GENIUS AND OTHER ESSAYS
He, dying, must in full requite,—
What manner of man is one that would not pray
To be born with a good attendant Sprite?
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
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