 | Agamemnon |  |
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
82
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.
| Agamemnon | |