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AGAMEMNON.
Ah me! I am struck -- a right-aimed stroke within me!
CHOROS.
Silence! Who is it shouts "stroke" -- "right-aimedly" a wounded one?
AGAMEMNON.
Ah me! indeed again, -- a second, struck by!
CHOROS.
This work seems to me completed by this "Ah me" of the king's;
But we somehow may together share in solid counsellings.
CHOROS 1.
I, in the first place, my opinion tell you:
-- To cite the townsmen, by help-cry, to house here.
CHOROS 2.
To me, it seems we ought to fall upon them
At quickest -- prove the fact by sword fresh-flowing!
CHOROS 3.
And I, of such opinion the partaker,
Vote -- to do something: not to wait -- the main point!
CHOROS 4.
'T is plain to see: for they prelude as though of
A tyranny the signs they gave the city.
CHOROS 5.
For we waste time; while they, -- this waiting's glory
Treading to ground, -- allow the hand no slumber.
CHOROS 6.
I know not -- chancing on some plan -- to tell it:
'T is for the doer to plan of the deed also.
CHOROS 7.
And I am such another: since I'm schemeless
How to raise up again by words -- a dead man!
CHOROS 8.
What, and, protracting life, shall we give way thus
To the disgracers of our home, these rulers?
CHOROS 9.
Why, 't is unbearable: but to die is better:
For death than tyranny is the riper finish!
CHOROS 10.
What, by the testifying "Ah me" of him,
Shall we prognosticate the man as perished?
CHOROS 11.
We must quite know ere speak these things concerning:
For to conjecture and "quite know" are two things.
CHOROS 12.
This same to praise I from all sides abound in --
Clearly to know -- Atreides, what he's doing!
The Poetical Works of Robert Browning, volume 13. Robert Browning. London. Smith, Elder, and Co. 1889.
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