If virtuous and dishonourable deeds
Are plain to all, who more unwise than he?
Deaf to the call of justice, he infringed
The firm authority of the public laws:
For when beneath my daughter’s murd’ring axe
Th’ imperial Agamemnon bowed his head,
A horrid deed, which never shall I praise,
He ought t’ have called the laws, the righteous laws,
T’ avenge the blood, and by appeal to them
Have driven his mother from the royal house: