Agamemnon

Aeschylus

Aeschylus. The poetical works of Robert Browning, Volume 13. Browning, Robert, translator; Berdoe, Edward, editor. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1889.

  1. Are harsh to slaves in all things, beyond measure.
  2. Thou hast — with us — such usage as law warrants.
CHOROS.
  1. To thee it was, she paused plain speech from speaking.
  2. Being inside the fatal nets — obeying,
  3. Thou mayst obey: but thou mayst disobey too!
KLUTAIMNESTRA.
  1. Why, if she is not, in the swallow’s fashion,
  2. Possessed of voice that’s unknown and barbaric,
  3. I, with speech — speaking in mind’s scope — persuade her.
CHOROS.
  1. Follow! The best — as things now stand — she speaks of.
  2. Obey thou, leaving this thy car-enthronement!
KLUTAIMNESTRA.
  1. Well, with this thing at door, for me no leisure
  2. To waste time: as concerns the hearth mid-navelled,
  3. Already stand the sheep for fireside slaying
  4. By those who never hoped to have such favour.
  5. If thou, then, aught of this wilt do, delay not!
  6. But if thou, being witless, tak’st no word in,
  7. Speak thou, instead of voice, with hand as Kars do!
CHOROS.
  1. She seems a plain interpreter in need of,
  2. The stranger! and her way — a beast’s new-captured!
KLUTAIMNESTRA.
  1. Why, she is mad, sure, — hears her own bad senses, —