THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES IN MEMORY OF EDWIN CORLE PRESENTED BY JEAN CORLE ELECTRA ELECTRA A TRAGEDY IN ONE ACT BY HUGO VON HOFMANNSTHAL TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR SYMONS r NEW YORK BRENT ANO'S 1908 Copyright, 1908 BY BRENTANO'S THB UNITKR8ITT PBK88, OAMBRIDOK, U.S. A. College Library DRAMATIS PERSONAE CLYTEMNESTRA ELECTRA ) > Her daughters CHRYSOTHEMIS j AEGISTHUS ORESTES THE FOSTER FATHER OF ORESTES THE WAITING WOMAN THE TRAIN BEARER A YOUNG SERVING MAN AN OLD SERVING MAN THE COOK THE OVERSEER OF THE SERVING WOMEN THE SERVING WOMEN ELECTRA The scene represents the inner court, bounded by the back of the Palace and by low buildings in which the Servants live. SERVING WOMEN at the draw-well^ m front on the left. OVERSEERS among them. FIRST SERVING WOMAN, raising her pitcher WHERE does Electra bide? SECOND SERVING WOMAN It is her hour, The hour when she cries out upon her father, Till all the walls ring with it. [ELECTRA comes running out of the door of the inner hall, which is already dark. ALL turn towards her. She springs back like a wild beast into its lair, one arm before her face. FIRST SERVING WOMAN Did you see how she stared upon us? SECOND SERVING WOMAN Spiteful She is, as a wild cat. ELECTRA THIRD SERVING WOMAN Just now she lay And groaned FIRST SERVING WOMAN She always lies and groans like that When the sun 's low. THIRD SERVING WOMAN And then we went too far And came too close to her. FIRST SERVING WOMAN She cannot stand it If one but merely looks at her. THIRD SERVING WOMAN We came Too close to her. Then she screeched out like a cat Upon us : " Off, you flies, begone ! " she cried. FOURTH SERVING WOMAN " Muck-flies, begone ! " THIRD SERVING WOMAN " Settle not on my wounds ! " And struck out at us with a wisp of straw. [ 8 ] ELECTRA FOURTH SERVING WOMAN " Muck-flies, begone ! " THIRD SERVING WOMAN " You shall not feed upon The sweetness of the torment. You shall not snatch The foam from off my agony." FOURTH SERVING WOMAN "Crawl away!" She cried upon us. " Eat sweet and eat fat, And sneak to bed, you and your men," cried she. And you THIRD SERVING WOMAN I was not idle FOURTH SERVING WOMAN Gave her her answer. THIRD SERVING WOMAN Yes : " If you 're hungry," was my answer to her, " So do you too " ; then leapt she and shot out A horrid scowl, and crooked her finger at us Like a big claw, and cried : " I feed," she cried, " A vulture in my body ! " SECOND SERVING WOMAN What did you say? [ 9 ] ELECTRA THIBD SERVING WOMAN "That 's why," I gave her back, "you always squat Where carrion 's to be smelt, and why you scratch After a long-dead body ! " SECOND SERVING WOMAN What did she say? THIED SERVING WOMAN She only screamed and cast Back to her corner. [.THEY have finished drawmg the water. FIRST SERVING WOMAN That the Queen should let This sort of demon free in house and court To live there as it likes her ! SECOND SERVING WOMAN Her own child ! FIRST SERVING WOMAN Were she my child, by God, I 'd put her soon Safe under bolt and bar. FOURTH SERVING WOMAN Do you not think They are hard enough on her? Do they not set [ 10 ] Her platter with the dogs? (In a low voice.) Have you not seen The master strike her? FIFTH SERVING WOMAN, a quite young one, with a tremulous, sensitive voice Surely I will cast Myself before her, I will kiss her feet. Is she not a king's daughter, and endures So sore an outrage ! Surely I will anoint Her feet and I will wipe them with my hair. OVERSEER In with you! (Pushes her.) FIFTH SERVING WOMAN There is nothing in the world So royal as she is. She lies in rags Upon the threshold, ay, but there is none (she shouts), None in the house that can endure to look Into her eyes. OVERSEER In with you ! (Pushes her in through the open door to L.) FIFTH SERVING WOMAN, caught in the door You are not worthy To breathe the air she breathes. Would I could see ELECTRA The lot of you strung up here by the neck In any dark old granary, for all this You have done here to Electra! OVERSEER, shuts the door and sets her back against it Do you hear that? We, to Electra? When they bade her sit And eat with us, she thrust her bowl away, She spat upon us, and she called us dogs. FIRST SERVING WOMAN I Eh ! what she said was : there is not any dog A man could make so abject; and that we With water, always with fresh water, wash The eternal blood of murder from the floor. THIRD SERVING WOMAN And that we sweep the offence, she said, the offence That comes again, day by day, night by night, Into its corner. FIEST SERVING WOMAN And our bodies, cried she, Stiffen to the dirt we are in bondage to. [They carry their pitchers into the house toL. OVEESEER, who has fastened the door after them And if she sees us with our children : nought, Nought can be so accursed, she cries on us, [ 1*] ELECTRA As children, we have littered in this house, Slipping in blood upon the stairs like dogs. Did she say this or not ? SERVING WOMEN, Yes, yes! ONE, from within They strike me! [The OVERSEER goes in. [ELECTRA comes out of the house. She is alone with the red flickerings of light which fall through the branches of the fig-trees and drop like blood-stains on the ground and on the walls. ELECTRA Alone ! Woe 's me, alone ! My father gone, Thrust down in his cold pit. (Towards the ground. ) Where are you, father? Have you not the strength To lift your face and look on me again ? It is the hour, father, it is our hour ; The hour when these two slaughtered you, your wife And he who lay in the same bed with her, Your kingly bed. They struck you in your bath, Dead: and your blood ran over both your eyes, And all the bed steamed with the blood ; then he, The coward, took you by your shoulders, dragged you ELECTRA Out of the room, head foremost, and both legs After it trailing ; and your eyes, wide open, Staring behind them, saw into the house. Thus you return, and set (she sees him) foot before foot, And suddenly you are here, with both your eyes Wide open, and a royal diadem Of purple is about your brow, and feeds Upon the open wound there. Father ! I will See you : O, leave me not to-day alone, Were it no more than yesterday, come back, A shadow in yonder corner, to your child ! Father, your day will come. Time is cast down By the sure stars, so surely shall the blood Out of a hundred throats cast down your grave As from a pitcher spilt upon the ground It streams out of the shackled murderers And round the naked bodies of their helpers, Like marble pitchers, all, women and men ; And in one wave, in one wide swollen stream, Shall their life's life gush out of them ; and we Will slaughter your horses for you and gather them About your grave, and they shall snuff up death And neigh in the wind of death, and die ; and we Will slaughter the dogs for you, because the dogs Are litter of the litter of that pack That hunted with you, and would lick your feet And you would cast them morsels ; therefore must Their blood be shed for you, and we, your blood, Your son Orestes and your daughters, we These three, when all is done, and there arises Canopied purple from your streaming blood, The sun sucks upward, then we three, your blood, ELECTRA Will dance about your grave ; and I will lift Knee after knee above the heap of dead Step by step higher, and all who see me dance, Yea, all who see my shadow from afar Dancing, shall say: Behold how great a king Here holds high festival of his flesh and blood, And happy is he about whose mighty grave His children dance so royal a dance of triumph ! [CHRYSOTHEMIS, the younger sister, stands in the doorway of the inner court. She looks anxiously at ELECTRA, and calls softly. CHRYSOTHEMIS Electra! [ELECTRA turns round, like a night-wan- derer, who hears his name called. She stag- gers. Her eyes look about her as if she saw nothing as it was. Her face distorts as she sees the anxious look of her sister. CHRYSOTHEMIS stands squeezed in the door. ELECTRA Ah, the face ! CHRYSOTHEMIS Is my face then So hateful to you? [ 15 ] ELECTRA ELECTEA What do you want? Speak out, Say it, empty it all, then go away And leave me. [CHRYSOTHEMIS puts up her hands as if to ward off a blow. ELECTRA Why do you lift up your hands? So lifted up our father both his hands When the axe fell on them and clove his flesh. What do you want, daughter of my mother? CHRYSOTHEMIS They are about to do some dreadful thing. ELECTRA Both women? CHRYSOTHEMIS Who? ELECTRA Why, one of them 's my mother, And there *s that other woman, the coward one, The valiant murder-monger, why, ^Egisthus, The doer of heroic deeds, in bed, What are they going to do ? [ 16 ] ELECTRA CHBYSOTHEMIS To shut you up In a dark tower, where you would never see The light of sun or moon. [ELECTRA laughs. They will, I know, For I have heard it. ELECTRA I seem to have heard it too. Was it not said when the last dish went round At table? Then he is wont to raise his voice And brag about his bravery, and, I wager, J T is good for his digestion. CHRYSOTHEMIS Not at table He did not brag about it. He and she Spoke of it all alone. ELECTRA Alone? how then Could you have heard it? CHRYSOTHEMIS At the door, Electra. ELECTRA Let there be no doors opened in this house! Laboring breath, pah! and the gasp of strangling : [ H] ELECTRA There *s nothing in these rooms but that. Let be The door, when there 's a groaning heard within. It cannot be that they are always killing, Sometimes they are alone together, even ! Open no doors here. Do not prowl about. Sit on the ground, like me, and wish for death. And judgment upon her and upon him. CHKYSOTHEMIS I cannot sit and stare into the dark, As you do ; there is a fire within my breast That drives me all about the house, and not A room is tolerable to me, but I from one To another threshold must go up, go down; Each seems to call to me, and as I come, An empty room stares back at me. I have So sore a torment in me that my knees Shake under me by day and night, my throat Is tightened and I cannot even weep. All turns to stone. Sister, have pity! ELECTEA On whom? CHKYSOTHEMIS You it is who have welded me to the ground With iron clamps. If it were not for you They would have let us out. But for your hate, Your sleepless and immitigable mind, That makes them tremble, they would have let us out, Out of this prison, sister ! I will go out. [ 18 ] ELECTRA I will not sleep here every night till death, And I will live before I come to die, I will bear children, ere my body withers, And though they mate me with a peasant, yet I will bear him children, and warm them with my body In the cold night when storms are on the hut. But this will I endure no more, to herd With menials, being no kin of theirs, shut in With very pangs of death by day and night. Do you hear me, sister ! Speak ! ELECTBA Poor creature! CHBYSOTHEMIS Nay! Have pity on yourself and me. Who profits, Electra, from this anguish? Not our father. Our father is dead. Our brother does not come. You see that all this time he does not come. Time graves its token on your face and mine Day after day, and, there, without, the sun Rises and sets and women I have known When they were slender are now big with blessing, And at the well can scarcely lift their jars; Then, in a little, their burdens being off, Come to the well again, and out of them Runs a sweet draught, and on them sucks and hangs A young life, and they see their children grow ; But we sit all alone upon our perch [ 19 ] ELECTRA Like captive birds, and turn our heads to left And right, and no man comes, no brother comes, No news of any brother, and no news Of any news, nothing. Better be dead Than living and not live. No, no, I am A woman, and I would have a woman's lot. ELECTRA Shame on the thought of it, shame to speak of it ! To be the hollow where the murderer After the murder takes his rest ; to play The beast that one may give a worse beast pleasure ! She slept with one, ah, and she laid her breast Across his eyes, and nodded to another That from behind the bed with axe and net Crept out. CHEYSOTHEMIS You are too horrible, Electra ! ELECTRA Why am I horrible? Are you such a woman? You will become one. CHRY8OTHEMI8 Can you not forget? My head is all a void. I can remember Nothing out of day until to-morrow. Sometimes I lie so, then am I again What I was once, and cannot make out why [ 30 ] ELECTRA I am no longer young. Where is it all? This is not water, that runs always past, This is no thread which on the shuttle flies, Hither and thither, it is I, yes, I. I would fain pray some god to set a light Within my breast that I might find myself Again within me. Were I but away How soon would I forget all these bad dreams ! ELECTRA Forget? what, am I then a beast? Forget? The beast will fall to sleep, within its mouth Its prey half eaten ; the beast forgets itself And sets a-chewing while death throttles it; The beast forgets what came out of its body And stays its hunger on its young; but I, I am no beast, and I cannot forget. CHRYSOTHEMIS O must my soul forever on this food Be fed, this food it loathes, it loathes so much It shudders at the smell of it ; this food It should not ever touch, nor ever know That there was anything so full of horror; Not see it with the eyes, not hearken to it. This terror is too dreadful for men's hearts. When it draws near to us and takes hold on us, Then must we flee away into the houses, Into the vineyards, up into the hills, And if it follow us into the hills We must come down and burrow in the houses ; ELECTRA Not dare abide with it, not be with it In the same house. I will go, I will go away, I will conceive and I will bring forth children, That shall know nothing of it, I will wash My body in that water, plunge deep, deep My body in that water, wash all over, Wash clean both my eye-sockets; they shall not fear When they look up into their mother's eyes. ELECTRA, scornfully When they look up into their mother's eyes ! How will you look our father in the eyes? CHRYSOTHEMIS Stop! ELECTRA May your children, when you have them, do So unto you as you unto our father. [CHRYSOTHEMIS CTICS Out. Why do you cry? Get in. Your place is there. I hear a noise. Is it your wedding-feast They set in order? I can hear them running. Why, the whole house is up. They are in birth- pangs Or at a murder. They must be at a murder When they have no dead body for a bed. CHRYSOTHEMIS Stop! That is past and over. [ 22 ] ELECTRA ELECTRA Past and over? They fall to some new matter there within. Do you think I do not know the sound when bodies Are trailed upon the stairs, and there is whispering And wringing out of cloths that drop with blood? CHRYSOTHEMIS Sister, let us begone from here. ELECTRA This time I will be by, and not as I was then. I am strong this time. I will cast myself Upon her, wrest the axe out of her hand, Swing the axe over her CHRYSOTHEMIS Go, hide yourself, Lest she should see you. Do not cross her path To-day. She scatters death in every glance. She has been dreaming. {The noise of many PEOPLE approaching comes nearer. Go away from here, Go, they are coming through the corridor. They are coming by this way. She has been dreaming ; I know not what, I heard it from her women, I do not know, sister, if it is true ; They say she has been dreaming of Orestes, [ 23 ] ELECTRA And that she has been crying in her sleep, As one cries out being strangled. ELECTBA It is I, I, that have sent him to her. From my breast I sent the dream to her. I lie and hear The feet of him who follows her. I hear His feet go through the room, I hear him lift The curtain of the bed; crying, she leaps forth, But he is after her ; and down the stairs Through vault and vault and vault the hunt goes on. It is much darker now than night, and much Darker and much more quiet than the grave; She pants and staggers in the darkness, yet He is still after her ; he shakes the torch On this side and on that side of the axe. And I am like a hound upon her heels; And if she seeks a hole I spring upon her Sideways, and so we drive her on and on Till a wall shuts upon us, and there, deep In that dense darkness (yet I see him there, A shadow, and his limbs and eyeballs) sits Our father, and he heeds not, yet it must Be done; we drive her in before his feet; Then falls the axe. [Torches and FIGURES /HZ the corridor to L. of door. CHBYSOTHEMIS They are here already, and she drives her women Before her, all with torches, and they drag [ 24 ] ELECTRA Beasts with them and the sacrificial knife. She is most deadly, sister, when she trembles, As she does now. O do not cross her path For this one day, only for this one hour ! ELECTEA I have a mind to speak now with my mother As I have never spoken. [Against the brightly lighted corridor shuffles and clatters a hurrying PROCES- SION. There is a tugging and hauling of beasts, a smothered chiding, a quickly stifled cry, the swish of a whip, a pulling back and staggering forward. CHEYSOTHEMIS I will not hear it. [She goes in through the door of the court. [CLYTEMNESTEA appears m the wide window. In the glare of the torches her sallow and bloated face looks whiter above her scarlet dress. She leans on her WAIT- ING WOMAN, who is dressed in dark violet, and on an ivory staff incrusted with pre- cious stones. A yellow FIGUEE with dark hair combed back, like an Egyptian, and a smooth face like an erect snake, bears her train. The QUEEN is bedecked all over with precious stones and talismans. Her arms are covered by bracelets, her fingers glitter with rings. Her eyelids seem un- naturally heavy, and she seems to keep them [ 25 ] ELECTRA open with a great effort. ELECTRA stands rigid and still, her face turned towards the window. CLYTEMNESTRA suddenly opens her eyes and, trembling with anger, goes to the window and points with her staff at ELECTRA. CLYTEMNESTRA, at the window What do you want? See it now, how it rears Its swollen neck and darts its tongue at me! See what I have let loose in my own house. If she could only kill me with her eyes ! O Gods, why do ye weigh on me so sore, Why do ye waste me so intolerably? Why must my strength be sacrificed in me? Why Is this my living body like a field Wasted with weeds, and nettles grow in it, And I have not the strength to pluck them up? Why is this done to me, immortal gods? ELECTRA The gods ! but are you not yourself a goddess ? You are as they are. CLYTEMNESTRA Do you understand What she is saying? WAITING WOMAN That you also are of The seed of gods. [ 26 ] ELECTRA TRAIN BEARER, whispers She meant it knavishly. CLYTEMNESTRA, droppwg her heavy eyelids It sounds familiar, and like a thing Forgotten long ago. She knows me well, Yet what she harbors in her no man knows. \The WAITING WOMAN and TRAIN BEARER whisper together. ELECTRA You are yourself no longer. Reptiles hang Upon you, what they hiss into your ear Sunders your thought within you, and you fall Into an ecstasy, and always now You are as in a dream. CLYTEMNESTRA I will go down. Leave me, for I will speak with her. To-day She is not so curst. She speaks like a physician. The hours have all things mortal in their hand. In everything one aspect may be found Bearable even in things least bearable. [She leaves the window and comes to the door, the WAITING WOMAN by her side, the TRAIN BEARER behind her, torches be- hind them. (From the threshold.) Why did you call me a goddess? Did you say it [ 27 ] ELECTRA In malice? Have a care. This day may be The last when you shall ever see the light Of day and breathe in freely the free air. ELECTRA If you are not a goddess, of a truth, Who are the gods? There is nothing in the world That fills me with such shuddering as to think That body the dark door through which I crept Into the light of the world. Have I then lain Naked upon that lap, and to that breast Have you indeed lifted me? Then have I Crept from my father's grave, and played about In winding-sheets upon his judgment-place. Then you are a colossus, from whose hands Of brass I never issued. You have me hard Upon the bridle and you fetter me To what you will. You have cast up like the sea A father and a sister and a life. And you have sucked down under like a sea A father and a sister and a life. I know not how, unless you died before me, I should have leave to die. CLYTEMNESTRA So much do you honor me? Is there yet a little Respect in you? ELECTRA Much, much! What troubles you Troubles me likewise. Look you, why it irks me To see ^Egisthus, who is your husband, wear [ 28 ] ELECTRA The cloak my father, who is dead, you know, And was the late king, wore. It irks me truly; I find it sits not well on him ; it is Too wide across the shoulders. WAITING WOMAN The thing she says Is not the thing she means. TRAIN BEARER False, every word. CLYTEMNESTRA, to them scornfully I will hear nothing. That which comes from you Is but ^Egisthus' breath. I will not check At all things. And if you will say to me What pleases me to hear, then will I hearken To what you say. The very truth of things That no man brings to light. There is on earth No man that knoweth how deep-hid a thing The truth is. Are there not in prison those That call JEgisthus murder-monger, me Murderess? And if I wake you in the night Do you not each give answer otherwise? Do you not cry out that my lids are swollen And I am sick within, and that all this Is but that I am sick? And then you whimper Into my other ear that you have seen Demons with long, sharp-pointed beaks suck out My blood, and point the marks out on my body. [ 29 ] ELECTRA And I, believing you, slay, slay, and slay Sacrifice upon sacrifice? Do you not Tear me to death with sayings and answerings? I will hear no more ! This is truth, this is falsehood. If any should say pleasant things to me, Were it my daughter even, were it she there, Then will I from my soul take off all veils, And let the stir of the soft airs come in, Come whence it may come, as sick people do Who sit about a pool at eventide, Letting the cool air come upon their bodies, Fevered and foul, thinking about nothing Except about the comfort. So will I Begin now to make shift for my own self. Leave me alone with her. [She points the way into the house with her stick, impatiently, to her WAITING WOMEN and TRAIN BEARERS. THEY dis- appear lingeringly through the doorway. [The torches disappear with them, and only a faint light falls from inside the house across the inner court, and casts bars of shadow over the figures of the TWO WOMEN. CLYTEMNESTRA, after a pause I cannot sleep at night. Do you not know Some remedy for dreams? ELECTRA, coming nearer I, mother, I? [ 30 ] ELECTRA GLYTEMNESTEA Have you no other word to comfort me? Unloose your tongue. Ah, yes, I dream. We age, And as we age we dream. But that indeed Can be cast out. Why do you stand in the dark? We must make profit of the powers in us That now lie scattered. There are certain rites, There must be proper rites for everything. On how one utters a mere word or sentence Much may depend. And also on the hour, And whether one be full or fasting. Much Has come to pass because at the wrong hour One stept into the bath. ELECTEA Are you thinking then About my father? CLYTEMNESTEA Therefore I am so Behung with precious stones. In every stone There lives for sure a virtue. But one needs To know the uses of them. If you would, I know that you could tell me what would aid me. ELECTEA I, mother, I? CLYTEMNESTEA Yes, you! For you are wise, Your head is sound and strong. You talk about Old things as if they happened yesterday. But I decay. I think. But one thought heaps ELECTRA Itself upon another. And if I open My mouth, then cries ^Egisthus, and what he cries Is hateful to me, and I would fain rise up, Be stronger than his words, and I find nothing. I find nothing! I do not even know Whether it was to-day he said that thing Which shook my soul with fury, or long ago. Then I grow dizzy and know nothing more, Not even who I am ; and 't is that terror That hales me living into the abyss. And he, ^Egisthus, mocks me, and I find Nothing. I find not some unspeakable thing To strike him silent and as pale as I Staring into the fire. But you have words. You could speak many things to bring me help. What if a word be nothing but a word? What is a breath? And yet there creeps a some- thing Over me as I lie, 'twixt night and day, With open eyes, and it is not a word, And not an agony, it does not crush, It does not choke me, but it lets me lie As I am lying, and beside me there ^Egisthus lies and there the curtain is. And all things look at me as if it were Out of eternity in to eternity, And it is nothing, not a nightmare even, And yet it is so terrible that my soul Hungers to hang itself, and every nerve Pants after death ; and yet I live the while And am not even sick; look on me now: Am I like a sick woman? Can one perish Living, like a foul carcase, and decay, [ 32 ] ELECTRA Not being sick in anywise? Decay With waking mind, like garments moths have eaten ? And then I sleep, and then I dream, and dream That all the marrow is molten in my bones And still I stagger on, and not the tenth Of an hour's running water has run out, And that which grins in underneath the curtain Is not yet the dun morning, no, but always Only the torch before the door, that starts Horribly like a living thing, and lies In wait against my sleep. I know not who they are that thus oppress me, And whether over us or under us Be their abode; but when I see you stand As now you stand before me, I can but think That you are also in the game with them. Only who are you then? You have not a word To say, now when one listens to you. How Shall it be help or hurt to any man Whether you live or die? Why do you look So hard upon me? I will not have you look Upon me so. These dreams must have an end. Whatever demon has been sent, shall leave us When the right blood is spilt. ELECTRA Whatever demon? CLYTEMNESTRA Though I should let the blood of every beast That creeps and flies, and in the steam of the blood [33] ELECTRA Stand up and go to sleep there as folk do In ultimate Thule in a blood-red mist, Yet will I dream no more. ELECTEA When there shall fall Under the axe the right blood-offering Then you shall dream no more. CLYTEMNESTEA, coming nearer Ah, then you know With what horned beast ELECTEA With an unhorned beast. CLYTEMNESTEA That lies within there bound? ELECTEA No, it goes free. CLYTEMNESTEA, eagerly And with what rites? ELECTEA Marvellous rites, that ask A strict observance. ELECTRA CLYTEMNESTRA Speak them! ELECTRA Can you not Divine them? CLYTEMNESTRA No, and therefore you I ask. The name then of the offering? ELECTRA A woman. CLYTEMNESTRA, eagerly One of my women? Or a child? A maiden? A woman that has known men? That's it! ELECTRA Yes, known men: CLYTEMNESTRA How then the offering, and what hour, And where? ELECTRA In any place, in any hour Of day or night. [ 35 ] ELECTRA CLYTEMNESTRA Tell me the rites, and tell me How they are served. Must I myself ELECTRA This time You go not to the hunt with net and axe. CLYTEMNESTRA Who then? Who offers it? ELECTRA A man. CLTTEMNESTRA JSgisthus? ELECTRA, laughs I said a man ! CLTTEMNESTRA Who? Answer. Of the house? Or must he be a stranger? ELECTRA, looking as if absently on the ground Yes, yes, a stranger. But surely of the house. [ 36 ] 'ELECTRA CLYTEMNESTRA Read me no riddles. Electra, hear me. You are not so stubborn To-day, and I am glad of it. When parents Are hard upon the child, it is the child That goads them into hardness. No harsh word Is quite irrevocable, and no mother If she sleeps ill, but would the rather think That her child lay in marriage-bed than bonds. ELECTRA, to her self How different with the child ! that fain would think Her mother dead rather than in her bed. CLYTEMNESTRA What are you muttering? I say that there is nothing Irrevocable. Do not all things pass Before our eyes and vanish like a mist? And we ourselves, we too, we and our deeds, Deeds ! We and deeds ! And what mere words are those! Am I still she who did it? And if I am? Done, done ! What kind of empty word is this You cast into my teeth? There stood he, whom You speak of always, there stood he and there Stood I and there ^Egisthus, and from our eyes Our glances struck upon each other; yet Nothing had come to pass, and then there changed So slowly and so horribly in death Your father's eyes, still hanging upon mine; ELECTRA And it had come to pass ; nothing between ! First it was coming, then it had gone by, And I had done, between coming and going, Nothing. ELECTEA No, that which lies between, the act, That did the axe alone. With words ! CLYTEMNESTEA How you cut in ELECTEA Yet not so fit nor yet so fast As you axe-thrust on axe-thrust. CLYTEMNESTEA I will hear No more of this. Be silent. If your father Came to me here this day as I with you So would I speak with him. It may well be That I would shudder, yet it may well be That I would weep and be as kind to him As if we were old friends that met together. ELECTEA, to herself Horrible! she speaks of murder as if it were A squabble before supper. [ 38 ] ELECTRA CLYTEMNESTRA Tell your sister She need not run away into the dark Out of my sight, like any frightened dog. Tell her to greet me in more friendly wise, And talk with me in quiet. For in truth I know not why I should not give you both In marriage before winter. ELECTRA And our brother? Will you not let our brother come home, mother? CLYTEMNESTRA I have forbidden you to speak of him. ELECTRA You are afraid of him. CLYTEMNESTRA Who says it? ELECTRA Mother, Now you are trembling. C1YTEMNESTRA Who could be afraid Of a half-witted fellow? [ 39 ] ELECTRA EL.ECTRA What? CLYTEMNESTRA They say He stammers, lies about among the dogs, And cannot tell a wild beast from a man. ELECTRA The child was sound enough. CLYTEMNESTRA They say he has A wretched dwelling, and the beasts of the yard For his companions. ELECTRA Ah! CLYTEMNESTRA, with lowered eyelids I sent much gold And yet more gold that they should use him well, In all things as the son of a King. ELECTRA You lie! You sent the gold that they might choke him with it. [ 40 ] ELECTRA CLYTEMNESTEA Who told you that? ELECTRA I see it in your eyes, I see by how you tremble that he lives, And that you think of nothing, day or night, Except of him, and that your heart dries up With deathly dread because you know he comes. CLYTEMNESTEA Lie not. What 's that to me who bides without The house? I live here and am mistress. Servants Enough I have, that watch before the doors And when I please I set by day and night Before my chamber door three watchers armed With open eyes. All this you tell me of I do not even hear. I do not even Know of what man you speak. And I shall never See him again: what is it to me to know If he be dead or living? In very deed I have had enough with dreaming of him. Dreams Are like a sickness, and break down the strength, And I will live and be the mistress here. I will not have such seizures of the soul As send me hither like a pedlar-woman To blab my nights out to you. I am as good As sick, and sick folk tattle of their ailments, That 's all. But now I will be sick no longer. And I will wring one or another way (she shakes her staff at ELECTEA) [ 41 ] ELECTRA The right word out of you. You have already Told me you know the right blood-offering And the due rites to heal me. Say it not Free, you shall say it fettered. Say it not Full, you shall say it fasting. Dreams are things That we must rid ourselves of. He that suffers And finds no means of healing for himself Is nothing but a fool. I will find out Whose blood it is must flow, that I may sleep. ELECTEA, with a leap out of the darkness upon her, drawing nearer and nearer to her, more and more menacing What blood must flow? Out of your neck, your neck, When that is caught into the hunter's noose. He catches you, yet only in the chase, Who offers up a sacrifice in sleep? He hunts you on, he drives you through the house ; And if you turn to right, there stands the bed, And if you turn to left, there foams the bath Like blood ; the darkness and the torches cast Black-blood-red nets, the death-nets, over you ! [CLYTEMNESTEA, shaking with speechless horror, would go into the house. ELE CI- TE A pulls her towards her by her robe. CLYTEMNESTEA draws back towards the wall. Her eyes are -wide open. Her staff falls from her trembling hands. You would cry out, but the air strangles dead The unborn cry, and noiseless lets it fall Upon the ground, as in imagination [ 42 ] ELECTRA You reach your neck and feel the edge of the blade Draw near the seat of life. Yet still the blow Lingers; not yet are all the rites fulfilled. He draws you by the tresses of your hair, And all is silent, and your own heart you hear Knock at your ribs ; this time (it widens out Before you like a dark abyss of years) This time is given that you may taste and know What agony is that of shipwrecked men When their vain cry devours the night of clouds And death; this time is given that you may envy All that are chained to prison-walls and cry In darkness from the bottom of a well For death as for deliverance; because you, You lie imprisoned in yourself as in The glowing belly of a brazen beast, And, even as now, cannot cry out. And I Stand there beside you, and you cannot take Your eyes from mine, and that which racks you is That you would read a word upon my face, A word that there stands silent ; and you roll Your eyes, and you would catch at any thought, Would have the gods grin down out of the clouds ; The gods, they are at supper, now as when You slew my father, still they sit at supper, And still they are deaf to any death-rattle. Only the half-crazed God of Laughter staggers In at the door; he thinks you would make sport, You and ^Egisthus, at the shepherd's hour ; But when he sees his error, of a sudden He laughs, loud-shrilling, and is gone in a trice. Then have you had your fill ; then on your heart The gall drops bitter, then at the last gasp [ 43 ] ELECTRA You would call up one word, any mere word, A word only, instead of bloody tears The beast is not denied in death; and there I stand before you, and you read too late With rigid eyes the word unspeakable Written upon my face; because my face Is mingled of your features and my father's, And with my silent presence have I brought To nought your last word, for your soul indeed Has hanged itself within its self-slung noose, And now the axe falls crashing, and I stand Before you and I see you die at last. Then do you dream no more, then do I neeti To dream no more ; whoever is living then, Let him rejoice because he is alive! [They stand eye to eye, ELECTRA in the wildest intoxication, CLYTEMNESTRA breathing horribly with fear. At this moment the entrance hall is lighted up, and the WAITING WOMAN comes out running. She whispers something in CLYTEMNES- TRA'S ear. At first she seems not to under- stand. Gradually she comes to herself. She beckons: lights! SERVING WOMEN with torches come out and station them- selves behind CLYTEMNESTRA. She beck- ons more lights! More come out and station themselves behind her, so that the court is full of light, and a red-gold glare floods the walls. Now the features of CLY- TEMNESTRA slowly change, and their shud- dering tension relaxes in an evil triumph. She lets the message be whispered to her [ 44 ] ELECTRA again, without taking her eyes off ELEC- TRA. Then the WAITING WOMAN lifts her staff, and, leaning on both, hurriedly, eagerly, catching up her robe from the step, she runs into the house. The SERV- ING WOMEN with the lights follow her, as if pursued. ELECTRA, during this What are they saying to her? Why does she rejoice? O my head! I can think of nothing. What Can give the woman pleasure? [CHRYSOTHEMIS comes running to the door of the court, crying aloud like a wounded animal. Chrysothemis ! Quick! Your help! Tell me something in the world That can give some one pleasure! CHRYSOTHEMIS, shrieking Orestes ! Orestes ! Is dead. ELECTRA, motions her away, as if beside herself Be silent!! CHRYSOTHEMIS, close to her Orestes is dead. [ELECTRA moves her lips. [ 45 ] ELECTRA I came out, they all know it already. All Are standing round, and they all know it already. Only not we. ELECTEA No one knows it. CHEYSOTHEMIS All know it. ELECTRA No one can know it, for it is not true. [CHEYSOTHEMIS flings herself on the ground. (Raising her.) It is not true! I tell you so; I tell you It is not true. CHEYSOTHEMIS The strangers stood beside the wall, the strangers Sent to bring tidings of it ; there are two, An old man and a young man. They have told it To all of them already, and they all stand About them in a circle, and they all Know it already. ELECTEA It is not true. [ 46 ] ELECTRA CHRYSOTHEMIS To us Only they do not tell it, only of us Does no man think. Dead, Electra, dead! [A YOUNG SERVING MAN comes hurriedly out of the house, and stumbles over those lying before the threshold. YOUNG SERVING MAN Room there! who hangs about a door like that? Would one have thought it? Hey there, grooms, I say! [The COOK comes from a doorway on R. COOK What is it? YOUNG SERVING MAN S T is a groom I split my lungs for, And lo ! when some one crawls out of his kennel Why, it 's the cook ! [An OLD SERVING MAN with a gloomy face, appearing at the door of the court. OLD SERVING MAN What 's wanted in the stable? YOUNG SERVING MAN Saddling J s what 's wanted, and as soon as may be. Do you hear? A nag, a mule, for aught I care A cow, but quickly. [47 ] ELECTRA OLD SERVING MAN Who for? YOUNG SERVING MAN Why, for him That orders it. No gapes ! For me, but quick ! At once ! For me ! Trot, trot ! For I must out And off to field to fetch the master home ; I have news for him, great news, weighty enough To ride a jade of yours to death for it. [The OLD SERVING MAN disappears. COOK What is the news? A word? YOUNG SERVING MAN A word, good cook, Would certainly instruct you little. Also To put it altogether in one word All that I know, and all I have to tell The master, would be difficult: enough To tell you that the news has newly come Of matters of the highest moment, news The old fossil takes his time to saddle up ! Which, as a faithful servant of the household Should give you joy, whether you know 't or not, It 's all one, it should give you joy. [Shouting in the hall. A whip, Rascal! do you think one rides without a whip? You keep me waiting and not I the nag. (To the COOK, preparing to rush out.) [ 48 ] ELECTRA Well, in a word, then : the young lad Orestes, The son of the house, who never was at home, And thus as good as dead : this he, in short, Who, so to speak, was dead already, is Now, so to speak, really and truly dead. (lie rushes out.) [The COOK, turning to EI/ECTRA and CHRYSOTHEMIS, who lie pressed to each other like one body, which the sobs of CHRYSOTHEMIS shake, and from which ELECTEA raises her death-pale silent face. COOK Ah ! now I have it ! Dogs howl to the moon When she is at her full ; you howl because For you 't is always new-moon. Dogs, when they Trouble the peace of the house, are driven out. Take heed, lest it be so with you. CHRYSOTHEMIS, half raising herself Dead in a strange land, dead, and in his grave In a strange land ! Struck from his horse, dragged Along the ground! Ah, and his face, they say, Not to be known. But that we never saw His face; for when we think of him we see him As when he was a child. He was a man. And did he long for us before he died? I could not question, there were so many Standing all round about them. Now, Electra, We must go in and talk with these two men. [ 49 ] ELECTRA ELECTEA, to herself Now must the deed be done by us. CHETSOTHEMIS Electra, We will go in ; there are two of them, one old And one much younger ; when they come to know That we are the two sisters, the poor sisters, Then they will tell us all. ELECTEA What is there now That it can profit us to know? We know That he is dead. CHEYSOTHEMIS That they should not have brought us even one look, One little lock of hair ! As if we were No longer in the world, now, you and I! ELECTEA Therefore must we now show them that we are. CHETSOTHEMIS Electra? ELECTEA We! we both must do it. [ 50] ELECTRA CHEYSOTHEMIS What, Electra? ELECTEA Best to-day, and best to-night. CHB.YSOTHEMIS What, sister? ELECTEA What? The work that now on us Falls, because now he cannot come, and that Which is to do may not remain undone. CHKYSOTHEMIS What is the work then? ELECTEA Now must you and I Go in and slay the woman and her husband. CHEYSOTHEMIS Sister, you do not mean our mother? ELECTRA ELECTRA Her, And also him. This thing must now be done Without delay. [CHRYSOTHEMIS remams speechless. Be silent. There is nothing To say, nothing to think, but how? But how We are to do it. CHRYSOTHEMIS I? ELECTBA Yes, you and I. Who else then? Has our father other children Hidden here in the house, and will they come And help us? No. So much at least I know. CHRYSOTHEMIS Must both of us go in? Both of us two? And with our both hands? ELECTRA Let me look to that. CHRYSOTHEMIS If you had even a knife [ *] ELECTRA ELECTRA, contemptuously A knife CHBYSOTHEMIS Or even An axe ELECTRA An axe ! The axe wherewith our father CHBYSOTHEMIS You terror! What, you have it? ELECTRA For our brother I kept it. Now must we make use of it. CHBYSOTHEMIS You, you, Electra! These arms slay ^Egisthus? ELECTBA First him, then her : first her, then him ; no matter. CHBYSOTHEMIS I am afraid. You are beside yourself. [ 53 ] * ELECTRA ELECTRA They have no man to sleep before their door. CHBYSO THEMIS What, murder them in sleep, and then live on? ELECTRA The question is of him and not of us. CHRYSOTHEMIS What can have put this madness in your head? ELECTRA A sleeping man is a bound offering. If these sleep not together I can do it. But you must come too. CHRYSOTHEMIS, thrusting her away O Electra! ELECTRA You! For you are strong. (Close to her.) How strong you are ! To you Have virgin nights given strength. How lithe and slim Your loins are, you can slip through every cranny, Creep through the window. Let me feel your arms ; How cool and strong they are! What arms they are [ 64 ] ELECTRA I feel when thus you thrust me back with them. Could you not stifle one with their embrace? Could you not clasp one to your cool firm breast With both your arms until one suffocated? There is such strength about you everywhere. It streams like cool close water from a rock, It flows in a great flood with all your hair Down your strong shoulders. CHBYSOTHEMIS Let me go. ELECTRA No, no! I hold you, and with my poor wasted arms I clasp your body, and if you resist You only draw the knot tighter about you. I will wind myself about you, I will sink My roots into you, and ingraft my will Into your blood. CHBYSOTHEMIS Let me go ! (Escapes a few steps.J ELECTRA, wildly after her, clinging to her dress No! CHBYSOTHEMIS Electra! Let me go ! [ 55 ] ELECTRA ELECTEA I will not let you go. We must so grow together, that the knife That would cut off your life from mine, must deal Death to us both, for now are we alone Together in this world. CHEYSOTHEMIS Electra, hear me, You are so wise, help us to get free away, Help us to get free. ELECTEA, without hearing her You are full of strength. You have sinews like a colt, your feet are slender, And I can halter you with both my arms. I feel through all the coolness of your skin The warm blood flowing, and against my cheek The down on your young arms : you are as a fruit The day it ripens. I will be your sister As I have never been your sister yet ! I will sit beside you in your room And wait upon your bridegroom, and for him Will I anoint you, and you like a young swan Shall plunge into an odorous bath and hide Your head upon my breast, till he shall draw you With his strong arms (you glowing like a torch Through all your veils) into the marriage-bed. [56 ] ELECTRA CHRYSOTHEMIS, shutting her eyes No, sister, no, speak no such words as that Within this house. ELECTBA Yes, I will from this day Be more than sister to you, I will serve you And I will be a slave to you. And if You be in travail I will stand beside Your bed by day and night, and I will ward The flies from off you, draw cool water for you: And if some day there lie upon your bosom A living thing, half fearful, I will lift it So high above you that its smile shall fall Into the deepest and most secret clefts Of your sad soul, and the last icy horror Shall melt before that sun and you shall weep Bright tears. CHRYSOTHEMIS O take me out of it ! I die, I die in this house. ELECTRA, kneeling before Tier Your mouth is beautiful, Although it open only to be angry. Out of your clean, strong mouth there must come forth A terrible cry, terrible as the cry Of the Death goddess, when a man shall lie [ 57 ] ELECTRA As close to you as I do ; when a man Wakening shall see you standing at his head Like the Death goddess ; when a man shall lie Bound under you, and so look up at you, Up at your slender body with his eyes Rigid and set, as shipwrecked men look up At the high cliff above them, ere they die. CHBYSOTHEMIS What are you saying? ELECTEA, rising What you have to do Before you escape this house and me. [CHEYSOTHEMIS tries to Speak. (Putting her hand over her mouth.) No way But this way. And I will not let you go Till you have sworn to me, mouth upon mouth, That you will do it. CHEYSOTHEMIS, freeing herself Let me go ! ELECTEA, seizing her again Then swear You will come to-night, when all is still, to the foot Of the staircase. [ 58 ] ELECTRA CHRYSOTHEMIS Let me go! ELECTRA Girl, no denial! There 's not a drop of blood that shall be left Upon your body ; swiftly shall you slip Out of the bloody garment with clean body Into the bridal garment. CHRYSOTHEMIS Let me go! ELECTRA Do not be such a coward ! That which now Shakes you with shudderings shall reward you then With shudderings of rapture, night for night. CHRYSOTHEMIS I cannot. ELECTRA Say that you will come. CHRYSOTHEMIS I cannot. ELECTRA See, see, I lie before you. I kiss your feet. [ 59 ] ELECTRA CHEYSOTHEMIS, rushing to the inner door I cannot! ELECTRA, after her Be accursed! (To herself with determination.) Then alone! [She begins to dig hurriedly at the wall of the house, beside the threshold, noiselessly, like an animal. She pauses, looks about her, and goes on digging. [ORESTES stands in the door of the court, showing black against the last rays. He comes in. ELECTRA looks at him. He turns slowly, until his glance falls upon her. ELECTRA starts violently and trembles. What would you, stranger? What has sent you here At the hour of dark to spy what others do? It may be you have something in your mind You would not any other spied upon. Therefore leave me in peace. I have a thing To do here. What is that to you? Go hence, And let me root about among the earth. Do you not follow me? or have you then A mind too curious? I bury nothing But something I dig up again. And not The death bones of a little child I buried A day or two ago. No, my good fellow, I have given life to nothing, I have nothing [ 60 ] ELECTRA To kill or bury. If the body of the earth Have taken anything out of my hands 'T is what I have come forth from, nothing, truly, That had come forth from me. I dig up something, And you shall scarcely pass out of this light Before I have and hug and kiss it over As if I held in it both my dear brother And my dear son, and both of them in one. ORESTES Have you then nothing dear to you on earth That thus you scratch a something out of earth That you may kiss it? Are you quite alone? ELECTRA I am no mother, and I have no mother, No sister am I, and I have no sister, I lie at the door and yet am not a watch-dog, I speak, and yet I hold no speech, I live And live not, have long hair and therewithal Feel nothing that they say all women feel; In short, I pray you, go and leave me ! Leave me ! ORESTES I have to wait here. ELECTRA Wait? [A pause. [ 61 ] ELECTRA One of the maids? OEESTES You are of the house? ELECTKA I serve here in the house. But what have you to do here? Go your way. ORESTES Did I not tell you I have to wait here Until they call for me? ELECTRA The folk within? You lie. I know the master is from home. And what should she want with you? ORESTES I and one Here with me have an errand to the lady. [ELECTRA is silent. We are sent to her because we can bear witness That we have seen her son Orestes die, Before our eyes, for his own horses killed him. I was as old as he, and his companion By day and night ; the other, an old man, Who comes with me, had charge of both of us. [ 62 ] ELECTRA ELECTEA Why is it you I look on? Why must you Into my poor, sad corner trail yourself, O herald of misfortune? Can you not Trumpet your tidings forth where men rejoice? You live, and he, that was a better man And nobler thousandfold and thousandfold Wiser and weightier when he lived, is gone. Your both eyes stare at me and his are clay; Your mouth opens and shuts, and his is stopped With earth. Would I could stop yours with my curses ! Get you out of my sight. OEESTES What would you have? Here in the house they welcome it with joy. Let then the dead be dead. Let be Orestes. Orestes is now dead, and death must come To all, as to Orestes. He in his life Joyed over much; and the gods over us May not endure too clear a sound of joy, Too loud a rush of wings at evening They will not suffer, and they seize an arrow And nail the creature fast to the dim tree Of his dark fate, that has been long time growing For him in quiet. Thus had he to die. ELECTEA How he can talk to one of Death, this fellow ! As if he had tasted it, and spat it forth. But I, but I, that lie here and that know [ 63 ] ELECTRA The child will never come again, but they That are within, these live now and rejoice And all their breed shall live on in its hole And eat and drink and sleep and multiply, Whilst the child down in his deep pit of clay Longs for his father, and no father comes. And only I am here above, and not A beast in all the forest lives as I do, So monstrous and so lonely. ORESTES Who then are you? ELECTRA What 9 s that to you who 7 am? have I asked Who you are? ORESTES I can only think one thing; You are of kindred blood with those who died With Agamemnon and Orestes? ELECTRA Kindred? I am that blood, that brutishly spilt blood Of the King Agamemnon. I am called Elector*. [ 64 ] No! ELECTRA ORESTES ELECTRA Why, he denies it me. He flouts me and he takes from me my name. Because I have no father and no brother I am the laughing-stock of boys, the butt Of every fool that comes my way, and now They will not leave me even my name. OEESTES Electra Is younger by ten years than you. Electra Is tall; her eyes are sad, yet soft, but yours Are full of blood and hatred. Electra dwells Apart from men, and all her day goes over In tending of a grave. Two or three women She has about her, silent helpers, beasts Glide shyly round her dwelling, and creep up Against her garment as she goes. ELECTRA, clapping her hands True ! true ! Tell me more pretty stories of Electra And I will tell them to her, when (with choking voice) I see her. ORESTES Do I then see her? Do I really see her? You ! (Hurriedly. ) Have they let you starve then ? Beaten you ? [ 65 ] ELECTRA ELECTRA Who are you with your many questions? ORESTES Tell me! Tell me! Speak! ELECTRA Both ! both ! both ! Queens do not thrive Fed on the refuse of the kitchen-heap, And priestesses were never made to bound Under the lash, and in such short poor rags Instead of flowing garments. Let my dress be; You shall not wallow in it with your eyes. ORESTES Electra ! What have you done, what have you done with your nights ? Your eyes are terrible. ELECTRA, sullenly Go into the house. I have a sister in there, who may by now Be ready for the feast. ORESTES Electra, hear me! [ 66 ] ELECTRA ELECTRA I will not know who you are ! you shall come No nearer to me. I will see no man. (She cowers with her face against the wall.) ORESTES Listen ! I have no time. Listen, I dare not Speak loud. Listen to me: Orestes lives. [ELECTRA flings herself round. Utter no sound. If you but make a movement You will betray him. ELECTRA Is he free? where is he? You know where he is hidden? he is caught, And in some corner somewhere waits for death? I am to see him die, and you are sent That you may draw my soul as on a rack Up with a rope, and dash it to the ground. ORESTES He is as sound as I am. ELECTRA Then deliver him Before they kill him. Can you not give a sign? I kiss your feet ; give him a sign, a sign ! [67 ] ELECTRA I charge you by your father's corpse you run As swiftly as you can run and bring him forth. The child would die if he should pass one night Within this house. ORESTES Nay, by my father's corpse, For this thing came the child into the house That they this night should die who are to die. ELECTRA, struck by his tone Who are you? {The gloomy-faced OLD SERVANT comes noiselessly into the court, throws himself down before ORESTES, kisses his feet, rises, looks anxiously round, and goes noiselessly back. ELECTRA, scarcely controlling herself O, who are you? I am afraid. ORESTES, softly Do the dogs know me that are in the yard, And not my sister? ELECTRA, cries out Orestes! (Throws herself in his arms and sobs.) [ 68 ] ELECTRA ORESTES, feverishly If any man Has heard you in the house, he holds my life Within his hand. ELECTRA, quite low, quivermgly Orestes ! no man heard. let my eyes look on you ! Do not touch me. Go on your way. I am ashamed before you. 1 do not know how you can look at me. I am nothing but the corpse now of your sister, My poor child, and I know you shudder at me. And yet I was the daughter of a King. I think that I was beautiful; and when At night before my mirror, I blew out The lamp, I felt, and with a maiden thrill My naked body through the heavy night Shine, as a godly thing immaculate. I felt myself, as the thin moonbeams wrapt Me round in their white nakedness, as in A consecration, and my hair, such hair As men might tremble at, this hair now soiled And draggled and brought low: this! See, my brother, How I have offered up unto my father This thrill of soft delight. Do you think if I Had pleasure of my body, that his sighs Would not throng on me and his groans not throng About my bed? For jealous are the dead, And he has sent me hatred for a bridegroom, [ 69 ] ELECTRA Hollow-eyed hatred. And that horrible thing, Breathing a viperous breath, had I to take Into my sleepless bed, that it might teach me All that is done between a man and wife. The nights, woe 's me, the nights when that I fathomed ! Then was my body cold as ice, yet charred As if with fire, and burning inwardly. And when at last, at last I knew it all, Then I was wise, and then the murderers My mother, I mean, and he that is with her Could not endure to look into my eyes. Why do you gaze at me so anxiously? Speak to me, speak! Why, your whole body trembles. ORESTES My body? Let it tremble. Do you not think That he would tremble otherwise than this Could he but guess the way I mean to send him? ELECTRA Then you will do it! You will do it alone? O you poor child, have you no friend with you ? ORESTES Speak nothing more of it. My foster father Is with me. Yet the doer shall be I. [ 70] ELECTRA ELECTRA I have never seen the gods, only I know They will be with you there, and they will help you. ORESTES What the gods are, I know not. Yet I know That they have laid this deed upon my soul, And they will spurn me if I shudder at it. ELECTRA Then you will do it? OEESTES Yes. I must not look My mother in the eyes before I do it. ELECTRA Look upon me, what she has made of me. [ORESTES looks at her sadly. O child, O child, stealthily have you come, And speaking of yourself as of one dead, And yet you are alive! ORESTES, softly Take heed ! ELECTRA Who then Am I that you should cast such loving -looks Upon me? See, I am nothing. All I was ELECTRA I have had to cast away: even that shame Which is more sweet than all things, and like a mist Of milky silver round about the moon Is about every woman, and wards off Things evil from her soul and her. My shame I have offered up, and I am even as one Fallen among thieves, who rend off from my body Even my last garment. Not without bridal-night Am I, as other maidens are; I have felt The pangs of child-bearing; yet have brought forth Nothing into the world, and I am now Become a prophetess perpetually, And nothing has come forth out of my body But curses and despair. I have not slept By night, I have made my bed upon the tower, Cried in the court, and whined among the dogs. I have been abhorred, and have seen everything, I have seen everything as the watchman sees Upon the tower, and day is night and night Is day again, and I have had no pleasure In sun or stars, for all things were to me As nothing for his sake, for all things were A token to me, and every day to me A milestone on the road. ORESTES O my sister! ELECTRA What will you do? [7*] ELECTRA ORESTES Sister, is not our mother Like you? ELECTRA, wildly Like me? No, no. But you are not To look her in the face. When she is dead We '11 look into her face together. Brother, She cast a white shirt round about our father And then she struck at that which lay before her Helpless and without eyesight, and his face He could not turn to her nor set his arms free Do you hear me? that she struck with axe uplifted High over him. ORESTES Electra ! ELECTRA What her face is Her deeds have made it. ORESTES I will do the deed, And I will do it quickly. ELECTRA Happy is he Dares do the deed ! The deed is like a bed On which the soul reposes, like a bed [ 73 ] ELECTRA Of balsam, where the soul can take its rest, The soul that is a wound, that is a blight, A-running and a-burning. [The FOSTER FATHER of ORESTES stands in the door of the inner hall, a strong gray- beard with flashing eyes. Brother, who is this? FOSTER FATHER, hastily to them Are you both mad? You do not better bridle Your lips, when now a breath, a noise, a nothing Might ruin us and our work. ELECTRA Who is this man? ORESTES You do not know him ? If you love me, thank him. Thank him that I am here. This is Electra. ELECTRA You ! You ! O now it is all real, and all Safe and fast-knotted! Let me kiss your hands. I know not if the gods are, I know not Anything of the gods: therefore the rather I kiss your hands. FOSTER FATHER Be still, be still, Electra. [ 74 ] ELECTRA ELECTEA No, I will make rejoicing over you, Because you have brought him hither. When I hated Then I kept ample silence. Hate is nothing, It wastes and wastes itself away, and love Is lesser even than hate, it grasps at all things And can take hold on nothing, and its hands Are flames that take no hold on anything; All thought is nothing, and as the powerless air Is everything that comes out of the mouth: Blessed alone is he that does his deed, Blessed is he who touches him, and digs The axe out of the earth for him, and holds The torch for him, and opens the door wide For him, and he who listens at the door. FOSTEE FATHER, seizes her roughly and lays his hand over her mouth Silence! (To ORESTES, precipitately.} She waits for you. Her women come To seek you. There is no man in the house, Orestes ! [ORESTES draws himself up, subduing his dread. The door of the house is lighted up, and a SERVING WOMAN appears with a torch; behind her the WAITING WOMAN. ELECTRA has sprung bade, and stands in the darkness. The WAITING WOMAN makes obeisance before the TWO STRANGERS, and signs to them to follow ELECTRA Tier. The SERVING WOMAN fastens the torch into an iron ring in the door-post. ORESTES and his FOSTER FATHER go in. ORESTES shuts his eyes for a moment, at if dizzy; the FOSTER FATHER is close be- hind him, they exchange a quick glance. [The door shuts behind them. [ELECTRA is left alone in intolerable sus- pense. She runs to and fro before the door with bowed head, like a wild beast in its cage. Suddenly she stands still and says ELECTRA I have not given him the axe. They have gone in, and I have not given him the axe! There are no gods in heaven. [Once more a fearful waiting. There is heard from within, shrilly, the cry of CLY- TK.MNKSTKA. ELECTRA shrieks like a demon. Strike again! [A second cry from within. From the SERVANTS' quarters on L. comes CHRYS- OTHEMIS and a troop of SERVING WOMEN. ELECTRA stands in the door, her back against it. CHRYSOTHEMI8 Something has happened! [76 ] I Like that. ELECTRA FIRST WAITING WOMAN She cries out in her sleep SECOND WAITING WOMAN There must be men within. I hear The feet of men. THIRD WAITING WOMAN They have bolted all the doors. FOURTH WAITING WOMAN It is murder, there is murder in the house. FIRST WAITING WOMAN, CTICS Out O! ALL What is it? FIRST WAITING WOMAN Don't you see ! There is some one at the door. CHRYSOTHEMIS It is Electra. O, it is Electra! [77 ] ELECTRA SECOND WAITING WOMAN Why then does n't she speak? Do you not speak? CHRYSOTHEMIS Electra, why FIEST WAITING WOMAN I will go and fetch men. (Runs out to L.) Open the door. CHTSOTHEMIS Electra, OTHERS Let us into the house, Electra ! [FIRST WAITING- WOMAN, coming back through the door of the court. FIRST WAITING WOMAN Back! [ALL start. JEgisthus! Back to our quarters, Quickly. ./Egisthus is coming through the court. If he finds us and finds out what has happened In the house, he will kill us. [78 ] ELECTRA ALL Back, quickly, come back! [JEGISTHUS at the entrance on R. MGISTHVS Is no one here to light me? None of all The rascals stirring? Shall we never teach These people manners? [ELECTRA takes the torch out of the ring, runs down towards him, and bows before hi/m. (Starting at the indistinct figure in the flickering light and stepping back.) What is this weird woman ? I have forbidden any unknown face To come into my presence. (Recognizing her, angrily.) What, is it you? Who bade you come to meet me? ELECTRA May I not light you? .SGISTHUS Well, well, this news concerns you more than any. Where shall I find the strangers who have brought These tidings of Orestes? ELECTRA They are within. A kindly hostess have they found, and find Their entertainment with her. [79 ] ELECTRA .XGISTHUS Have they brought True tidings of his death, tidings that are Not to be doubted? ELECTBA Lord, these tidings are No hollow words but tokens bodily, Tokens it is impossible to doubt. -fiGISTHUS What have you in your voice, what has come to you That you will speak to me out of your mouth? Why do you stagger about there with your light? ELECTRA Merely for this, that I have become wise At last, and turn to them that are the stronger. Have I your leave to light you? 2BGISTHUS To the door. Why are you dancing? Have a care, there! ELECTRA, circling him m a weird dance, and suddenly making a deep bow to him Mind, The steps! You '11 fall. [ 80] ELECTRA .EGISTHUS Why is there no light here? Who are these? ELECTRA They are those, Lord, that desire To wait on you in person. And I, who have By my unseasonable and bold approach Often been irksome to you, now at last Will learn, at the right moment, to withdraw. [JE GIS THUS goes into the house. [A short silence. At the same moment M GIST H us, at a little "window on R., tears away the curtain and cries 2EGISTHUS Help ! murder ! help your master ! murder ! murder ! Help ! they are murdering me ! [He is dragged away. Does no one hear me? No one hear me? {His face appears again at the window, ELECTRA, drawing herself up Agamemnon hears you! ^GISTHUS, dragged away Woe J s me ! [ELECTRA stands back breathing fear- futty, turned towards the house. The [ 81 ] ELECTRA WOMEN run out wildly. CHRYSOTHEMIS among them. Unwittingly they run for- ward to the door of the outer court. Then they stop suddenly and turn back. CHRYSOTHEMIS Electra! Sister! come with us! Come with us now ! Our brother is in the house, Is it Orestes who has done it? {Confusion of VOICES, turmoil without. Come! He is in the outer hall, they are all about him, They kiss his feet ; and all of them that hated ^Egisthus in their hearts have fallen upon The others, everywhere in all the court The dead are lying, all who live are drenched With blood, they wound themselves, they beam, they all Embrace each other [Outside the noise increases, the WOMEN run out. CHRYSOTHEMIS is left alone. Light from without penetrates within. And shout with joy and kindle A thousand torches. Do you hear? Do you hear? ELECTRA, crouching on the threshold Do you think I do not hear? Do I not hear Music within me? The thousands who bear torches And whose unbounded myriad footsteps make A hollow rumbling over all the earth, [ 82 ] ELECTRA All wait upon me, and well I know they wait That I may lead the dance; and yet I cannot Because the ocean, the vast manifold Ocean, lays all its weight on every limb ; I cannot raise myself from under it. CHRYSOTHEMIS, almost shrieking with excitement Do you not hear, they carry, they carry him Upon their hands, their faces are all changed, All eyes, and the old cheeks glisten with tears. All weep, do you not hear them? Ah! [She rims out. [ELECTRA has raised herself. She steps down from the threshold, her head thrown back like a Mcenad. She lifts her knees, stretches out her arms; it is an incredible dance in which she steps forward. [CHRYSOTHEMIS appearing again at the door, behind her torches, a THRONG, faces of MEN and WOMEN. Electra ! ELECTRA, stands still, gazing at her fixedly Be silent and dance. Come hither all of you ! Join with me all! I bear the burden of joy, And I dance before you here. One thing alone Remains for all who are as happy as we; To be silent and dance. [She does a few more steps of tense tri- umph, and falls a-heap. CHRYSOTHEMIS [ 83 ] ELECTRA rtms to her. ELECTEA lies motionless. CHEYSOTHEMIS runs to the door of the house and knocks. CHEYSOTHEMIS Orestes ! Orestes ! [Silence. CTTETAIN The University Press, Cambridge, U. S. A. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES COLLEGE LIBRARY MAY1 1988 a Book Slip-35m-7/63(D86344)4280 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 001214581 9 I Mill HI L 005 807 478 2 College Library PT 2617 H*7E3 cop. 3