Chapter XVIII: Act IV: Scene I

AEGISTHUS--CLYTEMNESTRA

Aegisthus--To be a banished man, ... to fly, ... to die:
... These are the only means that I have left.
Thou, far from me, deprived of every hope
Of seeing me again, wilt from thy heart
Have quickly chased my image: great Atrides
Will wake a far superior passion there;
Thou, in his presence, many happy days
Wilt thou enjoy--These auspices may Heaven
Confirm--I cannot now evince to thee
A surer proof of love than by my flight; ...
A dreadful, hard, irrevocable proof.

_Clytemnestra_--If there be need of death, we both will die!--
But is there nothing left to try ere this?

_Aegis_.--Another plan, perchance, e'en now remains; ... But
little worthy ...

_Cly_.--And it is--

_Aegis._--Too cruel.

_Cly_.--But certain?

_Aegis_. Certain, ah, too much so!

_Cly_.--How Canst thou hide it from me?

_Aegis_.--How canst thou Of me demand it?

_Cly._--What then may it be? ...
I know not ... Speak: I am too far advanced;
I cannot now retract: perchance already
I am suspected by Atrides; maybe
He has the right already to despise me:
Hence do I feel constrained, e'en now, to hate him;
I cannot longer in his presence live;
I neither will, nor dare.--Do thou, Aegisthus,
Teach me a means, whatever it may be,
A means by which I may withdraw myself
From him forever.

_Aegis._--Thou withdraw thyself
From him? I have already said to thee
That now 'tis utterly impossible.

_Cly._--What other step remains for me to take? ...

_Aegis._--None.

_Cly._--Now I understand thee.--What a flash.
Oh, what a deadly, instantaneous flash
Of criminal conviction rushes through
My obtuse mind! What throbbing turbulence
In ev'ry vein I feel!--I understand thee:
The cruel remedy ... the only one ...
Is Agamemnon's life-blood.

_Aegis._--I am silent ...

_Cly._--Yet, by thy silence, thou dost ask that blood.

_Aegis._--Nay, rather I forbid it.--To our love
And to thy life (of mine I do not speak)
His living is the only obstacle;
But yet, thou knowest that his life is sacred:
To love, respect, defend it, thou art bound;
And I to tremble at it.--Let us cease:
The hour advances now; my long discourse
Might give occasion to suspicious thoughts.--
At length receive ... Aegisthus's last farewell.

_Cly._--Ah! hear me ... Agamemnon to our love ...
And to thy life? ... Ah, yes; there are, besides him,
No other obstacles: too certainly
His life is death to us!

_Aegis._--Ah! do not heed
My words: they spring from too much love.

_Cly._--And love
Revealed to me their meaning.

_Aegis._--Hast thou not
Thy mind o'erwhelmed with horror?

_Cly_.--Horror? ... yes; ...
But then to part from thee! ...

_Aegis_.--Wouldst have the courage? ...

_Cly_.--So vast my love, it puts an end to fear.

_Aegis_.--But the king lives surrounded by his friends:
What sword would find a passage to his heart?

_Cly_.--What sword?

_Aegis_.--Here open violence were vain.

_Cly_.--Yet, ... treachery! ...

_Aegis_.--'Tis true, he merits not
To be betrayed, Atrides: he who loves
His wife so well; he who, enchained from Troy,
In semblance of a slave in fetters, brought
Cassandra, whom he loves, to whom he is
Himself a slave ...

_Cly_.--What do I hear!

_Aegis_.--Meanwhile
Expect that when of thee his love is wearied,
He will divide with her his throne and bed;
Expect that, to thy many other wrongs,
Shame will be added: and do thou alone
Not be exasperated at a deed
That rouses every Argive.

_Cly_.--What said'st thou? ...
Cassandra chosen as my rival? ...

_Aegis_.--So Atrides wills.

_Cly_.--Then let Atrides perish.

_Aegis_.--How? By what hand?

_Cly_.--By mine, this very night,
Within that bed which he expects to share
With this abhorred slave.

_Aegis_.--O Heavens! but think ...

_Cly_.--I am resolved ...

_Aegis_.--Shouldst thou repent? ...

_Cly_.--I do
That I so long delayed.

_Aegis_.--And yet ...

_Cly_.--I'll do it;
I, e'en if thou wilt not. Shall I let thee,
Who only dost deserve my love, be dragged
To cruel death? And shall I let him live
Who cares not for my love? I swear to thee,
To-morrow thou shalt be the king in Argos.
Nor shall my hand, nor shall my bosom tremble ...
But who approaches?

_Aegis._--'Tis Electra ...

_Cly._--Heavens!
Let us avoid her. Do thou trust in me.

SCENE II

ELECTRA

_Electra_--Aegisthus flies from me, and he does well;
But I behold that likewise from my sight
My mother seeks to fly. Infatuated
And wretched mother! She could not resist
The guilty eagerness for the last time
To see Aegisthus.--They have here, at length,
Conferred together ... But Aegisthus seems
Too much elated, and too confident,
For one condemned to exile ... She appeared
Like one disturbed in thought, but more possessed
With anger and resentment than with grief ...
O Heavens! who knows to what that miscreant base,
With his infernal arts, may have impelled her!
To what extremities have wrought her up!...
Now, now, indeed, I tremble: what misdeeds,
How black in kind, how manifold in number,
Do I behold! ... Yet, if I speak, I kill
My mother: ... If I'm silent--? ...