(The central doors of the palace have opened and have disclosed HERACLES lying asleep, bound to a shattered column. AMPHITRYONsteps out. The following lines between AMPHITRYON and the CHORUS are chanted responsively.)AMPHITRYONSoftly, softly! ye aged sons of Thebes, let him sleep on and forget his sorrows.
CHORUS
For thee, old friend, I weep and mourn, for the children too and that victorious chief.
AMPHITRYON
Stand further off, make no noise nor outcry, rouse him not from his calm deep slumber.
CHORUS
O horrible! all this blood-
AMPHITRYON
Hush, hush! ye will be my ruin.
CHORUS
That he has spilt is rising up against him.
AMPHITRYON
Gently raise your dirge of woe, old friends; lest he wake, and, bursting his bonds, destroy the city, rend his sire, and dash his house to pieces.
CHORUS
I cannot, cannot-
AMPHITRYON
Hush! let me note his breathing; come, let me put my ear close.
CHORUS
Is he sleeping?
AMPHITRYON
Aye, that is he, a deathly sleep, having slain wife and children with the arrows of his twanging bow.
CHORUS
Ah! mourn-
AMPHITRYON
I do.
CHORUS
The children's death;
AMPHITRYON
Ah me!
CHORUS
And thy own son's doom.
AMPHITRYON
Ah misery!
CHORUS
Old friend-
AMPHITRYON
Hush! hush! he is turning, he is waking! Oh Oh! let me hide myself beneath the covert of yon roof.
CHORUS
Courage! darkness still broods o'er thy son's eye.
AMPHITRYON
Oh! beware; 'tis not that I shrink from leaving the light after my miseries, poor wretch! but should he slay me that am his father, then will he be devising woe on woe, and to the avenging curse will add a parent's blood.
CHORUS
Well for thee hadst thou died in that day, when, to win thy wife, thou didst go forth to exact vengeance for her slain brethren by sacking the Taphians' sea-beat town.
AMPHITRYON
Fly, fly, my aged friends, haste from before the palace, escape his waking fury! For soon will he heap up fresh carnage on the old, ranging wildly once more through the streets of Thebes.
CHORUS
O Zeus, why hast thou shown such savage hate against thine own son and plunged him in this sea of troubles?
HERACLES (waking)
Aha! my breath returns; I am alive; and my eyes see, opening on the sky and earth and yon sun's darting beam; but how my senses reel! in what strange turmoil am I plunged! my fevered breath in quick spasmodic gasps escapes my lungs. How now? why am I lying here, made fast with cables like a ship, my brawny chest and arms tied to a shattered piece of masonry, with corpses for my neighbours; while o'er the floor my bow and arrows are scattered, that erst like trusty squires to my arm both kept me safe and were kept safe of me? Surely Iam not come a second time to Hades' halls, having just returned from thence for Eurystheus? No, I do not see Sisyphus with his stone, or Pluto, or his queen, Demeter's child. Surely I am distraught; I cannot remember where I am. Ho, there! which of my friends is near or far to help me in my ignorance? For I have no clear knowledge of things once familiar.
AMPHITRYON
My aged friends, shall I approach the scene of my sorrow?
LEADER OF THE CHORUS
Yes, and let me go with thee, nor desert thee in thy trouble.
HERACLES
Father, why dost thou weep and veil thy eyes, standing aloof from thy beloved son?
AMPHITRYON
My child! mine still, for all thy misery.
HERACLES
Why, what is there so sad in my case that thou dost weep?
AMPHITRYON
That which might make any of the gods weep, were he to suffer so.
HERACLES
A bold assertion that, but thou art not yet explaining what has happened.
AMPHITRYON
Thine own eyes see that, if by this time thou are restored to thy senses.
HERACLES
Fill in thy sketch if any change awaits my life.
AMPHITRYON
I will explain, if thou art no longer mad as a fiend of hell.
HERACLES
God help us! what suspicions these dark hints of thine again excite!
AMPHITRYON
I am still doubtful whether thou art in thy sober senses.
HERACLES
I never remember being mad.
AMPHITRYON
Am I to loose my son, old friends, or what?
HERACLES
Loose and say who bound me; for I feel shame at this.
AMPHITRYON
Rest content with what thou knowest of thy woes; the rest forego.
HERACLES
Enough! I have no wish to probe thy silence.
AMPHITRYON
O Zeus, dost thou behold these deeds proceeding from the throne of Hera?
HERACLES
What! have I suffered something from her enmity?
AMPHITRYON
A truce to the goddess! attend to thy own troubles.
HERACLES
I am undone; what mischance wilt thou unfold?
AMPHITRYON
See here the corpses of thy children.
HERACLES
O horror! what hideous sight is here? ah me!
AMPHITRYON
My son, against thy children hast thou waged unnatural war.
HERACLES
War! what meanst thou? who killed these?
AMPHITRYON
Thou and thy bow and some god, whoso he be that is to blame.
HERACLES
What sayst thou? what have I done? Speak, father, thou messenger of evil.
AMPHITRYON
Thou wert distraught; 'tis a sad explanation thou art asking.
HERACLES
Was it I that slew my wife also?
AMPHITRYON
Thy own unaided arm hath done all this.
HERACLES
Ah, woe is me! a cloud of sorrow wraps me round.
AMPHITRYON
The reason this that I lament thy fate.
HERACLES
Did I dash my house to pieces or incite others thereto?
AMPHITRYON
Naught know I save this, that thou art utterly undone.
HERACLES
Where did my frenzy seize me? where did it destroy me?
AMPHITRYON
In the moment thou wert purifying thyself witb fire at the altar.
HERACLES
Ah me! why do I spare my own life when I have taken that of my dear children? Shall I not hasten to leap from some sheer rock, or aim the sword against my heart and avenge my children's blood, or burn my body in the fire and so avert from my life the infamy which now awaits me?
