TECMESSA
Yes, he is gone. I am racked to know thy meaning.
MESSENGER
Teucer commands you to keep him within doors,
And not to let him leave his tent alone.
TECMESSA
And where is Teucer, and why speaks he thus?
MESSENGER
He has but now returned, and he forbodes
That this going-forth will prove fatal to Aias.
TECMESSA
Woe's me, alas! From whom has he learned this?
MESSENGER
From the seer, Thestor's son, this very day,
Which is fraught either with his death or life.
TECMESSA
Ah me, pay friends, avert this threatening doom!
Speed some of you to hasten Teucer hither:
Others go search the bays, some west, some east,
And track my lord's ill-omened going-forth.
Yes, now I know I have been deceived by him,
And from his former favour quite cast out.
Alas, child, what shall I do? Sit still I must not:
But far as I have strength I too will go.
Let us start quickly: 'tis no time for loitering,
If we would save one who is in haste to die.
CHORUS
I am ready, as not words alone shall prove,
But speed of act and foot to make words good.
[The scene changes to a lonely place by the sea-shore,
Aias alone.]
35
