Hy. Be the boon never so large, it shall be granted.
He. Knowest thou, then, the girl whose sire was Eurytus?
Hy. It is of Iolè that thou speakest, if I mistake not.1220
He. Even so. This, in brief, is the charge that I give thee, my son. When I am dead, if thou wouldest show a pious remembrance of thine oath unto thy father, disobey me not, but take this woman to be thy wife. Let no other espouse her who hath lain at my side, but do thou, O my son, make that marriage-bond thine own. Consent: after loyalty in great matters, to rebel in less is to cancel the grace that had been won.
Hy. Ah me, it is not well to be angry with a sick man:1230 but who could bear to see him in such a mind?
He. Thy words show no desire to do my bidding.
Hy. What! When she alone is to blame for my mother's death, and for thy present plight besides? Lives there the man who would make such a choice, unless he were maddened by avenging fiends?
Better were it, father, that I too should die, rather than live united to the worst of our foes!
He. He will render no reverence, it seems, to my dying prayer.—Nay, be sure that the curse of the gods will attend thee for disobedience to my voice.1240
Hy. Ah, thou wilt soon show, methinks, how distempered thou art!
He. Yea, for thou art breaking the slumber of my plague.
Hy. Hapless that I am ! What perplexities surround me!
