Agamemnon

Aeschylus

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

  1. A swift report has gone our city through,
  2. From fire, the good-news messenger: if true,
  3. Who knows? Or is it not a god-sent lie?
  4. Who is so childish and deprived of sense
  5. That, having, at announcements of the flame
  6. Thus novel, felt his own heart fired thereby,
  7. He then shall at a change of evidence,
  8. Be worsted just the same?
  9. It is conspicuous in a woman’s nature,
  10. Before its view to take a grace for granted:
  11. Too trustful, — on her boundary, usurpature
  12. Is swiftly made;
  13. But swiftly, too, decayed,
  14. The glory perishes by woman vaunted.
KLUTAIMNESTRA.
  1. Soon shall we know — of these light-bearing torches,
  2. And beacons and exchanges, fire with fire —
  3. If they are true, indeed, or if, dream-fashion,
  4. This gladsome light came and deceived our judgment.
  5. Yon herald from the shore I see, o’ershadowed
  6. With boughs of olive: dust, mud’s thirsty brother,