For corpse-like are we gone, our life is fled.200
Thou art in Hades: of my days hath sped
The half amidst a doom
Of lamentation and weary sighs,
And of tears through the long nights poured from mine eyes.
Spouseless,—behold me!—and childless aye,
Am I wasting a desolate life away.
Chorus.
Look, maid Electra, who art at his side,
Lest this thy brother unawares have died.
So utter-nerveless, stirless, likes me not.210
Orestes (waking).
Dear spell of sleep, assuager of disease,
How sweet thou cam'st to me in sorest need!
O sovereign pain-oblivion, ah, how wise
A Goddess!—by the woe-worn how invoked!
Whence came I hitherward?—how found this place?215
For I forget: past thoughts are blotted out.
Electra.
Belovèd, how thy sleeping made me glad!
Wouldst have me clasp thee, and uplift thy frame?
Orestes.
Take, O yea, take me: from mine anguished lips
Wipe thou the clotted foam, and from mine eyes.220
Electra.
Lo!—sweet the service is: nor I think scorn
With sister's hand to tend a brother's limbs.
