ELEC. Silently, silently repressing the high notes of your voice, apart
from his couch, you will enable him to have the tranquil enjoyment of
sleep.
CHOR. Tell us; what end to his miseries awaits him?
ELEC. Death, death; what else can? for he has no appetite for food.
CHOR. Death then is manifestly before him.
ELEC. Phœbus offered us as victims, when he commanded[4] the dreadful,
abhorred murder of our mother, that slew our father.
CHOR. With justice indeed, but not well.
ELEC. Thou hast died, thou hast died, O mother, O thou that didst bring me
forth, but hast killed the father, and the children of thy blood. We
perish, we perish, even as two corses. For thou art among the dead, and the
greatest part of my life is passed in groans, and wailings, and nightly
tears; marriageless, childless, behold, how like a miserable wretch do I
drag out my existence forever!
CHOR. O virgin Electra, approach near, and look that thy brother has not
died unobserved by thee; for by this excessive quiet he doth not please me.