AEG. I will, for thou advisest well; but thou, Call Clytemnestra, if she be within. [AEGISTHUS _lifts the shroud_ OR. She is beside thee, gaze not otherwhere. AEG. What do I see! oh! OR. Why so strange? Whom fear you? AEG. Who are the men into whose midmost toils All hapless I am fallen? OR. Ha! knowest thou not Thou hast been taking living men for dead?[11] AEG. I understand that saying. Woe is me! I know, Orestes' voice addresseth me. OR. A prophet! How wert thou so long deceived? AEG. Undone, undone! Yet let me speak one word. EL. Brother, by Heaven, no more! Let him not speak. When death is certain, what do men in woe Gain from a little time? Kill him at once! And, killed, expose him to such burial From dogs and vultures, as beseemeth such, Far from our view. Nought less will solace me For the remembrance of a life of pain. OR. Go in and tarry not. No contest this Of verbal question, but of life or death. AEG. Why drive you me within? If this you do Be noble, why must darkness hide the deed? Why not destroy me out of hand? OR. Command not! Enter, and in the place where ye cut down My father, thou shalt yield thy life to me. AEG. Is there no help but this abode must see The past and future ills of Pelops' race? OR. Thine anyhow. That I can prophesy With perfect inspiration to thine ear. AEG. The skill you boast belonged not to your sire. OR. You question and delay. Go in! AEG. Lead on. OR. Nay, go thou first. AEG. That I may not escape thee? OR. No, that thou may'st not have thy wish in death. I may not stint one drop of bitterness. And would this doom were given without reprieve, If any try to act beyond the law, To kill them. Then the wicked would be few. LEADER OF CH. O seed of Atreus! how triumphantly Through grief and hardness thou hast freedom found, With full achievement in this onset crowned! * * * * * THE TRACHINIAN MAIDENS THE PERSONS DEANIRA, _wife of Heracles._ _An_ Attendant. HYLLUS, _son of Heracles and Deanira_. CHORUS _of Trachinian Maidens_. _A_ Messenger. LICHAS, _the Herald_. _A_ Nurse. _An_ Old Man. HERACLES. IOLE, _who does not speak_. SCENE. Before the temporary abode of Heracles in Trachis. This tragedy is named from the Chorus. From the subject it might have been called 'Deanira or the Death of Heracles'.