYLADES goes with it.
ORESTES (looking along the road).
Stay, ’tis a new thing! We have still a word
To speak…
ELECTRA.
What? Not a rescue from the town
Thou seëst?
ORESTES.
’Tis my mother comes: my own
Mother, that bare me. [He takes off his crown.
ELECTRA (springing, as it were, to life again, and moving where she can see the road).
Straight into the snare!
Aye, there she cometh, — Welcome in thy rare
Chariot! All welcome in thy brave array!
ORESTES.
What would we with our mother? Didst thou say
Kill her?
ELECTRA (turning on him).
What? Is it pity? Dost thou fear
To see thy mother’s shape?
ORESTES.
’Twas she that bare
My body into life. She gave me suck.
How can I strike her?
ELECTRA.
Strike her as she struck
Our father!
ORESTES (to himself, brooding).
Phoebus, God, was all thy mind
Turned unto darkness?
ELECTRA.
If thy God be blind,
Shalt thou have light?
ORESTES (as before).
Thou, thou, didst bid me kill
My mother: which is sin.
ELECTRA.
How brings it ill
To thee, to raise our father from the dust?
ORESTES.
I was a clean man once. Shall I be thrust
From men’s sight, blotted with her blood?
ELECTRA.
Thy blot
Is black as death if him thou succour not!
ORESTES.
Who shall do judgment on me, when she dies?
ELECTRA.
Who shall do judgment, if thy father lies.
Forgotten?
ORESTES (turning suddenly to ELECTRA).
Stay! How if some fiend of Hell,
Hid in God’s likeness, spake that oracle?
ELECTRA.
In God’s own house? I trow not.
ORESTES.
And I trow
It was an evil charge! [He moves away from her.
ELECTRA (almost despairing).
To fail me now!
To fail me now! A coward! — O brother, no!
ORESTES.
What shall it be, then? The same stealthy blow …
ELECTRA.
That slew our father! Courage! thou hast slain
Aegisthus.
ORESTES.
Aye. So be it. — I have ta’en
A path of many terrors: and shall do
Deeds horrible. ’Tis God will have it so….
Is this the joy of battle, or wild woe? [He goes into the house.
LEADER.
O Queen o’er Argos thronèd high,
O Woman, sister of the twain,
God’s Horsemen, stars without a stain,
Whose home is in the deathless sky,
Whose glory in the sea’s wild pain,
Toiling to succour men that die:
Long years above us hast thou been,
God-like for gold and marvelled power:
Ah, well may mortal eyes this hour
Observe thy state: All hail, O Queen!
Enter from the right CLYTEMNESTRA on a chariot, accompanied by richly dressed Handmaidens.
CLYTEMNESTRA.
Down from the wain, ye dames of Troy, and hold
Mine arm as I dismount…. [Answering ELECTRA’S thought.