University of Virginia Library

Dyseris, Simus, an Envoy. His attendants, Orestes, Medius
DYSERIS
Speak thou again thy message to our son,
Whose unripe years unmeet for such a load
Have laid his sceptre in my woman's hands;
For youth has but one wisdom, to allow
The sway of elders wholly on its days.
Therefore our son sits at one side of power,
Speaks thro' our lips and governs thro' our eyes.

SIMUS
And deem not, envoy, this a feeble throne
Because a Queen is regent: in her hand
The army lies obedient, since I am
To her least breath obedient, and I move
The army as the whisper of the wind
Leans all the infinite foliage one white way.

ENVOY
The Lords of Crannon to Larissa hail.
Know then, Orestes, that the years are young
Since thy sire came against us with much noise:
His horsemen laughed against our gates, they said,
“We shall prevail, we only. Surely now
They lie beneath the shadow of our sword:
Is there a god to save them? no not one.”
Then we rose up in anger, and behold
The harvest lay as embers, and a smoke
Went up among our vineyards: ye were brave
Only in mischief, and the cry of us
Broke you like water. Number out the slain;
Search in their faces for the lordly men,
The captains and the princes and a king:
Thrust ye a sceptre in this dead man's hand;
Ye will not give his fingers craft to close.
Thus with your armies we have dealt, and still
Our wounds are green upon you. Ye abode
Since in your precincts, as still dogs, to whom
Our mercy gave time to heal up your sores,
Knowing ye had no heart to take revenge.
But now the swift wing of our vengeance holds
To the Dolopian valleys who have heard
Our fear and have not felt it; rebel-wise
Boasting themselves; to abolish these we go.
So shall our city, emptied of its best,
Warm back your chidden courage; and our beeves
A tempting war, all plunder and no blows,
Flood out your rabble soldiers to our scathe.
And tho' returning with one blast and tread
We should make these as mire upon our ways,
We will not that our old men sit at home
And have such curs come yelping round their chairs.
Therefore, Orestes, I demand this thing
That thou deliver hostage to our lords,
Either thyself, or of the Aleuad race
The nearest to thy throne; that ye will hold
All peace, us absent; that our foals shall graze,
And our corn redden in his time: and more
Thou shalt not chase a locust from our vines,
Or hew one oil-tree from our orchard sides.
But if ye set your stubborn face to send
No surety that ye mean to hold your hands,
Then, look your graves be ready, and make ripe
Your eyes for weeping; for we come with power
To bruise you in such fell anger, ere we go,
That your lame city shall not dare to raise
One finger till we come again in peace.

DYSERIS
Ye have done an arrogant message with proud lips,
Ye know your herald office guards you well.
Your lords are brave against a woman's throne.
We will turn over these big blaring words
In our good time, so leave us, and expect
In certain hours our answer.