AIGISTHOS.
How, thou poor [oarsman of the nether row],
When the main deck is master? Sayst thou so?…
To such old heads the lesson may prove hard,
I fear me, when Obedience is the word.
But hunger, and bonds, and cold, help men to find
Their wits.—They are wondrous healers of the mind!
Hast eyes and seest not this?—Against a spike
Kick not, for fear it pain thee if thou strike.
LEADER (turning from him to CLYTEMNESTRA).
Woman! A soldier fresh from war! To keep
Watch o’er his house and shame him in his sleep…
To plot this craft against a lord of spears…
[CLYTEMNESTRA, as though in a dream, pays no heed. AIGISTHOS interupts.]
AIGISTHOS.
These be the words, old man, that lead to tears!
Thou hast an opposite to Orpheus’ tongue,
Who chained all things with his enchanting song,
For thy mad noise will put the chains on thee.
Enough! Once mastered thou shalt tamer be.
LEADER.
Thou master? Is old Argos so accurst?
Thou plotter afar off, who never durst
Raise thine own hand to affront and strike him down…
AIGISTHOS.
To entice him was the wife’s work. I was known
By all men here, his old confessed blood-foe.
Howbeit, with his possessions I will know
How to be King. And who obeys not me
Shall be yoked hard, no easy trace-horse he,
Corn-flushed. Hunger, and hunger’s prison mate,
The clammy murk, shall see his rage abate.
LEADER.
Thou craven soul! Why not in open strife
Slay him? Why lay the blood-sin on his wife,
Staining the Gods of Argos, making ill
The soil thereof?…But young Orestes still
Liveth. Oh, Fate will guide him home again,
Avenging, conquering, home to kill these twain!
AIGISTHOS.
’Fore God, if ’tis your pleasure thus to speak and do, ye soon shall hear!
Ho there, my trusty pikes, advance! There cometh business for the spear.
[A body of Spearmen, from concealment outside, rush in and dominate the stage.]