Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/310

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Of angry passions let there be no end,
No shame of strife; let blinded fury's sting
Prick on their souls; seared by the breath of rage
May parents' hearts grow hard, and endless crime
To childrens' children drag its impious trail.
No time be given to hate their former crimes; 30
But let the new in quick succession rise,
Not one alone in each; and may their crimes,
E'en while they suffer punishment, increase.
Let the throne fall from the haughty brothers' grasp,
And call them back from exiled wanderings.
Let the tottering fortune of this bloody house,
Amid its changing kings in ruins fall.
Bring him of high estate to wretchedness, 35
The wretched raise; and let the kingdom toss
Upon the seething tide of circumstance.
By crime driven out, when God shall bring them home,
May they return but to still other crimes,
And by all men as by themselves be loathed.
Let nothing be which wrath deems unallowed:
Let brother brother fear, and parent child; 40
Let son fear father; let the children die
An evil death—by doubly evil birth
Be born. Let wives against their husbands lift
Their murderous hands. Let wars pass over seas,
And every land be drenched with streams of blood.
Triumphant o'er the mighty kings of earth,
Let Lust exult; and in thy sinful house, 45
Let vile, incestuous deeds seem trivial.
Let justice, faith, fraternal amity
Be trampled underfoot; and of our sins
Let not the heavens themselves escape the taint.
Why gleam the constellations in the sky,
And flash their wonted glories to the world? 50
Be pitchy black the night, and let the day
Fall fainting from the heavens and be no more.
Embroil thy household gods, rouse murderous hate,
And all the palace fill with Tantalus.
Adorn the lofty columns; let the door's,