Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/250

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Nurse: ⁠I think that slave is but a gift for thee.
Deianira: ⁠This fellow whom thou seest wandering 410
Throughout our Grecian cities, big with fame,
A tawny lion's spoils upon his back,
And in his dreadful hand a massive club;
Who takes their realms away from haughty kings,
And gives them to the weak; whose praise is sung
By men of every land throughout the world: 415
This man is but a trifler, without thought
Of winning deathless glory for himself.
He wanders through the earth, not in the hope
That he may rival Jupiter, or go
With great renown throughout the towns of Greece;
His quest is ever love, the maiden's couch.
He takes by force what is refused to him; 420
He rages 'gainst the nations, seeks his brides
Amidst the ruins of a people's hopes.
And this wild carnival of lustful crime
Is by the honored name, heroic, called.
But now, illustrious Oechalia fell;
One sun, one day beheld it stand—and fall.
And of the strife the only cause was love.
As often as a father shall refuse 425
To give his daughter unto Hercules,
And be the father of his enemy,
So often need he be in mortal fear.
If he is not accepted as a son,
He smites in rage. Why then do I preserve
In harmless inactivity these hands,
Until he feign another fit of rage,
And stretch his bow with deadly aim at me,
And slaughter both his wife and child at once? 430
Thus 'tis his wont to put away his wives;
And such his cruel method of divorce.
But he cannot be held the guilty one!
For he contrives to make the world believe
That Juno is the cause of all his crimes.
O sluggish passion, why inactive stand?
Anticipate his crime, and act at once