University of Virginia Library

SCENE III.

Electra and Pylades.
ELECTRA.
I will not go, Pylades; rather here
Let me be witness to the worst I think,
Than haunted by the demon of my fears.
O that I could but freely speak to him!
But when I would he seems to look on me,
With such endurance as a mother views,
The aimless pastime of her ideot child.

PYLADES.
What would you say to him? would you restrain
The mighty justice that has brought him here?

ELECTRA.
I think Orestes has a mind most noble?—

PYLADES.
Truly so, and virtuous passing man.

ELECTRA.
'Tis but the height of his stupendous worth,
That breeds in me this terrible alarm.

PYLADES.
He to the acts of his decided purpose,
Moves with the equanimity of Jove.
Sweet! what is this? Why spring these sudden tears?

ELECTRA.
When the heart's full the eyes will overflow.—
Alas! that I should yield to such conceits.

PYLADES.
To what, Electra?

ELECTRA.
Ever to suspect
The sanctity of his superior nature.
Why should his heav'nly magnanimity
Beget in me this fear.

PYLADES.
Fear! how? What fear?

ELECTRA.
O why, Pylades, does his moody thought
Seem less against the doom'd Egysthus bent,
Than on the guilt of his unhappy mother;
And this magnificence of sign and omen?

PYLADES.
He views Egysthus as the murd'rous knife:
But Clytemnestra was the urging hand.

ELECTRA.
O that he were not so juridical!—
You are his friend, his bosom friend, Pylades;
The full confided partner of his thoughts—

PYLADES.
Ha! wherefore trembling grasp you thus my arm.

ELECTRA.
Answer me truly.

PYLADES.
—What would you, Electra?

ELECTRA.
Oh sure, Oh sure, we have had crimes enough.

PYLADES.
Alas!—

ELECTRA.
Then it is so!—O gentle Death!
Shut up my sense from this catastrophe.