Throughout this scene, and in the soliloquy preceding it, Alfieri paints very forcibly the struggle in Clytemnestra between her love for her son and her love for Aegisthus, to whom she clings even while he exults in the tidings that wring her heart. It is all too baldly presented, doubtless, but it is very effective and affecting.
Orestes and Pylades are now brought before Aegisthus, and he demands how and where Orestes died, for after his first rejoicing he has come to doubt the fact. Pylades responds in one of those speeches with which Alfieri seems to carve the scene in bas-relief:
Every fifth year an ancient use renews
In Crete the games and offerings unto Jove.
The love of glory and innate ambition
Lure to that coast the youth; and by his side
Goes Pylades, inseparable from him.
In the light car upon the arena wide,
The hopes of triumph urge him to contest
The proud palm of the flying-footed steeds,
And, too intent on winning, there his life
He gives for victory.
Aeg. But how? Say on.
Pyl. Too fierce, impatient, and incautious, he
Now frights his horses on with threatening cries,
Now whirls his blood-stained whip, and lashes them,
Till past the goal the ill-tamed coursers fly
Faster and faster. Reckless of the rein,
Deaf to the voice that fain would soothe them now,
Their nostrils breathing fire, their loose manes tossed
Upon the wind, and in thick clouds involved
Of choking dust, round the vast circle's bound,
As lightning swift they whirl and whirl again.
Fright, horror, mad confusion, death, the car
Spreads in its crooked circles everywhere,
Until at last, the smoking axle dashed
With horrible shock against a marble pillar,
Orestes headlong falls—
Cly. No more! Ah, peace!
His mother hears thee.
Pyl. It is true. Forgive me.
I will not tell how, horribly dragged on,
His streaming life-blood soaked the arena's dust—
Pylades ran—in vain—within his arms
His friend expired.
Cly. O wicked death!
Pyl. In Crete
All men lamented him, so potent in him
Were beauty, grace, and daring.
Cly. Nay, who would not
Lament him save this wretch alone? Dear son,
Must I then never, never see thee more?
O me! too well I see thee crossing now
The Stygian stream to clasp thy father's shade:
Both turn your frowning eyes askance on me,
Burning with dreadful wrath! Yea, it was I,
'T was I that slew you both. Infamous mother
And guilty wife!—Now art content, Aegisthus?
Aegisthus still doubts, and pursues the pretended messengers with such insulting question that Orestes, goaded beyond endurance, betrays that their character is assumed. They are seized and about to be led to prison in chains, when Electra enters and in her anguish at the sight exclaims, “Orestes led to die!” Then ensues a heroic scene, in which each of the friends claims to be Orestes. At last Orestes shows the dagger Electra has given him, and offers it to Clytemnestra, that she may stab Aegisthus with the same weapon with which she killed Agamemnon:
Whom then I would call mother. Take it; thou know'st how
To wield it; plunge it in Aegisthus' heart!
Leave me to die; I care not, if I see
My father avenged. I ask no other proof
Of thy maternal love from thee. Quick, now,
Strike! Oh, what is it that I see? Thou tremblest?
Thou growest pale? Thou weepest? From thy hand
The dagger falls? Thou lov'st Aegisthus, lov'st him
And art Orestes' mother? Madness! Go
And never let me look on thee again!
Aegisthus dooms Electra to the same death with Orestes and Pylades, but on the way to prison the guards liberate them all, and the Argives rise against the usurper with the beginning of the fifth act, which I shall give entire, because I think it very characteristic of Alfieri, and necessary to a conception of his vehement, if somewhat arid, genius. I translate as heretofore almost line for line, and word for word, keeping the Italian order as nearly as I can.
SCENE I.
AEGISTHUS and Soldiers.
Aeg. O treachery unforseen! O madness! Freed,
Orestes freed? Now we shall see....
Enter CLYTEMNESTRA.
Cly. Ah! turn
Backward thy steps.
Aeg. Ah, wretch, dost thou arm too
Against me?
Cly. I would save thee. Hearken to me,
I am no longer—
Aeg. Traitress—
Cly. Stay!
Aeg. Thou 'st promised
Haply to give me to that wretch alive?
Cly. To keep thee, save thee from him, I have sworn,
Though I should perish for thee! Ah, remain
And hide thee here in safety. I will be
Thy stay against his fury—
Aeg. Against his fury
My sword shall be my stay. Go, leave me!
I go—
Cly. Whither?
Aeg. To kill him!
Cly. To thy death thou goest!
O me! What dost thou? Hark! Dost thou not hear
The yells and threats of the whole people? Hold!
I will not leave thee.
Aeg. Nay, thou hop'st in vain
To save thy impious son from death. Hence! Peace!
Or I will else—
Cly. Oh, yes, Aegisthus, kill me,
If thou believest me not. “Orestes!” Hark!
“Orestes!” How that terrible name on high
Rings everywhere! I am no longer mother
When thou 'rt in danger. Against my blood I grow
Cruel once more.
Aeg. Thou knowest well the Argives
Do hate thy face, and at the sight of thee
The fury were redoubled in their hearts.
The tumult rises. Ah, thou wicked wretch,
Thou wast the cause! For thee did I delay
Vengeance that turns on me now.
Cly. Kill me, then!
Aeg. I'll find escape some other way.
Cly. I follow—
Aeg. Ill shield wert thou for me. Leave me—away, away!
At no price would I have thee by my side! {Exit.
Cly. All hunt me from them! O most hapless state!
My son no longer owns me for his mother,
My husband for his wife: and wife and mother
I still must be! O misery! Afar
I'll follow him, nor lose the way he went.
Enter ELECTRA.
El. Mother, where goest thou! Turn thy steps again
Into the palace. Danger—
Cly. Orestes—speak!
Where is he now? What does he do?
El. Orestes,
Pylades, and myself, we are all safe.
Even Aegisthus' minions pitied us.
They cried, “This is Orestes!” and the people,
“Long live Orestes! Let Aegisthus die!”
Cly. What do I hear?
El. Calm thyself, mother; soon
Thou shalt behold thy son again, and soon
Th' infamous tyrant's corse—
Cly. Ah, cruel, leave me!
I go—
El. No, stay! The people rage, and cry
Out on thee for a parricidal wife.
Show thyself not as yet, or thou incurrest
Great peril. 'T was for this I came. In thee
A mother's agony appeared, to see
Thy children dragged to death, and thou hast now
Atoned for thy misdeed. My brother sends me
To comfort thee, to succor and to hide thee
From dreadful sights. To find Aegisthus out,
All armed meanwhile, he and his Pylades
Search everywhere. Where is the wicked wretch?
Cly. Orestes is the wicked wretch!
El. O Heaven!
Cly. I go to save him or to perish with him.
El. Nay, mother, thou shalt never go. Thou ravest—
Cly. The penalty is mine. I go—
El. O mother!
The monster that but now thy children doomed
To death, wouldst thou—
Cly. Yes, I would save him—I!
Out of my path! My terrible destiny
I must obey. He is my husband. All
Too dear he cost me. I will not, can not lose him.
You I abhor, traitors, not children to me!
I go to him. Loose me, thou wicked girl!
At any risk I go, and may I only
Reach him in time! {Exit.
El. Go to thy fate, then, go,
If thou wilt so, but be thy steps too late!
Why can not I, too, arm me with a dagger,
To pierce with stabs a thousand-fold the breast
Of infamous Aegisthus! O blind mother, oh,
How art thou fettered to his baseness! Yet,
And yet, I tremble—If the angry mob
Avenge their murdered king on her—O Heaven!
Let me go after her—But who comes here?
Pylades, and my brother not beside him?
Enter PYLADES.
Oh, tell me! Orestes—?
Pyl. Compasses the palace
About with swords. And now our prey is safe.
Where lurks Aegisthus! Hast thou seen him?
El. Nay,
I saw and strove in vain a moment since
To stay his maddened wife. She flung herself
Out of this door, crying that she would make
Herself a shield unto Aegisthus. He
Already had fled the palace.
Pyl. Durst he then
Show himself in the sight of Argos? Why,
Then he is slain ere this! Happy the man
That struck him first. Nearer and louder yet
I hear their yells.
El. “Orestes!” Ah, were't so!
Pyl. Look at him in his fury where he comes!
Enter ORESTES and his followers.
Or. No man of you attempt to slay Aegisthus:
There is no wounding sword here save my own.
Aegisthus, ho! Where art thou, coward! Speak!
Aegisthus, where art thou? Come forth: it is
The voice of Death that calls thee! Thou comest not?
Ah, villain, dost thou hide thyself? In vain:
The midmost deep of Erebus should not hide thee!
Thou shalt soon see if I be Atrides' son.
El. He is not here; he—
Or. Traitors! You perchance
Have slain him without me?
Pyl. Before I came
He had fled the palace.
Or. In the palace still
Somewhere he lurks; but I will drag him forth;
By his soft locks I'll drag him with my hand:
There is no prayer, nor god, nor force of hell
Shall snatch thee from me. I will make thee plow
The dust with thy vile body to the tomb
Of Agamemnon,—I will drag thee thither
And pour out there all thine adulterous blood.
El. Orestes, dost thou not believe me?—me!
Or. Who'rt thou? I want Aegisthus.
El. He is fled.
Or. He's fled, and you, ye wretches, linger here?
But I will find him.
Enter CLYTEMNESTRA.
Cly. Oh, have pity, son!
Or. Pity? Whose son am I? Atrides' son
Am I.
Cly. Aegisthus, loaded with chains—
Or. He lives yet?
O joy! Let me go slay him!
Cly. Nay, kill me!
I slew thy father—I alone. Aegisthus
Had no guilt in it.
Or. Who, who grips my arm!
Who holds me back? O Madness! Ah Aegisthus!
I see him; they drag him hither—Off with thee!
Cly. Orestes, dost thou not know thy mother?
Or. Die,
Aegisthus! By Orestes' hand, die, villain! {Exit.
Cly. Ah, thou'st escaped me! Thou shalt slay me
first! {Exit.
El. Pylades, go! Run, run! Oh, stay her! fly;
Bring her back hither! {Exit PYLADES.
I shudder! She is still
His mother, and he must have pity on her.
Yet only now she saw her children stand
Upon the brink of an ignoble death;
And was her sorrow and her daring then
As great as they are now for him? At last
The day so long desired has come; at last,
Tyrant, thou diest; and once more I hear
The palace all resound with wails and cries,
As on that horrible and bloody night,
Which was my father's last, I heard it ring.
Already hath Orestes struck the blow,
The mighty blow; already is Aegisthus
Fallen—the tumult of the crowd proclaims it.
Behold Orestes conqueror, his sword
Dripping with blood!
Enter ORESTES.
O brother mine, come,
Avenger of the king of kings, our father,
Argos, and me, come to my heart!
Or. Sister,
At last thou seest me Atrides' worthy son.
Look,'t is Aegisthus' blood! I hardly saw him
And ran to slay him where he stood, forgetting
To drag him to our father's sepulcher.
Full twice seven times I plunged and plunged my sword
Into his cowardly and quaking heart;
Yet have I slaked not my long thirst of vengeance!
El. Then Clytemnestra did not come in time
To stay thine arm?
Or. And who had been enough
For that? To stay my arm? I hurled myself
Upon him; not more swift the thunderbolt.
The coward wept, and those vile tears the more
Filled me with hate. A man that durst not die
Slew thee, my father!
El. Now is our sire avenged!
Calm thyself now, and tell me, did thine eyes
Behold not Pylades?
Or. I saw Aegisthus;
None other. Where is dear Pylades? And why
Did he not second me in this glorious deed?
El. I had confided to his care our mad
And desperate mother.
Or. I knew nothing of them.
Enter PYLADES.
El. See, Pylades returns—O heavens, what do I see?
Returns alone?
Or. And sad? Oh wherefore sad,
Part of myself, art thou? Know'st not I've slain
Yon villain? Look, how with his life-blood yet
My sword is dripping! Ah, thou did'st not share
His death-blow with me! Feed then on this sight
Thine eyes, my Pylades!
Pyl. O sight! Orestes,
Give me that sword.
Or. And wherefore?
Pyl. Give it me.
Or. Take it.
Pyl. Oh listen! We may not tarry longer
Within these borders; come—
Or. But what—
El. Oh speak!
Where's Clytemnestra?
Or. Leave her; she is perchance
Kindling the pyre unto her traitor husband.
Pyl. Oh, thou hast far more than fulfilled thy vengeance.
Come, now, and ask no more.
Or. What dost thou say?
El. Our mother! I beseech thee yet again!
Pylades—Oh what chill is this that creeps
Through all my veins?
Pyl. The heavens—
El. Ah, she is dead!
Or. Hath turned her dagger, maddened, on herself?
El. Alas, Pylades! Why dost thou not answer?
Or.. Speak! What hath been?
Pyl. Slain—
Or. And by whose hand?
Pyl. Come!
El. (To ORESTES.) Thou slewest her!
Or. I parricide?
Pyl. Unknowing
Thou plungèdst in her heart thy sword, as blind
With rage thou rannest on Aegisthus—
Or. Oh,
What horror seizes me! I parricide?
My sword! Pylades, give it me; I'll have it—
Pyl. It shall not be.
El. Brother—
Or. Who calls me brother?
Thou, haply, impious wretch, thou that didst save me
To life and matricide? Give me my sword!
My sword! O fury! Where am I? What is it
That I have done? Who stays me? Who follows me?
Ah, whither shall I fly, where hide myself?—
O father, dost thou look on me askance?
Thou wouldst have blood of me, and this is blood;
For thee alone—for thee alone I shed it!
El. Orestes, Orestes—miserable brother!
He hears us not! ah, he is mad! Forever,
Pylades, we must go beside him.
Pyl. Hard,
Inevitable law of ruthless Fate!