MEG. Ha! O thou aged man, do I behold
My dearest husband? How shall I find utterance?
AMP. I know not, O my daughter; for I too
Am with amazement seized.
MEG. This sure is he
Who as we heard was in the realms beneath;
Else doth some vision in the noontide glare
Delude our senses. But what frantic words
Were those I spoke as if ’twas all a dream?
This is no other than thy real son,
Thou aged man. Come hither, O my children,
Cling to your father’s robe, with speed advance,
Quit not your hold, for ye in him shall find
An equal to our great protector Jove.
HER. All hail, thou mansion, and thou vestibule
Of my abode; thee with what joy once more
Do I behold, revisiting the light.
Ha! what hath happened? I my children see
With garlands on their temples, and my wife
Amidst a throng of men, my father too
Weeping for some mischance. I’ll go to them,
And ask the cause. What recent ill, O woman,
Hath happened to this house?
MEG. My dearest lord,
O thou who to thy aged father com’st
A radiant light, in safety hast thou reached,
At this important crisis, the abodes
Of those thou lov’st.
HER. What mean you by these words?
What tumults, O my sire, are we involved in?
MEG. We are undone; but, O thou aged man,
Forgive, if I’ve anticipated that
Thou would’st have said to him: for in some points
Our sex are greater objects of compassion
Than males. I deem my children dead; I too
Am perishing.
HER. O Phœbus! with what preludes
Do you begin your speech?
MEG. My valiant brothers,
And aged sire, alas! are now no more.
HER. Who slew them, how, or with what weapon?
MEG. Lycus,
The monarch of this city, was their murderer.
HER. With arms did he oppose them, or prevail,
When foul sedition through the land diffused
Its pestilent contagion?
MEG. By revolt
He holds the sceptre of the Theban realm.
HER. But wherefore hath this sudden panic reached
You and my aged sire?
MEG. He would have slain
Thy father, me, and these defenceless children.
HER. What mean you? could he fear my orphan race?
MEG. Lest they hereafter might avenge the death
Of Creon.
HER. But what garb is this they wear,
Which suits some corse?
MEG. Already in these vestments
For our funereal rites are we arrayed.
HER. And were ye on the point of perishing
By violence? Ah me!
MEG. Our friends desert us;
For we have heard that thou wert dead.
HER. Whence rose
This comfortless depression of the soul?
MEG. Eurystheus’ heralds the sad tidings bore.
HER. But for what cause did ye forsake my house,
My sacred Lares?
MEG. From his bed thy sire
Was forcibly dragged forth.
HER. So void of shame
Was Lycus as to treat his age with scorn?
MEG. Shame dwells not near the shrine of brutal force.
HER. Were we thus destitute of friends when absent?
MEG. What friends abide with him who is unhappy?
HER. But did they scorn the battles which I fought
Against the Minyans?
MEG. I to thee repeat it,
Calamity is friendless and forlorn.
HER. Will ye not cast from your dishevelled hair
These wreaths of Pluto? will ye not look up
To yon bright sun, and ope your eyes to view
Scenes far more pleasing than the loathsome shades
Of hell beneath? But I, for wrongs like these
Demand my vengeful arm, with speed will go
And overturn the house of that new king,
His impious head I to the ravenous hounds
Lopped from his trunk will cast, and each base Theban
Who with ingratitude repays my kindness
With this victorious weapon smite: my shafts
The rest shall scatter, till Ismenos’ channel
Be choked up with the corses of the slain,
And Dirce’s limpid fountain stream with gore.
For whom, in preference to my wife, my children,
And aged father, shall I aid? Farewell,
Ye labours which unwittingly I strove
T’ accomplish, mindless of these dearest pledges;
In their defence I equally am bound
To yield up life, if for their father they
Were doomed to bleed. What! shall we call it noble
To war against the hydra or the lion,
And execute the mandates of Eurystheus,
If I avert not my own children’s death?
No longer else shall I, as erst, be styled
Alcides the victorious.
CHOR. It is just
Parents should aid their sons, their aged sire,
And the dear partner of the nuptial bed.
AMP. My son, this mighty privilege is yours,
To be the best of friends to those you love,
And a determined foe to those you hate.
But be not too impetuous.
HER. In what instance
Have I been hastier, O my honoured sire,
Than it becomes me?
AMP. To support his cause,
The king hath many, who in fact are poor,
Though fame accounts them rich; they raised a tumult,
And caused the ruin of the state, to plunder
Their neighbours; for the fortunes they possessed
Are through their own extravagance and sloth
Reduced to nothing. As the gates you entered,
These could not fail to see you: O beware
Lest since you by your foes have been perceived,
You perish when you least foresee your danger,
Oppressed by numbers.
HER. Though all Thebes beheld me,
I care not. But when I descried a bird
Of evil omen perched aloof, I knew
That there had some calamity befallen
My house, and therefore with presaging soul
In secrecy I entered these domains.
AMP. Draw near with pious awe, my son, salute
The Lares, and display that welcome face
In your paternal mansions. For to drag
Your wife and children forth, with me your sire
To murder us, the king himself will come.
But all will prosper, if you here remain,
And a secure asylum will you find,
Nor through the city spread a loud alarm
Ere your designs succeed.
HER. Thus will I act,
For thou hast rightly spoken; I am entering
The palace. From the sunless caves beneath
Of Proserpine, after a long delay
Returning, first to our domestic gods
Will I be mindful to address my vows.
AMP. Have you indeed then visited the house
Of Pluto, O my son?
HER. And thence the dog
With triple-head brought to these realms of light.
AMP. Conquered in battle, or on you bestowed
By hell’s indulgent goddess?
HER. I prevailed
O’er him in combat, and have been so happy
As to behold the far-famed mystic orgies.
AMP. But is the beast lodged in Eurystheus’ palace?
HER. Him Cthonia’s groves and Hermion’s walls
confine.
AMP. Knows not Eurystheus that you are returned
Into this upper world?
HER. He doth not know:
For I came first to learn what passes here.
AMP. But wherefore in the realms beneath, so long
Did you remain?
HER. I there prolonged may stay,
My sire, to bring back Theseus from the shades.
AMP. And where is he, gone to his native land?
HER. He went to Athens, pleased with his escape
From the infernal regions. But attend
Your father to the palace, O my sons,
Which now ye enter in a happier state
Than when ye left it: but take courage, cease
To pour forth floods of tears; and, O my wife,
Collect thyself, let all thy terrors cease,
And loose my garments; for I have not wings,
Nor would I vanish from my friends. Alas!
Their hold they quit not, but cling faster still,
And faster to my vest. Because ye stand
Upon the verge of ruin, I will take
And bear you hence, as by the ship light boats
Are guided o’er the deep: for I refuse not
The care my children claim. Here all mankind
Are on a level, they of nobler rank
And mean condition, to their progeny
Bear equal love. The gifts of fortune vary,
Some have abundant wealth, and some are poor;
But the whole human race feels this attachment.
[_Exeunt_ HERCULES _and_ MEGARA, _with the children_.