CLYTEMNESTSA
Stay, child, and fear to strike. O son, this breast
Pillowed thine head full oft, while, drowsed with sleep,
Thy toothless mouth drew mother’s milk from me.
ORESTES
Can I my mother spare? speak, Pylades,
PYLADES
Where then would fall the hest Apollo gave
At Delphi, where the solemn compact sworn?
Choose thou the hate of all men, not of gods.
ORESTES
Thou dost prevail; I hold thy counsel good.
[To Clytemnestra.
Follow; I will slay thee at his side.
With him whom in his life thou lovedst more
Than Agamemnon, sleep in death, the meed
For hate where love, and love where hate was due!
CLYTEMNESTRA
I nursed thee young; must I forego mine eld?
ORESTES
Thou slew’st my father; shalt thou dwell with me?
CLYTEMNESTRA
Fate bore a share in these things, O my child!
ORESTES
Fate also doth provide this doom for thee.