University of Virginia Library

ACT II.

SCENE I.

ARSINOE.
It is not sorc'ry that deceives my sight?
Or has my brain been drench'd with th'insane wine,
And I but fancy what I see and know?
Am I awake? Is this the vestibule?
Are these true echoes that resound my stamp?
Gods! I will charge her on the very throne,
Where she sits dallying at the king's right hand,—
To make me in the focus of the court,
Before the king and all the smiling nobles,
E'en to the saucy leering guards a show.
Some were that thought Egysthus dealt with me,
Now she has prov'd it, who shall dare gainsay?
But I will cry her wantonness to all;
I will amaze the hearing with her passion.

SCENE II.

Arsinoe and Egysthus.
ARSINOE.
How now detested! But thou art secure—
It was with me, with me, Arsinoe,
That thy nocturnal ravishments were spent,
I brought thee, slave, from curry-combing mares
To blandish majesty! I gave thee scents
To quell the odious odours of thy trade;
I shower'd the royal treasures on thy back;
I gave thee gems; e'en I, Arsinoe!

EGYSTHUS.
All true, good nurse; but cease this furious clamour.

ARSINOE.
All true! and dar'st thou smile and call it true?
Has Agamemnon come, and dar'st thou smile?
Thou that not many minutes since I saw
As lurch'd and cringing as a fact-found thief,
And wilt thou brag thyself my paramour?

EGYSTHUS.
If need will have it so. Look at this ring;
It is a jewel known to all the court;
You had it from the queen, and wore it often,
A glittering eye attracting star to all:
See where it shines enspher'd upon my finger.

ARSINOE.
I know, I know it well. Thy artful litter
Gave it to me; urg'd me to put it on.
And when I had some dozen times or so
Worn it abroad, she took it back again,
And now I see it on thy finger raying
As deadly as the eye of basilisk.
I cannot deal with such a sorceress.

EGYSTHUS.
Shall we be friends again? Or will you still
Rave in defiance of such proof as this?

ARSINOE.
If I would screen, some other will betray,
And I shall suffer without serving you.
Wilt thou depart from Argos?

EGYSTHUS.
Without you!

ARSINOE.
What would my going hence avail to thee?

EGYSTHUS.
When I am gone you will accuse the queen.

ARSINOE.
And wilt thou stay? How! hop'st thou yet to share
Her lavish warmth, and Agamemnon here?

EGYSTHUS.
Were you but wise, all things might yet go well,
And turn of rich account, to you and me.
Come, let the courtiers take their laugh at us.

ARSINOE.
Avaunt from me. I thought thee in my power,
But thy familiar has unbound the cords,
And wrapp'd them round myself. What shall I do!

SCENE III.

EGYSTHUS.
Now would this harpy, for her own success,
Crush me as if I were indeed a worm.
So climb they all at court, and why not I.
Ambition builds from ruins; and the fate
That gave me luring for a royal eye,
Inspires the gorgeous hope that draws me on
To lofty purposes. If the fond queen
Change not her fare and seek variety.—

SCENE IV.

Clytemnestra and Egysthus.
CLYTEMNESTRA.
Still rapt Egysthus, are you still afraid,
Want you the courage man to help me out?
Take heart and play the lover freely now;
I'll ask the king himself to give her dower,
And she shall marry you. Come be of heart,
Wed, wed her, man, and be a widower.

EGYSTHUS.
Is there no other way? Though she were dumb
As spade and turf can make her, some one else
Will spy and blab.—This night I'll leave the town.

CLYTEMNESTRA.
Ungrateful man that can so easy part!—
See'st thou not fortune stretching forth her hand
To pull thee to the golden eminence,
And yet wilt not take hold. O there are men,
Who, for the moiety of half thy chance,
Would dare the threats of fiery chimeras,
And through the volley of a thousand flames
Rush but to gain the height on which you stand.

EGYSTHUS.
But what is all while Agamemnon lives?—

CLYTEMNESTRA.
Is he immortal, inaccessible?
Invulnerable to the pointed steel?
Feels he no hunger, does he never thirst?—
Had I the motive friend that you might have,
I'd play the drudging scullion's part myself,
And spice his supper!

EGYSTHUS.
But Arsinoe—

CLYTEMNESTRA.
Be it your study still to mar her entrance.—
Great gods! the king approaches! play to me
The begging sycophant, and haste away.

SCENE V.

Clytemnestra and Agamemnon.
CLYTEMNESTRA.
O silly lout to ask so strange a thing;
There is full more than forty year of odds.
He must expect her surely soon to die.

AGAMEMNON.
Is that the youth for whom you claim'd my favour?

CLYTEMNESTRA.
The very same. Guess you what he has pray'd for;
But I forget—you know not who he is.
In sooth to say, 'tis a side-shaking tale.
The nurse, though old, is still, my lord, a woman;
And young Egysthus is a portly youth.
He has intreated me for your consent,
That he may wed Arsinoe.

AGAMEMNON.
What! he!

CLYTEMNESTRA.
Riches weigh well my lord against old age.

AGAMEMNON.
She must be craz'd and fallen far in dotage.

CLYTEMNESTRA.
You speak great truth. She is beside herself;
More than a month she has been chiding me,
To give my sanction; vainly have I spoken,
Yea pray'd her, oft, to quit her lewd intent,
At least, till your return. I should have else
Blush'd to have had the wedding in my house.
She is the laughing-stock of all the town.
When the glad tidings came that Troy had fall'n,
Gifts were distributed; and she received
The fairest ring you sent of all the spoil.
Some few short times she sparkled it about;
To-day I see it on Egysthus's finger—
That is not all. The old enchanted dame
Must have a rival, and be jealous too.

AGAMEMNON.
Alas! poor nurse! Who may her rival be?

CLYTEMNESTRA.
Can you not guess? Come try?

AGAMEMNON.
Indeed I cannot.
Ten years of busy and eventful strife,
Have worn away the frill of courtiership.

CLYTEMNESTRA.
Nay try to guess, and grow gallant again;
You must this martial sternness cast aside.
I will prohibit you the use of steel.
Gods! what have courtiers to do with swords?—
Nay, you shall wear soft velvet for your vest;
To-night you shall. What have you now to fear?
The am'rous glances of our ladies' eyes
Strike not so furiously as Hector's javelin.

AGAMEMNON.
But pray whose charms does fair Arsinoe fear?

CLYTEMNESTRA.
Ah true! will you not guess?

AGAMEMNON.
In truth I cannot.

CLYTEMNESTRA.
Who should it be, but she that still resists
Her wanton craze.

AGAMEMNON.
What! you?

CLYTEMNESTRA.
Your selfsame queen!
Nay do not laugh, for she has evidence.
‘Why should the queen, if she were not in love,’
Says sage Arsinoe, ‘oppose my bliss?’—
I could a hundred of her fancies tell you.
She is the merry-thought of all the court.
And when we have an empty hour to fill,
I'll call her confidents to make you mirth.

AGAMEMNON.
But who is he? How is her lover called?

CLYTEMNESTRA.
Egysthus.

AGAMEMNON.
True; pray what is he?

CLYTEMNESTRA.
Nay that
Is such a question I should ask myself.
She brought him, to me, as her relative,
And pray'd that I would notice him with favour.
But there are slanderers about the palace,
And I have heard, yet cannot credit it,
That he is of some very vulgar stock;
Nay, that his father was a menial slave.
Some viler envious still more assert,
And say that he himself was once a groom:
But this is wicked, and not credible.

AGAMEMNON.
I think so too. He has a gallant air.

CLYTEMNESTRA.
And is well spoken, and of pithy sentence.
To say the truth, the young man has his merits.

AGAMEMNON.
I'll speak with him, and should I find him worthy,
He shall have due promotion for his looks.
But see Arsinoe comes. I'll joke with her.

CLYTEMNESTRA.
Not for the world my lord. Now go you in,
Leave her to me, I must appease her fears;
Nor is it modest for a man to speak
Of such a love as hers. Do leave me heart!

SCENE VI.

Arsinoe and Clytemnestra.
ARSINOE.
And shall I never gain access to him?
How like a smiling harlot she appears!
O that a man so gen'rous and so great,
Should be cajol'd by such a false as this.

CLYTEMNESTRA.
How now, Arsinoe! why so sullen still?
All runs right smoothly, pray thee smooth thy brow;
The king is cheery, and laughs at your loving.

ARSINOE.
My loving, mine! How can you still persist?
The flattering lie will not avail you long.

CLYTEMNESTRA.
For your repute, things cannot now be worse.
By harming me, you cannot help yourself.
Though I were sacrificed, the world would say
You had your share; and you were confident!
Think well, Arsinoe, think well I say.
When you have once the fatal secret told,
No cunning then can charm it into rest.
You might as well by weeds and simples try
To place the yesterday behind to-morrow,
As to recall the shaft that you would shoot.
When it shall have departed from the bow,
The victims then must suffer.—Think I say.
How has the king been harm'd by what is done?
What print can he of poor Egysthus trace?
I seem as sweet and luscious to his eye,
As the untasted apple in the hand,
Would you persuade the pleas'd and cheerful child,
To cast it down, by crying grubs and worms?
Can he be hurt that knows not of his wound?
Arsinoe you are wise. Think well I say.

ARSINOE.
But will Egysthus quickly quit the court?

CLYTEMNESTRA.
Will you consent to sanction what is done?

ARSINOE.
How! tell the king he was my paramour?

CLYTEMNESTRA.
No: but ask leave to marry—nothing more.

ARSINOE.
And if the king consent—

CLYTEMNESTRA.
What if he do?

ARSINOE.
Better to send Egysthus from the land;
Think you not so?

CLYTEMNESTRA.
Yes, true; nurse you are right.
Will you request the king for leave to wed:
Then might I urge th'unfitness of the match,
And with entreaty pray you to refrain,
Bribing Egysthus to depart from Argos.

ARSINOE.
I yield, I cannot but submit to you.

CLYTEMNESTRA.
Dearest Arsinoe! counsellor, friend,
By this decision I'm thy slave for ever.
Ask what thou wilt. Have I no gem, nor gift
That I may give thee, for this blessed mind;
See where Egysthus comes! alack, poor swain!

SCENE VII.

Clytemnestra, Egysthus and Arsinoe.
CLYTEMNESTRA.
More reverence, youth, remember I am queen;
Here beam your smiles, here on this op'ning rose,
Bestow O sun! the ray of amorous light.
Arsinoe has consented, will implore
The king's permission to espouse her swain.

EGYSTHUS.
Thanks sweet Arsinoe, now am I blest.

ARSINOE.
Pray mock me not. To-morrow be you ready—

EGYSTHUS.
So soon!

ARSINOE.
Rude insolent; to-morrow fly.
Be you not seen in Argos by the sun:
I may repent, and turn on you again.

CLYTEMNESTRA.
Come, come, no more; though lovers may fall out,
This is no time for bickering, dear nurse.
Egysthus, woo her with your sweetest breath,
While I inform the king of her desire.

SCENE VIII.

Arsinoe and Egysthus.
ARSINOE.
Presume not thou, though need has made it so—
And I must wear a masque before the king,
That I will light thee to her couch again.
Thy nights of majesty are all departed;
So hie thee hence to graze as thou wert wont,
And with some blouzy mate of thy degree,
Forget the dalliance of a royal bed.

EGYSTHUS.
Gentle, Arsinoe; ill words feed strife.
Our fates are mingled, and we should be friends.
If I am made of coarser stuff than kings,
And to be such is fault; is the fault mine?
If I was mother'd, like a whelp, in straw,
Say good Arsinoe if the sin was mine?
For well I wot, that to be lowly born,
Makes half a traitor of a man at court.
Pray what am I, that I should be so scorn'd;
Mulct of the grace that nature gave my form,
And spurn'd at as a draggled kennel cur.
What are you all that wear these lofty looks,
But blow flies, feeding on the state's sore back?
Have I not learnt the secrets of your game,
And known that with your stately stepping pride,
Ye are gynecocratic puppets all?
Taunt me no more, my haughty headed dame.
What, if I turn on you, and on the queen!
I stand in peril, but I know the worst;
And will no longer wheedle nor petition.

ARSINOE.
Did I not see, or was it but a dream,
You, you, Egysthus, cringing for my mercy?

EGYSTHUS.
But then, I thought not that your courtly craft
Would crush the friendless, to escape yourself.
My eyes are opened now to all your guile,
And I can look at death, with eye as firm
As he of Troy. But life is sweet to all;
As sweet to him that on the stirrup tends,
As to the monarch that bestrides the steed;
And my sweet life I will not cheaply lose.

ARSINOE.
Art thou, Egysthus, that light-hearted lad,
Who blush'd and linger'd, and was loath to come
To share the love and splendour of a queen?

EGYSTHUS.
Thy masque, Arsinoe; the king is here!

SCENE IX.

Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Arsinoe, and Egysthus.
ARSINOE.
I had, my lord, a hearing to entreat:
Much cause have I to fear your dreadful rage.
I am, my lord, a very wretched wretch.
Fain would I speak, but terror mars my words;
I am not what I seem, nor what I was.

AGAMEMNON.
Thine is, dear nurse, a doleful case indeed.

ARSINOE.
This cruel woman! or what fitter name—

AGAMEMNON.
Kind, loving nurse, most cruel she has been.

ARSINOE.
Oh! my dear lord, if I had strength of grasp,
I would, this instant, give her doom myself.

CLYTEMNESTRA.
I told you true, she is beside herself.
Speak you, Egysthus, spare your true love's blushes.
Come, come with me, Arsinoe, and be calm.
I'll lead her hence, my lord, and calm her fears.
Come, come, I say; you shall have our consent
While I am with you and Egysthus here:
Be not afraid.—Restrain your jealousy;
Come, come, Arsinoe; come, trait'ress, come.

SCENE X.

Agamemnon and Egysthus.
AGAMEMNON.
Poor dame! Egysthus! one so young as you
Must sicken at this silly woman's dote;
Far better, man, to raise some other game:
Quit this mean scent and try the soldier's chace.

EGYSTHUS.
But I am poor and she has been my friend,—
Rais'd me, as I may say, quite from the earth,
And given me companionship with nobles.

AGAMEMNON.
Now this is good. I like this gratitude.
Perhaps, you hope she may die, quickly, off.
That honest smiling, pleases me, young man.
Think no more of this wrinkled carlin's passion;
I'll be thy friend, and give thy fortune help.

EGYSTHUS.
My royal lord, would I were worthy this.

AGAMEMNON.
Rise from thy kneeling. Wherefore are these tears?
Count me thy friend, and early claim my favour.

SCENE XI.

EGYSTHUS.
Unhappy wretch; slave of remorseless fortune.
Thus on the threshold of my fell intent,
To meet this hospitable hearted friendship,
In him, in him, that I have so abused;
In him, alas! that I have doom'd to die.