Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow SCENE II. - Goethe's Works, vol. 3 (Goetz von Berlichingen, Iphigenia in Tauris, Tarquato Tasso, etc)

Return to Title Page for Goethe’s Works, vol. 3 (Goetz von Berlichingen, Iphigenia in Tauris, Tarquato Tasso, etc)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Literature

SCENE II. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe’s Works, vol. 3 (Goetz von Berlichingen, Iphigenia in Tauris, Tarquato Tasso, etc) [1885]

Edition used:

Goethe’s Works, illustrated by the best German artists, 5 vols. (Philadelphia: G. Barrie, 1885). Vol. 3.

Part of: Goethe’s Works, 5 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


SCENE II.

Iphigenia, Pylades.

Iphigenia.

Whence art thou? Stranger, speak! To me thy bearing

Stamps thee of Grecian, not of Scythian race.

[She unbinds his chains.

The freedom that I give is dangerous;

The gods avert the doom that threatens you!

Pylades.

Delicious music! dearly welcome tones

Of our own language in a foreign land!

With joy my captive eye once more beholds

The azure mountains of my native coast.

Oh, let this joy that I too am a Greek

Convince thee, priestess! How I need thine aid,

A moment I forget, my spirit rapt

In contemplation of so fair a vision.

If fate’s dread mandate doth not seal thy lips,

From which of our illustrious races say,

Dost thou thy godlike origin derive?

Iphigenia.

The priestess whom the goddess hath, herself

Selected and ordain’d doth speak with thee,

Let that suffice: but tell me, who art thou,

And what unbless’d o’erruling destiny

Hath hither led thee with thy friend?

Pylades.

The woe,

Whose hateful presence ever dogs our steps,

I can with ease relate. Oh, would that thou

Could’st with like case, divine one, shed on us

One ray of cheering hope! We are from Crete,

Adrastus’ sons, and I, the youngest born,

Nam’d Cephalus; my eldest brother, he,

Laodamas. Between us stood a youth

Savage and wild, who sever’d e’en in sport

The joy and concord of our early youth.

Long as our father led his powers at Troy,

Passive our mother’s mandate we obey’d;

But when, enrich’d with booty, he return’d,

And shortly after died, a contest fierce.

Both for the kingdom and their father’s wealth,

His children parted. I the eldest join’d;

He slew our brother; and the Furies hence

For kindred murder dog his restless steps.

But to this savage shore the Delphian god

Hath sent us, cheer’d by hope. He bade us wait

Within his sister’s consecrated fane

The blessed hand of aid. Captives we are,

And, hither brought, before thee now we stand

Ordain’d for sacrifice. My tale is told.

Iphigenia.

Fell Troy! Dear man, assure me of its fall.

Pylades.

Prostrate it lies. Oh, unto us insure

Deliverance. The promis’d aid of Heaven

More swiftly bring. Take pity on my brother.

Oh, say to him a kind, a gracious word!

But spare him when thou speakest; earnestly

This I implore: for all too easily

Through joy and sorrow and through memory

Torn and distracted is his inmost being.

A feverish madness oft doth seize on him,

Yielding his spirit, beautiful and free,

A prey to furies.

Iphigenia.

Great as is thy woe,

Forget it, I conjure thee, for a while,

Till I am satisfied.

Pylades.

The stately town,

Which ten long years withstood the Grecian host,

Now lies in ruins, ne’er to rise again;

Yet many a hero’s grave will oft recall

Our sad remembrance to that barbarous shore.

There lie Achilles and his noble friend.

Iphigenia.

So are ye godlike forms reduc’d to dust!

Pylades.

Nor Palamede nor Ajax e’er again

The daylight of their native land beheld.

Iphigenia.

He speaks not of my father, doth not name

Him with the fallen. He may yet survive!

I may behold him! Still hope on, fond heart!

Pylades.

Yet happy are the thousands who receiv’d

Their bitter death-blow from a hostile hand!

For terror wild, and end most tragical,

Some hostile, angry deity prepar’d,

Instead of triumph, for the home-returning.

Do human voices never reach this shore?

Far as their sound extends they bear the fame

Of deeds unparallel’d. And is the woe

Which fills Mycene’s halls with ceaseless sighs

To thee a secret still?—And know’st thou not

That Clytemnestra, with Ægisthus’ aid,

Her royal consort artfully ensnar’d,

And murder’d on the day of his return?—

The monarch’s house thou honorest! I perceive

Thy breast with tidings vainly doth contend

Fraught with such monstrous and unlook’d-for woe.

Art thou the daughter of a friend? art born

Within the circuit of Mycene’s walls?

Conceal it not, nor call me to account

That here the horrid crime I first announce.

Iphigenia.

Proceed, and tell me how the deed was done.

Pylades.

The day of his return, as from the bath

Arose the monarch, tranquil and refresh’d,

His robe demanding from his consort’s hand;

A tangl’d garment, complicate with folds,

She o’er his shoulders flung and noble head;

And when, as from a net, he vainly strove

To extricate himself, the traitor, base

Ægisthus, smote him, and envelop’d thus

Great Agamemnon sought the shades below.

Iphigenia.

And what reward receiv’d the base accomplice?

Pylades.

A queen and kingdom he possess’d already.

Iphigenia.

Base passion prompted then the deed of shame?

Pylades.

And feelings, cherish’d long, of deep revenge.

Iphigenia.

How had the monarch injur’d Clytemnestra?

Pylades.

By such a dreadful deed, that if on earth

Aught could exculpate murder, it were this.

To Aulis he allur’d her, when the fleet

With unpropitious winds the goddess stay’d;

And there, a victim at Diana’s shrine,

The monarch, for the welfare of the Greeks,

Her eldest daughter doomed, Iphigenia.

And this, so rumor saith, within her heart

Planted such deep abhorrence that forthwith

She to Ægisthus hath resign’d herself,

And round her husband flung the web of death.

Iphigenia.

(Verling herself.) It is enough! Thou wilt again behold me.

Pylades.

(Alone.) The fortune of this royal house, it seems.

Doth move her deeply. Whosoe’er she be.

She must herself have known the monarch well;

For our good fortune, from a noble house,

She hath been sold to bondage. Peace, my heart!

And let us steer our course with prudent zeal

Toward the star of hope which gleams upon us.

lf0841-03_figure_046

ACT III.

lf0841-03_figure_047