GENIUS AND OTHER ESSAYS
At his doors, he falls,—and the dead, that cursed his home,
He, dying, must in full requite,—
What manner of man is one that would not pray
To be born with a good attendant Sprite?
(An outcry within the palace.)
Agamemnon.—Woe's me! I am stricken a deadly blow within!
Chor.—Hark! Who is't cries "a blow"? Who meets his death?
Agam.—Woe's me! again! a second time I am stricken!
Chor.—The deed, methinks, from the King's cry, is done.
Quick, let us see what help may be in counsel!
Whereupon the old men, one by one, make some terror-stricken and absurd remarks, which only serve to fill out the time until the royal murderess can enter upon the scene. The poet evidently conceives her as a stately and defiant woman, despising the clamor of the throng, while she stands full height in the palace door, still holding the bloody weapon in her hands:
[Agam. 1343-1377.]
Enter Klytæmnestra, from the Palace.
Klyt.—Now, all this formal outcry having vent,
I shall not blush to speak the opposite.
How should one, plotting evil things for foes,
Encompass seeming friends with such a bane
Of toils? it were a height too great to leap!
Not without full prevision came, though late,
To me this crisis of an ancient feud.
And here, the deed being done, I stand—even where
I smote him! nor deny that thus I did it;
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