Nurse: How, when Orestes, our one hope, is dead?
Leader: Not yet! So much the dullest seer can read.
Nurse: What mean’st thou? There is something ye have heard!
Leader: Go, tell thy tale. Obey thy mistress’ word! God, where He guardeth, guardeth faithfully.
Nurse: I go.—May all be well, God helping me! The Nurse goes out.
Chorus: Strophe 1
—Lo, I pray God, this day: Father of Olympus, hear! Grant thy fortunes healingly Fall for them who crave to see In this House of lust and fear, Purity, purity. —I have sinned not, I have spoken In the name of Law unbroken; Zeus, as thou art just, we pray thee Be his guard!
All: There is One within the Gate Of his foemen, where they wait; Oh, prefer him, Zeus, before them And exalt and make him great: Two- and threefold shall he pay thee Love’s reward.
Antistrophe 1
—Seest thou one lost, alone, Child of him who loved thee well? As a young steed he doth go, Maddened, in the yoke of woe: Oh, set measure on the swell, Forth and fro, forth and fro, Of the beating hoofs that bear him Through this bitter course. Oh, spare him! By his innocence we pray thee Be his guard!
All: There is One within the Gate Of his foemen, where they wait; Oh, prefer him, Zeus, before them And exalt and make him great: Two- and threefold shall he pay thee Love’s reward.
Strophe 2
—Gods of the treasure-house within, One-hearted, where the bronzen door On darkness gloateth and on gold: With present cleansing wash the old Blight of this house: and aged Sin Amid the gloom shall breed no more!
All: And, O light of the Great Cavern, let it be That this Man’s house look up again, and see, Till the dead veil of scorn And long darkness shall be torn, And the kind faces shine and old Argolis be free!
Antistrophe 2
—And, Oh, let Hermês, Maia-born, Be near, who moveth in his kind, As the wind blows, to help at need: The word he speaketh none may read: Before his eyes the Day is torn With darkness and the Night is blind.
All: And, O Light of the Great Cavern, let it be That this Man’s house look up again, and see, Till the dead veil of scorn And long darkness shall be torn, And the kind faces shine and old Argolis be free!
Strophe 3
—Then, then the prison shall unclose: A wind of Freedom stream above: A flood which faileth not, a voice Telling of women that rejoice, One harp in many souls, one spell Enchanted. Ho, the ship goes well! For me, for me, this glory grows, And Evil flies from those I love.
All: Oh, in courage and in power, When the deed comes and the hour, As she crieth to thee “Son” Let thy “Father” quell her breath! But a stroke and it is done, The unblamèd deed of death.
Antistrophe 3
—The heart of Perseus, darkly strong, Be lifted in thy breast to-day: For them thou lovest in the grave, For them on Earth, be blind, be brave: Uphold the cloak before thine eyes And see not while thy Gorgon dies; But him who sowed the seed of wrong, Go, look him in the face and slay!
All: Oh, in courage and in power, When the deed comes and the hour, As she crieth to thee “Son,” Let thy “Father” quell her breath! But a stroke and it is done, The unblamèd deed of death. Enter from the country Aigisthos.
Aigisthos: A message called me; else I scarce had thought To have come so quick. ’Tis a strange rumour, brought, They tell me, by some Phocian wayfarers In passing: strange, nor grateful to our ears. Orestes dead! A galling load it were And dripping blood for this poor House to bear, Still scored and festerous with its ancient wound. How shall I deem it? Living truth and sound? Or tales of women, born to terrify, That wildly leap, and up in mid-air die? What know ye further? I would have this clear.
Leader: We heard the tale; but go within and hear With thine own ears. A rumoured word hath weak Force, when the man himself is there to speak.