This truth hath Menelaus’ daughter shown,
Furious she comes the victim to destroy;
And, that their blood may nuptial wrongs atone,
The Phrygian captive, and that hapless boy,
With impious rage unjust would cause to bleed;
May pity, awful queen, thy lifted arm impede!
But I before these doors behold the pair
On whom the fatal sentence now is passed.
Thou wretched dame, and wretched child who diest
Because thy mother to a foreign bed
By force was dragged, in her imputed guilt
Thou wert not an accomplice, thou thy lords
Hast not offended.
AND. To the realms beneath,
Lo, I am hurried, with these bloody hands
Fast bound in galling chains.
MOL. I too, O mother,
Under thy wing, to those loathed shades descend
A victim. O ye lords of Phthia’s land,
And thou, my father, succour those thou lov’st.
AND. Cling to thy mother’s bosom, O my child,
Together let us die.
MOL. Ah me! how grievous
My sufferings are! too clearly I perceive
That I, and thou my mother, both are wretched.
MEN. Go both together to th’ infernal realm:
For ye from hostile turrets hither came.
Although the cause why you and he must bleed
Is not the same, my sentence takes away
Your life, and my Hermione’s your son’s.
The highest folly were it to permit
A foe to live and vex us, whom with ease
We might despatch, and from our house remove
Such danger.
AND. O my husband, would to Heaven
I had thy arm to aid me; and thy spear,
Thou son of Priam.
MOL. Wretched me! what charm
Can I devise t’ avert impending fate?
AND. My son, implore the mercy of our lord
Clasping his knees.
MOL. Dear monarch, spare my life.
AND. Tears from these eyes burst forth like trickling drops
By the sun’s heat forced from a solid rock,
Wretch that I am!
MOL. What remedy, alas!
For these dire evils can my soul devise?
MEN. Why dost thou idly grovel at my feet
With fruitless supplications, while I stand
Firm as a rock, or as th’ unpitying wave?
Such conduct serves my interests: no affection
To thee I bear, because my morn of life
Was wasted in the conflict, ere I took
Troy and thy mother, whose society
Thou in the realms of Pluto shalt enjoy.