APPENDIX.
189
| Thy child: I was the first that on thy knees | |
| Fondly caressed thee, and from thee received | |
| The fond caress: this was thy speech to me:— | |
| ‘Shall I, my child, e'er see thee in some house | |
| Of splendor, happy in thy husband, live | |
| And flourish, as becomes my dignity?’ | |
| My speech to thee was, leaning 'gainst thy cheek, | |
| (Which with my hand I now caress:) ‘And what | |
| Shall I then do for thee? shall I receive | |
| My father when grown old, and in my house | |
| Cheer him with each fond office, to repay | |
| The careful nurture which he gave my youth?’ | |
| These words are in my memory deep impressed, | |
| Thou hast forgot them and will kill thy child.” |
Then she adjures him by all the sacred ties, and dwells pathetically on the circumstance which had struck even Menelaus.
| “ | If Paris be enamored of his bride, |
| His Helen, what concerns it me? and how | |
| Comes he to my destruction? | |
| Look upon me; | |
| Give me a smile, give me a kiss, my father; | |
| That if my words persuade thee not, in death | |
| I may have this memorial of thy love.” |
Never have the names of father and daughter been uttered with a holier tenderness than by Euripides, as in this most lovely passage, or in the “Supplicants,” after the voluntary death of Evadne; Iphis says
| “ | What shall this wretch now do? Should I return |
| To my own house? — sad desolation there | |
| I shall behold, to sink my soul with grief. | |
| Or go I to the house of Capaneus? | |
| That was delightful to me, when I found | |
| My daughter there; but she is there no more: | |
| Oft would she kiss my cheek, with fond caress | |
| Oft toothe me. To a father, waxing old, | |
| Nothing is dearer than a daughter! sons | |
| Have spirits of higher pitch, but less inclined |
