 | Agamemnon |  |
SCENE VII.
Clytemnestra and Arsinoe.CLYTEMNESTRA.
Still here, Arsinoe; but why so thoughtful?
ARSINOE.
Me-thinks your cloud has been of short duration.
CLYTEMNESTRA.
'Twas but the drizzle of a passing vapour;
And in my clear and summer mind again,
The halcyon fancy spreads her gilded wing.
103
If you, with such a peril over you,
With such a deep and dreadful pit below,
And with an asp secreted in your bosom,
Can share the sun-shine of contented thought,
Let virtue perish, and all speed to vice.
CLYTEMNESTRA.
Thou speakest moral, good Arsinoe;
In sooth a preacher, proselytical.—
Was not Egysthus here?
ARSINOE.
Seek you him still?
The man has some contrition but in you.—
He has decided, and departs to-morrow.
CLYTEMNESTRA.
He spoke with you of his departure then?
ARSINOE.
He did: but he seem'd moody and distrest.
He sighs with strange compassion for the king?
What's in his fear? (This pinches to the quick.)
CLYTEMNESTRA.
(Can she suspect? Can he have laps'd in ought?
Then are we lost. I'll prove her to the point.)
Shall I not see him yet before he goes?
ARSINOE.
He did expect you, and you come for him.
Have you not had a pact to meet again?
104
We had, Arsinoe; but if he go—
ARSINOE.
Did you entreat him to remain with you?
CLYTEMNESTRA.
What could I else? If he depart, I die.
ARSINOE.
Remain at court, and leave the king alive?
CLYTEMNESTRA.
Alas! unhappy me. ('Tis as I thought!)
The king himself persuades him to remain,
And also bids him think no more of you.
Why should he go? sure now there is no need.
Go find Egysthus; send him here to me,
I'd something further speak with him of this.
ARSINOE.
(Though I could pawn my hand, there is a plot,
This thrice-shrewd traitor, still so dextrous shifts
The very lipping of the thing I seek,
Into some reason, fair and natural,
That makes me doubtful, even while convinced.)
| Agamemnon | |