Ion
Euripides
Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. I. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1906.
- Ha! what unlooked-for sight is here?
- Peace, woman! now, as erst, thou art my enemy.
- Silence is not for me. Bid me not be still; for lo! I see the ark wherein I did expose thee, my child, in days gone by, whilst yet a tender babe in the cavern of
- Cecrops, ’neath the rocky roof of Macrae. So now will I leave this altar, though death await me.
- Seize her; she is mad, springing thus from the shelter of the carved altar. Bind her arms.
- Kill! spare not! for I to thee will cleave,
- and to this ark, and all that is within it.
- Is not this monstrous? here am I laid claim to on a specious pretext.
- Nay, nay, but as a friend art thou by friends now found.
- I a friend of thine! and wouldst thou, then, have slain me privily?
- Thou art my child, if that is what a parent holds most dear.
- An end to thy web of falsehood! Right well will I convict thee.
- My child, that is my aim; God grant I reach it!
- Is this ark empty, or hath it aught within?
- Thy raiment wherein I exposed thee long ago.
- Wilt put a name thereto before thou see it?
- Unless I describe it, I offer to die.
- Say on; there is something strange in this thy confidence.
- Behold the robe my childish fingers wove.
- Describe it; maidens weave many a pattern.