But this o’ertops them all! The rest I bore,

As best I might, with patience: but Orestes,

My own dear boy, my daily, hourly care,

Whom from his mother’s womb these breasts did suckle—

How often did I rise o’ nights, and walked

From room to room, to soothe his baby cries;

But all my nursing now, and all my cares

Fall fruitless. ’Tis a pithless thing a child,

No forest whelp so helpless; one must even

Wait on its humour, as the hour may bring.