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WOMAN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
chosen to be the mistress of Agamemnon, Hecuba answers, with indignation, betraying the pride and faith she involuntarily felt in this daughter.
| Hec. ‘ | The maiden of Phoebus, to whom the golden haired |
| Gave as a privilege a virgin life! | |
| Tal. | Love of the inspired maiden hath pierced him. |
| Hec. | Then cast away, my child, the sacred keys, and from thy person |
| The consecrated garlands which thou wearest.’ |
Yet, when a moment after, Cassandra appears, singing, wildly, her inspired song, Hecuba calls her, “My frantic child.”
Yet how graceful she is in her tragic raptus, the chorus shows.
| Chor. ‘ | How sweetly at thy house's ills thou smil'st, |
| Chanting what, haply, thou wilt not show true.’ |
If Hecuba dares not trust her highest instinct about her daughter, still less can the vulgar mind of the herald Talthybius, a man not without feeling, but with no princely, no poetic blood, abide the wild prophetic mood which insults all his prejudices.
| Tal. | The venerable, and that accounted wise, |
| Is nothing better than that of no repute, | |
| For the greatest king of all the Greeks, | |
| The dear son of Atreus, is possessed with the love | |
| Of this madwoman. I, indeed, am poor, | |
| Yet, I would not receive her to my bed.’ |
The royal Agamemnon could see the beauty of Cassandra, HE was not afraid of her prophetic gifts.
