Cr. O horrible! O charnel gulf I 2
Of death on death, not to be done away,
Why harrowest thou my soul?
Ill-boding harbinger of woe, what word
Have thy lips uttered? Oh, thou hast killed me again,
Before undone!
What say’st? What were thy tidings? Woe is me!
Saidst thou a slaughtered queen in yonder hall
Lay in her blood, crowning the pile of ruin?
Ch. No longer hidden in the house. Behold!
Cr. Alas!
Again I see a new, a second woe.
What more calamitous stroke of Destiny
Awaits me still? But now mine arms enfold
My child, and lo! yon corse before my face!
Ah! hapless, hapless mother, hapless son!
2nd Mess. She with keen knife before the altar place
Closed her dark orbs; but first lamented loud
The glorious bed of buried Megareus,
And then of Haemon; lastly clamoured forth
The curse of murdered offspring upon thee.
Cr. Ay me! Ay me! II 1
I am rapt with terror. Is there none to strike me
With doubly-sharpened blade a mortal blow?
Ah! I am plunged in fathomless distress.
2nd Mess. The guilt of this and of the former grief
By this dead lady was denounced on thee.
Cr. Tell us, how ended she her life in blood?
2nd Mess. Wounding herself to the heart, when she had heard
The loud lamented death of Haemon here.
Cr. O me! This crime can come
On no man else, exempting me.
I slew thee—I, O misery!
I say the truth, ’twas I! My followers,
Take me with speed—take me away, away!
Me, who am nothing now.
