Andromache

Euripides

Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. II. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1891.

  1. Suppose thou hadst wedded a prince of Thrace, the land of flood and melting snow, where one lord shares his affections with a host of wives, wouldst thou have slain them? If so, thou wouldst have set a stigma of insatiate lust on all our sex.
  2. A shameful charge! And yet herein we suffer more than men, though we make a good stand against it. Ah! my dear lord Hector, for thy sake would I e’en brook a rival, if ever Cypris led thee astray, and oft in days gone by I held thy bastard babes to my own breast,
  3. to spare thee any cause for grief. By this course I bound my husband to me by virtue’s chains, whereas thou wilt never so much as let the drops of dew from heaven above settle on thy lord, in thy jealous fear.[*](i.e. she is so suspicious that he can scarcely come and go as he pleases, at early morn.)
  4. Oh! seek not to surpass thy mother in hankering after men, for ’tis well that all wise children should avoid the habits of such evil mothers.
Chorus
  1. Mistress mine, be persuaded to come to terms with her, as far as readily comes within thy power.