CHORUS. Mighty Furies that triumphant Ride on ruin's baleful wings,[n47] Crushed ye have and clean uprooted This great race of Theban kings. Who shall help me? Who shall give me, Sure advice, and counsel clear? Shall mine eyes freeze up their weeping? Shall my feet refuse to follow Thy loved remnant? but I fear Much the rulers, and their mandate Sternly sanctioned. Shall it be? Him shall many mourners follow? Thee, rejected by thy country, Thee no voice of wailing nears, All thy funeral march a sister Weeping solitary tears? [_The_ CHORUS _now divides itself into two parts, of which one attaches itself to_ ANTIGONE _and the corpse of_ POLYNICES; _the other to_ ISMENE _and the corpse of_ ETEOCLES. SEMI-CHORUS. Let them threaten, or not threaten, We will drop the friendly tear, With the pious-minded sister, We will tend the brother's bier. And though public law forbids These tears, free-shed for public sorrow, Laws oft will change, and in one state What's right to-day is wrong to morrow. SEMI-CHORUS. For us we'll follow, where the city And the law of Cadmus leads us, {294} To the funeral of the brave. By the aid of Jove Supernal, And the gods that keep the city, Mighty hath he been to save; He hath smote the proud invader, He hath rolled the ruin backward Of the whelming Argive wave. [The End] THE PERSIANS {295} A HISTORICAL CANTATA "Why should calamity be full of words? Windy attorneys to their client woes, Airy succeeders of intestate joys, Poor breathing orators of miseries! Let them have scope; though what they do in part Help nothing else, yet they do ease the heart." SHAKESPERE. Ὦ θείη Σαλαμὶς. ἀπολεῖς δὲ σὺ τέκνα γυναικῶν. DELPHIC ORACLE. PERSONS {296} CHORUS OF PERSIAN ELDERS. ATOSSA, Mother of Xerxes. MESSENGER. SHADE OF DARIUS, Father of Xerxes. XERXES, King of Persia. SCENE--_Before the Palace at Susa. Tomb of Darius in the background._ INTRODUCTORY REMARKS {297}